U.S. and world news for Sept. 3

Xi, Putin and Kim Jong Un display unity in China

In China today, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stood together publicly for the first time and projected an image of unity and authoritarian strength. More than 20 world leaders also attended a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which was designed to demonstrate China’s leadership. During a military parade in Tiananmen Square — one that featured over 10,000 troops marching in unison and a display of hundreds of advanced weapons — Xi declared China’s rise was “unstoppable.” TASS, the Russian news agency, quoted President Trump as sending a message to the dictators: “May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America,” TASS quoted Trump as writing.

U.S. sinks boat in southern Caribbean

The U.S. conducted a deadly military strike on a boat allegedly tied to the Tren de Aragua drug cartel, President Trump said Tuesday. Eleven people were killed in the attack, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio said took place in the “southern Caribbean.” The use of military force against a Latin American drug cartel marks a significant escalation in the US war on drugs. Trump justified the action in a post on his social media site, saying the cartel was “a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere.” When asked by CNN about the legal authority for militarily targeting the cartels, Rubio said: “I’m not going to answer for the White House counsel, suffice it to say that all of those steps were taken in advance.”

Many Epstein files released, more still held by Trump administration

The House Oversight Committee has released more than 33,000 files related to the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein that it received from the Justice Department. However, Tuesday’s release of flight logs, court filings, jail surveillance footage, redacted records, depositions and memos may not represent the totality of the Epstein-related documents in the DOJ’s possession, and congressional Democrats have said they largely included previously known information. “After careful review, Oversight Democrats have found that 97% of the documents received from the Department of Justice were already public,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement. “There is no mention of any client list or anything that improves transparency or justice for victims.” As the panel readied the files’ release, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie pushed forward with his bill to compel the publication of the Epstein files in full.

Call for RFK Jr. to resign

More than 1,000 current and former employees of the Department of Health and Human Services have signed a letter demanding that Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. resign. The employees claim Kennedy’s leadership has “put the health of all Americans at risk,” and cited as examples his facilitating the firing of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Dr. Susan Monarez, his appointments of “political ideologues” to influential roles in vaccine policy and the rescinding of emergency use authorizations for Covid-19 vaccines. The letter also urged the president and Congress “to appoint a new Secretary of Health and Human Services, one whose qualifications and experience ensure that health policy is informed by independent and unbiased peer-reviewed science.” Numerous public health groups and lawmakers have also called for Kennedy to either resign or be fired. In an opinion piece published Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal, Kennedy claimed that his agency was “restoring public trust in the CDC.”

Google avoids most severe government sanctions

In a landmark antitrust ruling, a federal judge has decided that Google will not be forced to sell off its Android operating system or Chrome browser. U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta also said he had accepted some of Google’s proposed remedies. For example, the tech company will need to make certain search data available to qualified competitors to promote competition. And, Google will be barred from entering into or maintaining exclusive contracts related to the distribution of services like Chrome, Search, the Google Assistant and its Gemini app. In a statement, the Justice Department said the ruling “recognizes the need for remedies that will pry open the market for general search services.”

Trump affirms plan to send military into Chicago

Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is going to send the military into Chicago but that he doesn’t yet know when he’ll do that. When questioned by a reporter at the White House, Trump said, “Well we’re going. I didn’t say when. We’re going in.” Illinois Gov. Pritzker says the head of the Illinois State Police received a phone call from the federal government indicating Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers would be deployed to Chicago. Pritzker said it was the first communication Illinois received from the Trump administration on the issue. Pritzker said Chicago should expect “unidentifiable” agents in unmarked vehicles with masks raiding Latino communities in the name of targeting “violent criminals,” despite a very small percentage of those targeted individuals actually being violent criminals.