The Latest: Trump offers no details about improving food distribution in Israeli-controlled Gaza

San Francisco Chronicle​

2 days ago

President Donald Trump said the U.S. will partner with Israel to run new food centers in Gaza to address the worsening humanitarian crisis there, but few details have been offered amid a growing outcry at home and abroad to do more to address starvation in Gaza. Trump said during his return from golfing in Scotland that Israel must 'make sure the distribution is proper.'
Meanwhile Trump's Environmental Protection Agency has proposed revoking the scientific 'endangerment finding' that underpins U.S. regulations to fight climate change. The administration is pressing for a deal with Harvard University that would require the Ivy League school to pay far more than the $200 million fine agreed to by Columbia University. And Senate Republicans confirmed former Trump lawyer Emil Bove for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge, dismissing whistleblower complaints that he encouraged Justice Department lawyers to ignore court orders.
Sen. Ted Cruz isn't waiting on the NTSB to determine the collision's cause
The Texas Republican introduced legislation Tuesday that would require all aircraft operators to use both forms of a technology known as ADS-B to broadcast their location data to other planes and air traffic controllers. It would require airlines to add more comprehensive ADS-B technology, and revoke an exemption for Department of Defense aircraft.
'There cannot be a double standard in aviation safety,' Cruz said. 'We should not tolerate special exceptions for military training flights, operating in congested air space.'
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said her agency has been recommending that move for decades as 'an immediate and substantial contribution to safety, especially during operations in and around airports.'
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that while he'd like to discuss 'a few tweaks,' the legislation is 'the right approach.'
Animation shows helicopter and plane colliding
The NTSB hearing opened Wednesday with a video animation showing the locations of the helicopter and airliner leading up to the collision. It showed how the helicopter flew above the 200 feet (61 meters) altitude limit on the helicopter route before colliding with the plane.
Investigators said Wednesday that the flight data recorder showed the helicopter was actually 80 feet to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) higher than what the barometric altimeter the pilots relied upon showed they were flying. So the NTSB conducted tests on three other helicopters from the same unit in a flight over the same area and found similar discrepancies in their altimeters.
Previously disclosed air traffic control audio had the helicopter pilot telling the controller twice that they saw the airplane and would avoid it.
The animation ended with surveillance video showing the helicopter colliding with the plane in a fiery crash.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford expects 'some very uncomfortable conversations' in NTSB crash hearing
Three days of investigative hearings on the deadly midair collision over Washington in January have begun. The aim is to reveal new insights into what caused the crash between a passenger plane and an Army helicopter that killed 67 people.
The National Transportation Safety Board will question witnesses and investigators about how the actions of the Federal Aviation Administration and its air traffic controllers and the Army may have contributed to the nation's deadliest plane crash since November 2001.
The collision between the American Airlines plane from Wichita, Kansas, landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport and a Black Hawk helicopter on a training mission was the first in an alarming string of crashes and near misses this year, even as statistics show flying remains the safest form of transportation.
JD Vance-headlined fundraisers bring in $4 million for GOP
The vice president headlined fundraisers for the Republican National Committee on Tuesday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Big Sky, Montana, with each event bringing in $2 million, according to a person familiar with the events who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Vance, who also serves as finance chairman for the Republican National Committee, headlined a fundraiser last week on Massachusetts' Nantucket island that raised $3 million.
Texas Republicans propose new US House map with more winnable GOP seats
Texas Republicans proposed a new U.S. House map Wednesday with more winnable GOP seats as Democrat-led states weigh counter measures.
Republicans currently hold 25 of the state's 38 seats. The new map would raise the total they could win to 30 — all won by Trump in November by at least 10 percentage points — leading to conservative optimism they can hold them, even in what's likely to be a tough midterm environment for the party.
The new map would:
1. make two Rio Grande Valley seats narrowly won by Democrats slightly more Republican
2. collapse two seats held by Democrats Lloyd Doggett and Greg Casar in the Austin and San Antonio area into a single liberal district
3. turn two Democratic-held seats in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area into GOP-majority ones
President Biden's former senior advisor appears on Capitol Hill
Steve Richetti, one of Biden's closest confidantes, took no questions as he entered the House Oversight Committee hearing room.
Richetti voluntarily appeared before the committee, in contrast to two former White House aides and Biden's physician, who were issued subpoenas compelling their testimony.
Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain testified last week and answered Republicans' questions about Biden's mental state and the use of the autopen. Others have declined to answer questions, citing their Fifth Amendment rights.
The committee's Republican chairman James Comer vowed on social media this week that if former staff continue to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights, 'the likelihood of subpoenas going to Biden family members will only grow.'
Senate Democrats say Trump's allies have violated the law by pushing House map redraw
They're accusing senior Trump administration officials of illegally mixing campaign activity with official duties while urging states to give Republicans more advantages by redrawing congressional maps.
Sens. Alex Padilla, Dick Durbin, Adam Schiff and Sheldon Whitehouse have asked the Office of Special Counsel to investigate whether officials in the White House and Department of Justice broke the Hatch Act, which prohibits government officials from using their official roles to influence elections.
The law exempts the president, but not his aides or allies, from 'impermissible partisan political activity.'
'The President and his allies have made their redistricting motivations clear — the goal is to advantage the Republican party in the 2026 midterms,' the senators wrote.
Trump appointees on the Federal Reserve board could dissent
Wednesday's better-than-expected economic growth report followed a negative reading of 0.5% in the first three months of the year, and most economists focused on an average of the two, for a more modest underlying growth rate of about 1.25%.
One of the Fed governors, Trump appointee Christopher Waller, has said he supports a rate cut because he worries the economy is slowing, with overall sluggish growth a sign of weakness. Waller is expected to dissent from today's decision to keep rates unchanged.
Federal Reserve likely to leave key interest rate unchanged Wednesday
Fed Chair Jerome Powell is expected to reiterate his view during a 2:30 p.m. Wednesday news conference that tariffs could push up inflation, and that the central bank wants to see how the economy evolves in the coming months before reducing its short-term rate.
Fed rate cuts can sometimes — though not always — reduce other borrowing costs for things like mortgages, car loans, and credit cards.
Trump repeated his call for the rate cuts Wednesday morning, pointing to a report that the U.S. economy expanded at a healthy 3% annual rate in the second quarter. But the Fed typically cuts its short-term rate when it worries the economy is slowing, not in response to positive economic news.
Wednesday's better-than-expected economic growth report followed a negative reading of 0.5% in the first three months of the year, and most economists focused on an average of the two, for a more modest underlying growth rate of about 1.25%.
One of the Fed governors, Trump appointee Christopher Waller, has said he supports a rate cut because he worries the economy is slowing, with overall sluggish growth a sign of weakness. Waller is expected to dissent from today's decision to keep rates unchanged.
FDA vaccine chief leaving agency after less than 3 months
The Food and Drug Administration's polarizing vaccine chief is leaving the agency after a brief tenure that drew the ire of biotech companies, patient groups and conservative allies of Trump.
Dr. Vinay Prasad 'did not want to be a distraction' and was stepping down as the FDA's top vaccine regulator 'to spend more time with his family,' a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement late Tuesday.
Chinese foreign ministry sees 'no winners in a tariff war'
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Thursday that Beijing hopes the U.S. side would follow through on the 'important consensus' reached between Trump and Xi in a phone call to promote stable relations between the world's two largest economies.
But Guo reiterated China's stance on U.S. objections to its purchases of oil and gas from Russia, which U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent raised during the talks in Stockholm, threatening more tariffs.
'China will take reasonable measures to ensure energy security in accordance with its national interests,' Guo said. 'There are no winners in a tariff war. Coercion and pressure will not solve the problem. China will resolutely safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests.'
China remains one of the biggest trade challenges for the Trump administration
The inconclusive trade talks in Stockholm left open the question of higher tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States.
Many analysts had expected a resolution extending current tariff levels — 30% on Chinese goods and 10% on U.S. products — but that didn't happen either.
The politburo meeting headed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping reiterated a need to 'unleash domestic demand' which has lagged, leading to a surge of exports by industries unable to find growth at home, and to prevent a 'large scale relapse into poverty.'
China promises to help companies slammed by tariffs as US trade remains in limbo
China's top leaders have pledged to help companies slammed by higher U.S. tariffs but held back on major moves after trade talks with the U.S. this week kept businesses and planners in limbo.
At their summer economic planning meeting, the powerful Politburo of the ruling Communist Party pledged to stabilize foreign trade and investment through measures such as export tax rebates and free trade pilot zones.
'We must assist foreign trade enterprises that have been severely impacted, strengthen financing support, and promote the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade,' the official Xinhua News Agency said in reporting on the closed door meeting.
Trump says Friday's tariff deadline is firm
Friday is the day the Trump administration set to launch revised tariffs on products Americans import from multiple countries.
Trump's original deadline was July 8. He said there won't be any more extensions, declaring this in an all-caps post on his social media site just before he announced a 25% import tax on India.
'THE AUGUST FIRST DEADLINE IS THE AUGUST FIRST DEADLINE — IT STANDS STRONG, AND WILL NOT BE EXTENDED. A BIG DAY FOR AMERICA!!!'
Trump's big bill chisels back Medicaid 60 years after its creation
On this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed legislation into law that launched Medicaid, creating a health care safety net for millions of low-income Americans, one of the crowning achievements of his domestic legacy.
A year earlier, he did the same for food stamps, drawing on President John F. Kennedy's first executive order to develop 'a positive food and nutrition program for all Americans.'
This summer, with the stroke of a pen, President Donald Trump began to chisel them back.
The Republican Party's big tax and spending bill delivered not just $4.5 trillion in tax breaks for Americans. It also will cut more than $1 trillion over a decade from federal health care and food assistance, largely by imposing work requirements and shifting federal costs onto the states.
French president: 'To be free, you have to be feared'
Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that Europe 'does not see itself sufficiently' as a global power in reaction to the European Commission's acceptance of 15% tariffs under a new trade framework with the United States.
'We have not been feared enough,' he told his cabinet. There is a greater urgency than ever to accelerate the European agenda for sovereignty and competitiveness.'
For now, he said, the agreement offers short-term visibility and predictability for businesses in the EU's 27 member states. 'It preserves French and European interests: customs duty exemptions for some of our major export sectors, including aeronautics; no concessions for our agricultural sectors; no questioning of our regulatory autonomy or our health and environmental standards,' he said. 'This is not the end of the story, and we will not stop here.'
Trump brags about economic growth numbers
'WAY BETTER THAN EXPECTED!' Trump wrote on Truth Social, using the better-than-expected growth to pressure Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to cut benchmark interest rates.
But his victory lap needs context: GDP recovered after falling 0.5% during the first quarter, as companies pulled forward their imports to avoid tariffs. The second-quarter snapback indicates an annual growth rate of less than 1.3% for the first half of 2025, well below the 2.8% gains in 2024.
Also, private investment fell at a 15.6% 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.
European economy sees only 0.1% growth as scramble to get ahead of US tariffs goes into reverse
Europe's economy barely grew in the April-June quarter as frantic earlier efforts to ship goods ahead of new U.S. tariffs went into reverse and output fell for the continent's biggest economy, Germany.
GDP grew an anemic 0.1% compared to the previous quarter in the 20 countries that use the euro currency, the EU statistics agency Eurostat reported Wednesday. And near-term prospects are mediocre, given the 15% tax on European goods that U.S. importers must pay under the EU-U.S. trade deal announced Sunday. The higher costs must either be passed on to U.S. consumers or swallowed in the form of lower profits.
'With the 15% U.S. universal tariff likely to subtract around 0.2% from the region's GDP, growth is likely to remain weak in the rest of this year,' said Franziska Palmas, senior Europe economist at Capital Economics.
US economy rebounds a surprisingly strong 3% in the second quarter
The U.S. economy expanded at a surprising 3% annual pace from April through June, bouncing back at least temporarily from a first-quarter drop that reflected disruptions from Trump's trade wars. Economists had expected 2% second-quarter growth.
America's gross domestic product — the nation's output of goods and services — rebounded after falling 0.5% from January through March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The first-quarter drop was mainly caused by a surge in imports — which are subtracted from GDP — as businesses scrambled to bring in foreign goods ahead of Trump's tariffs.
From April through June, a drop in imports added more than 5 percentage points to growth. Consumer spending came in at a weak 1.4%, though it was an improvement over the first quarter.
Trump announces 25% tariff on India starting Friday, penalties for buying Russian energy
Trump says he'll impose a 25% tariff on goods from India, plus an additional import tax because of India's purchasing of Russian oil.
Trump said on Truth Social on Wednesday that India 'is our friend' but its 'Tariffs are far too high' on U.S. goods.
The Republican president added that India buys military equipment and oil from Russia, enabling the war in Ukraine. As a result, he said he intends to charge an additional 'penalty' starting on Friday as part of the launch of the administration's revised tariffs on multiple countries.
Trump says Epstein 'stole' young women from Mar-a-Lago spa, including Virginia Giuffre
Trump said Tuesday that Jeffrey Epstein 'stole' young women who worked for the spa at Mar-a-Lago, the latest evolution in his description of how their highly scrutinized relationship ended years ago.
One of the women, he acknowledged, was Virginia Giuffre, who was among Epstein's most well-known sex trafficking accusers.
Trump's comments expanded on remarks he had made a day earlier, when he said he had banned Epstein from his private club in Florida two decades ago because his one-time friend 'stole people that worked for me.' At the time, he did not make clear who those workers were.
The Republican president has faced an outcry over his administration's refusal to release more records about Epstein after promises of transparency, a rare example of strain within Trump's tightly controlled political coalition. Trump has attempted to tamp down questions about the case, expressing annoyance that people are still talking about it six years after Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial, even though some of his own allies have promoted conspiracy theories about it.
Senate confirms Trump lawyer Emil Bove for appeals court, pushing past whistleblower claims
The Senate confirmed former Trump lawyer Emil Bove 50-49 for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge Tuesday as Republicans dismissed whistleblower complaints about his conduct at the Justice Department.
Emil Bove, attorney for former US President Donald Trump, sits Manhattan criminal court during Trump's sentencing in the hush money case in New York, Jan. 10, 2025. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP, file)
A former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, Bove was on Trump's legal team during his New York hush money trial and defended Trump in the two federal criminal cases. He will serve on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Democrats have vehemently opposed Bove's nomination, citing his current position as a top Justice Department official and his role in the dismissal of the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. They have also criticized his efforts to investigate department officials who were involved in the prosecutions of hundreds of Trump supporters who were involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Bove has accused FBI officials of 'insubordination' for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the attack and ordered the firing of a group of prosecutors involved in those Jan. 6 criminal cases.
Trump's latest tariff deadline is approaching
The clock is ticking closer to Trump's latest tariff deadline of Aug 1. And while several more deals — or at least frameworks for deals — have been reached since his last tariff deadline of July 9 came and went, trade talks with many countries are still in flux.
Trump unveiled sweeping import taxes on goods coming into the U.S. from nearly every country back in April. That included heightened so-called reciprocal rates for certain countries, the bulk of which have since been postponed twice.
The first 90-day pause arrived in an apparent effort to quell global market panic and facilitate country-by-country negotiations.
But three months later, only two deals emerged. And by early July, Trump began sending warning letters that higher tariffs would be imposed against dozens of countries on Aug. 1.
Since then, the U.S. has announced trade frameworks with the European Union, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia. But, key details remain sparse — or not immediately captured in writing.
▶ Read more about agreements so far
Trump says US will partner with Israel to run additional food centers in Gaza, but details are scant
Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. will partner with Israel to run new food centers in Gaza to address the worsening humanitarian crisis there, but he and U.S. officials offered few additional details about the plan or how it would differ from existing food distribution centers.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned from a trip to Scotland that Israel would preside over the new food centers 'to make sure the distribution is proper.'
'We're going to be dealing with Israel, and we think they can do a good job of it,' Trump said.
The opaque details come as the Trump administration is facing calls at home and abroad to do more to address the hunger crisis in Gaza. The U.S.'s close ally, Israel, is at the center of an international outcry as more images of emaciated children continue to emerge.