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President-elect Donald Trump threatened on Monday to impose sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China as soon as he takes office as part of his effort to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs. He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% tariff on goods from China, as one of his first executive orders. The tariffs, if implemented, could dramatically raise prices for American consumers on everything from gas to automobiles to agricultural products. The U.S. is the largest importer of goods in the world, with Mexico, China and Canada its top three suppliers, according to the most recent U.S. Census data. Trump made the threats in a pair of posts on his Truth Social site in which he railed against an influx of illegal migrants, even though southern border apprehensions have been hovering near four-year lows. “On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders," he wrote, complaining that "thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before,” even though violent crime is down from pandemic highs. Rising price of paying national debt is a risk for Trump's promises on growth and inflation He said the new tariffs would remain in place “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!" "Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power," he went on, “and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!” Trump also turned his ire on China, saying he has “had many talks with China about the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States – But to no avail.” “Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America,” he wrote. It is unclear whether Trump will actually go through with the threats or if he is using them as a negotiating tactic before he returns to the White House in the new year. Trump’s nominee for treasury secretary, Scott Bessent — who if confirmed, would be one of several officials responsible for imposing tariffs on other countries — has on several occasions said tariffs are a means of negotiation. He wrote in a Fox News op-ed last week, before his nomination, that tariffs are “a useful tool for achieving the president’s foreign policy objectives. Whether it is getting allies to spend more on their own defense, opening foreign markets to U.S. exports, securing cooperation on ending illegal immigration and interdicting fentanyl trafficking, or deterring military aggression, tariffs can play a central role.” Trump won the election in large part due to voter frustration over inflation, but his threatened tariffs pose the risk of pushing prices even higher for food, autos and other goods. If inflationary pressures increase, the Federal Reserve might need to keep its benchmark interest rates higher. Trump's threats come as arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico have been falling. The most recent U.S. numbers for October show arrests remain near four-year lows, with U.S. Border Patrol making 56,530 arrests in October, less than one third of the tally from October last year. Trump vows JFK files release; experts doubt major revelations Meanwhile, arrests for illegally crossing the border from Canada have been rising over the past two years. The Border Patrol made 23,721 arrests between October 2023 and September 2024, compared with 10,021 the previous 12 months. More than 14,000 of those arrested on the Canadian border were Indian — more than 10 times the number two years ago. Last week, a jury convicted two men on charges related to human smuggling for their roles in an international operation that led to the deaths of a family of Indian migrants who froze while trying to cross the Canada-U.S. border during a 2022 blizzard. Much of America’s fentanyl is smuggled from Mexico. Border seizures of the drug rose sharply under President Joe Biden, and U.S. officials tallied about 21,900 pounds (12,247 kilograms) of fentanyl seized in the 2024 government budget year, compared with 2,545 pounds (1,154 kilograms) in 2019, when Trump was president. If Trump were to move forward with the threatened tariffs, the new taxes would pose an enormous challenge for the economies of Canada and Mexico, in particular. The Canadian dollar weakened sharply in foreign exchange markets immediately following Trump’s post. During Trump’s first term, his move to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, and reports that he was considering a 25% tariff on the Canadian auto sector were considered an existential threat in Canada. Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and 75% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S. The tariffs would also throw into doubt the reliability of the 2020 trade deal brokered in large part by Trump with Canada and Mexico, the USMCA, which replaced NAFTA and is up for review in 2026. It’s unclear from Trump’s social media post how he would legally apply tariff hikes on those two pivotal U.S. trade partners, but the 2020 deal allows for national security exceptions. Trump transition team officials did not immediately respond to questions about what authority he would use, what he would need to see to prevent the tariffs from being implemented and how they would impact prices in the U.S. When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term in office, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced billions of new duties in 2018 against the U.S. in a tit-for-tat response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum. US envoy pushes for cease-fire in Lebanon as food crisis worsens after looting in Gaza Many of the U.S. products were chosen for their political rather than economic impact. For example, Canada imports just $3 million worth of yogurt from the U.S. annually and most of it comes from one plant in Wisconsin, the home state of then-Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. That product was hit with a 10% duty. The Canadian government, in a joint statement from Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc, emphasized the close relationship between the two countries and said they will discuss the border and vast economic ties with the incoming administration. “Canada places the highest priority on border security and the integrity of our shared border. Our relationship today is balanced and mutually beneficial, particularly for American workers,” the statement read. Freeland, who chairs a special Cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations to address concerns about another Trump presidency, has said the president-elect's promise to launch a mass deportation and concern that that could lead to an influx of migrants to Canada, is a top focus of the committee. A senior Canadian official had said before Trump's posts that Canadian officials were expecting him to issue executive orders on trade and the border as soon as he assumes office. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department and Economy Department also had no immediate reaction to Trump’s statements. Normally such weighty issues are handled by the president at her morning press briefings. Last week, a senior Chinese commerce official said higher tariffs on Chinese exports would backfire by raising prices for consumers. Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen also said China can manage the impact of such “external shocks." Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Mark Stevenson in Mexico City, and Fatima Hussein, Josh Boak and Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this report.  

Another round of wintry weather could complicate travel leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, according to forecasts across the U.S., while California and Washington state continue to recover from storm damage and power outages. In California, where two people were found dead in floodwaters on Saturday, authorities braced for more rain while grappling with flooding and small landslides from a previous storm. The National Weather Service office in Sacramento, California, issued a winter storm warning for the Sierra Nevada through Tuesday, with heavy snow expected at higher elevations and wind gusts potentially reaching 55 mph (88 kph). Total snowfall of roughly 4 feet (1.2 meters) was forecast, with the heaviest accumulations expected Monday and Tuesday. The Midwest and Great Lakes regions will see rain and snow Monday and the East Coast will be the most impacted on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, forecasters said. A low pressure system is forecast to bring rain to the Southeast early Thursday before heading to the Northeast. Areas from Boston to New York could see rain and breezy conditions, with snowfall possible in parts of northern New Hampshire, northern Maine and the Adirondacks. If the system tracks further inland, there could be less snow and more rain in the mountains, forecasters said. “The system doesn’t look like a powerhouse right now,” Hayden Frank, a meteorologist with the weather service in Massachusetts, said Sunday. “Basically, this is going to bring rain to the I-95 corridor so travelers should prepare for wet weather. Unless the system trends a lot colder, it looks like rain.” Frank said he isn't seeing any major storm systems arriving for the weekend anywhere in the country so travelers heading home Sunday can expect good driving conditions. Temperatures, however, will get colder in the East while warming up out West. More rain expected after deadly 'bomb cyclone’ on West Coast Two people died in the Pacific Northwest after a rapidly intensifying “ bomb cyclone ” hit the West Coast last Tuesday, bringing fierce winds that toppled trees and power lines and damaged homes and cars. Hundreds of thousands lost electricity in Washington state before powerful gusts and record rains moved into Northern California. Fewer than 25,000 people in the Seattle area were still without power Sunday evening. Two bodies were found Saturday in Sonoma County wine country, north of San Francisco, authorities said. Someone walking on a trail near Santa Rosa found the body of a man in a swollen creek, according to the sheriff's department. Hours later, rescue crews recovered a body inside a vehicle bobbing in floodwaters in nearby Guerneville, Deputy Rob Dillion said. Investigators are trying to determine if the deaths were storm-related. Santa Rosa saw its wettest three-day period on record with about 12.5 inches (32 centimeters) of rain by Friday evening, the National Weather Service in the San Francisco Bay Area reported. Vineyards in nearby Windsor were flooded. Forecasters said the risk of flooding and mudslides remained as the region gets more rain starting Sunday. But the latest storm won't be as intense as last week's atmospheric river, a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows over land. “However, there’s still threats, smaller threats, and not as significant in terms of magnitude, that are still going to exist across the West Coast for the next two or three days,” weather service forecaster Rich Otto said. As the rain moves east throughout the week, Otto said, there’s a potential for heavy snowfall at higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada, as well as portions of Utah and Colorado. California's Mammoth Mountain, which received 2 feet (.6 meters) of fresh snow in the recent storm, could get another 4 feet (1.2 meters) before the newest system clears out Wednesday, the resort said. Northeast gets needed precipitation Into Thanksgiving, parts of the Midwest and East Coast can expect to see heavy rain, and there’s potential for snow in Northeastern states. A storm last week brought rain to New York and New Jersey, where wildfires have raged in recent weeks, and heavy snow to northeastern Pennsylvania. The precipitation was expected to help ease drought conditions after an exceptionally dry fall. “It’s not going to be a drought buster, but it’s definitely going to help,” said Bryan Greenblatt, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Binghamton, New York. Heavy snow fell in northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Pocono Mountains. Higher elevations reported up to 17 inches (43 centimeters), with lesser accumulations in valley cities including Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Around 35,000 customers in 10 counties were still without power, down from 80,000 a day ago. In the Catskills region of New York, nearly 10,000 people remained without power Sunday morning, two days after a storm dumped heavy snow on parts of the region. Precipitation in West Virginia helped put a dent in the state’s worst drought in at least two decades and boosted ski resorts as they prepare to open in the weeks ahead.

Donald Trump has big plans for the economy — and a big debt problem that will be a hurdle to delivering on them. Trump has bold ideas on tax cuts, tariffs and other programs, but high interest rates and the price of repaying the federal government’s existing debt could limit what he’s able to do. Not only is the federal debt at roughly $36 trillion, but the spike in inflation after the coronavirus pandemic has pushed up the government's borrowing costs such that debt service next year will easily exceed spending on national security. The higher cost of servicing the debt gives Trump less room to maneuver with the federal budget as he seeks income tax cuts. It's also a political challenge because higher interest rates have made it costlier for many Americans to buy a home or new automobile. And the issue of high costs helped Trump reclaim the presidency in November's election. “It's clear the current amount of debt is putting upward pressure on interest rates, including mortgage rates for instance," said Shai Akabas, executive director of the economic policy program at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “The cost of housing and groceries is going to be increasingly felt by households in a way that are going to adversely affect our economic prospects in the future.” Akabas stressed that the debt service is already starting to crowd out government spending on basic needs such as infrastructure and education. About 1 in 5 dollars spent by the government are now repaying investors for borrowed money, instead of enabling investments in future economic growth. It's an issue on Trump's radar. In his statement on choosing billionaire investor Scott Bessent to be his treasury secretary, the Republican president-elect said Bessent would “help curb the unsustainable path of Federal Debt.” The debt service costs along with the higher total debt complicate Trump's efforts to renew his 2017 tax cuts, much of which are set to expire after next year. The higher debt from those tax cuts could push interest rates higher, making debt service even costlier and minimizing any benefits the tax cuts could produce for growth. “Clearly, it's irresponsible to run back the same tax cuts after the deficit has tripled,” said Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a former Republican congressional aide. “Even congressional Republicans behind the scenes are looking for ways to scale down the president’s ambitions.” Democrats and many economists say Trump's income tax cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthy, which deprives the government of revenues needed for programs for the middle class and poor. NATO head and Trump meet in Florida for talks on global security "The president-elect’s tax policy ideas will increase the deficit because they will decrease taxes for those with the highest ability to pay, such as the corporations whose tax rate he’s proposed reducing even further to 15%,” said Jessica Fulton, vice president of policy at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington-based think tank that deals with issues facing communities of color. Trump's team insists he can make the math work. “The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail, including lowering prices. He will deliver,” said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump transition spokeswoman. When Trump was last in the White House in 2020, the federal government was spending $345 billion annually to service the national debt. It was possible to run up the national debt with tax cuts and pandemic aid because the average interest rate was low, such that repayment costs were manageable even as debt levels climbed. Congressional Budget Office projections indicate that debt service costs next year could exceed $1 trillion. That's more than projected spending on defense. The total is also greater than nondefense spending on infrastructure, food aid and other programs under the direction of Congress. What fueled the increased cost of servicing the debt has been higher interest rates. In April 2020, when the government was borrowing trillions of dollars to address the pandemic, the yield on 10-year Treasury notes fell as low as 0.6%. They're now 4.4%, having increasing since September as investors expect Trump to add several trillions of dollars onto projected deficits with his income tax cuts. Trump chooses Bessent to be treasury secretary, Vought as budget chief, Chavez-DeRemer for Labor Democratic President Joe Biden can point to strong economic growth and successfully avoiding a recession as the Federal Reserve sought to bring down inflation. Still, deficits ran at unusually high levels during his term. That's due in part to his own initiatives to boost manufacturing and address climate change, and to the legacy of Trump's previous tax cuts. People in Trump's orbit, as well as Republican lawmakers, are already scouting out ways to reduce government spending in order to minimize the debt and bring down interest rates. They have attacked Biden for the deficits and inflation, setting the stage for whether they can persuade Trump to take action. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the wealthy businessmen leading Trump's efforts to cut government costs, have proposed that the incoming administration should simply refuse to spend some of the money approved by Congress. It's an idea that Trump has also backed, but one that would likely provoke challenges in court as it would undermine congressional authority. Russell Vought, the White House budget director during Trump's first term and Trump's choice to lead it again, put out an alternative proposed budget for 2023 with more than $11 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years in order to potentially generate a surplus. Michael Faulkender, a finance professor who served in Trump's Treasury Department, told a congressional committee in March that all the energy and environmental components of Biden's Inflation Reduction Act from 2022 should be repealed to reduce deficits. Trump has also talked up tariffs on imports to generate revenues and reduce deficits, while some Republican lawmakers such as House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, have discussed adding work requirements to trim Medicaid expenses. The White House was last pressured by high rates to address debt service costs roughly three decades ago during the start of Democrat Bill Clinton's presidency. Higher yields on the 10-year Treasury notes led Clinton and Congress to reach an agreement on deficit reduction, ultimately producing a budget surplus starting in 1998. Clinton political adviser James Carville joked at the time about how bond investors pushing up borrowing rates for the U.S. government could humble the commander in chief. “I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or as a .400 baseball hitter," Carville said. "But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.”  

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and the head of NATO have met for talks on global security, the military alliance said Saturday. In a brief statement, NATO said Trump and its secretary general, Mark Rutte, met on Friday in Palm Beach, Florida. “They discussed the range of global security issues facing the Alliance,” the statement said without giving details. It appeared to be Rutte's first meeting with Trump since his Nov. 5 election. Rutte had previously congratulated Trump and said “his leadership will again be key to keeping our Alliance strong" and that he looked forward to working with him. Trump has for years expressed skepticism about the Western alliance and complained about the defense spending of many of its member nations, which he regarded as too low. He depicted NATO allies as leeches on the U.S. military and openly questioned the value of the alliance that has defined American foreign policy for decades. He threatened not to defend NATO members that fail to meet defense-spending goals. Rutte and his team also met Trump's pick as national security adviser, U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, and other members of the president-elect's national security team, the NATO statement said. Rutte took over at the helm of NATO in October.  

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she felt “sorrow” at Donald Trump's return to power and recalls that every meeting with him was “a competition: you or me.” In an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel published Friday, Merkel said that Trump “is a challenge for the world, particularly for multilateralism.” “What awaits us now is really not easy,” she said, because “the strongest economy in the world stands behind this president” with the dollar as a dominant currency. Merkel worked with four American presidents while she was German chancellor. She was in power throughout Trump's first term — easily the most tense period for German-U.S. relations of her 16 years in office, which ended in late 2021. She recalled as “a typical scene” a famously awkward moment in the Oval Office when she first visited Trump at the White House in March 2017. Photographers shouted “handshake!” and Merkel quietly asked Trump: “Do you want to have a handshake?” There was no response from Trump, who looked ahead with his hands clasped. “I tried to coax him into a handshake for the photographers because I thought in my constructive way that maybe he hadn't noticed they wanted such a picture,” Merkel was quoted as saying. “But of course his refusal was calculation.” The pair did shake hands at other points during the visit. Asked what a German chancellor should know about dealing with Trump, Merkel said he was very curious and wanted details — “but only to read them for his own advantage, to find arguments that strengthen him and weaken others.” “The more people there were in the room, the greater was his urge to be the winner,” she added. “You can't chat with him. Every meeting is a competition: you or me.” Read: Hungary's Orbán vows to disregard international arrest warrant for Netanyahu Merkel said she felt “sorrow” at Trump's victory over Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 presidential election. “It was already a disappointment for me that Hillary Clinton didn't win in 2016. I would have liked a different outcome.” The 70-year-old Merkel, a center-right Christian Democrat who has generally kept a low profile since leaving office, is due to release her memoirs next week.

More than 60 years after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, conspiracy theories still swirl and any new glimpse into the fateful day of Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas continues to fascinate. President-elect Donald Trump promised during his reelection campaign that he would declassify all of the remaining government records surrounding the assassination if he returned to office. He made a similar pledge during his first term, but ultimately bended to appeals from the CIA and FBI to keep some documents withheld. At this point, only a few thousand of the millions of governmental records related to the assassination have yet to be fully released, and those who have studied the records released so far say that even if the remaining files are declassified, the public shouldn't anticipate any earth-shattering revelations. “Anybody waiting for a smoking gun that’s going to turn this case upside down will be sorely disappointed,” said Gerald Posner, author of “Case Closed,” which concludes that assassin Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Friday's 61st anniversary is expected to be marked with a moment of silence at 12:30 p.m. in Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy's motorcade was passing through when he was fatally shot. And throughout this week there have been events marking the anniversary. Nov. 22, 1963When Air Force One carrying Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy touched down in Dallas, they were greeted by a clear sky and enthusiastic crowds. With a reelection campaign on the horizon the next year, they had gone to Texas on political fence-mending trip. But as the motorcade was finishing its parade route downtown, shots rang out from the Texas School Book Depository building. Police arrested 24-year-old Oswald and, two days later, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer. A year after the assassination, the Warren Commission, which President Lyndon B. Johnson established to investigate the assassination, concluded that Oswald acted alone and there was no evidence of a conspiracy. But that hasn't quelled a web of alternative theories over the decades. The collection In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all assassination-related documents be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection of over 5 million records was required to be opened by 2017, barring any exemptions designated by the president. Trump, who took office for his first term in 2017, had boasted that he'd allow the release of all of the remaining records but ended up holding some back because of what he called the potential harm to national security. And while files have continued to be released during President Joe Biden's administration, some still remain unseen. The documents released over the last few years offer details on the way intelligence services operated at the time, and include CIA cables and memos discussing visits by Oswald to the Soviet and Cuban embassies during a trip to Mexico City just weeks before the assassination. The former Marine had previously defected to the Soviet Union before returning home to Texas. Mark S. Zaid, a national security attorney in Washington, said what's been released so far has contributed to the understanding of the time period, giving “a great picture” of what was happening during the Cold War and the activities of the CIA. Withheld files Posner estimates that there are still about 3,000 to 4,000 documents in the collection that haven’t yet been fully released. Of those documents, some are still completely redacted while others just have small redactions, like someone's Social Security number. “If you have been following it, as I have and others have, you sort of are zeroed in on the pages you think might provide some additional information for history,” Posner said. There are about 500 documents that have been completely withheld, Posner said, and those include Oswald’s and Ruby’s tax returns. Those files, the National Archives says on its website, weren't subject to the 2017 disclosure requirement. Trump's transition team hasn’t responded to questions this week about his plans when he takes office. A continued fascination From the start, there were those who believed there had to be more to the story than just Oswald acting alone, said Stephen Fagin, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, which tells the story of the assassination from the building where Oswald made his sniper's perch. “People want to make sense of this and they want to find the solution that fits the crime," said Fagin, who said that while there are lingering questions, law enforcement made “a pretty compelling case” against Oswald. Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said his interest in the assassination dates back to the event itself, when he was a child. “It just seemed so fantastical that one very disturbed individual could end up pulling off the crime of the century," Sabato said. “But the more I studied it, the more I realized that is a very possible, maybe even probable in my view, hypothesis.”

A major storm moving through Northern California on Thursday dropped heavy snow and record rain, flooding some areas, after killing two people and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands in the Pacific Northwest. Forecasters warned that the risk of flash flooding and rockslides would continue, and scores of flights were canceled at San Francisco's airport. In Washington, nearly 223,000 people — mostly in the Seattle area — remained without power as crews worked to clear streets of electrical lines, fallen branches and debris. Utility officials said the outages, which began Tuesday, could last into Saturday. Meanwhile on the East Coast, where rare wildfires have raged, New York and New Jersey welcomed much-needed rain that could ease the fire danger for the rest of the year. The National Weather Service extended a flood watch into Saturday for areas north of San Francisco as the region was inundated by this season's strongest atmospheric river — a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows through the sky over land.. The system roared ashore Tuesday as a “ bomb cyclone,” which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly. It unleashed fierce winds that toppled trees onto roads, vehicles and homes, killing at least two people in the Washington cities of Lynnwood and Bellevue. Communities in Washington opened warming centers offering free internet and device charging. Some medical clinics closed because of power outages. “I’ve been here since the mid-’80s. I haven’t seen anything like this,” said Trish Bloor, who serves on the city of Issaquah’s Human Resources Commission, as she surveyed damaged homes. Up to 16 inches (about 41 centimeters) of rain was forecast in southwestern Oregon and California's northern counties through Friday. Santa Rosa saw 6.5 inches (16.5 centimeters) of rain in the last 24 hours, marking the wettest day on record since 1998, according to Joe Wegman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The Sonoma County Airport, in the wine country north of San Francisco, got more than 11 inches (28 centimeters) within the last 48 hours. The Ukiah Municipal Airport recorded about 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) Wednesday, and the unincorporated town of Venado had about 12.7 inches (32.3 centimeters) in 48 hours. In nearby Forestville, one person was hurt when a tree fell on a house. Small landslides were reported across the North Bay, including one on State Route 281 on Wednesday that caused a car crash, according to Marc Chenard, a weather service meteorologist. Daniela Alvarado said calls to her and her father’s Sonoma County-based tree business have nearly tripled in the last few days, with people reaching out about trimming or removing trees. “We feel sad, scared, but also ready for action,” Alvarado said. Rain slowed somewhat, but “persistent heavy rain will enter the picture again by Friday morning,” the weather service's San Francisco office said on the social platform X. “We are not done!” Dangerous flash flooding, rockslides and debris flows were possible, especially where hillsides were loosened by recent wildfires, officials warned. Scott Rowe, a hydrologist with the weather service in Sacramento, said that so far the ground has been able to absorb the rain in Butte and Tehama counties, where the Park Fire burned this summer. “It’s not necessarily how much rain falls; it’s how fast the rain falls,” Rowe said. Santa Rosa Division Chief Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal said 100 vehicles were stuck for hours in the parking lot of a hotel and medical center after being swamped by thigh-high waters from a flooded creek. A winter storm watch was in place for the northern Sierra Nevada above 3,500 feet (1,070 meters), with 15 inches (38 centimeters) of snow possible over two days. Wind gusts could top 75 mph (121 kph) in mountain areas, forecasters said. Sugar Bowl Resort, north of Lake Tahoe near Donner Summit, picked up a foot (30 centimeters) of snow overnight, marketing manager Maggie Eshbaugh said Thursday. She said the resort will welcome skiers and boarders on Friday, the earliest opening date in 20 years, “and then we’re going to get another whopping of another foot or so on Saturday, so this is fantastic.” Another popular resort, Palisades Tahoe, said it is also opening Friday, five days ahead of schedule. The storm already dumped more than a foot of snow along the Cascades in Oregon by Wednesday night, according to the weather service. More than a dozen schools closed in the Seattle area Wednesday, and some opted to extend the closures through Thursday. Covington Medical Center southeast of Seattle postponed elective surgeries and diverted ambulances after losing power and having to rely on generators Tuesday night into Wednesday, according to Scott Thompson, spokesperson for MultiCare Health System. Nearby, MultiCare clinics closed Wednesday and Thursday after losing power. In Enumclaw, also southeast of Seattle, residents were cleaning up after their town clocked the highest winds in the state Tuesday night: 74 mph (119 kph). Ben Gibbard, lead singer of the indie rock bands Death Cab for Cutie and Postal Service, drove from his Seattle neighborhood Thursday morning to the woods of Tiger Mountain for his regular weekday run, but trees were blocking the trail. “We didn’t get hit that hard in the city,” he said. “I just didn’t assume it would be this kind of situation out here. Obviously you feel the most for people who had their homes partially destroyed by this.” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee thanked utility crews for toiling around the clock. It could take weeks to assess the scope of the damage and put a dollar figure on it, he said in a statement, and after that “we’ll know whether we will be able to seek federal assistance.” In California, there were reports of nearly 13,000 power outages. Authorities limited vehicle traffic on part of northbound Interstate 5 between Redding and Yreka due to snow, according to California's Department of Transportation. Officials also shut down a 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) stretch of the scenic Avenue of the Giants, named for its towering coast redwoods, due to flooding. About 550 flights were delayed and dozens were canceled Thursday at San Francisco International Airport, according to tracking service FlightAware. Parched areas of the Northeast got a much-needed shot of precipitation, providing a bit of respite in a region plagued by wildfires and dwindling water supplies. More than 2 inches (5 centimeters) was expected by Saturday morning north of New York City, with snow mixed in at higher elevations. Weather service meteorologist Brian Ciemnecki in New York City, which this week saw its first drought warning in 22 years, said “any rainfall is going to be significant” but the storm will not be enough to end the drought.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell again last week, remaining near seven-month lows. The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claim applications fell by 6,000 to 213,000 for the week of Nov. 16. That’s fewer than the 220,000 analysts forecast. However, continuing claims, the total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits, rose by 36,000 to 1.91 million for the week of Nov. 9. That was higher than expected and the most in three years. While the number of new people applying for jobless aid each week remains at historically healthy levels, some who are receiving benefits are finding it harder to land new jobs. That suggests that demand for workers is waning, even as the economy remains strong. The four-week average of weekly claims, which quiets some of the weekly volatility, fell by 3,750 to 217,750. Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for U.S. layoffs. In response to some weakening employment data and receding consumer prices, the Federal Reserve slashed its benchmark interest rate in September by a half a percentage point and by another quarter-point earlier this month. In September, Fed officials predicted that they would reduce their benchmark rate four times next year, on top of three rate cuts this year, but that outlook has changed quickly. Several surprisingly strong economic reports, combined with President-elect Donald Trump’s policy proposals, have led to a decidedly more cautious tone from the Fed that could mean fewer cuts and higher interest rates than had been expected. The central bank recently shifted its focus from taming inflation toward supporting the job market as it tries to execute a rare “soft landing,” whereby it brings down inflation without spurring a recession. The half-point rate cut in September was the Fed’s first rate cut in four years after a series of increases starting in 2022 that pushed the federal funds rate to a two-decade high of 5.3%. Despite a slight uptick in October, inflation has retreated steadily the past two years, approaching the Fed’s 2% target and leading Chair Jerome Powell to declare recently that it was largely under control. The government reported in late October that an inflation gauge closely watched by the Fed fell to its lowest level in three-and-a-half years. During the first four months of 2024, applications for jobless benefits averaged just 213,000 a week before rising in May. They hit 250,000 in late July, supporting the notion that high interest rates were finally cooling a red-hot U.S. job market. In October, the U.S. economy produced a meager 12,000 jobs, though economists pointed to recent strikes and hurricanes that left many workers temporarily off payrolls. The Labor Department reported in August that the U.S. economy added 818,000 fewer jobs from April 2023 through March this year than were originally reported. The revised total was also considered evidence that the job market has been slowing steadily, compelling the Fed to start cutting interest rates.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that the Biden administration will allow Ukraine to use American-supplied antipersonnel land mines to help fight off Russian forces. Speaking to reporters during a trip to Laos, he said the shift in policy follows changing tactics by the Russians. Austin said Russian ground troops are leading the movement on the battlefield, rather than forces more protected in armored carriers, so Ukraine has “a need for things that can help slow down that effort on the part of the Russians.” “The land mines that we would look to provide them would be land mines that are not persistent, you know, we can control when they would self-activate, self-detonate and that makes it, you know, far more, safer eventually than the things that they are creating on their own,” Austin said.  

For two weeks, Donald Trump has welcomed Elon Musk into his world. On Tuesday, it was Musk’s turn to play host to the president-elect. Trump flew to South Texas to watch as Musk’s SpaceX launched a Starship rocket near the Mexican border. Trump listened intently as the world’s richest man explained how the test would work and demonstrated with a model. And then Trump squinted into the bright sky to watch liftoff. It didn’t go perfectly -– the reusable booster did not return to the launch pad as it had done on a previous test last month. Instead, the booster was directed to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. But Trump’s presence at the launch was a remarkable display of intimacy between the two men, one with implications for American politics, the government, foreign policy and even the possibility of humans reaching Mars. Biden slams Elon Musk over allegations of illegal work in US Musk spent around $200 million to help Trump beat Democrat Kamala Harris in the presidential race, and he's been given unparalleled access. He's counseled Trump on nominees for the new administration, joined the president-elect's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and been tapped to co-chair an advisory panel on cutting the size of the federal bureaucracy. In addition to political influence, Musk could benefit personally as well. SpaceX, his rocket company, has billions of dollars in government contracts and the goal of eventually starting a colony on Mars. He's also CEO of Tesla, which manufactures electric vehicles, and has battled with regulators over safety concerns involving autonomous driving. “Trump has the biggest possible regard for people who break the rules and get away with it," said William Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank. "Musk has demonstrated extraordinary accomplishment in doing that.” To top if off, Musk owns the social media company X, formally known as Twitter, which he has harnessed as an influential perch to promote Trump and his agenda. “Stop the Swamp!” he wrote Tuesday as he shared a warning that entrenched Washington interests are trying to undermine Trump before his inauguration. Before the election, Musk rejected the idea that he was expecting any favors in return for supporting Trump in the presidential race. “There is no quid pro quo,” he posted on X in September. “With a Trump administration, we can execute major government reform, remove bureaucratic paperwork that is smothering the country and unlock a new age of prosperity.” However, Trump has hardly gone anywhere without Musk in the two weeks since beating Harris. Musk joined Trump at a meeting with House Republicans in Washington and sat next to him at an Ultimate Fighting Championship match in New York. The trip to Texas for the rocket launch was just Trump's third time outside Florida since the election. As Trump's protective motorcade left the launch site Tuesday evening to return to the airport, one of Musk's angular, shiny Tesla Cybertrucks was tucked in the middle of the formation of black SUVs. Italy's president sharply rebukes Elon Musk over comments on X about migration court rulings Much of Trump's activity is happening with little public access for the press. Unlike his predecessors, he has opted against regularly making his travel plans or events open to journalists. The relationship between Trump and Musk was not always so close. Two years ago, Trump was mocking Musk in stump speeches and Musk was saying it was time for Trump to “hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.” “Trump would be 82 at end of term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America,” Musk wrote on social media. But Musk swiftly endorsed Trump after the former president survived an assassination attempt in July. He quickly became a central figure in Trump’s orbit, appearing at times more like his running mate than Ohio Sen. JD Vance. Trump started boasting about Musk's accomplishments at campaign rallies, such as when Starship's reusable rocket booster returned to the launch tower on a previous occasion and was caught by mechanical arms. “Those arms grab it like you grab your baby, just like you grab your little baby. And it hugged it and just put it down, and there it was,” Trump said. Musk was with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort on election night and has spent much of the two weeks since there. Trump’s granddaughter Kai Trump posted a photo of her with Musk at one of Trump’s golf resorts, writing that Musk was "achieving uncle status.” Last week, Musk appeared in a golden ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, seated in the center of the room as a guest of honor at an event. Trump, in his remarks at the black tie event, said Musk’s IQ is “about as high as they can get” and praised him as “a really good guy.” “He launched a rocket three weeks ago and then he went to Pennsylvania to campaign because he considered this more important than launching rockets that cost billions of dollars,” Trump said. He joked about Musk’s constant presence at Mar-a-Lago, saying: “He likes this place. I can’t get him out of here." He added, “And you know what, I like having him here.” Musk said of the election results, “The public has given us a mandate that could not be more clear."