Colombia and the U.S. have ended their threats to impose tariffs on each other.
The Government of Colombia and the Trump Administration have backed off the dispute that led to Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on imports from Colombia and Colombia threatening to impose tariffs on imports from the U.S. The dispute broke out when the U.S. tried to land military airplanes in Colombia carrying Colombians who had been deported. The Colombian government wouldn’t allow them to land. Colombia now has agreed to lift its ban on flights carrying deported Colombian citizens. The U.S. threatens to go the tariffs route again if Colombia balks in the future.
A fired inspector general has a warning for Americans.
Mark Greenblatt, former inspector general at the Department of Interior, who was named to the post by Donald Trump during Trump’s first administration, was one of the 17 inspectors general fired by Donald Trump in a purge on Friday night. Inspectors general are charged with detecting improprieties in departments and ensuring that problems are brought to light so they can be corrected. Greenblatt said he was notified in a two sentence email Friday night that he was being fired. He warned that the firing of the inspectors general should set off alarm bells because they are charged with protecting taxpayers from corruption and incompetence in the ranks of government agencies.
ICE arrests 956 people in Sunday immigrant raids.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel staged raids in several U.S. cities yesterday and arrested 956 people. Personnel from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the US Marshals Service worked with ICE agents in the raids. White House border czar Tom Homan was in Chicago to watch what was happening in that city and said it was a good day. The governor of Illinois said the state was not advised in advance that ICE would be staging raids in Chicago.
Trump wants all people from Gaza to be sent elsewhere.
Donald Trump has proposed cleaning out Gaza of all of its people and having Egypt and Jordan provide new homes for them. Palestinians have rejected Trump’s idea. Residents of Northern Gaza have started returning to the site of their former homes, an estimated 60% of which were damaged or destroyed during the war between Israel and Hamas. Hamas over the weekend released four more hostages.
Rain aids firefighters in Los Angeles County.
Rain has helped firefighters in Southern California contain the multiple wildfires that continue to burn. The Palisades fire was reported to be 90% contained yesterday and the Eaton fire was 98% contained. The Hughes fire was 95% contained. However, the rain has produced mud in areas that were burned out. Concrete barriers have been put in place to protect roads and homes in areas where mudslides are considered a possibility. Residents who are cleaning up have been warned to wear protective clothing because of toxic materials in the rubble.
Bird feathers have been found in the engines of a South Korean airliner that crashed last month.
Investigators looking into last month’s crash of a South Korean airliner that killed 179 people have found bird feathers and blood in both engines of the Boeing 737-800 that was being operated by Jeju Air. The flightcrew had been warned by the control tower to be on the lookout for bird activity in the area of Muan International Airport. The airplane landed without its landing gear extended and slid the along the runway, eventually hitting a concrete barrier.
