Trump going ahead with taxes on $16B in Chinese imports
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will go ahead with imposing 25 percent tariffs on an additional $16 billion in Chinese imports.
Customs officials will begin collecting the border tax Aug. 23, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said. The list is heavy on industrial products such as steam turbines and iron girders.
Tuesday’s announcement was not a surprise. In April, the administration had announced plans to slap tariffs on 1,333 Chinese product lines worth $50 billion a year. After receiving public feedback, it cut 515 products from the list in June and added 284. On July 6, the U.S. began taxing the 818 goods, worth $34 billion, remaining from the April list.
In the meantime, it sought public comment on the new items. On Tuesday, the administration said it had decided to go ahead with tariffs on 279 of the 284 items added in June; they’re worth about $16 billion a year.
Indonesia struggles to recover quake’s dead, help the living
TANJUNG, Indonesia — The rescue team had done everything it could to locate the body of the man, who had been killed instantly when a massive earthquake collapsed his home Sunday night on the Indonesian island of Lombok.
They used hacksaws to cut a square into concrete wall. They used crowbars and dogs and a power drill. But by Tuesday afternoon, with the unmistakable stench of rotting flesh in the air, they were sweating and at their wits’ end. The body of 60-year-old Abdul Malik, one of at least 105 people killed in the 7.0-magnitude quake, would have to stay under the rubble for a third day.
“It’s taking far too long,” said 50-year-old Masini, the victim’s brother-in-law who watched more than a dozen helmeted emergency workers in orange jumpsuits drill into a thick layer of concrete.
The tragic scene underscored the challenges Indonesia faces after this natural disaster. The quake shattered homes and lives on this island, displacing more than 84,000 people, according to disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
At least 4,600 foreign and Indonesian tourists also have been evacuated from three smaller islands off Lombok’s coast so far, Nugroho said. The islets are renowned for their crystal clear waters that draw snorkelers and divers from all over the world.
Manafort lawyer: ‘So many lies’ Gates can’t keep up
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In blistering questioning, a defense lawyer accused the protege of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of being immersed in “so many lies” he can’t remember them all, as he tried to undermine the credibility of the government’s star witness in Manafort’s fraud trial.
Defense lawyer Kevin Downing began his cross-examination of longtime Manafort deputy Rick Gates by pressing him on his own lies to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators, an extramarital affair and hundreds of thousands of dollars he admitted to embezzling from his former boss.
Downing also ventured into territory the two sides have mostly avoided: discussion of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The charges are not related to Manafort’s work with the Trump campaign.
The aggressive questioning was aimed at shifting blame from Manafort onto Gates, who pleaded guilty in Mueller’s investigation and agreed to cooperate with investigators by testifying in the financial fraud trial.
“After all the lies you’ve told and the fraud you’ve committed, you expect this jury to believe you?” Downing asked incredulously.
By wire sources