A group of migrants is suing the Trump administration for ending a deportation shield for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans living in the U.S., claiming that the move was illegal and driven by race.

The 48-page federal suit names Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. government for revoking Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 600,000 Venezuelans.

TPS grants protection from deportation and allows work permits for nationals living in the U.S. from countries deemed unsafe for them to be returned. Then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced extensions for TPS for Venezuela, as well as El Salvador, Sudan and Ukraine, for an additional 18 months in the final few days of the Biden administration. That move, if left in place, would have complicated President Donald Trump's efforts to deport large numbers of those nationalities.

KRISTI NOEM JOINS IMMIGRATION RAID TO CATCH 'DIRTBAGS' IN MAJOR SANCTUARY CITY

"These actions have the effect of robbing 600,000 Venezuelan TPS holders of the right to live and work in this country for the next 18 months," the lawsuit reads. 

Without the protection, at least 350,000 Venezuelan TPS holders stand to lose their legal status on April 7 and their work authorization as soon as April 2, per the lawsuit.

Another 257,000 will also be affected by September, according to the Miami Harald. Venezuelans were among the top nationalities coming into the U.S. at the height of the 2021-2024 border crisis, with many also coming in through a separate parole policy for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans—a program now ended by the Trump administration.

The program for TPS for Venezuelans was put in place amid the severe economic and political crises ongoing in the country, which has seen millions flee.

The suit takes aim at Noem and comments she made when announcing the decision to revoke the TPS. 

"The Secretary’s decisions also were motivated at least in part by racial animus, in contravention of the Fifth Amendment," the suit reads. "That is clear from statements the Secretary made when announcing the decisions themselves, labeling Venezuelan TPS holders as ‘dirtbags’ —an expression of racism made by the official decisionmaker as part of her explanation for the decision."

Noem made the comments while referring to a criminal illegal alien who had been apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on kidnapping, assault and burglary charges.

TRUMP ADMIN ENDS DEPORTATION PROTECTIONS FOR MASSIVE NUMBER OF VENEZUELANS AMID ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN

"Making matters worse, that statement is just one among a torrent of similar racist statements that Secretary Noem, President Trump, and members of the Trump campaign and administration have made to attack and marginalize nonwhite immigrants generally, and the Venezuelan TPS community in particular," the suit continues.

The plaintiffs accuse Noem of conflating many TPS holders as being members of the violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) who have been terrorizing communities across the country. The plaintiffs claim that TdA’s threat to the U.S. are "overblown.

They also accuse Noem of a "baseless assertion" that Venezuela emptied its mental health facilities and sent them to the United States.

Additionally, they claim that she does not have the legal authority to revoke the TPS order.

The plaintiffs are calling on the courts to cancel Noem’s actions and reinstate the extension.

The suit was filed in San Francisco by the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network on behalf of eight Venezuelan TPS holders.

The plaintiffs include two university students, a factory worker with a 12-year-old daughter and an instructional coach who’s been living in the U.S. for 12 years. The latter’s mother, father, brother, sister and nephews all live in the U.S. and are U.S. citizens, per the lawsuit.

The lawsuit goes on to accuse Trump and his administration officials of embracing racist talking points, specifically White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who they accuse of supporting white nationalism and that Secretary of State Marco Rubio espoused an exaggerated depiction of TdA. 

"During President Trump’s first term, every federal district court to consider the question found ‘evidence that President Trump harbors an animus against non-white, non-European aliens which influenced his (and thereby the Secretary’s) decision to end the TPS designation[s]’ for El Salvador, Haiti, Sudan, and Nicaragua in 2017 and 2018," the suit reads.

"The evidence adduced in those cases further illustrates that the conduct challenged here is part of a premeditated effort to terminate TPS without regard to applicable law or standards, and to further a racist agenda."

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report. 

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• Marianna Sachse, 45, is an American who gave birth to her second child in the Netherlands.
• She noticed that strangers would intervene to give her advice or help watch her kids.
• Overall, she liked that the culture was more focused on collectively raising kids.

One of my first enduring memories of the Netherlands was a stranger asking to cradle my baby.

Months after my family relocated from Philadelphia to Maastricht, a small Dutch city, we went out to eat. I was six weeks postpartum after having my second child. My husband, six-year-old son, newborn, and I shared a communal table with an older couple, who had finished their meals.

The woman chatted with her husband, then turned to us. Would we like for them to hold our baby so we could take a break?

At first, I thought it was odd. Raising my first infant in the US, I never encountered someone I'd never met before offering to help like this. Still, I wanted to lean into a new culture. It was remembering my own mother, who loved kids and died a few years prior. I thought, "This woman seems just like her." I inherently trusted this woman I'd never met before.

I gave her my baby. "I'll hand him back when he gets fussy," she said. My husband and I ate in a moment of peace, with our son staring up at this stranger lovingly holding his brother.

In the four years we lived in the Netherlands, we learned that this is more of a parenting norm than a random act of kindness. I regularly witnessed adults intervening to help parents out, whether by watching their kids or giving tips.

Now, living in Washington, DC, I miss this part of Dutch culture. It helped me become a happier and more relaxed parent, and my kids become more independent.

Raising kids is a collective effort

When my husband was recruited to work in a Dutch firm in 2016, I was nervous about relocating while I was pregnant. My doctor reassured me: I couldn't pick a better country for childbirth, he said.

I learned he was right. The Netherlands is famous for its "kraamzorg" or doula system, where parents can buy doula packages before, during, or after giving birth. For our home birth and eight days of very involved, in-home postpartum care, we paid under $2,000.

Doulas in the Netherlands not only care for the baby but also the mother, looking out for medical complications and offering guidance for first-time parents. They also find small ways to make parents more comfortable. Ours also vacuumed our house, walked our dog, and took the baby so I could shower. To me, the lack of privacy was worth getting so much support.

I quickly saw that this community-centered attitude toward childcare extends beyond childbirth. I regularly witnessed other parents jumping in to supervise kids on the playground or play with them.

Sometimes, they would chime in to give me advice. When I rode bikes with my older son, I learned that the Dutch consider it safest to stay next to your child, not behind them, as I initially did. A stranger taught me that I should ride with one hand on my child to teach them how to stay in the bike lane properly.

As a parent in the Netherlands, it's normal to accept help — even in the form of mild critique.

Fewer screens in restaurants

Another striking difference I noticed in the Netherlands is how kids seemed to be truly seen as members of society — and were accommodated as such.

Almost every restaurant we went to, including upscale ones with white tablecloths, had a designated corner for kids to play in. It can include toys or coloring books, and sometimes adults even volunteer to play with the kids. It's easy for parents to watch their children from afar while also unwinding at dinner.

Everywhere we went understood that kids have lots of energy and can't sit at a table or in a high chair for that long. Striking this compromise helped us, and other parents, bring our kids to public spaces without feeling overwhelmed by tantrums. Back in the US, I'd tag-team with friends to take turns walking our kids outside when they inevitably needed to move. It was manageable, but not exactly relaxing.

Other American parents mitigate meltdowns by giving their kids tablets or phones. In the Netherlands, I saw fewer screens at restaurants because parents had other means to keep their kids happy. It was nice to go out and know that if our kids got tired of sitting with the adults, they could go color and play with other kids instead of watching YouTube.

Parents can relax more

Because raising kids is seen as a community effort, there were times when parents would discipline strangers' kids if they witnessed them being mean to another child or behaving poorly in public. The Dutch will call your kid out if they're being rude or unkind toward others. They might also correct you as a parent.

I loved it. As an American, there have been times when I've wondered where a kid's parent is or why they're hitting other children. I would be terrified to say something in the US. It's just not a norm, and I feel like I could put my safety at risk by interjecting.

In the US, our self-sufficiency gives us the freedom to make our own decisions, whether we choose gentle parenting or homeschooling. It also comes with downsides.

In our small Dutch city, I was laid back when my seven-year-old son walked home alone from school because I knew that if he was in an unsafe situation, an adult would help. In the US, it's not uncommon for parents to be nervous about their 12-year-olds hanging out in the neighborhood by themselves. There's a lot less trust, and with that, kids are less independent.

We eventually moved back to the US to be closer to family. During my time in the Netherlands, I learned a great parenting lesson: when we're willing to let others into our parenting space, everybody wins.

• Mexico might sue Google over the "Gulf of America" label on Google Maps.
• The label change follows Trump's January 20 executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
• Mexico's president said the rename applies only to areas under US jurisdiction, not the whole Gulf.

Google could be facing a lawsuit from Mexico if it continues to show US-based users the label "Gulf of America" for the entire Gulf of Mexico, which touches the US, Mexico, and Cuba.

In a press conference on Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that Mexico will sue Google if the tech giant does not change the "Gulf of America" label to cover only the portion of the body of water under US jurisdiction.

She said that President Donald Trump's January 20 executive order to rename the "Gulf of Mexico" to "Gulf of America" pertains only to its own continental shelf.

"We're talking about 22 nautical miles, not the entire gulf," Sheinbaum said, adding that Google is also changing the name of the continental shelves of Mexico and Cuba.

The Mexican government has been discussing this matter with Google since January. Sheinbaum shared her government's response to Google's most recent letter on its maps, saying that under no circumstances will Mexico accept the renaming of any geographical area that includes its national territory or that falls under its jurisdiction.

"Any reference to the 'Gulf of America' initiative on your Google Maps platform must be exclusively limited to the marine area under US jurisdiction," the letter read. "Any extension beyond that zone exceeds the authority of any national government or private entity. Should that be the case, the Government of Mexico will take the appropriate legal actions as deemed necessary."

Sheinbaum, who noted last week that a civil suit was possible, said Monday that the Mexican government would await Google's response before proceeding with legal action.

Business Insider reached out to Google but has not yet received a response.

On January 7, in the lead-up to the inauguration of his second term, Trump stated his intention to rename the Gulf. "We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America," he said. "What a beautiful name — and it's appropriate."

In response, Sheinbaum sarcastically remarked that North America should be called "América Mexicana" — "Mexican America" — because a 17th-century map labeled the continent as such.

Following Trump's executive order to officially rename the body of water, both Google Maps and Apple Maps updated the Gulf of Mexico's name to "Gulf of America" for people in the US. For users based outside of the US and Mexico, the body of water shows up as "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)."

Michigan State University political science professor Matthew Zierler, who studies foreign policy and international law, previously told BI that countries don't have the authority to rename an international body of water.

"Renaming Denali to McKinley is within the United States' purview, but the Gulf of Mexico is a different issue," he said.

In January, Sheinbaum sent a letter to Google pushing back against the naming decision.

The tech company responded with a letter, which Sheinbaum read aloud in the Monday press conference. The letter said that the company's "consistent policy" is to "consult multiple authoritative sources to provide the most up-to-date and accurate representation of the world."

The Google letter said that the change from "Gulf of Mexico" to "Gulf of America" for US-based users was made to reflect the update by the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). The letter also stated that Google Maps users in Mexico will continue to see "Gulf of Mexico" while people elsewhere in the world will be shown both names.

Sheinbaum did not say whether Mexico will be pursuing similar actions against Apple. At the time of publication, her office had not responded to a request for comment.

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway cut its Bank of America stake and other bets last quarter.
• The investor's company exited two S&P 500 funds and only added one new stock, Constellation Brands.
• Buffett's conglomerate sold a net $127 billion of stocks in the first nine months of last year.

Warren Buffett and his deputies pared bets, exited wagers, and added only one new stock to their portfolio in the quarter ending December 31, signaling they once again struggled to find bargains in a buoyant market.

The famed investor's Berkshire Hathaway slashed its Bank of America stake to 680 million shares by December's close, down from more than 1 billion six months earlier, a regulatory filing revealed Friday.

As a result, Berkshire's ownership percentage dropped from over 13% to below 9%, and the value of what had long been its second-largest holding after Apple tumbled from about $41 billion to under $30 billion.

Buffett and his two investment managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, cut other banking stocks too. They sold 74% of their Citigroup stake, 18% of their Capital One holding, and 54% of their Nu Holdings position. In addition, they trimmed names such as Charter Communications, Louisiana-Pacific, and T-Mobile US.

The Berkshire trio exited Ulta Beauty despite only establishing the position in the second quarter of last year. They also dumped SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, two exchange-traded funds that track the benchmark US stock index, after buying into them a few years earlier.

On the other hand, Buffett and Co. established a $1.2 billion stake in Constellation Brands, the maker of Corona and Modelo beer, and other alcoholic drinks.

They also ramped up their Domino's Pizza wager by 86% and their Pool Corp. stake by 48% after opening both positions in the preceding quarter. Moreover, they topped up holdings such as Occidental Petroleum, Verisign, and SiriusXM.

Despite the slew of cuts, the total value of Berkshire's US stock portfolio inched up to $267 billion as several positions gained value. The company is set to provide more insights for investors later this month when it publishes its annual report along with Buffett's signature shareholder letter.

James Shanahan, a senior equity research analyst at Edward Jones, estimated in a note that "stock sales exceeded stock purchases for the ninth consecutive quarter, by more than $6 billion."

Cash pile

In the first nine months of 2024, Berkshire sold $133 billion of stocks while buying less than $6 billion worth. It also spent less than $3 billion on share buybacks in the period, compared to nearly $70 billion over the previous four years.

The combination of stock sales and fewer repurchases helped to nearly double the size of Berkshire's cash pile from $168 billion to north of $300 billion for the first time.

Buffett is known for plowing billions of dollars into public companies such as Apple, and acquiring massive businesses such as Pilot Travel Centers.

He's repeatedly said that high company valuations have made it harder to find compelling deals, and he's grown more comfortable keeping large amounts of cash out of the stock market. Higher interest rates have also made holding Treasurys more lucrative for Berkshire.

Berkshire's Class B stock closed Friday at just under $480, up about 6% this year and almost 18% over the past 12 months.

• An audio recording of Jamie Dimon's WFH tirade at a JPM town hall has gone viral.
• Business Insider obtained a copy of last week's recording out of Columbus, Ohio.
• Here's more of what he said at the wide-ranging meeting, from AI to the CFPB.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has become a TikTok sensation over his comments slamming work-from-home at a recent town hall with employees.

However, audio recordings of the meeting suggest that remote work was just a sliver of the conversation. Dimon also fielded questions from employees and addressed a wide range of issues, from whether AI will replace their jobs to what his request for improved "efficiencies" means for their work-life balance, according to copies of the tape obtained by Business Insider. At one point, he encourages employees to welcome job-stealing AI, saying, "Attrition is your friend."

A TikTok video of Dimon's comments, posted by financial publication Barron's, has garnered 2.4 million views, thanks in part to his colorful and direct explanation for why the bank is calling all employees back to the office five days a week starting in March.

"And don't give me this shit that work-from-home-Friday works," Dimon told the crowd, according to the recording, which BI attained a copy of. "I call a lot of people on Fridays, and there's not a goddamn person you can get a hold of."

Dimon made the comments at a town hall in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday, following the opening of a nearby branch with a community center. JPMorgan has a large presence in Ohio, including a headquarters that housed some 12,000 employees when it reopened following renovations in 2023, according to a press release. At the time, the firm called the building "the firm's largest" office space.

Here is some of what he said, including his thoughts on President Trump's dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and his advice to young people. The comments are edited in places for length and clarity.

How improved efficiency affects JPM workers

At one point in the meeting, Dimon addresses his push for a more efficient workplace and what it might mean for workers' work-life balance.

"We could be far more efficient and we should always be thinking that way. That's not to torture our people. I want you to have a great life, I don't want you to overwork," he said. "But I think reducing bureaucracy literally will reduce cancer. I think dealing with the demoralizing effect of bureaucracy — you lose people, it gets you sick, and I really do believe that, so — I could be wrong."

On AI taking jobs

Dimon responded to a question about AI by saying that he expects the technology could "eliminate" some jobs. He advised employees, however, to welcome the threat and figure out how to adjust. "Attrition is your friend," he said.

"You know, it'll change some of your jobs — for a lot of you it will be a copilot, for a lot of you it will take away the drudgery, and it may very well eliminate jobs, too. And for that, I don't wanna stick my head in the sand. But what I wanna do is say, 'hmm, let's get ahead of that.' And, you know, I would say, attrition is your friend, you know, if you have jobs it's gonna replace, you know, we could retrain and reskill and redeploy people. But let's learn to use it like any technology to the best we can for our clients."

On young people falling behind

At one point in the call, a software engineering intern asked about Jamie's past comment on young people falling behind, including the challenges they face and how he intends to help. He responded by reiterating the benefits of his return-to-office mandate.

"Yeah, no, I think the ones falling behind that the ones that are not here full time. [laughter] No, no, I'm being quite serious," he said. "It's the ones who aren't here that are meeting less people, learning less, being challenged, not being put on the same amount of teams because they're not here — you know, and that's what I'm talking about."

On Trump dismantling the CFPB

Dimon also addressed President Trump's efforts to shrink the CFPB, which was created in the aftermath of the financial crisis to protect consumers in the financial marketplace. The agency has collected some $19.7 billion in consumer relief through its enforcement actions, including some against JPMorgan.

Dimon said he thinks the CFPB has some benefits, but he applauded Trump's removal of director Rohit Chopra earlier this month and said he thinks the agency should be an arm of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

"The only thing good I'll say about the CFPB is there are consumer protective rules that are good. They should be put in place to protect consumers. Having said that, they were duplicative. The OCC already did it. The Fed does it. The FHA does it. So we get it," said Dimon. "They massively overstepped their authority. I think this guy — Chopra or whatever his name is — was just an arrogant, out-of-touch son of a bitch who just made things worse for a lot of Americans. So if they get rid of it or not makes no difference to me. It should exist, but it should be inside the OCC like it used to be, when it comes to banks."

Nonbank financial regulation

Dimon suggested the CFPB could be put to better use going after nonbank financial institutions.

"You may want a CFPB for nonbanks. Think of payday lenders and all these other things that are not regulated. But remember we're heavily regulated. But at least if it's inside a bank the regulators get to look at safety and soundness, what makes sense, what's fair, how products should be priced or not priced, you know, set best practices. But I assume they're gonna be very tough on the CFPB, and the CFPB has earned it."

On the bank's fintech failings

In response to a question about growth in 2025, Dimon reminded employees that the bank has to acknowledge competition and avoid complacency. As an example, he talked about his and the bank's failures when competing with fintech and even bulge-bracket banks like Bank of America.

"Don't say, well, we're the best in the world. Assume that they're doing something better. Even Bank America does something better than us. Shocking, I know, but. [laughter] It's the digital world. They were ahead of us in digital. How the hell — I don't know. But it's your job to catch up now. And so, but, there are other things that we could have done like a Stripe or stuff like that, but we didn't have the imagination, including me, to say, hmm, we have the best payments, but we should add data and make it easier for the client. What does the client really want? It wasn't the payment they wanted. They wanted to close the sale faster and more certainly."

Do you work for JPMorgan? Reach this reporter at [email protected] or, for sensitive messages, on the encrypted app Signal at 305-857-5516.

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.

For now, Priester’s will have to stick to its famous pecans in Fort Payne, Alabama. But maybe not for long.

Priester’s Pecans, an Alabama staple, is one of more than half a dozen sites across the state slated to receive millions of dollars in federal funding to expand access to chargers for electric vehicles.

Read full article

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• Harrison Ford plays President Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross in "Captain America: Brave New World."
• The former military general transforms into the Red Hulk as part of a conspiracy against him.
• Here's how and why Ford's character is given a monstrous makeover.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Captain America: Brave New World."

"Captain America: Brave New World" revolves around a conspiracy against President Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (Harrison Ford) which forces him to transform into the Red Hulk by the end of the film.

It's the first Marvel movie since Chris Evans left the franchise after "Avengers: Endgame," and Anthony Mackie took over as Captain America.

In "Brave New World," Ross is eager to make an impression in the first 100 days as US president. His main drive is to negotiate a treaty with India and Japan to mine the giant dead alien sticking out of the Indian Ocean after 2021's "Eternals."

But an unknown villain starts using brainwashed soldiers to attack Ross, before also turning on India and Japan's respective military presence in the Indian Ocean before they can make the treaty.

All of this raises Ross' fiery temper until he's red in the face. Here's why Ross turns into Red Hulk.

Samuel Sterns, a character from 'The Incredible Hulk,' returns to get revenge on President Ross

Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) is the mastermind behind the conspiracy against Ross. He first appeared in 2008's "The Incredible Hulk." Toward the end of that film, a drop of Bruce Banner's (Edward Norton) irradiated blood splashes into Sterns' head wound and causes his brain to expand, making him infinitely smarter.

In "Brave New World," Sterns explains to Wilson that Ross imprisoned him in an underground military base to force him into making advanced weapons for the United States.

He also found a solution for Ross' severe heart condition and provided him with cutting-edge medication to keep him alive. In return, Ross promised he would free Sterns when he was elected President, but instead, he left him to rot in prison.

Sterns wants to take revenge by turning him into a monster to destroy Ross' political career.

Sterns is secretly dosing the President with gamma radiation via his medication, and by the end of the film, there is enough in his body to transform him into the Red Hulk when his temper hits boiling point during a press conference.

The Red Hulk goes on a rampage through Washington, D.C., and destroys part of the White House. But following a lengthy fight with Captain America, Ross regains control and returns to normal.

In the comics, Ross becomes the Red Hulk after his daughter dies

The Red Hulk first debuted in March 2008's "Hulk #1," but the monster's true identity was kept secret for over two years until "Hulk #23" in August 2010.

A flashback in issue #23 explains that Ross' daughter, Betty, was killed by Abomination, one of the Hulk's archenemies.

Ross' grief combined with his hate for the Hulk, pushed him to work with Sterns — who goes by "The Leader" in the comics — and another supervillain, Modok, to gain the Hulk's powers.

Ross' body emits heat because the gamma radiation affects him differently than Bruce Banner, which is why he's red, not green.

• William McKinley came to power during a time of economic instability and inequality.
• As a congressman in 1890, he authored the highest and most protectionist tariff act in US history.
• As president, his views on trade shifted towards a more reciprocal approach.

President Donald Trump has brought a historical figure to the forefront in recent months: William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States.

McKinley, who was president between 1897 and 1901, famously authored the highly protectionist Tariff Act of 1890, later named after him, which imposed over 50% tariffs on many imported goods.

President Trump has name-dropped McKinley multiple times. During the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly lauded McKinley's tariff policies, crediting them for making America a "very wealthy country."

"In the 1890s, our country was probably the wealthiest it ever was because it was a system of tariffs," Trump said in a Michigan town hall in September. "We had a president, you know McKinley?"

Since returning to the White House, Trump has enacted his own aggressive tariffs, including 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports and a 10% tariff on imports from China. Earlier this month, he also imposed a 25% tariff on most items from Canada and Mexico, but later delayed those tariffs for 30 days.

McKinley's tariff policies, which were rolled out when he was a congressman, had far-reaching impact on the economy, and were ultimately widely unpopular among voters, leading him and other Republican congressmen to lose their seats in the 1890 midterms. Even McKinley himself changed his mind on foreign trade by the time he became president.

"This was protectionist at its height," William K. Bolt, a professor of history at Francis Marion University, told Business Insider of McKinley's original policy. "And there was a significant political backlash against it."

Photos from the late 19th century and early 20th century highlight the economic factors that led to McKinley's tariffs, how they changed day-to-day life for Americans, and what ultimately led to him backtracking on his policies.

By the late 1800s, industry leaders had accumulated exorbitant amounts of wealth.

In the latter half of the century, industries like oil, steel, railroads, and manufacturing were growing rapidly in the United States. The Economic History Association estimated that industrial output in the US had reached a value of $9.4 billion by 1890. Nearly five million people were employed by the 350,000 industrial firms operating in the country, and the rapid expansion of business generated unprecedented revenue.

The businessmen who led the expanding manufacturing economy amassed massive amounts of personal wealth, even by today's standards.

The average family's annual income was around $500 (about $18,000 in today's money), according to an 1892 report from the Senate Finance Committee, yet the top 1% of families owned over half of America's wealth. During this era, known as the Gilded Age, the wealthiest families in America, such as the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts, formed a new social elite akin to European aristocracy.

The economic disparity became more obvious through the wealthy's over-the-top displays of their riches in social gatherings like the 1897 Bradley-Martin Ball in New York City, where 700 members of the country's elite gathered in a royalty-themed costume party.

Other displays of the elite's wealth included extravagant architecture and fashion.

Meanwhile, cities were crowded by immigrants, and workers lived in extreme poverty.

On the other side of the wealth divide, workers and immigrants faced harsh living conditions.

The rapid increase in industrialization drew masses to America, and immigration, particularly from countries in eastern and southern Europe, changed the face of the workforce, according to the Library of Congress.

Children, who weren't protected by law from physically challenging labor, had often started contributing to their households by age 10.

In New York City, the population doubled every decade from 1800 to 1880. Tenement housing, where families packed as many people as possible into apartments by using cheap materials to create walls or add floors to existing buildings, quickly dominated parts of the city. These settlements often lacked indoor plumbing or ventilation, leading to a rapid increase in the spread of illnesses. The cramped conditions also led to many fires in major cities.

Jacob Riis' "How The Other Half Lives," a photojournalism book documenting the lives of poor Americans towards the end of the century, exposed the realities faced by millions of people, such as having 12 adults sleeping in 13-feet-wide rooms and child mortality in tenements being as high as one in 10.

Although it was relatively small, a middle class also began to flourish.

An average family spent nearly 60% of their annual income on food and rent, and laborers — including children — often worked six 10-hour days per week.

One report of living standards of the time suggested that an average family's dreams would be fulfilled by owning a home valued around $36,000 in today's money, a Sunday dress and suit, a barrel of flour, 5 tons of coal, and $9,000 in today's money in savings.

The presence of disposable income led to the establishment of department stores and consumerism in the big cities.

For women entering the workforce, retail stores offered a more respectable field of work than the factory work available to them, which was mostly in textile and garment manufacturing. While job opportunities opened for women, their wages remained significantly lower than men's, who were still seen as the breadwinners of the households, according to the Library of Congress.

Postwar tariffs and rapid industrialization led to the federal government running a fiscal surplus.

Prior to the adoption of the federal income tax in 1913, tariffs were the federal government's main source of funding.

In an effort to help the economy recover following the Civil War, the government had kept tariffs on foreign goods relatively high compared to pre-war rates, Douglas Irwin, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, wrote for the National Bureau of Economic Research.

However, by the late 1880s, a unique problem had arisen: The federal government was taking in too much money from tariffs, resulting in a budget surplus over 40% higher than its spending.

Both parties agreed to revisit tariff rates in efforts to reduce it, although each side supported a different alternative in what became known as the Great Tariff Debate of 1888.

Ohio representative William McKinley authored the Tariff Act of 1890.

Born in 1843 in Niles, Ohio, William McKinley was working as a school teacher when the Civil War broke out in 1861. He enlisted in the Union Army and quickly climbed the ranks. After the war, he attended Albany Law School in New York and began his political career shortly after, being elected to the House of Representatives in 1876.

By 1890, he had risen within the congressional chamber and became chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, overseeing taxation and tariffs.

Authored by McKinley and later named after him, the Tariff Act of 1890 raised protective tariffs of over 1,500 products by almost 50%.

The tariff imposed duties on items like tinplate and wool while eliminating tariffs on sugar, molasses, tea, and coffee. The goal of the act was to "make the duty on foreign-tinplate high enough to insure its manufacture in this country," McKinley said in 1890.

It also protected American workers' wages from competition from cheaper labor abroad.

Tariffs on goods like wool and steel affected industries differently.

While miners and farmers of crops like corn, wheat, and potatoes benefited from the stimulus to American production and the rise in foreign competitors' prices, some manufacturing was hurt by the price hikes in raw materials.

The tariffs affected consumer products like shoes, clothes, and canned goods, as well as some other 1,500 products, ranging from chemicals and metals to dairy products and grains, to varying degrees.

Ultimately, it was everyday people who ended up paying the price for the tariffs, Bolt said.

"Consumers had to pay a higher price for the manufactured good they wanted," Bolt said. "So there was in fact a political backlash against the McKinley tariff."

The spike in prices was not well-received by American consumers.

Following the adoption of the Tariff Act, McKinley's Republican Party lost control of Congress in the midterm elections of 1890, and the Ohio representative himself was ousted as the party lost 93 seats in the House of Representatives.

Over the next two years, as voters continued to feel the impacts of the measure and other economic instabilities, the party also lost the presidential election and both chambers of Congress in 1892.

Across the country, economic unrest as prices rose turned workers against vendors and employers, leading to a rise in the labor movement.

Strikes erupted as growing industrialization stirred labor tensions.

As industries expanded, workers began to unite against industry barons to demand fair work conditions.

An 1892 strike demanding improvements in working conditions turned deadly after Carnegie Steel-hired security forces exchanged gunfire with the worker coalition.

Across the country, labor movements gained momentum, with the rising hostility between industry leaders and workers ending in fatal incidents.

In 1894, the Pullman Strike, after which Labor Day was established, led to dozens of deaths and millions of dollars in damages, pushing then-President Grover Cleveland to legitimize the labor movement by declaring the national holiday.

The economy reached a tipping point during the Panic of 1893.

By 1893, the economy had contracted significantly. Production rates were far exceeding domestic consumption, leading companies to slow down production and lay off workers.

The rise in unemployment (which reached 17% by the winter and surpassed 10% for the next half of the decade), along with government spending on Civil War pensions, were some of the factors that contributed to the panic.

Following the panic, the Democrats reduced some of McKinley's tariffs with the Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894. Tariffs on some items — including iron ore, lumber, and wool — were nixed entirely, angering US producers of those products.

Following the economic troubles, voters blamed President Grover Cleveland and his Democratic party, which didn't regain power in any branch of government until 1910.

After running as a "tariff man standing on a tariff platform," McKinley won the presidential election in 1896.

Shortly after ending his term as governor of Ohio, serving from 1892 to 1896, McKinley ran for president on a protectionist platform that aimed to benefit American industries while discouraging trade with foreign nations.

"Free trade gives to the foreign producer equal privileges with us," McKinley proclaimed in an 1892 speech. "It destroys our factories or reduces our labor to the level of theirs."

McKinley's tariff plans heavily targeted the import of goods like tinplate, wool, yarn, steel, and sugar in an effort to encourage domestic manufacturing.

With domestic manufacturing at a high, US companies looked to export goods, but tariffs hindered some of their efforts.

With domestic industries continuing to grow thanks to widespread industrialization and an increase in goods production, American manufacturers saw a need for exports to an international market.

However, America's tariffs on foreign imports led other nations to increase their duties on American products, limiting the domestic industries' role in foreign trade and hurting the economy as a surplus of production failed to bring in more revenue for manufacturers.

Once elected president, McKinley changed his mind on tariffs, supporting a reciprocal approach.

Once in the White House, President McKinley's approach to tariffs turned to a reciprocal view that would help export American products and stimulate trade rather than penalize it.

Staying true to his election promise of high tariffs, McKinley supported the Dingley Tariff Act, which raised previously lowered tariffs back to an average of 49% on imported goods, according to Lewis L. Gould, a professor of American history at the University of Texas. However, the act also granted the president the power to negotiate tariff reductions up to 20% or add products to a tariff "free-list."

Using the tariffs as a negotiating tool with foreign markets, McKinley encouraged nations to lower their tariffs on American goods to allow for more exports.

Big business grew bigger during his administration.

Major donations from executives from firms like JP Morgan and Standard Oil ensured that the McKinley presidency remained friendly to business interests.

McKinley was also in office for part of the Great Merger wave of 1895-1904, in which companies consolidated into larger firms, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. Between 1895 and 1904, the average number of firms disappearing to mergers each year was 301; in 1899 alone, as merger activity peaked, this number rose to 1,028, per the NBER.

While the Sherman Antitrust Act — a federal law prohibiting businesses from engaging in unfair practices that restrain competition — was passed in 1890, it is understood that the McKinley administration failed to strictly enforce the law to prevent large firms from consolidating into even larger monopolies during this period.

Meanwhile, in factories and mills, child labor rose as low-income families sought out additional income.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, one out of every eight children was employed by 1870. By 1900, the rate had risen to one in every five, with almost two million kids aged 10 to 15 working full-time jobs.

In rural areas, young boys (some even younger than 14) often worked at coal mines, breaking up coal with their bare hands or performing farm labor. In cities, many earned an income through newspaper delivery. In towns, both boys and girls often worked at mills or factories.

Labor movements gained momentum.

The unregulated growth of large firms led to more workers getting involved with the labor movement. Between 1897 and 1904, union membership increased from less than 500,000 to over two million workers, according to the US Department of Labor.

Workers united to demand fair working conditions, like improved facilities and hours. At the time, the norm for a worker was to work over 10 hours a day in places like factories or mills that exposed them to dangerous chemicals and conditions.

As the labor movement gained support, tensions between workers and businesses grew more hostile. One 1897 encounter between coal miners and local authorities, which later became known as the Lattimer Massacre, resulted in the death of 19 strikers.

McKinley's administration oversaw the start and end of the Spanish-American war.

Sent to Havana Harbor during the Cuban War of Independence against the Spanish, the USS Maine and its accidental explosion set the stage for America's declaration of war with Spain.

Unverified reports of a Spanish attack on the ship alarmed Americans and quickly built support for the war, which Americans saw as a just cause for Cuban freedom.

On the night after the explosion alone, the Army received over 100,000 volunteers.

The Spanish-American war was perhaps the most significant development of the McKinley administration, and might've contributed to the president's shift in tone regarding foreign trade towards the end of his presidency.

McKinley's presidency ushered in a new era of American imperialism.

The Spanish-American war greatly expanded America's reach in the hemisphere and beyond.

The 16-week war and low casualties on the American front helped raise the national spirit following the economic and political instability of the past century.

By absorbing Spain's colonial territories in the Caribbean, the United States became its own imperial power, and an era of imperialism and global prevalence quickly followed.

After the war, the United States annexed Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

America's victory in the Spanish-American War and the subsequent annexation of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam ended America's isolationist approach of the 19th century in favor of a globalist view, which was then reflected in the domestic politics adopted by McKinley's leadership.

Victory in the war effectively turned a page in American politics as the country was now emboldened by its newly found global power.

McKinley announced the end of his protectionist tariff measures at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition.

In a drastic change in views since his Congress days, McKinley openly discouraged the protectionist economy in favor of reciprocal tariffs, saying that "a policy of good will and friendly trade relations will prevent reprisals."

His speech at the Pan-American Exposition signaled a shift in the Republican Party's views of trade following the war, and opened the door for an expansionist economy.

One day after the convention, McKinley was fatally shot.

While attending the event, the president was shot by Leon Czolgosz, a Polish-American laborer and anarchist. He died from the wounds eight days later, on September 14, 1901.

Despite the economic turmoil of the previous decade, McKinley was widely mourned by the country.

"It's a great "what-if" in American politics," Bolt said. "If McKinley wasn't assassinated, [would] we [have started] to move towards free trade a lot earlier than we did?"

The social instability of the turn-of-the-century economy set the stage for the Progressive Era.

Following McKinley's death, his successor, President Theodore Roosevelt, and subsequent Progressive politics brought upon changes that alleviated the social and economic tensions of the Gilded Age.

Power shifted from the barons and reforms in labor, trust busting, tax policies, and civil rights changed the landscape of American life.

While McKinley's presidency is often overshadowed by his successor's, he had a significant impact on setting the stage for a new age in the domestic economy, both through his protectionist tariffs and his undoing of them.

• Harrison Ford plays President Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross in "Captain America: Brave New World."
• The former military general transforms into the Red Hulk as part of a conspiracy against him.
• Here's how and why Ford's character is given a monstrous makeover.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Captain America: Brave New World."

"Captain America: Brave New World" revolves around a conspiracy against President Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross (Harrison Ford) which forces him to transform into the Red Hulk by the end of the film.

It's the first Marvel movie since Chris Evans left the franchise after "Avengers: Endgame," and Anthony Mackie took over as Captain America.

In "Brave New World," Ross is eager to make an impression in the first 100 days as US president. His main drive is to negotiate a treaty with India and Japan to mine the giant dead alien sticking out of the Indian Ocean after 2021's "Eternals."

But an unknown villain starts using brainwashed soldiers to attack Ross, before also turning on India and Japan's respective military presence in the Indian Ocean before they can make the treaty.

All of this raises Ross' fiery temper until he's red in the face. Here's why Ross turns into Red Hulk.

Samuel Sterns, a character from 'The Incredible Hulk,' returns to get revenge on President Ross

Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) is the mastermind behind the conspiracy against Ross. He first appeared in 2008's "The Incredible Hulk." Toward the end of that film, a drop of Bruce Banner's (Edward Norton) irradiated blood splashes into Sterns' head wound and causes his brain to expand, making him infinitely smarter.

In "Brave New World," Sterns explains to Wilson that Ross imprisoned him in an underground military base to force him into making advanced weapons for the United States.

He also found a solution for Ross' severe heart condition and provided him with cutting-edge medication to keep him alive. In return, Ross promised he would free Sterns when he was elected President, but instead, he left him to rot in prison.

Sterns wants to take revenge by turning him into a monster to destroy Ross' political career.

Sterns is secretly dosing the President with gamma radiation via his medication, and by the end of the film, there is enough in his body to transform him into the Red Hulk when his temper hits boiling point during a press conference.

The Red Hulk goes on a rampage through Washington, D.C., and destroys part of the White House. But following a lengthy fight with Captain America, Ross regains control and returns to normal.

In the comics, Ross becomes the Red Hulk after his daughter dies

The Red Hulk first debuted in March 2008's "Hulk #1," but the monster's true identity was kept secret for over two years until "Hulk #23" in August 2010.

A flashback in issue #23 explains that Ross' daughter, Betty, was killed by Abomination, one of the Hulk's archenemies.

Ross' grief combined with his hate for the Hulk, pushed him to work with Sterns — who goes by "The Leader" in the comics — and another supervillain, Modok, to gain the Hulk's powers.

Ross' body emits heat because the gamma radiation affects him differently than Bruce Banner, which is why he's red, not green.

EXCLUSIVE: Retired New York Giants safety Jack Brewer and his global ministry are on the ground in Guatemala City this week, helping officials receive migrant families deported from the U.S., providing food, support and prayer as they essentially start life anew.

Brewer and his Jack Brewer Foundation have years of experience working in impoverished areas of the world like Haiti, Malawi and Central America, which Brewer said has allowed him to work closer than most and interact with the returning families.

While it is President Donald Trump and border czar Tom Homan enforcing U.S. law and deporting illegal immigrants, Brewer said it is clear former President Joe Biden’s "broken" policies are truly to blame for the heartache and hardship. 

"Three years ago, I started to follow the fatherlessness crisis that is happening right here in Guatemala, where a lot of men were leaving their households and coming to Joe Biden’s open borders – and just seeing it literally devastate families."

CHARITY LEADERS SLAM BIDEN ADMIN RESPONSE TO US PLANES SHOT IN HAITI AMID CHAOS

Brewer said Guatemala was losing much of its workforce and that a lot of those poor families trying to get to the U.S. actually did not know a "legal" immigration route existed, and they instead took the cartels and others at their word and paid thousands of dollars to be trafficked north.

"They’ve been told by coyotes and different people that you can just come [to the U.S.], and if you come here, if you bring your child, they'll just let you in," Brewer said.

"And so, you know, there's a huge education gap there on the ground."

Brewer also met with Raul Berrios from CONAMIGUA – the National Council for Attention to Migrants of Guatemala – as well as Sergio Samuel Vela-Lopez, head of the Guatemala Penitentiary Department.

Berrios, Lopez and others are trying to create an effective system for welcoming the migrants and processing those who are innocent families versus those who may have criminal records or other issues requiring government attention, according to Brewer.

FORMER NFL SAFETY JACK BREWER TORCHES CA'S COSTLY REPARATIONS PUSH

Many families returning to the capital city live hundreds of miles into the countryside and have no established way of getting there. Some buses, however, have been hired to take migrants closer to home, and Brewer visited one of them and spoke to its driver.

"It’s really a unique perspective, I think, and just some of the things that we've witnessed since we've been here," he said, adding stories ranged from familial hardships to reports that more than a dozen people have been burnt alive by Mexican cartels for failing to pay for passage.

"It’s just pretty tough to see and witness and watch."

When a U.S. military plane arrived carrying migrants, Brewer was on the tarmac.

HEGSETH, HOMAN TOUR BORDER

"We were able to provide them with food and, most importantly, with Bibles, and we preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

Brewer said the Guatemalan Migration Authority is focusing its efforts on children ages 8 and under. Many of these children have been "lied to," Brewer said.

"They’re told it’s their life’s mission to migrate to the U.S. illegally," he said, recounting stories told by some returning migrants of children on the backs of cartel coyotes and others drowning in rivers.

Then-Vice President Kamala Harris made her own trip to Guatemala City in March 2024, seeking to understand the "root causes" of illegal migration.

"When you look at the root causes, we're also looking at issues of corruption. Again, we're looking at the issue of climate resiliency and then the concern about a lack of economic opportunity," Harris said in 2021.

Brewer rejected that Harris’ work made any difference, saying she and her then-boss’s policies "empowered human traffickers" and that half of Guatemala still lives in extreme poverty with little education.

He said the former leadership at the State Department "misguided resources" through USAID, a practice that Trump is now aggressively cutting back on.

"We need to first put our resources into addressing the issues that are fueling a multibillion-dollar human trafficking industry. Walls, deportations and enforcement are a must, but educating indigenous populations on the truths of coyotes will deliver a devastating blow to the modern human slave trade," Brewer said.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"Guatemala is not enforcing their migration issue in the country. Haitians and Venezuelans are warned of the dangers of migrating, but there is no enforcement at the time."

"There needs to be arrest and enforcement, but they require resources. Guatemala prisons are already overcrowded, and they don’t have immigration beds available for enforcement," added Brewer, who said he also visited those prisons and saw conditions for himself.

Apple Maps will soon rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, following similar changes made by Google this week, in order to comply with U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order that officially changed the name. U.S.-based Apple users may see the “Gulf of America” as soon as Tuesday, according to Bloomberg, and […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A federal judge today, February 11, gave the Trump administration until 11:59 pm tonight to restore public documents and datasets that were abruptly removed or altered from federal health websites to comply with an executive order on gender ideology.

Information was taken down from websites for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration following a January 29 memo from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The memo ordered all agencies to remove any public-facing media that "inculcate or promote gender ideology" that would violate an executive order President Trump signed on January 20. OPM gave agencies until just January 31 to comply.

The webpages that were subsequently removed include key guidance and data on health risks in youth, school health policies, social vulnerability, environmental justice, HIV testing and prevention, assisted reproductive technologies, contraceptives, and recommendations for improving clinical studies, among other essential information.

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• Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson takes over from Chris Evans' Steve Rogers in "Captain America: Brave New World."
• The story follows Wilson as he untangles a conspiracy against the president.
• Sam Wilson has been Captain America in the comics since 2014.

"Captain America: Brave New World" sees a new hero carry the star-spangled shield on the big screen, as Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) untangles a conspiracy targetting President Thunderbolt Ross (Harrison Ford).

But those who haven't seen the recent "Avengers" movies might be wondering why Wilson is now Captain America and not Steve Rogers (Chris Evans).

Steve Rogers gave the Captain America mantle to Sam Wilson

Rogers was a founding member of the Avengers and appeared in all four movies, including "Avengers: Endgame," which culminated in Thanos (Josh Brolin) threatening the entire MCU.

During "Endgame," the Avengers traveled back in time to collect six Infinity Stones to assemble in the present and stop Thanos. After defeating him, Rogers was tasked with putting the stones back in the past in the film's ending.

Almost immediately after he was transported away, an older version of the hero arrived and spoke with Wilson, explaining that he managed to live a whole life after he finished the mission.

Then, he opened a bag containing the iconic shield and told Wilson to try it on. Although he initially said it felt like it belonged to someone else, he promised Rogers, "I'll do my best."

Rogers responded: "That's why it's yours."

Rogers shows that he knows Wilson has what it takes to be Captain America.

Wilson struggles with the weight of becoming the new Captain America, and there's a whole TV series about his journey to accepting the shield: "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier."

In the last episode of the series, Wilson finally dons his blue and white costume.

During a heated conversation with a group of politicians, he said: "I'm a Black man carrying the stars and stripes, what don't I understand? Every time I pick this thing up, I know there are gonna be millions of people out there who hate me for it."

In the same scene, he argues he is the right person for the job: "The only power I have is that I believe we can do better."

Sam Wilson has been Captain America in the comics for over a decade

In 2014, Marvel Comics published a storyline where Rogers relinquished the title after a fight with a villain called the Iron Nail drained his supersoldier serum in "Captain America #21."

This reverted his body back to his biological age — making him over 90 years old. Because of this, Wilson was named as Rogers' successor in October 2014's "Captain America #25."

This played out a little differently in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as Rogers became an old man because he time traveled not because he fought Iron Nail.

• Google and Apple have updated the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for US users.
• President Donald Trump signed an executive order mandating the change to "honor American greatness."
• Users will see their local name when it varies between countries; everyone else sees both names.

Apple Maps has followed Google Maps in updating the Gulf of Mexico's name for US-based users following an executive order issued by President Donald Trump last month.

As of Monday night, when users in the US search for "Gulf of Mexico" in Google Maps, they are presented with a result for "Gulf of America." As of Tuesday evening, the same change occurred in Apple Maps.

For people outside the US, the results populate as "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)."

The president signed an executive order on his first day in office to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and to change the name of the highest mountain peak in North America from Denali to Mount McKinley. As of press time, the name "Denali" had not yet been changed on Google Maps or Apple Maps.

The change in Google Maps was expected. Google said last month that it had "a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources."

The company said it would update Maps in the US after the Geographic Names Information System made the changes. The GNIS, a database of more than 2 million physical and cultural features throughout the US and its territories, standardizes geographic names for federal use.

Trump's executive order gave the secretary of the interior 30 days to implement the name changes and update the GNIS to reflect them.

In 2015, then-President Barack Obama changed the name of the mountain peak from Mount McKinley to Denali in honor of local Native groups' names for the Alaskan mountain.

Trump's order said that the surrounding national park area would keep the name Denali National Park and Preserve and that the secretary of the interior "shall work with Alaska Native entities and state and local organizations to adopt names for landmarks to honor the history and culture of the Alaskan people."

The renaming at the federal level has been a complex undertaking for government agencies and offices.

Historically, the Board on Geographic Names and the US Geological Survey would act immediately to update the GNIS. The Department of State would update the Geographic Names Server, which defines names of geographic features outside the US. But it's up to each agency and office to update their own websites accordingly.

Outside the US, other countries may not recognize the name changes.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said last month that "for us and for the whole world, it is still the Gulf of Mexico."

Google previously said that when official names vary between countries, Maps users will see the official name used in their country, while the rest of the world will see both names. The company said this was consistent with long-standing policy.

Google and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrapped up his first overseas trip across Latin America with several wins on immigration, a top priority for President Donald Trump.

America’s new top diplomat returns home with a binder full of agreements from foreign governments on day-one priorities to interdict human and drug trafficking – a testament to how the Trump administration wields America’s economic might. 

"I think the fact that his first trip was to Latin America, I think was a huge statement in itself," said Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society (SFS).

Next, Rubio will head to the Middle East, with plans to visit Israel, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia in mid-February after attending the Munich Security Conference. A broad swath of even more challenging circumstances await him there, including concerns from foreign officials over Trump’s newfangled idea to "take over" the Gaza Strip, with neighboring Arab states staunchly opposed to U.S. insistence that they take in Palestinians. 

RUBIO TO VISIT MIDDLE EAST FOR SECOND TRIP AS SECRETARY OF STATE AFTER TRUMP SUGGESTS US TAKEOVER OF GAZA

Before the secretary took off for Latin America, the Trump administration had already scored several victories. Colombia did a lightning fast about-face on accepting deportation flights carrying illegal immigrants headed home from the United States. President Gustavo Petro had initially denied two flights carrying Colombian nationals, saying he would not accept the return of migrants who were not treated with "dignity and respect" and who had arrived shackled or on military planes. 

But Trump immediately threatened 25% tariffs on Colombian goods, and Petro acquiesced to all U.S. conditions, according to the White House, including accepting migrants on military planes. 

Rubio then began his regional tour in Panama last Saturday, a nation that nervously awaited to see what his visit would hold after Trump repeatedly called for a U.S. takeover of the Panama Canal. 

Trump had claimed the canal was essentially under the control of China – Hong Kong-based firms control the ports of entry – and charging America unfair rates after the U.S. built the canal and gave it back to Panama in a 1977 treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter. 

After Rubio’s visit, Panama said it would not be renewing its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with China, an investment project the CCP uses to secure influence in developing nations across the world. 

"The BRI thing was huge news," said Humire. 

"There are 22 countries in Latin America that signed a BRI agreement. If we really push hard on this, a lot of countries, especially the ones that are allied with us, are going to rethink" their agreements with China, he added. 

RUBIO HEADS TO PANAMA, LATIN AMERICA TO PURSUE TRUMP'S 'GOLDEN AGE' AGENDA

Rubio had warned Panama that if its government did not move to reduce or eliminate the CCP’s grip on the canal, the U.S. would move to do so.

Under the canal treaties, the U.S. retains the duty to defend the canal if it comes under threat. 

But Rubio hit a snag over a claim that the State Department made that Panama had offered free passage through the canal for U.S naval vessels.

Panama President José Raúl Mulino then accused the US of spreading "lies and falsehoods" about his nation offering the U.S. free passage. 

The secretary then rowed back the claim, while calling the charges "absurd." 

"It seems absurd that we would have to pay fees to transit a zone that we are obligated to protect in a time of conflict," Rubio said.  "Panama has a process of laws and procedures that they need to follow as it relates to the Panamanian port."

In Costa Rica, Rubio offered U.S. help to combat a wave of drug trafficking crime and push back on Chinese influence by limiting CCP development of 5G technology in the country. 

Then, in El Salvador, Rubio cinched an offer from Trump-friendly President Nayib Bukele to accept deportees of any nationality, including American criminals. 

EL SALVADOR AGREES TO ACCEPT US DEPORTEES OF ANY NATIONALITY FOLLOWING MEETING WITH RUBIO

At the same time, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to send 10,000 Mexican forces to the U.S. border after Trump agreed to delay a threatened 25% tariff on her nation’s exports to the U.S.

Meanwhile, in Guatemala, President Bernardo Arévalo pledged to accept 40% more deportation flights and to accept people of other nationalities. 

"I think a lot of the wins are because of his prior relationships with the region, his team and, frankly, his experience and his knowledge," said Humire. "He’s somebody that can engage them in their language and in their kind of mannerisms."

And, he added, Latin America saw "how serious" Trump was about deportations, watching the threats the president made to Canada, Mexico and Colombia.

"I think we could have gotten more clarity from Panama on the canal," said Humire. "But I think we met little resistance [overall]."

Rubio wasn’t the only Trump official to secure Latin America wins. Special envoy Ric Grenell sat down with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro this week and returned home with six American hostages. The price paid, according to Grenell, was giving the Venezuelan dictator a photo opportunity with an American diplomat for propaganda purposes. 

The Trump administration now expects deportation flights to Venezuela to resume "within 30 days," border czar Tom Homan told the New York Times, after Maduro previously refused to accept Venezuelan nationals back from the U.S. 

"He's on a good-behavior policy," said Humire.  "[Maduro] thinks – they call it agenda zero – they think that they can renew, kind of restart relations with the U.S. by basically being on good behavior, starting to steer us towards their interests."

"Grennell has to be able to get the things that we need without giving a whole lot. And I think he accomplished that," Humire continued. "The photo op, they’re going to spin it, use it for disinformation. But that’s a small concession for bringing hostages home."

• Financial firms seek to hire thousands of skilled foreign workers through H-1B visas each year.
• President Trump's immigration crackdown is raising questions about the future of such visas.
• See which financial firms file for the most H-1B visas, according to publicly available data.

As President Donald Trump follows through on his campaign promises to crack down on immigration, questions remain about what might happen to skilled workers who come to the US on H-1B visas.

Trump targeted the H-1B visa program in his first term when he signed the "Buy American, Hire American" executive order to rein in potential abuses. Ahead of the second term, however, he told the New York Post that he "always liked the visas," which US companies use to hire foreign workers with specialized skills, often in science and technology.

"I've been a believer in H-1B," he told The Post in December. "I have used it many times. It's a great program."

Still, the future of the program remains very much up in the air: Last week two Republican senators introduced a joint resolution to strike down a Biden-era rule allowing such visas to be automatically extended for 540 days, instead of 180 days.

As such, Business Insider has run the numbers to find out which US financial services companies stand to be most impacted if these visas are tamped down again. BI used data from the Department of Labor and US Citizenship and Immigration data to analyze which financial giants file the most H-1B requests. The data runs through the 2024 government fiscal year (the fourth quarter of 2023 through the third quarter of 2024) and is collected from applications submitted by businesses that wish to sponsor a skilled worker's visa.

We found that some of the largest banks, credit card companies, and asset managers are among the most active sponsors of these visas, including JPMorgan and BlackRock. While many of the filings seek tech and software workers, some firms have used them to hire investment bankers or investment professionals.

Of course, not all filings lead to a foreign-worker hire and some filings may actually be for the same hire as firms will refile to reflect amendments or to extend an existing visa. Still, the publicly available data provides a good indication of the H-1B visa demand among major companies.

The firms listed either did not respond to a request for comment or declined to comment on the record.

Check out which financial firms are sponsoring the most H-1B visas, including the types of roles they are seeking to fill:

1. JPMorgan Chase

Total certified H-1B filings: 1,990

Total employees worldwide: 317,233 as of the end of 2024

Types of filings: More than 1,500 filings are for workers with "software" in their title. The firm also hired for roles like a vice president of investment banking, an executive director of liquidity risk management, and a managing director of client fraud prevention

2. Fidelity

Total certified H-1B filings: 1,839

Total employees worldwide: More than 76,000 per a January press release

Types of filings: More than 40% of filings contain the word software in their job title, and many other filings are related to tech as well, such as a director-level AI employee. The company also filed for a director of quantitative analysis and even some accounting roles through the program.

3. Goldman Sachs

Total certified H-1B filings: 1,443

Total employees worldwide: 46,500

Types of filings: Slightly more than a quarter of Goldman's filings are for roles that contain the word software. The company has also hired some divisional COO and CFOs through the program, as well as managing directors in areas like banking and financial crime control.

4. Citi

Total certified H-1B filings: 1,058

Total employees worldwide: 239,000

Types of filings: Many of the filings are for tech roles, like software engineering, application development, and information technology roles. Other filings include a regulatory risk group manager and even a trader.

5. Capital One

Total certified H-1B filings: 758

Total employees worldwide: 51,987 at the end of 2023

Types of filings: Most of Capital One's filings are for tech roles, as well as adjacent roles like a quantitative analysis manager and a range of data science roles.

6. Morgan Stanley

Total certified H-1B filings: 642

Total employees worldwide: More than 80,000 per its website

Types of filings: Morgan Stanley does not include job title information in their filings, only the level of seniority. The filings range from the associate level all the way up to managing director.

7. Barclays

Total certified H-1B filings: 609

Total employees worldwide: Approximately 85,000 per its corporate website

Types of filings: Most of Barclay's filings are for tech roles, but the company has also hired for director roles in global markets, equity derivatives structuring and for a credit desk quant role.

8. Visa

Total certified H-1B filings: 587

Total employees worldwide: 31,600 as of a December 4, 2024 report

Types of filngs: The vast majority of filings are for tech roles, like a senior machine learning engineer and a wide variety of software engineers. Other filings include a senior M&A manager and a senior finance manager.

9. American Express

Total certified H-1B filings: 575

Total employees worldwide: 74,000 per a 2024 press release

Types of filings: Nearly a third of AmEx's filings are for manager roles, the vast majority of those are in tech and data science portions of the business. The company has also filed for director roles in investment management and marketing analytics through the program.

10. Bank of America

Total certified H-1B filings: 500

Total employees worldwide: 213,193 as of the end of last year

Types of filings: Similar to others on the list, most of Bank of America's H-1B filings are for tech roles, but the company has also hired a credit senior officer at a director role, and an associate general counsel and VP who works with financial derivatives.

11. Wells Fargo

Total certified H-1B filings: 453

Total employees worldwide: 220,167 employees as of the end of Q3 2024

Types of filings: Nearly 300 of Wells Fargo's filings are for roles with software in the title, but the firm had also filed for roles like a construction management director and a lead securities trader.

12. Mastercard

Total certified H-1B filings: 447

Total employees worldwide: 33,400 employees at the end of 2023 per an annual report

Types of filings: Mastercard has made 220 H-1B filings for roles with software in the title, while another 64 include product in the name. Other filings include roles like a vice president of marketing, strategy, and operations, and a commercial counsel role.

13. Charles Schwab

Total certified H-1B filings: 429

Total employees worldwide: 32,100 employees as of the end of the third quarter of last year

Types of filing: More than 80% of roles have software in the name, though the company has also filed for director roles in business strategy, market risk management and treasury capital markets.

14. BlackRock

Total certified H-1B filings: 354

Total employees worldwide: more than 20,000 globally

Types of filings: The vast majority of BlackRock's H-1B filings only note the role level. Some specific roles were highlighted, like an external relationship management associate and a sustainable investing associate.

15. UBS

Total certified H-1B filings: 294

Total employees worldwide: 109,396 as of end of third quarter last year

Types of filing: UBS has filed for a range of tech roles as well as direct business roles, such as an alternative investments strategy director and director of investment banking.

• President Donald Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed the Gulf of America.
• Google has agreed to honor the name change, while Mexico is pushing back.
• Experts say the name change reflects much deeper issues and could have larger implications.

President Donald Trump's decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico is more than just geographical nitpicking — it's a political move that shows how he wants to be perceived by the world, experts in international law and geography say.

The move could cause a headache for Google, which has since changed its map to go along with Trump's renaming, and it has the potential to worsen US-Mexico relations, the experts said.

It also led to trouble for the Associated Press, which was barred from Trump's executive order signing on Tuesday after it refused to use the new name.

As for whether Trump can unilaterally change the name of the body of water, the answer is yes — but only for the US.

Can the US rename a body of water?

In one sense, countries can call geographic features whatever they want within their own jurisdiction, said Ian Hurd, a political science professor at Northwestern University who researches international law.

"Countries name and rename features in their countries as they wish, and renaming is pretty common, especially when a new government wants to differentiate itself from past practices," Hurd told Business Insider.

For example, he said, the Indian government has renamed many of the country's cities to emphasize decolonization or Hindu nationalism, and many Russian place names changed throughout the 20th century.

And outside each country, "there is no formal body to decide on what things are called," Hurd said.

There is a consultive body within the United Nations called the Group of Experts on Geographical Names that encourages international coordination and standardization of cartographic names. But countries do not have to follow its recommendations.

While individual states can make their own decisions about what to call a place, that doesn't mean they have the authority to rename an international body of water, said Matthew Zierler, a political science professor at Michigan State University who studies foreign policy and international law.

"So renaming Denali to McKinley is within the United States' purview, but the Gulf of Mexico is a different issue," Zierler told BI. "Internationally, there have always been differences among countries about what to name specific bodies of water, islands, etc."

"Names reflect culture, history, and identity, so the disagreements between countries on what to refer to a place are real," but the core of the issue, he said, "is political rather than legal."

What the name change means for Google

Following Trump's executive order to rename the gulf, Google agreed to implement the change. In a post on X, Google said it would begin changing the name for US users of its maps once it had been officially entered into the US Geographic Names Information System, spurring Mexico's president to push back in a letter to the company.

"We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources," Google wrote in its X post.

The tech giant said in a follow-up comment that "when official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name" and the rest of the world sees both names.

On Monday, it officially updated Google Maps with the change.

While the name change was handed down by executive order from the president, Google has no legal requirement to adopt this naming convention, nor does any other private entity, Mark Lemley, a Stanford law professor, told BI.

"And indeed," Lemley said, "if they were required to do so, they would be in a difficult position because other countries officially call it different things."

Because Google is not required to follow Trump's name-change order, its decision to do so anyway is, in essence, a political one, experts said.

"Google and other mapmakers are not focused on the law. They want to remain in business and will tend to follow the direction of the countries they are operating in," Zierler said, adding that while this may be confusing to some, "I think it is quite clear to most that names are symbolic."

Historically speaking, Google's decision to abide by Trump's name change is not unprecedented.

"Throughout history, cartographers have often served the interests of the powerful, so it is not surprising to see a company like Google follow suit with these name changes," Reuben Rose-Redwood, a professor of geography and the director of the Critical Geographies Research Lab at the University of Victoria, told BI.

Google did not respond to a request for comment.

Implications for the US and its relations with Mexico

Some legal experts said Trump's decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico says a lot about how he wants himself, and the US, to be perceived by the world.

"Most name changes arise from culture-war politics," Hurd told BI. "Nationalist governments often project an image of power by giving ideologically laden names to places. This appears to be the motivation in Trump's claim to the 'Gulf of America.'"

And that can send an unintended message to the world, Hurd added.

"Changing names is often a sign of weakness by a leader rather than strength," Hurd said. "It reveals their insecurities about their place in the world."

And Trump's order does not reflect well on the state of US-Mexico relations, nor on the countries' future rapport, Zierler said.

"The potential for this to be a major dispute between the US and Mexico is real," Zierler told BI.

But the name change itself, he said, "is secondary to other issues the US president has with Mexico over immigration and trade."

Mexico is concerned, as are other countries, about "United States unilateralism and being pushed around," Zierler said, adding: "The naming dispute is emblematic of that."

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum isn't thrilled about Trump's order to change the Gulf of Mexico's name or Google's decision to honor it.

In a letter to Google presented on Thursday, Sheinbaum urged Google to reconsider changing the 400-year-old name of the body of water on its maps, Reuters reported.

The name change "could only correspond to the 12 nautical miles away from the coastlines of the United States of America," Sheinbaum said in Spanish as she read the letter in a morning press conference, according to Reuters.

Mexico says the US has no legal right to change the name of the body of water — which borders the US, Mexico, and Cuba — because the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea mandates that a country's territory stretches only up to 12 nautical miles out from its coast, Reuters reported.

When Trump floated the name change before taking office last month, Sheinbaum responded by saying that parts of North America should be renamed Mexican America because a world map from 1607 named it as such.

"Why don't we call it América Mexicana? That sounds nice, no?" she said at a press briefing at the time.

As for what Google's top competitor will call the gulf, Apple has not indicated whether it will change the gulf's name on its own maps. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.