Trump extends China tariff deadline, cites progress in talks
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Sunday he will extend a deadline to escalate tariffs on Chinese imports, citing “substantial progress” in weekend talks between the two countries.
Trump tweeted that there had been “productive talks” on some of the difficult issues dividing the U.S. and China, adding that “I will be delaying the U.S. increase in tariffs now scheduled for March 1.”
Trump said that if negotiations progress, he will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Florida resort to finalize an agreement.
U.S. and Chinese negotiators met through the weekend as they seek to resolve a trade war that’s rattled financial markets.
Trump had warned he would escalate the tariffs he has imposed on $200 billion in Chinese imports, from 10 to 25 percent, if the two sides failed to reach a deal. The increase was scheduled to take effect at 12:01 a.m. EST on March 2.
Rep. Schiff warns of subpoenas, lawsuit over Mueller report
WASHINGTON — A top House Democrat threatened on Sunday to call special counsel Robert Mueller to Capitol Hill, subpoena documents and sue the Trump administration if the full report on Mueller’s Russia investigation is not made public.
Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said his committee will keep close watch on new Attorney General William Barr to see if he were “to try to bury any part of this report.” Schiff, D-Calif., also pledged to “take it to court if necessary.”
He said anything less than complete disclosure would leave Barr, who now oversees the investigation, with “a tarnished legacy.”
Schiff’s comments come as Democrats have made it clear that they are ready for an aggressive, public fight with the Justice Department if they are not satisfied with the level of access they have to Mueller’s findings.
Mueller is showing signs of wrapping up his nearly 2-year-old investigation into possible coordination between Trump associates and Russia’s efforts to sway the 2016 election. The report isn’t expected to be delivered to the Justice Department this coming week.
Maduro opponents boost military rhetoric in Venezuela crisis
CUCUTA, Colombia — Opposition leader Juan Guaido has called on the international community to consider “all options” to resolve Venezuela’s crisis, a dramatic escalation in rhetoric that echoes comments from the Trump administration hinting at potential U.S. military involvement.
Guaido’s comments late Saturday came after a tumultuous day that saw President Nicolas Maduro’s forces fire tear gas and buckshot on activists trying to deliver humanitarian aid in violent clashes that left two people dead and some 300 injured.
For weeks, the U.S. and regional allies had been amassing emergency food and medical kits on Venezuela’s borders in anticipation of carrying out a “humanitarian avalanche” by land and sea to undermine Maduro’s rule.
With activists failing to penetrate government blockades and deliver the aid, Guaido announced late Saturday that he would escalate his appeal to the international community — beginning with a meeting Monday in Colombia’s capital with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on the sidelines of an emergency summit of leaders of the so-called Lima Group to discuss Venezuela’s crisis.
He said he would urge the international community to keep “all options open” in the fight to restore Venezuela’s democracy, using identical language to that of President Donald Trump, who in his public statements has repeatedly refused to rule out force and reportedly even secretly pressed aides as early as 2017 about the possibility of a military incursion.
White House manages expectations for second Kim summit
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is trying to manage expectations for his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, predicting a “continuation of the progress” made last time.
Trump tweeted Sunday that he was leaving early the next day for the meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, adding a tantalizing nod to “Denuclearization?” He also said Kim knows that “without nuclear weapons, his country could fast become one of the great economic powers anywhere in the World.”
From wire sources
Their first meeting, in Singapore in June, produced a vaguely worded commitment from North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. Heading into this week’s summit, Trump has said that North Korea has not tested any nuclear weapons in months and that as long as that testing has ceased, he’s in no rush.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on “Fox News Sunday” that he was hoping for a “substantive step forward.” But, he cautioned, “it may not happen, but I hope that it will.”
“President Trump has also said this is going to take time. There may have to be another summit. We may not get everything done this week,” Pompeo said.
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Hanoi Postcard: Children hope to give Kim comradely welcome
HANOI, Vietnam — Children at a kindergarten in Hanoi, some in Korean traditional “Hanbok” dress, have been practicing singing and dancing, hoping to show off their talents to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when he comes to town this week for his second summit with President Donald Trump.
Elsewhere in the Vietnam-Korea Friendship Kindergarten, students have been assembling picture montages on maps of Vietnam and the Koreas. In another classroom, children were coloring in Vietnamese and North Korean flags with which they hope to greet Kim.
“We really want for Mr. Kim Jong Un, the great leader of the Korean people, to visit our school,” said Ngo Thi Minh Ha, the school’s rector.
Apple-cheeked youngsters in traditional national garb meeting a paternal leader is a mainstay of old-style communist iconography, and North Korea is the closest thing left to an old-style communist state.
But the ties that once bound Vietnam to North Korea in their fight against the U.S. have long since frayed. These days, South Korea is the Korea most Vietnamese look to, as evidenced by Vietnam’s many billboards for the goods and services of companies such as Samsung, Lotte and Hyundai, and the massive amount of trade and investment coming from Seoul.
Unclaimed $1.5B jackpot mystery: Winner died? Ticket lost?
SIMPSONVILLE, S.C. — Nearly everyone in this small South Carolina town has a theory for the city’s billion-dollar mystery: Who won the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot announced last October?
Maybe the winner was so overwhelmed upon seeing the winning numbers that she or he died on the spot? Maybe the winner is on the run from police and fears a background check? Maybe that winning ticket fell from a car visor, ended up in a trash can and is forever buried at the Twin Chimneys Landfill. Or maybe, the winner is still going on with life as usual, before quietly taking the $878 million lump sum.
With less than two months to go, the clock is ticking. Whoever won the second largest lottery in U.S. history has until 5 p.m. on April 19 to walk into the South Carolina Lottery office in Columbia with the signed ticket and claim the jackpot.
The winning ticket was sold at the KC Mart in Simpsonville sometime between Oct. 20 and the drawing at 11 p.m. on Oct. 23. Store employee Jee Patel said State Law Enforcement Division agents were waiting in the parking lot when workers came to open at 6 a.m. the next day.
“We didn’t even know we sold the winner yet,” Patel said, adding agents immediately took the surveillance tapes away. “We haven’t seen them. I don’t know when we sold it or who we sold it to.”