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Amentum to lay off 56 Richmond-area employees

Chantilly-based government contractor is laying off 56 area employees by Aug. 31 due to losing a nearly two-decade old contract with -based tobacco manufacturer .

Amentum, Operation and Maintenance Services, in compliance with the (WARN) Act, notified the state on July 2 of the . The letter, written by Amentum Area Operations Manager Daniel Feldmen, says that Altria notified Amentum that it has awarded the contract to a competing contractor and that 56 employees would be impacted. None of the employees are represented by a union.

Feldman told Virginia Business the contract with Altria had been in place since 2007 and entailed mechanical work, HVAC, plumbing, elevator work, landscaping, snow removal and other forms of maintenance. Work was performed at Altria’s headquarters at 6601 West Broad St., as well as other locations within the Richmond area.

However, Altria has recently conducted an internal evaluation of all of its business operations and, in an attempt to be more efficient, it put the contract out for bid, he said. According to Feldman, Altria awarded the contract to Chicago-based global real estate services company Jones Lang Lasalle.  is likely to hire a majority of the employees being laid off by Amentum, he added.

Neither Altria nor JLL immediately returned requests for comment.

Amentum has more than 53,000 employees in approximately 80 countries across all seven continents. The company was founded as a spinout of AECOM’s Management Services Group in 2020 and moved its headquarters from Germantown, Maryland, to Chantilly in 2023.

US manufacturers are stuck in a rut despite subsidies from Biden and protection from Trump

Summary

  • U.S. factory job growth remains limited despite major federal policies
  • Biden’s subsidies for EVs and chips are slow to deliver results
  • Some Biden-era incentives overturned by GOP-led Congress
  • Trump’s protect some sectors but unsettle others
  • Unpredictability in leaves manufacturers hesitant to invest

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on much, but they share a conviction that the government should help American manufacturers, one way or another.

Democratic President Joe Biden handed out subsidies to and electric vehicle manufacturers. Republican President Donald Trump is building a wall of import taxes — tariffs — around the to protect domestic industry from foreign competition.

Yet American manufacturing has been stuck in a rut for nearly three years. And it remains to be seen whether the trend will reverse itself.

The U.S. Labor Department reports that American factories shed 7,000 jobs in June for the second month in a row. Manufacturing employment is on track to drop for the third straight year.

The Institute for Supply Management, an association of purchasing managers, reported that manufacturing activity in the United States shrank in June for the fourth straight month. In fact, U.S. factories have been in decline for 30 of the 32 months since October 2022, according to ISM.

“The past three years have been a real slog for manufacturing,” said Eric Hagopian, CEO of Pilot Precision Products, a maker of industrial cutting tools in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. “We didn’t get destroyed like we did in the recession of 2008. But we’ve been in this stagnant, sort of stationary environment.”

Big economic factors contributed to the slowdown: A surge in inflation, arising from the unexpectedly strong economic recovery from COVID-19, raised factory expenses and prompted the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates 11 times in 2022 and 2023. The higher borrowing costs added to the strain.

Government policy was meant to help.

Biden’s tax incentives for semiconductor and clean energy production triggered a factory-building boom – investment in manufacturing facilities more than tripled from April 2021 through October 2024 – that seemed to herald a coming surge in factory production and hiring. Eventually anyway.

But the factory investment spree has faded as the incoming launched trade wars and, working with Congress, ended Biden’s subsidies for green energy. Now, predicts Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, “manufacturing production will continue to flatline.”

“If production is flat, that suggests manufacturing employment will continue to slide,” Zandi said. “Manufacturing is likely to suffer a recession in the coming year.”

Meanwhile, Trump is attempting to protect U.S. manufacturers — and to coax factories to relocate and produce in America — by imposing tariffs on goods made overseas. He slapped 50% taxes on steel and aluminum, 25% on autos and auto parts, 10% on many other imports.

In some ways, Trump’s tariffs can give U.S. factories an edge. Chris Zuzick, vice president at Waukesha Metal Products, said the Sussex, Wisconsin-based manufacturer is facing stiff competition for a big contract in Texas. A foreign company offers much lower prices. But “when you throw the tariff on, it gets us closer,” Zuzick said. “So that’s definitely a situation where it’s beneficial.”

But American factories import and use foreign products, too – machinery, chemicals, raw materials like steel and aluminum. Taxing those inputs can drive up costs and make U.S producers less competitive in world markets.

Consider steel. Trump’s tariffs don’t just make imported steel more expensive. By putting the foreign competition at a disadvantage, the tariffs allow U.S. steelmakers to raise prices – and they have. U.S.-made steel was priced at $960 per metric ton as of June 23, more than double the world export price of $440 per ton, according to industry monitor SteelBenchmarker.

In fact, U.S. steel prices are so high that Pilot Precision Products has continued to buy the steel it needs from suppliers in Austria and France — and pay Trump’s tariff.

Trump has also created considerable uncertainty by repeatedly tweaking and rescheduling his tariffs. Just before new import taxes were set to take effect on dozens of countries on July 9, for example, the president pushed the deadline back to Aug. 1 to allow more time for negotiation with U.S. trading partners.

The flipflops have left factories, suppliers and customers bewildered about where things stand. Manufacturers voiced their complaints in the ISM survey: “Customers do not want to make commitments in the wake of massive tariff uncertainty,” a fabricated metal products company said.

“Tariffs continue to cause confusion and uncertainty for long-term procurement decisions,” added a computer and electronics firm. “The situation remains too volatile to firmly put such plans into place.”

Some may argue that things aren’t necessarily bad for ; they’ve just returned to normal after a pandemic-related bust and boom.

Factories slashed nearly 1.4 million jobs in March and April 2020 when COVID-19 forced many businesses to shut down and Americans to stay home. Then a funny thing happened: American consumers, cooped up and flush with COVID relief checks from the government, went on a spending spree, snapping up manufactured goods like air fryers, patio furniture and exercise machines.

Suddenly, factories were scrambling to keep up. They brought back the workers they laid off – and then some. Factories added 379,000 jobs in 2021 — the most since 1994 — and then tacked on another 357,000 in 2022.

But in 2023, factory hiring stopped growing and began backtracking as the economy returned to something closer to the pre-pandemic normal.

In the end, it was a wash. Factory payrolls last month came to 12.75 million, almost exactly where they stood in February 2020 (12.74 million) just before COVID slammed the economy.

“It’s a long, strange trip to get back to where we started,” said Jared Bernstein, chair of Biden’s White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Zuzick at Waukesha Metal Products said that it will take time to see if Trump’s tariffs succeed in bringing factories back to America.

“The fact is that manufacturing doesn’t turn on a dime,” he said. “It takes time to switch gears.”

Hagopian at Pilot Precision is hopeful that tax breaks in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill will help American manufacturing regain momentum.

“There may be light at the end of the tunnel that may not be a locomotive bearing down,” he said.

For now, manufacturers are likely to delay big decisions on investing or bringing on new workers until they see where Trump’s tariffs settle and what impact they have on the economy, said Ned Hill, professor emeritus in at Ohio State University.

“With all this uncertainty about what the rest of the year is going to look like,” he said, “there’s a hesitancy to hire just to lay them off in the near future.”

“Everyone,” said Zuzick at Waukesha Metal Products, ”is kind of just waiting for the new normal.’

European trade ministers pledge unity after Trump’s surprise 30% tariffs

Summary

  • Trump announces 30% on goods, effective Aug. 1
  • European trade ministers meet in to coordinate response
  • Denmark’s foreign minister says EU will impose “robust” countermeasures if needed
  • EU remains open to negotiations to avoid trade escalation
  • EU is the U.S.’s largest trading partner

BRUSSELS (AP) — European trade ministers were hopeful Monday for a negotiated trade deal after President Donald Trump announced 30% tariffs on the European Unio n, but also expressed resolve in preparing countermeasures if talks break down.

The ministers met Monday in Brussels following Trump’s surprise announcement of such hefty tariffs, which could have repercussions for governments, companies and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. The EU is America’s biggest business partner and the world’s largest trading bloc.

“The EU remains ready to react and that includes robust and proportionate countermeasures if required and there was a strong, feeling in the room of unity,” Denmark’s foreign minister, , told reporters after the meeting.

The tariffs, also announced for , are set to start on Aug. 1 and could make everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the U.S., and destabilize economies from Portugal to Norway.

Meanwhile, Brussels decided to suspend retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods scheduled to take effect Monday in hopes of reaching a trade deal with the by the end of the month.

The “countermeasures” by the EU, which negotiates trade deals on behalf of its 27 member countries, will be delayed until Aug. 1. Trump’s letter shows “that we have until the first of August” to negotiate, European Commission President told reporters in Brussels on Sunday.

Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s trade representative in its talks with the U.S., said negotiations would continue Monday.

“I’m absolutely 100% sure that a negotiated solution is much better than the tension which we might have after the 1st of August,” he told reporters in Brussels on Monday. But he added that “we must be prepared for all outcomes.”

“I cannot imagine walking away without genuine effort. Having said that, the current uncertainty caused by unjustified tariffs cannot persist indefinitely and therefore we must prepare for all outcomes, including, if necessary, well-considered proportionate countermeasures to restore the balance in our transit static relationship.”

The letters to the EU and Mexico come in the midst of an on-and-off Trump threat to impose tariffs on countries and right an imbalance in trade.

Trump imposed tariffs in April on dozens of countries, before pausing them for 90 days to negotiate individual deals. As the three-month grace period ended this week, he began sending tariff letters to leaders, but again has pushed back the implementation day for what he says will be just a few more weeks.

If he moves forward with the tariffs, it could have ramifications for nearly every aspect of the global economy. The American Chamber of Commerce in the , an influential industry group representing major American corporations in Europe, said the tariffs could “generate damaging ripple effects across all sectors of the EU and US economies” and praised the EU’s delay of countermeasures.

In the wake of the new tariffs, European leaders largely closed ranks, calling for unity but also a steady hand to not provoke further acrimony.

Just last week, Europe was cautiously optimistic.

Officials told reporters on Friday they weren’t expecting a letter like the one sent Saturday and that a trade deal was to be inked in “the coming days.” For months, the EU has broadcast that it has strong retaliatory measures ready if talks fail.

Reeling from successive rebukes from Washington, Šefčovič said Monday the EU is “doubling down on efforts to open new markets” and pointed to a new economic agreement with Indonesia as one.

The EU top brass will visit Beijing fora summit later this month while courting other Pacific nations like South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia, whose prime minister visited Brussels over the weekend to sign a new economic partnership with the EU. It also has mega-deals in the works with Mexico and a trading bloc of South American nations known as Mercosur, and Šefčovič will meet with his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates next week.

While meeting with Indonesia’s president on Sunday, Von der Leyen said that “when economic uncertainty meets geopolitical volatility, partners like us must come closer together.”

Wall Street hangs near its record as doubts continue about Trump’s proposed tariffs

Summary

  • down 0.2%, Nasdaq off 0.1%, Dow dips 86 points
  • Markets largely steady after Trump’s 30% tariff announcement
  • on and set to take effect Aug. 1
  • Wall Street speculates Trump may walk back tariffs
  • rallies; remain flat
  • European stocks fall; global indexes mixed

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes hung near their records on Monday following President Donald Trump’s latest updates to his tariffs, as speculation continues on Wall Street that he may ultimately back down on them.

The S&P 500 edged up by 0.1% to pull within 0.2% of its all-time high set on Thursday. The Industrial Average added 88 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.3% to set a record.

Stock indexes elsewhere around the world were mixed in their first trading after Trump announced plans over the weekend for 30% tariffs on goods from Mexico and the . They won’t take effect until Aug. 1, the same deadline that Trump announced last week for updated tax rates on imports from Japan, South Korea and a dozen other countries.

The latest postponements for Trump’s tariffs allow more time for him to reach trade deals with other countries that could lower the tariff rates and prevent pain for international trade. They also feed into speculation that Trump may ultimately back down on his tariffs if they end up creating too much damage for the economy and for financial markets.

If Trump were to enact all his proposed tariffs on Aug. 1, they would raise the risk of a recession. That would not only hurt U.S. voters but also raise the pressure on the U.S. government’s debt level relative to the economy’s size, particularly after Washington approved big tax cuts that will add to the deficit.

“We therefore believe that the administration is using this latest round of tariff escalation to maximize its negotiating leverage and that it will ultimately de-escalate, especially if there is a new bout of heightened bond and volatility,” according to Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, global head of equities at UBS Global Wealth Management.

“As usual, there are many conditions and clauses that can get these rates reduced,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “That’s probably why the market might not like the tariff talk, but it’s not panicking about it either.”

For the time being, all the uncertainty around tariffs could help keep markets unsteady. This upcoming week has several potential flashpoints that could shake things.

On Tuesday will come the latest reading on inflation across the United States. Economists expect it to show inflation accelerated to 2.6% last month from 2.4% in May.

Companies are also lining up to report how they performed during the spring. JPMorgan Chase and several other huge banks will report their latest quarterly results on Tuesday, followed by Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday and PepsiCo on Thursday.

Fastenal, a distributor of industrial and construction supplies, on Monday reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its stock rose 4.2%, though it also said that market conditions remain sluggish.

Shares of Kenvue rose 2.2% after the former division of Johnson & Johnson said CEO Thibaut Mongon is stepping down. Kenvue, the maker of Listerine and Band-Aid brands, is in the midst of a strategic review of its options, “including ways to simplify the company’s portfolio and how it operates,” according to Larry Merlo, the board’s chair.

Waters slumped 13.8% after saying it had agreed to merge with Becton, Dickinson and Co.’s biosciences and diagnostic solutions business in a deal valued at roughly $17.5 billion.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 8.81 points to 6,268.56. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 88.14 to 44,459.65, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 54.80 to 20,640.33 to top its last all-time high set on Thursday.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.42% from 4.43% late Friday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe. Germany’s DAX lost 0.4%, and France’s CAC 40 fell 0.3%. But indexes rose 0.8% in South Korea and 0.3% in Hong Kong.

Chinese shares advanced after the government reported that exports rose last month as a truce in a tariff war prompted a surge in orders ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline for reaching a new trade deal with Washington.

Some of the biggest moves in financial markets were for , where bitcoin continues to set records. This upcoming week is “Crypto Week” in Washington, where Congress will consider several bills to “make America the crypto capital of the world.”

Eds. Updates Eds: UPDATES: with close of US trading.

Trump announces 30% tariffs against EU, Mexico to begin Aug. 1, rattling major US trading partners

Summary

  • Trump to impose 30% on EU and starting Aug. 1
  • Announced via letters posted to his social media account
  • EU warns of “proportionate countermeasures” in response
  • Mexico calls the tariffs “unfair treatment”
  • Part of Trump’s broader 2024 campaign to reshape U.S.

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday announced he’s levying tariffs of 30% against the and Mexico starting Aug. 1, a move that could cause massive upheaval between the United States and two of its biggest trade partners.

Trump detailed the planned tariffs in letters posted to his social media account. They are part of an announcement blitz by Trump of new tariffs aimed at allies and foes alike, a bedrock of his 2024 campaign that he said would set the foundation for reviving a that he claims has been ripped off by other nations for decades.

In his letter to Mexico’s leader, President Claudia Sheinbaum, Trump acknowledged that the country has been helpful in stemming the flow of undocumented migrants and fentanyl into the United States. But he said the country has not done enough to stop North America from turning into a “Narco-Trafficking Playground.”

“Mexico has been helping me secure the border, BUT, what Mexico has done, is not enough,” Trump added.

Trump in his letter to the European Union said the U.S. trade deficit was a national security threat.

“We have had years to discuss our Trading Relationship with The European Union, and we have concluded we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent, Trade Deficits, engendered by your Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies, and Trade Barriers,” Trump wrote in the letter to the EU. “Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from Reciprocal.”

The letters come in the midst of an on-and-off Trump threat to impose tariffs on countries and right an imbalance in trade. Trump in April imposed tariffs on dozens of countries, before pausing them for 90 days to negotiate individual deals. As the three-month grace period ended this week, Trump began sending his tariff letters to leaders but again has pushed back the implementation day for what he says will be just a few more weeks.

If he moves forward with the tariffs, it could have ramifications for nearly every aspect of the global economy.

EU members and Mexico respond

European Union Commission President  responded by noting the bloc’s “commitment to dialogue, stability, and a constructive transatlantic partnership.”

“At the same time, we will take all necessary steps to safeguard EU interests, including the adoption of proportionate countermeasures if required,” von der Leyen said in a statement.

Von der Leyen added that the EU remains committed to continuing negotiations with the U.S. and coming to an agreement before Aug. 1. Trade ministers from EU countries are scheduled to meet Monday to discuss trade relations with the U.S., as well as with China.

European leaders joined von der Leyen in urging Trump to give negotiations more time and warnings of possible new tariffs on Washington.

“With European unity, it is more than ever up to the Commission to assert the Union’s determination to resolutely defend European interests,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement posted on X.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s office said “it would make no sense to trigger a trade war between the two sides of the Atlantic.”

Danish Foreign Minister told broadcaster DR that Trump was taking a “pointless and a very shortsighted approach.” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson warned in an interview with SVT that “everyone loses out from an escalated trade conflict, and it will be U.S. consumers who pay the highest price.”

Trump, as he has in previous letters, warned that his administration would further raise tariffs if the EU attempts to hike its own tariffs on the United States.

The Mexican government said it was informed during high-level talks with U.S. officials Friday that the Trump letter was coming. The delegation told Trump officials at the meeting it disagreed with the decision and considered it “unfair treatment,” according to a Mexican government statement.

Sheinbaum, who has sought to avoid directly criticizing Trump in the early going of her presidency, expressed a measure of confidence during a public appearance on Saturday that the U.S. and Mexico will reach “better terms.”

“I’ve always said that in these cases, you need a cool head to face any problem,” Sheinbaum said.

With the reciprocal tariffs, Trump is effectively blowing up the rules governing world trade. For decades, the United States and most other countries abided by tariff rates set through a series of complex negotiations known as the Uruguay round. Countries could set their own tariffs, but under the “most favored nation” approach, they couldn’t charge one country more than they charged another.

The Mexico tariff, if it goes into effect, could replace the 25% tariffs on Mexican goods that do not comply with the existing U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement.

Trump’s letter did not address if USMCA-compliant goods would still be exempt from the Mexico tariffs after Aug. 1, as the White House said would be the case with Canada. Trump sent a letter to Canada earlier this week threatening a 35% tariff hike.

Higher tariffs had been suspended

With Saturday’s letters, Trump has now issued tariff conditions on 24 countries and the 27-member European Union.

So far, the tally of trade deals struck by Trump stands at two — one with the United Kingdom and one with Vietnam. Trump has also announced the framework for a deal with China, the details of which remain fuzzy.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Saturday said the U.K. “smartly” acted early.

“Let this be a lesson to other countries – earnest, good faith negotiations can produce powerful results that benefit both sides of the table, while correcting the imbalances that plague ,” Bessent said in a posting on X.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office and president of the center-right American Action Forum, said the letters were evidence that serious trade talks were not taking place over the past three months. He stressed that nations were instead talking amongst themselves about how to minimize their own exposure to the U.S. economy and Trump.

“They’re spending time talking to each other about what the future is going to look like, and we’re left out,” Holtz-Eakin said.

Potential impact is vast

If the tariffs do indeed take effect, the potential impact on Europe could be vast.

The value of EU-U.S. trade in goods and services amounted to 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in 2024, or an average of 4.6 billion euros a day, according to EU statistics agency Eurostat.

Europe’s biggest exports to the U.S. were pharmaceuticals, cars, aircraft, chemicals, medical instruments and wine and spirits.

Lamberto Frescobaldi, president of the Union of Italian Wines trade association, said Trump’s move could lead to “a virtual embargo” of his country’s wine.

“A single letter was enough to write the darkest chapter in relations between two historic Western allies,” Frescobaldi said.

Trump has complained about the EU’s 198 billion-euro trade surplus in goods, which shows Americans buy more goods from European businesses than the other way around.

However, American companies fill some of the gap by outselling the EU when it comes to services such as cloud computing, travel bookings, and legal and financial services.

The U.S. services surplus took the nation’s trade deficit with the EU down to 50 billion euros ($59 billion), which represents less than 3% of overall U.S.-EU trade.

___

Associated Press writers Josh Boak in Washington, Angela Charlton in Paris, Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Dave McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed to this report.

Strategy’s holdings hit $70B+ as bitcoin breaches $118K

SUMMARY:

  • surpassed $118,000 early Friday morning and remained above $177,700 as of 4:55 p.m.
  • (formerly ) holds more than 597,000 bitcoin
  • Strategy purchased bitcoin for $42.4B; holdings now worth $70.3B
  • Company posted year-over-year revenue declines in Q1 as bitcoin’s value fell

Strategy, the tech company formerly known as MicroStrategy, is once again benefiting from its marriage to bitcoin as the set another price record.

Bitcoin breached $118,000 in the early hours of Friday morning and briefly traded above $118,800. At 4:55 p.m., bitcoins were trading for $117,737.63, according to Coinbase, the nation’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

As of July 7, Strategy, which rebranded from MicroStrategy in February, held 597,325 bitcoin, which were worth about $70.3 billion as of 4:55 p.m. on Friday. The company’s bitcoins were purchased for approximately $42.4 billion and at an average purchase price of $70,982 per bitcoin, including fees and expenses.

At market close Friday, Strategy shares were trading for $434.58, up from $421.74 at close Thursday.

The world’s largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency, Strategy — led by bitcoin whale — said its vows to bitcoin in August 2020, when it announced its first bitcoin purchase and became one of the first public companies to convert its cash treasury reserves into cryptocurrency as a store of value.

It’s been a rocky relationship, although Saylor, now Strategy’s chairman, has remained loyal to the cryptocurrency “for richer for poorer.” He’s told CNBC and Fox Business he thinks it could rise as high as $13 million per bitcoin by 2045.

After bitcoin set a record in December 2024, surpassing the $100,000 threshold after President Donald Trump’s election victory, its value fell amid worldwide stock volatility after Trump announced sweeping new on April 2.

In the first quarter, Strategy said it had a quarterly per-share loss of $16.49. The company posted first quarter revenue of $111.1 million, a 3.6% decrease from the first quarter of 2024.

In the second quarter, Strategy reported $111.4 million in revenue, a 7.4% decrease compared with the second quarter of 2023.

The most recent bitcoin rally started Wednesday, when the cryptocurrency briefly rose above $112,000, before spiking Friday. The Federal Reserve meeting minutes from its June 17-18 meeting were released Wednesday and showed a divide over the rate of potential interest rate cuts.

Beginning Monday, the House of Representatives will debate several crypto-related bills, including one that would establish a regulatory framework for the industry. The House is expected to pass the bill, which has not been through the Senate, next week.

Although Saylor seems committed to bitcoin in sickness and in health, Strategy hasn’t always felt the same. Saylor stepped down as CEO after Strategy’s August 2022 , when the company disclosed that it had paid a total of $3.977 billion for its bitcoin, which at that time had fallen to a market value of about $2.451 billion. At that point, Strategy also had taken on about $2.4 billion in loans and debt to acquire bitcoin. At points in 2022, the currency fell below $20,000 to prices it had not seen since 2020. On Friday, Strategy’s relationship to bitcoin seemed to list into “for better” territory.

Richmond chooses next economic development director

Angie Rodgers will be ‘s of , taking over the position on Aug. 4.

She will succeed Matt Welch, who has served as the city’s acting economic development director following the June 2024 exit of Leonard Sledge, who left to become Hampton’s economic development director, a job Sledge previously held from 2013 to 2018.

Rodgers joins the city from Prince George’s County, Maryland, where she worked for the past five years as deputy chief administrative officer for economic development. In that role, she oversaw 10 county agencies, including neighborhood revitalization, business attraction and retention, small business support, lending and incentives, tourism, and workforce development. Before Prince George’s County, Rodgers served as chief of staff for Washington, D.C.’s deputy mayor for planning and economic development.

“Richmond has something for everyone,” said Rodgers in a statement. “From its beautiful scenery to a wonderful food and beverage scene and a host of historical and cultural landmarks, there is so much to love about the River City. It is an honor to join the economic development team. I look forward to doing my part to create a thriving, equitable business landscape that benefits all Richmonders and am grateful for the opportunity to do so.”

said that Rodgers brings expertise and a clear vision needed to attract, build and retain business in the city. He praised Welch for doing “an incredible job” leading economic development in an interim capacity.

Newly hired city Chief Administrative Officer Odie Donald II, who started his job Wednesday, said in a statement that Rodgers brings decades of experience in community building and economic development.

“There is no question that Richmond is ripe with economic opportunity,” Donald said. “In Angie, we will have a trusted leader who can harness that opportunity in a way that uplifts our community, continues to raise our city’s profile, and injects economic vibrancy into our communities.”

Donald was hired following a nationwide search. Despite being on the job for less than a week, the city is already starting to see some significant changes. VPM News reported Thursday that Sheila White,  director of Richmond’s finance department, resigned after leading the city’s finance department since 2021. Her departure is the first significant personnel shakeup under Donald.

‘Abolished’: State Department is laying off over 1,300 employees under Trump administration plan

Summary

The U.S. State Department is firing more than 1,300 employees on Friday in line with a dramatic reorganization plan from the Trump administration that critics say will damage America’s global and efforts to counter threats abroad.

The department has begun sending layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with assignments in the United States, according to a senior department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

Staff began to receive notices shortly after 10 a.m. Friday saying their positions were being “abolished” and that they would be losing access to the department’s headquarters in Washington as well as their email and share drives by 5 p.m., according to a copy of one of the notices obtained by The Associated Press.

Foreign service officers affected will be placed immediately on administrative leave for 120 days, after which they will formally lose their jobs, according to a separate internal notice. For most civil servants, the separation period is 60 days, it said.

“Headcount reductions have been carefully tailored to affect non-core functions, duplicative or redundant offices,” the notice says.

While lauded by President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their Republican allies as overdue and necessary to make the department leaner, more nimble and more efficient, the cuts have been roundly criticized by current and former diplomats who say they will weaken U.S. influence and the ability to counter existing and emerging threats abroad.

The layoffs are part of big changes to State Department work

The Trump administration has pushed to reshape American diplomacy and worked aggressively to shrink the size of the federal government, including mass dismissals driven by the Department of Government Efficiency and moves to dismantle whole departments like the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Education Department.

USAID, the six-decade-old foreign assistance agency, was absorbed into the State Department last week after the administration dramatically slashed foreign aid funding.

A recent ruling by the Supreme Court cleared the way for the layoffs to start, while lawsuits challenging the legality of the cuts continue to play out. The department had advised staffers Thursday that it would be sending layoff notices to some of them soon.

The job cuts are large but considerably less than many had feared. In a May letter notifying Congress about the reorganization, the department said it had just over 18,700 U.S.-based employees and was looking to reduce the workforce by 18% through layoffs and voluntary departures, including deferred resignation programs.

Rubio said officials took “a very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused.”

“It’s not a consequence of trying to get rid of . But if you close the bureau, you don’t need those positions,” he told reporters Thursday during a visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.”

He said some of the cuts will be unfilled positions or those that are about to be vacant because an employee took an early retirement.

Critics say the changes will hurt US standing abroad

The American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents U.S. diplomats, said Friday that it opposed the Trump administration’s cuts during “a moment of great global instability.”

“In less than six months, the U.S. has shed at least 20 percent of its diplomatic workforce through shuttering of institutions and forced resignations,” the organization said in a statement. “Losing more diplomatic expertise at this critical global moment is a catastrophic blow to our national interests.”

If the administration had issues with excess staffing, “clear, institutional mechanisms” could have resolved it, the group said.

“Instead, these layoffs are untethered from merit or mission. They target diplomats not for how they’ve served or the skills they have, but for where they happen to be assigned. That is not reform,” AFSA said.

Former U.S. diplomats echoed that sentiment, saying the process is not in line with what Congress had approved or how it’s been done under previous administrations.

“They’re doing it without any consideration of the worth of the individual people who are being fired,” said Gordon Duguid, a 31-year veteran of the foreign service under Trump and Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “They’re not looking for people who have the expertise … they just want people who say, ‘OK, how high’” to jump.

He added, “That’s a recipe for disaster.”

In a notice Thursday, Michael Rigas, deputy secretary for management and resources, said that “once notifications have taken place, the Department will enter the final stage of its reorganization and focus its attention on delivering results-driven diplomacy.”

The State Department is undergoing a big reorganization

The department told Congress in May of an updated reorganization plan, proposing cuts to programs beyond what had been revealed a month earlier by Rubio and an 18% reduction of U.S.-based staff, higher than the 15% initially floated.

The State Department is planning to eliminate some divisions tasked with oversight of America’s two-decade involvement in Afghanistan, including an office focused on resettling Afghan nationals who worked alongside the U.S. military.

Jessica Bradley Rushing, who worked at the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, knowns as CARE, said in an interview with AP that she was shocked when she received another dismissal notice Friday after she had already been put on administrative leave in March.

“I spent the entire morning getting updates from my former colleagues at CARE, who were watching this carnage take place within the office,” she said, adding that every person on her team received a notice. “I never even anticipated that I could be at risk for that because I’m already on administrative leave.”

The State Department noted that the reorganization will affect more than 300 bureaus and offices, saying it is eliminating divisions it describes as doing unclear or overlapping work. It says Rubio believes “effective modern diplomacy requires streamlining this bloated bureaucracy.”

That letter was clear that the reorganization is also intended to eliminate programs — particularly those related to refugees and immigration, as well as human rights and democracy promotion — that the Trump administration believes have become ideologically driven in a way that is incompatible with its priorities and policies.

Formerly ousted U.Va. president has questions about Ryan’s departure

SUMMARY:

  • Former U.Va. President recalls her own brief ouster in 2012
  • DOJ reportedly pressured Ryan to resign or risk federal funding
  • Sullivan says university boards are much more politically driven and polarized now

Teresa Sullivan first wants to make one thing clear: She doesn’t have any inside scoop on what took place behind the scenes with the unexpected resignation of President , whose last day leading the university is Friday.

“I’m 1,400 miles away,” she says, having moved to Texas following her retirement last year as a member of U.Va.’s faculty. “I don’t understand what happened. For starters, does the Justice Department have some evidence of wrongdoing? What is the evidence? Did the board play any role in this, or do they just stand by and accept the resignation? I don’t know. Did the governor play any role? I don’t know.”

Other than questions about Ryan’s resignation in June, which he acknowledged was due to the federal government’s pressure to oust him from the university he led since 2018, what Sullivan has is experience and context.

In 2012, Sullivan suddenly resigned as president of U.Va. after the university’s rector and vice rector at the time, Helen Dragas and Mark Kington, asked for Sullivan’s resignation, stating they were unsatisfied with her performance. The following day, Sullivan agreed to leave, just two years after taking office.

“I never anticipated something like that would happen, nor do I feel I had any warning of it,” Sullivan said. “And so, I would say initially [it was] pretty disorienting, and I also thought it was final. I do respect that the [university] board [of visitors] has the right to hire and fire presidents, and I don’t think we can start questioning that. Or, you know, basically our whole university governance system gets turned on its head.”

Dragas announced Sullivan’s resignation to the full board and university vice presidents and deans on June 10, 2012. That same day, then-Gov. Bob McDonnell thanked Sullivan for her service, and so did several deans. At this point, though, faculty members and students began to react with shock and questions about the board of visitors’ decision process.

Meanwhile, Sullivan started making appointments out of town to find a new job, and was only vaguely aware of what was happening back in Charlottesville. Sullivan’s supporters gathered on U.Va.’s Grounds with signs protesting her dismissal, while an alumnus started an online petition to reinstate her. Also, relations between university faculty, students and staff and the Board of Visitors started to erode significantly. Major donors also expressed serious concerns.

The governor sent a letter to the board on June 22, 2012, telling them that if they didn’t reach a conclusion within days about Sullivan that he would ask for the entire board’s resignation.

On June 26, 2012, just 16 days after Sullivan’s resignation, Dragas stood next to Sullivan on U.Va.’s Grounds — applauding as Sullivan was reinstated as president. It was the end of a dramatic period for the university, and Sullivan would remain U.Va.’s president through 2018, when Ryan was hired. Dragas spent a final year on the board, although not as rector.

“I had no idea the campus would organize,” Sullivan said, looking back. “I was astonished at what happened. The fact that it was successful was really amazing to me.”

Supporters of Ryan also turned out in person to protest what they viewed as overreach by the and the DOJ’s civil rights division, which is currently led by two U.Va. alumni.

Many also found fault with the board, which at the time of Ryan’s resignation was led by Rector Robert Hardie, who was appointed by two Democratic governors and rotated off the board at the end of June. Now, the board is entirely made up of appointees by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has echoed Trump’s disdain for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at universities.

Hardie and incoming Rector Rachel W. Sheridan issued a statement June 30 announcing the appointment of U.Va. Chief Operating Officer Jennifer “J.J.” Wagner Davis as the university’s acting president in the short term, and acknowledging they “share the sentiments of so many members of the university community who have expressed their sorrow about President Ryan’s resignation and their appreciation for his remarkable service to the institution.”

Davis will serve as interim president until the board names a longer-term interim president expected to remain in office until a new permanent president is hired.

Noting that the DOJ’s civil rights office had sent seven letters to Ryan over the past two months, as well as allegations that one assistant attorney general, Gregory Brown, had specifically said Ryan needed to resign or U.Va.’s federal funding would be in jeopardy, Sullivan thinks it’s possible the federal government’s problem with Ryan could have been “purely personal.” Brown, then a private attorney based in Charlottesville, sued Ryan and the university on behalf of a Jewish first-year student in 2024, claiming the student was the victim of antisemitic attacks on campus. That lawsuit was settled by the university under terms that have not been disclosed.

Ryan’s farewell announcement indicated that he believed it was personal: “If this were not so distinctly tied to me personally, I may have pursued a different path,” he wrote.

Aside from federal involvement, Virginia Democrats have accused Youngkin of trying to exert control over the state’s public universities through his university board appointments, and the state is in court with nine state senators over the validity of a state Senate committee’s vote last month to reject eight of Youngkin’s  board of visitors picks, including naming former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to U.Va.’s board.

Sullivan notes that the board that hired her in 2010 was far less partisan than state university boards are now, a reflection of the overall political polarization in U.S. society.

Would greater board support even have mattered for Ryan, given the federal government’s power over funding and other processes, such as student visas? It’s hard to say.

“Harvard did back President [Alan] Garber, and they’re now in litigation. For a state university, it’s more problematic,” Sullivan said. “At least in the commonwealth of Virginia, your attorney is the attorney general, and so would Attorney General Jason Miyares go along with the university suing the federal government? It strikes me that would be a long shot.”

Meanwhile, Ryan will go on a sabbatical, with the university saying he will eventually return to U.Va as a law school faculty member, a long tradition among former presidents, including Sullivan, who taught sociology classes at Virginia following her retirement as president.

As for hiring Ryan’s successor, Sullivan anticipates that it will be a hard job for the board to accomplish, but she tries to keep in mind what really matters in the grand scheme.

“Great universities are great not because of their administration,” she said. “It’s the faculty. It’s the faculty who teach the students and treat the patients and do their research. It is important to keep a great faculty. I think the undergraduate experience at U.Va. is an excellent experience. The students are very good. They’re very motivated. They motivate each other, and the faculty are really dedicated to delivering a great product in the classroom.”

US stocks move lower and pull S&P 500 back from its record

Summary

  • , edge lower after hitting records Thursday
  • down 257 points in early Friday trading
  • jumps 7% after topping earnings estimates
  • 10-year Treasury yield rises to 4.40%
  • European markets fall, Asian markets close mixed

U.S. stocks are lower in afternoon trading Friday, pulling the market back from all-time highs, as the escalates its tariff threats against Canada.

The S&P 500 was down 0.2% a day after setting a record high. The benchmark index is on pace to post its first weekly loss in three weeks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 243 points, or 0.6%, as of 3:26 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow is also on track for a weekly loss. The Nasdaq composite was down 0.1% after drifting between small gains and losses. The tech-heavy index climbed to an all-time high on Thursday.

rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.43%, from 4.34% late Thursday.

President Donald Trump said in a letter Thursday that he will raise taxes on many imported goods from Canada to 35%, deepening the rift between the longtime North American allies. The letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is an aggressive increase to the top 25% tariff rates that Trump first imposed in March.

The move is the latest bid by the White House to use threats of higher on goods imported into the U.S. in hopes of securing new trade agreements with countries around the globe, even historically close trading partners like Canada.

The administration had initially set Wednesday as a deadline for countries to make deals with the U.S. or face heavy increases in tariffs. But with just two trade deals announced since April, one with the United Kingdom and one with Vietnam, the window for negotiations has been now been extended to Aug. 1.

Trump also floated this week that he would impose tariffs of as much as 200% on pharmaceutical drugs and place a 50% tariff on copper imports, matching the rates charged on steel and aluminum.

The initial rollout of Trump’s tariff policies in the spring roiled financial markets. But has been relatively stable in recent weeks, with stocks steadily rising to record levels That suggests the market has mostly adjusted to the unpredictability of Trump’s rapidly shifting tariffs. Some market watchers, however, aren’t so sure.

The market’s response to Trump’s tariff escalation this week “has been surprisingly muted. Markets appear to believe that Trump will again back down,” Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics, wrote Friday. “We are not so sure.”

aside, the market is now set to shift at least some of its focus on companies due to report quarterly earnings over the next few weeks.

On Friday, Levi Strauss jumped 11.3% after the jeans maker easily beat Wall Street’s sales and profit targets and raised its full-year forecast, despite expecting higher costs from tariffs.

PriceSmart climbed 6.5% a day after the warehouse club operator delivered solid third-quarter results and said it’s looking into expanding into Chile.

Earnings season shifts into high gear next week with JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup among the big banks due to report their results on Tuesday.

Shares in financial and health care sector companies were the biggest weights on the market Friday.

Visa fell 2.5% and Gilead Sciences dropped 3.5%.

Several airline stocks were down a day after encouraging quarterly results from Delta Air Lines set off a rally in the sector. Delta slipped 0.4%, United fell 4.5% and American gave up 5.2%.

Elsewhere in the market, shares of T-Mobile were little changed after the Justice Department announced Thursday that it would not prevent the company from closing on its proposed $4.4 billion acquisition of U.S. Cellular. That deal, announced more than a year ago, had come under antitrust scrutiny from the Justice Department under President Joe Biden’s administration.

U.S. Cellular shares rose 4%.

Shares in aviation company Red Cat Holdings jumped 23.7% after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued orders aimed at ramping up production and deployment of drones.

European stock indexes closed broadly lower following a mostly lower finish in Asian markets.

Meanwhile, bitcoin climbed to another all-time high Friday, briefly eclipsing $118,000 before easing back to around $117,893, according to Coindesk.

Bitcoin’s price jump came amid bullish momentum across risk assets and coincides with Nvidia’s surge to a $4 trillion valuation. It also comes days before the U.S. Congress’ Week on July 14, where lawmakers will debate a series of bills that could define the regulatory framework for the industry.