Trump Threatens Major Escalation in Trade War With China

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Amid continued controversy over his administration’s protectionist trade policies, President Donald Trump this week signaled that he is prepared to significantly expand the existing tariffs on products imported from China.

According to Reuters, he suggested that he is “ready” to impose duty on all of the Chinese goods sold in America.

“We’re down a tremendous amount,” Trump said in a CNBC interview on Friday.

He has frequently cited trade imbalances, particularly with China, as a reason for announcing tariffs.

In his latest remarks, the president said he is “ready to go to 500” with China, an apparent reference to the more than $500 billion in imported goods the U.S. received from that nation last year.

America’s trade deficit with China in 2017 was $376 billion, a trend that has continued into 2018. During the first five months of this year, the U.S. imported more than $200 billion for a trade imbalance of $152 billion.

Though many critics on both sides of the aisle have argued for freer trade policies, Trump has continued to dig in with the position he has endorsed since the campaign.

In addition to creating higher prices for American consumers, many economists have panned the tariffs because of historical evidence that such trade policies have contributed directly to economic catastrophes including the Great Depression.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the tariffs and associated rhetoric against China are not likely to end any time soon.

He said Trump is “not going to let go” of his belief that China is taking advantage of the U.S. through trade.

According to Kudlow, Chinese leader Xi Jinping bears the responsibility for leading America to take these steps.

“The problem here is Xi,” he said. “He doesn’t want to move, and they’ve offered the U.S. absolutely … no options regarding the issue of (intellectual property) theft and forced technology transfer.”

After an initial round of tariffs on $34 billion in imports, China retaliated by imposing dollar-for-dollar tariffs on American exports.

In the recent interview, Trump said he is not concerned about possible repercussions including a drop in the stock market.

“If it does, it does,” the president said. “I’m not doing this for politics, I’m doing this to do the right thing for our country.”

Repeating a longstanding refrain, Trump went on to assert that American has “been ripped off by China for a long time.”

He echoed Kudlow’s assessment that China’s president is responsible for inequitable trade between the two nations.

“I don’t want them to be scared,” he said. “I want them to do well. I really like President Xi a lot, but it was very unfair.” (For more from the author of “Trump Threatens Major Escalation in Trade War With China” please click HERE)

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In 2010, Hillary Revealed the Type of Relationship Obama Wanted With Russia

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By The Daily Wire. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a 2010 interview on Russian television with Vladimir Pozner that the Obama administration wanted to “help strengthen Russia.” . . .

“Many of our businesses want to have their business leaders come and have open-ended visas and similarly a lot of Russians want to be able to come and have as much time as they need,” Clinton continued. “That’s what I would like to work towards.”

“One of the fears that I hear from Russia is that somehow the United States wants Russia to be weak,” Clinton added. “That could not be farther from the truth. Our goal is to help strengthen Russia.”

(Read more from “In 2010, Hillary Revealed the Type of Relationship Obama Wanted With Russia” HERE)

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Trump Refuses to Denounce Putin Over Election Meddling at Summit, Blames ‘Both Countries’

By CNBC. President Donald Trump on Monday said at a joint briefing with Russian President Vladimir Putin that while he had “great confidence” in the U.S. intelligence community, Putin was “extremely strong and powerful in his denial” that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The president blamed “both countries” for the strained relationship. When a reporter asked the president if he would denounce Russia’s efforts to interfere in the presidential election, Trump raised the issue of Hillary Clinton’s email server.

“I think it’s a disgrace we can’t get Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 e-mails. I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump said. (Read more from “Trump Refuses to Denounce Putin Over Election Meddling at Summit, Blames ‘Both Countries'” HERE)

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Foreign Interference: Foreigners Voting in Our Elections

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If Russians were found to have voted in our elections, would that be enough to get the political class to take seriously the issue of non-citizens voting in our elections? What if Russian nationals got standing to sue against any method of protecting the integrity of our elections and Census reapportionment? Would it then be kosher to focus on the existential threat posed by voter fraud?

All conservatives should take the Russian attempts to meddle in our elections seriously. But that is a national security and counterintelligence issue; it’s not an electoral issue. Nobody can say that the Russians made a difference with the actual voters in the Midwest who elected Trump. But what does make a difference is foreign nationals actually voting in our elections as well as being counted in the Census. They do more than influence our elections; they downright shape, distort, and irretrievably alter the outcome of our elections. Why is there no concern about this issue among the political class?

A law fueling non-citizens voting

Last week, the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), headed by former DOJ attorney and election law expert J. Christian Adams, published a report showing definitive proof of non-citizens voting in Alleghany County, Pennsylvania, a key battleground state. Last year, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation admitted that through the motor voter law, thousands of non-citizens were seamlessly registered to vote through their process of obtaining driver’s licenses. Last December, Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt estimated that over 100,000 non-citizens were registered over the past two decades statewide.

And this is just one critical state admitting its error. It’s not hard to see how this is a problem affecting countless hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) — otherwise known as the motor voter law – requires states to offer those obtaining driver’s licenses the option of registering to vote. The problem is that without strong mandates to check citizenship status, this law turned into basically a government requirement to register non-citizens to vote! Non-citizens, even legal immigrants, have no standing to vote in our elections. The courts have downright prevented states from asking for proof of citizenship on voter registration forms, and in many states, we are stuck with nothing more than an honor system to ensure that only Americans are choosing American leaders. Thus, when non-citizens erroneously register to vote, it often takes years to discover because of all the lawsuits against any state that employs commonsense measures to secure the integrity of our elections.

Worse, a dozen states hand out driver’s licenses to illegal aliens – more than a million in California alone – and other states are being forced to do so by the courts.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that this system and the amalgamation of a number of immigration factors, court decisions, and legal mandates have created a ubiquitous problem of non-citizens voting. It is extremely difficult to expose the extent of the problem because states do not cooperate with those who seek to research and quantify the number of non-citizens voting in our elections. Although the organization was denied access to review state records, PILF was given access to records from Alleghany County, which includes the state’s second most populous city, Pittsburgh. PILF found that 139 individual non-citizens were illegally registered to vote since 2006 and 27 percent of them cast at least one ballot in an election. Of course, just 23 of the 139 non-citizens were registered Republican.

Here’s the kicker: These were just the people who self-reported in just one county. We have no idea how many non-citizens voted in Alleghany County, much less the entire Keystone State, but it’s safe to say the number is exponentially higher. These are individuals who self-reported because they were scared that if they are ever caught having been illegally registered to vote, they could be prosecuted for voter fraud and deported. In a similar report in 2016, PILF found 1,046 non-citizens registered to vote in eight Virginia counties and “cast a total of 186 votes between 2005 and 2015.

Record immigration, the motor voter law, and no mandated verification are a recipe for disaster for immigrants and citizens

It’s important to remember that our system is so absurd that it hurts even well-intentioned immigrants. Forget about illegal immigrants or those who desire to subvert our laws for a moment. Many unsuspecting legal immigrants are given the choice of registering to vote without even realizing it’s illegal to do so. Now a number of blue states are automatically registering people with driver’s licenses to vote as part of their obsession to juice up turnout. This will easily rope in many non-citizens. We can’t expect immigrants to be more zealous about the problem than we are. In fact, the problem is so real that the ACLU initially opposed California’s automatic registration law out of concern that it would register many non-citizens, which would render them deportable for violating election law.

This is a growing problem with the explosion of immigration over the past few decades. As the Center for Immigration Studies reports, “[I]n 1990, immigrants were at least 20 percent of the adult population (18-plus) in just 44 counties; by 2014 they were at least 20 percent of the adult population in 152 counties.” They further note that “the immigrant share of adults has more than quadrupled in 232 counties.” The total immigrant population now stands at 44 million. Putting the broader immigration debate aside for a moment, even those who favor mass immigration must admit that the unprecedented growth in immigration poses a foundational risk to the franchise unless states are able to ensure that non-citizens are not registering to vote through motor voter forms.

In one of the case studies in Allegheny County, PILF found that a woman named Karen who came here on a K-1 fiancée visa was registered to vote from 1996 until 2008. In her own words: “I asked the attendant if I should fill it out. I told her that I didn’t think I was qualified to vote as I wasn’t a citizen. She thought I should fill it out anyway, and that I would be rejected if I was not qualified.” PILF posted her letter to county officials asking that her name be removed after years of being registered as an active voter against her will.

Now imagine all of the dishonest people and illegal aliens trying to “influence our elections” who would never self-report. We need not imagine how many illegals are likely voting in California. Thanks to concerns from the ACLU, California added the following provision to Section 2269 of the automatic voter registration law:

If a person who is ineligible to vote becomes registered to vote pursuant to this chapter and votes or attempts to vote in an election held after the effective date of the person’s registration, that person shall be presumed to have acted with official authorization and shall not be guilty of fraudulently voting or attempting to vote pursuant to Section 18560, unless that person willfully votes or attempts to vote knowing that he or she is not entitled to vote.

How many think this will actually deter them from voting once they are protected from prosecution?

Subverting our sovereignty and destiny: The ultimate foreign influence

It’s worse than foreign nationals simply voting in our elections. All illegal aliens are counted in the Census and give states like California more representation in the House and in presidential elections, even when they don’t all actually cast ballots. This is the ultimate disenfranchisement of Americans. Now, the legal profession is working in the courts to prevent the Trump administration from even asking about immigration status on the Census, much less discounting illegals in the 2020 reapportionment.

The distortion of our elections is amplified by dual-nationality voting – with over 1 million Mexican-Americans voting in both American and Mexican elections, while Mexican presidential candidates campaign for votes on our shores while bashing our government. Where is the concern of foreign meddling by Mexico?

A sane Republican Party would introduce a legislative agenda to broadly address foreign meddling in our elections on all fronts while aggressively pursuing a counterintelligence effort against Russian espionage. That agenda should:

Explicitly authorize states to require proof of citizenship to vote

Require that states and localities use the federal SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) database or E-Verify to check for non-citizens voting

Stop counting illegal aliens in the Census for purpose of reapportionment

Treat states that offer driver’s licenses to illegal aliens as sanctuary cities and cut off special federal law enforcement grants

Disallow dual citizens to vote in foreign election while voting in American elections

Tighten up section 8 of the motor voter law, which requires states to “make a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters,” in a way that even liberal judges can’t misread it

Yesterday, Speaker Paul Ryan declared, “There is no question that Russia interfered in our election and continues attempts to undermine democracy here and around the world.” He called for a renewed focus “on holding Russia accountable and putting an end to its vile attacks on democracy.” Fabulous. Why then has he refused to allow a single piece of legislation dealing with the ultimate subversion of democracy – voter fraud and non-citizens voting – to come to the floor for a vote?

Anyone in the media and in Congress who is concerned about foreign powers influencing elections but ignores foreigners actually voting in our elections and irrevocably distorting our representation is high on Russian vodka or is intellectually bankrupt. (For more from the author of “Foreign Interference: Foreigners Voting in Our Elections” please click HERE)

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U.S. Officials Go to Entirely New Level to Achieve Peace, Reportedly Open to Talks With Taliban

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The United States is open to holding direct talks with the Taliban to encourage negotiations between the militant group and the Afghan government to end 17 years of war, U.S. officials said Monday.

That marks a tactical shift by the Trump administration, which has previously only appeared willing to participate in discussions with the Taliban if those talks also involve the Afghan government. The U.S. officials said that Afghan-to-Afghan negotiation remains the goal of any engagement with the militants.

The officials were not authorized to speak to media and requested anonymity.

The Taliban have long refused direct talks with the Afghan government, demanding instead to negotiate with Washington. The militants have persisted in that stance despite Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s unilateral extension of a holiday cease-fire last month in hopes of encouraging the militants to come to the bargaining table. With the Taliban continuing to mount deadly attacks, Ghani ordered government forces to resume military operations this month.

The unprecedented, three-day cease-fire by both sides had offered a rare glimpse of peace for Afghans during which militants fraternized with security force members.

A Taliban official in the small Gulf Arab nation of Qatar told The Associated Press on Monday that no American official or intermediary has been in touch with them to start direct talks, and it had only heard of it in the media. The administration’s willingness to hold direct talks with the Taliban was first reported by The New York Times on Sunday.

The Taliban official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was authorized to speak to journalists, said, “We wait for them to officially inform us.” But he added that if the U.S. is interested in talks, it should take steps to get Taliban leaders off a sanctions blacklist and support the formal opening of the Taliban office in Qatar where its political representatives reside. The official reiterated the Taliban’s call for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Asked if the U.S. was willing to hold direct talks with the Taliban, the State Department said Monday, the United States “is exploring all avenues to advance a peace process in close consultation with the Afghan government.”

The department added that “any negotiations over the political future of Afghanistan will be between the Taliban and the Afghan government.”

Last August, President Donald Trump launched an Afghanistan strategy that centered on boosting the capabilities of Afghan security forces and aiming — with help from Pakistan and other interested nations — to compel the militants to negotiate. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Afghanistan last week to reinforce its support for talks.

“The United States will support, facilitate, and participate in these peace discussions, but peace must be decided by the Afghans and settled among them. We expect that these peace talks will include a discussion of the role of international actors and forces,” Pompeo said after meeting Ghani in Kabul on July 9.

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and ousted the Taliban government that had hosted al-Qaida. It has about 15,000 troops in Afghanistan, mostly for training government forces.

The conflict appears stalemated, with insurgents controlling or contesting more than 40 percent of the country. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said Sunday that 1,692 civilians were killed in violence in the first six months of this year, the highest six-month death toll since the systematic documentation of civilian casualties started in 2009. (For more from the author of “U.S. Officials Go to Entirely New Level to Achieve Peace, Reportedly Open to Talks With Taliban” please click HERE)

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Here’s the Russian Interference Context the Lying Media Won’t Give You

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Monday on the radio, LevinTV host Mark Levin pushed back on the one-sided commentary attacking President Trump for how he handled his meeting with Vladimir Putin. He noted that Trump is being held to a different standard than former President Barack Obama.

“Now I understand there will be those out there who say, ‘Look, we’re focused on Trump. Why do you want to talk about Obama?’ I want to talk about both because the hypocrisy — in fact, the bald-faced lying — is so obvious that you have to talk in context,” Levin said.

Levin played 2017 audio of former President Barack Obama acknowledging that the Russians tried to interfere in the U.S. election. Levin pointed out that Obama himself said Putin’s election interference must be confronted in a “thoughtful, methodical way,” some of it publicly, some of it privately.

Levin argued that while Russian election interference was happening, Obama never confronted Putin publicly and the media was silent. But now the media is excoriating Trump for failing to ream Putin at a public press conference.

“Context is everything,” Levin said. “And they’re not giving you context, are they?”

Listen:

Mocking the different standards for Obama and Trump, Levin gave an impression of what he thinks members of the media sound like they’re telling Trump today:

“By God, you should’ve stood up there today and said, ‘Hey, Putin look what you did! Look what you did! Admit it! Admit it now! I’ve got the cuffs in my back pocket, and I’m going to cuff you and drag you off the damn stage!’”

“Is this a joke?” Levin asked seriously. “It sounds like a joke.” (For more from the author of “Here’s the Russian Interference Context the Lying Media Won’t Give You” please click HERE)

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Putin Calls Collusion ‘Utter Nonsense’ – Asks Reporter This IMPORTANT Question

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By The Daily Caller. Russian president Vladimir Putin called collusion between Trump and Russia “utter nonsense” during a joint press conference Monday.

“We should be guided by facts. Could you name a single fact that would definitively prove the collusion?” Putin asked a reporter who asked about collusion.

“It is utter nonsense. Just like the president recently mentioned.” (Read more from “Putin Calls Collusion ‘Utter Nonsense’ – Asks Reporter This Important Question” HERE)

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Donald Trump Meets Vladimir Putin: The Key Moments From the Summit

By ABC News. Standing alongside the man accused of coordinating an interference campaign in the election, Mr Trump defended Mr Putin and called the probe headed up by former FBI director Robert Mueller a “disaster”. . .

When asked if he would denounce what happened in 2016, Mr Trump responded: “I have great confidence in my intelligence people but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today …” . . .

The Russian leader also confirmed international suspicions and the assessments of the US intelligence community that he was rooting for Mr Trump over Hillary Clinton during the 2016 US presidential election.

“Yes, I did,” Mr Putin said, when asked if he wanted Mr Trump to win.

“Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the US-Russia relationship back to normal.”

(Read more from “Donald Trump Meets Vladimir Putin: The Key Moments From the Summit” HERE)

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Putin’s Plea to Donald Trump During Meeting

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President Trump’s meeting with Russian President Putin in Helsinki, Finland on Monday generated widespread media controversy about the U.S. president’s purported servility.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plea to the United States to rig the world oil market revealed the vulnerability of his own country.

“I think that we as a major oil and gas power, and the United States as a major oil and gas power as well, we could work together on regulation of international markets, because neither of us is actually interested in the plummeting of the prices,” Putin said. . .

The Russian government is particularly sensitive to oil price volatility since its financing is heavily dependent on oil and gas revenue. In January, the Russian government exhausted its reserve fund by merging it with the National Welfare Fund to cover budget shortfalls, the country’s Ministry of Finance announced.

On Monday, world oil prices plunged over the potential release of global crude reserves and U.S. diplomatic talk over potential Iranian oil sanction waivers, Market Watch reported. Downward pressure from the International Monetary Fund’s projected sluggish global economic growth contributed to a decline in benchmark Brent crude prices on the ICE futures exchange to its lowest showing in three months: a 4.6% decline to close at $71.84 a barrel. (Read more from “Putin’s Plea to Donald Trump During Meeting” HERE)

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So, Did a Trump Joke Prompt Russia to Hack Hillary Clinton?

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By Daily Wire. On Friday, the Mueller investigation handed down 12 indictments against members of the Russian government for hacking Hillary Clinton’s emails, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Democratic National Committee, among other crimes. There wasn’t much regarding Trump campaign involvement with these Russian agents. The strongest material linked the agents to Roger Stone, a Trump campaign ally who may not have been aware that they were Russian agents at all: he repeatedly tweeted out his support for Guccifer 2.0, who turned out to be a front for the Russians.

With that said, one specific allegation has inflamed the imaginations of those in the media and on the Left: the supposed linkage between then-candidate Donald Trump’s July 27 campaign comments, and the GRU’s attempts to hack Hillary Clinton’s personal email address. . .

It seems clear from the language used in the indictment that the DOJ is trying to connect Trump’s comments with the Russian interference in this case – “after hours” and “for the first time” suggest that something prompted this action. But even if Trump openly called for Russia to hack Hillary and she was hacked, that’s not collusion in any real sense – it’s just nasty, inexcusable jabbering followed by Russian criminality. For there to be collusion, there would have to be planning or a quid pro quo, and there’s no evidence of any of that right now. (Read more from “So, Did Trump Prompt Russia to Hack Hillary Clinton?” HERE)

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White House: Trump-Putin Summit ‘Is on’ After Hacking Indictment

By BBC. A summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin will go ahead as planned despite tension over Moscow’s alleged election meddling, the White House says.

The pair will meet for talks in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, on Monday.

“It’s on,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters.

But there are calls for the meeting to be cancelled after the US charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with election interference on Friday.

For its part, Russia said it was looking forward to the meeting. (Read more from “White House: Trump-Putin Summit ‘Is on’ After Hacking Indictment” HERE)

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Ignore the Protesters: This Is How the British Really Feel About Trump

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Thanks to the exaggerated outrage of the mainstream media and the attention-seeking protests of London leftists, a narrative seems to have set in that the vast majority of British people oppose this week’s visit of President Trump. As a Brit myself, however, I am delighted to confirm this lazy slur could not be further from the truth.

In reality, the vast majority of British conservatives (and a good chunk of floating voters too) are coming to admire Trump. His unmistakable approach to politics – straight-talking, honest and completely fearless – is increasingly viewed with envy by British voters tired of backsliding career politicians. Brits look over the Atlantic and see a leader who actually puts his money where his mouth is – and gets results for it too.

To fully understand Trump’s popularity, you have to look at the current state of British politics. Over two years since the country voted to leave the European Union, we have seen virtually zero progress at delivering on the result of the referendum. Rather than battling with Brussels to return our sovereignty, end uncontrolled immigration, and give a better deal to British business, Theresa May’s government has been paralyzed by infighting, trying desperately to scrap together compromises which keep the establishment forces on side. Earlier this year, a British political journalist revealed that Trump often begins his calls with the Prime Minister by asking “are you out yet?” – and you can see why.

It’s no surprise that Brits are increasingly frustrated with the government’s mishandling of Brexit. What’s more interesting is that when you ask them what kind of leader they want to get us out of this mess, an increasing number are saying the same thing: someone like Trump. Brexit supporters observe how he deals with similar rubbish deals (the Iranian nuclear fiasco, for one) and they realize how much more can be achieved when leaders actually show some muscle.

Then there’s the fact that Trump remains the only international leader to publicly suggest offering Britain a new trade deal – something which is wildly popular with mainstream voters. While Brexit’s critics may paint the vote as insular and backwards, they forget that our biggest motivation for leaving Europe was to strike better trade deals elsewhere. As a businessman, Trump respects this. He has made loud and clear overtures in support of a big deal (unlike President Obama, who famously warned the Brits they would be “at the back of the queue” if they left the EU). (Read more from “Ignore the Protesters: This Is How the British Really Feel About Trump” HERE)

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Father of Rescued Thai Boy Details How Team Became Trapped

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The boys meant to explore the cave for just an hour, a casual jaunt to relax after soccer practice, but the waters rose. The teammates climbed higher, using their hands to feel the walls for a crawl space that would lead to safer, higher ground. Those handprints were among the first signs of where the boys were, what they had done to escape the floods, and what dangers rescuers would face in their mission to save the boys and their coach. . .

Banphot Konkum, father of 13-year-old Duangpetch Promthep, told The Associated Press his son — better known by his nickname, Dom — said the team members didn’t know rain had started falling after they had entered the cave on June 23. But the rain caused flooding in the cave, blocking them from exiting. . .

In their search for a safe haven, the boys were reported to have used their hands to feel the walls for an opening to take them to a higher, safer spot. Searchers later found what they thought were the boys’ handprints, giving them confidence the boys were alive and that the searchers were on the right path. (Read more from “Father of Rescued Thai Boy Details How Team Became Trapped” HERE)

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