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Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of cities, towns, and villages across the country on Saturday. They were protesting the Trump administrations deep budget and staffing cuts, funding freezes, tariffs, and other actions that they believe threaten democracy, economic stability, and the fabric of American life. The national day of action to stop the most brazen power grab in modern history was organized by the nonprofits MoveOn, Third Act, Indivisible, and nearly 200 other groups working on behalf of climate action, civil rights, seniors, workers, veterans, corporate accountability, and many more issues. Opponents of the Trump administration flocked to Hands Off! protests around the San Francisco Bay Area. People voiced their concerns about the breakneck pace at which Trump officials are dismantling the machinery of government and firing the public servants who make it run. More than 1,500 people crowded the streets around a BART station in North Berkeley, chanting Not my president! and People over profit. A steady stream of cars honked in support. As drummers infused energy into the crowd, a woman shouted through a bullhorn, Ive seen smarter cabinets at IKEA. Lisa Oglesby organized the Hands Off! protest in Berkeley. [Photo: Liza Gross/Inside Climate News] Berkeley resident Lisa Oglesby, 70, organized the protest even though shes never been a big protester. Oglesby, a retired information security consultant, said she couldnt stand by and do nothing. I am appalled at whats going on in the country, and I know everyone else is too, but we need to know were all in this together. Laurie Baumgarten, who has worked on climate issues for the last 20 years, said shes against the entire Trump agenda but focuses primarily on climate. Baumgarten said she has joined 1000 Grandmothers for Future Generations, an organization of elder women and allies from Berkeley and Oakland raising awareness about the urgency of the climate crisis. Baumgarten has been working to support California legislation to make polluters pay. This could shift the massive financial burden of the climate crisis from taxpayerswho face ever-rising insurance rates, healthcare costs, and devastation from extreme weather disastersto the fossil fuel companies that are driving climate change. Oil and gas companies have been covering up what they knew about fossil fuel pollution since the 1970s, Baumgarten said, including the fact that burning fossil fuels contributes to global warming. And here we are now facing these disasters, and they have the money to pay for it out of their profits, she said. Particularly since the L.A. fires, its important that we the taxpayers get help paying for all of this cleanup, she said. Los Angeles, April 5th, 2025. [Photo: Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News/Getty Images] Some people at the protestsincluding teachers, Defense Department employees, and other federal workerswere willing to speak their minds but said they did not want to be quoted. These people said they were worried about experiencing backlash from the government or at their workplaces. Asked for comment about the demonstrations, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston did not address the tariffs or research cuts that many protesters referenced. President Trumps position is clear: He will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries, Huston said in a statement. Meanwhile, the Democrats stance is giving Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors. Former U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb speaks to a large crowd in Pittsburgh at one of the Hands Off demonstrations around the country. [Video: Christine Spolar/Inside Climate News] Devastated Infrastructure Demonstrations in major cities in Massachusetts, Illinois, and New York drew huge crowds, and organizers said there were plans for protests in all 50 states. In Pennsylvania, a key battleground state during the presidential election, crowds in Pittsburgh filled the city blocks and parking lots leading to the City-County building before noon. Steve Plant drove from the suburb of Wexford to protest the Trump administrations canceling of federal science grants and efforts. His wife, the director of quality control for a private company based in Madrid, lost her job this week because of the cuts. An audit that the company expected from the Food and Drug Administration was derailed by budget slashing, he said, and now his wife was unexpectedly out of a job. The private company where she worked for 35 years said to hell with the U.S., Plant said. We were planning to retire and now shes job hunting, he said. Plant worked as a contractor and he and his wife had a retirement nest egg. Right now, I dont want to look at how it.” It has been affected by the stock market plunge that followed tariffs announced by President Donald Trump, he said. His people dont care if people like us have enough to retire. Natalie Williams, 7, and her sister, Laila, 9, made signs to protest the impacts to their grandmothers retirement. Cathy Brunner, 69, their grandmother, and their mother, Chelsea Brunner, 33, brought them to the Hands Off rally in Pittsburgh. [Photo: Christine Spolar/Inside Climate News] Chelsea Brunner drove with her two daughters and her mother from Ross Township, north of Pittsburgh. Brunner, 33, works as a pharmacy benefits manager. Her mother, Cathy, is a legal assistant who at age 69 is still working. Chelsea, a 10-month-old orphan in Guatemala when Cathy adopted her and her sister, was near tears as she described why her family was protesting. Shes worked so hard her whole life, Chelsea said of her mother. Cathy said she has had sleepless nights watching her 401(k) dwindle from stock market losses under Trump. Im losing $8,000 a day, Cathy said. I wanted to throw up. Her granddaughters, Natalie, 7, and Laila, 9, were there with hand-written signs demanding hands off their grandmothers retirement savings. Subha Das spoke to the crowd from the steps of the City-County building about his love for and work in scientific research. That is what propelled him to move from India to America decades ago. Now an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University, he appealed to people to keep vigilant about the cuts that are gutting research and ambitions. We cant do this on our own, he said about how scientists are coping with the losses. Im speaking out because Im concerned about the future of America. Later, in an interview about medical research in the United States, he said: America has set the standard all over the world. That infrastructure has just been devastated. Subha Das, a researcher, spoke at a crowded Hands Off rally in Pittsburgh on April 5, 2025. [Photo: Christine Spolar/Inside Climate News] Stop Stealing Our Data! At the main rally in Washington, D.C., people held mass-produced signs reading Some cuts dont heal, referring to the inability to repair gutted government infrastructure and expertise that took decades to build. U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) gave a shout out to the people of Wisconsin, who voted against a state supreme court judge backed by Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump donor whose so-called Department of Government Efficiency has driven the federal cuts. Dallas, April 5, 2025. [Photo: Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images] They showed America that organized people who want nothing but freedom can defeat organized billionaires who want nothing but power, Raskin said. Here in America, Mr. Musk, justice is not for sale, Raskin said. And we dont raffle off state supreme court judgeships for million-dollar prizes. Stop trying to buy our votes, stop ripping off our government and stop stealing our data, he yelled, referring to the thousands of web pages and datasets scrubbed from federal agency websites. Cathy Kennedy, a registered nurse and president of National Nurses United, the largest union and professional association of registered nurses, said she and her colleagues have long fought for Medicare for all because they believe healthcare is a human right. Healthcare is not just about medical treatment, its also about the world we live in and the support systems we all rely on, said Kennedy, naming as examples Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs. This current administration wants to weaken and privatize those programs that have helped millions of people stay alive, housed and cared for. Without these programs, she added, vulnerable seniors, low-income families, people with disabilities, and veterans will suffer. The current administration wants a society where the wealthy and powerful get richer while the rest of us struggle, Kennedy said. They say people should be responsible for themselves while theyre handing out billions in tax breaks, subsidies, and bailouts to giant corporations. No way! she yelled, as the crowd cheered. Liza Gross and Christine Spolar, Inside Climate News This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.
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E-Commerce
Business owners around the world are still reeling from the sky-high, globe-spanning tariffs President Donald Trump has announced since taking office. Last week, Emily Ley became the first to take her concerns to court. In a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Florida last Thursday, lawyers representing Ley, a small business owner in Pensacola, argued that Trumps tariffs on China are unlawful, unconstitutional, and risk having devastating consequences on businesses like Simplified, the 10-employee stationery company Ley founded in 2008. The suit, which is the first known case to challenge Trumps tariffs, has, almost overnight, turned Ley into the very public face of a high stakes legal battle that could have sweeping consequences for the global economy. My company is like my fourth child, Ley tells Fast Company. I’m going to go down swinging if this is the end of it. It was never Leys intention to file a suit. A few weeks ago, as Trumps tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada went into effect, and the White House warned of more to come, Ley simply wanted to give people a better understanding of the tangible impact that rising tariffs would have on a small business like hers, which sells, among other things, day planners that are made in China. I was seeing so much misinformation and misunderstanding about who pays the tariffs, and what they’re for, Ley says. I just felt like I needed to share a small business perspective that came from a real person, a real human. Emily Ley [Photo: Courtesy of Simplified] So she wrote about her experience on Instagram: How since 2017, her company has paid $1.17 million in tariffs on imports from China, how this year, under Trumps increased tariffs, it could be on the hook for $350,000 more, and how those costs have driven prices up for customers and salaries down for employees. I cannot be quiet about this anymore, Ley wrote. Tariffs are killing businesses. The post, which quickly went viral, caught the attention of lawyers at the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a legal group that fights what it views as government overreach. Leys first conversation with the firm led to a zillion more, she says, until finally, last weekjust a day after Trump unveiled a new slew of global tariffs, sending the world economy into freefallNCLA filed the suit on Leys behalf, asking the court to block Trumps tariffs on Chinese goods. Leys case focuses specifically on two executive orders Trump signed in February and March, both of which imposed tariffs on Chinese goods in the name of stopping the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. In the orders, Trump declared the fentanyl crisis a national emergency and cited the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) as his authority to enact the tariffs. But according to the lawsuit, IEEPA doesnt give the president that poweror even mention tariffs at all. Only Congress, NCLA argues, can grant permission to impose tariffs. The president could implement trade embargoes or sanctions under the law, but only if theyre necessary to address the emergency, and Trumps executive orders show no connection between the opioid problem and the tariff he ordered, the complaint reads. While Simplifieds case is focused specifically on the Chinese tariffs, NCLA says a ruling could impact the full scope of global tariffs Trump imposed last week on most countries around the world. We are saying that the statute doesn’t allow the President to impose tariffs no matter what kind of emergency is declared or exists, NCLAs Senior Litigation Counsel John Vecchione tells Fast Company. In a statement to Fast Company, White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said, President Trump has broad authority to impose tariffs to address issues of national emergency, such as the opioid [epidemic]. The Trump Administration looks forward to victory in court. That NCLA is the group bringing the case forward is itself significant. Though the organization describes itself as nonpartisan, it has frequently fought for causes championed by conservatives, including chipping away at the regulatory powers of government agencies, and has in the past received financial support from right-wing financiers, including billionaire Charles Kochs foundation. NCLAs involvement reflects the extent to which opposition to Trumps tariffs cuts across party lines. Ley, for one, who is a registered Democrat, founded Simplified after designing the stationery for her own wedding invitations. What started as a side hustle evolved over the years until, in 2011, she began branching out into designing other merchandise like day planners and calendars. Initially, she manufactured those planners in the U.S. for $38 a unit and sold them on Etsy for $50 each. It wasn’t sustainable, Ley says. So she turned to Chinese manufacturers to build the company. By 2017, business was booming, but the tariffs Trump slapped on Chinese goods in his first term were a blow to the bottom line. It meant that I had to earmark dollars that would have gone to hiring, that would have gone to employee bonuses that could have gone to philanthropic efforts or growth, she says. We absorbed it as much as we could, including by raising prices.But shes not sure the business could sustain another increaseparticularly not one as stark as what Trumps proposing. Simplified is set to receive a new shipment of inventory within weeks, but she has no idea what the tariff bill will look like when it arrives. In the suit, NCLA argues that Trumps actions have inflicted economic and competitive harm on Simplified. Ley may be scared about what lies ahead, but shes hopeful her case inspires other business owners to stand up too. This is the reality of what’s happening, she says. I have written the checks. It is a fact, who’s paying for this. It’s not a political belief.
Category:
E-Commerce
A Minecraft Movie just beat Captain America and Mario at the box office. The new film, inspired by the beloved brick-based video game and starring Jack Black and Jason Mamoa, pulled in $157 million at its domestic box office opening this weekend. Thats more than double analysts early prediction that the film would gross $60 million. Its also well past the record of the previous top opener of 2025, Disneys Captain America: Brave New World, which netted $88.5 million at its opening weekendmeaning A Minecraft Movie has now enjoyed the most successful opening weekend of the year. By video game-to-movie adaptation standards, the Minecraft film is also playing in a league of its own. In 2019, for example, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu opened with a $58 million weekend, and, last year, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 opened with $60 million at the box office (considered a strong start at the time). The Super Mario Bros. Movie, released in 2023, was the previous record holder for the largest video game adaptation opening weekend of all time, raking in $145 million. By all accounts, A Minecraft Movies debut has been a smashing success. Rocky Horror for Gen Alpha? To some extent, it makes sense that A Minecraft Movie might appeal to wide audiences, given that, as of 2023, it had sold over 300 million copies, making it the second most-sold video game behind only Tetris. Still, even the most optimistic industry analysts capped the films potential box office open earnings at $90 million, and it had a so-so rating of 48% on Rotten Tomatoes before this weekend. One explanation for the films success could be its memeability. Over the weekend, many viewers took to social media to share that younger audiencesparticularly Gen Alphaseemed to be turning the Minecraft movie-viewing experience into an interactive event. Videos of audiences clapping every few minutes, reciting lines aloud, and even throwing popcorn in the air have all gone viral on TikTok, with some viewers even reporting that the police had to be called to their screenings to settle audiences down. I saw Minecraft in the theater with my kids last night and am still processing what I saw, one tweet with 46,000 likes reads. The only cinematic experience I can compare the audience participation to is Rocky Horror, except its with teenagers and their phones and the movie is not even a weekend old. Audiences have particularly taken to one scene in which a baby zombie (one of Minecrafts main monsters) rides a cuboid chicken, causing Blacks character to exclaim, Chicken jockey! Clips of audiences reacting rowdily to the scene made the rounds over the weekend, which, in turn, only attracted more viewers eager to join the trend to theaters. [Image: Warner Bros. Pictures] the minecraft movie is truly one of the worst movies ive ever seen but the universal reaction to ‘chicken jockey’ im seeing made it all worth it, one X user wrote. Another added, The Minecraft Movie is a must watch cultural experience, over a video of audience members giving the chicken jockey scene a standing ovation. Considering that the film has been in theaters for just four days, only time will tell whether A Minecraft Movie becomes the next Rocky Horror Picture Show, or if (in a much more likely scenario) young fans’ outsized reactions are only a passing fad.
Category:
E-Commerce
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