HAVANA, Cuba (AP) — A strengthening Tropical Storm Eta sliced across Cuba yesterday and was aimed at the southern tip of Florida, where officials braced for a storm that could hit at hurricane force after leaving scores of dead and over 100 missing in Mexico and Central America.
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Eta expected to be hurricane and strike Florida Keys
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — The Trump administration struggled to meet a court-imposed deadline Thursday for reuniting immigrant children and their parents . Nearly 2,600 children ages 5 years and older were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. The government announced Thursday evening that 1,820 of those children have been reunited with their parents, while 711 children remain in custody because their parents or relatives are ineligible for reunification. Romela Victoria Isaula and her 13-year-old son Geronimo were finally reunited after crossing the border near El Paso in May and being separated for two months. “I am so happy because I have her close,” Geronimo said through a translator. Now they are heading to Massachusetts where they’ll wait for a judge to decide whether they’ll be granted asylum or sent back to Honduras. Romela Victoria Isaula and her son Geronimo are reunited Thu., July 26, 2018. (SOURCE: CBS News) The teenager is one of more than 1,800 children recently reunified with a parent or other family member. However, more than 400 of the 711 still in custody have parents who may have already been deported. “I’m worried here that we have 460 parents who have now been deported to Central America and there is a very high likelihood that those parents are not going to see their children again,” said John Sandweg, a former acting director of Immigration Customs Enforcement. Immigration attorneys say the government is making unilateral decisions that include a parents’ health condition and possible criminal history, with no oversight. “There’s a lot of concern that those standards are being inconsistently applied, or parents are being arbitrarily denied access to their children,” Sandweg pointed out. For the hundreds of ineligible children, shelters will continue to be their home while the government figures out its next move. Meanwhile, the ACLU is asking the federal judge for a new deadline of August 1 for more information on the reunifications which would the government’s feet to the fire. Thursday afternoon, the Department of Justice announced they will have reunified all eligible families by the end of the day. (© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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Over 700 Immigrant Children Won’t Be Reunited With Parents Before Deadline, Say Feds
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Four more people have been arrested in connection to the alleged sex cult NXIVM , including group leaders with such titles “The Prefect” serving “The Vanguard.” Clare Bronfman, 39; Kathy Russell, 60; Lauren Salzman, 42; and Nancy Salzman, 64, were arrested Tuesday on a superseding indictment charging them with racketeering conspiracy. Bronfman, a daughter of the late billionaire philanthropist and former Seagram chairman Edgar Bronfman Sr., is an heiress to the Seagram’s liquor fortune. Previously charged and added to the new indictment were group founder Keith Raniere , 57, and former “Smallville” actress Allison Mack , 35. On Tuesday afternoon, Bronfman was set to be arraigned in a Brooklyn federal court while NXIVM employee Russell, NXIVM president Nancy Salzman and daughter Lauren Salzman were to appear in federal court in Albany. READ: Department Of Justice Release On Superseding Indictment (July 24, 2018) A federal judge last month denied bail for Raniere , who prosecutors accuse of forming a barbaric secret society within NXIVM, pronounced “Nex-i-um,” a group that over the years has attracted a following of minor celebrities and wealthy supporters. Prosecutors told a judge that they worried Bronfman, who owns a private island in Fiji, would finance Raniere’s escape if he were released. Clare Bronfman competes in the 2004 Bayer/USET Festival of Champions in Del Mar, Calif. (credit: Tim Tadder/Corbis/Getty Images) Prosecutors allege a sub-group branded brainwashed victims with Raniere’s initials during initiation ceremonies that turned them into his sex slaves. The new indictment adds racketeering charges involving conspiracy to commit identity theft, seeking to get the e-mail usernames and passwords of Raniere’s critics and enemies, using credit card and banking information from one of Raniere’s sexual partners after her death in November 2016. The indictment also includes charges of bringing a woman from Mexico to serve of Rainier’s sex slave in the United States. “The victim was confined to a room in Clifton Park, New York, for nearly two years as punishment for having romantic feelings for a man who was not Raniere,” according to a release from the Department of Justice about the indictments. “The victim was told that if she left the room she would be sent to Mexico without any identification documents.” In April, authorities filed criminal sex trafficking and forced labor conspiracy charges against Mack and – also known as “Vanguard” – in connection NXIVM. Keith Raniere A complaint previously filed in United States District Court seeks to foreclose on two properties in the Town of Halfmoon in upstate New York, about 15 miles from the NXIVM group’s headquarters in Albany. READ: Civil Complaint To Seize Properties In Halfmoon, N.Y. The document also gave some insight into other rituals and practices of the NXIVM group, which authorities say grew out of a previous enterprise called Executive Success Programs, Inc. (“ESP”) founded in 1998 by Raniere and Nancy Salzman. “Every year in August, Nxians celebrate ‘Vanguard Week’ in honor of Raniere’s birthday,” the complaint said. “Nancy Salzman is referred to as ‘The Prefect’; by Nxians, and her birthday is celebrated in May with the ‘Festival of Flowers.’” The complaint also described women’s roles in the empowerment group compared to the men, and especially Raniere as its leader. Based on information obtained during the course of this investigation, since ESP’s founding, Raniere has maintained a rotating group of fifteen to twenty women with whom he maintains sexual relationships. These women are not permitted to have sexual relationships with anyone but Raniere or to discuss with others their relationships with Raniere. Some of the Nxivm curriculum includes teachings about the need for men to have multiple sexual partners and the need for women to be monogamous. As “slaves” to their “masters,” investigators say women were expected to record “collateral” videos professing true and untrue confessions about themselves and others. Investigators allege some participants were branded on their skin with a symbol that incorporated Raniere’s initials. The complaint also described how NXIVM operated self-development courses costing $1,000 a day for five days, and used colored sashes worn by members to identify ranks of “goal levels” of recruitment, similar to how a so-called “pyramid scheme” multilevel marketing group operates. Actress Allison Mack arrives at the United States Eastern District Court for a bail hearing in relation to the sex trafficking charges filed against her on May 4, 2018, in Brooklyn. (credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images) Raniere and Mack have denied the allegations. Bronfman has said in previous public statements that she had no knowledge of wrongdoing. The defense says the women were never abused and willingly let themselves be branded.
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Seagram’s Heiress Among 4 Arrested In Connection To NXIVM Sex Cult
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — You’ll soon need a new ID if you want to travel. In two years, a regular drivers license just wont cut it. If you take to the skies or travel the high seas after October 2020 you’ll need a suped up drivers license, called a Real ID, to travel if you don’t want to use a passport. “A fake drivers license is probably one of the easier things to obtain,” Robert Sinclair Jr. from AAA Northeast said. “With this extra level of scrutiny and examination, it’ll help to keep us safer.” The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles started a campaign to get people switched, saying the deadline is closer than many think. A free version of the new license will let you board a domestic flight. For an extra $30, an enhanced version can also be used in lieu of a passport to board a cruise ship or cross the border into Mexico and Canada. The DMV is passing out flyers to let people know the rules of the new program. For most, the sticking point is they’ll have to go in person to get the new license. The concept was born out of a recommendation after the 9/11 terror attacks. Nationwide security standards were established for what information was required to be attached to a drivers license. The IDs will also be needed to get into federal buildings and military bases. “It’s an attempt to make sure all states are taking as many security measures as they can,” DMV Executive Deputy Commissioner Theresa Egan said. New Jersey has had Real ID in place for sometime. New Yorkers will soon be required to go in person to DMV and sign up too. For more information, visit the DMV’s website .
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New Yorkers Urged To Sign Up For ‘REAL ID’ Ahead Of Deadline
Authorities say crash involved a passenger bus and three other vehicles on a highway in New Mexico
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Bus crash on New Mexico highway leaves 3 dead, dozens injured
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s lament this week that immigration is “changing the culture” of Europe echoed rising anti-immigrant feelings on both sides of the Atlantic, where Europe and the United States are going through a demographic transformation that makes some of the white majority uncomfortable. Historians and advocates immediately denounced Trump’s comments, saying such talk would encourage white nationalists. “The way he put this argument about changing our culture … about Europe becoming less nice than it is, in other words, these people are here and they are making the culture crappy and making the place lesser, that’s straight out of the white supremacist/white nationalist playbook,” said Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project. Trump, in an interview with the British newspaper The Sun, blamed immigration for a changing culture in Europe: “I think allowing millions and millions of people to come into Europe is very, very sad. I think you are losing your culture. Look around. You go through certain areas that didn’t exist ten or 15 years ago.” Trump, the grandson of a German immigrant and the son of a Scottish immigrant to the United States, repeated his contention at a news conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May: “I just think it’s changing the culture. I think it’s a very negative thing for Europe. I think it’s very negative,” he said. “I think it’s very much hurt other parts of Europe. And I know it’s politically not necessarily correct to say that, but I’ll say it and I’ll say it loud. And I think they better watch themselves because you are changing culture, you are changing a lot of things.” Beirich called those comments “racist.” Claire M. Massey, a scholar at the Institute for British and North American Studies at Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität in Greifswald, Germany, said Trump’s comments were “awfully painful,” especially for the United Kingdom, where immigration has played a key role in rebuilding the country after World War II. “England and the United Kingdom wouldn’t be what it is today without immigrants,” she said. Massey said Trump’s comments remind her of the rhetoric coming from neo-Nazis in Germany and Poland. The comments will embolden the far-right in Europe at a time when many European nations are already very diverse. Lisbon, Portugal, for example, is now home to sizable and visible Brazilian, Cape Verdean, and Angolan populations. The immigrant groups and their Portuguese-born children have helped revitalize areas of the cities once in disrepair and have a presence in everything from professional soccer teams to popular culture. Portuguese Mozambique-born fado singer Mariza is among the nation’s most beloved performers. In France, immigrants from the Middle East and Africa have settled throughout Paris and have drawn the ire of the far-right and even some moderates over the city’s changing makeup. Then-French Prime Minister François Fillon decreed in 2011 that women were banned from wearing face veils outside of the home except in mosques or as car passengers. A European court later upheld the ban, saying the intent was to unify the country, but not before an outcry by human rights activists. Throughout England, from London to Liverpool, immigrants from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the former British colonies in the Caribbean have reshaped various neighborhoods, drawing scorn from members of the far-right and some rural residents who blamed the European Union and immigrants for the economic struggles of once-prosperous mining regions. The United States is also going through a demographic shift. The Census Bureau estimates that the country’s population will have more minorities than whites for the first time in 2043, a change due in part to higher birth rates among Hispanics and a stagnating or declining birth rate among blacks, whites and Asians. Trump’s public life has been filled with controversial statements about immigrants. In the first moments of his presidential campaign in June 2015, he called for the construction of a border wall with Mexico and accused the country of sending migrants who were “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” He continually used dark imagery to depict immigrants as dangerous invaders. Then, in the aftermath of a terrorist attack that December in San Bernardino, California, that was carried out by a U.S.-born Muslim and his Pakistani wife, who was a legal U.S. resident, Trump called for barring all Muslims from entering the country. The Supreme Court eventually upheld his executive order banning travel from several mostly Muslim countries, rejecting challenges that it discriminated against Muslims or exceeded his authority. In January, Trump questioned why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa as he rejected a bipartisan immigration deal, according to one participant and people briefed on the conversation. In recent weeks, Trump bowed to tremendous political pressure and issued an executive order ending his administration’s practice of separating migrant children from their parents when families cross the border with Mexico illegally. Paul A. Kramer, a Vanderbilt University historian who specializes in the politics of inequality in the United States, said Trump’s most recent comments were an intentional attempt to ally himself and his base in the United States with the far-right nationalist movements in Europe. “The rising tide of white nationalism is something that he embraces, that he sees himself as participating in and that he wants to encourage,” Kramer said. (@Copyright 2018. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Trump Comment That Immigrants Are ‘Changing The Culture’ Of Europe Blasted
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s lament this week that immigration is “changing the culture” of Europe echoed rising anti-immigrant feelings on both sides of the Atlantic, where Europe and the United States are going through a demographic transformation that makes some of the white majority uncomfortable. Historians and advocates immediately denounced Trump’s comments, saying such talk would encourage white nationalists. “The way he put this argument about changing our culture … about Europe becoming less nice than it is, in other words, these people are here and they are making the culture crappy and making the place lesser, that’s straight out of the white supremacist/white nationalist playbook,” said Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project. Trump, in an interview with the British newspaper The Sun, blamed immigration for a changing culture in Europe: “I think allowing millions and millions of people to come into Europe is very, very sad. I think you are losing your culture. Look around. You go through certain areas that didn’t exist ten or 15 years ago.” Trump, the grandson of a German immigrant and the son of a Scottish immigrant to the United States, repeated his contention at a news conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May: “I just think it’s changing the culture. I think it’s a very negative thing for Europe. I think it’s very negative,” he said. “I think it’s very much hurt other parts of Europe. And I know it’s politically not necessarily correct to say that, but I’ll say it and I’ll say it loud. And I think they better watch themselves because you are changing culture, you are changing a lot of things.” Beirich called those comments “racist.” Claire M. Massey, a scholar at the Institute for British and North American Studies at Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität in Greifswald, Germany, said Trump’s comments were “awfully painful,” especially for the United Kingdom, where immigration has played a key role in rebuilding the country after World War II. “England and the United Kingdom wouldn’t be what it is today without immigrants,” she said. Massey said Trump’s comments remind her of the rhetoric coming from neo-Nazis in Germany and Poland. The comments will embolden the far-right in Europe at a time when many European nations are already very diverse. Lisbon, Portugal, for example, is now home to sizable and visible Brazilian, Cape Verdean, and Angolan populations. The immigrant groups and their Portuguese-born children have helped revitalize areas of the cities once in disrepair and have a presence in everything from professional soccer teams to popular culture. Portuguese Mozambique-born fado singer Mariza is among the nation’s most beloved performers. In France, immigrants from the Middle East and Africa have settled throughout Paris and have drawn the ire of the far-right and even some moderates over the city’s changing makeup. Then-French Prime Minister François Fillon decreed in 2011 that women were banned from wearing face veils outside of the home except in mosques or as car passengers. A European court later upheld the ban, saying the intent was to unify the country, but not before an outcry by human rights activists. Throughout England, from London to Liverpool, immigrants from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the former British colonies in the Caribbean have reshaped various neighborhoods, drawing scorn from members of the far-right and some rural residents who blamed the European Union and immigrants for the economic struggles of once-prosperous mining regions. The United States is also going through a demographic shift. The Census Bureau estimates that the country’s population will have more minorities than whites for the first time in 2043, a change due in part to higher birth rates among Hispanics and a stagnating or declining birth rate among blacks, whites and Asians. Trump’s public life has been filled with controversial statements about immigrants. In the first moments of his presidential campaign in June 2015, he called for the construction of a border wall with Mexico and accused the country of sending migrants who were “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” He continually used dark imagery to depict immigrants as dangerous invaders. Then, in the aftermath of a terrorist attack that December in San Bernardino, California, that was carried out by a U.S.-born Muslim and his Pakistani wife, who was a legal U.S. resident, Trump called for barring all Muslims from entering the country. The Supreme Court eventually upheld his executive order banning travel from several mostly Muslim countries, rejecting challenges that it discriminated against Muslims or exceeded his authority. In January, Trump questioned why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa as he rejected a bipartisan immigration deal, according to one participant and people briefed on the conversation. In recent weeks, Trump bowed to tremendous political pressure and issued an executive order ending his administration’s practice of separating migrant children from their parents when families cross the border with Mexico illegally. Paul A. Kramer, a Vanderbilt University historian who specializes in the politics of inequality in the United States, said Trump’s most recent comments were an intentional attempt to ally himself and his base in the United States with the far-right nationalist movements in Europe. “The rising tide of white nationalism is something that he embraces, that he sees himself as participating in and that he wants to encourage,” Kramer said. (@Copyright 2018. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Trump Comment That Immigrants Are ‘Changing The Culture’ Of Europe Blasted
House Speaker Paul Ryan has voiced concern about the impact of tariffs the Trump administration recently placed on China, Mexico, Canada, and other countries. CBS News political correspondent Ed O’Keefe joined CBSN from Capitol Hill with more.
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Rep. Paul Ryan concerned about impact of Trump’s tariffs
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) — Mayor Bill de Blasio and his security detail violated both Mexican and U.S. immigration laws by crossing the border on foot during a visit near El Paso, Texas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection alleges in a letter obtained by The Associated Press. The mayor’s office flatly denied the allegation. De Blasio, a fierce critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policies , went to the Texas border with about 20 other mayors from around the country on June 21, the day after President Donald Trump signed an order stopping family separations at the border. “Every country needs reasonable law enforcement on their borders. ICE is not reasonable law enforcement. ICE is broken, it’s divisive and it should be abolished,” the mayor tweeted last month . More than 2,300 families were separated as a result of the administration’s zero-tolerance policy, which criminally prosecutes anyone caught crossing illegally. The mayors said Trump had failed to address a humanitarian crisis of his own making. Mayor Bill de Blasio stops at a gate after being told he could not cross through the gate to the tent facility setup at the Tornillo-Guadalupe Port of Entry on June 21, 2018 in Fabens, Texas. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) De Blasio went to a holding facility for immigrant children but was denied entry. He then went to Mexico and crossed into the U.S. to get a view of the facility. The New York Police Department runs de Blasio’s security detail. According to the letter, a uniformed Border Patrol agent noticed a group on the Rio Grande River flood plain south of the Tornillo, Texas, Port of Entry, taking photos of the holding facility. The agent asked if anyone from Border Patrol or public affairs was there to authorize their presence. A New York Police Department inspector said no, according to the letter, and when the agent asked the group how they arrived, they pointed to Mexico. The agent told them they’d crossed the border illegally and asked them to remain there while he got a supervisor and took them to an official crossing for an inspection per federal law, according to the letter. But the group disregarded the order and drove back to Mexico, according to the letter. However, de Blasio said Wednesday the border agents let him cross and called the charges “absolutely ridiculous.” “We were told where the border line was, and we respected it. We came back the exact same way, both times showed passports,” he said. “At no point did we disregard any instructions from federal authorities, period.” De Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips said the group did nothing illegal and had approval to be there. “The mayor crossed the border with the direct approval and under the supervision of the border patrol supervisor at this port of entry,” Phillips said in an email Tuesday night to the AP. “Any suggestion otherwise is a flat-out lie and an obvious attempt by someone to attack the Mayor because of his advocacy for families being ripped apart at the border by the Trump Administration.” Phillips had posted tweets of the mayor’s visit on June 21. Mayor and @cbsmireya @CBSNews talking at the border. “Kids are still coming into New York City – last night – after the executive order was signed.” pic.twitter.com/EXVMkoURp2 — Eric Phillips (@EricFPhillips) June 21, 2018 “Sir, to my knowledge everyone is unavailable” – border agent to Mayor when he asks to speak to someone about checking on the detained kids – many of whom could end up in New York City. pic.twitter.com/InYYRYTLfi — Eric Phillips (@EricFPhillips) June 21, 2018 Security expert Manny Gomez, a former FBI agent and NYPD officer, told CBS2’s Political Reporter Marcia Kramer that Border Patrol agents wouldn’t have written the letter if they didn’t have a legitimate concern. “I doubt that the Border Patrol would make something up that isn’t true,” he said. Gomez also raised another issue about the mayor putting his security detail in a tough spot. “It’s not to the NYPD to determine which is the border. The NYPD’s jurisdiction is obviously within the confines of the five boroughs of the city of New York,” he said. “It shouldn’t be up to them to discern and educate the mayor of New York as to where the border between the U.S. and Mexico is.” A spokesperson for the Border Protection had no comment. The letter was sent June 25 by Aaron Hull, the chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector to New York Police Department Commissioner James O’Neill . The mayor blamed the letter on politics and his disagreements with the Trump administration. An NYPD spokesperson told Kramer that O’Neill reviewed the letter and will not take action against any of the NYPD officers involved.
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Feds Say Mayor De Blasio Crossed U.S.-Mexico Border Illegally
MEXICO CITY (CBS News) – Police in Mexico are investigating the murder of an American tourist hit by a stray bullet in Mexico City. FILE — An undated photo of Tatiana Mirutenko. (CNN) Tatiana Mirutenko of San Francisco was leaving a restaurant with her husband and two friends Saturday morning when she was shot. Police say two men on a motorcycle were aiming for a bar bouncer who was at the same restaurant. The bouncer was hit, but survived. Mirutenko, 27, was in Mexico celebrating her first wedding anniversary and had just told her family how safe she felt. The restaurant where Mirutenko was shot was located in an upscale neighborhood. “We’ve traveled to Mexico all of our lives,” Mirutenko’s father, Wasyl, said. “Tania has probably been there at least 30 times.” According to the latest figures from the Mexican government, 2017 was the nation’s deadliest year on record, with more than 25,000 murders. Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department issued a travel ban to five Mexican states, the same warning issued to war-torn countries like Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. Popular tourist destinations Ixtapa and Acapulco are in those “do not travel” zones. The government also warns tourists to “exercise increased caution” when visiting Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen and Mexico City. Mirutenko’s funeral will be held Saturday in Chicago, where she grew up. Police in Mexico say they are reviewing surveillance video as they search for the gunmen. © 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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San Francisco Woman Shot Dead In Mexico City
MEXICO CITY (CBS News) – Police in Mexico are investigating the murder of an American tourist hit by a stray bullet in Mexico City. FILE — An undated photo of Tatiana Mirutenko. (CNN) Tatiana Mirutenko of San Francisco was leaving a restaurant with her husband and two friends Saturday morning when she was shot. Police say two men on a motorcycle were aiming for a bar bouncer who was at the same restaurant. The bouncer was hit, but survived. Mirutenko, 27, was in Mexico celebrating her first wedding anniversary and had just told her family how safe she felt. The restaurant where Mirutenko was shot was located in an upscale neighborhood. “We’ve traveled to Mexico all of our lives,” Mirutenko’s father, Wasyl, said. “Tania has probably been there at least 30 times.” According to the latest figures from the Mexican government, 2017 was the nation’s deadliest year on record, with more than 25,000 murders. Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department issued a travel ban to five Mexican states, the same warning issued to war-torn countries like Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. Popular tourist destinations Ixtapa and Acapulco are in those “do not travel” zones. The government also warns tourists to “exercise increased caution” when visiting Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen and Mexico City. Mirutenko’s funeral will be held Saturday in Chicago, where she grew up. Police in Mexico say they are reviewing surveillance video as they search for the gunmen. © 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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San Francisco Woman Shot Dead In Mexico City
2017 was Mexico’s deadliest year, prompting the U.S. State Department to issue travel bans to five Mexican states
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American woman killed in Mexico after U.S. issues travel warnings
WASHINGTON, DC (AP) — The trade war that erupted Friday between the U.S. and China carries a major risk of escalation that could weaken investment, depress spending, unsettle financial markets and slow the global economy. The opening shots were fired just after midnight, when the Trump administration imposed a 25 percent tariff on $34 billion of imports from China, and Beijing promptly retaliated with duties on an equal amount of American products. It accused the U.S. of igniting “the biggest trade war in economic history.” More From CBS News Because of this first round of hostilities, American businesses and, ultimately, consumers could end up paying more for such Chinese-made products as construction equipment and other machinery. And American suppliers of soybeans, pork and whiskey could lose their competitive edge in China. These initial tariffs are unlikely to inflict serious harm to the world’s two biggest economies. Gregory Daco, head of U.S. economics at Oxford Economics, has calculated that they would pare growth in both countries by no more than 0.2 percent through 2020. But the conflict could soon escalate. President Donald Trump, who has boasted that winning a trade war is easy , has said he is prepared to impose tariffs on up to $550 billion in Chinese imports — a figure that exceeds the $506 billion in goods that China shipped to the U.S. last year. Escalating tariffs are likely to slow business investment as companies wait to see whether the administration can reach a truce with Beijing. Some employers will probably put hiring on hold until the picture becomes clearer. The damage could risk undoing some of the economic benefits of last year’s tax cuts. “Trade disruption is the greatest threat to global growth,” said Dec Mullarkey, managing director of investment strategies at Sun Life Investment Management. “The direct effects will be amplified as business confidence drops and investment decisions are delayed. Markets are still hoping that the key players return to the negotiation table.” The root of the conflict is the Trump administration’s assertion that China has long used predatory tactics in a drive to supplant America’s technological supremacy. Those tactics include cyber-theft as well as forcing companies to hand over technology in exchange for access to China’s market. Trump’s tariffs are meant to press Beijing to change its ways. The rift with China is the most consequential trade conflict the administration has provoked. But it’s hardly the only one. Trump is also sparring with the European Union over his threat to tax auto imports and with Canada and Mexico over his push to rewrite the North American trade pact. And he has subjected most of America’s trading partners to tariffs on steel and aluminum. Many caught in the initial line of fire — U.S. farmers absorbing tariffs on their exports to China, for instance — are fearful. The price of soybeans has plunged 13 percent over the past month on fears that Chinese tariffs will cut off American farmers from China, which buys about 60 percent of their soybean exports. “For soybean producers like me, this is a direct financial hit,” said Brent Bible, a soy and corn producer in Romney, Indiana. “These tariffs could mean the difference between a profit and a loss for an entire year’s worth of work out in the field, and that’s only in the near term.” Christine LoCascio, an executive at the Distilled Spirits Council, said she fears China’s tariffs on U.S. whiskey will “put the brakes on an American success story” of rising exports of U.S. spirits. Even before the first shots, the prospect of a trade war was worrying investors. The Dow Jones industrial average has shed hundreds of points since June 11. But the risks are now priced into the market, and the Dow actually rose nearly 100 points Friday to 24,456.48. China’s currency, the yuan, has dropped 3.5 percent against the dollar over the past month, giving Chinese companies a price edge over their U.S. competition. The drop might reflect a deliberate devaluation by Beijing to signal its “displeasure over the state of trade negotiations,” according to a report from the Institute of International Finance, a banking trade group. The Trump administration sought to limit the impact of the tariffs on U.S. households by targeting Chinese industrial goods, not consumer products, for the first round of tariffs. But that step raises costs for U.S. companies that rely on Chinese-made machinery or components. And it could force them to pass those higher costs on to their business customers and, eventually, to consumers. If you like Chick-fil-A sandwiches, for instance, you may feel the effects. Charlie Souhrada of the North American Food Equipment Manufacturers said the tariffs could raise the cost of a kind of pressure cooker Chick-fil-A uses. The administration has placed “these import taxes squarely on the shoulders of manufacturers and, by extension, consumers,” Souhrada said. One way the tariffs will squeeze farmers, landscapers and construction firms is by raising the price of excavators and loaders made by Bobcat, which uses attachments imported from China. U.S. suppliers rarely make these attachments, so the company must import them. Jason Mayberry, Bobcat’s assistant general counsel, said in a filing submitted to the U.S. Trade Representative’s office that the company would have to raise prices to offset the tariff. Bobcat’s raw material costs have also risen because of the administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs. The Federal Reserve is picking up signs that the trade war is causing businesses to rethink investment plans. In the minutes from its June meeting, the Fed noted that some companies have delayed or reduced plans to buy or upgrade equipment. And if Trump extends the tariffs to up to $550 billion in Chinese imports, consumers won’t be able to avoid getting caught in the crossfire: The taxes would hit products like televisions and cellphones. That’s what happened to imported washing machines, which were hit by separate Trump tariffs in January. Over the past year, their price has surged more than 8 percent. American trade groups are urging the two countries to resume talks. “Tariffs will bring retaliation and possibly more tariffs,” said Jay Timmons, president of the National Association of Manufacturers. “No one wins in a trade war.” (© Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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U.S. Imposes Tariff On Chinese Imports; Beijing Fires Back
The Chiefs and Rams are scheduled to play the NFL’s second Monday Night Football game in Mexico City in November.
TANHUATO DE GUERRERO, Mexico (AFP) – Mexican federal forces killed 43 suspected drug cartel members Friday during a three-hour-long gunfight in a ranch in a violence-torn western region, marking one of the drug war’s bloodiest battles.
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Bloodbath in Mexico – 43 killed in gunfight
