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Irish Independent
14-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Trump tariffs could cause further threat to Irish pubs, with warning of 1,000 further closures in next decade
The research – commissioned by the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (Digi) – found that 2,119, or one in four, pubs have closed their doors since 2005. Digi – the umbrella organisation for the wider drinks and hospitality industry – has called for the Government to use the upcoming Budget to introduce a 10pc cut in excise duty, which it says was the second highest in the EU. Study author Professor Tony Foley said: 'This report reveals a pattern of pub closures across Ireland, particularly in rural Ireland in recent years. 'The addition of profound economic uncertainty through US trade tariffs and reduced levels of inbound tourism further threaten the financial foundations of family owned pubs across the country. In the absence of Government intervention, we are likely to see a further 600 to 1,000 pubs close over the coming decade.' Between 2005 and 2024 the number of publican licences fell from 8,617 to 6,498, a drop of 24.6pc. On average 128 pubs closed each year between 2019 and last year. The rate of closures is highest in rural counties, with Limerick, Offaly, Roscommon, Tipperary, Laois, Longford and Mayo recording closure rates of over 30pc between 2005 and last year. All 26 counties experienced pub closures between 2005 to last year. The highest decrease was in Limerick (-37.2pc), followed by Offaly (-34.1pc), Cork (-32.7pc), Roscommon (-32.3pc), Tipperary (-32.0pc), Laois (-30.6pc), Longford (-30.1pc) and Westmeath (-30.0pc). The lowest decrease was in Dublin with a drop of -1.7pc, followed by Meath with a decrease of -9.5pc. Wicklow had a decrease of 10.8pc and all other counties saw a 13pc or greater decrease. The Government could improve commercial viability overnight by cutting excise by 10pc A number of pubs that shut in recent months include Lizzie Keogh's in Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, The Hole in the Wall in Drogheda, Co Louth, The Living Room, off Dublin's O'Connell Street, and Katie Daly's in Gorey, Co Wexford. The study also referenced research by the Restaurants Association of Ireland which found that over 600 restaurants, cafes and other food hospitality businesses closed in the 12 months from September 2023. ADVERTISEMENT Another 150 closed in the first three months of this year . Digi secretary Donall O'Keeffe said: 'More than 100 pubs are closing every year in Ireland, due in large part to the high costs imposed by the State. Without immediate intervention, up to 1,000 more pubs will close for the last time, leaving their communities without a vital community and tourism hub. Once closed, such pubs rarely reopen. 'The Government could improve commercial viability overnight by cutting excise by 10pc. 'With Irish consumption of alcohol having fallen to average EU levels and likely to continue dropping, it's no longer justifiable that pubs should be faced with the second-highest excise rates in Europe. This is on top of a hefty 23pc Vat rate. 'The time for the Government to act is now, before it is too late.' Digi said without immediate action, many villages and small towns will soon lose their last remaining pub which it feels would be a devastating blow to the economic and social fabric of communities.
NDTV
04-07-2025
- Business
- NDTV
US Immigration Crackdown Set To Intensify With $150 Billion Infusion
US immigration enforcement is set for the most dramatic expansion in decades after the Republican-controlled Congress approved a budget bill that will fund President Donald Trump's mass deportation plans. The sweeping legislation, which Trump said he wants to sign by Friday, allocates more than $150 billion for the administration's border and immigration crackdown. Most of the money will go to the Department of Homeland Security and its enforcement arms, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Coming on top of the agencies' existing budgets, it's an unprecedented funding surge that will supercharge efforts to build new detention centers, hire thousands of immigration agents and expand border wall construction. The bill also raises costs for those trying to stay in the country legally, increasing fees for work permits, asylum applications and humanitarian protections. The changes are part of a legislative package that also includes cuts to Medicaid and other federal safety-net programs along with tax cuts. "It's beyond transformational," said Gil Kerlikowske, head of CBP under President Barack Obama. "It places them into a whole new era." Border Wall Revival One of Trump's most iconic and divisive campaign promises - "Build the Wall" - is now back at the center of US immigration policy. Although much of the roughly 450 miles (725 kilometers) of wall built during his first term replaced existing barriers, Trump is now eyeing fresh construction along vast stretches of the nearly 2,000-mile US-Mexico border. Backed by $46.5 billion in new funding, the administration has already begun fast-tracking wall contracts, including a $70 million award this spring to expand barriers in Texas's Rio Grande Valley, a once-busy corridor that now sees fewer than 45 illegal crossings per day. Another $309 million has been committed to a 27-mile stretch in Arizona's Tucson sector, where arrests have plummeted from daily highs in the thousands to dozens per day, according to CBP figures. Whether that much spending is warranted is up for debate. In June, DHS said arrests reached their lowest level in decades - a trend attributed to a combination of aggressive enforcement under Trump, Biden-era asylum restrictions still in place, and expanded Mexican policing efforts that stop migrants before they reach the US border. Detention Surge The new legislation earmarks $45 billion to expand federal immigration detention, a dramatic boost for ICE, which has struggled to find space for the growing number of people it's being directed to arrest and hold under the Trump administration's deportation strategy. By late June, ICE was holding over 59,000 people in custody, well beyond its funded capacity of about 42,000 beds. This came as the agency, under pressure to meet a quota of at least 3,000 arrests per day, has been conducting raids on workplaces, at courthouses and around migrant gathering points in cities from Los Angeles to New York. To accommodate the overflow, a new Florida state-run facility was opened this month in the remote Everglades, composed primarily of tents and trailers and dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" for its swampy location. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told lawmakers in May that the administration wanted to more than double the number of immigration jail beds nationwide. Meanwhile, oversight of detention facilities is dwindling. Earlier this year, DHS shuttered its internal detention monitoring office. Lawmakers are now weighing whether to permanently eliminate the office's funding - a move that has alarmed civil rights groups. ICE Expansion ICE - the US agency most closely associated with the mechanics of deportation - will also see a $30 billion infusion, three times its annual budget. The money will be used to expand arrest and removal operations, hire more deportation officers and government attorneys, scale up technology and bolster transportation for detainees. The agency has already been relying on personnel from other agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and National Guard units in LA, to support operations. Now, with tens of billions earmarked for hiring and training, ICE is expected to significantly expand beyond its current roster of about 6,000 agents. The White House says there'll be funding for 10,000 new ICE positions and $10,000 annual bonuses over the next four years. Border Patrol Hiring The bill sets aside another $6.1 billion for Border Patrol and customs officer hiring, aiming to lock in recent gains in border enforcement. The White House says the funding could support 8,000 additional hires across both agencies, along with bonuses. But even with money in hand, the Border Patrol has long struggled to fill vacancies. Extensive background checks and a rigorous training academy have historically slowed recruitment efforts. "Money doesn't always solve everything," said Theresa Cardinal Brown, a DHS official during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. "There's logistics involved: the processes to recruit, hire, to go through the background checks and clearances and to then go through the academy." Border State Reimbursements The package includes a $13.5 billion fund to reimburse state and local governments for their border security efforts since 2021. Texas stands to gain the most, with Republican Governor Greg Abbott seeking more than $11 billion to recover the cost of building state-funded border barriers and personnel expenses. Abbott said he spent millions of dollars busing and flying more than 120,000 migrants to US cities like New York and Chicago and as far away as China and Russia. Other states can apply for reimbursement for expenses tied to border operations or policing unauthorized immigrants who have committed crimes. The fund is seen as a victory for border communities that had frequently clashed with the Biden administration over taking enforcement into their own hands. Immigration Fees To help pay for the expanded enforcement regime, Republicans are targeting immigrants themselves. Proposed new and increased fees on applications for legal status, asylum and work permits could raise tens of billions of dollars of additional revenue a year. The bill proposes, among other things, imposing a minimum $100 fee to apply for asylum, $550 for employee authorization applications, $500 for Temporary Protected Status and $1,000 for most humanitarian parole applications, along with a fine of $5,000 for anyone caught crossing the border between ports of entry. Fee waivers for low-income applicants would be eliminated in most cases, a shift that immigrant advocates say could put legal pathways out of financial reach for many.
Black America Web
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Black America Web
Covfefe Chronicles: The 1st White Man Deported To Africa? Trump Wants To ICE Elon Musk
The opinions expressed in audio and on this page are those of the author. Donald Trump has spent years whipping up his base with chants of 'Build the Wall' and demonizing desperate Black and Brown migrants seeking safety in America. But in an absolutely unhinged twist, he's now threatening to deport one of his own biggest donors-turned-enemies: Elon Musk. Yes, you read that right. The man who turned ICE into his personal scarecrow is now suggesting we slap a 'Return to Apartheid Heir' label on Elon's crate and ship him back to South Africa. This week, at one of his typically chaotic press events, Trump mused that they might 'have to take a look' at deporting Musk after their feud went nuclear. Trump is furious that Musk dared to call the GOP's new anti-EV bill a 'fiscal disaster.' But Musk is a naturalized U.S. citizen. Since 2002. Legally, you can't just deport him because he hurt your feelings. Deportation isn't for citizens, it's for non-citizens without the right paperwork. And unless Trump's got proof Elon lied on his citizenship application, there's no process for booting him from the country. So what is this really? Political theater. The worst kind. It's the authoritarian fantasy of punishing critics not with debate, but with state power. Trump's threat to deport Elon isn't about policy differences over electric cars. It's a test balloon for wielding government machinery as a personal vendetta weapon, even against billionaires. This episode of The Covfefe Chronicles takes you on a tour of this insane saga. So grab your coffee—or covfefe—and tune in. SEE ALSO: Covfefe Chronicles: Trump Turns Beach Boys Nostalgia Into A Genocide Anthem Covfefe Chronicles: ICE Raids Echo Nazi Germany. The Question for Black Folks Is: Now What? [AUDIO] SEE ALSO Covfefe Chronicles: The 1st White Man Deported To Africa? Trump Wants To ICE Elon Musk was originally published on
USA Today
02-07-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Can shared public spaces bridge the American divide?
On a special episode (first released on July 2, 2025) of The Excerpt podcast: To what extent is divisiveness baked into our infrastructure, politic, and psyche? Anand Pandian, Professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University, joins USA TODAY's The Excerpt to discuss his new book 'Something Between Us.' In it, he explores the walls that divide us as a nation. Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here Dana Taylor: Hello, I'm Dana Taylor, and this is a special episode of The Excerpt. Walls, we all navigate them, whether they be the walls throughout our homes, neighborhoods, the places we choose to frequent, or the internal walls that allow us to maintain our distance from others. What do the walls we erect represent when we look at how they shape our society as a whole? Anand Pandian, professor of anthropology at Johns Hopkins University traveled across America in search of answers. What is keeping us apart? That's the subject of his new book, Something Between Us, on bookshelves now. Anand joins us now to discuss his experiences seeking out people whose views he disagrees with and whether our disconnection is a choice or a consequence of living within a world of physical, political, and psychological walls. Thanks for joining me, Anand. Anand Pandian: Thank you so much for having me. It's really a pleasure. Dana Taylor: I want to start with the idea of cultural belonging in America, deciding who's in and who's out. Has this idea become increasingly fluid or has it always been this way? Anand Pandian: Well, this is of course a nation of immigrants and we've been lucky to share this country with people from so many places of the world, and at the same time, we have most certainly seen that cultural difference, racial and social difference have become much more fraught topics. In recent years there has been a lot of consternation around the question of who really belongs in this country and who may not quite have a place. And it's questions like that and concerns like that, that led me to pursue the research for this book. Dana Taylor: What drives Americans' suspicions of migrants, especially when we look at policies like Title 42, which allows curbs on migration in the interest to protecting public health. What's the origin of those fears? Anand Pandian: That's a really important question to think about, and in fact, it was the border wall in particular and the slogan Build the Wall. That was such a powerful image and idea in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election that motivated me to pursue the research for this book. I was interested in why it was that that idea of a wall around the entire country appealed to so many people. And why it was that an image like that seemed to make it okay for people to stop thinking about the suffering of those beyond those walls, the needs of those beyond that barrier, why it was that we could turn a blind eye to the kinds of concerns that migrants and refugees and others come to this country with, often in circumstances of profound need and even desperation. What I've found, however, in pursuing this research is that it isn't enough to simply think about the boundaries of the country, the division between our nation and others. That many Americans all around the country have come to live with many different forms of everyday walls, everyday divides, everyday barriers and boundaries that I argue in the book make it more difficult for people to relate to others outside the circumstances of isolation, separation, and indeed, segregation that they have fallen into. Dana Taylor: You wrote that living in gated or walled communities has become a symbol of security and not just for the wealthy. Are these choices about exclusion? Or are there other societal issues at play here? Anand Pandian: It is certainly true that gated communities are a serious phenomenon that we have to grapple with in the contemporary United States. One in five Americans who lives in a residential community at this point, lives in a community that is gated. And that has all kinds of implications for who people see on a day-to-day basis, and the simple fact that those who share those communities with people who choose to live in such spaces are often very much like them, who share the same background very often. And circumstances like that make it that much more difficult to interact with people who are different than those that one is surrounded by. At the same time, what I try to argue in the book is that there are all kinds of other every day walls divides barriers, forms of separation and isolation that Americans have also come to take for granted that they live with on a daily basis. You see this in the way that people occupy the space of their homes, whether they're in gated communities or not, the fact that people are spending much less time on their front porches than they used to, that we're seeing people walking less on sidewalks in the company of strangers and neighbors. You see it in the kinds of vehicles that people drive, which are ever larger in the United States, SUVs and trucks that make it much more difficult to interact with people outside the shells of those cocoons, often pedestrians and cyclists whose lives can be put at greater danger because of the sheer mass of those vehicles. You see it in cultures of the body in the United States that take seriously the idea that our bodies need to be secured from others as if they were also fortresses to armor and defend. And lastly, I argue in the book you see it in what I call walls of the mind, the ways in which our social media and our information ecosystems segregate us once again by putting us in the company of ideas we're already familiar with, exposing us to points of view that we already tend to agree with, and making it that much harder to access the ideas, experiences, and perspectives of those whose positions in the world and those whose experiences in the world are so much different than our own. Dana Taylor: Anand, you raised a comparison between the "certified clean idle crowd and the certified dirty idle crowd". First, explain what those mean and second, what's the cultural significance of this divide? Anand Pandian: There's an entire section of the book on roadway culture in the United States in which I'm trying to make sense of the rise of much more massive vehicles, as I mentioned before, SUVs and trucks. I'm trying to think about what it's like for those who continue to choose to navigate the world in a more exposed and vulnerable manner as pedestrians and cyclists, what it feels like to be outside the walls of those hulking vehicles. But I'm also interested in those who have in a way leaned into the polluting nature of some of these automobiles, who have embraced the fact that there are higher emissions and often much more polluting emissions at stake in larger vehicles, but especially in diesel vehicles. And that distinction that you draw comes from a chapter in the book on the phenomenon of coal rolling, which has to do with diesel trucks that are deliberately retrofitted to expel excessive amounts of black smoke, which is a kind of subculture here in the United States, a way of celebrating the soot and exhaust that comes from these vehicles, of thumbing one's nose at those who would say, "These are things that are polluting and that we should therefore try to control or restrict." There are cultures in this country that have formed around a backlash to those forms of environmental concern that would seek to encourage all of us to organize what we do as individuals in relation to these larger concerns around the environment. And I try to document how it is that people get pulled in to practices like coal rolling despite the incredibly violent effects it can have on those who are submitted to those kinds of tactics. Dana Taylor: What do you think it would take to turn public spaces of movement such as our roadways, walkways and transit systems into spaces that foster a way to experience a feeling of community? Anand Pandian: It's a really important question. It's a question that planners and designers and people who are interested in more habitable forms of urban space have really been wrestling with, and we see all kinds of interesting experiments of this kind that would seek to make our shared space more accessible and friendly and open to those who would like to occupy that space in different ways. You can think, for example, about the complete streets movements that are setting aside roadway space for pedestrians and cyclists and others on streets in localities all around the country. These kinds of possibilities also build, I argue in the book, on generations of social movements that have tried to organize for the protection of common space, for the protection of shared space, for the protection of places in which we can come together for more collective sense of who we are as Americans and what we owe each other and what we could be doing with the welfare of each other in mind. I think that there's a great deal of power in the idea of the commons, in the idea of approaching shared public space as a commons, a space that we nurture together, that we take care of together, that we look after together, and that we can protect as a symbol of the larger encompassing collective life that we still share despite all of these individualizing, isolating tendencies that we're grappling with these days. Dana Taylor: Have Americans reached a breaking point where we resist seeing others' perspectives and don't want to risk someone else's problems becoming our problems, this is a sign of privilege of moral indifference, exhaustion? What are your thoughts here? Anand Pandian: Yeah, I met many people over the course of this research who felt that the country was at a breaking point, who felt that we were teetering on the edge of something like a civil war in the deep inability that people seemed to have developed in talking to those that they disagree with. And we see this in all kinds of ways. We see it in our public discourse. We see it in work environments. We see it at the dining table when people gather as extended families and learn that they can't address certain topics because they're too difficult to take up. This is a really serious matter that we have to find our way around. And my feeling is that the only way to do that is to learn to have those more difficult conversations, learn to have more difficult exchanges, learn to see things from the vantage point of others whose position in the world may be very different than yours. Ultimately, I don't see these problems as moral failings on the part of individuals. I don't think we should blame people for how they are or what they've become. I am inclined as a researcher to see this as a consequence of the infrastructures that we've come to live with in this country, these isolating circumstances that have made it so difficult for us to see those other points of view. So the more work we can do to put ourselves in the company of others that are unlike us, to open ourselves up to more contrary perspectives, to have more difficult and challenging conversations, I think ultimately the better off we'll be in terms of coming to some sense of shared understanding and common sense once again when it comes to what a country as diverse as ours really needs in moving forward. Dana Taylor: Anand's book, Something Between Us is on bookshelves now. Thanks for being on the excerpt, Anand. Anand Pandian: Thank you so much, Dana. It really is a privilege. The reality is that we live in a world of such deep interconnections, such deep relationships with so many people both in our neighborhoods and in the world far beyond. We need to find a way of coming back to the importance and the reality of those relationships that we share with countless others around the world. This book is just a very small effort to try to move us in that direction. I really appreciate the chance to talk with you about it. Thank you. Dana Taylor: Thanks to our senior producers, Shannon Rae Greene and Kaylee Monahan for their production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to Podcasts@ Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.
New York Times
26-05-2025
- General
- New York Times
50 Years After Saigon's Fall, ‘the Wall' Reflects and Collects a Nation's Trauma
The black granite slabs of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington are never without visitors. Better known simply as 'the Wall,' the stones are carved with the names of more than 58,000 men and women who died during combat that spanned Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos from 1958 to 1975. Now, 50 years after that war's end, the Wall continues to draw more than five million visitors every year. To take it all in, you would have to stand in the middle of the memorial at the wall's apex, facing the stone. The first American to die in the war appears to your right. What follows are names listed in alphabetical order by date of death. As they reach the tapered end of the eastern wall on the right, the chronology wraps around and continues at the far left end of the western wall until it meets the apex. Those whose bodies were recovered are marked with a small diamond. Those whose remains have yet to be found have a small cross by their names. When they are located, identified and repatriated, the crosses will be chiseled into diamonds. The memorial is a place of unexplainable power, many who visit say, and volunteer guides often speak of it as 'Wall magic.' When Karl Marlantes was a young Marine infantry officer, his company spent two years in Vietnam. One foggy, wintry morning in the early 1990s, he went to visit 93 of his Marines whose names are set in the Wall's stones. 'I'm there sort of feeling like I'm by myself, and I see Ray Delgado's name, who was a kid in my platoon,' Mr. Marlantes said in an interview. 'And I just reached up, and I started to touch his name, and I hear this woman's voice behind me. 'She says, 'Did you know Ray Delgado? He's my uncle.' 'I mean, out of 59,000 dead names, and one morning in the winter out of thousands, the niece of Ray Delgado shows up when I'm touching his name?' Mr. Marlantes continued. 'You gotta say that's not just coincidence. The odds are really against it. And so what is that? There's some kind of energy here, or maybe it's Ray, or I don't know.' Some leave things behind when they visit. At the end of most days, volunteer guides take the keepsakes to a nearby visitor center. From there, many of the items are taken to a warehouse, where they are cataloged and archived. One veteran who has most likely seen more of the Wall, the visitors and what they left behind there over the years than anyone is Jan Scruggs, who fought in Vietnam and raised private donations to build the memorial when he returned home. Mr. Scruggs estimates that he has come to the Wall about 1,000 times since it opened to the public in 1982. Weeks before Memorial Day, he was there again, speaking to an association of helicopter pilots who fly medical evacuation missions. Some in the group flew those missions in Vietnam. The messages left at the Wall by children — often adorned with drawings in crayon or marker — affect him the most. 'Things that are written by hand, by younger people, who are just learning how to write, but they're trying to pour their souls out,' Mr. Scruggs explained, adding that in sum they were 'a ton of just good stories, they capture people, they're worth reading, they're worth writing.' Some leave talismans in thanks for those who safely came home. 'My mother had us say the rosary together every week for my brother Don when he was stationed there in Vietnam from 1965 to 1966, so he would come back home alive,' said Dave Walden, who left his childhood rosary at the Wall decades later. 'I was convinced it kept his name off that wall.' Other visitors want to take something with them when they leave. The volunteer guides, wearing yellow hats and shirts, carry rectangular slips of paper and a handful of small pencils or nubs of graphite. Visitors can use those to make a 'rubbing' of a name carved into the Wall. On their cellphones, the guides look up the exact location of a name and lead visitors there. For names high up on a stone, the guides grab one of a half-dozen stepladders lying in the grass nearby and climb to the site. They check that their paper frames the name precisely. Holding the paper firm to the Wall, the guides help visitors rub pencil lead over a name, creating a ghostly photonegative. Kate Tealdi, 28, made her first visit to the Wall the weekend before Memorial Day to see a man she felt she had grown up with but never met. She calls him Papa Crane. He was her father's best friend. 'My dad would tell stories about his time in Vietnam, and honestly, how terrible the war was, and also how William Crane saved his life multiple times,' Ms. Tealdi said after making a rubbing of the name. 'One of them made it, and the other didn't.' She said her father had told her about how his friend had died. He was shot, and his body was torn apart. 'Dad identified his body because he recognized his feet,' she said. Mr. Crane, an Army first lieutenant, was killed on Dec. 18, 1969, in Binh Long, Vietnam. He left behind a wife and a young child. Holding close the rubbing she had made, Ms. Tealdi said she found a measure of peace from a war that had ended long before she was born. 'It's been a very healing experience, honestly,' she said. 'I think the sad thing, too, is this kind of thing is never going to bring them back, but at least we can remember them and love them anyway.'
