Daily Caller
Trump Team Floated Energy Incentives With Russia In ‘Sideline’ Ukraine Peace Talks
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
The U.S. reportedly attempted to entice Russia to make peace in Ukraine with numerous energy deals involving potential U.S. investment, sources told Reuters this week.
The discussed deals included the possibility of U.S. oil and gas company Exxon Mobil re-entering the Sakhalin-1 project, as well as the Kremlin purchasing U.S. equipment for its liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, five sources familiar with the talks told Reuters. Since the beginning of the Ukraine war in 2022, Russia has been largely cut off from striking any major deals with the West.
The talks were held between U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev during the envoy’s visit to Moscow in early August, according to Reuters.
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The idea of the U.S. purchasing Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers was also floated as a possible deal, according to Reuters, and was briefly discussed during the Anchorage summit on August 15. Sakhalin-1 is an oil and gas extraction operation on Russia’s Sakhalin Island in the Pacific
Putin opened the project’s doors to foreign investment after the Anchorage summit, which would allow Exxon to potentially profit from the lucrative deal while further developing the operation’s production.
Trump’s negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have so far not produced any ceasefire or peace deal, while the President’s frustrations with Putin have continued to grow amid the relative silence since the two held their high-profile summit in Anchorage. Trump has previously threatened sanctions and tariffs against Russia if it continues to refuse coming to the peace table, but Moscow has so far remained defiant.
“President Trump and his national security team continue to engage with Russian and Ukrainian officials towards a bilateral meeting to stop the killing and end the war,” a senior White House official told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “As many world leaders have stated, this war would have never happened if President Trump was in office. It is not in the national interest to further negotiate these issues publicly.”
Exxon Mobil declined to comment, while the State Department deferred to the White House when asked for comment.
Business
President Trump Ending ‘Catastrophic’ Loophole Blamed For Funneling Drugs, Harming US Workers
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
The Trump administration is ending a longstanding tax exemption on low-value packages, a move White House officials say will create jobs, raise revenue and even save lives.
By early Friday morning, tariff exemptions for packages shipped to the United States worth $800 or less, popularly known as the “de minimis” rule, will come to an end for all countries, senior administration officials said. The move comes months after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end the de minimis exemption for China and Hong Kong.
The White House fiercely defended the action during a Thursday press call, framing it as defense against the flow of drugs and the protection of American workers.
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“Foreign post offices need to get their act together when it comes to monitoring and policing the use of international mail for smuggling and tariff evasion purposes,” Navarro added. “We are going to help them do that, but at this point, they are vastly underperforming express carriers like FedEx, DHL and UPS. In an age of AI, information saves lives.”
Established by Congress in 1938, the de minimis exemption has, for decades, allowed low-value packages to enter the U.S. duty free. The exemption threshold has risen over the years, with the last change in 2016 including products valued at or below $800.
The vast majority of shipped products fall within the exemption, with more than 92% of all cargo entering the U.S. entering via de minimis, according to Customs and Border Protection.
In April, Trump signed an executive order formally ending the de minimis exemption for China and Hong Kong. Shippers from the People’s Republic of China, the president said, hide “illicit substances” and “conceal the true contents of shipments” sent to the U.S. and avoid detection due to the de minimis exemption.
An executive order Trump signed in late July set the stage for the exemption to end for all countries by Aug. 29. In an accompanying fact sheet for the July order, the White House referred to the de minimis exemption as a “catastrophic loophole” used to evade tariffs, funnel deadly synthetic opioids and inundate the country with unsafe or below-market products that negatively affect businesses.
“The minimum loophole was one of the dumbest things this country ever did,” Navarro said Thursday. “If you do your homework, you look around the rest of the world, and nobody comes even close to the $800 de minimis standard. There’s other countries, they’re five bucks, 10 bucks.”
Not everything will be affected by the change. Personal gifts worth under $100 and letters remain under the exemption, senior administration officials said.
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) announced a stunning seizure of illicit narcotics seized from “transnational criminal organizations,” including 23 million potentially lethal doses of cocaine, offloading the massive haul in Port Everglades — the largest quantity in Coast Guard history.
The USCG seized 76,140 pounds of illicit narcotics, valued at $473 million, in 19 interdictions conducted in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, according to the USCG announcement Monday. The haul constituted 61,740 pounds of cocaine and around 14,400 pounds of marijuana, with patrols intercepting drug-laden vessels as far away as the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador and other remote parts of the Pacific.
“The U.S. Coast Guard in partnership with our federal, DoD, and international partners are offloading 61,740 pounds of cocaine, and this represents a significant victory in the fight against transnational criminal organizations, highlighting our unwavering commitment to safeguarding the nation from illicit trafficking and its devastating impacts,” Rear Adm. Adam Chamie, Coast Guard Southeast District commander, said in the announcement. “To put this into perspective, the potential 23 million lethal doses of cocaine seized by the U.S. Coast Guard and our partners, are enough to fatally overdose the entire population of the state of Florida, underscoring the immense threat posed by transnational drug trafficking to our nation.”
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President Donald Trump has made a push to crack down on the drug trade, designating a slew of Latin American drug cartels as terrorist organizations and authorizing the military to target the groups. Additionally, more military assets are reportedly set to deploy to the southern Caribbean to intensify the fight against cartels and the drug trade.
“The commitment and sacrifice of our deployed service members and their families, who forego time together for the protection of our Nation, are to be celebrated,” Capt. John B. McWhite, commanding officer of USCG Cutter Hamilton, said in the announcement.
The USCG did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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