Good morning, and welcome to The Epoch Times News Brief for Thursday, March 13, 2025. I’m Bill Thomas, we have some urgent stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s happening in the United States and around the world.
Several nations retaliate after President Donald Trump’s global tariffs on steel and aluminum finally go into effect; Trump also makes a bold declaration linking domestic terrorism and vandalism targeting Tesla; and lawmakers take significant action in an effort to combat a deadly threat facing our nation.
Also, a new court filing alleges that a dwindling federal agency has just been ordered to destroy its records, and one U.S. state says it’ll seize billions of dollars in Chinese assets following a staggering legal decision regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Canada, EU Retaliate After US Tariffs Take Effect
The president’s 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports are now underway for all of our nation’s trading partners, and he says their purpose is to stop other countries from taking advantage of the United States, bolster domestic production, and return jobs to the U.S. economy.They also include billions of dollars of tariffs on U.S. goods such as computers and sports equipment. They’ll be imposed alongside more than $100 billion worth of other recently announced counter-tariffs.
One high-level European Union official says tariffs are taxes that are “bad for business, and even worse for consumers.” For its part, the British government says it’s disappointed, but so far, it is not yet imposing any retaliatory trade tariffs in response to the U.S. measures.
By the way, according to the Commerce Department, the United States produces most of its own steel and imports only around 25 percent of what we use. However, we import nearly 44 percent of our country’s aluminum needs, with more than half of that product coming from Canada.
Trump Says People Vandalizing Tesla Dealerships Could Be Labeled Terrorists
The president is condemning repeated acts of vandalism as well as demonstrations at the electric vehicle company’s showrooms across the United States, and he now says he is considering labeling the suspects in those alleged crimes as domestic terrorists.The president says that he’s going to do whatever it takes to stop the violence, that his administration has already identified some of the people behind the attacks, and that law enforcement will catch up with them soon.
He went on to say that the alleged criminals are going to face a big problem when they’re caught, and that they’re some of the same people who’ve been stirring up problems at our nation’s schools and universities.
Police are investigating the attacks, which include damaging dealerships, burning charging stations, gunfire, and more. They’re occurring amid backlash over the role of Tesla owner Elon Musk regarding mass cuts to the federal workforce as well as the cancellation of foreign aid contracts around the world.
However, one group claiming to be an organizer of what it calls “Tesla Takedown” protests says their movement is peaceful and not domestic terrorism, and they’re calling for others to join their cause.
Meanwhile, Trump says that Tesla is “a great American company” that provides many people with jobs that other individuals are unable to do. He made his comments outside the White House, where he was joined by Musk after shopping for a new red Tesla, which will be used by his staff.
Lawmakers Propose Federal Task Force to Combat Fentanyl Crisis
A Republican congressman from the state of Washington has just introduced a bipartisan bill that would establish a federal joint task force aimed at combating the illegal flow of fentanyl into the United States.The lawmaker says that the new organization is designed to streamline interagency collaboration by pooling resources from across the federal government, allowing it to respond quickly to fentanyl trafficking with joint raids and sanctions.
He went on to say the task force will focus on both international and domestic efforts to dismantle drug trafficking networks, including developing strategies to address China’s involvement in the fentanyl crisis.
For his part, President Donald Trump has blamed China for its failure to control the flow of fentanyl that has been entering the United States through Mexico and Canada. He’s imposed significant tariffs on all three of those countries in an effort to pressure them into taking stronger actions to curb fentanyl trafficking.
Another recently introduced bipartisan bill would allow the U.S. government to impose sanctions on Chinese state-owned or state-controlled entities for their roles in the trafficking of that deadly drug.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fentanyl overdose has now been identified as the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.
USAID Staff Ordered to Destroy Records, Court Filing Says
A group representing the unions of those employees has just filed an emergency motion alleging that some workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have received instructions telling them to empty classified safes and destroy agency records.They’re asking the court for a temporary restraining order to immediately stop the destruction of evidence within USAID.
In their motion, the unions included a screenshot of an email from USAID’s acting executive secretary, which directed employees to clear out “classified safes and personnel documents” from the agency’s office. The message went on to order them to both shred and burn those documents.
The unions allege that the directive violates a law called the Federal Records Act, which requires federal agencies to preserve their internal records. They also said the “rapid destruction of agency records” could destroy documents that are pertinent to their litigation to block the Trump administration from dismantling USAID.
For its part, the White House says that the email was sent to “roughly three dozen employees,” that the documents being destroyed are outdated, and that the originals still exist on classified computer systems.
It also says that the building currently used by USAID will soon be occupied by Customs and Border Protection.
To refresh your memory, USAID is an independent federal agency that is responsible for administering U.S. foreign aid and development assistance throughout the world. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as acting USAID administrator, announced that nearly 83 percent of the agency’s contracts have already been canceled.
Missouri to Seize Chinese Assets After $24.5 Billion COVID-19 Judgment
Missouri’s Attorney General Andrew Bailey says he’s going to collect “every penny” of a recent $24.5 billion judgment against China, including by seizing Chinese-owned assets in the United States.In case you haven’t heard, a federal judge in Missouri recently found that China’s communist leadership was responsible for making the pandemic worse by obstructing U.S. access to medical supplies. His decision was rendered by default after officials from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did not appear in court to plead their side of the case.
The judgment took particular care to note both the CCP’s role in hiding information about the virus during its initial outbreak in China, as well as the regime’s efforts to hoard personal protective equipment (PPE), causing shortages here in the United States.
The decision also says that China engaged in a campaign to “suppress information” about the existence, scope, and the human-to-human transmissibility of COVID-19 in an effort to gobble up those supplies and keep them from an “unsuspecting world” that did not yet understand the gravity of the situation.
Missouri’s attorney general says just because China didn’t show up in court, doesn’t mean it gets away with causing what he calls “untold suffering and economic devastation.”
For its part, the Chinese regime says that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over its actions during the pandemic, and that China has the right to take “reciprocal countermeasures” to safeguard its rights.
And now, it looks like our time is just about up for today, so we’re going to call it a wrap for the Thursday edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
Don’t forget the News Brief Motto: We’re portable, affordable, and we’re always on-demand.
Finally, as we do each day on this program, we wrap everything up with a very notable quote, and this one comes to us from Alan Greenspan, who said: “I have found no greater satisfaction than achieving success through honest dealing and strict adherence to the view that, for you to gain, those you deal with should gain as well.”
Greenspan is an American economist who served as the 13th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006.
For all of us here at The Epoch Times News Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
The Epoch Times News Brief program is written each day by David Ross.
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Enjoy the remainder of your day, and we’ll see you right back here next time for another edition of The Epoch Times News Brief.
For now, it’s imperative that we all continue to watch out for one another, and have an absolutely superb day today. Bye for now.
