By SUMAN NAISHADHAM

MADRID (AP) — Spain ‘s government wanted to send a message last month with its crackdown on Airbnb: that the Spanish economy and its housing market are not a “free for all” that value profits over the rule of law, a minister told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

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The government ordered Airbnb to remove almost 66,000 holiday rentals from the platform which it said had violated local rules by failing to list license numbers, listing the wrong license number or not specifying the apartment’s owner. Airbnb is appealing the move.

Spain is one of the world’s most visited countries. Last year, the Southern European nation of 49 million received a record 94 million international visitors.

But a housing affordability problem that is particularly acute in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona has led to growing antagonism against short-term holiday rentals. Airbnb is perhaps the best-known and most visible actor.

The Spanish government says the two are related: the rise of Airbnb and other short-term rental companies, and rising rents and housing costs.

“Obviously there is a correlation between these two facts,” Consumer Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy told the AP. “It’s not a linear relation, it’s not the only factor affecting it, there are many others, but it is obviously one of the elements that is contributing.”

A recent Bank of Spain report said the country has a shortfall of 450,000 homes. In the tourist hot spots of the Canary and Balearic Islands, half the housing stock is tourist accommodations or properties owned by nonresidents, the report said.

“Tourism is for sure a vital part of the Spanish economy. It’s a strategic and very important sector. But as in every other economic activity, it must be conducted in a sustainable way,” Bustinduy said. “It cannot jeopardize the constitutional rights of the Spanish people. Their right to housing, but also their right to well-being.”

The country has seen several large protests that have drawn tens of thousands of people to demand more government action on housing. Homemade signs including one that read “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods” at a recent march in Madrid point to the growing anger.

“A balance must be found between the constitutional rights of the Spanish people and economic activities in general,” Bustinduy said.

Regional governments in Spain are also tackling the issue. Last year, Barcelona announced a plan to close down all of the 10,000 apartments licensed in the city as short-term rentals by 2028 to safeguard the housing supply for full-time residents.

Airbnb said that while its appeal goes through the courts, no holiday rentals would be immediately taken down from the site.

In response to Spain’s order, Airbnb has said the platform connects property owners with renters but it doesn’t have oversight obligations, even though it requires hosts to show that they are compliant with local laws.

Bustinduy said Spain’s recent action reflects a desire in Spain, but also elsewhere, to hold tech companies like Airbnb to account.

“There is a battle going on about accountability and about responsibility,” Bustinduy said. “The digital nature of these extraordinarily powerful multinational corporations must not be an excuse to fail to comply with democratically established regulations.”

Bustinduy, who belongs to the governing coalition’s left-wing Sumar party, dismissed the idea that the Spanish government’s action toward Airbnb could discourage some tourists from visiting.

“It will encourage longer stays, it will encourage responsible tourism and it will preserve everything that we have in this wonderful country which is the reason why so many people want to come here,” he said.

The minister also took a shot at low-cost airlines. Spain has pushed against allowing such airlines to charge passengers for hand baggage. Last year, it fined five budget airlines, including RyanAir and easyJet, a total of $179 million for charging for hand luggage.

“The principle behind these actions is always the same: preserving consumer rights,” Bustinduy said. “Powerful corporations, no matter how large, have to adapt their business models to existing regulations.”

Joseph Wilson contributed to this report from Barcelona, Spain.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 4-year-old Mexican girl who receives lifesaving medical care from a Southern California hospital was granted permission to remain in the country weeks after federal authorities said she could be deported, her family’s attorneys said Tuesday.

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security granted the girl and her mother humanitarian parole for one year so she can continue to receive treatment she has been getting since arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2023, according to a copy of a letter received by Rebecca Brown, an attorney for the family.

An email message was sent to the Department of Homeland Security seeking comment.

The decision came after the family said they were notified in April and May that their humanitarian parole was being revoked and they would be subject to potential deportation.

The Trump administration has been pushing to dismantle policies from President Joe Biden’s administration that granted temporary legal status for certain migrants and allowed them to live legally in the U.S., generally for two years.

The girl was taken to a hospital upon arriving on at the U.S.-Mexico border with her mother in 2023 and released once she was stable enough. She receives intravenous nutrition through a special backpack for short bowel syndrome, which prevents her from being able to take in and process nutrients on her own, and lawyers said the treatment she receives is necessary at this stage for her to survive and isn’t available in Mexico.

Humanitarian parole, which doesn’t put migrants on a path to U.S. citizenship, was widely used during the Biden administration to alleviate pressure on the U.S.-Mexico southern border. It was previously used on a case-by-case basis to address individual emergencies and also for people fleeing humanitarian crises around the world including Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during the late 1970s.

In Mexico, the girl was largely confined to a hospital because of her medical condition, according to her mother, Deysi Vargas. After joining a program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, she can now receive treatment at home in Bakersfield, California, and go to the park and store like other children, Vargas has said.

Lawyers said the girl’s medical treatment, which requires 14 hours a day of intravenous nutrition, will not be necessary indefinitely but that she is not at the point where she could live without it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is dropping a lawsuit that it filed against White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, a case in which he was accused of using an unofficial email account for government work and wrongfully retaining presidential records during the first Trump administration, according to a Tuesday court filing.

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The joint filing by the Justice Department and an attorney for Navarro doesn’t explain why they are abandoning a case that was filed in 2022, during President Joe Biden’s term in office. The one-page filing says each side will bear their own fees and costs.

The lawsuit accused Navarro of using at least one “non-official” email account — a ProtonMail account — to send and receive emails. The legal action comes just weeks after Navarro was indicted on criminal charges after refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Navarro served a four-month prison sentence after being found guilty of misdemeanor charges.

The civil cases alleges that by using the unofficial email account, Navarro failed to turn over presidential records to the National Archives and Records Administration.

The government notified the court of the lawsuit’s dismissal a day before U.S. Magistrate G. Michael Harvey was scheduled to preside over a status conference for the case.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. A lawyer for Navarro didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Navarro served as a trade adviser during President Donald Trump’s first term. A longtime critic of trade arrangements with China, he has been named senior counselor for trade and manufacturing for Trump’s second administration.

By JONATHAN J. COOPER and CHRIS MEGERIAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk blasted President Donald Trump’s“big, beautiful bill” of tax breaks and spending cuts as a “disgusting abomination” on Tuesday, testing the limits of his political influence as he targeted the centerpiece of Republicans’ legislative agenda.

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The broadside, which Musk issued on his social media platform X, came just days after the president gave him a celebratory Oval Office farewell that marked the end of his work for the administration, where he spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency.

“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk posted on X. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

The legislation, which has passed the House and is currently under debate in the Senate, would curtail subsidies that benefit Tesla, Musk’s electric automaker.

The tech billionaire followed his criticism with a threat aimed at Republicans.

“In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” he wrote in another X post.

It’s a sharp shift for Musk, the world’s richest person who spent at least $250 million supporting Trump’s campaign last year. He previously pledged to help defeat Republican lawmakers deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump, but now he’s suggesting voting them out if they advance the president’s legislative priority.

President Donald Trump, from right, speaks during a news conference with Elon Musk as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent listen in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

However, it’s unclear how Musk will follow through on his criticism. He recently said that he would spend “a lot less” on political campaigns, though he left the door open to political involvement “if I see a reason.”

The tech titan’s missives could cause headaches for Republicans on Capitol Hill, who face conflicting demands from Trump and their party’s wealthiest benefactor.

Alex Conant, a Republican strategist, said “it’s not helpful” to have Musk criticizing the legislation, but he doesn’t expect lawmakers to side with Musk over Trump.

“Senate Republicans are not going to let the tax cuts expire,” Conant said. “It just makes leadership’s job that much harder to wrangle the holdouts.”

Trump can change the outcome in Republican primaries with his endorsements; Musk doesn’t wield that level of influence, Conant said.

“No matter what Elon Musk or anybody else says — and I don’t want to diminish him because I don’t think that’s fair — it’s still going to be second fiddle to President Trump,” said Republican West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.

Musk’s business interests stand to take a hit if lawmakers approve Trump’s bill, which would slash funding for electric vehicles and related technologies. Musk is the chief executive of Tesla, the nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, and SpaceX, which has massive defense contracts.

Last month, Musk said he was “disappointed” by the spending bill, a much milder criticism than the broadside he leveled on Tuesday.

The budget package seeks to extend tax cuts approved in 2017, during Trump’s first term at the White House, and add new ones he campaigned on. It also includes a massive build-up of $350 billion for border security, deportations and national security.

To defray some of the lost tax revenue to the government and limit piling onto the nation’s $36 trillion debt load, Republicans want to reduce federal spending by imposing work requirements for some Americans who rely on government safety net services.

Musk’s post threw another hurdle in front of Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s already complex task to pass a bill in time for Trump to achieve his goal of signing it by July 4. The South Dakota Republican has few votes to spare in the GOP’s slim 53-seat majority.

Two of the Senate’s most fiscally hawkish Republicans quickly backed Musk.

“We can and must do better,” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul wrote on X. Utah Sen. Mike Lee said “federal spending has become excessive,” adding that it causes inflation and “weaponizes government.”

Still, Trump enjoys fierce loyalty among the GOP base, and in the end, his opinion may be the only one that matters.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt played down Musk’s criticism.

“The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” Leavitt said, and Musk’s post “doesn’t change the president’s opinion.”

The tension in the GOP delighted Democrats, who found themselves in the unlikely position of siding with Musk. Democrats are waging an all-out political assault on GOP proposals to cut Medicaid, food stamps and green energy investments to help pay for more than $4.5 trillion in tax cuts — with many lawmakers being hammered at boisterous town halls back home.

“We’re in complete agreement,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said of Musk. The New York Democratic lawmaker stood alongside a poster-sized printout of Musk’s post during a Capitol news conference.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., tells reporters he agrees with Elon Musk’s criticism of President Donald Trump’s spending and tax bill, calling it a “disgusting abomination,” during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The last time Musk weighed in significantly on legislation, the scenario was far different. His power was ascendant after the election, with Trump joining him for a rocket test in Texas and appointing him to spearhead the Department of Government Efficiency.

During the transition period, Musk started whipping up opposition to legislation that would prevent a government shutdown, posting about it repeatedly on X, his social media platform. Trump soon weighed in, encouraging Republicans to back out of a bipartisan deal. Lawmakers eventually patched together a new agreement.

Cooper reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Joey Capelletti and Mary Claire Jalonick in Washington contributed reporting.