Biden mulling tariff rollback, plans to talk soon with China’s Xi
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — President Joe Biden said Saturday he plans to talk to Chinese leader Xi Jinping soon as he considers whether to lift some Trumpera tariffs on Chinese goods.
Biden did not say when they might speak, but suggested he was getting closer to making a decision about the fate of the economic penalties.
“I’m in the process of making up my mind,” Biden told reporters in a brief exchange after a bike ride near his beach home in Delaware.
National security and economic aides are in the process of completing a review of the U.S. tariff policy and making recommendations to the president.
The tariffs imposed under President Donald Trump applied a 25% duty on billions of dollars of Chinese products. The penalties were intended to reduce the U.S. trade deficit and force China to adopt fairer practices.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently called for eliminating some of those tariffs as a way to fight inflation in the United States. Others in the Biden administration, including U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, have raised concerns about easing tariffs when China has not upheld its agreements on purchasing U.S. products.
She said she saw the tariffs as “a tool in the economic policy toolbox” that could be considered, but alongside “a lot of other tools at our disposal.”
“What is of the utmost importance for us is to ensure that this mediumterm strategic realignment that we know we need to accomplish is something that we are able to accomplish, and that nothing that we do in the short term undermines that larger goal,” Tai said last month.
Mideast tensions: Palestinian militants fired a rocket into southern Israel early Saturday, shattering a two-month lull in violence at the Gaza-Israel border in contrast to the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military said aerial defense systems intercepted the projectile, which activated warning sirens in the southern coastal city of Ashkelon. There were no reports of casualties.
Hours later, Israeli aircraft carried out a series of airstrikes on four military sites for Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza. Videos on social media showed plumes of smoke and fire rising from the targeted camps in central and northern Gaza Strip and eastern Gaza City.
No Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the rocket fire but the Israeli military blamed Hamas.
An Israeli military raid in the West Bank early Friday, in which three Palestinian militants were killed and eight wounded, could have triggered the rocket attack from Gaza.
The Israeli military has been carrying out near-daily raids in the occupied West Bank since a string of attacks earlier this year killed 19 people in Israel. Many of the arrest raids have been launched in and around Jenin, the hometown of several of the attackers.
Crypto selloff: Bitcoin fell below the psychologically important threshold of $20,000 on Saturday for the first time since late 2020, in a fresh sign that the selloff in cryptocurrencies is deepening.
The price of the most
popular cryptocurrency had plunged by as much as 12% to less than $18,100 by late afternoon on the East Coast, according to the cryptocurrency news site CoinDesk.
The last time bitcoin was at that level was in November 2020, when it was on its way to an all-time high of nearly $69,000, according to CoinDesk. Many in the industry had believed it would not fall under $20,000.
Bitcoin has lost more than 70% of its value since reaching its peak. A spate of cryptocurrency meltdowns has sparked urgent calls to regulate the freewheeling industry, and last week bipartisan legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate to regulate the digital assets.
Confederate shop: A city councilman in Georgia has resigned to protest the reopening of a Confederate souvenir shop that sells images with racial slurs and dolls and statues that caricature Black people.
Kennesaw Councilman James “Doc” Eaton said he wanted no part of the city’s decision to issue a business license to the downtown store.
His resignation is effective Tuesday.
Eaton’s daughter, Cris Eaton Welsh, owns a chiropractic business across the street from the souvenir shop and said she plans to relocate.
City officials said the store had gone through the process required of all businesses to obtain a license.
Weed killer ruling: A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a Trump administration finding that the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup does not pose a serious health risk and is “not likely” to cause cancer in humans.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reexamine its 2020 finding that glyphosate,
the active ingredient in Roundup, did not pose a health risk for people exposed to it by any means — on farms, yards or roadsides or as residue left on food crops.
Writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, Judge Michelle Friedland said EPA’s finding of no risk to human health “was not supported by substantial evidence.’’ She also ruled that EPA fell short of its obligations under the Endangered Species Act by inadequately examining glyphosate’s impact on animal species and vegetation.
Destroyer christened: The christening of a Navy destroyer on Saturday at Navy shipbuilder Bath Iron Works in Maine highlighted the sacrifices of two generations: the ship’s namesake killed in World War II and another Marine who died more than 60 years later.
The future USS Basilone, a 509-foot guided-missile
destroyer, bears the name of Marine Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone.
Basilone was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism while defending Henderson Field against a fierce assault by a 3,000-strong Japanese force during the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942.
The New Jersey resident returned home to a hero’s welcome and a parade. But he asked to rejoin his comrades and died on the opening day of the invasion of Iwo Jima in February 1945.
Breaking a bottle on the ship’s bow was Ryan Manion, a woman who lost her brother in an ambush in Fallujah, Iraq. Her brother was killed by a sniper when he exposed himself to enemy fire to divert attention from his unit in 2007.
Manion, who is one of the ship’s sponsors, is president of the Pennsylvania-based Travis Manion Foundation, which aims to empower veterans and families of fallen heroes.