Main Beach Park in Laguna Beach, already popular, debuts new amenities

• June 4, 2025

Main Beach Park, where a sweeping vista of the ocean greets Laguna Beach’s locals and visitors, is even more enticing thanks to a recent renovation that added new amenities to the popular spot.

On Wednesday, June 4, the Laguna Beach City Council and other town representatives will officially debut the new look with a ribbon-cutting held in front of the lifeguard tower near the promenade.

The project, shrouded by green-draped fencing for months, is now open to the public. There are new sidewalks, new pathways and upgraded lighting with 15 new lanterns along the popular boardwalk and around the newly laid turf.

There are four new water fountains with options to refill water bottles and a doggy drink basin at their foundations.

The 46 wooden benches lining the park and the boardwalk are new. Each bench has an in memoriam tag, all of which have also been replaced.

New landscaping with plants such as blueglow agave, little gem aloe and dwarf natal plums has also been added. The plants are drought-tolerant and thrive well in the salty coastal environment.

The $1.4 million project was started in January and completed on time, which is something Mayor Alex Rounaghi gave props for.

“Main Beach is an iconic part of the Laguna experience,” he said. “I’m excited that this project to improve this important city park is complete on time and under budget, just in time for summer.”

The beachfront park, made up of 1,000 feet of beach frontage purchased by the city in 1968 from a handful of property owners, is located at the end of Broadway on Coast Highway. All the structures on the land were removed in 1974, and the property became a public park. It is known for its iconic lifeguard tower and is a popular spot for beach volleyball, playing basketball on two half courts and for its oceanview playground. There are also picnic tables, restrooms and public showers.

Laguna Beach sees about 7 million visitors a year, and Main Beach Park, along with nearby Heisler Park, are the most popular for visitors given their proximity to the downtown and nearby shops, restaurants, and lodging opportunities.

​ Orange County Register 

Trump tax bill will add $2.4 trillion to the deficit and leave 10.9 million more uninsured, CBO says

• June 4, 2025

By LISA MASCARO, AP Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s big bill making its way through Congress will cut taxes by $3.75 trillion but also increase deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The CBO also estimates an increase of 10.9 million people without health insurance under the bill by 2034, including 1.4 million who are in the United States without legal status in state-funded programs.

The package would reduce federal outlays, or spending, by nearly $1.3 trillion over that period, the budget office said.

“Republicans cry crocodile tears over the debt when Democrats are in charge — but explode it when they’re in power,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

“In the words of Elon Musk,” Boyle said, reviving the billionaire former Trump aide’s criticism of the package, “this bill is a ‘disgusting abomination.’”

Trump pushing Congress to act

The analysis comes at a crucial moment in the legislative process as Trump is pushing Congress to have the final product on his desk to sign into law by the Fourth of July. The work of the CBO, which for decades has served as the official scorekeeper of legislation in Congress, will be weighed by lawmakers and others seeking to understand the budgetary impacts of the sprawling 1,000-page-plus package.

Ahead of the CBO’s release, the White House and Republican leaders criticized the budget office in a preemptive campaign designed to sow doubt in its findings.

Republicans criticize the CBO

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the CBO has been “historically wrong,” and Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the CBO was “flat wrong” because it underestimated the potential revenue growth from Trump’s first round of tax breaks in 2017. The CBO last year said receipts were $1.5 trillion, or 5.6% greater than predicted, in large part because of the “burst of inflation” during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.

Leavitt also suggested that the CBO’s employees are biased, even though certain budget office workers face strict ethical rules — including restrictions on campaign donations and political activity — to ensure objectivity and impartiality.

“When it comes time to make prognostications on economic growth, they’ve always been wrong,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said at a press conference.

Asked later if it’s time to get rid of the CBO, Scalise did not dismiss the idea. “I think it’s very valid to raise these concerns that CBO has missed the problems that come with making false estimates,” Scalise said. “Economic growth has been their Achilles’ heel.”

Alongside the costs of the bill, the CBO had previously estimated that nearly 4 million fewer people would have food stamps each month due to the legislation’s proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.

What’s in the bill

The bill, called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act after the president’s own catch phrase, is grinding its way through Congress, as the top priority of Republicans, who control both the House and the Senate — and face stiff opposition from Democrats at every step in the process.

Democrats call it Trump’s “big, ugly bill.”

All told, the package seeks to extend the individual income tax breaks that had been approved in 2017 but that will expire in December if Congress fails to act, while adding new ones, including no taxes on tips. It also includes a massive buildup of $350 billion for border security, deportations and national security.

To help cover the lost revenue, Republicans want to slash some federal spending. They propose phasing out green energy tax breaks put in place during Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency. New work requirements for some adults up to age 65 on Medicaid and SNAP would begin in December 2026 and are expected to result in less spending on those programs.

The package also would provide a $4 trillion increase to the nation’s debt limit, which is now $36 trillion, to allow more borrowing. The Treasury Department projects the debt limit will need to be raised this summer to pay the nation’s already accrued bills.

CBO aims for impartiality

Now in its 50th year, the CBO was established by law after Congress sought to assert its control, as outlined in the Constitution, over the budget process, in part by setting up the new office as an alternative to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.

Staffed by some 275 economists, analysts and other employees, the CBO says it seeks to provide Congress with objective, impartial information about budgetary and economic issues.

Its current director, Phillip Swagel, a former Treasury official in Republican President George W. Bush’s administration, was reappointed to a four-year term in 2023.

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Joey Cappelletti contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

FBI arrests man in New York linked to explosion at Palm Springs fertility clinic

• June 4, 2025

By ERIC TUCKER and JAKE OFFENHARTZ

NEW YORK — The FBI has arrested a man on charges linked to last month’s car bombing of a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, three law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

The man, Daniel Park, a 32-year-old resident of Kent, Washington, was arrested Tuesday night at the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, one of the officials said. It was not immediately clear what Park was charged with or how he was connected to the investigation. Authorities believe the bomber died in the blast.

Federal prosecutors are expected to release details at a news conference in Los Angeles. The arrest was first reported by NBC News. The law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss a criminal case that has not been publicly disclosed.

The attack on the fertility clinic was carried out by Guy Edward Bartkus, who was also killed in the explosion, according to the FBI. Officials said at the time they were investigating whether Bartkus had any help.

Authorities have described Bartkus as a member of the anti-natalist movement, a fringe group that opposes childbirth and population growth and believes people should not continue to procreate. Officials said he intentionally targeted the fertility clinic as an act of terrorism. He tried to livestream the explosion, but the attempt failed, the FBI says.

The blast gutted the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic in Palm Springs and shattered the windows of nearby buildings along a palm tree-lined street. Witnesses described a loud boom followed by a chaotic scene, with people screaming in terror and glass strewn along the sidewalk and street. A body was found near a charred vehicle outside the clinic.

Investigators haven’t said if he intended to kill himself in the attack or why he chose the specific facility. The clinic he attacked provides services to help people get pregnant, including in vitro fertilization and fertility evaluations.

Authorities executed a search warrant in Bartkus’ hometown of Twentynine Palms, a city of 28,000 residents northeast of Palm Springs with a large U.S. Marine Corps base. Authorities haven’t shared specifics about the explosives used to make the bomb and where Bartkus may have obtained them.

A senior FBI official called the explosion possibly the “largest bombing scene that we’ve had in Southern California.”

Scott Sweetow, a retired ATF explosives expert, said the amount of damage caused indicated that the suspect used a “high explosive” similar to dynamite and TNT rather than a “low explosive” like gun powder.

Those types of explosives are normally difficult for civilians to access, but increasingly people are finding ways to concoct explosives at home, he said.

“Once you know the chemistry involved, it’s pretty easy to get stuff,” Sweetow said. “The ingredients you could get at a grocery store.”

The images of the aftermath also showed that the explosion appeared to blow from the street straight through the building and to the parking lot on the other side, something that could have been intentional or pure luck, Sweetow said. A part of the car was also blown through the building and landed in the back by a dumpster.

​ Orange County Register 

Iran’s supreme leader criticizes US proposal in nuclear talks but doesn’t reject the idea of a deal

• June 4, 2025

By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader on Wednesday criticized an initial proposal from the United States in negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, though he stopped short of entirely rejecting the idea of agreement with Washington.

The remarks by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei colored in the red line expressed over recent days — one that says Tehran refuses to give up enriching uranium in any possible deal with the U.S.

That demand has been repeatedly made by American officials, including President Donald Trump, though it remains unclear just how much U.S Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff brought it up in his initial proposal to Iran.

But what Khamenei did not say in his speech matters as well. He didn’t reject the talks, which Iran views as crucial for its economy to lift some the crushing economic sanctions it faces.

Khamenei also did not insist on any specific level of nuclear enrichment. Iran now enriches uranium up to 60% — a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who has led the talks with Witkoff, said Tehran soon will offer its response to the U.S. Khamenei’s speech Wednesday at the mausoleum of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini may serve as a preview.

“If we had 100 nuclear power plants while not having enrichment, they are not usable for us,” Khamenei said. “If we do not have enrichment, then we should extend our hand (begging) to the U.S.”

Khamenei touched on previous remarks

The 86-year-old Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state in Iran, often balances his remarks over the demands of reformists within the country who want the talks against hard-line elements within Iran’s theocracy, including the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Late in August, Khamenei in a speech opened the door to possible talks with the U.S., saying there is “no harm” in engaging with the “enemy.” The supreme leader later tempered that, saying that negotiations with America “are not intelligent, wise or honorable,” after Trump floated nuclear talks with Tehran.

Khamenei’s speech on Wednesday, marking the anniversary of Khomeini’s death, offered an opportunity to discuss Witkoff’s proposal. He described it as “100% against the idea of ‘we can,’” borrowing from an Iranian government slogan. He described the U.S. as having long sought the dismantling of Iran’s entire nuclear industry.

“The impolite and insolent American leaders keep repeating this demand with different wordings,” Khamenei said.

He added, using a slogan he’s said before: “Those currently in power, Zionist or American, should be aware that they can’t do a damn thing about this.”

Some nuclear power nations do get uranium from outside suppliers, however. Experts long have viewed Iran as using its nuclear program as a chip in negotiations with the West to get sanctions relief.

Details of American proposal are still murky

The details of the American proposal remain unclear after five rounds of talks between Iran and the U.S.

A report by the news website Axios on the American proposal, the details of which a U.S. official separately confirmed, include a possible nuclear consortium that would enrich uranium for Iran and surrounding nations. Whether Iran would have to entirely give up its enrichment program remains unclear, as Axios reported that Iran would be able to enrich uranium up to 3% purity for some time.

A failure to get a deal could see tensions further spike in a Middle East already on edge over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Iran’s long-ailing economy could enter a free fall that could worsen the simmering unrest at home. Israel or the U.S. might carry out long-threatened airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities. And Tehran may decide to fully end its cooperation with the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog and rush toward a bomb.

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Canadian wildfire smoke causes ‘very unhealthy’ conditions in American Midwest and reaches Europe

• June 4, 2025

By STEVE KARNOWSKI, Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Smoke from Canadian wildfires carried another day of poor air quality south of the border to the Midwest, where conditions in parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan were rated “very unhealthy” Tuesday.

The fires have forced more than 27,000 Canadians in three provinces to flee their homes, and the smoke has even reached Europe.

The smell of smoke hung over the Minneapolis-St. Paul area on Tuesday morning despite rain that obscured the full measure of the dirty air. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issued an alert for almost the entire state into Wednesday, but the Twin Cities area got the worst of it in the Midwest on Tuesday.

“As the smoke continues to move across the state Tuesday, air quality will slowly improve from northwest to southeast for the remainder of the alert area,” the agency said. “The smoke is expected to leave the state by Wednesday at noon.”

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources warned that air quality in a band from the state’s southwest corner to the northeast could fall into the unhealthy category through Thursday morning. The agency recommended that people, especially those with heart and lung disease, avoid long or intense activities and to take extra breaks while doing strenuous actions outdoors.

Smoky conditions that have reached the U.S. periodically in recent weeks extended as far east Tuesday as Michigan, west into the Dakotas and Nebraska, and as far to the southeast as Georgia.

Conditions at ground level are unhealthy

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow map showed a swath of red for “unhealthy” conditions across the eastern half Minnesota into western Wisconsin and northern Iowa. The map also showed purple for “very unhealthy” across much of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, where the Air Quality Index numbers of 250 and were common, though conditions started to improve slightly by late morning.

The Air Quality Index — AQI — measures how clean or polluted the air is, focusing on health effects that might be experienced within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. It is based on ground-level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Particulates are the main issue from the fires

The index ranges from green, where the air quality is satisfactory and air pollution poses little or no risk, to maroon, which is considered hazardous. That level comes with health warnings of emergency conditions where everyone is more likely to be affected, according to AirNow.

While Minnesota officials warned on Monday that conditions in the northwest part of the state could reach the maroon category on Tuesday, conditions there were generally yellow, or moderate. There were a few scattered locations in the Twin Cities area that temporarily hit maroon on Tuesday morning. But by midday Tuesday, most of the remaining maroon spots in the region were on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Hospitals are seeing more patients with respiratory symptoms

Hennepin Healthcare, the main emergency hospital in Minneapolis, has seen a slight increase in visits by patients with respiratory symptoms aggravated by the dirty air.

Dr. Rachel Strykowski, a pulmonologist, said there is usually a bit of a delay before patients come in, which is unfortunate because the sooner those patients contact their doctors, the better the outcome. Typical symptoms, she said, include “increase in shortness of breath, wheezing, maybe coughing a bit more, and flares of their underlying disease, and that’s usually COPD and asthma.”

What happens, Strykowski said, is that the fine particulate matter from the wildfire smoke triggers more inflammation in patients’ airways, aggravating their underlying medical conditions.

Strykowski noted that this is usually a time those patients can go outside and enjoy the summer weather because there are fewer triggers, so the current ones forcing them to stay inside can feel “quite isolating.”

People can protect themselves by staying indoors or by wearing N95 masks, she said. Strykowski added that they must be N95s because the cloth masks many people used during the COVID-19 pandemic don’t provide enough filtration.

The Canadian fire situation

Canada is having another bad wildfire season, and more than 27,000 people in three provinces have been forced to evacuate. Most of the smoke reaching the American Midwest has been coming from fires northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg in Manitoba.

Winnipeg hotels opened Monday to evacuees. More than 17,000 Manitoba residents have been displaced since last week, including 5,000 residents of the community of Flin Flon, nearly 400 miles (645 kilometers) northwest of Winnipeg. In neighboring Saskatchewan, 2,500 residents of the town of La Ronge were ordered to flee Monday, on top of more than 8,000 in the province who had been evacuated earlier.

In Saskatoon, where the premiers of Canada’s provinces and the country’s prime minister met Monday, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said all of Canada has come together to help the Prairie provinces.

Two people were killed by a wildfire in mid-May in Lac du Bonnet, northeast of Winnipeg.

Canada’s worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months.

The smoke reaches Europe

Canada’s wildfires are so large and intense that the smoke is even reaching Europe, where it is causing hazy skies but isn’t expected to affect surface-air quality, according the European climate service Copernicus.

The first high-altitude plume reached Greece and the eastern Mediterranean just over two weeks ago, with a much larger plume crossing the Atlantic within the past week and more expected in coming days, according to Copernicus.

“That’s really an indicator of how intense these fires are, that they can deliver smoke,” high enough that they can be carried so far on jet streams, said Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the service.

The fires also are putting out significant levels of carbon pollution — an estimated 56 megatonnes through Monday, second only to 2023, according to Copernicus.

Associated Press writers Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, and Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

2 more attacks on Jews heighten concerns about security in and around US synagogues

• June 4, 2025

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and MARIAM FAM, Associated Press

For the leaders of U.S. Jewish institutions, the recent attacks in Boulder, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., are stark reminders of their responsibility to remain vigilant despite years of hardening their security measures and trying to keep their people safe.

Now, they’re sounding the alarm for more help after a dozen people were injured in Boulder while demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza on Sunday. And just over a week earlier, two Israeli Embassy staffers were fatally shot outside a Jewish museum in Washington.

After that shooting, 43 Jewish organizations issued a joint statement requesting more support from the U.S. government for enhanced security measures. Specifically, they asked Congress to increase funding to the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $1 billion.

“Every Jewish organization has been serious about security for years. We have to be,” said Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism. “The grants are to harden the buildings, for things like cameras and glass, and some kind of blockage so they can’t drive a truck into the building.”

“These are the everyday realities of Jewish life in the 21st century in America. It’s a sad reality, but it is an essential responsibility of leadership to make sure that people are first and foremost safe.”

Shira Hutt, executive vice president at The Jewish Federations of North America, said existing federal funds were inadequate, with only 43% of last year’s applicants to the grant program receiving funding.

Citing the attack in Boulder, she said increased funding for local law enforcement is also crucial.

“Thankfully, the attack was stopped before even further damage could have been done,” she said. “This is really now a full-blown crisis, and we need to make sure that we have all the support necessary.”

One of the Jewish Federation’s state-based affiliates, JEWISHcolorado, on Tuesday launched an emergency fund to raise $160,000 in support of the Boulder community. Its goals include enhancing safety and security measures for Jewish institutions and events.

Strengthening alliances and pushing for results

Leaders of Jewish Federation Los Angeles urged government, business and philanthropic groups to “supercharge an alliance so we can build mutual understanding, dispel conspiracy theories, and provide rapid response when any group is under threat.”

“Jews here in Los Angeles are terrified but determined,” said the federation’s president, Rabbi Noah Farkas. “We do not need more community meetings, we need results and we are counting on our local government and our law enforcement partners to do more.”

The security costs at 63 Jewish day schools have risen on average 84% since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct, 7, 2023, according to the Teach Coalition, the education advocacy arm of the Orthodox Union, an umbrella group for Orthodox Judaism.

The coalition is advocating for more state and federal security funding for Jewish schools and camps, as well as synagogues.

The attacks in Washington and Boulder only heighten the urgency, said its national director Sydney Altfield.

“Some people see this as an isolated instance, whether it is in Colorado, whether it’s in D.C.,” she said. “But we have to step up and realize that it could happen anywhere. … It is so important that our most vulnerable, our children, are secure to the highest extent.”

In Florida, Rabbi Jason Rosenberg of Congregation Beth Am said members of the Reform synagogue in the Tampa Bay area “are feeling very nervous right now and having some additional security might make people a little bit more comfortable.”

He said that “there’s a definite sense that these attacks are not isolated events, that these attacks are, in part, the result of a lot of the antisemitic rhetoric that we’ve been hearing in society for years now.”

However, he said part of his message as a faith leader in such a climate has been to encourage resilience.

“We can’t let this define us. … We can’t stop doing what we do; we can’t stop coming to synagogue; we can’t stop having our activities,” he said. “Our job is to add holiness to our lives and to the world, and we can’t let this stop us from focusing on sacred work.”

Security concerns inside and outside

Jacobs, the Reform Judaism leader, said the latest attacks in Washington and Boulder signaled that new security strategies were needed.

“Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were murdered outside of the event at the D.C. Jewish Museum,” he said.

“And that presented a whole additional sort of challenges for law enforcement and for each of our institutions doing security, which is: you can’t just worry about who comes in; you actually have to worry about who’s lurking outside, and so, that is part now of our protocols.”

The attack in Boulder, he said, took place during a “peaceful protest” where demonstrators were calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

“We have to worry about what happens inside our institutions. … We also have to be thinking and working with law enforcement about what happens outside.”

Jacobs recalled that when a Christian leader recently visited a Reform synagogue, he was “stunned by the security protocols,” which included procedures that Jacobs likened to passengers passing through airport security.

“I said, ‘Well, what do you do in your churches?’ and he said, ‘Well, we like to be welcoming.’ And I said: ‘We don’t have that luxury. We want to make sure our people feel safe, otherwise people will stop coming.’”

Associated Press reporter Tiffany Stanley contributed to this report.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

​ Orange County Register 

US and Europe trade negotiators discuss tariffs in Paris

• June 4, 2025

by CATHERINE GASCHKA, SAM McNEIL and PAUL WISEMAN, Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Europe and the United States are meeting in Paris to negotiate a settlement of a tense tariff spat with global economic ramifications between two global economic powerhouses.

The European Union’s top trade negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, met Wednesday with his American counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“We’re advancing in the right direction at pace,” Šefčovič said at a news conference. He said ongoing technical meetings between EU and U.S. negotiators in Washington would be soon followed by a video conference between himself and Greer to then “assess the progress and charter the way forward.”

Brussels and Washington are unlikely to reach a substantive trade agreement in Paris. The issues dividing them are too difficult to resolve quickly.

President Donald Trump regularly fumes about America’s persistent trade deficit with the European Union, which was a record $161 billion last year, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

Trump blames the gap between what the U.S. sells and what it buys from Europe on unfair trade practices and often singles out for criticism the EU’s 10% tax on imported cars. America’s was 2.5% until Trump raised it to 25% in April. The EU has argued its purchases of U.S. services, especially in the technology sector, all but overcome the deficit.

After the Trump administration’s surprise tariffs last week on steel rattled global markets and complicated the ongoing, wider tariff negotiations between Brussels and Washington, the EU on Monday said it is preparing “countermeasures” against the U.S.

The EU has offered the U.S. a “zero for zero” deal in which both sides end tariffs on industrial goods, including autos. Trump has rejected that idea, but EU officials say it’s still on the table.

The EU could buy more liquefied natural gas and defense items from the U.S., and lower duties on cars, but it isn’t likely to budge on calls to scrap the value added tax, which is akin to a sales tax, or open up the EU to American beef.

“We still have a few weeks to have this discussion and negotiation,” French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said in Paris on Wednesday ahead of the OECD meeting. “If the discussion and negotiation do not succeed, Europe is capable of having countermeasures on American products and services as well.”

Greta Peisch, who was general counsel for the U.S. trade representative in the Biden administration, said the zero-for-zero proposal could provide a way to make progress if the Trump administration “is looking for a reason not to impose tariffs on the EU.’’

But Peisch, now a partner at the Wiley Rein law firm, wondered: “How motivated is the U.S. to come to a deal with the EU?’’ Trump, after all, has longstanding grievances and complaints about EU trade practices.

One target of his ire is the value-added tax, similar to U.S. state sales taxes.

Trump and his advisers consider VATs unfair protectionism because they are levied on U.S. products. But VATs are set at a national level, not by the EU, and apply to domestic and imported products alike, so they have not traditionally been considered a trade barrier. There is little chance governments will overhaul their tax systems to appease Trump.

Likewise, the Europeans are likely to balk at U.S. demands to scrap food and safety regulations that Washington views as trade barriers. These include bans on hormone-raised beef, chlorinated chicken and genetically modified foods.

“When you start talking about chickens or GMOs or automobile safety standards, you’re talking about the ways countries choose to regulate their economies,” Peisch said. “We think that’s protectionist. They think it’s keeping their citizens healthy … It’s been a sore point for 60 years.’’

McNeil reported from Barcelona and Wiseman reported from Washington, D.C.

​ Orange County Register 

Several feared dead in a stampede outside a cricket stadium in India

• June 4, 2025

By AIJAZ RAHI, Associated Press

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Several people were feared dead and many more injured in a stampede on Wednesday outside a cricket stadium in southern India’s Karnataka state.

The incident happened as thousands of cricket fans gathered outside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru city to celebrate the winners of the Indian Premier League, which is the world’s most popular T20 cricket tournament.

The Times of India newspaper reported at least seven people had died in the crush. Local TV news channels showed visuals of police shifting the injured persons and those who fell unconscious to ambulances.

D.K. Shivakumar, the deputy chief minister of Karnataka state, told reporters that “the crowd was very uncontrollable.”

The event was being held to celebrate Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s first Indian Premier League title win on Tuesday.

Stampedes are relatively common in India when large crowds gather at a place. In January, at least 30 people were killed as tens of thousands of Hindus rushed to bathe in a sacred river during the Maha Kumbh festival, the world’s largest religious gathering.

​ Orange County Register