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Toyota considers exporting from UK to US to ease impact of Trump tariffs

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Toyota considers exporting from UK to US to ease impact of Trump tariffs

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Toyota will not rule out using the “export potential” of its UK plant to send small volumes of vehicles to the US in a bid to navigate the supply chain challenges posed by Donald Trump’s tariff war, a senior European executive has said. 

“If the business equation makes sense and the product that we’re producing is wanted by another region . . . we would of course study [our assets],” Matt Harrison, the chief corporate officer in Europe for the world’s largest carmaker, told the Financial Times. 

Harrison warned of more “political whirlwinds” ahead as the car industry prepares for a series of tariffs the US president has threatened against its major trading partners. 

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Trump has handed carmakers a one-month reprieve on tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada but the Japanese carmaker would be exposed if he goes ahead with the duties after 30 days.

US officials have also said “reciprocal” tariffs, allowing Trump to match import tariffs to those imposed on US goods by other countries, would still go into effect on April 2 as planned.

The EU, which levies 10 per cent on car imports compared to the 2.5 per cent by the US, could be one of the main targets of the “reciprocal” tariffs. 

If the UK manages to avoid US tariffs and Trump delivers on his tariff threats against other trading partners, Toyota’s Burnaston plant could hold more “export potential”, Harrison said.

But he cautioned that potential volumes would be limited considering that smaller models produced in the UK do not match consumer demand for bigger-sized vehicles in the US. 

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“It doesn’t mean that there wouldn’t be some opportunity, but probably small volume. Not huge,” he added.

Toyota has been a longtime proponent of selling a broad variety of vehicles including hybrids and hydrogen-powered models. Sales growth of electric vehicles, meanwhile, has slowed in both Europe and the US.

But it will boost its EV line-up in Europe this year with three new all-electric sport utility vehicles for the main Toyota brand and another three EV models for Lexus. By the end of next year, it expects to have at least 14 battery-only models, and to sell only zero-emission vehicles across Europe by 2035.

Toyota said it would not be ready to start producing EVs at its European plants in the near term. Currently, its EVs are produced in Japan, India and at European plants owned by Stellantis. 

“Maybe in 2025, battery EVs will be 10 per cent of our business, but still at 10 per cent of our business, the critical mass is not there to be fully competitive producing locally,” Harrison said. 

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Andrea Carlucci, vice-president of Toyota Europe, told the FT that Toyota’s diverse EV offering will help keep it from being dragged into a price war. Carmakers have struggled to make money from EVs, which are more expensive to produce than petrol vehicles and often require discounts to convince consumers to make the switch.

“It would be naive to tell you that we can rescue ourselves from a price war,” Carlucci said. “But I think we have a bit more freedom.” 

Another battleground for the group in Europe is plug-in hybrids, such as the carmaker’s Prius model.

As EV sales growth slows in Europe, BYD and other Chinese rivals are increasing their hybrid offerings, which are also not subject to the EU’s anti-subsidy tariffs.

“Competition is very welcome,” Carlucci said. “I’m ready to take any challenge from anyone.”

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

Donald Trump has terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide just a few months before the midterm elections, multiple outlets reported Thursday.

The remaining three commissioners of the four-member bipartisan commission ⁠were forced out on Thursday in different ways. The one Republican appointee resigned and the other ⁠two, Democratic appointees were notified of their terminations via email from ​the White House presidential personnel office.

“On ‌behalf of President ‌Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position ‌as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email, seen by Reuters, said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Election Assistance Commission serves as a “national clearinghouse of information on election ‌administration”, accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, and maintains the national mail-voter registration form developed by the National ​Voter Registration Act of 1993, according to the commission’s website. The terminations follow Trump and top administration officials’ advocacy to change vote-by-mail requirements and investigations into the 2020 election outcome, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

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“It is ⁠irresponsible and dangerous that this Administration remains dead set on ​causing chaos for ​our election officials across this ​country,” Arizona secretary of state Adrian Fontes said in a ​Thursday statement. “This ‌move undermines the integrity ​of nonpartisan ​election administration.”

The 2002 law that established the commission, the Help America Vote Act, states the president can appoint replacements to the commission.

It is unclear how Trump will move ahead with the commission.

Reuters contributed reporting

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

Former U.S. Olympian David Hearn (left) walks with his attorney Norman Eisen to speak to reporters and protesters gathered after his arraignment at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

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Former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn pleaded not guilty to damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in D.C. Superior Court Thursday morning.

Federal prosecutors charged Hearn with a single count of destruction of property causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool.

Hearn has previously claimed, which his attorneys repeated during a short press conference outside the court, that he simply touched the water in the pool out of curiosity.

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The Trump administration had just completed a $14 million renovation of the pool.

But shortly after the work finished, peeling paint and algae gathered in the water. The remodel has been largely criticized as a massive failure and waste of taxpayer dollars.

Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean released Hearn on his own recognizance. His next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5.

Norm Eisen, one of Hearn’s attorneys, spoke to reporters outside of court following the hearing. He said the administration is using Hearn as a “scapegoat … for their own failures.”

“It is not a crime to touch the reflecting pool, to touch water in the United States of America,” he said.

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Prosecutors say there is a host of evidence against Hearn.

This is a developing story.

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

Three more people have been criminally charged with destruction of property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Officers say they detained Cameron Thiers, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Justin Carreno one Saturday afternoon in June and described in court documents witnessing them peeling and removing pieces of blue paint from the Reflecting Pool.

One officer “witnessed Carreno reach down into the reflecting pool and pull up a piece of the blue paint,” according to the court documents.

The officer who detained Dennison-Gibby “found 1 additional piece of the reflecting pool liner” in her purse, the documents said.

All three incidents were recorded on the officers’ body worn cameras, they said in the court documents.

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Several “partnering law enforcement agencies assigned to the Reflecting Pool” working with US Park Police were involved in detaining the two men and one woman — including officers from Texas, Oklahoma, Montana and California.

One of the officers said in court documents that Thiers “admitted to removing a piece of blue sealant from the Reflecting Pool and still had it in his hand when I made contact with him.”

The three defendants were arraigned in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of destruction of property with a value less than $1,000. The judge ordered them to stay away from the Reflecting Pool.

Lawyers for Thiers and Dennison-Gibby declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Carreno’s attorney.

If found guilty of destruction of property, the defendants could be fined up to $1,000 and face a maximum of 180 days behind bars.

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The New York Times first reported that three additional people had been charged with damaging the Reflecting Pool.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that vandals caused major damage to the pool by gashing the lining after his administration spent more than $14 million on renovations, though he has not provided evidence to support that claim. The officers who charged Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby did not accuse them of gashing the lining.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was indicted by a grand jury in Washington, DC, last week for allegedly damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn — unlike Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby – was charged with destruction of property with a value of more than $1,000 which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted. He is set to be arraigned in court Thursday.

Crews began draining the Reflecting Pool over the weekend to make repairs, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for the second time in three months.

The move comes after weeks of problems – algae blooms, green-hued water, a chipping bottom and the administration’s allegations of vandalism – that have plagued the iconic landmark, making its woes the subject of national interest.

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