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USA Today
15 minutes ago
- USA Today
This confederate monument will return to DC after protestors tore it down in 2020
A controversial Confederate monument, once removed from its post a mile away from the White House, will make its return this fall. The National Park Service said it restored and will bring back a bronze statue of Albert Pike, a Confederate Army brigadier general, to its original post after protestors in June 2020 brought it down with ropes and chains. Videos of the protestors' actions surfaced online. The National Park Service said in an Aug. 4 statement the move supports two of President Donald Trump's executive orders which direct federal agencies "to protect public monuments and present a full and accurate picture of the American past." "The restoration aligns with federal responsibilities under historic preservation law as well as recent executive orders to beautify the nation's capital and reinstate preexisting statues,' the agency's statement reads. After the protestors toppled the statue five years ago, the National Park Service's Historic Preservation Training Center secured it in storage and moved to restore it. The monument's restoration is nearly complete. It is expected to be reinstalled in October, the agency said. "Site preparation to repair the statue's damaged masonry plinth will begin shortly, with crews repairing broken stone, mortar joints, and mounting elements," the statement reads. Protestors who called for racial justice and an end to police brutality after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd sparked mass critique of Confederate monuments across the nation, including the one slated to be reinstalled in Washington, D.C. Before it was taken down, the statue of Pike was the only outdoor statue of a Confederate general in the nation's capital. The Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite's Southern Jurisdiction erected the statue in 1901 to honor Pike, who was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, according to the National Park Service. He died in 1981. During his life, Pike helped to develop the Masonry in Arkansas and commanded the Confederacy's Indian Territory during the Civil War, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@ Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez.
Los Angeles Times
15 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Switzerland's president rushes to Washington in effort to avert steep U.S. tariffs
GENEVA — Switzerland's president and other top officials were traveling to Washington on Tuesday in a hastily arranged trip aimed at striking a deal with the Trump administration over steep U.S. tariffs that have cast a pall over Swiss industries like chocolates, machinery and watchmaking. President Karin Keller-Sutter was leading the delegation after last week's announcement that exports of Swiss goods to the U.S. will face a whopping 39% percent tariff starting Thursday. That is over two-and-a-half times higher than the rate on European Union goods exported to the U.S. and nearly four times higher than on British exports to the U.S. Many Swiss companies in industries including watchmaking and chocolates have expressed concern about the issue. It's also more than the 31% that Switzerland had been set to face when President Trump announced his 'Liberation Day' tariffs on products from dozens of countries in early April. The Swiss government said the trip was 'to facilitate meetings with the U.S. authorities at short notice and hold talks with a view to improving the tariff situation for Switzerland.' Keller-Sutter, who also serves as Switzerland's finance minister, has faced criticism in Swiss media over a last-ditch call with Trump before a U.S. deadline on tariffs expired Aug. 1. She was leading a team that included Economy Minister Guy Parmelin. In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Trump alluded to the call, saying 'the woman was nice, but she didn't want to listen' and that he had told her: 'We have a $41 billion deficit with you, Madame ... and you want to pay 1% tariffs.' 'I said, 'you're not going to pay 1%,'' he added. It was not immediately clear where that $41 billion figure came from. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States ran a $38.3 billion trade imbalance on goods last year with Switzerland. Swiss officials have argued that American goods face virtually zero tariffs in Switzerland, and the Swiss government says the wealthy Alpine country is the sixth-biggest foreign investor in the United States and the leading investor in research and development. Ivan Slatkine, the head of the Federation of Romandie Enterprises, which regroups companies in French-speaking Switzerland, told Le Temps newspaper that 39% tariffs amounted to a 'hammer blow for the entire Swiss economy.' Some Swiss companies — like high-end watchmakers with little direct competition — might face less impact, but others in airplane parts, machines and mid-level watchmaking would be hit, he said. 'For all the companies that depend on the American market, it's really bad news — in particular compared to rivals in the European Union, whose exports are taxed only at 15%,' he was quoted Tuesday as saying. The trip comes a day after Switzerland's executive branch, the Federal Council, held an extraordinary meeting and said it was 'keen to pursue talks with the United States on the tariff situation,' the government statement Tuesday said. After consulting with Swiss businesses, the council said it had developed 'new approaches for its discussions' with U.S. officials and was looking ahead to continued negotiations. 'Switzerland enters this new phase ready to present a more attractive offer, taking U.S. concerns into account and seeking to ease the current tariff situation,' a council statement said Monday. Under the U.S. announcements Friday, Swiss companies will now have one of the steepest export duties — only Laos, Myanmar and Syria had higher figures, at 40-41%. Keaten writes for the Associated Press.
The Hill
15 minutes ago
- The Hill
After only 6 months, Project 2025 is already 47 percent complete
On July 5, 2024, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that he had 'no idea who is behind Project 2025,' the nearly 900-page manifesto published in April 2023 by the conservative Heritage Foundation for use by 'the next conservative president' to reshape the federal government. Trump went on to say that 'some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,' and that 'anything they do, I wish them luck, but have nothing to do with them.' Many voters presumably believed Trump when he said he knew nothing about Project 2025 and disavowed its objectives. Others — including non-MAGA voters — ignored Project 2025 or simply waved it away as hyperbolic fuel for the base, assuming that such a hellscape could never actually take hold in America, even under Trump 2.0. Now, over six months into Trump's second term, Project 2025's roadmap for dismantling American government is 47 percent complete. That's according to the website Project 2025 Tracker, which bills itself as a 'comprehensive, community-driven initiative to track the implementation of Project 2025's policy proposals.' The website counts 317 proposals in total. So far, 115 are 'complete,' including eliminating the U.S. Agency for International Development, banning transgender individuals from serving in the military and funding ICE for 100,000 detention beds. An additional 64 proposals are 'in progress,' such as cutting off government contracts to entities that enforce a 'woke agenda,' ending a settlement agreement establishing basic standards for immigrant children in federal custody, downsizing the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (too focused on 'climate alarmism'), privatizing TSA airport screening (so constitutional guarantees do not apply to traveler searches), cutting off Justice Department and FEMA grants to states and localities that balk at Trump's immigration policies, prosecuting local prosecutors who exercise discretion in deciding whether to prosecute immigration cases, reducing the corporate income tax rate, 'fully commercializ[ing]' the National Weather Service and eliminating the Department of Education. The other 53 percent — or 138 proposals — remain on the Trump administration's 'to do' list. In 1997, civil rights activist and author Maya Angelou warned the graduating class at Wellesley College that, 'when someone shows you who they are, believe them.' Although the news coming out of the White House can feel relentless and exhausting, it remains imperative that every American in this moment become informed — and brace themselves — for what's coming. If we don't even know what is going on, there's no way to slow it down, let alone stop it. According to the Project 2025 tracker, the list of policies still in the works includes requiring schools that receive federal funding to give all students the military entrance test; adding a citizenship question to the census; focusing census outreach on 'conservative groups;' rescinding regulations implementing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; phasing out federal funding aimed at schools serving low-income children; passing the 'Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act;' repealing protections for unaccompanied minors encountered near the border; mandating time-and-a-half compensation on a 'sabbath;' classifying teachers and librarians as sex offenders if they discuss 'gender ideology' with minors; repealing child labor laws to allow teenagers to work 'inherently dangerous jobs;' allowing companies to evade paying overtime; prohibiting the intelligence community from monitoring 'so-called domestic disinformation;' and abolishing the Federal Reserve to move to a 'free banking' system. Some people reading this partial list will understandably balk, thinking that Trump cannot do some of these things without Congress or point out that some seem obviously unconstitutional. But those arguments mean very little anymore. The Republican-led Congress has abdicated its constitutional prerogatives in deference to Trump. The far-right majority on the Supreme Court has repeatedly flouted bedrock legal principles (often with no explanation) in furtherance of Trump's agenda. Neither of those branches will save us. Other readers might fall back on shoulder-shrugging, disbelief, denialism or even fear. Many will assume that, however horrific things get, they won't affect 'me.' A perusal of the Project 2025 tracker might change some of those minds. It certainly should. On September 17, 1787, a Philadelphia socialite named Elizabeth Willing Powell reportedly asked Benjamin Franklin after the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, 'Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?' Franklin responded, 'A republic, if you can keep it.' In a speech to the convention that day, Franklin stated that the new American system 'can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government.' So here we are. Increasingly, regular Americans seem to be waking up to the urgent constitutional crisis but have no idea what to do about it. That's a sobering, but eminently understandable, response. But this is for certain: Doing nothing guarantees that nothing will change. Zero plus zero is still zero. We all have to at least try.
