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April 23, 2025

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President Donald Trump’s administration is firing or reassigning over 450 employees at the Environmental Protection Agency as part of a larger push to eliminate ‘environmental justice’ programs.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the employee moves on Monday, saying 280 staffers were being fired, and 175 others would be reassigned. The cut roles were in the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, the Office of Inclusive Excellence, and EPA regional offices.

‘EPA is taking the next step to terminate the Biden-Harris Administration’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Environmental Justice arms of the agency,’ a spokesperson told Axios.

Zeldin explained at a Monday press conference that tax dollars put toward environmental justice issues were widely misspent.

‘The problem is that, in the name of environmental justice, a dollar will get secured and not get spent on remediating that environmental issue,’ he said.

The firings come the same week that Zeldin launched talks with Mexico about eliminating sewage contamination that flows over the border from Tijuana to pollute California’s coastlines.

Zeldin visited San Diego to discuss the issue on Tuesday, noting that one of the affected areas is the training grounds for Navy SEALs.

‘The Americans on our side of the border who have been dealing with this… for decades, are out of patience,’ Zeldin said Tuesday. ‘There’s no way that we are going to stand before the people of California and ask them to have more patience and just bear with all of us as we go through the next 10 or 20 or 30 years of being stuck in 12 feet of raw sewage and not getting anywhere.’

‘So we are all out of patience,’ he continued. ‘There’s a very limited opportunity. We’re in good faith, both on the American side and also on the Mexican side, what’s being communicated by the new Mexican president is an intense desire to fully resolve this situation.’ 

Zeldin said that he met with Mexican officials for about 90 minutes Monday night to discuss the sewage spewing into U.S. waters — and relayed that the Mexican environmental secretary wants to have a ‘strong collaborative relationship’ with the U.S. to end the pollution. 

‘I will be speaking with the chief of staff to the Mexican environmental secretary to ensure that over the course of the coming days, over the course of the next couple weeks, that we are able to put together a specific statement from both countries on a mutual understanding of what Mexico is going to do to help resolve this issue,’ he said.

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.

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RTX and GE Aerospace expect a more than $1 billion impact combined from President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported goods and materials, the latest sign of higher prices for major U.S. manufacturers that rely on a global supply chain.

Neil Mitchill, chief financial officer of defense contractor and commercial aerospace supplier RTX, said on an earnings call Tuesday that the company will likely take a $850 million hit this year from tariffs, including the sweeping 10% levies that Trump imposed earlier this month alongside higher duties on countries like China and separate taxes on imported steel and aluminum.

That estimate doesn’t include RTX’s own tariff mitigation measures, Mitchill said.

GE Aerospace, which makes engines for popular Boeing and Airbus planes, kept its 2025 earnings outlook in place during its quarterly report Tuesday and said it would seek to save about $500 million by cutting costs and raising prices.

GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp said on Tuesday’s analyst call that he recently met with Trump and discussed the U.S. aerospace sector’s trade surplus. GE has a joint venture with France’s Safran to make popular airplane engines.

The new tariffs are a shift for a global industry that has enjoyed mostly duty-free trade for decades.

“All we have suggested is the administration works through a myriad of issues, is they can consider the position of strength that the country enjoys as a result of this tariff-free regime,” Culp said.

The White House didn’t immediately comment.

Boeing, a major customer of both companies and the top U.S. exporter, is scheduled to report quarterly results before the market opens on Wednesday.

Airlines have recently announced cuts to U.S. domestic capacity plans this year because of softer demand, but executives have emphasized it is hard to predict the direction of the economy or future trade policies. United last week provided two earnings outlooks for 2025, one in the event of a recession, one assuming status quo.

“There is uncertainty,” Culp said Tuesday. “None of us, I think, know for sure how this plays out.”

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

The top producer at CBS’ “60 Minutes” announced Tuesday he would step down from the newsmagazine because he had lost his journalistic independence.  

“Over the past months, it has … become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it,” Bill Owens said in a memo to staff members, which was obtained by NBC News. “To make independent decisions based on what was right for ‘60 Minutes,’ right for the audience.” 

“So, having defended this show — and what we stand for — from every angle, over time with everything I could, I am stepping aside so the show can move forward,” Owens added.  

Owens’ departure comes during a tumultuous chapter for “60 Minutes.” President Donald Trump has sued CBS for $10 billion over an October interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris that the president claims was deceptively edited. The network has denied that claim. 

Trump amended the lawsuit earlier this year, upping his damages claim to $20 billion.

“Former President Donald Trump’s repeated claims against ‘60 Minutes’ are false,” CBS News said in a statement in October. “The interview was not doctored” and the show “did not hide any part of Vice President Kamala Harris’s answer to the question at issue.”  

In a separate statement, “60 Minutes” said it gave an excerpt from its interview with Harris to the Sunday morning program “Face the Nation,” which used a longer section of the former Democratic presidential candidate’s answer to a question.

“Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response. When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point,” the statement said. “The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment.”  

Bill Owens, Executive Producer of 60 Minutes, CBS News, in Toronto on June 22, 2022.Piaras Ó Mídheach / Sportsfile via Getty Images file

Trump has repeatedly lambasted the venerable newsmagazine over its reporting on him and his administration.  

In a post on Truth Social on April 13, for example, Trump wrote: “Almost every week, 60 Minutes … mentions the name ‘TRUMP’ in a derogatory and defamatory way, but this Weekend’s ‘BROADCAST’ tops them all.” He appeared to take issue with segments about the war in Ukraine and his interest in acquiring Greenland.  

Trump added that he believed CBS should lose its broadcast license and “pay a big price.” He said he hoped Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr would “impose the maximum fines and punishment.”   

Owens’ exit, first reported by The New York Times, also comes at a pivotal moment for CBS’ parent company, Paramount. Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, reportedly needs the Trump administration to approve her media conglomerate’s sale to Skydance Media, a production and finance company run by David Ellison, the son of tech mogul Larry Ellison. 

The New York Times reported in late January that Paramount was in settlement talks with Trump. The Times later reported that Owens told staff members he would not apologize for the Harris interview as part of any prospective settlement. NBC News has not independently verified either report. 

In his memo to staff, Owens said “60 Minutes” would “continue to cover the new administration, as we will report on future administrations. We will report from war zones, investigate injustices and educate our audience. In short, ‘60 Minutes’ will do what it has done for 57 years.”  

“Thank you all, remain focused on the moment, our audience deserves it,” Owens said in closing.  

Wendy McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News, notified company employees by email that Owens would be leaving and touted his work at the company.

“Tom and I are committed to 60 Minutes and to ensuring that the mission and the work remain our priority,” McMahon said, referring to CBS News president and executive editor Tom Cibrowski. 

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS