Washington
CNN
 — 

President Donald Trump’s top trade official said he wasn’t informed of the 90-day pause on most new tariffs until after it was announced.

At the same moment that US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was defending Trump’s stiff tariffs during a House hearing, Trump said on his social media platform that the administration will delay the additional tariff hike on dozens of countries by 90 days — which went into effect for mere hours on Wednesday — with the exception of China.

Trump’s tariff hike, albeit short-lived, was the sharpest ever according to data going back 200 years, Fitch Ratings told CNN, which would have likely resulted in higher inflation and weaker economic growth if they were kept in place, according to most economists.

When Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada asked Greer when he learned of Trump’s latest tariff move, he said, “Well, I understood the decision was made a few minutes ago.”

“It looks like your boss just pulled out the rug from under you and paused the tariffs,” Horsford said.

Greer then said he was aware the policy change was a possibility Wednesday morning. But when asked directly if he knew the policy was going into effect, he replied that the administration discusses “all kinds of options.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a post on X that he and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent were with Trump “while he wrote one of the most extraordinary Truth posts of his Presidency.”

“We don’t really know who’s running things over there,” said Rep. Jimmy Gomez of California, a Democrat, referring to Lutnick’s post.

During the hearing, Greer reiterated that the US trade deficit is an “emergency” that warrants Trump’s historic overhaul of US trade policy, but he said the president is still open to negotiating with countries. He said he recently spoke with his counterparts from the European Union, South Korea, Ecuador and Mexico.

Greer told Senate lawmakers on Tuesday that Trump’s blanket tariffs were necessary to combat the overall US trade deficit, even if the stock market languishes and long-time allies are caught in the crossfire. He said Trump’s trade goal is to address foreign countries’ so-called non-trade barriers, which includes regulations that don’t favor US companies.

Meanwhile, US and China are deep in a tit-for-tat trade war. Tariffs on China were hiked to 125% on Wednesday, effective immediately. Before Trump’s announcement, Beijing had retaliated with 84% tariffs on US imports.

“Almost all countries have announced that they’re not going to retaliate against the United States, obviously we have China that has made its own choice,” Greer said. “They’ve always given us a hard time, they’ve always limited our access over there and they’re doubling down on that path, that’s an issue of Chinese agency.”

The European Union also fought back against Trump’s tariffs on Wednesday, backing its first countermeasures against the 25% duties Trump imposed on steel and aluminum imports. The European Commission in a statement said it has a “clear preference to find negotiated outcomes with the US, which would be balanced and mutually beneficial.”

Republican Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, chair of the House Ways And Means Committee, claimed that there is “a serious trade problem when it comes to agriculture and the European Union.”

Greer said in response: “It’s fundamentally unfair, it’s structurally unfair, it has been for decades and I’ve been very clear with them that any kind of agreement or negotiation or anything, it has to have an (agriculture) component.”

The tariffs that went into place Saturday and today came with several notable exclusions: Steel, aluminum and autos (three areas already subjected to their tariffs); copper and lumber; plus pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and critical minerals.

Those could be next, President Donald Trump has warned.

• Copper and critical minerals: Copper is a critical cog in the ongoing electrification of America and industries such as defense.

The US imports about 50% of the copper it uses, and demand is only expected to grow, especially as energy-consuming industries such as artificial intelligence and blockchain boom.

• Lumber: Softwood lumber is a critical and preferred ingredient to homebuilding, and 30% of it is imported by the US. Homebuilders warn that tariffs and other charges (including the potential doubling of existing duties on Canadian lumber) on softwood lumber and other materials could further exacerbate the housing affordability crisis.

Higher costs of lumber imports could also affect other products, such as furniture and even toilet paper.

• Pharmaceuticals: Trump said last night that “we’re going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals.” Tariffs on drugs could drive up health care costs and hamper the affordability of medication, especially for people without insurance.

Under a 25% tariff, commonly prescribed drugs could increase from 82 cents per pill to 94 cents a pill, or roughly $42 more per year, Diederik Stadig, health care sector economist for ING, wrote in a post last week. More complex prescriptions, such as those for cancer treatment, could jump even higher, he wrote, estimating that a 24-week prescription could see additional costs in the $8,000 to $10,000 range.

Semiconductors: Medical devices, Wi-Fi routers, laptops, smartphones, cars, household appliances and LED lightbulbs are just a few examples of where semiconductor chips are found. And these products often don’t just require one or two. For instance, new cars contain thousands of them.

London
CNN
 — 

UK police have charged British comedian and actor Russell Brand with rape and other sexual offenses against four women.

Brand has been charged with one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement Friday.

The Met Police added that Brand, 49, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London early next month. It did not specify Brand’s current whereabouts but described him as living in southern England. A Met spokesperson told CNN a written charge and requisition has been issued.

Police began investigating the comedian, who more recently has repositioned himself as a social commentator, in September 2023 after receiving allegations following a joint investigation led by three British media outlets – The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4’s “Dispatches.”

According to the Met Police, it is alleged that one woman was raped in 1999 in Bournemouth, southern England; one woman was indecently assaulted in London’s Westminster area in 2001; a woman was orally raped and sexually assaulted in 2004 also in the Westminster area of London; and a woman was sexually assaulted between 2004-2005 in London’s Westminster area.

“We have today authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Russell Brand with a number of sexual offences,” Jaswant Narwal of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said, according to a CPS press release Friday.

“We carefully reviewed the evidence after a police investigation into allegations made following the broadcast of a Channel 4 documentary in September 2023. We have concluded that Russell Brand should be charged with offences including rape, sexual assault and indecent assault.”

Brand took to X on Friday to respond to the news, echoing his denial of the allegations.

“When I was young and single before I had my wife and family… I was a fool, man, I was a fool before I lived in the light of the Lord,” he said in a video message.

“I was a drug addict, a sex addict and an imbecile, but what I never was, was a rapist. I’ve never engaged in non-consensual activity, and I pray that you can see that by looking in my eyes,” he added, thanking people for sending messages of support.

Brand has appeared in numerous Hollywood films and hosted radio and TV shows in the UK. He was also married to US pop star Katy Perry between 2010-2012.

More recently he has gained a large following online discussing wellness – after publicly talking about his battles with drugs and alcohol – and conspiracy theories, particularly on YouTube where he has over 6 million subscribers.

This story has been updated.