Le Journal

By TERRY TANG, Associated Press As communities across the country on Monday host parades, panels and service projects for the 40th federal observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the political climate for some is more fraught with tensions than festive with reflection on the slain Black American civil rights icon’s legacy. In the year since Donald Trump’s second inauguration fell on King Day, the Republican president has gone scorched earth against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and targeted mostly Black-led cities for federal law enforcement operations, among other policies that many King admirers have criticized. One year ago, Trump’s executive orders, “Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” and “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” accelerated a rollback of civil rights and racial justice initiatives in federal agencies, corporations and universities. Last month, the National Park Service announced it will no longer offer free admission to parks on King Day and Juneteenth, but instead on Flag Day and Trump’s birthday. The fatal shooting this month of an unarmed Minneapolis woman in her car by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sent there to target the city’s Somali immigrant population, as well as Trump recently decrying civil rights as discrimination against white people, have only intensified fears of a regression from the social progress King and many others advocated for. Still, the concerns have not chilled many King holiday events planned this year. Some conservative admirers of King say the holiday should be a reminder of the civil rights icon’s plea that all people be judged by their character and not their skin color. Some Black advocacy groups, however, are vowing a day of resistance and rallies nationwide. FILE – The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial during the 9th Annual Wreath Laying and Day of Reflection and Reconciliation, in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) ‘We’ve always strived to be a more perfect union’ In a recent interview with the New York Times, Trump said he felt the Civil Rights Movement and the reforms it helped usher in were harmful to white people, who “were very badly treated.” Politicians and advocates say Trump’s comments are what are harmful, because they dismiss the hard work of King and others that helped not just Black Americans but other groups, including women and the LGBTQ+ community. “I think the Civil Rights Movement was one of the things that made our country so unique, that we haven’t always been perfect, but we’ve always strived to be this more perfect union, and that’s what I think the Civil Rights Movement represents,” Gov. Wes Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor and only the nation’s third elected Black governor, said this week in an interview with The Associated Press. Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, one of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights coalitions, said the Trump administration’s priorities make clear it is actively trying to erase the movement. “From health care access and affordable housing to good paying jobs and union representation,” Wiley said, “things Dr. King made part of his clarion call for a beloved community are still at stake and is even more so because (the administration) has dismantled the very terms of government and the norms of our culture.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The conservative Heritage Foundation think tank is encouraging the holiday’s focus to stay solely on King himself. Brenda Hafera, a foundation research fellow, urged people to visit the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta or reread his “I have a dream” speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington nearly 63 years ago. But using the holiday as a platform to rally and speak about “anti-racism” and “critical race theory” actually…

By ELAINE KURTENBACH, AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — European shares and U.S. stock futures skidded Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to slap a 10% extra tariff on imports from eight European countries because they oppose having America take control of Greenland. Related Articles IMF upgrades outlook for surprisingly resilient world economy to 3.3% growth this year Downtown St. Paul: The man with a plan for U.S. Bank Center, other empty buildings Business people: Laura Watterson to lead human relations at Andersen Corp. Real World Economics: How the Fed ends, with a whimper For Dungarvin’s Tim Madden, whose grandfather wrote the Winter Carnival legend, sponsoring the festival is full-circle Germany’s DAX lost 1.1% to 25,020.35 and the CAC 40 in Paris shed 1.3% to 8,150.78. Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 0.3% to 10,206.12. The future for the S&P 500 fell 0.8%, while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.7%. The European countries targeted by Trump blasted his threat to raise tariffs, saying they “undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral.” An unusually strong joint statement from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland was the most forceful rebuke from the European allies since Trump returned to the White House almost a year ago. Trump’s moves are testing the strategic alignment and institutional trust underlying support from Europe, the largest trading partner and provider of financing to the United States, Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary. “In a world where geopolitical cohesion within the Western alliance is no longer taken for granted, the willingness to recycle capital indefinitely into U.S. assets becomes less automatic. This is not a short-term liquidation story. It is a slow rebalancing story, and those are far more consequential,” Innes said. In Asia, shares were mixed after China reported that its economy expanded at a 5% annual pace in 2025, though it slowed in the last quarter. Strong exports, despite Trump’s higher tariffs on imports from China, helped to offset relatively weak domestic demand. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 1.1% to 26,563.90. The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.3% to 4,114.00. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.7% to 53,583.57. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was due to hold a news conference later Monday as she prepares to dissolve the parliament for a snap election next month. Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.3% to 4,904.66, pushing further into record territory on strong gains for tech-related companies. Computer chip maker SK Hynix climbed 1.1%. Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.7%, while the Sensex in India fell 0.6%. On Friday, stocks edged lower on Wall Street as the first week of corporate earnings season ended with markets trading near record levels. The S&P 500 fell 0.1% and the Dow industrials lost 0.2%. The Nasdaq composite shed 0.1%. They all notched weekly losses, while smaller company stocks fared better. The Russell 2000 eked out a 0.1% gain. Technology stocks were the strongest forces behind the market’s moves throughout most of the day. Several big technology stocks made strong gains and helped offset losses elsewhere. Earnings updates might give investors a better sense of how consumers are spending their money and how businesses are faring with persisting inflation and higher tariffs. Results from the technology sector are being scrutinized by investors trying to figure out whether the high stock prices fueled by the craze around artificial intelligence are justified. This week will bring a broader mix of earnings from airlines, industrial companies, and technology companies. United Airlines, 3M, and Intel are all scheduled to release their quarterly earnings results. The U.S. central bank will get another update on inflation this week with the government’s release of the personal consumption expenditures price index,…

By JACK BROOK, Associated Press/Report for America MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice said Sunday it is investigating a group of protesters in Minnesota who disrupted services at a church where a local official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement apparently serves as a pastor. A livestreamed video posted on the Facebook page of Black Lives Matter Minnesota, one of the protest’s organizers, shows a group of people interrupting services at the Cities Church in St. Paul by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good.” The 37-year-old mother of three was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis earlier this month amid a surge in federal immigration enforcement activities. The protesters allege that one of the church’s pastors — David Easterwood — also leads the local ICE field office overseeing the operations that have involved violent tactics and illegal arrests. U.S. Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said her agency is investigating federal civil rights violations “by these people desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers.” “A house of worship is not a public forum for your protest! It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws!” she said on social media. Attorney General Pam Bondi also weighed in on social media, saying that any violations of federal law would be prosecuted. Nekima Levy Armstrong, who participated in the protest and leads the local grassroots civil rights organization Racial Justice Network, dismissed the potential DOJ investigation as a sham and a distraction from federal agents’ actions in Minneapolis-St. Paul. “When you think about the federal government unleashing barbaric ICE agents upon our community and all the harm that they have caused, to have someone serving as a pastor who oversees these ICE agents, is almost unfathomable to me,” said Armstrong, who added she is an ordained reverend. “If people are more concerned about someone coming to a church on a Sunday and disrupting business as usual than they are about the atrocities that we are experiencing in our community, then they need to check their theology and the need to check their hearts.” The website of St. Paul-based Cities Church lists David Easterwood as a pastor, and his personal information appears to match that of the David Easterwood identified in court filings as the acting director of the ICE St. Paul field office. Easterwood appeared alongside DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at a Minneapolis press conference last October. Cities Church did not respond to a phone call or emailed request for comment Sunday evening, and Easterwood’s personal contact information could not immediately be located. Easterwood did not lead the part of the service that was livestreamed, and it was unclear if he was present at the church Sunday. In a Jan. 5 court filing, Easterwood defended ICE’s tactics in Minnesota such as swapping license plates and spraying protesters with chemical irritants. He wrote that federal agents were experiencing increased threats and aggression and crowd control devices like flash-bang grenades were important to protect against violent attacks. He testified that he was unaware of agents “knowingly targeting or retaliating against peaceful protesters or legal observers with less lethal munitions and/or crowd control devices.” “Agitators aren’t just targeting our officers. Now they’re targeting churches, too,” the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency stated. “They’re going from hotel to hotel, church to church, hunting for federal law enforcement who are risking their lives to protect Americans.” Black Lives Matter Minnesota co-founder Monique Cullars-Doty said that the DOJ’s prosecution was misguided. “If you got a head — a leader in a church — that is leading and orchestrating ICE raids, my God, what has the world come to?” Cullars-Doty said. “We can’t sit back idly and watch people go and be led…

By SAMY MAGDY and JULIA FRANKEL, Associated Press The European Union’s executive arm, Russia, Belarus and Thailand on Monday were the latest to be asked to join U.S. President Donald Trump’s new Board of Peace that will supervise the next phase of the Gaza peace plan, as a top Israeli official said the initiative is “bad for Israel” and should be scrapped. Related Articles Diplomacy or retaliation? The EU mulls its options as tensions with U.S. rise over Greenland Trump ties his stance on Greenland to not getting Nobel Peace Prize, European officials say One year of Trump. The cost is already too much to measure. Bruce Springsteen dedicates song to Renee Good and says ICE should ‘get the f— out of Minneapolis’ $1 billion in cash buys a permanent seat on Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin received the invitation and that the Kremlin is now “studying the details” and would seek clarity of “all the nuances” in contacts with the U.S. The Thai Foreign Ministry said it was also invited and that it was reviewing the details. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has been invited and is ready to take part, according to the country’s Foreign Ministry. European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill confirmed that Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the commission, received an invitation and would be speaking to other EU leaders about Gaza. Gill didn’t say whether the invitation had been accepted, but that the commission wants “to contribute to a comprehensive plan to end the Gaza conflict.” It’s unclear how many leaders have been invited to join the board. But a Trump reference in the invitation letters that the body would “embark on a bold new approach to resolving global conflict” suggested it could act as a rival to the U.N. Security Council, the most powerful body of the global organization created in the wake of World War II. According to the World Bank’s Gaza and West Bank Interim Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (IRDNA) report released last year, it’ll take $53 billion to rebuild the strip. Israel’s objections to the board Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday dismissed the Board of Peace as a raw deal for Israel and called for its dissolution. “It is time to explain to the president that his plan is bad for the State of Israel and to cancel it,” Smotrich said at a ceremony inaugurating the new Yatziv settlement in the occupied West Bank. “Gaza is ours, its future will affect our future more than anyone else’s. We will take responsibility for what happens there, impose military administration, and complete the mission.” Smotrich, a hardliner who opposed the Gaza ceasefire, even suggested that Israel renew a full-scale offensive on the territory to destroy Hamas if it doesn’t abide by a “short ultimatum for real disarmament and exile.” On Saturday, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the formation of the committee wasn’t coordinated with the Israeli government and “is contrary to its policy” without clarifying what its objections were. Israel hasn’t been invited to join the committee, unlike Turkey, a key regional rival. The final list The U.S. is expected to announce its official list of members in the coming days, likely during the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Board members will oversee an executive committee that will be in charge of implementing the tough second phase of the Gaza peace plan that includes the deployment of an international security force, disarmament of Hamas and reconstruction of the war-devastated territory. A $1 billion contribution secures permanent membership on the board, with the money going to rebuild Gaza, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity about the charter as he wasn’t permitted to speak publicly about details of the board, which hasn’t been made public. A three-year appointment has no contribution requirement. But details of how this will…