US-China trade war elevates the risks to the global economy
WASHINGTON — The trade war that erupted Friday between the U.S. and China carries a major risk of escalation that could weaken investment, depress spending, unsettle financial markets and slow the global economy.
The opening shots were fired just after midnight, when the Trump administration imposed a 25 percent tariff on $34 billion of imports from China, and Beijing promptly retaliated with duties on an equal amount of American products. It accused the U.S. of igniting “the biggest trade war in economic history.”
Because of this first round of hostilities, American businesses and, ultimately, consumers could end up paying more for such Chinese-made products as construction equipment and other machinery. And American suppliers of soybeans, pork and whiskey could lose their competitive edge in China.
These initial tariffs are unlikely to inflict serious harm to the world’s two biggest economies. Gregory Daco, head of U.S. economics at Oxford Economics, has calculated that they would pare growth in both countries by no more than 0.2 percent through 2020.
But the conflict could soon escalate. President Donald Trump, who has boasted that winning a trade war is easy, has said he is prepared to impose tariffs on up to $550 billion in Chinese imports — a figure that exceeds the $506 billion in goods that China shipped to the U.S. last year.
Judge rejects blanket delay to reunite children at border
SAN DIEGO — A judge on Friday refused to grant the Trump administration a blanket extension of the deadline to reunite children separated from their parents at the border, instead acknowledging that more time may be justified only in specific cases.
The administration said it needed more time to reunite 101 children under 5 years old to ensure the children’s safety and to confirm their parental relationships.
“There’s always going to be tension between a fast release and a safe release,” said Sarah Fabian, a Justice Department attorney.
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the administration to share a list of the 101 children with the American Civil Liberties Union, which successfully sued to force the reunions, by Saturday afternoon. The two sides will try to determine over the weekend which cases merit a delay in an effort to present a unified front in court on Monday morning.
“The government must reunite them,” the judge said. “It must comply with the time frame unless there is an articulable reason.”
Thai rescuers say trapped boys not yet ready to dive out
MAE SAI, Thailand — Thai rescuers said they will not immediately attempt an underwater evacuation of 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach who have been trapped in a cave for almost two weeks because they have not learned adequate diving skills in the short time since they were found.
However, the official in immediate charge of the operation, Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn, indicated at a news conference Friday that if heavy rains started and appeared to be causing flooded areas in the cave to rise again, divers would try to take the boys out right away.
Thai officials had been suggesting in public statements that a quick underwater evacuation of the boys and their coach was needed because of the possibility that access to the cave could soon close again due to seasonal monsoon rains expected this weekend.
Earlier efforts to pump out water from the cave have been set back every time there has been a heavy rain.
Cave rescue specialists have cautioned against that approach except as a last resort, because of the dangers posed by inexperienced people using diving gear. The path out is considered especially complicated because of twists and turns in narrow flooded passages.
___
AP Exclusive: Washington psychiatric hospital called ‘hell’
SEATTLE — Behind tall brick walls and secure windows, hundreds of patients at Washington state’s largest psychiatric hospital live in conditions that fail U.S. health and safety standards, while overworked nurses and psychiatrists say they are navigating a system that punishes employees who speak out despite critical staffing shortages.
“They don’t have enough staff to protect patients, or provide them with the bare minimum of care,” said Lisa Bowser, whose mother spent two years at Western State Hospital and suffered dozens of falls and assaults.
“Going there was like going into hell,” said Bowser, who has sued the state-run facility. “I honestly thought they would kill her before I could get her out.”
U.S. and state regulators for years have found health and safety violations at the 800-bed hospital, ranging from assaults on staff to escapes of dangerous patients, including a man accused of torturing a woman to death. Even after that 2016 escape, a nursing supervisor told The Associated Press that a patient who had been charged with murder and found not guilty by reason of insanity was placed in a less secure ward and the nurse faced retaliation after reporting the danger to non-violent patients.
Despite a shakeup in leadership and vows to correct problems, the hospital continually puts patients at risk, according to a recent surprise federal inspection . Some didn’t get oxygen and blood-sugar checks; injuries weren’t properly treated; they were held in restraints too long; and the building remained a fire hazard. Some violations were cited in inspections going back to 2015.
___
Ex-athletes say Ohio State doc groped, ogled men for years
COLUMBUS, Ohio — On paper, Richard Strauss was a well-regarded Ohio State University physician who examined young athletes for decades as a team doctor and sports-medicine researcher.
Some former athletes recall him differently: Locker-room voyeur. Serial groper. “Dr. Jelly Paws.”
In interviews with The Associated Press in recent weeks, seven former athletes and a former nursing student shared detailed allegations of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1970s against the doctor, who killed himself in 2005 at age 67 and is only now under investigation.
The eight men, including three who didn’t want their names made public, say they want to see anyone who ignored concerns about Strauss held accountable and hope to make sure something similar doesn’t happen to others.
They described how Strauss fondled them during medical exams and ogled naked young men, sometimes showering among athletes multiple times a day for no apparent reason or perching himself on a stool to stare. Some said Strauss groped them barehanded during physicals, had them drop their pants even while examining them for a cough or heartburn, and badgered students to go home with him.
___
2 women publicly accuse Indiana attorney general of groping
INDIANAPOLIS — Two women came forward Friday to publicly accuse Attorney General Curtis Hill of groping them during a party earlier this year, increasing pressure on the embattled Republican to resign.
Democratic state Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon published her account of the March 15 incident, which occurred at an Indianapolis bar, in The (Northwest Indiana) Times newspaper.
Gabrielle McLemore, the Indiana Senate Democrats’ communications director, told The Associated Press that she decided to go public partly out of frustration that Hill issued a defiant statement Friday calling the allegations false.
The two women also said they acted because they wanted to give other women the courage to confront inappropriate conduct.
Candelaria Reardon described Hill’s behavior as “deviant” when she encountered him in the early morning hours after the legislative session ended for the year. She says he leaned toward her, put his hand on her back, slid it down and grabbed her buttocks. The Munster lawmaker says she told Hill to “back off,” but he approached again later in the night, put his hand on her back and said: “That skin. That back.”
___
Man who challenged black family’s use of pool loses job
RALEIGH, N.C. — A white man who challenged a black family’s use of a gated pool in a North Carolina neighborhood has not only resigned from the homeowner’s association board — he’s also lost his job.
Sonoco announced Friday that Adam Bloom is no longer employed by the packaging and industrial products company, saying it doesn’t condone discrimination of any kind, even if it happens outside its workplace.
A video posted by Jasmine Abhulimen on Facebook on July 4, seen more than 4 million times, shows what happened after Bloom questioned whether she was allowed to bring her son to the pool in the Winston-Salem neighborhood.
Bloom also called the police. In a police recording released Friday, Bloom is heard calmly telling a dispatcher he’s dealing with a “nonresident that’s at the pool who refuses to leave. … We’re just asking for a form of identification.”
But Bloom was wrong about his neighbor: Abhulimen owns a house with her husband a few blocks away in the development, according to county property records.
Bourdain leaves bulk of $1.2M estate to 11-year-old daughter
NEW YORK — Globe-trotting chef, author and TV host Anthony Bourdain was worth $1.2 million when he died last month and left most of the estate to his 11-year-old daughter, according to court papers filed this week in New York.
Bourdain’s will and related papers show assets including $425,000 in cash and savings, $250,000 in personal property, $500,000 in intangibles like royalties and residuals, and $35,000 in a brokerage account.
The documents also list a $1.1 million mortgage.
The 61-year-old Bourdain was found dead June 8 in an apparent suicide in his hotel room in Kaysersberg, France, an ancient village where he was working on his CNN series “Parts Unknown.”
Bourdain wrote his last will and testament in December 2016 and named wife, Ottavia Busia-Borudain, as executor. By that time, the two had already announced they were separated but said they were still friends.