President Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Thursday gave Gov. Kathy Hochul a last-minute, 30-day extension to scrap congestion pricing.
Duffy, in a blustering tweet sent a day before the feds’ original Friday deadline to end the controversial toll program, told Hochul that Trump and the feds were putting her “on notice.”
He blasted the governor for her disrespect and refusal to end “cordon,” or congestion, pricing.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during an event.Hans Pennink
“Your unlawful pricing scheme charges working-class citizens to use roads their federal tax dollars already paid to build,” he angrily wrote, before giving Hochul some leeway.
“We will provide New York with a 30-day extension as discussions continue.”
“Know that the billions of dollars the federal government sends to New York are not a blank check. Continued noncompliance will not be taken lightly,” he warned.
A congestion pricing scanner overlooks 2nd Avenue.Michael Nagle
Hochul and MTA officials had vowed to keep collecting the $9 tolls from motorists, despite the previous deadline imposed by the feds.
They argued the program stands so long as a legal challenge to Duffy’s move to yank approval for the tolls winds through the courts.
Duffy’s tweet hints that Hochul’s talks with Trump over a pipeline deal could have led to the extension.
“Just as your high tolls and no free road option are a slap in the face to hard working Americans, your refusal to approve two vital pipelines that will lower fuel costs by 50% are against the public’s best interests,” he said.
FDA is offering a new tool that will allow consumers to search a database of the chemical contaminant levels used to assess health risk in foods, HHS announced Thursday (March 20). The database, part of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s focus on food safety risks, will include tolerances, action levels and guidance levels for various potential contaminants. “HHS is committed to radical transparency to give Americans authentic, informed consent about what they are eating,” Kennedy said in a statement..
To sow or not to sow? Canola farmers in Canada's vast western Prairies region have found themselves in the crossfire of trade wars with both the United States and China.
"We have two economic superpowers of the world having a trade war with us at the same time," Rick White, head of the Canadian Canola Growers Association, told AFP.
"We've had our challenges but nothing of this magnitude. This is the worst of all scenarios," he said, weeks before planting is to begin.
Canada, a major agricultural economy, is among the world's top producers of canola -- an oilseed crop that is used to make cooking oil, animal meal and biodiesel fuel.
But the bulk of canola exports go to just two customers, the United States and China, two countries with which Ottawa is now in standoffs over tariffs.
A few days ago, Beijing announced 100 percent tariffs on canola oil and meal in response to Ottawa's levies on Chinese electric vehicles, which align with those imposed on China by the United States under former president Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, since coming to office in January, US President Donald Trump has threatened widespread tariffs on imports of Canadian goods into the United States.
The price of canola has plunged as a result of the Chinese tariffs, dragging the price of European rapeseed down with it.
All of this must be sorted out in the coming weeks, fumes Jason Johnson, a farmer from Manitoba province in Canada's agricultural heartland.
"We're going to be seeding in about a month and once we do, we can't change crops," he said, while waiting for a call from a seed dealer about possible alternative crops.
China accounts for nearly one third of Canadian canola exports, mainly canola seeds, while the United States is the largest market for canola oil and meal.
Johnson believes it was wrong for Canada to impose tariffs on China.
"We should go back to China and say, 'We'll lift our tariffs if you lift yours,' basically doing a Trump by threatening tariffs and then retracting them," he told AFP.
On his 2,500-acre farm just north of the Canada-US border, he grows canola each year on about 1,000 acres, and feels certain the United States will ramp up tariffs against Canada that will be widespread and hit hard.
Those tariff threats have already sent shockwaves through Canada, as more than 75 percent of its exports go to the United States. A trade war between the two neighbors, with Canada retaliating, would cause significant damage to the Canadian economy.
Leaders from European countries will meet in Paris next week to discuss their position on Ukraine and demands on the peace process, according to people familiar with the plans.
Germany, Italy and Poland will be some of the European Union countries involved, as well as non-EU nations such as the UK and Canada, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Kyiv’s European allies are struggling to be involved in the process after the US kicked off talks directly with Russia and Ukraine. This so-called coalition of the willing met earlier this month in London.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier that he would be in Paris next week to hold meetings.
The United States and Israel will hold high-level talks on Iran's nuclear program at the White House early next week, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The planned meeting follows U.S. President Donald Trump's letter to Iran's leadership earlier this month in which he warned Tehran it had the choice of either striking a nuclear deal with the U.S. or facing possible military action.
The Israeli delegation will be led by strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer and national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and will meet with senior Trump advisers, the Washington-based source told Reuters.
The two teams are expected to discuss the potential for U.S.-Iran nuclear talks and regional issues related to Tehran, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Axios was first to report on the scheduled meeting in Washington.
Trump said he sent the letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's fiercely anti-Western Supreme Leader, who responded that Tehran would not be bullied into negotiations.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday that Tehran will consider the "opportunities" as well as the threats in Trump's letter.
On Saturday, Trump launched large-scale military strikes against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis over the group's attacks against Red Sea shipping and warned Tehran it will be held accountable if it does not rein them in.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has reinstated a "maximum pressure" campaign aimed at isolating Iran from the global economy and cutting off its oil exports.
During his 2017-2021 term, Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark deal between Iran and major powers that had placed strict limits on Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
After Trump pulled out in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, Iran breached and far surpassed those limits.
Western officials fear a nuclear-armed Iran could threaten Israel and Gulf Arab oil producers, and spark a regional arms race. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.
Israel, which is battling Iran-backed Hamas militants in Gaza, has made clear it wants to be aligned with the U.S. on any action against Israel's regional arch-foe.
Last year, Israeli strikes on Iranian facilities, including missile factories and air defenses, in retaliation for Iranian missile and drone attacks, sharply reduced Tehran's conventional military capabilities, according to U.S. officials and outside experts.
Indivisible, an activist hub that has received more than $7.6 million since 2017 from Soros’ Open Society Foundations, has called for Schumer to step down for helping pass the bill and is hosting a virtual event Saturday in which activists are encouraged to write happy-retirement cards to the Brooklyn Democrat.
“The Democrats will have an important question to answer in the coming days: Who actually leads their party — Schumer or Soros?” a Trump White House official told The Post.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer defended his decision to pass a spending bill this week on “The View.”ABC / The View
“Democrats are eating their own — selling out to the far-left crazies and mega-donors who are funding clown show protests across the country. It’s painfully obvious that George Soros doesn’t believe that ‘Leaders’ [Hakeem] Jeffries or Schumer have the backbone to lead,” said NRCC spokeswoman Emily Tuttle.
Indivisible claims to have 1,600 local chapters and lists 10 paid staffers on its website. It’s unclear to what extent the organization receives permission from major financial backers before making significant political decisions such as calling for Schumer, 74, to retire.
The group’s co-executive director Ezra Levin announced the drive to oust Schumer this past Saturday,sayingshortly after the funding bill passed: “Senator Schumer should step aside as leader. Every Democrat in the Senate should call for him to do so, and begin making plans for new leadership immediately. “
Levin added that the spending fight should have been used by Democrats as a “rare, precious point of leverage,” but “Schumer did the opposite. He led the charge to wave the white flag of surrender.”
Indivisible is helping gin up attendance for at least 17 home-district town hall events where Democratic members of Congress are expected to be asked about Schumer’s fate.
Thus far, the anti-Schumer push has had limited success and he appears secure in his post — after arguing that averting a partial government shutdown was necessary despite the “awful choice” for Democrats.
Alex Soros, left, administers the political activities of his billionaire dad George, right.via REUTERS
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), asked about the minority leader at a town hall event Wednesday, said “it’s important for people to know when it’s time to go” without endorsing the effort.
Indivisible also has organized against Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting initiative — offering $200 reimbursements to activists who partake in “Musk or Us”-themed protests against his purge of federal workers and grants.
“This week, we have watched Democrats partner with radical activist groups organizing Soros-funded demonstrations across the country, vandalizing property at Tesla dealerships, and now setting their sights on ousting the leader of their party,” the White House official said.
“WIth no coherent message, they’ve rallied around the same radical-left lunatics that were loudly rejected by the American people in November.”
The group Indivisible has backed anti-Elon Musk protests.ZUMAPRESS.com
A source close to Alex Soros, who now dispenses his father’s investment fortune and frequently represents him in public, told The Post that the family hasn’t taken sides against Schumer despite Indivisible’s actions, calling it a “daydream of the hard right.”
The source argued it was ironic that Musk has himself clashed with Republican officials, including at a contentious recent Cabinet meeting.
“The Republicans have lost their party to tech billionaires who have finally cracked the GOP code,” the source said.
“Keeping the focus on George Soros is catnip to keep everyday Republicans distracted with what’s really going on with tech billionaires: they’re in the hard drive of the GOP.”
Schumer’s office declined to comment and neither Indivisible nor the Open Society Foundations responded to requests for comment.
Hillary Clinton always has a knack of popping up just when you’re about to forget she exists to remind everyone what kind of hell we’d be living in had she not lost to Trump nine years ago.
Here she is in Germany at the “World Forum” this week once again calling for her side, in whatever form that comes in, to have the authority to control how people think, ironically in order to, she asserts, stop “autocrats” from taking over society.
Hillary asserted “We now have a government in the United States that has thrown in its lot with the autocrats, which has made a choice to support those who wage war, not peace, who have given enormous power to the men who control the information flow in our world, who have all pledged allegiance to the continuation of algorithms that not only addict us, but poison us with hatred and fear.”
“Information determines how we think, and how we think determines what we say, and what we say determines what we do,” said Clinton
Sounding like something straight out of Orwell’s 1984, Clinton further stated “Where there are no facts that are agreed upon, that happen right before your eyes, and you have leaders telling you to ignore it, that Putin did not invade Ukraine, that Ukraine somehow brought it upon itself, where there are no facts, there cannot be truth, and where there is no truth, there cannot be trust, and where there is no trust, there cannot be democracy and peace.”
What facts would they be? The ones you decide are true?
Here’s the full six minutes, which she probably got paid millions for.
Hillary has long been on this crusade against freedom of speech, lamenting that if globalists lose control of the social narrative their entire house of cards comes crashing down.
