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President Donald Trump’s push to revitalize American manufacturing by luring foreign investment into the U.S. has run smack into one of his other priorities: cracking down on illegal immigration.Hardly a week after immigration authorities raided a sprawling Hyundai battery plant in Georgia, detained more than 300 South Korean workers and showed video of some of them shackled in chains, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung warned that the country’s other companies may be reluctant to take up Trump’s invitation to pour money into the United States.The detained South Koreans were released Thursday and most were flown home.If the U.S. can’t promptly issue visas to the technicians and other skilled workers needed to launch plants, then “establishing a local factory in the United States will either come with severe disadvantages or become very difficult for our companies,” Lee said Thursday. “They will wonder whether they should even do it.”The raid and subsequent diplomatic crisis show how the Trump administration’s mass deportation goals are running up against its efforts to bring in money from abroad to drive the U.S. economy and create more jobs. Moves like workplace immigration enforcement and visa restrictions could risk alienating allies that are pledging to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. to avoid high tariffs. South Korea is already a big investor in the US Trump’s economic agenda is built around using hefty tariffs on imports, including a 15% levy on South Korean products, as a cudgel to force manufacturing to return to the U.S. He’s repeatedly said foreign companies can escape his tariffs if they produce in America. South Korea, already a top investor, pledged to invest $350 billion in the U.S. when the two sides announced a trade deal in July.It made more investments in new construction, such as factories, on previously undeveloped land than any other country in 2022. Last year, it ranked 12th in the world with $93 billion in total American investment including acquisitions of existing companies, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.But the dramatic roundup of South Koreans and others working to set up the battery plant threatens to put a chill on the investment push. Indeed, Trump seems to be trying to undo the damage.While demanding that foreign investors “LEGALLY bring your very smart people,” Trump also promised to “make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so.”“President Trump will continue delivering on his promise to make the United States the best place in the world to do business, while also enforcing federal immigration laws,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement Thursday.For now, the South Koreans are furious and immigration experts are puzzled. It’s been common practice for decades for foreign companies such as the Japanese and German carmakers that have built factories in the American Midwest and South to send technical specialists from their home countries to help open plants in the United States. Most of them train U.S. workers, then go home.“Japanese managers, senior engineers, other technical experts had to come to the United States to set this stuff up,” said Lee Branstetter, a professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University who’s studied Japanese auto plants in the U.S.American companies do the same thing, sending U.S. workers overseas temporarily to get operations started. Some experts call it a baffling, ‘performative’ raid U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched the roundup last week at a manufacturing site that state officials have touted as Georgia’s largest economic development project.“It’s really baffling to me why this raid would have occurred,” said Ben Armstrong, executive director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Industrial Performance Center. “The existence of these workers shouldn’t have been a surprise.”U.S. immigration officials could have audited the workers’ documents without the drama, retired immigration lawyer Dan Kowalski said, adding that “raiding and arresting and putting them in chains and shackles is 100% performative.”It had to do with “wanting to look tough arresting as many foreigners as possible for the photo-op,” said Kowalski, who is now a writer and editor.U.S. work visa categories make it a challenge to bring in foreign workers quickly and easily, said Kevin Miner, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta.Some run on a highly competitive lottery system, are for seasonal workers and have a cap, or are restricted to managers and executives. Other short-term visas have strict limits on employment.After meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week in Washington, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said they agreed to set up a joint working group for discussions on creating a new visa category to make it easier for South Korean companies to send their staff to work in the United States.Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau also plans to visit Seoul this weekend. Calls for fixes to the US visa system Hyundai’s “desire to get this thing up and running as quickly as possible ran head-on into the often time-consuming processes that the U.S. government requires in order to issue business visas,” said Branstetter of Carnegie Mellon.U.S. authorities say those detained were “unlawfully working” at the plant. Charles Kuck, a lawyer representing several of the South Koreans who were detained, said the “vast majority” of the workers from South Korea were doing work authorized under a visa program.Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, said work visas like nearly all other aspects of the U.S. immigration system need reform.“Our visa system does not envision this kind of scenario,” Gelatt said, of bringing in skilled foreign workers needed for the initial setup of factories. The U.S. has a few country-specific visa categories that make it easier to bring in certain foreign workers, like those from Mexico, Australia or Singapore.“The goal,” said MIT’s Armstrong, “should be to make foreign direct investment as streamlined as possible.” Didi Tang and Paul Wiseman, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Luxury perfume brands have always poured resources into elaborate packaging with bottles shaped like sky-high stilettos, sculpted torsos, or capped with oversize daisies. Yet for all the creativity devoted to packaging, the mechanics have barely evolved. Nearly every alcohol-based perfume still relies on the same one-finger actuator to dispense the fragrance. While this design mechanism has become synonymous with eau de parfum, it also makes the product inaccessible for anyone with limited hand strength or dexterity.Thats why the debut fragrance from Rare Beauty feels so disruptive. The brand spent more than two years developing the scent and also a custom bottle, collaborating with occupational therapists and hand specialists to make it easier to hold and spray. The design features a rounded silhouette and a cap with a low-resistance twist-lock closure, replacing the industry-standard pull-off lid. Its broad, flat surface eliminates the need for precise, one-finger pressure and instead allows for multiple ways to press the atomizer using several fingers, the palm of a hand, or even the chin. The result is a bottle that looks elegant on a vanity yet functions in ways most perfume packaging has never even considered.[Photo: courtesy Rare Beauty]Avoiding accessibility washingThat focus on purpose-built accessibility was born from earlier lessons. When Rare Beauty launched its makeup line in 2020, customers began sharing online feedback that its packaging was easier to grip and open than most. One standout product was the Soft Pinch Liquid Blush cap design, which minimizes resistance for easy opening. The success of that cap led the brand to carry over the same design into other hero products like the new Positive Light Luminizing Lip Gloss (launched in July) and Soft Pinch Tinted Lip Oil.Accessibility wasnt something we intentionally set out to design for at first, says Joyce Kim, Rare Beautys chief product officer. But our founder, Selena Gomez, who lives with lupus, consistently gravitated toward prototypes that were easier for her to use. Combined with what we were hearing from our community, that pushed us to start building accessibility into our DNA. [Photo: courtesy Rare Beauty]As a disabled person who loves beauty products, Ive unfortunately grown used to seeing inclusive launches that feel more like optics than long-term investments in accessibility. Rare stands out from that pattern with its ongoing commitment to designing inclusive packaging for current and future products. We would never claim to be the experts, Kim says. But if youre going to make accessibility part of your brand ethos, you have to lean into it. It cant just be a compliance checkbox or a passing trend. Consumers are incredibly attuned to whether a brands values are authentic.Despite the dedication to accessible innovation, R&D hasnt been an easy or intuitive process for the team. Unlike other areas of beauty that have clear industry standards, like long-wear claims in lipstick or waterproof mascara, no comparable framework exists for accessibility. When Rare Beauty set out to validate the usability of its packaging, the team quickly realized it was working without a map. Since there wasnt a formal framework, we partnered with occupational therapists at Casa Colina, a research and rehabilitation center in Southern California, to create one, Kim says. That collaboration led to Rare Beautys Made Accessible Initiative, which studies the features that make products easier to open, close, hold, and apply for people with limited dexterity. The brand plans to use those findings to guide its own future packaging, and to share them with the broader beauty industry in hopes that others will follow. Were hoping to start the conversation, to show how meaningful accessibility can be in this space, and to encourage other brands to make it part of their own initiatives, Kim says.[Photo: courtesy Rare Beauty]A big business opportunity The lack of standards is especially striking given the scale of the market. Fragrance is one of the fastest-growing beauty categories, and was estimated to rise from $56.6 billion in 2024 to nearly $75 billion by 2030. Fragrance as a category has been around for so long, and yet there’s just been no innovation in terms of accessiblepackaging, Kim explains. This gap in the market gave us the opportunity to really do our homework, and through research and collaboration with designers, hand therapists, and the disability community, we’ve brought a much-needed yet relatively simple solution to this space.[Image: courtesy Rare Beauty]Ive mostly been limited to using roll-on perfume bottles since traditional eau de parfum atomizers are nearly impossible for me to press with my reduced hand strength. Thats why Rares understated bottle feels so revolutionary. For once, I could mist on fragrance easily, in a fine, even spray. And honestly, its a good thing the scent itself is great because in the thrill of finally getting that satisfying spritz-on-skin moment, I may have overdone it. Full-on smell-maxxing, as the kids would say.Rares flagship fragrance is a creamy vanilla-forward gourmand with notes of pistachio, caramel, and ginger, followed by sandalwood and musk in the drydown. It retails at $75 for a 50-milliliter bottle, but the brand also introduced a deluxe mini version of its full-size bottle, along with a series of layering balms that let consumers customize the fragrance more affordably.Accessibility is about price as much as functionality, Kim explains. We didnt want to bring innovation to our consumers and then make it unaffordable. So we introduced our layering balms to give you more variety from the base scent, and we built the cost of the custom bottle into the back end instead of passing it on to our customers.For a mainstream brand with a celebrity founder, Rare has the scale to absorb the expense of customization. Indie brands, meanwhile, often face prohibitive costs in developing new, more usable packaging. But by proving that inclusive design can sit at the heart of a mainstream launch, Rare is showing whats possible. The hope is that its fragrance will spark broader industry change, encouraging luxury houses and niche labels alike to prioritize accessibility as a design value, not an afterthought. Beauty in itself is an emotional experience, Kim says. With fragrance, the way you interact with the bottle is part of that experience. When designers consider accessibility and create products that work for a wide range of people, thats when consumers feel truly seen and represented.
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E-Commerce
The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage fell this week to its lowest level in nearly a year, reflecting a pullback in Treasury yields ahead of an expected interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve next week.The long-term rate eased to 6.35% from 6.5% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.2%.Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell. The average rate slipped to 5.5% from 5.6% last week. A year ago, it was 5.27%, Freddie Mac said.Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation.Rates have been mostly declining since late July amid growing expectations that the Fed will cut its benchmark short-term interest rate for the first time this year at the central bank’s meeting of policymakers next week.While the Fed doesn’t set mortgage rates, its actions can influence bond investors’ appetite for long-term U.S. government bonds, like 10-year Treasury notes. Lenders use the yield on 10-year Treasurys as a guide to pricing home loans. The yield was at 4% Thursday afternoon.The Fed has kept its main interest rate on hold this year because it’s been more worried about inflation potentially worsening because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs than about the job market.But in a high-profile speech last month, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled the central bank may cut rates in coming months amid concerns about weaker job gains following a grim July jobs report, which included massive downward revisions for June and May.More recent job market data have fueled speculation that the central bank could be preparing to lower rates. The Labor Department said last week that the economy added just 22,000 jobs in August. And on Tuesday, revised jobs data from the government showed the U.S. job market had been much weaker last year and this year than earlier data suggested.Meanwhile, the latest weekly snapshot of unemployment benefit claims shows more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, an indication that the number of layoffs could be rising.The housing market has been in a slump since 2022, when mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows. Sales have remained sluggish so far this year as the average rate on a 30-year mortgage has mostly hovered above 6.5%.The average rate is now at its lowest level since Oct. 10, when it was 6.32%.A similar pullback in rates happened last year in the weeks leading up to the Fed’s interest rate policy meeting in September. That’s when the Fed cut its key interest rate for the first time since March 2020, in the early days of the pandemic. Back then, the average rate on a 30-year mortgage got down to a 2-year low of 6.08%, but soon after climbed again, reaching above 7% by mid-January.Mortgage rates could follow a similar trajectory this time, given that expectations of a Fed rate cut have already brought mortgage rates lower.“We should not expect rates to drop much further, and in fact, there is a possibility that mortgage rates could actually increase after the Fed cut,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS.For now, the recent pullback in mortgage rates has been encouraging to many prospective homebuyers and homeowners eager to refinance.Mortgage applications, which include loans to buy a home or refinance an existing mortgage, jumped to a three-year high last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.Applications for mortgage refinancing loans made up nearly 50% of all applications last week, as homeowners who bought in recent years when mortgage rates surged seized the opportunity to lower their monthly home loan payment.If mortgage rates continue to ease, home shoppers will benefit from more affordable financing. But lower mortgage rates could also bring in more buyers, making the market more competitive, at a time when sellers across the country are having a tougher time driving a hard bargain. Alex Veiga, AP Business Writer
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E-Commerce
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