Artists plan nationwide US protests against Trump and ‘authoritarian forces’
Artists and artistic organisations around the US are set to take part in a series of protests and events to speak out against Donald Trump and his administration,According to the New York Times, the acts of “creative resistance” will be known as the Fall of Freedom and will take place on 21 and 22 November,“Our democracy is under attack,” organisers state,“Threats to free expression are rising,Dissent is being criminalized.
Institutions and media have been recast as mouthpieces of propaganda.” The events will amount to “an urgent call to the arts community to unite in defiance of authoritarian forces sweeping the nation”.The long list of names set to take part include some from the world of film including Michael Moore, Ava DuVernay and Laura Poitras as well as musicians Amanda Palmer and John Legend, artist Marilyn Minter and author Jennifer Egan.Egan, who won the Pulitzer prize in 2011, also served as the president of PEN America between 2018 and 2020.“I welcome this spur to act alongside other artists and insist on our right to think and speak freely,” she said.
Organisations set to take part include New York and Brooklyn public libraries, the University of Southern California and the Maysles Documentary Center.The initiative came from a group that includes the visual artist Dread Scott and Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage.“The action is artistic expression,” Nottage said.“Expression is one of the essential ingredients in the American narrative, and it can’t be stymied or silenced.”According to the New York Times, Nottage recently decided not to stage one of her musicals at the Kennedy Center after Trump changed the leadership and took more control of the artistic agenda.
“Unless you adhere to a certain kind of narrative”, she said, “you are not going to receive support,”Trump also demanded that Washington DC’s Smithsonian museum be purged of “improper ideology” while arts funding has been limited to projects that align with the administration’s particular political vision,Fall of Freedom is being described as an open invite and guidelines for getting involved recommend examples such as a curated show around freedom of expression, a staged reading of a banned play or a screening of a censored or politically charged film,Confirmed events include New York’s Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art creating a library of books focused on queer artists pushing back against censorship,The announcement of Fall of Freedom comes as a second round of No Kings protest is set to take place on 18 October across the US.
The demonstrations aim to hit back at the president’s king-like overreach and follow on from June’s first round which took place in 2,100 cities and towns with an estimated turnout of more than 5 million people.
Gaucho chain to slash waiters’ share of service charge and boost head office pay
The Argentinian steak restaurant Gaucho is slashing the share of the service charge its waiters receive, using some of the funds to bump up the pay package of head office workers.A letter to workers seen by the Guardian says that from 1 October existing waiters would receive between 25.45% and 29.4% of the service charge collected at tables they have served, depending on length of service, down from 37% previously – already a reduction from 45% early last year. Bar staff will get 17% of the service charge, down from 20%
Global markets fall and gold hits record high amid jitters over US banks
Global stock markets fell sharply and gold hit a record high after two US regional banks said they had been exposed to millions of dollars of bad loans and alleged fraud.Signs of credit stress rattled markets across Europe and Asia. In London the FTSE 100 fell 1.5%, Germany’s Dax fell 2%, the Ibex in Spain was off 0.8% and France’s Cac 40 dropped 1
‘Finances are getting tighter’: US car repossessions surge as more Americans default on auto loans
Alarm bells are ringing on Wall Street. The recent collapses of Tricolor, a used car seller and sub-prime auto lender, and First Brands, an auto parts supplier, have put the finance industry on edge, almost two decades after problems in the sub-prime mortgage lending market set the stage for the global financial crisis.“When you see one cockroach, there are probably more,” Jamie Dimon, the JPMorgan Chase CEO, ominously cautioned analysts this week, after the US’s largest bank disclosed a $170m charge tied to Tricolor’s bankruptcy. “Everyone should be forewarned on this one.”As the car lending market shows signs of strain, business around repossessions is booming
Ferrari cuts number of cars it sends to UK after non-dom tax status scrapped
Ferrari has cut the number of cars it sells in the UK as wealthy individuals relocate overseas after tax changes and the abolition of non-dom status.The Italian luxury carmaker reportedly began limiting the number of vehicles it exported to the UK about six months ago, in an attempt to stop a decline in their residual value.Benedetto Vigna, the chief executive of the carmaker, said that Ferrari had seen a “stabilisation” in sales after its decision to reduce the number of vehicles it allocated to the UK.“Some people are getting out of that country for tax reasons,” he told the Financial Times, adding that taxes were not the only reason for the fall in residual values. “There are many different factors
The ‘messy’ trend behind Australia’s rising unemployment is worrying economists
As Jim Chalmers moves among the global elite during the G20 talkfest with fellow finance ministers and big-time investors in Washington this week, he will be spruiking Australia’s enviable economic performance over recent years.A particular point of pride has been the strength of the labour market.Not only has unemployment stayed low, the increase in the share of working-age Australians with a job has climbed by 3.1 percentage points since immediately before the pandemic.That increase is twice the OECD average, and compares with zero growth in the US and New Zealand
Australia Post incorrectly charged tariffs on items ordered online being returned to the US
Australia Post incorrectly collected tariffs from customers returning items to the US after retail parcel services to the country resumed last week, the government-owned postal service has admitted.Australia Post said it had identified an error with a third-party provider where “a number of customers” were incorrectly charged a tariff for postal returns of US-manufactured items, which should not be subject to import duties.“The error was quickly fixed, and we are reaching out to impacted customers,” a spokesperson said in a statement. They will receive a refund.Parcel services were halted in August when the US suspended the “de minimis” exemption, which allowed parcels worth less than US$800 to enter the country duty-free
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