LXC POLITICS

Comedian Nathan Fielder took a swing at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Thursday over a statement in which the agency pushed back on claims from his HBO show, "The Rehearsal." During a recent episode of "The Rehearsal," Fielder points to communication issues between an aircraft's captain and first officer as appearing "to be the number one contributing factor to aviation crashes in history." Fielder addressed his claims in a Thursday interview on CNN's "The Situation Room" with the outlet's Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown, highlighted by Mediaite, and called the FAA's statement pushing back against his comments "dumb." "We reached out to the FAA to see what it had to say about all of this, and it told us that it mandates all airline pilots and crew members to complete intrapersonal communication training, and it says it isn't seeing the data that supports the show's central claim that pilot communications is to blame for airline disasters. So, I want to get you to respond to that, obviously," Brown told Fielder. "That's dumb,"Fielder responded. "They're dumb, and they're — you know — they, here's the issue is that, they do — like I trained to be a pilot and I'm a [Boeing] 737 pilot. I went through the training. The training is someone shows you a PowerPoint slide saying, 'If you are a co-pilot and the captain does something wrong, you need to speak up about it.' That's all." In a statement to The Hill that an FAA official described as "addressing" claims that Fielder made in the docuseries about aircraft crew communication, the FAA said that it "requires all airline crewmembers (pilots and flight attendants) and dispatchers to complete Crew Resource Management training." The FAAhas described Crew Resource Managementas "generally defined as the effective use of all available resources: human resources, hardware, and information" The agency also said in the statement that it "analyzes data from a variety of sources such as an airline's Safety Management System (SMS), Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP), and Voluntary Disclosure Reporting Program (VDRP)." "If these programs identify elevated risks, appropriate action is taken by both the airline and the FAA to mitigate the risk and ensure safety. The FAA does not have data which supports these claims," the agency added. Fielder, who sported a 737 hat during the CNN interview, is known for his comedy that tends to push boundaries and takes big swings, with the last episode of "The Rehearsal" featuring the comedian training to fly a Boeing 737. A "Nathan Joseph Fielder" is listed in a FAA registry asa commercial pilot. The Hill has reached out to the FAA about Fielder's comments. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

The Department of Homeland Security is putting more than 500 "sanctuary jurisdictions" across the country on notice that the Trump administration views them as obstructing immigration enforcement, as it attempts to increase pressure on communities it believes are standing in the way of the president's mass deportations agenda. The department on Thursday published a list of the jurisdictions and said each one will receive formal notification that the government has deemed them noncompliant, and whether they're believed to be in violation of any federal criminal statutes. The list was published onthe department's website. "These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a news release. The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted communities, states and jurisdictions that it says aren't doing enough to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement as it seeks to make good on President Donald Trump's campaign promises to remove millions of people in the country illegally. The list was compiled using a number of factors, including whether the cities or localities identified themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they have complied already with federal officials enforcing immigration laws, if they had restrictions on sharing information with immigration enforcement or if they had any legal protections for people in the country illegally, according to the department. Trumpsigned an executive order onApril 28 requiring the secretary of Homeland Security and the attorney general to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions that they considered to be obstructing federal immigration laws. The list is to be regularly updated. Federal departments and agencies, working with the Office of Management and Budget, would then be tasked with identifying federal grants or contracts with those states or local jurisdictions that the federal government identified as "sanctuary jurisdictions" and suspending or terminating the money, according to the executive order. If "sanctuary jurisdictions" are notified and the Trump administration determines that they "remain in defiance," the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security are then empowered to pursue whatever "legal remedies and enforcement measures" they consider necessary to make them comply. There's no specific or legal definition of what constitutes a "sanctuary jurisdiction." The term is often used to refer to law enforcement agencies, states or communities that don't cooperate with immigration enforcement. ICE enforces immigration laws nationwide, but the agency often seeks state and local help in alerting federal authorities of immigrants wanted for deportation and holding that person until federal officers take custody. One way that the administration seeks to enlist state and local support is through 287(g) agreements with local law enforcement agencies. Those agreements allow local law enforcement agencies to assume some immigration enforcement duties and greatly expand ICE's capabilities. The number of those agreements has skyrocketed in just a matter of months under the Trump administration. ICE has about 6,000 law enforcement officers – a number that has remained largely static for years – who are able to find, arrest and remove immigrants it's targeting. By relying on local law enforcement, it can quickly scale up the number of staff available to help carry out Trump's mass deportations agenda. Communities that don't cooperate with ICE often say they do so because immigrants then feel safer coming forward if they're a witness to or victim of a crime. And they argue that immigration enforcement is a federal task, and they need to focus their limited dollars on fighting crime. The Trump administration has already taken a number of steps targeting states and communities that don't cooperate with ICE – andhas met pushbackin the courts. One executive order issued by Trump directs the attorney general and Homeland Security secretary to withhold federal money from sanctuary jurisdictions. Another directs federal agencies to ensure that payments to state and local governments do not "abet so-called 'sanctuary' policies that seek to shield illegal aliens from deportation." For more CNN news and newsletters create an account atCNN.com

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police are investigating two detectives who worked security at an upscale Manhattan townhouse where a man says he waskidnapped and torturedfor weeks by two crypto investors who wanted to steal his Bitcoin, a city official said Thursday. One of the detectives serves on Mayor Eric Adams' security detail and is believed to have picked up the victim from a local airport and brought him to the townhouse, the official said. It's not immediately clear if the other detective, who is a narcotics officer, has any connection to the incident. The detectives have been placed on modified leave pending the outcome of the inquiry, according to the official, who was briefed on the case and spoke anonymously to The Associated Press because they are not authorized to discuss the internal investigation. It is not uncommon for members of the NYPD to do private security work outside of their city jobs but they need to receive prior approval. At this point, the official said, the department is looking into whether the officers received that approval. Adams' office confirmed one of the detectives provides security detail for the Democrat, but said the mayor has no knowledge of what the officer does on his personal time. "Every city employee is expected to follow the law, including our officers, both on and off duty," the mayor's office said in an emailed statement. "We are disturbed by these allegations." In response to an emailed inquiry, an NYPD spokesperson confirmed two members were placed on modified duty Wednesday. A spokesperson for the labor union representing NYPD detectives didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment Thursday. Crypto investorsJohn WoeltzandWilliam Duplessiehave been charged in the case. Their lawyers have declined to comment. Authorities allege that on May 6, the two men lured the victim, who they knew personally, to a posh townhouse in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood by threatening to kill his family. The man, a 28-year-old Italian national who has not been named by officials, said he was then held captive for 17 days, as the two investors tormented him with electrical wires, forced him to smoke from a crack pipe and at one point dangled him from a staircase five stories high. He eventually agreed to hand over his computer password Friday morning, then managed to flee the home as his captors went to retrieve the device. The investigation into the officers began, incidentally, on the same day Adams headlined a crypto convention in Las Vegas, where he described New York as the Bitcoin capital of the country.

(Reuters) -U.S. trade talks with China are "a bit stalled" and getting a deal over the finish line will likely need the direct involvement of President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday. Two weeks after breakthrough negotiations led by Bessent that resulted in a temporary truce in the trade war between the world's two biggest economies, Bessent told Fox News that progress since then has been slow, but said he expects more talks in the next few weeks. "I believe we may at some point have a call between the president and party Chair Xi," Bessent said. "Given the magnitude of the talks, given the complexity ... this is going to require both leaders to weigh in with each other," he said. "They have a good relationship, and I am confident that the Chinese will come to the table when President Trump makes his preferences known." The U.S.-China agreement to dial back triple-digit tariffs for 90 days prompted a massive relief rally in global stocks. But it did nothing to address the underlying reasons for Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods, mainly longstanding U.S. complaints about China's state-dominated, export-driven economic model, leaving those issues for future talks. Since the mid-May deal, the Trump administration has concentrated on tariff negotiations with other major trading partners, including India, Japan and the European Union. Trump last week threatened 50% tariffs on EU goods, only to delay that threat. A U.S. trade court on Wednesday ruled that Trump overstepped his authority in imposing the bulk of his tariffs on imports from China and other countries under an emergency powers act. But less than 24 hours later, a federal appeals court reinstated the tariffs, saying it was pausing the trade court ruling to consider the government's appeal. The appeals court ordered the plaintiffs to respond by June 5 and the administration to respond by June 9. Bessent said earlier that some trading partners, including Japan, were negotiating in good faith and that he detected no changes in their postures as a result of the trade court ruling. Bessent said he would meet with a Japanese delegation on Friday in Washington. (Reporting by David Lawder and Dan Burns; Editing by Leslie Adler)

U.S. Court of International Trade in New York City, August 22, 2022. Credit - Getty Images Aseries of court rulings have thrown the centerpiece of President Donald Trump's economic agenda into chaos by firstblocking the bulk of his sweeping tariffsand then allowing them to resume—at least for now. Here's what to know about where the legal battle stands, and where it could go from here. Trump was handed a win on Thursday when a federal appeals court ruled in favor of his Administration and paused a Wednesday night ruling from the U.S. Court of International Trade, allowing his tariffs to remain in place for the time being. A three-judge panel for the trade court had ruled that the President does not have "unbounded authority" to issue tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The 1977 law, which Trump drew on to levy tariffs against almost every country in the world under national emergencies related to fentanyl and trade deficits, enables the President to oversee economic transactions in the case of a national emergency, such as during an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to the economy, foreign policy, or national security. The ruling halted a 30% tariff on China, a 25% tariff on certain goods from Mexico and Canada, and 10% baseline tariffs on most of the rest of the world, but did not affect import taxes on steel, aluminum, or automakers, which Trump levied under a different law. The Administration swiftly appealed, and the Thursday decision to grant its emergency motion has temporarily reinstated the tariffs that were halted while the appeals court considers the case. Adding to the confusion of the back-and-forth rulings, a federal judge issued a ruling in a separate case earlier on Thursday to bar the Trump Administration from collecting tariffs imposed under IEEPA from two Illinois educational toy companies, but paused his injunction for two weeks. The Administration has appealed that decision as well. The future of Trump's tariffs is still in limbo. The appeals court directed the plaintiffs in the case, a group comprised of U.S. businesses affected by the tariffs, to respond to federal officials' motion to stay the trade court's ruling by June 5. The federal government must then respond by June 9. The appeals process could ultimately reach as far as the Supreme Court, where the Trump Administration had previously said it would pursue "emergency relief" should the lower court not reinstate the President's tariff powers. The levies Trump has imposed under IEEPA have also been challenged in several other lawsuits. Prior to the reinstatement of the blocked tariffs, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a press briefing on Thursday that the President had "other legal authorities" he could use to impose import taxes on foreign countries. Leavitt did not specify further, but the U.S. Court of International Trade itself named another law that grants the President limited power to impose tariffs in its ruling. Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, it noted, allows the President to levy tariffs of up to 15% for as long as 150 days in response to "fundamental international payment problems," including "large and serious balance-of-payments deficits," and unfair trading practices. Trump has himself used other laws to impose import taxes in both of his terms. His steel, aluminum, and auto tariffs, for instance, draw on his authority under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which empowers the President to put tariffs in place in response to national security threats. Contact usatletters@time.com.