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The US government on Thursday filed multi-million dollar lawsuits against a major power company over wildfires in Southern California, including one of the huge blazes that tore through the Los Angeles area in January.The Department of Justice said it had no doubt that Southern California Edison was to blame for the Eaton Fire, which laid waste to Altadena, killing 19 people and destroying thousands of homes.”The lawsuits filed today allege a troubling pattern of negligence resulting in death, destruction, and tens of millions of federal taxpayer dollars spent to clean up one utility company’s mistakes,” said Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “We hope that today’s filings are the first step in causing the beginnings of a culture change at Southern California Edison, one that will make it a responsible, conscientious company that helps -– not harms –- our community. “Hardworking Californians should not pick up the tab for Edison’s negligence.”The Eaton Fire was one of two blazes that ripped through greater Los Angeles in January, fanned by powerful winds.Firefighters battled for weeks from the ground and the air to tame the fires, which also hit the well-to-do area of Pacific Palisades.The fires, which together killed at least 31 people, left thousands of people homeless and created long-term health impacts for many more.Together, they are counted as one of the costliest natural disasters ever, anywhere in the world.In July Southern California Edison (SCE) said it would begin paying compensation to victims of the Eaton Fire, even before an official investigation concludes.For several months, the finger of blame has been pointing at an SCE powerline as the cause of the fire. Videos and witness accounts suggest that the equipment produced sparks that could have triggered the fast-moving conflagration.The company has previously admitted that it detected a fault on one of its transmission lines around that time.In a July filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, SCE reported it was “not aware of evidence pointing to another possible source of ignition.”The Justice Department said it would be seeking $40 million from SCE for the Eaton Fire, relating solely to costs to the federal government.A second lawsuit filed Thursday alleges sagging SCE power lines ignited the September 2022 Fairview Fire in San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles.That blaze killed two people as it charred 14,000 acres (5,600 hectares) and destroyed dozens of buildings.”A majority of the fires in California are started by these utility companies that do not maintain the areas and the infrastructure around their transmission lines,” Essayli told reporters.”We want Edison to change the way it does business.”A spokesperson for SCE said the company would review the lawsuits and “respond through the appropriate legal channels.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday promised security aid to Ecuador and announced terrorist designations as he vowed to ramp up a regional fight against criminals following a US strike on a boat allegedly linked to Venezuela.Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, an emerging ally of US President Donald Trump, has deployed troops to combat violence that has transformed the country from one of Latin America’s safest to one of its most dangerous.Rubio, meeting with Noboa in the centuries-old palace in Quito’s old city, said the United States would provide nearly $20 million in security aid including six million in drones.He also said that the United States was designating two gangs, Los Lobos and Los Choneros, as foreign terrorist organizations — putting them directly into US crosshairs.Rubio told reporters that he was helping Ecuador to “wage war against these vicious animals, these terrorists.”Speaking of Trump’s push against criminal groups, Rubio said, “This administration is confronting it like it’s never been confronted before.” At a joint press conference, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld said that Ecuador wants to see the Americas region free of “threats from transnational organized crime groups and terrorist groups that want to subjugate our citizens.”The visit comes two days after US forces said they blew up an alleged drug-running boat from a gang tied to Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolas Maduro, in an operation Trump said killed 11 people.AFP has not been able to verify independently the details of the attack presented by the United States.Venezuela’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello accused the United States of committing extrajudicial killings, saying “they murdered 11 people without due process.”Rubio on Thursday denounced Maduro, who was indicted in the United States, and again threatened more strikes.Maduro is a “fugitive of American justice,” Rubio said.”We are not just going to hunt for drug dealers with the little fast boats.”- The next Bukele? -Sommerfeld promised to keep up assistance in one of Trump’s top priorities — curbing migration.”Ecuador is going to support the United States. It’s symbolic, and it’s important for our partner, and we’re going to do it in a coordinated way,” she said.The Trump administration has sounded out Ecuador, which has stepped up cooperation to curb migration, as a new destination to ship people from other countries — part of a mass deportation drive.Rubio said that the United States would also aim within “a couple of weeks” to seal an economic agreement with Ecuador.In Noboa, a businessman who has consolidated power since his surprise 2023 victory, Rubio could find a new ally in his campaign to strengthen security-minded right-wing leaders across Latin America.The 37-year-old president was also born in Miami — the hometown of Rubio, a Cuban-American and vociferous critic of Latin America’s leftists.Noboa could follow in the steps of El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, another young US-educated president, whose iron-fisted clampdown on crime has drawn complaints from rights groups but made him popular at home and a darling of the Trump administration.- Invitation to US forces -Located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest producers of cocaine, Ecuador is the departure point for 70 percent of the world’s supply of the drug, nearly half of which goes to the United States, according to official data.  For years, the United States operated a military base at the Pacific port of Manta, and the Drug Enforcement Administration had a sizeable footprint in the country. The base was closed in 2009, after leftist then-president Rafael Correa refused to renew the lease. Noboa has taken steps to amend Ecuador’s constitution to allow a return of US forces.”If they invite us to return, we will consider it very seriously,” Rubio said.Ecuador also has to balance its warmth with Trump with its relationship with China, to which it owes billions of dollars after an infrastructure agreement.

Donald Trump’s pick to join the Federal Reserve’s board of governors pledged to uphold US central bank independence if confirmed — but was coy about leaving his current White House role in the process, as the institution faces growing pressure from the president to slash interest rates. Stephen Miran, who chairs the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), faced pointed questions at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on his independence from the Trump administration.The speed at which Miran is appointed will be key, given that he could take up the Fed role by the time the bank’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) holds its next meeting from September 16-17.Critics accuse Trump of seeking to tip the Fed’s board in favor of his stated goal of lowering interest rates.On Thursday, Miran did not commit to resigning from the CEA, saying that he received counsel advice to take a leave of absence instead. Upon further questioning, he said that he would step down if confirmed to a longer term at the Fed.Miran sought to reassure lawmakers in his opening remarks, however, saying that the FOMC “is an independent group with a monumental task, and I intend to preserve that independence.”He added that the most important job of the central bank is to prevent depressions and hyperinflation.”Independence of monetary policy is a critical element for its success,” he said, stressing that his views and decisions will be driven by his analysis of the macroeconomy.Trump has blamed current interest rates as a reason that the housing market is sluggish, citing benign inflation data too in calling for cuts — which tend to provide a boost for the economy.But Fed policymakers are wary that slashing rates too quickly could risk higher inflation over the long term, and are monitoring the effects of tariffs on prices as well.- ‘All-out assault’ -Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the banking committee, charged Thursday that Trump has launched an “all-out assault” on the Fed’s independence. She challenged Miran to prove his independence from Trump.Minnesota Senator Tina Smith said that Miran’s nomination was taking place quickly, arguing that the president “wants loyalists on the Fed board.”The seven members of the Fed’s powerful board of governors sit on the central bank’s 12-member FOMC, voting on interest rate decisions.Trump had nominated Miran to the Fed’s board to finish out the term of Adriana Kugler, an appointee of former president Joe Biden who resigned before her term was due to end in January.The personnel shift came, however, as the Fed faced intensifying calls from the US president to cut interest rates significantly. Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting rates sooner, calling him a “numbskull” and “moron.”Trump has also moved to fire another Fed governor, Lisa Cook, citing allegations of mortgage fraud.Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board, is fighting to stay in her role. She has not been charged with a crime, and the alleged incidents occurred before she became a Fed governor.But the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into her.Since its last rate cut in December, the Fed has held interest rates at a range between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent this year. Powell has opened the door to lowering levels at the bank’s next policy meeting this month.

The attorney general for the US capital filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to end President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to address crime in the city.”Deploying the National Guard to engage in law enforcement is not only unnecessary and unwanted, but it is also dangerous and harmful to the District and its residents,” Brian Schwalb said in a statement announcing the suit.”No American city should have the US military -– particularly out-of-state military who are not accountable to the residents and untrained in local law enforcement -– policing its streets,” Schwalb said.”It’s DC today but could be any other city tomorrow,” he added. “We’ve filed this action to put an end to this illegal federal overreach.”Trump ordered nearly 2,300 National Guard to patrol Washington on August 11, claiming the city was a “filthy and crime ridden embarrassment.”The Republican president has also threatened to mobilize National Guard troops to address crime in other Democratic-run cities such as Baltimore, Chicago and New Orleans.Trump has denied charges he is strictly targeting cities run by his political opponents for his anti-crime campaign and his crackdown on undocumented migrants.Schwalb’s lawsuit names Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Department of Defense as among the defendants.The DC attorney general’s move comes two days after a federal judge in California ruled that Trump effectively violated the law when he used troops to put down protests over immigration raids in Democrat-run Los Angeles.Judge Charles Breyer said Trump appears intent on “creating a national police force with the President as its chief” and barred the National Guard from performing police functions including arrests or searches and seizures.The Washington attorney general’s office said deploying the National Guard in the nation’s capital amounts to “an involuntary military occupation that far exceeds the President’s authority.”It threatens to “undermine public safety by inflaming tensions” and is hurting the local economy by “driving away tourists and patrons of local businesses,” Schwalb’s office said.

Over two dozen countries have pledged to take part in a force to be deployed in Ukraine after any peace accord with Russia, aiming to deter Moscow from ever again attacking its neighbour, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday.A “reassurance force” for Ukraine is a key pillar of the security guarantees a coalition of mainly European countries want to offer to Ukraine if the war ends via a peace deal or a ceasefire.However there is also growing concern that Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently showing no interest in a peace accord, with alarm intensifying after his high-profile visit to Beijing this week.European leaders spoke to US President Donald Trump via video conference after the summit in Paris of the so-called coalition of the willing, hosted by Macron and attended by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.Some European leaders attended in person and others, like UK premier Keir Starmer, remotely.The meeting represented a new push led by Macron to show that Europe can act independently of Washington after Trump upended US foreign policy and launched direct talks with Putin after returning to the White House.The United States was represented by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who also met with Zelensky separately.- ‘First concrete step’ -Europe has been under pressure to step up its response over three and a half years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.”We have today 26 countries who have formally committed — some others have not yet taken a position — to deploy as a ‘reassurance force’ troops in Ukraine, or be present on the ground, in the sea, or in the air,” Macron told reporters alongside Zelensky.Zelensky hailed the move. “I think that today, for the first time in a long time, this is the first such serious concrete step,” he said.Macron added: “This force does not seek to wage any war on Russia. It is a force to guarantee peace.”The troops would not be deployed “on the front line” but aim to “prevent any new major aggression”, the French president said.He added that another major pillar was a “regeneration” of the Ukrainian army so that it can “not just resist a new attack but dissuade Russia from a new aggression”.Macron said the United States was being “very clear” about its willingness to participate in security guarantees for Ukraine.However there was no clear indication that Europe had won the pledge from Washington of the security “backstop” it seeks and the American contribution remains unclear.There are also divisions within the coalition, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urging more pressure but remaining cautious about the scope of involvement.”Germany will decide on military involvement at the appropriate time once the framework conditions have been clarified,” a German government spokesman said after the summit.Taking a similar line, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reiterated at the meeting that Italy will not send troops to Ukraine, but it could help monitor any potential peace deal, her office said.Before the Paris talks, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow would not agree to the deployment of foreign troops in Ukraine “in any format”.- ‘Play for time’ -Frustration has been building in the West over what leaders say is Putin’s unwillingness to strike a deal to end the conflict.A Russian rocket attack Thursday on northern Ukraine killed two people from the Danish Refugee Council who were clearing mines in an area previously occupied by Moscow’s forces, the local Ukrainian governor said.The strike hit near the outskirts of the regional capital of Chernigiv, 125 kilometres (80 miles) north of Kyiv.Macron warned that if Russia continued refusing a peace deal, then “additional sanctions” would be agreed in coordination with the United States.He accused Russia of “doing nothing other than try to play for time” and instead of seeking peace maintaining a “permanent war” by intensifying attacks against civilians.”Russia has lost a million soldiers killed or wounded to conquer one percent of Ukrainian territory since November 2022,” he said.The gathering followed Putin’s high-profile trips to China and the United States, where he met with Trump in Alaska last month.Speaking Wednesday in Beijing, where he attended a massive military parade alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin hailed his forces’ progress in Ukraine, adding that Russian troops were advancing on “all fronts”.fff-vl-cad-as-sjw/rlp

The World Trade Organization and the International Labour Organization told AFP on Thursday that they no longer figured among entities targeted in the White House’s latest round of foreign aid cuts.US President Donald Trump’s Republican administration announced last Friday that it was cancelling $4.9 billion of congressionally-approved foreign aid, sparking outrage among Democrats.In a memo detailing the cuts, the administration said it was “committed to getting America’s fiscal house in order by cutting government spending that is woke, weaponised, and wasteful”.Trump, who has already effectively dismantled USAID — the world’s largest humanitarian aid agency — since taking office again in January, listed a number of international organisations among the targeted entities.The list originally included $107 million in cuts to ILO funding and another $29 million in slashed funding to the WTO.But by Wednesday, the WTO had disappeared from the list, and on Thursday the ILO had also vanished.”We are aware of the removal of the International Labour Organization from a US administration memo released on 29 August,” the agency told AFP.”We are seeking more information on what this latest development means for the ILO.”The WTO also confirmed to AFP that it was “not on the funding cut list any more.”There was no immediate explanation for why the two Geneva-based organisations had been quietly removed from the official White House document.The UN labour agency told AFP earlier this week that after Trump’s earlier executive orders slashing foreign funding, “the majority of ILO projects funded by the USA were given closure orders”.Of the 229 ILO staff who had been working on projects funded by Washington, 190 initially received a pink slip, but in the end more than half of them were reassigned to other projects, a spokeswoman said.The United States remains the largest contributor to the WTO’s budget, pitching in 23 million Swiss francs ($28.5 million) this year, or 11.4 percent of the total.US backing had meanwhile covered 22 percent of the ILO’s regular budget.But Washington has so far not paid its contributions for 2024 or 2025 to either organisation, with such delays quite common among member countries.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday discussed bolstering cooperation on security and migration in violence-swept Ecuador, as he champions a shoot-first crackdown on the region’s criminal groups.Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, an emerging ally of US President Donald Trump, has deployed troops to combat violence that has transformed the country from one of Latin America’s safest to one of its most dangerous.Rubio was escorted into the tightly guarded, centuries-old palace in Quito’s old city as a pianist played “America the Beautiful.””We value your effort and also your interest in our country and everything we’re doing here, actually, to eliminate any terrorist threat,” Noboa told Rubio as they met.The efforts will help advance “the protection of the United States and our way of life,” Noboa said.The visit comes two days after US forces said they blew up an alleged drug-running boat from a gang tied to Venezuela’s leftist government, in an operation President Donald Trump said killed 11 people.In Noboa, a businessman who has consolidated power since his surprise 2023 victory, Rubio could find a new ally in his campaign to strengthen security-minded right-wing leaders across Latin America.The 37-year-old president was also born in Miami — the hometown of Rubio, a Cuban-American and vociferous critic of Latin America’s leftists.The Trump administration has sounded out Ecuador, which has stepped up cooperation to curb migration, as a new destination to ship people from other countries — part of a mass deportation drive.Noboa could follow in the steps of El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, another young US-educated president, whose iron-fisted clampdown on crime has drawn complaints from rights groups but made him popular at home and a darling of the Trump administration.Rubio, speaking Wednesday in Mexico on the first stop of his two-country tour, vowed no mercy against criminal groups.He warned of more US attacks like the one in the Caribbean, a dramatic escalation by the United States after decades of routine policing work to seize drugs.Rubio said that such interdictions did not work as they were not costly enough to gangs.The United States “blew it up and it’ll happen again,” Rubio told a news conference Wednesday.AFP has not been able to verify independently the details of the attack presented by the United States.Venezuela’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello accused the United States of committing extrajudicial killings, saying “they murdered 11 people without due process.”- Ecuador eyes agreements -Ecuador’s Interior Minister John Reimberg said Wednesday he expected “many more agreements” with the United States on combatting violence.Located between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest producers of cocaine, Ecuador is the departure point for 70 percent of the world’s supply of the drug, nearly half of which goes to the United States, according to official data.  For years, the United States operated a military base at the Pacific port of Manta, and the Drug Enforcement Administration had a sizeable footprint in the country. The base was closed in 2009, after leftist then-president Rafael Correa refused to renew the lease. Noboa has moved to allow US forces to return, although a US official downplayed the possibility of any imminent return of a military presence.The official said that Rubio will also present Ecuador as a cautionary tale after it amassed billions of dollars in debt to China.The United States sees China as its top global adversary and has moved aggressively to combat its influence, but Beijing has made headway as the United States under Trump retreats from global aid.

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said Thursday that firing the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was “absolutely necessary” to restore high standards, as he faced blistering criticism from Democrats urging him to resign.”We need bold, competent and creative new leadership at CDC, people able and willing to chart a new course,” he told a Senate hearing marked by sharp exchanges that at times erupted into shouting matches.His remarks came days after the ouster of Sue Monarez, which, along with several high-level resignations, has plunged the nation’s top public health agency into turmoil.Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee leading the hearing, opened by demanding Kennedy be sworn in under oath, accusing him of lying in previous written testimony.”It is in the country’s best interest that Robert Kennedy step down, and if he doesn’t, Donald Trump should fire him before more people are hurt,” Wyden thundered.The request was rejected by the Republican chairman, Senator Mike Crapo, who praised Kennedy for his focus on chronic disease, including the obesity crisis.

The US trade deficit expanded more than expected in July to its widest in four months, government data showed Thursday, on a surge in imports before a fresh wave of President Donald Trump’s tariffs kicked in.The overall US trade deficit jumped 32.5 percent to $78.3 billion in July, the Department of Commerce said.This came on the back of a 5.9-percent rise in imports to $358.8 billion, while exports edged up just 0.3 percent to $280.5 billion.”While imports bounced back in July, more than half of the increase was due to gold as trade policy and safe-haven demand brought about a resurgence in trade,” said Matthew Martin, senior economist at Oxford Economics, in a statement.”Excluding gold, imports rose by a more modest 3.3 percent, while exports fell 0.1 percent,” Martin added.Analysts at Pantheon Macroeconomics expected a growing trade gap in connection with “another wave of pre-tariff stockpiling,” they said in a recent report.Trump slapped a 10-percent tariff on almost all US trading partners in April, but twice postponed a plan for these duties to rise to varying higher levels for dozens of economies.The steeper levels, hitting key partners like the European Union, Japan and India, finally took effect in early August.Even so, analysts believe businesses that boosted imports to get ahead of tariff hikes are running down on existing inventory, meaning that they will likely have to make new purchases at higher business costs.For now, the impact of Trump’s tariffs on US inflation appears limited.A Briefing.com consensus forecast had expected a smaller deficit figure of $64.2 billion. Demand for capital goods linked to artificial intelligence and data centers is boosting imports, Martin said in a note.Among sectors, imports of industrial supplies and consumer goods both jumped, the Commerce Department report said. The US goods deficit with China widened $5.3 billion to $14.7 billion in July, the report added.”Unsurprisingly, given the level of tariffs, China has been the hardest hit of all trading partners,” Martin said.Goods from the world’s second biggest economy face an additional 30-percent tariff this year, with several other Asian economies seeing lower levels.Trump’s tariffs have roiled supply chains this year, with imports already surging in March ahead of the US leader’s wide-ranging global duties in April.Apart from varied tariff rates on different economies, Trump has  slapped separate sector-specific levies on steel, aluminum and autos — while promising more to come.