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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 6, 2018
WORLD IN BRIEF
Associated Press
US tariffs take effect,
China announces retaliation
BEIJING — The United States hiked tariffs on Chinese imports
today and Beijing announced it was retaliating against American
goods in a technology dispute between the world’s two biggest
economies that President Donald Trump says he is prepared to
escalate.
Washington imposed 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion worth of
Chinese imports, a first step in what could become an accelerating
series of tariffs.
Retaliatory measures “took effect immediately,” said a Chinese
foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang. Hu gave no details, but
the Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily said the customs
agency was carrying out a plan announced last month to impose
25 percent tariffs on a $34 billion list of American goods including
soybeans, pork and electric cars.
Companies worry the spiraling dispute could chill global eco-
nomic growth, but Asian financial markets took today’s develop-
ments in stride.
Japan’s main stock index, the Nikkei 225, gained 1.1 percent
while the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.5 percent. Hong
Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.8 percent.
Japan cult leader behind gas
attack, followers are executed
TOKYO — Doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara and six of
his followers were executed today for their roles in a deadly 1995
gas attack on the Tokyo subways and other crimes, closing a chap-
ter on one of Japan’s most shocking crimes in recent memory.
During the morning rush hour of March 20, 1995, members of
the Asahara’s Aum Shinrikyo cult punctured plastic bags to release
sarin nerve gas inside subway cars, killing 13 people and sicken-
ing more than 6,000.
Japan’s Justice Ministry announced the executions of Asahara,
63, and his followers. Two major Japanese newspapers issued extra
editions about the executions and handed them out at train stations.
“This gave me a piece of mind,” Kiyoe Iwata, who lost her
daughter in the subway attack, told Japanese broadcaster NHK.
“I have always been wondering why it had to be my daughter and
why she had to be killed. Now, I can pay a visit to her grave and
tell her of this.”
Asahara and five of the six executed were implicated in the sub-
way attack. The cult also carried out other crimes that together with
the subway attack killed 27 people in total. Six other followers
remain on death row.
US Army quietly discharging
immigrant recruits
SAN ANTONIO — Some immigrant Army reservists and
recruits who enlisted in the military with a promised path to cit-
izenship are being abruptly discharged, the Associated Press has
learned.
The AP was unable to quantify how many men and women
who enlisted through the special recruitment program have been
booted from the Army, but immigration attorneys say they know
of more than 40 who have been discharged or whose status has
become questionable, jeopardizing their futures.
“It was my dream to serve in the military,” said reservist Lucas
Calixto, a Brazilian immigrant who filed a lawsuit against the
Army last week. “Since this country has been so good to me, I
thought it was the least I could do to give back to my adopted coun-
try and serve in the United States military.”
Some of the service members say they were not told why they
were being discharged. Others who pressed for answers said the
Army informed them they’d been labeled as security risks because
they have relatives abroad or because the Defense Department had
not completed background checks on them.
Spokespeople for the Pentagon and the Army said that, due to
the pending litigation, they were unable to explain the discharges
or respond to questions about whether there have been policy
changes in any of the military branches.
Pompeo in North Korea vows to
get details of nuke commitment
PYONGYANG, North Korea — Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo began his first trip to Pyongyang since President Don-
ald Trump’s summit with leader Kim Jong Un last month with
a vow to nail down the specifics of Kim’s commitments on
denuclearization.
Pompeo, who arrived in the North Korean capital today, has
the crucial task of dispelling growing skepticism over how seri-
ously Kim is about giving up his nuclear arsenal and translating the
upbeat rhetoric following the summit into concrete action.
He was met at the Pyongyang airport by Kim Yong Chol, a
senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, and For-
eign Minister Ri Yong Ho.
Soon afterward, he and Kim Yong Chol, who has been some-
thing of a point-man on Washington negotiations for Kim Jong Un,
sat down for their first talks.
“The more you come, more trust we can build between one
another,” Kim told Pompeo, according to a pool from reporters
traveling with the secretary.
Thais fight water and oxygen
levels in cave as diver dies
MAE SAI, Thailand — Thai authorities overseeing the rescue
operation for 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a flooded
cave in the country’s north said they have a “limited amount of
time” to get them out, as they raced today against worsening
weather and lowered oxygen levels in the underground complex.
The massive operation inside and around Tham Luang Nang
Non cave in Chiang Rai province suffered its first fatality when
a former Thai navy SEAL passed out underwater on an overnight
mission and was unable to be revived.
“We can no longer wait for all conditions (to be ready) because
circumstances are pressuring us,” Thai SEAL commander Arpa-
korn Yookongkaew told a news conference. “We originally thought
the boys can stay safe inside the cave for quite some time but cir-
cumstances have changed. We have limited amount of time.”
Scandal-plagued Pruitt
resigns from top EPA post
Latest Trump
official to go
By MICHAEL
BIESECKER, ZEKE
MILLER and ELLEN
KNICKMEYER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Environmental Protection
Agency Administrator Scott
Pruitt resigned Thursday
amid ethics investigations
of outsized security spend-
ing, first-class flights and a
sweetheart condo lease.
With Pruitt’s departure,
President Donald Trump
loses an administrator many
conservatives regarded as
one of the more effective
members of his Cabinet. But
Pruitt had also been dogged
for months by scandals that
spawned more than a dozen
federal and congressional
investigations.
Talking to reporters on
Air Force One, Trump con-
tinued to praise his scan-
dal-plagued EPA chief,
saying there was “no final
straw” and he had not asked
for Pruitt’s resignation.
“Scott is a terrific guy,”
Trump said. “He came to me
and said I have such great
confidence in the adminis-
tration I don’t want to be a
distraction. … He’ll go and
do great things and have a
wonderful life, I hope.”
In his resignation let-
ter to Trump, obtained by
The Associated Press, Pruitt
expressed no regrets.
“It is extremely difficult
for me to cease serving you
in this role first because I
count it a blessing to be serv-
ing you in any capacity, but
also, because of the transfor-
mative work that is occur-
ring,” Pruitt wrote. “How-
ever, the unrelenting attacks
on me personally, my fam-
ily, are unprecedented and
have taken a sizable toll on
all of us.”
Pruitt, a Republican,
had appeared Wednesday
at a White House picnic for
Independence Day, wearing
a red-checked shirt and loaf-
ers with gold trim. Trump
gave him and other officials
a brief shout-out, offering
no sign of any immediate
change in his job.
EPA Deputy Adminis-
trator Andrew Wheeler, a
former coal industry lob-
byist, will take the helm as
acting administrator starting
Monday.
“I have no doubt that
Andy will continue on with
our great and lasting EPA
agenda,” Trump tweeted
Thursday.
Pruitt’s resignation came
days after two of his clos-
est advisers spoke to House
oversight committee inves-
tigators and revealed new,
embarrassing details in eth-
ics scandals involving Pruitt.
Samantha Dravis, who
recently resigned as Pruitt’s
policy chief, told investiga-
tors last week that Pruitt had
made clear to her before and
after he became EPA admin-
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned on Thursday.
istrator that he would like the
attorney general’s job, held then
and now by Jeff Sessions.
Pruitt “had hinted at that
(sic) some sort of conversa-
tion had taken place between
he and the president,” Dravis
told congressional investiga-
tors, according to a transcript
obtained Thursday by the AP.
“That was the position he was
originally interested in.”
Industry ties
A former Oklahoma attorney
general close to the oil and gas
industry, Pruitt had filed more
than a dozen lawsuits against
the agency he was picked to
lead. Arriving in Washington,
D.C., he worked relentlessly to
dismantle Obama-era environ-
mental regulations that aimed to
reduce toxic pollution and plan-
et-warming carbon emissions.
rate interests.
But despite boasts of slashing
red tape and promoting job cre-
ation, Pruitt had a mixed record
of producing real-world results.
Many of the EPA regulations
Pruitt scraped or delayed had
not yet taken effect, and the tens
of thousands of lost coal min-
ing jobs the president pledged to
bring back never materialized.
Pruitt was forced out fol-
lowing a series of revelations
involving pricey trips with first-
class airline seats and unusual
security spending, including a
$43,000 soundproof booth for
making private phone calls. He
also demanded 24-hour-a-day
protection from armed officers,
resulting in a swollen 20-mem-
ber security detail that blew
through overtime budgets and
racked up expenses of more
than $3 million.
‘The unrelenting
attacks on me personally,
my family, are unprecedented
and have taken a sizable
toll on all of us.’
Scott Pruitt
former Environmental Protection Agency administrator
During his one-year tenure,
Pruitt crisscrossed the country
at taxpayer expense to speak
with industry groups and hob-
nob with GOP donors, but he
showed little interest in listen-
ing to advocates he derided as
“the environmental left.” Those
groups quickly applauded his
departure.
“Despite his brief tenure,
Pruitt was the worst EPA chief
in history,” said Kieran Suck-
ling, executive director of the
Center for Biological Diversity.
“His corruption was his down-
fall, but his pro-polluter policies
will have our kids breathing
dirtier air long after his many
scandals are forgotten.”
Like Trump, Pruitt voiced
skepticism about mainstream
climate science and was a fierce
critic of the Paris climate agree-
ment. The president cheered his
EPA chief’s moves to boost fos-
sil fuel production and roll back
regulations opposed by corpo-
Pruitt routinely ordered his
EPA staff to do personal chores
for him, including picking up
his dry cleaning and trying to
obtain a used Trump hotel mat-
tress for his apartment. He had
also enlisted his staff to contact
conservative groups and com-
panies to find a lucrative job for
his unemployed wife, including
emails seeking a Chick-fil-A
franchise from a senior execu-
tive at the fast-food chain.
Pruitt’s job had been in
jeopardy since the end of
March, when ABC News first
reported that he leased a Capi-
tol Hill condo last year for just
$50 a night. It was co-owned
by the wife of a veteran fossil
fuels lobbyist whose firm had
sought regulatory rollbacks
from EPA.
Both Pruitt and the lobbyist,
Steven Hart, denied he had con-
ducted any recent business with
EPA. But Hart was later forced
to admit he had met with Pruitt
at EPA headquarters last sum-
mer after his firm, Williams &
Jensen, revealed he had lobbied
the agency on a required federal
disclosure form.
Pruitt also publicly denied
any knowledge of massive
raises awarded to two close
aides he had brought with him
to EPA from Oklahoma. Doc-
uments later showed Pruitt’s
chief of staff had signed off on
the pay hikes, indicating he had
the administrator’s consent.
Investigations
The slew of damaging rev-
elations, many of which came
to light through media reports
and public records lawsuits
filed by environmental groups,
triggered more than a dozen
investigations related to Pruitt’s
conduct by EPA’s Office of
Inspector General, the House
Oversight Committee and other
federal watchdogs.
It was not immediately clear
how Pruitt’s resignation might
affect those ongoing probes.
No longer a federal employee,
Pruitt can’t be compelled to
speak or otherwise cooper-
ate with the inspector general’s
investigation. As a private citi-
zen, he could still be subpoe-
naed to testify before Congress,
but Republican-led committees
have thus far shown little appe-
tite in forcing him to do so.
Jennifer Kaplan, a spokes-
woman for EPA Inspector
General Arthur Elkins, said
Thursday that the office was
“assessing and evaluating” its
ongoing audits and investiga-
tions in the wake of Pruitt’s
departure.
U.S. Sen. John Barrasso,
the Republican chairman of
the Senate Committee on Envi-
ronment and Public Works
and until Thursday a strong
defender of Pruitt, said Trump
made the right decision to
accept the resignation.
“It has become increasingly
challenging for the EPA to carry
out its mission with the admin-
istrator under investigation,”
said Barrasso, who is from
Wyoming.
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