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Staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were left baffled on Monday after the head of the U.S. disaster agency said he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season, according to four sources familiar with the situation. The remark was made during a briefing by David Richardson, who has led FEMA since early May. It was not clear to staff whether he meant it literally, as a joke, or in some other context. The U.S. hurricane season officially began on Sunday and lasts through November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast last week that this year’s season is expected to bring as many as 10 hurricanes. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA’s parent agency, said the comment was a joke and that FEMA is prepared for hurricane season. The spokesperson said under Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Richardson “FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens.” Richardson said during the briefing that there would be no changes to the agency’s disaster response plans despite having told staff to expect a new plan in May, the sources told Reuters. Richardson’s comments come amid widespread concern that the departures of a raft of top FEMA officials, staff cuts and reductions in hurricane preparations will leave the agency ill-prepared for a storm season forecast to be above normal. Democrats criticized Richardson following the Reuters report. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer posted the Reuters headline about Richardson on X and said he was “unaware of why he hasn’t been fired yet.” Representative Bennie Thompson, the senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee with oversight of FEMA, issued a statement to Reuters that read: “Suffice to say, disaster response is no joke. If you dont know what or when hurricane season is, youre not qualified to run FEMA. Get someone knowledgeable in there. Hurricanes kill dozens of people and cost hundreds of millions of dollars annually across a swath of U.S. states every year. The storms have become increasingly more destructive and costly due to the effects of climate change. Richardson’s comment purporting ignorance about hurricane season spread among agency staff, spurring confusion and reigniting concern about his lack of familiarity with FEMA’s operations, said three sources. Richardson, who has no disaster response experience, said during Monday’s briefing, a daily all-hands meeting held by phone and videoconference, that he will not be issuing a new disaster plan because he does not want to make changes that might counter the FEMA Review Council, the sources said. President Donald Trump created the council to evaluate FEMA. Its members include DHS head Noem, governors and other officials. In a May 15 staff town hall, Richardson said a disaster plan, including tabletop exercises, would be ready for review by May 23. CONFUSION The back-and-forth on updating the disaster plan and a lack of clear strategic guidance have created confusion for FEMA staff, said one source. Richardson has evoked his military experience as a former Marine artillery officer in conversations with staff. Before joining FEMA, he was assistant secretary at DHS’ office for countering weapons of mass destruction, which he has told staff he will continue to lead. Richardson was appointed as the new chief of FEMA last month after his predecessor, Cameron Hamilton, was abruptly fired. Hamilton had publicly broken with Trump over the future of the agency, but sources told Reuters that Trump allies had already been maneuvering to oust him because they were unhappy with what they saw as Hamilton’s slow-moving effort to restructure FEMA. Trump has said FEMA should be shrunk or even eliminated, arguing states can take on many of its functions, as part of a wider downsizing of the federal government. About 2,000 full-time FEMA staff, one-third of its total, have been terminated or voluntarily left the agency since the start of the Trump administration in January. Despite Noem’s prior comments that she plans to eliminate FEMA, in May she approved Richardson’s request to retain more than 2,600 short-term disaster response and recovery employees whose terms were set to expire this year, one of the sources said, confirming an earlier report by NBC News. Those short-term staff make up the highest proportion of FEMA employees, about 40%, and are a pillar of the agency’s on-the-ground response efforts. FEMA recently sharply reduced hurricane training and workshops for state and local emergency managers due to travel and speaking restrictions imposed on staff, according to prior Reuters reporting. Leah Douglas, Ted Hesson and Nathan Layne, Reuters
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E-Commerce
U.S. economic growth will slow to 1.6% this year from 2.8% last year as President Donald Trump’s erratic trade wars disrupt global commerce, drive up costs and leave businesses and consumers paralyzed by uncertainty.The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast Tuesday that the U.S. economythe world’s largestwill slow further to just 1.5% in 2026. Trump’s policies have raised average U.S. tariff rates from around 2.5% when he returned to the White House to 15.4%, highest since 1938, according to the OECD. Tariffs raise costs for consumers and American manufacturers that rely on imported raw materials and components.World economic growth will slow to just 2.9% this year and stay there in 2026, according to the OECD’s forecast. It marks a substantial deceleration from growth of 3.3% global growth last year and 3.4% in 2023.The world economy has proven remarkably resilient in recent years, continuing to expand steadilythough unspectacularlyin the face of global shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.But global trade and the economic outlook have been clouded by Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports, the unpredictable way he’s rolled them out and the threat of retaliation from other countries.Reversing decades of U.S. policy in favor of freer world trade, Trump has levied 10% taxestariffson imports from almost every country on earth along with specific duties on steel, aluminum and autos. He’s also threatened more import taxes, including a doubling of his tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50%.Without mentioning Trump by name, OECD chief economist Álvaro Pereira wrote in a commentary that accompanied the forecast that “we have seen a significant increase in trade barriers as well as in economic and trade policy uncertainty. This sharp rise in uncertainty has negatively impacted business and consumer confidence and is set to hold back trade and investment.”Adding to the uncertainty over Trump’s trade wars: A federal court in New York last week blocked most of Trump’s tariffs, ruling that he’d overstepped his authority in imposing them. Then an appeals court allowed the Trump administration to continue collecting the taxes while appeals worked their way through the U.S. courts.Chinathe world’s second-biggest economyis forecast to see growth decelerate from 5% last year to 4.7% in 2025 and 4.3% in 2026. Chinese exporters will be hurt by Trump’s tariffs, hobbling an economy already weakened by the collapse of the nation’s real estate market. Some of the damage will be offset by help from the government: Beijing last month outlined plans to cut interest rates and encourage bank lending as well as allocating more money for factory upgrades and elder care, among other things.The 20 countries that share the euro currency will collectively see economic growth pick up from 0.8% last year to 1% in 2025 and 1.2% next year, the OECD said, helped by interest rate cuts from the European Central Bank.The Paris-based OECD, comprising 38 member countries, works to promote international trade and prosperity and issues periodic reports and analyses. Paul Wiseman, AP Economics Writer
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E-Commerce
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Monday that it had launched a generative AI tool, Elsa, aimed at improving efficiency across its operations, including scientific reviews. “Today’s rollout of Elsa is ahead of schedule and under budget, thanks to the collaboration of our in-house experts across the centers,” said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. The agency said it is already using Elsa to expedite clinical protocol reviews, shorten the time needed for scientific evaluations, and pinpoint high-priority inspection targets. Once the FDA receives an application for a potential drug approval, it has six to 10 months to make a decision. Elsa assists with reading, writing, and summarizing tasks. It can summarize adverse events to support safety profile assessments of drugs and rapidly compare packaging inserts. “Elsa offers a secure platform for FDA employees to access internal documents while ensuring all information remains within the agency. The models do not train on data submitted by regulated industry, safeguarding the sensitive research and data handled by FDA staff,” the FDA said. In May, the regulator said it would fully integrate AI by June 30, following an experimental run. Puyaan Singh, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
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