2025-06-17 20:44

June 17 (Reuters) - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on Tuesday sent a notice to billionaire Elon Musk's xAI, signaling its intention to sue the company over air pollution from the AI startup's data center in Memphis. The letter, sent by Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) on NAACP's behalf, alleges xAI has violated federal law by using methane gas turbines at its South Memphis data center without acquiring permits or "best available" pollution controls. Sign up here. Data centers that provide computing power for AI are highly power-intensive and require round-the-clock electricity. Given the slow pace of clean-energy deployments, the surging demand is being met by fossil fuels including natural gas and coal. Methane emissions from human activities such as oil and gas production, electricity generation and agriculture are short-lived in the atmosphere, but are often more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. Emissions from xAI's data center further exacerbate the already poor air quality in Memphis, SELC said. "These turbines have pumped out pollution that threatens the health of Memphis families. This notice paves the way for a lawsuit that can hold xAI accountable for its unlawful refusal to get permits for its gas turbines," SELC Senior Attorney Patrick Anderson said. "We take our commitment to the community and environment seriously. The temporary power generation units are operating in compliance with all applicable laws," an xAI spokesman told Reuters. The AI company has installed 35 turbines, nearly all of which were running without the required permits as of April, SELC said. The SELC added that while xAI had removed some smaller turbines, the company recently installed three larger turbines. The environmental legal advocacy organization said in August that xAI had installed 20 gas turbines at the site. Representatives of Elon Musk did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/naacp-threatens-sue-elon-musks-xai-over-memphis-air-pollution-2025-06-17/

2025-06-17 20:32

ICE reverses directive pausing raids on farms, restaurants, hotels Daily arrest quota remains at 3,000 Farmers fear intensified ICE enforcement will affect workforce WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) - U.S. immigration officials have walked back limits on enforcement targeting farms, restaurants, hotels and food processing plants just days after putting restrictions in place, two former officials familiar with the matter said, an abrupt shift that followed contradictory public statements by President Donald Trump. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership told field office heads during a call on Monday that it would roll back a directive issued last week that largely paused raids on the businesses, the former officials said, requesting anonymity to discuss the new guidance. Sign up here. ICE officials were told a daily quota to make 3,000 arrests per day - 10 times the average last year during former President Joe Biden's administration - would remain in effect, the former officials said. ICE field office heads had raised concerns they could not meet the quota without raids at the businesses that had been exempted, one of the sources said. It was not clear why last week's directive was reversed. Some ICE officials left the call confused, and it appeared they would still need to tread carefully with raids on the previously exempted businesses, the former officials said. U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said ICE would continue to make arrests at worksites but did not respond to questions about the new guidance. "There will be no safe spaces for industries who harbor violent criminals or purposely try to undermine ICE’s efforts," she said in a statement on Tuesday. The Washington Post first reported , opens new tab the reversal. Trump took office in January aiming to deport record numbers of immigrants in the U.S. illegally. ICE doubled the pace of arrests under Trump compared with last year but still remains far below what would be needed to deport millions of people. Top White House aide Stephen Miller ordered ICE in late May to dramatically increase arrests to 3,000 per day, leading to intensified raids that prominently targeted some businesses. Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday that farms and hotel businesses had been suffering from the ramped up enforcement but also said, without evidence or explanation, that criminals were trying to fill those jobs. ICE issued guidance that day pausing most immigration enforcement at agricultural, hospitality and food processing businesses. But in another Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump called on ICE to target the Democratic strongholds of Los Angeles, Chicago and New York and to use the full extent of their authority to increase deportations. A White House official said Trump was keeping a promise to deliver the country's single largest mass deportation program. "Anyone present in the United States illegally is at risk of deportation," the White House official said. Deborah Fleischaker, who held senior roles at both DHS and ICE during Biden's presidency, said the shifting ICE guidance reflects broader turmoil at the agency since Trump took office. The White House has ousted multiple ICE leaders as it pressed for more arrests. "It has been chaos and confusion since the beginning," she said. FARMERS PUSH BACK The intensified ICE enforcement after Miller's late May order renewed long-running concerns among farmers about ICE operations targeting their workforce. Nearly half the nation's approximately 2 million farm workers lack legal status, according to the departments of Labor and Agriculture, as do many dairy and meatpacking workers. Farm industry fears escalated last week when ICE detentions and arrests of workers were reported at California farms, a Nebraska meatpacking plant and a New Mexico dairy. Livestock and restaurant sector representatives said on a press call organized by the American Business Immigration Coalition on Tuesday that raids make operations more difficult in their heavily immigrant-dependent industries. "The people pushing for these raids that target farms and feedyards and dairies have no idea how farms operate," said Matt Teagarden, CEO of the Kansas Livestock Association. Michael Marsh, CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, said farm groups had not had enough input into the administration's decision-making so far on immigration enforcement in agriculture. Marsh said he had not received responses from Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins, Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem and other officials to a letter sent last week requesting a meeting. "We’ve got a serious issue if we have almost a million of our workers that are going to be subject to deportation," he said. "Because if that’s the case, and they are picked up and they are gone, we can’t fill those positions." https://www.reuters.com/world/us/ice-walks-back-limits-raids-targeting-farms-restaurants-hotels-2025-06-17/

2025-06-17 20:28

KANANASKIS, Alberta, June 17 (Reuters) - Group of Seven nations gathered for a summit have agreed six joint statements on subjects such as critical minerals, artificial intelligence and wildfires, host nation Canada said on Tuesday. The other topics they agreed statements on were quantum computing, migrant smuggling and transnational repression. Prime Minister Mark Carney is due to issue a separate chair's statement later. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/g7-leaders-sign-joint-statements-critical-minerals-ai-2025-06-17/

2025-06-17 19:40

June 17 (Reuters) - Russia's Foreign Ministry denounced on Tuesday continued Israeli attacks on Iran as illegal and said a solution to the conflict over Tehran's nuclear programme could only be found through diplomacy. "The continuing intensive attacks by Israel on Iran's peaceful nuclear sites are illegal in terms of international law and create unacceptable threats to international security and push the world to a nuclear catastrophe...," the ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram. Sign up here. It said that widespread condemnation of Israeli actions showed that Israel had found support only "from those states who are in fact co-participants and act for opportunistic reasons." The ministry noted Iran's "clear statements about its unaltered commitment to the obligations of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and its readiness to renew contacts with the United States to work out possible solutions" removing all doubts about Tehran's nuclear programme. "Moscow supports this stand and firmly believes that the settlement that is being sought can only be reliably achieved through diplomacy and negotiations," it said. The statement also said Moscow was waiting for the International Atomic Energy Agency to provide "as soon as possible a detailed written report ... with an objective and unvarnished assessment of damage" to Iran's nuclear facilities. The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia was ready to act as a mediator in the conflict between Israel and Iran, and its previous proposal to store Iranian uranium in Russia remained on the table. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/russia-says-israel-attacks-iran-are-illegal-notes-irans-commitement-npt-2025-06-17/

2025-06-17 18:28

Move would let Coinbase offer stock trading via blockchain Digital tokens would represent ownership of securities Proponents say tokenized equities could cut trading costs June 17 (Reuters) - Coinbase is seeking a green light from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to offer "tokenized equities" to its customers, the crypto exchange's chief legal officer told Reuters. If granted, the move would allow Coinbase (COIN.O) , opens new tab to effectively offer stock trading via blockchain technology, placing it in direct competition with retail brokerages such as Robinhood (HOOD.O) , opens new tab and Charles Schwab (SCHW.N) , opens new tab, and could open a new business segment for Coinbase. Sign up here. The concept is a "huge priority," said Paul Grewal, Coinbase's chief legal officer. Tokenizing equities is a process in which shares of a company are converted into a digital token, similar to how cryptocurrencies are traded. Instead of holding the securities directly, investors hold tokens that represent ownership of the securities. Proponents have said that tokenized equities could reduce trading costs, enable faster settlement, and facilitate around-the-clock trading. Critics have said there are plenty of gaps that need to be addressed before tokenized equities can be commonly traded. The World Economic Forum, in a report last month, pointed to a lack of sufficient secondary-market liquidity as well as the lack of a clear global standard as two major challenges for adoption. An SEC representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Currently, tokenized equities are not available for trading in the United States, but several firms are experimenting with the concept. Rival crypto exchange Kraken said last month that it is launching tokens of U.S. equities, called xStocks, which will be available in select markets outside the United States. To offer tokenized equities in the United States, Coinbase would either need to be granted a "no action letter" or exemptive relief from the SEC, in which the securities regulator would pledge not to pursue an enforcement action if Coinbase moved forward. Typically, companies that offer trading in securities have to be registered as broker-dealers. The SEC sued the company in 2023 during former President Joe Biden's administration, alleging that it was operating as one without registering with the agency. The SEC under President Donald Trump's administration dropped that case this year. Coinbase acquired a broker-dealer in 2018, providing it with a license to offer similar services, but that affiliate has not been active. A no-action letter would be issued by SEC staff in response to a request from a company like Coinbase, saying that the SEC would not object to a certain offering and would not recommend an enforcement action if a firm were to move forward with that offering. Grewal did not say if Coinbase had already submitted an official request to the SEC or when a potential product launch might happen. "With a no-action letter, an issuer of a tokenized equity or a platform that wishes to offer secondary trading in those equities can have some confidence, some comfort, that the SEC has adopted its view of why this product is compliant," Grewal said. "It's that confidence that has been lacking so far, and I think really held back a lot of the institutional adoption" of crypto and blockchain technology, Grewal added. The move from Coinbase comes as Trump has sought to overhaul U.S. cryptocurrency policy after courting cash from the industry on the campaign trail. Trump has appointed industry-friendly regulators and has hosted industry leaders at the White House. Cryptocurrencies have reacted favorably, with bitcoin reaching all-time highs this year. The SEC under Trump has dropped lawsuits against a litany of crypto companies, including Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken, and has instituted a crypto task force charged with devising new rules for digital assets. https://www.reuters.com/business/coinbase-seeking-us-sec-approval-offer-blockchain-based-stocks-2025-06-17/

2025-06-17 17:32

By Promit Mukherjee OTTAWA, June 17 (Reuters) - Members of the Bank of Canada governing council were concerned that underlying inflationary pressures led by trade disruption and uncertainty could persist for a long time, minutes of the meeting showed on Tuesday. Sign up here. The central bank held its key benchmark rate at 2.75% on June 4, citing the need to monitor the impact of U.S. tariffs on Canada and on rest of the world and how businesses and consumers adapted to it. Its summary of deliberations showed the members took into consideration the unexpected firmness in inflation data to take its rates decision and that the team spent considerable amount of time probing how trade policy was influencing prices. "Underlying inflationary pressures could persist for an extended period as consumers and businesses adapt to the rewiring of global trade," the minutes said, even as the members acknowledged there could be downward pressure on prices too. Businesses have been reporting that they would pass on higher costs stemming from trade disruptions, the members noted, adding that surveys showed that even consumers see prices rising. Canada's annual inflation rate fell to 1.7% in April due to some tax removal, but closely tracked core measures of inflation rose above the bank's target range of 1% to 3% in the same month, stoking concerns that inflation was firming up. The governing council excluding impact of taxes, inflation was 2.3%, which was slightly above expectations. The fall in the rate of inflation to below 2% had helped the BoC to cut interest rates aggressively by 225 basis points since June last year, but the uncertainty and subsequent tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump has disrupted the bank's predictions. "Members agreed that cost increases from trade disruptions may be playing a role in inflation in goods prices, but the direct impact from retaliatory tariffs was not yet evident," the summary said. The rate-setting team acknowledged that the pass-through of higher input costs to consumer prices would be difficult to track going forward. The governing council will closely track how inflationary pressures are evolving and carefully assess the timing and strength of the downward pressure on inflation from a weaker economy and the upward pressure on inflation from higher costs, the members agreed. The deliberations said if the recent firmness in underlying inflation were to persist, it would be more difficult to cut the policy rate. However, if the economy weakens and cost pressures are contained, there could be a need to cut rates in the future. ((Reuters Ottawa bureau; [email protected] , opens new tab)) Keywords: CANADA CENBANK/ https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/bank-canada-governing-council-is-concerned-inflation-could-persist-longer-2025-06-17/