With Homeownership Out of Reach, Some Are Choosing to Rent Forever

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Alex Ossola (0:33)

The Supreme Court hands down a flurry of decisions, including two that empower President Trump's immigration agenda. Plus, we've got the latest on the earthquake in Venezuela, which could be one of the deadliest in the country's history.

Kejal Vyas (0:45)

We're still waiting on a clearer assessment from authorities. We're expecting the death toll and the injury toll and lots more damage reported in the upcoming hours and days.

Alex Ossola (0:56)

And as it becomes more expensive to own a home, some people are choosing to just keep on renting instead. It's Thursday, June 25th. I'm Alex Ossola for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

The Supreme Court handed down a few consequential decisions today.

The court allowed President Trump to take away legal protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the US for humanitarian reasons. Those immigrants had what's called temporary protected status, or TPS, under a program Congress created in 1990 for migrants whose home countries are hit by armed conflicts, natural disasters, or epidemics. In a 6-3 decision, the court said it didn't have much power to review the executive branch's decisions on the program. Journal Supreme Court reporter James Romoser says the decision has an immediate impact on immigrants from Haiti and Syria.

James Romoser (1:54)

When Trump returned to office last year, there were 17 countries that had protections under TPS. Trump moved to revoke the TPS protections from 13 of those 17 countries. The Haiti and Syria cases are the two that arrived on appeal at the Supreme Court, and those are the decisions that came today.

What it means immediately is that Trump can end TPS status for about 350,000 immigrants from Haiti and about 6,000 immigrants from Syria. It also will likely pave the way for him to revoke TPS protections for a number of other countries that have had it.

Alex Ossola (2:32)

A second immigration decision allows the administration to turn asylum seekers away at the US-Mexico border.

James Romoser (2:38)

What the court said in that case is that the administration is allowed to essentially bar people from stepping foot onto US soil where they would have the right to claim asylum. So the two decisions taken in tandem, the TPS case and the asylum case, have the effect of broadening Trump's authority to enact his second term immigration crackdown.

Alex Ossola (3:01)

Next up, the Supreme Court ruled that Bayer couldn't be held liable for failing to warn consumers about the cancer risks of its popular weed killer Roundup. Patrick Thomas, who covers agriculture for the Journal, says the decision is a big deal for Bayer, which produces about half the world's glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.

SPEAKER_5 (3:18)

So this is a massive victory. Roundup generates billions of dollars for Bayer. They've been involved in this litigation for almost a decade since Bayer bought Monsanto. But since then, they've had hundreds of thousands of lawsuits basically claiming that this weed killer causes cancer. The EPA has repeatedly determined that glyphosate does not cause cancer in humans and doesn't need a label at the federal level that includes a cancer warning.

And what today's ruling affirms is that because at the federal level, you don't need that cancer warning, individual states cannot ask for some kind of additional warning. This takes away a lot of the leverage from plaintiff's lawyers who have been going after the company for a number of years and gives them more incentive to try and settle with the company.

Alex Ossola (4:05)

A Bayer spokesperson said the decision was good for science, farmers, and industries that depend on regulatory clarity for innovation. Bayer shares closed up about 19 percent. And finally, the court also struck down a Hawaii law stopping guns from being carried into public-facing privately owned locations like gas stations and supermarkets without the property owner's permission. It's the latest decision to expand the Second Amendment right to bear arms. The Supreme Court justices are scrambling to finish their work before taking their summer recess, which typically begins in early July.

Separately, a federal judge today blocked key portions of President Trump's executive order that would create lists of eligible voters. The judge in Massachusetts declared steps outlined in the executive order to be quote legally void and she ordered agencies to stop implementing the directives immediately. It's one of a string of court defeats this week for the administration's efforts on elections.