The Latest: Trump administration set to roll out lower fuel economy standards
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7:58 AM on Monday, September 28
By The Associated Press
The Trump administration on Monday plans to release new fuel economy standards that would relax regulatory requirements for automakers to control pollution from gasoline-powered cars and light trucks.
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump said the less stringent mileage requirements would “take the waste out of building cars in America” and save families “thousands on a new, beautiful and safe car,” while boosting auto production in the U.S.
Also, Trump has justified the pending U.S. arms sale to Taiwan to Chinese President Xi Jinping by downplaying it as just one of many sales Washington makes around the world — even asking Xi if he’d be in the market for U.S. arms, Trump’s ambassador to China said Sunday.
Here's the latest:
Former Army Sec. Dan Driscoll has written a 3,400-word essay in Foreign Affairs magazine that delves deeply into how the U.S. military can better prepare for the modern battlefield, including drone warfare.
But Driscoll’s article sheds no more light on why he resigned as the Army’s civilian leader in early September. Tensions with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were widely reported, but Driscoll praises the leadership of Hegseth and President Trump in his article.
Driscoll argues the U.S. still needs to build nuclear submarines and stealth fighters. But he says the military must get better at rapidly producing cheaper weapons, such as the drones used by Iran and Ukraine. The solution lies in private industry innovation, Driscoll writes, with “software developers in the mud with soldiers.”
The United States and China released Monday reciprocal lists of products worth about $30 billion each that will see tariff cuts, from American hair products to Chinese toys, in a deal expected to boost bilateral trade.
The details came days after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with President Trump in Washington in his first state visit to the U.S. since 2015. The U.S. had already reduced tariffs against China after Trump’s tariffs reached as high as 145% at one point last year, as tensions between the two countries eased.
China’s commerce ministry said in a statement the agreement will help strengthen trade cooperation.
Iran’s embassy in London on Monday denied any involvement in a suspected plot targeting a U.S. operated air base in England.
The embassy said in a statement that it “categorically rejects and strongly condemns the recent unfounded and malicious speculations” surrounding the arrest of five men near the base in western England.
Five British men have been arrested on suspicion of planning a terror attack.
The men were detained early Sunday after three vans were spotted near RAF Fairford, a U.K.-owned base that’s been used by American bombers during decades of conflicts in the Middle East.
Trump has justified the pending U.S. arms sale to Taiwan to Chinese President Xi Jinping by downplaying it as just one of many sales Washington makes around the world — even asking Xi if he’d be in the market for U.S. arms, Trump’s ambassador to China said on Sunday.
David Perdue said Trump raised the prospect of the arms sales from the U.S. to its ascendant geopolitical rival, an unlikely offer that, if consummated, would upend generations of U.S. policy toward China and Taiwan and potentially expose U.S. technology to a potential foe. Perdue, speaking to Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday,” didn’t specify when the offer was made.
Bream had cited concerns from Republican and Democratic lawmakers over delayed aid packages and weapons orders to Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy, to defend itself from China. Bream asked if the U.S. is denying arms to Taiwan to appease the Chinese president, who visited Trump last week. Perdue pushed back on the suggestion, stating that Trump “is as strong on Taiwan as I’ve ever seen anybody” and has sold it plenty of weapons.
