Frog meat is among the many items imported from China that had been facing tariffs in a few weeks, but now the tariffs are delayed until December.
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Frog meat is among the many items imported from China that had been facing tariffs in a few weeks, but now the tariffs are delayed until December.
Getty Images
The stock market soared Tuesday on news that the Trump administration is postponing some tariffs on Chinese imports this fall, sparing popular consumer items such as cellphones and laptops until after the Christmas shopping season. It’s only a partial reprieve, though. Other Chinese imports will still be hit with a 10% tariff on Sept. 1, as scheduled. The administration reportedly was guided by which products could most easily be obtained outside China. But there were still some head-scratchers on the tariff lists.
These products are among the $112 billion worth of Chinese imports facing a 10% tariff in less than three weeks:
American flags (the U.S. imported more than $6 billion worth of American flags from China last year)
Ski and snowmobile gloves
Nuts in shell
Black and white pepper
Human hair, unworked (the U.S. imported $615,766 worth last year)
An additional $160 billion worth of Chinese imports will be spared a tariff until Dec. 15, to avoid hitting holiday sales. These items include:
Prepared or preserved frog meat
Ice hockey gloves
Shelled nuts
Salt and pepper dispensers made of plastic
Human hair, fashioned into wigs or false beards
Some Chinese imports were dropped from the tariff target list altogether, including:
Bibles (China is the No. 1 source of imported Bibles and other prayer books. These were originally targeted for a 10% tariff, but importers’ prayers for an exemption were granted.)
MOSCOW—Authorities urged residents of a village in Northwestern Russia to leave their homes, days after a nearby Defense Ministry test of a nuclear-powered engine exploded, boosting radiation levels that alarmed nearby inhabitants.
Russian officials’ failure to release full details surrounding the explosion, which killed at least seven employees of Rosatom, Russia’s atomic energy monopoly, and of the Defense Ministry, have raised suspicions over the severity of the accident and whether officials are covering up details.
Poachers forced this rhino subspecies down to two. Now scientists are in a race to save them before it’s too late. Animalkind, USA TODAY
The Trump administration announced a major overhaul Monday to the Endangered Species Act that it said would reduce regulations. Environmentalists said the changes would push more animals and plants to extinction because of threats from climate change and human activities.
The changes end blanket protections for animals newly deemed threatened and allow federal authorities for the first time to take into account the economic cost of protecting a particular species.
With the Endangered Species Act in the news, here are a few of the USA’s most endangered or threatened species:
Florida panther
The panther is one of the most endangered mammals in the country, according to the Defenders of Wildlife. First listed as endangered in the 1970s, there are only about a couple of hundred left.
They are found in southern Florida in swamplands such as Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve. “The subspecies is so critically endangered that it is vulnerable to just about every major threat,” the National Wildlife Federation said. Construction and development in Florida causes habitat loss, and roads and highways pose a danger to panthers attempting to cross.
An icon of the Southern Plains, the lesser prairie chicken is being reviewed for listing under the Endangered Species Act, the Defenders of Wildlife said. “This bird once numbered in the millions but its population has declined by as much as 97%. It is imperiled because of habitat loss and fragmentation from oil and gas development, cropland conversion, livestock grazing and drought.” There are an estimated 30,000 birds left.
Devil’s Hole pupfish
The entire species of this bright blue fish lives only in a single pool in Nevada. First listed as endangered in 1967, this iridescent blue inch-long fish’s only natural habitat is in the 93-degree waters of Devils Hole, located in Nye County, Nevada, which is a detached unit of Death Valley National Park. As one of the world’s rarest fishes, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it could be “at significant risk of extinction. Species with limited distribution like the Devils Hole pupfish are at greatest risk of extinction since they do not have the flexibility to change locations to adapt to changing environments.”
Bryde’s whale
The Bryde’s whale, of which there are only about 40 left in the Gulf of Mexico, is “in danger of extinction throughout all of its range due to its small population size and restricted range, and the threats of energy exploration, development and production, oil spills and oil spill response, vessel collision, fishing gear entanglement, and human-caused noise,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
North Atlantic right whale
The North Atlantic right whale is one of the world’s most endangered large whale species, with only about 400 whales remaining, NOAA said. “Entanglement in fishing lines attached to gillnets and traps on the ocean floor is one of the greatest threats” to the animal, along with vessel strikes and ocean noise. Underwater noise pollution interrupts the normal behavior of right whales and interferes with their communication.
Monarch butterfly
With its count falling to the low tens of thousands in the western United States last year, the monarch is now under government consideration for listing under the Endangered Species Act. For monarchs, farming and other human development have eradicated state-size swaths of native milkweed habitat, cutting the butterfly’s numbers by 90% over the past two decades.
Delta Smelt
Some of the most endangered animals may not be cuddly or photogenic, but they are nevertheless worth saving. One example is the delta smelt, a small fish that swims in the San Francisco Bay and has almost been eliminated from the wild. “The tiny delta smelt is one of the best indicators of environmental conditions in the San Francisco Bay Delta, an ecologically important estuary that is a major hub for California’s water system – and an ecosystem that is now rapidly unraveling,” according to the Center for Biological Diversity.
The “smeltdown in the Delta,” as the extinction path of the delta smelt is known, has left the once-abundant species in critical condition due to water diversions, pollutants, and harmful non-native species that thrive in the degraded Delta habitat, the center said.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A man whose truck was being impounded suddenly grabbed a rifle and opened fire, killing a California Highway Patrol officer and wounding two others before he was killed, authorities said.
Other drivers ran for cover and two people were slightly injured as dozens of bullets flew shortly after 5:30 p.m. Monday just off a freeway in Riverside, east of Los Angeles.
“We don’t know his motive for this crime,” Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz said.
KABC-TV reported that a man identified the shooter as his son, Aaron Luther, 49, of neighboring Beaumont.
A CHP officer was doing paperwork to impound the pickup truck when the man reached in, grabbed a rifle and fatally wounded the officer, authorities said.
The officer was identified as Andrew Moye, Jr.
“I am devastated by the tragedy that unfolded earlier in Riverside. Tonight, I mourn the loss of one of our own,” CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said in a tweet.
‘It was a long and horrific gun battle’
Family members said Moye was 33 and had been with the CHP for about four years, according to KABC-TV.
Two other CHP officers were wounded, one critically, as officers from several agencies fought the man.
“It was a long and horrific gun battle,” the chief said.
Dennis Luther of Riverside said he watched the shootout on television.
“It’s hard. I love him. And I’m sorry for the policeman,” he told KABC-TV. “I’m devastated. I just can’t believe it.”
Luther said his son served prison time for attempted murder but was released more than a decade ago. He says he doesn’t know what his son was doing with a gun as a felon, which is illegal.
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After his truck was impounded, Aaron Luther called his wife to pick him up, his father said.
When she arrived, the tow truck was there.
“She said she heard ‘pop, pop, pop’ … gunfire, and then a bullet went through the windshield of her car,” Luther said of his son’s wife.
The father said his son recently seemed depressed, was having knee pain and marital problems but was devoted to his two children and a stepchild.
“He lived for his kids. That’s what motivated him,” Luther said. “So I don’t know what overcame him. I mean, I wish I did know.”
A bullet flew through her front windshield
Two people received superficial injuries and “they’re going to be OK.” Parker said.
Jennifer Moctezuma, 31, of Moreno Valley told the Los Angeles Times that she was driving home with her 6-year-old twins when a bullet flew through her front windshield.
Charles Childress, 56, a retired Marine from Moreno Valley, was in the car behind her.
He led the family as they crawled to the bottom of a bridge to hide and none were harmed, the Times reported.
“He’s my hero,” Moctezuma said.
Authorities did not immediately say what prompted the officer to stop and impound the truck. Investigators didn’t immediately know where the gunman came from or where he was headed, Diaz said.
After the shooting, dozens of law enforcement officers gathered outside of the hospital in nearby Moreno Valley. Snipers were posted on the roof as a precaution.
Dozens lined up and saluted as the officer’s flag-draped body was removed from the hospital and placed in a hearse. Motorcycle officers then led a procession as the hearse was driven to the county coroner’s office.
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Stephen Colbert called out President Trump tonight for continuing to spread conspiracy theories on Twitter, then feigning innocence.
After branding the president “conspiracist in chief,” The Late Show host played a clip of an impromptu news conference Trump had today outside Marine One in Morristown, New Jersey.
“Trump was asked about Jeffrey Epstein and he defended a conspiracy theory about the Clintons killing Epstein that the president himself retweeted, which was originally posted by comedian Terrence K. Williams,” Colbert explained.
After pointing out that Williams is “a big Trump fan,” the president tried to distance himself from the comedian’s tweet, even though he retweeted it to his 63 million followers.
“That was a retweet. That wasn’t from me. That was from him,” Trump told reporters.
Colbert wasn’t buying Trump’s explanation. He proceeded to offer a definition of a retweet, adding that retweets do equal endorsements.
“First of all, it was from you. A retweet is from you! That’s how it works,” he quipped.
The CBS late-night host then mocked Trump for continuing to spread conspiracy theories about prominent Democrats and Epstein’s private island.
“Did Bill Clinton go to that island? Did Hillary hide her emails on that Island? Could that be the island where Barack Obama was really born?” Colbert pondered in his best Trump voice. “I’m not saying that all three of them killed Jeffrey Epstein. I’m just saying, did all three of them kill Jeffrey Epstein?”
Though China is demanding the U.S. stay out of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, the demonstrators who’ve stormed one of the world’s busiest airports this week resemble those who dumped tea into Boston Harbor more than two centuries ago, according to retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding.
The way China has tried to discredit the Hong Kong protesters is similar to the way King George III of England criticized the Colonial protesters in December 1773, Spalding claimed Tuesday on “Fox News @ Night.”
“A little more than 240 years ago, those kids would’ve been our Founding Fathers, actually, fighting for our freedom,” Spalding, a former official at the National Security Council, said. “Rather than the Hong Kong airport, it was Boston Harbor where they were tossing tea in.”
In 1997, the United Kingdom transferred sovereignty of Hong Kong to China, under which the island has been a semi-autonomous special administrative region.
Protests have taken place in the Hong Kong region for more than two months now, as tens of thousands demand that Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam step down and that the government pull legislation that would allow it to extradite criminal suspects to mainland China. The fear is that on the mainland, those suspects would face unfair trials and torture.
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The demonstrations, in turn, have raised concerns among U.S. officials about how far China might go to clamp down.
“The United States, and all the freedom-loving nations around the world, must stand ready to swiftly move to defend freedom if China escalates the conflict in Hong Kong,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said in a statement.
On “Fox News @ Night,” Spalding added he believed it is important that Trump and the United States stand up for the demonstrators.
“There’s a failed belief that if we stand up to totalitarians, it’ll make it worse for the protesters,” he said.
“The Chinese Communist Party is going to do what they want to do. They believe we are fomenting revolution because of who we are.”
He predicted Asia and Europe will not make any meaningful moves in regard to the protests, and that the U.S. should be the one to act if necessary.
“One of the things we talked about in the National Security strategy is America needed to get back to talking about our principles — not just open markets lead to wealth, but open markets and democratic principles lead to a better world.”
Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj and Alex Pappas contributed to this report.
Frog meat is among the many items imported from China that had been facing tariffs in a few weeks, but now the tariffs are delayed until December.
Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Getty Images
Frog meat is among the many items imported from China that had been facing tariffs in a few weeks, but now the tariffs are delayed until December.
Getty Images
The stock market soared Tuesday on news that the Trump administration is postponing some tariffs on Chinese imports this fall, sparing popular consumer items such as cellphones and laptops until after the Christmas shopping season. It’s only a partial reprieve, though. Other Chinese imports will still be hit with a 10% tariff on Sept. 1, as scheduled. The administration reportedly was guided by which products could most easily be obtained outside China. But there were still some head-scratchers on the tariff lists.
These products are among the $112 billion worth of Chinese imports facing a 10% tariff in less than three weeks:
American flags (the U.S. imported more than $6 billion worth of American flags from China last year)
Ski and snowmobile gloves
Nuts in shell
Black and white pepper
Human hair, unworked (the U.S. imported $615,766 worth last year)
An additional $160 billion worth of Chinese imports will be spared a tariff until Dec. 15, to avoid hitting holiday sales. These items include:
Prepared or preserved frog meat
Ice hockey gloves
Shelled nuts
Salt and pepper dispensers made of plastic
Human hair, fashioned into wigs or false beards
Some Chinese imports were dropped from the tariff target list altogether, including:
Bibles (China is the No. 1 source of imported Bibles and other prayer books. These were originally targeted for a 10% tariff, but importers’ prayers for an exemption were granted.)
Dozens of immigrant workers have been released a day after being detained in the largest immigration raid in a decade in the United States. AP
Aaron Hall, an immigration attorney in Aurora, Colorado, is still trying to figure out what exactly to tell his clients about a new Trump administration policy that allows federal immigration agents to quickly deport undocumented immigrants they encounter anywhere in the U.S.
For the past 15 years, the fast-track deportation process, known as expedited removal, has been used mostly by Border Patrol agents near the border. But now, for the first time, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents can unilaterally question, arrest, detain and deport undocumented immigrants who have been here for less than two years that they encounter anywhere in the country.
Does that mean immigrants should carry all their papers proving their legal status every time they leave the house? Should undocumented immigrants carry paperwork showing they’ve been in the country longer than two years? Should all Hispanics approached by ICE remain silent and demand to speak with an attorney?
“It’s really tricky,” Hall said. The only certainty is that “people who have legal immigration status, or have pending applications, or even U.S. citizens, will be put into expedited removal proceedings, and some will be deported before they’re able to make their case.”
CLOSE
After 9/11, the U.S. enforced stricter control on immigration. This enforcement led to the birth of Homeland Security and ICE, but what is ICE exactly? We explain. Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
The nationwide expansion of expedited removal, which took effect July 23, may be one of the most consequential changes to immigration enforcement under Donald Trump’s presidency.
To combat illegal immigration, the White House has focused mostly on the southern border, deploying National Guard and active-duty military troops to stem what they describe as a national security crisis. But expanding expedited removal moves immigration enforcement far from the border and into every community in the U.S.
That dramatic expansion, which has been considered since the early days of the Trump administration, has opened a wide range of questions about the way federal immigration agents will use their new powers, how to limit cases of racial profiling and how many legal residents and U.S. citizens will be caught up in the process.
“It means that the only limit on (the administration’s) ability to deport brown-skinned people is going to be the number of detention beds they have,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, legal director of the immigrant advocacy program at the Legal Aid Justice Center based in Charlottesville, Virginia.
ICE, which is primarily responsible for arresting undocumented immigrants in the interior of the country, said its agents do not, and will not, conduct “random or indiscriminate” raids as it expands its use of expedited removal. Instead, the agency said, it will continue using “targeted enforcement operations” to identify and arrest specific undocumented immigrants. ICE vowed to use the new powers responsibly.
“ICE’s routine targeted enforcement model remains the same,” spokesman Richard Rocha said. The only change is “how ICE is able to remove aliens.”
Expedited removal was created by Congress in 1996. It allows federal immigration agents to bypass the regular deportation system, which includes court hearings, appeals and a final deportation order signed by a judge. The immigration agent needs only approval from a supervisor in the field, and the decision cannot be appealed in any court.
The main exception provided in the law is for undocumented immigrants who request asylum. Once the undocumented immigrant claims a fear of returning to his or her home country, the immigrant agent is supposed to pause the deportation process until an asylum officer can hear the person’s claim.
At first, the program was used sparingly. President Bill Clinton allowed it to be used only against people who entered U.S. ports of entry without a visa or valid travel documents.
In 2004, President George W. Bush expanded its use to include people caught within 100 miles of the nation’s land border with Canada and Mexico and people who had illegally entered the country within the previous two weeks. President Barack Obama maintained that structure.
From the first days of Trump’s presidency, the administration saw expedited removal as a way to get around the historic backlog in immigration court and more quickly deport more undocumented immigrants.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan made it official when his agency published a rule expanding expedited removal to the fullest extent allowable under law. Federal immigration agents can use expedited removal against people caught anywhere in the country who arrived within the previous two years.
McAleenan said the expansion is “one more tool” his agents could use to confront the “security and humanitarian crisis on the Southwest border.”
Immigration attorneys, and even some government reports, raise serious questions about granting ICE agents powers to unilaterally deport people from the country.
One major concern is that people legally residing in the U.S. – citizens, permanent residents or visa holders – will be erroneously scooped up by federal agents.
That’s what happened in June when Francisco Erwin Galicia, 17, who was born in Dallas, was arrested by Border Patrol agents. Even though his attorney said Galicia was carrying his Texas state ID and a wallet-sized copy of his birth certificate, the government held him for 26 days. It wasn’t until The Dallas Morning News ran a story about his case that Galicia was released.
Such cases have been on the rise since Trump took office.
“With this expansion of authority, we can expect that that would grow exponentially,” said Royce Murray, managing director of programs at the council. “And it’s unclear what if any checks and balances there will be to make sure we are not putting U.S. citizens and others at real risk.”
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a body created by Congress, has studied expedited removal for more than a decade. In its first study published in 2005, it found that an “alarming” number of Border Patrol agents violated the rules of implementing expedited removal.
In some cases, agents didn’t ask if people feared returning to their home country, a legally required step. In other cases, commission observers heard undocumented immigrants request asylum, but Border Patrol agents wrote down that they had not.
In all, 15% of the undocumented immigrants who requested asylum were deported before getting an asylum hearing, the report found. The commission reviewed the program again in 2016, and even though it was given far less access to expedited removal interviews, it concluded that problems remained rampant.
There are also questions about whether the use of expedited removal in places away from the border are legal. Congress allowed that to happen, but because the Trump administration is the first to try it out, the legality of the process has never been tested.
The Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan group that conducts research for members of Congress, found that courts have generally allowed people to be deported through expedited removal near the border. But courts raised questions about eliminating due process rights for immigrants the longer they’ve been in the country and the farther they are captured from the border.
That’s why the nationwide use of expedited removal “remains an unresolved question,” the service concluded in a report in 2018.
U.S. law makes clear that people who are deported through expedited removal cannot challenge their deportation. Even challenging their initial arrest on constitutional grounds may be impossible, as evidenced by a case filed last year.
In February 2017, ICE agents arrested nine undocumented immigrants in two separate locations in Northern Virginia, even though they were searching for different people. A group of the immigrants sued, claiming they were racially profiled and wrongly detained in violation of their Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. A federal judge allowed the case to proceed, ruling that the undocumented immigrants raised “clear violations of a known constitutional right.”
In April, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit – one nominated by Trump, all three nominated by Republican presidents – struck down the lawsuit, ruling that Congress had not created any mechanism for ICE agents to be sued in federal court, meaning the case couldn’t proceed.
Sandoval-Moshenberg, who represents the undocumented immigrants and appealed the court of appeals decision, said the ruling shows how helpless immigrants will be as ICE agents use their expanded powers.
“It’s a shocking ruling,” he said. “It drastically expands the number of people who will never even go before a judge, so they have no one.”
In a statement, ICE said it does not usually approach people on the street and question them about their immigration status. But the statement points out that Congress gave ICE agents the power to do just that, quoting a section of U.S. law that allows agents to interrogate any “person believed to be an alien as to his or her right to be or remain in the United States.”
The American Civil Liberties Union and the American Immigration Council filed a lawsuit challenging the nationwide expansion of expedited removal last week.
Immigrants remain in a state of apprehension, knowing that any encounter with ICE may lead to their quick removal from the country. Megan Lantz, a lawyer who represents immigrants who work in meatpacking plants and farms around Ames, Iowa, simply hopes she’ll be able to talk to immigrants before they’re on a plane back home.
“Immigration officers have total authority here,” she said. “So there’s no chance for me as a lawyer to fight for that person. That is really concerning.”
Italian American New Yorkers weighed in Tuesday on Chris Cuomo’s claim that “Fredo” is an ethnic slur — and while they said it’s insulting, the agreement was that anyone who likens it to the N-word is stunad.
“If anything, when we call somebody ‘Fredo’ it’s like [to say they’re] stupid,” said a worker at Bensonhurst bakery Villabate Alba, who gave her name as Angela. “If somebody were to call me ‘Fredo,’ I would be like, ‘OK, you too.’ … Not like the N-word. That’s another level.”
A worker at S.A.S. Italian Records on 18th Avenue said that any insult meant by the “Godfather” reference was tied to Fredo being a turncoat.
“Fredo means a backstabber, a person who went against his own kind. He went against his brother,” said Sergio Conte, 54. “If I was black and somebody called me the N-word, I would flip out. I’d be in anger.”
Cuomo, the host of a prime-time CNN news show and kid brother of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, flipped out Sunday when an agitator called him “Fredo,” in a reference to slow-on-the-uptake “Godfather” character Fredo Corleone.
“I’ll f–king throw you down these stairs like a f–king punk,” railed Cuomo, 49, in the caught-on-video meltdown. “I’ll f–king wreck your s–t.”
Sergio’s nephew argued that the angrier Cuomo got over one perceived ethnic stereotype, the more he fell into another.
“Most Italians think they have to have this tough-guy attitude,” said Matthew Conte, 22. “But when you’re like Chris Cuomo, who’s in the public eye, you have to be more careful about things like that.
“You can’t constantly be playing this tough guy role,” he said. “Not everybody is Tony Soprano.”
Even those who investigated — and participated in — organized crime panned Cuomo for taking the bait.
“It took a page right out of Fredo’s book,” said one retired police source who investigated the mob for years. “If he was more like Michael [Corleone] he would’ve dealt with it quietly later, and there would’ve been no fingerprints.”
One mob associate told The Post, “That sounds like the rant of a 20-year-old hothead, not somebody who’s a professional and has his own family … It almost sounds like this guy hit a raw nerve.”
INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — After a friend of the Dayton mass shooter was found to have bought ammunition and body armor used in the attack, 13 Investigates took a deeper dive into his history.
There’s no evidence that Ethan Kollie knew about the attack Connor Betts was planning to carry out in Dayton. But prosecutors have unsealed charges against Kollie that accuse him of lying on a federal firearms form while buying a pistol unrelated to the Dayton shooting.
Kollie’s LinkedIn page shows he is currently employed as a car salesman in Dayton, but he’s not a stranger to central Indiana. Previous listings reveal he worked for Carmel marketing firm Fortitude Marketing Solutions, which moved to Indianapolis and eventually shut down.
Eyewitness News made calls to a number listed for Fortitude Marketing Solutions and it was disconnected.
Kollie now faces charges for buying and storing body armor, a gun accessory and a 100-round magazine used in the Dayton attack. Police say Kollie stored the items at his home so Betts’ parents would not see them. But investigators were clear that Kollie is not accused of helping to carry out the shooting, and he had no idea how Betts planned to use the items Kollie was holding for him.
WEST GLACIER, Montana (KPAX TV) — A teenager died Monday in Glacier National Park after the vehicle she was in was hit by falling rocks on Going-to-the-Sun Road.
Park spokeswoman Lauren Alley says the incident happened at around 7 p.m. near the East Tunnel on Going-to-the-Sun Road.
The rocks hit the top of the vehicle and shattered the rear windshield, fatally injuring the girl and also injuring her parents and two other children in the vehicle.
Alley says that the A.L.E.R.T. air ambulance responded to the scene but was unable to airlift the girl because of her unstable condition.
The 14-year-old died while being taken by ambulance to Kalispell Regional Medical Center.
The two adults suffered significant bruises while the other two children in the vehicle suffered minor injuries. They were all taken by ambulance to the hospital.
The family was visiting the park from Utah. The girl’s name and hometown will be released once family notifications have been completed, according to Alley.
Alley says the rocks that hit the vehicle were between fist-sized and 12” in diameter.
Park officials estimate that the amount of debris could have filled the bed of a pickup truck.
The rocks fell from an unknown height from the mountains above the road, according to Alley.
Going-to-the-Sun Road was closed at the East Tunnel for approximately three hours while crews cleared the rocks and a tow truck removed the vehicle.
Alley says that the last fatal injury from rockfall on the Going-to-the-Sun Road happened in 1996 in the Logan Pass area.
New York — Corrections officers may have falsified reports saying they checked on Jeffrey Epstein as required by protocol, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation into Epstein’s apparent suicide.
Multiple sources told CBS News that Epstein’s cellmate at the Metropolitan Correctional Center posted bail last Friday, leaving Epstein alone in his cell the day before he died. Another source familiar with the investigation said it appears Epstein had been dead one to two hours before he was found.
Epstein, who was being held on sex-trafficking charges, was taken off suicide watch about one week after an apparent attempt to hang himself on July 23.
At least one temporary employee at the detention center was on watch Friday night into Saturday morning, multiple sources said. The replacement employee was not part of the regular detail assigned to Epstein’s special housing unit.
A representative for staffers at the Metropolitan Correctional Center said work conditions at the facility have been inadequate for nearly two years. Corrections officers have long complained about being overworked with 60-plus hour work weeks and mandatory overtime.
Jeffrey Epstein’s death and role in “Ponzi scheme” investigated
The FBI has begun reaching out to begin the process of interviewing officers and staff at the Manhattan detention center as part of its investigation into Epstein’s death, a source familiar with the matter said. There are at least two or three prison guards who have gotten defense attorneys, the source said.
The FBI also wants to review video from cameras in the special housing unit where Epstein was held, the source said. It is unclear whether the cameras record individual cells or areas outside the cells. It is also unknown whether the cameras were even working at the time. Investigators also want to look at prison documents, including overtime records.
One day after the FBI raided Epstein’s 70 acre private estate in the Virgin Islands, President Trump said Tuesday he wants a full investigation, which he said included questions about former President Bill Clinton.
“You have to ask, did Bill Clinton go to the island? That’s the question. If you find that out, you’re gonna know a lot,” the president said.
Mr. Trump on Saturday retweeted a conspiracy theory that claims to link the Clintons to Epstein’s death. In a statement, a Clinton spokesman said the suggestion that the Clintons were involved is “ridiculous, and of course not true — and Donald Trump knows it.”
Attorneys representing some of Epstein’s alleged victims told CBS News they plan to file civil cases against his estate in the coming days. Some are even trying to tear up the now infamous 2008 plea deal Epstein made with Florida prosecutors which would make it easier for them to go after his accomplices.
President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday morning that he was going to delay implementation of looming taxes on a broad set of Chinese-made goods and sent the stock market soaring.
In both cases, the literal implications of the policy changes are modest. Instead, the market reaction seems to be about reading the tea leaves as to Trump’s longer-term intentions.
Designating China as a currency manipulator had no automatic consequences for policy in Washington or Beijing. It was simply seen as an escalating move and a sign of hardening hearts, an indication that Trump’s fans in the business community might not be getting the pre-election climbdown from trade war that they craved.
Conversely, delaying the tariffs on a portion of the scheduled-for-tariffing products by a few months does not have a particularly large direct impact on the American economy. Stocks went up instead largely because it was seen as a sign that the previous signs of escalation in the trade negotiations had been read wrongly. Trump seems to remain attuned to stock market signals and nervous about indications that global financial markets don’t like trade confrontation. That gives investors reason to believe that Trump ultimately won’t push trade war to the limits, and that sent markets soaring.
The fact that Trump climbed down in the midst of increasing international attention to escalating protests and crackdowns in Hong Kong gives Chinese leaders a timely propaganda win. But critically, nothing in the vast US-China trade dispute docket has actually been resolved. Trump just blinked a little bit in a mutually harmful conflict that has no obvious endpoint.
Trump is delaying taxes on Chinese-made consumer goods
Last year, the Trump administration imposed a new 10 percent tax on many categories of Chinese-made goods.
If you look at the full list, it is, again, basically an effort to exempt normal consumer goods from the taxes. That includes everything from iPhones to “record players, other than coin‐ or token‐operated, with loudspeakers” (i.e., a turntable you might buy for your house but not a jukebox) to baby monitors, watch bands, violins, sleeping bags, badminton nets, cigarette lighters, and diapers. There is a list of products with tariffs going forward in September, which is composed mostly of food and agricultural commodities.
The USTR’s official reason for the delay is that “certain products are being removed from the tariff list based on health, safety, national security and other factors and will not face additional tariffs of 10 percent.”
This appears to reflect the unfortunate Trump era habit of having government officials just tell casual lies about the conduct of public policy. Trump has pretty clearly been worried about a loss of political support from farmers, so he is sticking with tariffs on Chinese agricultural products because that helps farmers. But he’s delaying the tariffs on other consumer products until late enough in the year for retailers to get through the critical Christmas shopping season without any need for price hikes.
In the larger trajectory of the American economy, a 10 percent tax on Chinese imports starting on September 1 and a 10 percent tax on Chinese imports starting on December 15 are not very different. The real question is where is this trade confrontation policy going and why.
Nobody truly knows what Trump is trying to accomplish
China really has been placed under significant pressure by the tariffs.
Officials have attempted to preserve the viability of Chinese exporting companies by allowing the value of their currency to decline, which means that everyday Chinese people are taking a hit to their living standards. There are also dozens of longstanding questions about the basic viability of the Chinese growth model, which is based on very low levels of household consumption with tons of money poured into domestic investment projects — projects that many outside observers believe are saddling Chinese banks with bad debts.
It’s also far from clear that China’s big push to get on the cutting edge of technology is totally working. China’s efforts to build a domestic competitor to the A320 and Boeing 737 has featured delays and massive cost overruns, and the plane still does not seem to work.
But China’s basic negotiating objectives are clear: Officials would like the US to stop implementing the tariffs without China needing to make fundamental changes about how its economy works.
What’s much less clear is what Trump’s objectives are. When it came to renegotiating NAFTA, Trump made a lot of big threats and engaged in tons of overheated rhetoric about how disastrous the original deal was. But the agreement he finally reached involved essentially three tweaks to the NAFTA framework — one that helps American autoworkers, one that helps American pharmaceutical companies, and one that helps American dairy farmers.
Whether that strikes you as a good thing or a bad thing on balance, it’s just not that big of a deal. And it doesn’t change the basic structure of NAFTA as a program to facilitate deep integration of product markets across the US, Canada, and Mexico.
For a while, it seemed like Trump was aiming for something similar with China — talk a big game, wring out a few concessions for a few specific industries, and declare victory.
But at other times, Trump has seemed to want to seriously push for China to genuinely dismantle huge swathes of how its current economic policy works. Trump has also seemed to want to push for China to reduce the bilateral trade deficit with the United States to zero. Either of these would be a tall order, but they’re fundamentally different things, and Trump equivocates between them.
Another idea catching on in some national security circles is that the US shouldn’t be hoping to resolve this at all; proponents believe it would be a smart foreign policy move to “decouple” the two economies so that the US would just be doing less trade with China.
The partial climbdown on tariffs is a ray of hope for business people who want Trump to take a “declare victory and go home” approach to the trade conflict, hence the market surge. The surge itself will be used by some of Trump’s advisers to press the case that he should do a quick deal and enjoy the resulting stock market enthusiasm. But Trump himself has provided very little insight into what he’s thinking, and he’s much too dishonest for anything he says to have much value anyway.
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — A longtime friend of the Dayton gunman bought the body armor, a 100-round magazine, and a gun accessory used to kill nine people, but there’s no indication that the man knew that his friend was planning a mass shooting, federal agents said Monday.
Ethan Kollie told investigators just hours after the shooting that he bought the equipment and kept it at his apartment so Betts’ parents would not find it, according to a court document.
Federal investigators emphasized that there was no evidence that Kollie knew how Connor Betts would use the equipment or that Kollie intentionally took part in the planning.
The accusations came as prosecutors unsealed charges against Kollie that they said were unrelated to the Aug. 4 shooting in Dayton, Ohio. Betts opened fire in a popular entertainment district, killing his sister and eight others. Officers killed Betts within 30 seconds, just outside a crowded bar, and authorities have said hundreds more people may have died if Betts had gotten inside.
Prosecutors accused Kollie of lying about not using marijuana on federal firearms forms in the purchase of a pistol that was not used in the shooting.
Possessing a firearm as an unlawful user of a controlled substance is a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Making a false statement regarding firearms carries a potential maximum sentence of up to five years’ imprisonment.
A message seeking comment was left at a phone number for Kollie and with his attorney.
Police have said there was nothing in Betts’ background that would have prevented him from buying the AR-15 style gun used in the shooting.
The weapon was bought online from a dealer in Texas and shipped to another firearms dealer in the Dayton area, police said on the day of the shooting.
Betts and Kollie apparently had been friends for several years.
Kollie told agents that they had smoked marijuana and used acid several times a week beginning in 2014 through 2015, said U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman.
Betts was with Kollie in 2016 when Betts was charged with driving under the influence, according to a police report from Bellbrook where the gunman lived with his parents.
Investigators have not released a motive for the shooting.
Eight of the victims who died were shot multiple times, according to the Montgomery County coroner’s office. More than 30 others were left injured, including at least 14 with gunshot wounds, hospital officials and investigators said.
Just days after the shooting, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine announced a package of gun control measures , including requiring background checks for nearly all gun sales in Ohio and allowing courts to restrict firearms access for people perceived as threats.
Two state lawmakers on Monday reintroduced legislation that would restrict access to guns.
One bill would require background checks while the second raises the minimum age for all gun purchases to 21.
Nick Gounaris, an attorney for Kollie, sent 10TV the following statement.
Like everyone else, we watched the press conference held by the United States Attorney. Although we will not discuss the two pending criminal charges against our client, we do want to respond to comments made during the press conference.
Prior to his arrest on August 9th, Mr. Kollie participated in three separate interviews with federal authorities in order to provide helpful information to aid investigators. He does not deny his friendship with Connor Betts and he was as shocked and surprised as everyone else that Mr. Betts committed the violent and senseless massacre in the Oregon District. We appreciate the United States Attorney stating that there was no indication that Mr. Kollie knew that he was assisting Betts in the shooting.
Drone video shows FBI agents and NYPD cops seizing computer equipment from Jeffrey Epstein‘s mansion on a private island in the Caribbean, according to a report Tuesday.
The video was shot Monday during a raid on Little St. James, the 70-acre island Epstein owned in the US Virgin Islands, CNBC said.
It shows at least two desktop computers and an Apple computer were packaged and marked for transport, CNBC said.
The raid was one of several conducted at various locations tied to the late multimillionaire financier and convicted pedophile, law enforcement sources have told The Post.
Authorities were searching for sex toys and other evidence to corroborate claims by hundreds of women who have accused Epstein, 66, of sexually abusing them when they were underage girls, the sources said.
Epstein was busted July 6 on child sex-trafficking charges and apparently hanged himself Saturday morning while being held without bail in a federal lockup in Lower Manhattan.
The NYPD cops visible in the video are part of the FBI New York Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, CNBC said.
“The NYPD is a partner in the task force with the FBI that led to the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein last month,” an NYPD spokeswoman told the network.
“The case remains an active and ongoing investigation, and the NYPD continues to work alongside the FBI in investigating leads — including at Epstein’s estate in the Virgin Islands. The NYPD declines further comment on an ongoing investigation.”
Cardi, born Belcalis Almanzar, teased late last month that she was filming a voter outreach video with the Vermont senator, who she has openly supported in the past. Cardi asked fans what they wanted her to discuss with Sanders during their conversation, which was filmed at a nail salon owned by two black women in Detroit.
In the clip released Tuesday, the pair addressed what Cardi asked what she claimed was her fans’ most asked question, “What are we gonna do about wages in America?”
“For example, as a New Yorker — not now but when I was not famous — I felt like no matter how many jobs I get I wasn’t able to make ends meet,” Cardi said.
The rapper and new mother has been open about her life prior to fame, working as a stripper to pay her bills after she left a job at a supermarket that she claimed in a 2016 interview paid her $200 a week.
“Right now we have tens of millions of people making what I call starvation wages,” Sanders responded. “How do you pay your rent? How do you pay for food? How do you pay for transportation? You can’t.”
Sanders also said he supported federal legislation to increase minimum wage to $15 and policies that would make it easier for American workers to form labor unions.
Cardi also seemed to take a subtle hit at a President Donald Trump, who has consistently bragged about low unemployment rates and job numbers during his administration.
“My thing is, you know certain people like to brag there is more jobs now in America,” Cardi said. “But it’s like yeah there’s an increase of jobs given, but what are they paying in these jobs? They’re practically paying nothing.”
When others criticized the rapper for speaking on something beyond her scope, Cardi responded that she was allowed to speak out on issues in her own country.
“I get it you are a conservative you and you can support who you want but you can’t ignore the slowly but surely racial war that going on in this country that are the reasons of these tragedy,” she wrote.
The rest of the Cardi B interview with Sanders is expected to be released in segments throughout the week by the rapper and in its entirety at some point by the candidate’s campaign.
Long advocated by White House adviser Stephen Miller, the Torquemada of the immigration inquisition, the new policy is a major step in Trump’s crusade to Make America White Again. If it survives court challenges, the new rule could dramatically reduce legal — I repeat, legal — immigration from low-income countries. Not coincidentally, I am sure, this means fewer black and brown people would be granted resident status.
Two staff members assigned to Epstein’s unit at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MMC) in lower Manhattan have also been placed on administrative leave, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said Tuesday, noting additional actions may be taken if warranted.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) disclosed the developments Tuesday afternoon, one day after Barr expressed outrage over Epstein’s death and spoke of “serious irregularities” at the federal prison in New York.
“I was appalled — indeed, the entire department was — and, frankly, angry to learn of the MCC’s failure to adequately secure this prisoner. We are now learning of serious irregularities at this facility that are deeply concerning and that demand a thorough investigation,” Barr said during remarks at a law enforcement conference in New Orleans on Monday morning.
“We will get to the bottom of what happened at the MCC and we will hold people accountable for this failure,” Barr said.
Kupec said Tuesday that the MCC warden, whose name is Shirley Skipper-Scott, would be reassigned to the bureau’s Northeast Regional Office while the FBI and Justice Department inspector general investigate the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death.
James Petrucci has been named acting warden of the MCC, the Justice Department added.
“The Bureau of Prisons also placed on administrative leave two MCC staff assigned to Mr. Epstein’s unit pending the outcome of the investigations. Additional actions may be taken as the circumstances warrant,” Kupec said.
Epstein, a registered sex offender following an earlier conviction in 2008, was found dead of apparent suicide in his cell early Saturday morning. He had been placed on suicide watch back in late July after reportedly being found with marks on his neck.
The developments over the weekend have triggered questions about the circumstances of his death and massive scrutiny of the conditions at the detention facility.
Various reports have described the federal jail as being short-staffed and some have suggested that corrections officers did not follow protocol by regularly checking on Epstein during his detention.
Epstein, a wealthy financier with ties to multiple powerful people, had been held at the detention facility since July 6 when he was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges. His death cuts short a high-profile criminal prosecution, though Barr insisted Monday that prosecutors would continue their investigation into the sex trafficking allegations.
“Let me assure you this case will continue on against anyone who was complicit with Epstein,” Barr said. “Any co-conspirators should not rest easy. The victims deserve justice and they will get it.”
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