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Secret Service investigating "non-hazardous" item that prompted White House shutdown on Sunday
CBSN
Washington — The White House went into a "precautionary closure" on Sunday night as U.S. Secret Service officers investigated an "unknown item" that was found in the complex, the agency said Tuesday.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the D.C. Fire Department was called to evaluate the item, which it determined was "non-hazardous." It was sent to be evaluated further, and there is a pending investigation into how it got into the White House.
The Washington Post reported that a preliminary test indicated the substance that prompted the evacuation was cocaine. The Post cited two officials familiar with the matter and an apparent recording of a radio message from a responding D.C. Fire hazmat team that said the substance tested positive for the drug.
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More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
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In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.
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The quick-fire volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China in recent days has heightened global fears of a new trade war between the world's two largest economies. Yet while experts think the battle is likely to escalate, they also say the early skirmishes offer hope for an agreement on trade and other key issues that could head off a larger conflict.