The director of national intelligence's assertions about what's coming next didn't really add up.
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Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Factbox-Some key Brazilian exports spared from Trump's new 40% tariff
By Brendan O'Boyle (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday imposing a 40% tariff on Brazilian exports, bringing the country's total tariff amount to 50%. Some of Brazil's major exports, however, were exempted from the tax. Notable exemptions include products already covered by other specific tariffs, like passenger vehicles, iron and steel products, and a large number of parts and components used in civil aircraft. Below is a list of the products exempted from the tariff hike: PRODUCTS ALREADY SUBJECT TO PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED SECTORAL TARIFFS * Iron and steel (raw and derivatives) * Aluminum products (raw and derivatives) * Passenger vehicles (sedans, SUVs, minivans, etc.) and light trucks * Parts for passenger vehicles and light trucks * Semi-finished and intensive copper derivative products AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD PRODUCTS * Brazil nuts * Orange juice (frozen and not frozen) and orange pulp CIVIL AIRCRAFT, PARTS, AND COMPONENTS * Civil aircraft, including airplanes, helicopters, unmanned aircraft (drones), balloons, and gliders * Aircraft engines (piston, turbojets, turbopropellers) and their parts * New, retreaded, and used pneumatic tires for aircraft * Undercarriages and other aircraft parts * Aircraft seats * Navigational instruments, radios, and radar apparatus for aeronautical use * A wide range of other components specified for civil aircraft use ENERGY AND MINERAL PRODUCTS * Crude petroleum, various petroleum oils, and fuel products * Natural gas (liquefied and gaseous) * Coal and related products (lignite, peat, coke, tars) * Electrical energy * Iron ore and tin ores * Silicon metal and metallurgical grade alumina (aluminum oxide) * Crude mica and worked building stone METALS AND METAL PRODUCTS (GENERAL EXEMPTION) * Nonalloy and alloy pig iron * Ferroalloys, including ferronickel and ferroniobium * Tin waste, scrap, oxides, and chlorides PRECIOUS METALS * Silver bullion and dore * Gold bullion and dore WOOD AND PAPER PRODUCTS * Various types of chemical and semi-chemical wood pulp * Sawn or chipped tropical wood * Paper and paper pulp products CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS * Various mineral or chemical fertilizers * A specific list of industrial chemicals, including potassium hydroxide and certain chlorinated hydrocarbons OTHER GENERAL EXEMPTIONS * Donations intended to relieve human suffering (e.g., food, clothing, medicine) * Informational materials (e.g., publications, films, music, artworks) * Binder or baler twine made of sisal or agave fibers
Boston Globe
26 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Along with a strong second quarter rebound for the US economy, some red flags
America gross domestic product — the nation's output of goods and services — rebounded after Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The bounceback was expected but its strength was a surprise: Economists had forecast 2 percent growth from April through June. Advertisement From April through June, a drop in imports — the biggest since the COVID-19 outbreak — added more than 5 percentage points to growth. Consumer spending registered lackluster growth of 1.4 percent, though it was an improvement over the first quarter's 0.5 percent. Private investment fell at a 15.6 percent annual pace, biggest drop since COVID-19 slammed the economy. A drop in inventories — as businesses worked down goods they'd stockpiled in the first quarter — shaved 3.2 percentage points off second-quarter growth. Advertisement A category within the GDP data that measures the economy's underlying strength weakened in the second quarter, expanding at a 1.2 percent annual pace, down from 1.9 percent from January through March and the weakest since the end of 2022. This category includes consumer spending and private investment but excludes volatile items like exports, inventories, and government spending. Federal government spending and investment fell at a 3.7 percent annual rate on top of a 4.6 percent drop in the first quarter. Wednesday's GDP report showed inflationary pressure easing in the second quarter. The Federal Reserve's favored inflation gauge — the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, price index — rose at an annual rate of 2.1 percent in the second quarter, down from 3.7 percent in the first. Stripping out volatile food and energy prices, so-called core PCE inflation rose 2.5 percent, down from 3.5 percent in the first quarter. On his Truth Social media platform, Trump heralded the GDP gain and stepped up his pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates: '2Q GDP JUST OUT: 3 percent, WAY BETTER THAN EXPECTED! 'Too Late' MUST NOW LOWER THE RATE. No Inflation! Let people buy, and refinance, their homes!" Trump sees tariffs as a way to But mainstream economists — viewed with disdain by Trump and his advisers — say that his tariffs Advertisement
San Francisco Chronicle
26 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
12 members of Congress sue Trump administration to ensure access to ICE detention centers
A dozen Democratic members of Congress who have been blocked from making oversight visits at immigration detention centers filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the Trump administration that seeks to ensure they are granted entry into the facilities, even without prior notice. The lawsuit, filed in the District of Columbia's federal court, said the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are obstructing Congressional oversight of the centers at a time when there's been an increase in ICE arrests, with reports of raids across the country and people taken into custody at immigration courts. By law, members of Congress are allowed to visit ICE facilities and don't have to give any notice, but increasingly, the members have been stopped at the door. ICE officials have said a new rule requires a seven-day waiting period and they prohibit entry to the ICE field offices. The lawsuit asks the court for full and immediate access to all ICE facilities. ICE Director Todd Lyons told a congressional committee in May that he recognized the right of members of Congress to visit detention facilities, even unannounced. But DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told a different committee that members of Congress should have requested a tour of an immigration detention facility in New Jersey where a skirmish broke out in May. As President Donald Trump's immigration agenda plays out, detention facilities have become overcrowded and there have been reports of mistreatment, food shortages, a lack of medical care and unsanitary conditions, the lawsuit said. Congress has a duty to make sure the administration is complying with the law while operating the facilities, the lawsuit said. The recently passed budget bill allocates $45 billion for ICE detention — more than 13 times ICE's current annual detention budget, the lawsuit said. Members of Congress must ensure those funds are spent efficiently and legally, the suit said. But recent attempts by House members to visit facilities were blocked, the lawsuit said. 'These members of Congress could have just scheduled a tour; instead, they're running to court to drive clicks and fundraising emails," DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told the AP in an email. Requests for visits to detention centers should be made 'with sufficient time to prevent interference with the President's Article II authority to oversee executive department functions—a week is sufficient to ensure no intrusion on the President's constitutional authority,' she said. Also, ICE has seen a surge in assaults, disruptions and obstructions to law enforcement so any requests for tours of ICE processing centers and field offices must be approved by Secretary Noem, McLaughlin said. The Congressmembers said the law doesn't require prior approval, and said they've been blocked outright from the field offices, according to the lawsuit. When Rep. Veronica Escobar tried to visit the El Paso center on July 9, ICE told her that they could not accommodate her attendance and said it is 'now requiring requests to be made seven calendar days in advance,' the lawsuit said. When the Democrat arrived at the center, she was denied entry. While ICE is demanding a week's notice for detention center visits, it said it's prohibiting members of Congress from inspecting ICE field offices, where some detainees are being held. When Rep. Daniel Goldman, D-New York, tried to tour the ICE New York Field Office in June, he was told his oversight authority doesn't apply there, because it's not a "detention facility." When Goldman went to the office, the deputy director barred his entry, but confirmed that people were being held overnight, sometimes for several days, but the facility did not have beds or showers. Reps. Joe Neguse, D-Colorado; Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi; and Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, made a similar attempt to enter the ICE Washington Field Office in Chantilly, Virginia, on July 21 after learning that people were being detained there, according to the lawsuit. But they also were turned away without being able to view the conditions at the site. 'No child should be sleeping on concrete, and no sick person should be denied care, yet that's exactly what we keep hearing is happening inside Trump's detention centers," Gomez said in a statement. "This lawsuit is our message: We as Members of Congress will do our job, and we will not let these agencies operate in the shadows.'
