4 days Ago By Canadian Press
Trump considers pausing his auto tariffs as the world economy endures whiplash WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday suggested that he might temporarily exempt the auto industry from tariffs he previously imposed on the sector, to give carmakers time to adjust their supply chains. “I’m looking at something to help some of the car companies with it,” Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office. The Republican president said automakers needed time to relocate production from Canada, Mexico and other places, "And they need a little bit of time because they’re going to make them here, but they need a little bit of time.
So I’m talking about things like that.” Matt Blunt, president of American Automotive Policy Council, an association representing Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, said the group shared Trump's goals of increased domestic production. “There is increasing awareness that broad tariffs on parts could undermine our shared goal of building a thriving and growing American auto industry, and that many of these supply chain transitions will take time," Blunt said.
Trump's statement hinted at yet another round of reversals on tariffs as Trump's onslaught of import taxes has panicked financial markets and raised deep concerns from Wall Street economists about a possible recession. ___ US moves ahead on tariffs with investigations into computer chips and pharmaceuticals BANGKOK (AP) — The Trump administration has taken its next steps toward imposing more tariffs on key imports, launching investigations into imports of computer chips, chip making equipment and pharmaceuticals. The Department of Commerce posted notices about the probes late Monday on the Federal Register, seeking public comment within three weeks.
It had not formally announced them earlier. Although President Donald Trump paused most of his biggest tariff hikes last week for 90 days, apart from those for imports from China, he has said he still plans tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs, lumber, copper and computer chips. The Commerce Department said it is investigating how imports of computer chips, equipment to make them and products that contain them — which include many daily necessities such as cars, refrigerators, smart phones and other items — affect national security.
Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 permits the president to order tariffs for the sake of national security. The probe includes assessing the potential for U.S.
domestic production of computer chips to meet U.S. demand and the role of foreign manufacturing and assembly, testing and packaging in meeting those needs.
___ Israeli airstrike hits hospital entrance in Gaza, killing medic and wounding 9 other people DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike hit the northern gate of a field hospital in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killing a medic and wounding nine other people, a spokesman for the hospital said. The strike hit the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in the Muwasi area, where hundreds of thousands have sought shelter in sprawling tent camps. The wounded were all patients and medics, and two of the patients were in critical condition after the strike, said Saber Mohammed, a hospital spokesman.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The military has struck hospitals on several occasions during the 18-month war, accusing Hamas militants of hiding out in them or using them for military purposes. Hospital staff have denied the allegations and accused Israel of recklessly endangering civilians and gutting the territory's health system.
On Sunday, Israel struck the last major hospital providing critical care in northern Gaza after ordering an evacuation. A patient died during the evacuation, and the strike severely damaged the emergency room, pharmacy and surrounding buildings, according to Al-Ahli Hospital. ___ Famine and atrocities mount as Sudan's civil war enters its third year CAIRO (AP) — As Sudan marks two years of civil war on Tuesday, atrocities and famine are only mounting in what the U.
N. says is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Last month, the Sudanese military secured a major victory by recapturing the capital of Khartoum from its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
But that has only moved the war into a new phase that could end up with a de facto partition of the country. On Friday and Saturday, RSF fighters and their allies rampaged in two refugee camps in the western Darfur region, killing at least 300 people. The Zamzam and Abu Shouk camps, which shelter some 700,000 Sudanese who fled their homes, have both been stricken with famine, and aid workers cannot reach them because of the fighting.
Half the population of 50 million faces hunger. The World Food Program has confirmed famine in 10 locations and says it could spread, putting millions in danger of starvation. “This abominable conflict has continued for two years too long,” said Kashif Shafique, country director for Relief International Sudan, the last aid group still working in the Zamzam camp.
Nine of its workers were killed in the RSF attack. ___ El Salvador President Bukele says he won't be releasing a Maryland man back to the US WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's top advisers and Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, said Monday that they have no basis for the small Central American nation to return a Maryland man who was wrongly deported there last month. Bukele called the idea “preposterous” even though the U.
S. Supreme Court has called on the administration to “facilitate” Kilmar Abrego Garcia's return. Trump administration officials emphasized that Abrego Garcia, who was sent to a notorious gang prison in El Salvador, was a citizen of that country and that the U.
S. has no say in his future. And Bukele, who has been a vital partner for the Trump administration in its deportation efforts, said “of course" he would not release him back to U.
S. soil. “The question is preposterous.
How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele, seated alongside Trump, told reporters in the Oval Office Monday. “I don't have the power to return him to the United States." Should El Salvador want to return Abrego Garcia, the U.
S. would “facilitate it, meaning provide a plane,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said. But “first and foremost, he was illegally in our country, and he had been illegally in our country,” she said.
“That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us.” ___ Another US aircraft carrier in Mideast waters ahead of second round of Iran-US nuclear talks DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A second U.
S. aircraft carrier is operating in Mideast waters ahead of the next round of talks between Iran and the United States over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program, satellite photos analyzed Tuesday by The Associated Press showed. The operation of the USS Carl Vinson and its strike group in the Arabian Sea comes as suspected U.
S. airstrikes pounded parts of Yemen controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels overnight into Tuesday. American officials repeatedly have linked the U.
S.' monthlong campaign against the Houthis under President Donald Trump as a means to pressure Iran in the negotiations. Questions remain over where the weekend talks between the countries will be held after officials initially identified Rome as hosting the negotiations, only for Iran to insist early Tuesday they would return to Oman.
American officials so far haven't said where the talks will be held. The stakes of the negotiations couldn’t be higher for the two nations closing in on half a century of enmity. Trump repeatedly has threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program if a deal isn’t reached.
Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels. U.S.
Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, who represented America in last weekend's talks in Oman, separately signaled that the Trump administration may be looking at terms of the 2015 nuclear deal that the president unilaterally withdrew from in 2018 as a basis for these negotiations. He described the talks last weekend as “positive, constructive, compelling.” ___ People detained in Myanmar after release from scam compounds attempt an escape BANGKOK (AP) — They walked out of the compound in Myanmar not knowing where they would go.
Though they were aiming for the river that separated them from Thailand and freedom, they didn't know if they would make it across. A group of more than 270 some men and women, who were rescued from forced labor in scam compounds two months ago but remain in detention in Myanmar, attempted a mass escape Sunday out of fear that they may end up being sent back to prison-like compounds where they face beatings, torture and potentially even death. “We will kill ourselves instead of going back to them,” said one woman, who has been waiting to go home to Ethiopia for more than two months.
She came to Myanmar for what she thought was a job in customer service more than a year ago, only to realize she had been trafficked. She was forced to work in online scams targeting people across the world. Facing pressure from China, Thailand and Myanmar’s governments launched a massive operation in February in which they released thousands of trafficked people from scam compounds, working with the ethnic armed groups that rule Myanmar's border areas.
Some 7,200 — overwhelmingly from China — have returned home, according to Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but around 1,700 are still stuck in Myanmar, many detained in locked compounds not much different to those they were released from. ___ Trump administration freezes $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard over campus activism BOSTON (AP) — The federal government says it’s freezing more than $2.
2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University, after the institution said it would defy the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus. The hold on Harvard's funding marks the seventh time President Donald Trump's administration has taken the step at one of the nation’s most elite colleges, in an attempt to force compliance with Trump's political agenda. Six of the seven schools are in the Ivy League.
In a letter to Harvard Friday, Trump's administration had called for broad government and leadership reforms at the university, as well as changes to its admissions policies. It also demanded the university audit views of diversity on campus, and stop recognizing some student clubs. The federal government said almost $9 billion in grants and contracts in total were at risk if Harvard did not comply.
On Monday, Harvard President Alan Garber said the university would not bend to the government's demands. ___ Officials work to uncover the motive for fire set at Pennsylvania governor's residence HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Investigators worked Tuesday to uncover the motive behind an arson fire over the weekend at Pennsylvania Gov.
Josh Shapiro’s mansion, the latest act of political violence in the U.S. They dug into Cody Balmer’s background after, authorities say, he scaled an iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police and set fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion.
Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg was denied bail Monday as he faced charges including attempted homicide, terrorism and arson. He did not enter a plea to the charges. He had told police he planned to beat Gov.
Josh Shapiro with a small sledgehammer if he encountered him after breaking into the building, according to court documents. A motive for the attack, including whether it had anything to do with Shapiro’s politics or religious beliefs, wasn’t immediately clear. Balmer's mother told The Associated Press on Monday that she had made calls in recent days about his mental health issues, but “nobody would help.
” Christie Balmer said her son was not taking his medicine. ___ Paige Bueckers is No. 1 pick in WNBA draft, going to the Dallas Wings NEW YORK (AP) — Paige Bueckers is ready for her next chapter after a whirlwind week that started with her helping UConn win its 12th national championship and ended with her becoming the WNBA's No.
1 draft pick by the Dallas Wings. “I’m just extremely excited to be there. I’ve only heard great things about the city," Bueckers said of Dallas.
“So excited to start that new chapter and be in a new city and explore that and give everything I have to the Wings organization. I know we’re going to do great things, and it’s a fresh start, and I think we’re all ready to do something special.” The versatile UConn star is the latest Huskies standout to go No.
1, joining former greats Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart. Bueckers has had a busy time since helping UConn win the title on April 6. She has split her time between New York and Connecticut doing morning and nighttime talk shows.
On Sunday, she took part in the Huskies' championship parade. “I’m glad New York and Storrs are pretty close to each other because there’s been a lot of back and forth,” Bueckers said. “Part of me wants to stay at school, celebrate with the team, be with them, enjoy the last moments of being in Storrs, and the other part of me has to get ready for the next chapter.
” The Associated Press.
