Archive July 3, 2025

The most recent attack in a string of attacks that have raised questions about the US central bank’s independence has been repeated by President Trump.

After his administration’s top housing regulator urged the US Congress to launch an investigation into the central banker, Trump called on Powell to “resign immediately.”

In a post on X, Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte claimed Powell should be investigated for giving “deceptive testimony” regarding renovations at the Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, DC.

Trump said “Too Late,” a nickname used to criticize Powell for slowing down rates, should resign in a Truth Social post in response to Pulte’s comments.

Trump’s most recent broadside comes days after he wrote Powell a letter urging him to “a lot” lower the benchmark interest rate, which is currently set at 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent.

The US president has repeatedly criticized Powell for not backing faster rate increases, arguing that the central banker’s cautious approach is halting economic growth and overblown inflation concerns.

Lower interest rates help businesses and consumers pay less for borrowing, boosting economic growth.

However, rate cuts also have the opposite effect, raising inflation, which central banks typically prefer to keep low, and Trump’s broad-based tariffs are generally expected to cause prices to rise.

In a panel discussion on Tuesday at the European Central Bank Forum in Portugal, Powell claimed that the central bank had waited to see the effects of Trump’s tariffs, many of which are still pending in preparation for a July 9 deadline.

We put the size of the tariffs on hold, according to Powell, and essentially all of the US’s inflation forecasts increased significantly as a result of the tariffs.

“We didn’t react too strongly,” he said. We simply take a little time; in fact, we didn’t react at all.

Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly demanded that Powell step down or be removed. His term won’t expire until May 2026.

Trump stated to reporters last week that he would “love” for Powell to step down “if he wanted to.”

After stocks and the US dollar drastically dropped, Trump said in April that Powell’s “termination cannot come fast enough.”

The US president is only permitted to fire the Fed chair “for cause,” which is widely accepted to mean specific misconduct, not policy making.

In a ruling that highlighted the Federal Reserve as having a distinct status in comparison to other independent organizations, the US Supreme Court reaffirmed precedent that had limited the president’s authority to remove the president’s top central banker in May.

In line with his wider immigration crackdown, a federal court has determined that President Donald Trump overstepped his authority by excluding asylum applications from the country’s southern border.

US District Judge Randolph Moss issued a warning on Wednesday that Trump’s actions would lead to the “presidentially decreed, alternative immigration system” being created in opposition to the laws that were passed by Congress.

Prior to now, the nation’s laws had ascribed the right to asylum. However, President Trump invoked the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) on January 20 when he took office for a second term.

According to Trump, “this authority” includes the right to impose restrictions on access to certain areas of the immigration system and to prevent foreign nationals from entering the country physically.

However, Judge Moss, a former president of the United States, refrained from making that claim in his 128-page decision (PDF).

According to Moss, “Nothing in the INA or the Constitution grants the President or his delegatees the sweeping authority that the Proclamation asserts.”

He emphasized that the president was not authorized to “replace the comprehensive rules and procedures” in US immigration law with an “extra-statutory, extraregulatory regime.”

When people are feared for their safety or safety, they go through the asylum process known as asylum. Successful applicants are permitted to remain in the country despite the high acceptance bar for asylum applications.

Trump, however, refers to immigration from the US to Mexico as an “invasion” led by foreign powers.

He has cited that justification to support the suspension of asylum rights.

However, Judge Moss ruled that if asylum was suspended, sufferers of persecution could suffer significant harm.

There is a good chance that tens of thousands of people will be defrauded of the legal processes they are entitled to if the Proclamation is continued in effect while an appeal is pending, according to Moss.

He gave the Trump administration, however, a 14-day appeals window. The administration must follow their instructions.

In response to the ruling on Wednesday, White House spokesman Abigail Jackson said, “A local district court judge has no authority to prevent President Trump and the United States from securing our border from the flood of aliens trying to enter illegally.” We anticipate being proven right on appeal.

The administration also asserted in court documents that it had the authority to determine whether or not the US was facing invasion.

Government lawyers wrote that the determination that the United States is facing an invasion is a question that cannot be answered politically.

Judge Moss sympathized with another administration’s claim that applications had simply been flooded with applications.

The Court acknowledged that the Executive Branch had to deal with significant difficulties in deciding whether to grant asylum to those who entered the country and preventing and deterring unlawful entry, he wrote.

However, he came to the conclusion that US laws did not grant President Trump “the unilateral authority to enact laws that restrict the rights of foreigners seeking asylum.”

Immigrant rights organizations, including the Florence Project, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, and RAICES, filed a class-action complaint as a result of the decision.

The decision was welcomed by the American Civil Liberties Union as a significant step in upholding both the rights of immigrants and the authority to pass laws.

Authorities claim that a ferry carrying 65 people sank off Bali, Indonesia’s resort island, killing at least four people and leaving dozens more without.

According to Indonesia’s search and rescue organization, Badan Nasional Pencarian dan Pertolongan, &nbsp, on Thursday, the KMP Tunu Pratama Jaya sank shortly after leaving East Java’s Banyuwangi port.

According to officials, the rescue operations, which include nine vessels, have resulted in the rescue of 23 survivors.

Many of the survivors, according to Rama Samtama Putra, the police chief in Banyuwangi, were initially unconscious after hours of drifting in the ocean.

According to Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who is currently in Saudi Arabia, ordered an immediate immediate emergency response, adding that the accident was caused by “bad weather.”

In Indonesia, an archipel of about 17, 000 islands, where lax safety standards frequently cause vessels to be overloaded without adequate life-saving equipment, maritime disasters are a common occurrence.

An Australian woman was killed and at least one other person was hurt when a boat carrying 16 people sank in rough waters off Bali in March.

In a college town in Idaho in 2022, a former doctoral student who studied criminology admitted guilt.

In a plea deal that removes the death penalty, Bryan Kohberger, 30, admitted to the killings. In a country where murders are not uncommon, the case attracted national attention for its brutality and shock.

Judge Steven Hippler posed a number of questions to Kohberger at the hearing on Wednesday.

Did you enter the residence at 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13th, 2022 with the intention to murder? the judge inquired.

Kohberger responded, “Yes.”

“You’re pleading guilty because you’re guilty,” you ask? The judge then made an inquiry.

Kohberger responded, “Yes.”

Kohberger had previously entered a not-guilty plea to burglary and first-degree murder. He later confirmed to the court that he had entered a rental home where four University of Idaho students were staying on Wednesday.

The four friends, who appear to have no prior contact with him, were then killed by sliding through a sliding door in the kitchen. The slayings were not motivated by a prosecution’s investigation.

According to Hippler, the plea agreement stipulated that Kohberger would be required to serve four consecutive life sentences and waive his right to contest or have the sentence reconsidered.

On July 23rd, a tentative sentence will be set for formal sentencing.

Moscow, a rural college town that hadn’t had a murder in five years, was initially uneasy by the killings and had no idea what to do with them.

Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and Madison Mogen were the victims.

Kernodle was from Arizona, while Mogen and Goncalves were both from Idaho. Chapin, her boyfriend, was a native of Washington. At the time of their deaths, all four of the victims had ages of 20 or 21.

Each was repeatedly stabbed, with some instances of defensive harm, according to autopsies.

Families react as Kohberger receives a life sentence

The three women’s residence was off-campus and the three women lived in the early morning hours.

Best friends Mogen and Goncalves had visited a local bar and food truck, while Kernodle and Chapin had previously attended a party the night before. Before 2 a.m. local time (9:00 GMT), all four are alleged to have left the house. Their bodies were discovered early in the morning.

Two other women who were present at the time did not suffer any harm.

A surviving roommate allegedly told investigators that she heard a crying person in one of the victims’ bedrooms the night of the murders and that she saw a man walk past her and leave the house.

Authorities claimed to have used cellphone data, video footage, and DNA evidence to link Kohberger to the murders. He was taken into custody in Idaho after being detained in Pennsylvania for a few weeks while visiting with his family.

The family of Goncalves criticized the plea agreement as being “a hurried effort to close the case without the victims’ families,” according to a statement released by the family.

Steve Goncalves, the victim’s father, was questioned on Wednesday about his belief that the four life sentences would bring about justice for the case.

He replied, “No, of course not. Daycare is offered. Daycare is in the privacy.