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A pilot of the Amazon cargo plane that careened off Miami runway warned it was coming in too fast
For nearly two minutes, one of the pilots of the Amazon cargo plane that careened off a Miami runway and killed five people repeatedly warned his counterpart they were going too fast as they approached for landing and after touchdown, according to flight information released Wednesday.
A summary of cockpit voice recordings compiled by the National Transportation Safety Board said the fellow pilot never gave “a consistent verbal response” to the warnings. The plane touched down awkwardly, briefly attempted to take off and then smashed into a van carrying the five victims.
The Amazon plane came in fast on Sunday afternoon and then barreled roughly 1,300 feet (396 meters) past the end of the runway and smashed into a van carrying workers at a plane cleaning company before hitting a compact SUV as it slid across a public road before catching fire.
All five people who died were in the van. Five others were hurt, including two who remained in critical condition on Tuesday. The two pilots survived and were interviewed Wednesday by investigators.
At the point when the pilot first called out the plane was speeding, former FAA official Mike O’Donnell said the crew could have done a number of things to slow it down, including extending the spoilers, cutting the throttles and lowering the landing gear. Or the pilots could have just aborted the landing at that point and circled to try again.
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Cleaning crew killed in Miami cargo jet crash was wrapping up shift at hard, demanding job
Five members of a crew killed when an Amazon cargo jet smashed into their van were wrapping up their eight-hour shift cleaning planes at the Miami airport when they were struck, lawyers for one of the victims said on Wednesday.
The deadly crash has drawn attention to a workforce that largely operates out of sight of most travelers, tidying airplane cabins for often low pay while sometimes working in hot and dangerous conditions. But the job is also critical to keeping the airline industry moving 24 hours a day.
“This is certainly very tragic. You would not think riding in a van to clean an airplane, that this would happen,” National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said.
Two other workers in the van were in the hospital days after their Econoline van was crushed by the speeding jet that investigators said appeared to be reconsidering a landing Sunday before running out of runway.
Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53, came to the U.S. from Cuba in 2011 and worked multiple jobs for his family over the past 14 years, said attorney Jorge Garcia, who is a friend of Naranjo’s family and filed a wrongful-death lawsuit on their behalf against Amazon, 21 Air, which operated the plane, and the pilots.
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Trump says oil prices that spiked because of Iran war likely won’t come down until after midterms
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that oil prices that have surged because of the Iran war likely won’t come down until after U.S. midterm elections.
Oil prices on Wednesday jumped more than 3%, pushing international Brent crude past the $100 threshold for the first time since July as salvos between the U.S. and Iran escalated.
“Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward,” Trump said. “I think it’s going to take a little bit longer than the midterm.”
The comments were a striking acknowledgment from Trump about the conflict as his Republican administration faces mounting pressure to address high gas prices as the war in Iran grinds on with no conclusion in sight.
Trump, in an exchange with reporters before traveling to Dallas for the midterm Republican convention, added that he believes Iran will finally relent after the pivotal elections are held in the U.S.
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Missouri’s congressional map is back before the U.S. Supreme Court, sowing still more confusion
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A battle over Missouri’s congressional districts vaulted back to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, two months before a pivotal November election that will determine control of Congress and affect the fate of President Donald Trump’s agenda.
A series of conflicting court rulings has left a scar on Missouri — and left voters befuddled and unsure which U.S. House districts they will be voting in and which candidates will appear on their ballots.
A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday sided with Republicans, declining to halt a federal judge’s order favoring a new map backed by Trump. But that decision immediately was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which just a day earlier had let stand a ruling by Missouri’s top court against the Trump-backed districts.
Time is rapidly expiring to figure it out. Federal law sets a Sept. 19 deadline to mail absentee ballots to overseas citizens and military voters.
Here’s a look at how Missouri arrived at this point and the difficulties it now faces.
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Alcohol, whey and motorcycles are in the crosshairs of the US import ban on Canada products
NEW YORK (AP) — The trade war between the U.S. and Canada escalated again this week as the U.S. announced import bans on most alcoholic beverages from Canada, along with other products including whey, molasses and motorcycles.
The U.S. had already imposed 50% tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian products — about 5% of the $381.92 billion worth of products that the country sent to the U.S. last year. The import bans announced late Tuesday target some of those products.
Exporting products to the U.S. with a 50% levy would have been difficult for Canadian businesses. But the import bans, set to be implemented on Sept. 29, are designed to increase the pain even more.
Import bans are “extremely unusual as a artifact of trade policy,” said Jonathan Doh, professor of international business at Villanova University. “I can’t remember any action in the modern era that involved an absolute ban.”
But he said they are, “in terms of the material impact, not that great overall,” except in specific categories like alcohol.
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Trump uses midterm convention to pledge $5K payments if Republicans keep control of Congress
DALLAS (AP) — President Donald Trump capped Wednesday’s opening night of the unusual Republican midterm convention by slamming Democrats as extremists and staunchly defending the war in Iran while making the extraordinary pledge to pay every American $5,000 if his party retains its control of both chambers of Congress after November.
The proposal, which could cost at least $1 trillion, was financially and politically implausible. But it reflected Trump’s apparent calculation that he needs bold moves to revive Republicans’ chances as Democrats try to take advantage of his low approval ratings in close races across the country.
Trump reveled in making the upcoming elections all about himself, even though it’s unclear whether that will help or hurt his party. Many Republicans are skipping the two-day affair in Dallas, while others hoped their appearance would put them in the national spotlight as they work to turn out Trump’s supporters in a year without him on the ballot.
“If we hand America’s future to the radical-left Democrats, our nation will spend the next decade just getting back on its feet,” Trump said. “Vote Republican and we will leave the world in our dust for generations to come.”
Trump urged the crowd to pretend he’s running in November and said there were about 35 key races in the Senate and House as his party hopes to maintain control of Congress. He pledged “to go to everyone one of those states,” suggesting he might visit some repeatedly.
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An appeals court is considering a push to restrict most common abortion method
A panel of federal judges heard arguments Wednesday over whether prescribing rules should be tightened for a key drug used in the most common abortion method in the United States, one of several ongoing efforts to restrict abortion access four years after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to decide the issue.
The case before the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is one of three making its way through the courts as abortion opponents try to block providers in states where abortion is legal from sending drugs for medication abortions into states where it is not.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also says it’s reviewing the rules and could call for a change — and that the agency process should take precedence over court action.
It comes in a midterm election year in which President Donald Trump’s anti-abortion supporters are frustrated that a legal workaround to abortion bans remains. At the same time, most voters favor legal abortion access in most cases.
At least 3 in 5 U.S. abortions are now obtained using a two-drug combination. At issue before the appeals court is just one: mifepristone.
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Temporary protections for about 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants are in limbo as deadline nears
MIAMI (AP) — Temporary legal protections for about 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador were in limbo Wednesday as a deadline neared for the Trump administration to decide if they should end, as they have for hundreds of thousands from Venezuela, Haiti and other countries.
The Temporary Protected Status designation expires Wednesday but the statute does not give a specific time for when that happens. If the Department of Homeland Security takes no action, protections are automatically extended for six months. This rare reprieve happened in May, when the protections were automatically extended to about 11,000 Lebanese, allowing them to stay and work in the U.S. for another 180 days.
DHS said in a statement Wednesday that it will announce a decision on El Salvador “at the appropriate time” and that protections would remain in place until then.
About 200,000 people from El Salvador have lived in the U.S. since 2001 under TPS, which allows people already in the country to remain with work permits for renewable periods of up to 18 months, if the secretary of homeland security determines conditions are unsafe for return. They are eligible for work permits.
During President Donald Trump’s second term, Homeland Security has ended TPS for more than 1 million people from 13 countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Syria. In addition to El Salvador, only people from three other countries remain protected with termination dates in October for Ukraine and Sudan, and November for Lebanon.
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Former volunteer sues César Chavez nonprofits over failing to stop union leader from sexual abuse
One of the organizers who said she was sexually abused by Latino labor leader César Chavez decades ago has sued nonprofits tied to him.
The complaint filed last week in Southern California is the first legal action since the explosive allegations surrounding Chavez were first reported by the New York Times in March. The newspaper also first reported the complaint in Kern County Superior Court on Wednesday.
Filed on behalf of a Jane Doe, it names the César Chavez Foundation and the United Farm Workers Foundation as defendants. Both organizations are accused of failing to investigate complaints over the years about Chavez. They are being sued for several violations including negligent supervision, negligent infliction of emotional distress and sexual harassment. The woman was moved to go to civil court after learning more about the scope of Chavez’s alleged abuse of girls and women, including labor figure Dolores Huerta.
The Associated Press does not name victims or survivors of sexual assault and abuse unless they come forward publicly.
“This has been a long time coming for her to take this step,” V. James DeSimone, one of the attorneys representing her pro bono, told the AP. “She’s committed to the process and is grateful she can legally do something about this all these years later. She suffered a lot over the years. It continues to cause her stress and anxiety.”
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New Apple CEO unveils latest iPhone lineup, including a foldable model called Duo
CUPERTINO, California (AP) — Apple on Wednesday unveiled its latest generation of iPhones, including a widely anticipated foldable version called Duo.
The company’s new CEO, John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook on Sept. 1, introduced the latest lineup at the company’s Cupertino, California headquarters.
After cycling through other updates to the iPhone, the Apple Watch and AirPods, Ternus told the audience inside the Steve Jobs Theater that “actually there is one more thing,” in a nod to the trademark phrase from Jobs that the company’s legendary late founder himself borrowed from the 1970s detective show “Columbo.”
The foldable phone has the “largest display ever on an iPhone, yet fits into your pocket,” Ternus said.
The phone opens to a 7.6 inch display that is 80% larger than the newest iPhone 18 Pro. It will let people use an Apple Pencil on the phone, a capability previously reserved for iPad users. Duo, Ternus said, “will redefine the experience of using a foldable phone.”
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