EPA to withdraw foundation of greenhouse gas rules, sources say
The proposal to reverse the "endangerment finding" guts one of the most consequential federal standards that had enabled the United States to tackle climate change by regulating vehicles, industrial and energy-producing facilities that emit heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
A reversal would allow the EPA to easily undo major regulations that tackled greenhouse gas emissions that were based on the finding, the sources said.
An EPA spokesperson said that the agency sent its proposal for reconsidering the endangerment finding to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review on June 30 and is being reviewed by other federal agencies.
"The proposal will be published for public notice and comment once it has completed interagency review and been signed by the Administrator,' an EPA spokesperson said in an email.
The Washington Post first reported on the decision.
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The Independent
15 minutes ago
- The Independent
With Columbia as a model, White House seeks fines in potential deals with Harvard and others
The White House is pursuing heavy fines from Harvard and other universities as part of potential settlements to end investigations into campus antisemitism, using the deal it struck with Columbia University as a template, according to an administration official familiar with the matter. Fines have become a staple of proposed deals in talks with Harvard and other schools, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The new strategy was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Federal civil rights investigations into schools and universities almost always have been resolved through voluntary settlements, yet they rarely include financial penalties. The Biden administration reached dozens of such deals with universities and none included fines. Columbia's settlement with the Trump administration included a $200 million fine in exchange for regaining access to federal funding and closing investigations accusing Columbia of tolerating harassment of Jewish students and employees. The agreement announced Wednesday also orders Columbia to ensure its admissions and hiring decisions are 'merit-based' with no consideration of race, to hire more Jewish studies faculty, and to reduce the university's reliance on international students, among other changes. It places Columbia under the watch of an independent monitor and requires regular disclosures to the government. The agreement deal includes a clause forbidding the government from directly dictating decisions on hiring, admissions or academics. Columbia leaders said it preserves the university's autonomy while restoring the flow of federal money. The Trump administration is investigating dozens of universities over allegations that they failed to address campus antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war, and several institutions have faced federal funding freezes, like those at Columbia and Harvard. The federal government has frozen more than $1 billion at Cornell University, along with $790 million at Northwestern University. In announcing the Columbia settlement, administration officials described it as a template for other universities. Education Secretary Linda McMahon called it a 'roadmap' for colleges looking to regain public trust, saying it would 'ripple across the higher education sector and change the course of campus culture for years to come.' As Trump departed the White House on Friday, he told reporters that Harvard 'wants to settle' but that Columbia 'handled it better.' The president said he's optimistic his administration will prevail in Harvard's legal challenge — at least on appeal — and he suggested Harvard may never regain the level of federal funding it received in the past. 'The bottom line is we're not going to give any more money to Harvard,' he said. 'We want to spread the wealth.' ___ The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
BBC News
15 minutes ago
- BBC News
Trump and golf - striking balls and deals over 18 holes
Mick Mulvaney thought he had beaten Donald Trump. The president and his White House chief of staff were playing golf at Trump's Bedminster club in 2019, and Mulvaney was up by one stroke with three holes left."I slapped him on the shoulder and joked with him, 'I got you today, old man,'" Mulvaney told the BBC. "He looked at me, half smiled, half-sneered and just laughed."The president birdied two of the next three holes and beat Mulvaney by who worked in Trump's White House for three years in his first term, says he played golf with, or in the group just behind, the president around 40 times and never beat the man 21 years his elder. "Just soul-crushing" is how he described has been a popular activity for many modern American presidents, but none has had quite the same relationship with the sport as Trump, who is in Scotland this weekend for the opening of a new Trump course near Balmedie in presidents like Barack Obama and George W Bush, golf seemed to serve as a diversion from the burdens of office. For the current president, however, golf is a business venture, a networking opportunity and – as Mulvaney recounts - a fiercely competitive undertaking. On the fairways and greens, he says, the president is focused on the game and has little tolerance for poor shots or slow play."In fact, if you are slow," Mulvaney said, "you aren't going to get invited back and might get left behind on the course." Trump flies to Scotland for golf club visits - and a meeting with StarmerHow Trump's mother moved from Scottish island to New York's elite British golf journalist Kevin Brown experienced that first-hand when he played with Trump on his Balmedie course in 2012. He said he was taking in the scenery on the second hole, when one of the other players in his foursome told him that Trump had asked if he could "get a move on"."He was more focused, head down, motoring on ahead of us," Brown said. "Most of the time, he was just playing his own game and obviously thinking about stuff he had to do."After the round, however, Brown spoke to Trump for nearly an hour about his connection to golf. He said the future president's passion was clear."He's nuts about golf," he said. "He knew the background and history of the game. It was impressive."Trump, a real-estate developer turned politician, has played golf since his college days and bought his first golf property, Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach Florida, in 1999. Trump Golf currently owns 11 courses in the US and three in the UK, manages several others and has plans for new resorts in Oman, Indonesia, Vietnam and clubs are a prized possession for Trump – and not always a profit-making one. According to filings with the British government, Trump's Balmedie course lost $1.83m (£1.35m) in 2023 – its 11th-straight year running a deficit. Turnberry, on the other hand, reported about $5m in has at times clashed with local authorities over land use and sought to restrict construction of wind turbines off the coast of his Balmedie his US courses have hosted major professional tournaments, he has long wanted Turnberry, which he will visit this weekend, to be the site of a future British Open Championship. The historic course has hosted four of the prestigious competitions, but none since Trump purchased the property in 2014. According to Brown, Trump is drawn to high-profile golf properties because of the prestige they provide."He just likes the quality and the pedigree," he said. "It's about attracting the right people – i.e. filthy rich businessmen with pretty deep pockets."A single round of golf at Turnberry, for instance, costs around $1, has long been an avocation enjoyed by the elite, where the wealthy and the powerful could conduct business and make connections in an exclusive – and, until recently in many cases exclusively white and male – businessman Trump, it was a pathway to the kind of connections helpful to building his real estate empire. It has offered him a means to connect with American politicians and foreign leaders – even if he did promise in 2016 that he was "not going to have time to play golf" if he was ever voted into White in his first presidential term, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gifted Trump a golden golf club. The two would later play five rounds together – forging a friendship that lasted until Abe was assassinated in regular golf partners have included close political allies, like South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, and Republicans with whom he sought to forge new connections, such as 2016 presidential rival Rand Paul of Kentucky."He's a little better golfer than I am, admittedly, but we had a good time," Paul said after a 2017 round with the president, adding that the two mostly focused on golf – but also discussed Trump's tax policies. In March of this year, Trump golfed with Finnish President Alexander Stubb in West Palm Beach, partnering in a club tournament Trump said the two men won. Stubb would later say that they talked about the war in Ukraine, Russia and global security."In Finnish history, it's quite rare that the Finnish president has spent so much time with the president of the United States, either physically or on the phone or messaging," Stubb told Canadian broadcaster CBC this kind of access, and influence, that has made a tee time with Trump a coveted prize for those seeking a presidential audience."Anybody who is sophisticated dealing with Donald quickly understands that everything about him is transactional," said Professor David Cay Johnston of Rochester Institute of Technology, who as a reporter covered Trump for decades and has written three books about the man."If you're the head of a company or the head of a nation, you either try and minimise any prospective damage he might do to you by buttering him up or to size him up on something if you're unsure."Even back at the White House, foreign leaders have tried to parlay a golf connection into a friendly reception. When South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the Oval Office in May, he gave the president an illustrated South African golf book and included golf professionals Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in his national didn't help much, however, as the meeting devolved into an extended confrontation over South African land confiscation policies. While that drama played out in front of the gathered press and live television cameras, Trump may see benefit from his more cloistered golf outings, as it gives him an opportunity for meetings well removed from the prying eyes of journalists. Reporters accompany Trump on all of his public movements, but when the president is on the golf course they are kept well away."He has time out of the eye of anybody else to deal with people," Johnston said. "And of course, those heads of corporations or states, similarly, are going to use the opportunity to be away from any spotlight."The president's penchant for privacy on the links also means there are wildly conflicting accounts of how good a golfer Trump really is. He boasts of winning dozens of club championships - all on courses he owns - including five this year journalist Rick Reilly, in his 2019 book Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, writes that Trump's championship claims are so "over-the-top" that he loses all details what he says is Trump's penchant for cheating, including moving his ball to better spots on the course and taking multiple mulligans – a custom in which a player is allowed to replay a stroke with no penalty, after a mishit."He's a notorious cheat," Johnston said. "I spoke to someone once who played a round of golf with him, who told me that he had taken six mulligans on a single hole."According to Mulvaney, who says he never saw Trump cheat, the president may use golf as a way to connect, but 18 holes with the president isn't about business or government or politics."This is golf," he said. "And while that sounds obtuse, golfers know what I mean. Trump was a golfing enthusiast long before he was president. And he will be long after, as well."
The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Judge dismisses Trump officials' lawsuit over Chicago sanctuary policies
A judge in Illinois dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit Friday that sought to disrupt limits Chicago imposes on cooperation between federal immigration agents and local police. The lawsuit, filed in February, alleged that so-called sanctuary laws in the nation's third-largest city 'thwart' federal efforts to enforce immigration laws. It argued that local laws run counter to federal laws by restricting 'local governments from sharing immigration information with federal law enforcement officials' and preventing immigration agents from identifying 'individuals who may be subject to removal.' Judge Lindsay Jenkins of the northern district of Illinois granted the defendants' motion for dismissal. Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson said he was pleased with the decision and the city is safer when police focus on the needs of Chicagoans. 'This ruling affirms what we have long known: that Chicago's welcoming city ordinance is lawful and supports public safety. The city cannot be compelled to cooperate with the Trump administration's reckless and inhumane immigration agenda,' he said in a statement. Governor JB Pritzker welcomed the ruling, saying in a social media post: 'Illinois just beat the Trump administration in federal court.' The justice department and the Department of Homeland Security and did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. The administration has filed a series of lawsuits targeting state or city policies seen as interfering with immigration enforcement, including those in Los Angeles, New York City, Denver and Rochester, New York. It sued four New Jersey cities in May. Heavily Democratic Chicago has been a sanctuary city for decades and has beefed up its laws several times, including during Trump's first term in 2017. That same year, then governor Bruce Rauner, a Republican, signed more statewide sanctuary protections into law, putting him at odds with his party. There is no official definition for sanctuary policies or sanctuary cities. The terms generally describe limits on local cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ice enforces US immigration laws nationwide but sometimes seeks state and local help.
