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The Trump administration will be expanding its ban on travel for citizens of certain countries to more than 30, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, in the latest restriction to come since a man from Afghanistan was accused of shooting two National Guard members. The expansion would build on a travel ban already announced in June by the Republican administration, which barred travel to the U.S. for citizens from 12 countries and restricted access to the U.S. for people from seven others. In a social media post earlier this week, Noem had suggested more countries would be included. Noem, who spoke late Thursday in an interview with Fox News Channel host Laura Ingraham, would not provide further details, saying President Donald Trump was considering which countries would be included. In the wake of the National Guard shooting, the administration already ratcheted up restrictions on the 19 countries included in the initial travel ban, which include Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran and Haiti, among others. Ingraham asked Noem whether the travel ban was expanding to 32 countries and asked which countries would be added to the 19 announced earlier this year. I won’t be specific on the number, but it’s over 30. And the president is continuing to evaluate countries, Noem said. If they don’t have a stable government there, if they don’t have a country that can sustain itself and tell us who those individuals are and help us vet them, why should we allow people from that country to come here to the United States? Noem said. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment about when an updated travel ban might go into effect and which countries would be included in it. Additions to the June travel ban are the latest in what has been a rapidly unfolding series of immigration actions since the shooting Thanksgiving week of two National Guard troops in Washington. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who emigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal, has been charged with first-degree murder after one of the two victims, West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, died of wounds sustained in the Nov. 26 shooting. The second victim, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, was critically wounded. Lakanwal has pleaded not guilty. The Trump administration has argued that more vetting is needed to make sure people entering or already in the U.S. aren’t a threat. Critics say the administration is traumatizing people who’ve already gone through extensive vetting to get to the U.S. and say the new measures amount to collective punishment. Over the course of a little more than a week, the administration has halted asylum decisions, paused processing of immigration-related benefits for people in the U.S. from the 19 travel ban countries and halted visas for Afghans who assisted the U.S. war effort. On Thursday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it was reducing the time period that work permits are valid for certain applicants such as refugees and people with asylum so they have to reapply more often and go through vetting more frequently. Rebecca Santana, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
The U.S. stock market is flirting with its all-time high on Friday. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% and was on track earlier in the day to squeak past its record closing level, which was set in October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 69 points, or 0.1%, as of 12:29 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher. If the S&P 500 finishes the day at a record, it would mark the latest time the U.S. stock market has powered past what appeared to be a debilitating set of worries. Most recently, those concerns centered on what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates, whether too many dollars are flowing into artificial-intelligence technology, and if sharp drops for cryptocurrencies would bleed over into other markets. Renewed hopes for a cut to interest rates by the Fed at its meeting next week helped stocks recover those losses, which included some of their worst days since their sell-off during April. So did a continuing parade of companies saying they’re making bigger profits than analysts had expected. Ulta Beauty helped lead the market on Friday and jumped 13.2% after the retailer reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. CEO Kecia Steelman said its customers are broadly feeling pressure, but Ulta saw growth across its categories, particularly in e-commerce. It raised its forecast for revenue over the full year. Another encouraging signal for the holiday shopping season came from Victorias Secret & Co. It delivered a milder loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected, and it likewise raised its forecast for sales over the full year. Its stock rallied 11.5%. Warner Bros. Discovery was also strong and rose 2.3%. Netflix said it would buy Warner Bros. for $72 billion in cash and stock following its pending split from Discovery Global. The deal for the company behind HBO Max, Casablanca and Harry Potter is not a sure thing, though. It could raise fears at the U.S. government about too much industry power residing at Netflix. Shares of Netflix initially fell more than 5% after the deal was announced, then briefly erased all of the loss before falling again, by 3.2%. Paramount Skydance, which earlier had been seen as a front-runner to buy Warner Bros., fell 7.6%. Also on the losing end of Wall Street was SoFi Technologies. The financial technology company fell 7.2% to $27.73 after saying it would add $1.5 billion worth of its stock into the market in order to raise cash. It’s selling the stock at a price of $27.50 per share. The U.S. stock market broadly has been much quieter this week, a respite following earlier weeks of sharp and scary swings. After some back and forth, the widespread expectation among traders is that the Fed will cut its main interest rate next week in hopes of shoring up the slowing U.S. job market. If it does, that would be the third cut of the year. Investors love lower interest rates because they boost prices for investments and can juice the economy. The downside is that they can worsen inflation, which is stubbornly remaining above the Feds 2% target. Economic reports released on Friday did little to change expectations for a coming cut. One said that an underlying measure of inflation that the Fed prefers to use was at 2.8% in September, exactly as economists expected. A separate report said U.S. consumers appear to be downgrading their expectations for inflation coming in the near future. They’re now forecasting 4.1% inflation for the year ahead, down from their forecast of 4.5% last month, according to the University of Michigan. That’s the lowest such reading since January, which is important because heightened expectations for inflation can create a vicious cycle that only worsens inflation. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.13% from 4.11% late Thursday. In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed across much of Europe and rose in Asia Friday. Germanys DAX returned 0.6%, and South Koreas Kospi jumped 1.8% for two of the worlds bigger gains. Tokyos Nikkei 225 fell 1.1% after data showed household spending in Japan fell 3.0% in October from a year earlier. It was the sharpest drop since January 2024. Japanese markets have been shaky recently after the Bank of Japan hinted that hikes to interest rates may be coming. By Stan Choe, AP business writer AP Writer Teresa Cerojano contributed.
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E-Commerce
It is a relatively rare phenomenon: While the stock market continues to experience record gains (the S&P 500 is up over 16% this year), Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continue to struggle, making it the first time the crypto and stock markets have split since 2014, Bloomberg reported. That split, with Bitcoin down while stock markets soar, is somewhat unusual. On midday Friday, at the time of this writing, the digital cryptocurrency (BTC) was trading down over 4%, hovering around $88,945far below its record high of over $125,000, but still above a recent low of $85,000 (down almost 30% from the high). Here’s what to know. Why is the split between crypto markets and stock markets unusual? While Bitcoin is known for its volatility, historically, the digital currency and stocks have traditionally risen and fallen together. So, why has there been a crypto sell off? What is contributing to the drop in investor confidence? Some of what boosted confidence in the coin was the Trump administration’s early embrace of crypto, ushering in crypto-friendly regulations. However, as Fast Company has previously reported, a few different micro and macroeconomic factors have started to spook investors, who are pulling back from the more volatile digital currency. These factors include higher inflation; shifting interest rates; a dampening enthusiasm for AI-related stocks over fears of an AI bubble; and growing concerns over the widening gap between low-income and wealthy Americans, in what is shaping up to be a “K-shaped economy.” Remind me, what exactly is Bitcoin, anyway? Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency. Unlike a standard currencysuch as the U.S. dollar or the European Union euroit only exists in digital form and operates without government or banking oversight, traded peer-to-peer, making it harder to trace. Instead, Bitcoin uses a decentralized blockchain ledger to verify and securely record transactions.
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E-Commerce
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed a $7.1 million fine on a New York-based property management firm Thursday, accusing it of violating sanctions by managing luxury real estate properties for oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control said Gracetown Inc. had received 24 payments between April 2018 and May 2020 totaling $31,250 on behalf of a company owned by Deripaska. OFAC says it gave Gracetown notice that dealings with Deripaska were prohibited, but the firm proceeded anyway. Justice Department filings from 2022 connect Gracetown Inc. with U.K. businessman Graham Bonham-Carter, who was arrested in October 2022 for conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions imposed on Deripaska as well as for wire fraud connected to funding Deripaskas U.S. properties and efforts to expatriate the oligarchs artwork to New York. A lawyer who has represented Deripaska previously didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Gracetown couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Deripaska has faced economic sanctions since 2018, when the Treasury Department accused him of acting for or on behalf of a senior Russian official and operating in the energy sector of the Russian economy. All of his assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction were blocked, and U.S. people and firms are prohibited from dealings related to Deripaska, his properties and his interest in properties. Deripaska sued The Associated Press in 2017 over a story that March about his business dealings with Paul Manafort, a former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump. Deripaska said the AP article was inaccurate and hurt his career by falsely accusing him of criminal activity. A federal judge dismissed the defamation and libel lawsuit that October. In 2022, Deripaska and three associates were criminally charged in New York with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and plotting to ensure his child was born in the United States. Treasury says its Thursday enforcement action against Gracetown highlights the importance of following OFAC-issued guidance and the significant consequences that can occur from failing to do so. John K. Hurley, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial Intelligence, said “we will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who enable sanctioned actors. Gracetown was established in 2006 to manage three luxury real estate properties in New York and Washington, D.C., that Deripaska acquired around the same time through various legal entities. Fatima Hussein, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Its been less than two months since President Trump began his demolition of the White Houses East Wing to make room for his big, beautiful White House Ballroom, and the President is already parting ways with the original architect behind the project. On December 4, a White House spokesperson confirmed to The Washington Post that the original ballroom architect, McCrery Architects, has been traded in favor of the firm Shalom Baranes Associates. The swap comes after multiple reports that Trump and Jim McCrery, CEO of McCrery Architects, clashed repeatedly over the size and scope of the new ballroom. A screenshot of Shalom Baranes Associates portfolio site. [Screenshot: sbaranes.com] The construction of a giant ballroom is only one part of Trumps plan to remake the White House in his image. Over the past several months, hes updated the buildings interiors with his own Rococo-inspired aesthetics, overhauled the Oval Office into a gold-laden spectacle, and turned the Rose Garden patio into a Mar-a-Lago lookalike. Still, his plans to tear down the White Houses East Wing to build a $250 million, 90,000-square-foot ballrooma process thats already underwayis by far his most extreme renovation. And now, it seems hes opting for a new architect whos more willing to bend to his personal vision for the project. Heres everything you need to know about the shake-up, in a handy timeline: July 31 Late this summer, the Trump administration officially announced its plans to construct a White House ballroom. At the time, the administration named McCrery Architects as the team heading up the project. McCrery himself has been a vocal supporter of President Trumps push to make classical architecture a federal standard, once stating, Americans love classical architecture because it is our nations formative architecture and we love our nations formation. His firm is most known for designing Catholic churches and academic buildings. [Rendering: whitehouse.gov/McCrery Architects] October 20 In October, the Trump administration began tearing down major sections of the East Wing to make way for the massive ballroom. The move came despite both Trump and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitts earlier assurances that the project would not interfere with the existing structure. November 26 The Washington Post was the first to report tensions between McCrery and Trump. According to the publication, four people close to the project reported that McCrery repeatedly advised Trump to bring down the proposed size of the ballroom, pointing out that a 90,000-square-foot addition would overshadow the original White House. In a later report from The New York Times, further details about the disagreement emerged. Several sources told the publication that Trumps plans for the ballrooms size have grown dramatically since the plan was first proposed. In addition, Trump reportedly told people working on the ballroom that they did not need to follow permitting, zoning, or code requirements, and encouraged contractors to work quickly to meet the tight timetable of completion before 2029. It appears that McCrery may have always been doomed to exit the project at some point. One source told The Post that the small size of his workforce made it difficult to meet such intense deadlines. On top of that, McCrery Architects’ relative inexperience with a project of such massive scale and inherent public scrutiny likely set the stage for problems down the line. Construction continues on the White House grounds in Washington, D.C., in late October 2025. [Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty Images] December 4 Trumps split with McCrery Architects was officially confirmed to The Washington Post via a statement from White House spokesperson Davis Ingle, who named Shalom Baranes as the next in line to head up the project. Per The Post, McCrery will remain tied to the effort on a consulting basis. Baranes, who runs the firm Shalom Baranes Associates, is most known for leading a $1 billion renovation of the Pentagon back in 2001, though his firm has worked on other large-scale projects throughout D.C. Unlike McCrery, hes embraced a neo-traditionalist style. Back in 2017, he subtly spoke out against Trumpsimmigration ban in an op-ed for The Washington Post, wherein he described himself as a refugee and argued that his own success would be impossible without his fellow immigrants. My hope is that the Trump administration will take actions to ensure that the travel ban is indeed temporary, so that good, hard-working individuals fleeing tyranny can find a new home as I didand that each of them will be given the same opportunity to help build this great nation that I had, Baranes wrote at the time.
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E-Commerce
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