News
Trump Administration Ties Tariffs to Fatal Fentanyl Overdoses, Which Are Declining
Howard Lutnick, the U.S. secretary of commerce, said in an interview on Tuesday that the tariffs President Trump imposed on Canada, Mexico and China could be lifted if those countries proved to Mr. Trump that they were stopping the flow of fentanyl and reducing the number of fatal fentanyl overdoses in the United States.
“You’ve seen it: It has not been a statistically relevant reduction of deaths in America,” Mr. Lutnick said on CNBC. “It’s just black and white. And we told them it was outcome based.”
But fentanyl-related overdose deaths have already been steeply declining over the past year, according to preliminary data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the Trump administration promoted just last week.
Between September 2023 and September 2024, roughly 87,000 people died of drug overdoses, a decline of almost 24 percent compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the most recent C.D.C. update. Around 55,000 of the deaths were attributed to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, a decrease of around 30 percent.
Overdose data lags by several months, as states confirm deaths and report them to the C.D.C., which then publishes national figures. Mr. Trump has suggested without evidence in recent weeks that the numbers are a significant undercount.
“We lose 300,000 people a year to fentanyl,” Mr. Trump said at a cabinet meeting last week. “Not 100, not 95, not 60, like you read. You know, you’ve been reading it for years. We lost, in my opinion, over the last couple of years, on average, maybe close to 300,000 people dead, and the families are ruined.”
The decrease in fentanyl overdoses, drug policy experts have said, has more to do with public health measures than changes in border policies. During the Biden administration, naloxone, an overdose-reversing medication, was approved for over-the-counter sales and became more widely available. Federal grants allowed communities to stockpile the rescue drug.
Buprenorphine, a treatment for opioid addiction, has also been easier to find for some drug users, after some restrictions for prescribing it were lifted by Congress in 2022.
While fentanyl causes the majority of fatal overdoses, other street drugs play a major role, including stimulants like methamphetamine and cocaine, and xylazine, an animal tranquilizer that can sedate a drug user for hours and does not respond to overdose reversal medication.
Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 4 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “light,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown. The New York Times
A minor earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 3.3 struck in Southern California on Thursday, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The temblor happened at 8:12 p.m. Pacific time about 6 miles northeast of Yucaipa, Calif., data from the agency shows.
As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.
An aftershock is usually a smaller earthquake that follows a larger one in the same general area. Aftershocks are typically minor adjustments along the portion of a fault that slipped at the time of the initial earthquake.
Aftershocks in the region
Quakes and aftershocks within 100 miles
Aftershocks can occur days, weeks or even years after the first earthquake. These events can be of equal or larger magnitude to the initial earthquake, and they can continue to affect already damaged locations.
Source: United States Geological Survey | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Pacific time. Shake data is as of Thursday, Oct. 23 at 11:16 p.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Friday, Oct. 24 at 1:12 a.m. Eastern.
Maps: Daylight (urban areas); MapLibre (map rendering); Natural Earth (roads, labels, terrain); Protomaps (map tiles)
When quakes and aftershocks occurred
Donald Trump will not deploy federal agents to San Francisco, the U.S. president and the city’s mayor said in separate social media posts on Thursday, a surprising stand-down as Trump pressures Democratic-led cities around the country to step up enforcement against crime and illegal immigration.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, a Democrat, said in a post on X that Trump called him Wednesday night to tell him he was calling off any plans for a federal deployment.
Lurie said the city would continue to partner with federal agencies to combat drug crime, but that “militarized immigration enforcement” would not help.
“We appreciate that the president understands that we are the global hub for technology, and when San Francisco is strong, our country is strong,” Lurie said.
Trump confirmed the agreement in a post on Truth Social, saying the federal government had been preparing a surge in San Francisco but would cancel it.
“I spoke to Mayor Lurie last night and he asked, very nicely, that I give him a chance to see if he can turn it around,” Trump said. “The people of San Francisco have come together on fighting Crime, especially since we began to take charge of that very nasty subject.”
The Republican president said two major tech executives — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff — had called him “saying that the future of San Francisco is great.”
Trump had indicated San Francisco would be a next stop for National Guard troops he was sending to various U.S. Democratic-led cities, moves that have been challenged in courts.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration would send more than 100 federal agents to the city to ramp up immigration enforcement.
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to use ‘dangerous’ U.S. cities as training grounds for the military at a rare meeting of top military officials where he and U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth took aim at what they called ‘woke’ military standards.
Protest against federal deployment
Despite the apparent stand-down, a handful of U.S. Border Patrol vehicles arrived at a U.S. Coast Guard base in the Bay Area on Thursday morning and were met with several hundred protesters.
Demonstrators carried signs reading “Stop the kidnappings” and “Protect our neighbours,” with one protester smacking the window of a truck as it passed by.
Federal agents eventually used less-lethal rounds to disperse the crowd, with protesters saying one person was injured by a projectile and that another had their foot run over.
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, the former member of Congress and civil rights activist, said in televised remarks that a federal deployment would divide and intimidate.
“We will not allow outsiders to create chaos or exploit our city,” said Lee, a Democrat.
Trump aims to deport record numbers of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, portraying them as criminals and a drain on U.S. communities.
Democrats in major U.S. cities have criticized the crackdown, saying it has terrorized law-abiding residents, separated families and hurt businesses.
Trump has long highlighted what he views as rampant crime in San Francisco and had signalled in recent weeks that he would send federal agents there.
“We’re going to San Francisco and we’ll make it great,” Trump told Fox News on Sunday.
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