作者： root

特朗普暗示或制裁与伊朗交易往来的中国银行

2026年8月28日 07:05 / 联合早报

美国总统特朗普星期四（8月27日）在白宫椭圆形办公室发表讲话时，暗示可能正考虑对与伊朗有往来的中国银行实施制裁。 （彭博社）

美国总统特朗普暗示，政府可能考虑对与伊朗有交易往来的中国银行实施制裁。若最终落实，将意味着华盛顿孤立德黑兰的行动进一步升级。

美国财政部长贝森特本周宣布，美国将加大力度，通过经济制裁和其他措施推动伊朗政权“崩溃”。相关措施包括扩大所谓次级制裁的威胁范围，针对继续与伊朗开展商业往来的国家和实体。

据法新社报道，特朗普星期四（8月27日）在白宫椭圆形办公室出席活动时，被记者问及是否会因相关交易制裁中国银行。他反问：“谁说我不会？”

特朗普随后含糊表示：“谁说我不会？你又不知道我是不是已经在做了。我也不是什么都得宣布，对吧？”

中国是伊朗最大的贸易伙伴，尤其在石油贸易方面。中国的银行目前仍在处理两国石油及其他贸易往来的相关付款。

截至目前，美国财政部尚未对中国大型银行实施相关制裁，但已制裁多家中国大陆和香港企业，指控它们协助伊朗政府及武装力量。

Toronto mayor calls tariff fight “unnecessary,” says “we feel like we’re being bullied”

August 27, 2026 / 5:51 PM EDT / CBS News

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow told CBS News that the escalating tariff fight between the U.S. and Canada is “a lose-lose situation” and “really unnecessary,” arguing the trade dispute threatens jobs in Canada and could increase prices for Americans.

Canada’s tit-for-tat tariffs of up to 50% on $20 billion worth of American goods announced Tuesday are a dollar-for-dollar retaliation against the Trump administration’s 50% tariffs on Canadian products – the latest volley in a widening trade war.

Chow said around 5,000 jobs in Toronto’s textile, clothing and leather manufacturing industries could be affected.

“When that happens, it means the price of Americans buying things, the cost will go up,” Chow said.

President Trump also announced 50% tariffs on Canadian automotive and steel imports that, absent a deal, would take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

“Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday, adding “Canada will be treated like a State no longer!”

“We feel like we’re being bullied,” Chow said in response to Mr. Trump’s comments about making Canada the 51st U.S. state. “Being called the 51st state, it’s threatening our sovereignty as a country, and we don’t take it lightly.”

Chow has vowed to “hit back,” in part, by encouraging her constituents to buy Canadian goods rather than American products.

“Unless there’s a choice, we’re going to buy what is around us,” Chow said, stressing her frustrations are with the U.S. government, not the American people.

“It’s not Americans that are hostile. It’s that president of yours that is just attacking us,” she said.

She urged Americans to contact their elected officials to push for further negotiations.

“They’ve been our partners and friends for so many generations,” Chow said. “Why are we just ripping things apart for no good reason?”

Judge sharply questions Trump’s latest bid to add name to Kennedy Center

6:27 PM EDT, Thu August 27, 2026 / CNN Politics

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Judge sharply questions Trump’s latest bid to add name to Kennedy Center

The Lead

Nathaniel Zelinsky joins The Lead.

0:42 • Source: CNN

Trump helicopter’s radio warnings went unheard before close call with passenger jet, report says

2026-08-27T17:21:15-04:00 / Fox News

NTSB report reveals radio transmissions were unreadable due to inadequate line-of-sight coverage from the Ellipse

By Stepheny Price Fox News

Published August 27, 2026 5:21pm EDT

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6403217791112

FAA, Marine One team fixing telecom issue after loss of separation: Duffy

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday FAA officials are working with the Marine One team to resolve telecom issues after a loss of separation last week between President Donald Trump’s helicopter and a commercial aircraft near Reagan National Airport.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Marine One’s crew made repeated but unsuccessful attempts to notify Reagan National Airport that President Donald Trump’s helicopter was preparing to depart Aug. 4 before it flew near a commercial passenger jet, according to a preliminary federal report released Thursday.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report said the crew’s first call to Reagan National’s helicopter-control frequency before departing from the Ellipse was not received. A second transmission was “broken and completely unreadable.”

After failing to reach the tower, the Marine One crew tried to relay the required three-minute notification through the helicopter facility at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, but that effort was unsuccessful as well, according to the report.

TRUMP EYES NEW WHITE HOUSE LAWN PROJECT THAT COULD RESHAPE PRESIDENTIAL TRAVEL

President Donald Trump steps off Marine One to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Aug. 4, 2026. New reports show Trump’s helicopter’s radio warnings went unheard.(Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

The missed warning meant Reagan National controllers did not receive notice that would have required them to stop departures before the presidential helicopter lifted off.

Instead, Envoy Air Flight 3742, an Embraer E-170 bound for Pensacola, Florida, was cleared to take off from Runway 1 as Trump departed the White House aboard Marine One for a planned trip to Los Angeles.

The passenger jet was beginning its initial climb as Marine One departed the Ellipse, about 2 miles north of the airport, the NTSB said.

The FAA’s preliminary estimate found the aircraft came within about 0.82 nautical miles of one another laterally and roughly 700 feet vertically. No one was injured, neither aircraft was damaged and both flights continued without further incident.

[FAA PROBES JFK NEAR MISS AFTER ANOTHER RECENT CLOSE CALL FUELS SCRUTINY OF AIR TRAFFIC SAFETY]

The Envoy flight crew said the jet’s traffic-collision system announced, “Traffic, Traffic,” as the aircraft climbed and accelerated after takeoff. The pilots did not visually spot Marine One but said the helicopter appeared to the right and below their aircraft on the cockpit display.

The system did not issue a resolution advisory, a more urgent instruction telling pilots to climb or descend to avoid another aircraft, according to the NTSB report.

[PILOTS ACCIDENTALLY BROADCAST ‘MEOWING’ OVER REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT FREQUENCY]

FILE – One of the U.S. Marine Corps’ VH-3D Sea King helicopters known as Marine One when carrying the President of the United States is pictured.(Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images)

Marine One was eventually able to contact the tower after climbing high enough to establish reliable communications. Controllers then issued a traffic advisory, and the helicopter crew immediately reported having the Envoy jet in sight, the report said.

The newly released report also shows the communications concern had been raised just days earlier.

[HOUSE TO VOTE ON AVIATION SAFETY BILL AFTER DEADLY DC MIDAIR CRASH]

On July 30, Marine Helicopter Squadron One, known as HMX-1, met with Reagan National tower staff to discuss operations in the area. During that meeting, HMX-1 told controllers that communications had been “spotty,” the NTSB said.

Controllers had also raised concerns that HMX-1 crews had not always provided the required three-minute warning before takeoff. The two sides agreed that helicopter crews would use backup methods to reach the tower, including relaying the notification through another aircraft, if direct radio communication failed.

[NTSB REPORT DETAILS HOW CONTROLLER DECISION AND TECH FAILURES LED TO DEADLY RUNWAY COLLISION]

President Donald Trump boards Marine One in Charlottesville, Va., April 10, 2026(Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

That is what Marine One’s crew attempted on Aug. 4, but the message still did not get through.

FAA technicians later determined there was not adequate line-of-sight coverage between the radio transmitter-receiver site and the Ellipse, where Marine One was temporarily operating during construction at the White House.

The FAA subsequently moved the radios used for the airport’s helicopter-control frequency from a nearby residential neighborhood to the top of Reagan National’s control tower, according to the report.

[FAA INVESTIGATES AFTER INCOMING PLANE EXECUTES GO-AROUND DUE TO AIRCRAFT LEAVING FROM INTERSECTING RUNWAY]

The agency later conducted radio checks with two HMX-1 aircraft operating near the Ellipse and reported no deficiencies after the equipment was moved.

The FAA and NTSB began reviewing the incident earlier this month and previously characterized the event as a “momentary loss of separation.”

“Based on our preliminary safety review, there was momentary loss of separation, after which the aircraft continued to move away from one another,” the FAA previously told Fox News Digital.

“The air traffic controller was in contact with both the commercial pilot and Marine One pilot during the loss of separation.”

While the aircraft were estimated to be less than 1.5 nautical miles apart horizontally, the NTSB said the preliminary estimate of 700 feet of vertical separation met the applicable FAA standard. In the relevant Class B airspace, the standard requires either 1.5 nautical miles of lateral separation or 500 feet of vertical separation.

[AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL AUDIO CAPTURES TENSE MOMENT TWO PLANES NEARLY COLLIDED AT BOSTON LOGAN AIRPORT]

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6402914248112

Officials investigating Marine One safety incident in DC

The NTSB said it is continuing to review surveillance data to calculate and confirm the closest point between the two aircraft.

The White House previously said Trump was never in danger.

“Marine One flights are piloted by some of the best aviators in the world, and at no point was the president in harm’s way,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told Fox News Digital.

The NTSB told Fox News Digital its preliminary report “is intended to present the factual information developed to date” and does not contain “analysis, conclusions, or findings related to probable cause.”

[CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP]

“The investigation remains ongoing, and we are not providing additional comment beyond the information contained in the preliminary report,” the agency said, adding that any safety recommendations would be publicly announced and further findings would be released through its public docket and final report process.

Fox News Digital’s Robert McGreevy contributed to this report.

Stepheny Price is a Writer at Fox News with a focus on West Coast and Midwest news, missing persons, national and international crime stories, homicide cases, and border security.

US FDA approves updated COVID vaccines for 2026-27 season

August 27, 2026 9:48 PM UTC / Reuters

A child receives a dose of the Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, U.S. September 11, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah Beier Purchase Licensing Rights

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Aug 27 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Moderna, Novavax-Sanofi and ​Pfizer-BioNTech’s updated COVID vaccines, the companies ​said on Thursday, after an advisory panel recommended that the shots should target ​the dominant XFG variant.

Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with the award-winning Reuters Health Rounds newsletter. Sign up here.

• Four COVID ​shots had been approved for use ⁠in the United States: Moderna’s ​mNEXSPIKE and Spikevax, Pfizer-BioNTech’s ​, ​ Comirnaty — all ​three mRNA-based vaccines — and Novavax-Sanofi’s ​, ​ protein-based shot that takes longer to manufacture.
• All manufacturers previously ​said they could make the ​updated shot in time for the 2026-27 immunization ‌season.
• In ⁠May, eight of the committee’s nine experts voted in favor of targeting the XFG variant for the 2026-27 ​campaign.
• For the ​2025-26 season, ⁠the FDA had recommended COVID shots target LP.8.1 — ​a subvariant of the JN.1 ​strain.
• According ⁠to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID dashboard, new data ⁠on ​strains is currently unavailable ​due to low sequencing submissions.

Reporting by Christy Santhosh ​in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Marine One’s warning calls before mishap went unheard by Reagan air traffic controllers, NTSB says

August 27, 2026 6:44 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Air traffic controllers in Washington and the pilots of President Trump’s helicopter met to discuss communication issues one week before a jet was allowed to take off just as Marine One left the White House, federal investigators said Thursday.

Controllers reported not receiving the standard three-minute warning call ahead of Marine One flights and both sides agreed to an alternative in those instances — but that plan to relay the radio call through someone else was also unsuccessful on the day of the Aug. 4 incident near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report shows.

Having both the jet and helicopter in the air at the same time seemed to violate safety procedures put in place after last year’s midair collision near the busy airport that killed 67 people, but officials stressed that the president was never in danger. The Pentagon also has a longstanding agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration to provide controllers with a three-minute warning before the president’s helicopter takes off that predates last year’s crash.

The NTSB said recordings from the tower showed that the controllers never heard the calls from Marine One’s pilot that day warning that the helicopter was getting ready to take off, but separate recordings posted by ATC.com show the helicopter did make those calls.

The helicopter pilots tried to relay their three-minute call through the helicopter facility at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, but that was also unsuccessful, the NTSB report found.

CBS News previously reported that the Marine One pilot tried to contact the tower at Reagan three times to alert air traffic controllers that the presidential helicopter was minutes away from liftoff. The tower at one point acknowledged the communication but asked for the pilot to repeat the message because it “was broken and unreadable.”

“Marine One flights are piloted by the finest aviators in the world, and the White House maintains the utmost confidence in these patriots and other security officials who are responsible for ensuring the President’s safety,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told CBS News in a statement in response to the NTSB’s preliminary report. “Although the President was at no point in harm’s way during the August 4th momentary loss of separation, the White House continues to work with relevant military, FAA, and other security personnel to ensure the President’s continued safety.”

The FAA decided after an airliner collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Jan. 29, 2025, that all takeoffs and landings at the airport would be halted anytime a helicopter passes by on a conflicting route. The airspace near the White House and Reagan is heavily congested with military and commercial aircraft.

The FAA has acknowledged that the helicopter and airliner briefly got too close before the two aircraft started to move away from each other. The airplane quickly climbed above the helicopter after Marine One’s pilots saw the plane and paused until it safely left the area.

In a statement, the FAA said Thursday it “took immediate action following the Aug. 4 incident involving Marine One, including relocating an antenna to improve communications between DCA air traffic controllers and Marine One pilots and reviewing the procedures involved. The three-minute notification was communicated by alternate means, acknowledged by a controller and positive contact was established with Marine One before takeoff.”

The NTSB said preliminary estimates show the helicopter and plane were just over 0.8 miles apart laterally and about 700 feet apart vertically at their closest. The crew of the Envoy Air flight told investigators they received a traffic warning from their collision avoidance system right after they took off, but they never saw the helicopter.

The official FAA recordings from the tower at Reagan did not include the warnings that Marine One was getting ready to head to Andrews Air Force Base with the president aboard that day.

A recording posted by ATC.com showed the Marine One pilot telling the tower that the helicopter was “three minutes to life” just like the 2013 agreement between the FAA and the military calls for. But the controller seemed surprised a few minutes later when the helicopter took off.

“Uh, Marine One, you said, uh, you’re proceeding as briefed?” the controller asked before giving the helicopter directions and commenting, “OK, no three minutes, roger, proceed as briefed.”

After the controller warned the helicopter about the plane taking off, the Marine One pilot said he saw the traffic and declared, “We’ll be doing a momentary delay.”

After last year’s midair collision, it became clear that poor communication between air traffic controllers and the military had been a longstanding issue. During a congressional hearing, it came out that a hotline connecting the Pentagon to the tower at Reagan hadn’t been working for more than three years, and the FAA hadn’t even realized it.

The NTSB said that after this incident involving Marine One, FAA technicians determined that there wasn’t adequate line of sight between the radio receiver at the airport and the location where the helicopter takes off at the White House. So those radios were moved from the neighborhood where they had been located to the top of the tower at Reagan. Subsequent tests showed the radios working well after that change.

Trump officials are joining TikTok

6:18 PM EDT, Thu August 27, 2026 / By Ileya Robinson-Williams, CNN

Trump officials are joining TikTok

CNN’s Brian Todd reports on members of President Trump’s Cabinet joining TikTok.

3:40 • Source: CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/27/politics/video/trump-tiktok-officials-digvid

西藏发生5.0级强震 邻近尼泊尔西藏泥石流灾区

2026年8月28日 07:06 / 联合早报

尼泊尔-中国西藏边境8月26日突发性大规模泥石流，尼泊尔特里苏里一名幸存的老妇人由重型机械转移到安全地带。 （路透社）

路透社报道，德国地球科学研究中心（GFZ）说，中国西藏地区星期四（8月27日）晚间发生5.0级地震，地震震源深度10公里，位于西藏北部。

GFZ说，此次地震的震中位于尼泊尔和中国西藏泥石流受灾地区以北数百英里处。

另据新华社报道，中国地震台网正式测定，27日晚上10时45分在西藏那曲市尼玛县发生4.7级地震。鉴于堰塞湖溃决的风险，中国已针对西藏启动洪水防御四级应急响应。

中国水利部已指示地方当局密切监测堰塞湖水位和降雨情况，并已派专家组前往吉隆县。

彭博社星期五（28日）清晨报道，尼泊尔-中国西藏泥石流的死亡人数已造成至少389人死亡，1200多人失踪，其中包括数百名外国游客。

Judge asks pointed questions of Kennedy Center’s plan to add Trump’s name

2026-08-27T20:32:19.533Z / CNN

A federal judge on Thursday sharply questioned the Kennedy Center’s plans to add President Donald Trump’s name back to its building in coming weeks and expressed frustration that it could happen before he decides whether the move is legal.

During a nearly two hour hearing before Judge Christopher Cooper, who previously concluded that the center’s board broke the law when it voted to rename the historic performing arts venue in honor of Trump, the judge asked pointed questions to a Justice Department attorney defending the board’s decision earlier this month to again add the current president’s name alongside that of the 35th president on the building’s facade and on other areas of the site the building sits on.

The hearing came moments after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the center’s physical future is in doubt if Trump’s name isn’t attached.

Though Cooper, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, did not immediately rule, he repeatedly pushed for DOJ to give him a reason why the center was planning to move ahead with its plans to add Trump’s back to its building as soon as September 8.

Describing that date as arbitrary, the judge said that if the center didn’t quickly change course on its timeline, he may have to issue a temporary order that bars the center from moving ahead with adding the president’s name back to its building while the legal wrangling continues.

The latest resolution from the board would add Trump’s name to the site to acknowledge his “ongoing” contributions to its maintenance, the DOJ is arguing, in an attempt distinguish the proposal from its previous attempt to add Trump’s name to the center writ-large.

The legal challenge from Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty contends that Congress did not authorize such a move, even if the court were to agree with how the DOJ was framing it, and that it violates Cooper’s previous order.

Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Lutnick said the center’s demolition will be an “eventuality” if Trump isn’t able to renovate the center — but also dispelled the idea such a move is imminent.

“Bad things happen, but they’re not going to happen on Thursday,” Lutnick said. “No one’s saying it’s happening on Thursday. It’s just an eventuality, but that’s not going to happen.”

“I mean, this is the board classically capturing the greatest fundraiser and greatest builder ever by putting his name on it and saying, “OK, OK, you wanted your name. Here it is. Now go do it,’” Lutnick added. “And that’s the board’s decision.”

Lutnick’s wife is among the Kennedy Center board members and the secretary sat in the courtroom for the duration of Thursday’s hearing.

As Brantley Mayers, the DOJ lawyer, presented his main argument that the new renaming gambit was needed to help ensure private donations continue to pour into the center’s coffers, the judge quickly interjected, asking: “What does that have to do with what Congress intended in the statutes?”

Cooper ruled earlier this year that the center’s decision to rename the venue “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” violated federal law stating that the building could not be named for anyone other than the late president. Trump’s name came off the building in June but a tarp has blocked the facade ever since.

The center’s board voted on August 13 to add an inscription below the Kennedy Center’s sign that says the venue was “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.” Another add to the front referencing Trump could come later if an endowment reaches $100 million, the board has said. The center also plans to rename the physical site the building it sits on in honor of Trump.

The administration is arguing that renaming the center’s plaza for Trump does not run afoul of congressional statutes designating the center as a memorial to Kennedy alone.

But Cooper suggested on Thursday that under DOJ’s theory, the board would be authorized under the law to name the parking garage after former President Barack Obama or the campus after former President George W Bush, and that every single parcel of the complex could be renamed for whomever the board sees fit.

“The whole thing would be for sale, basically — and that would be consistent with Congress’ overall scheme?” Cooper asked. Mayers did not push back against that interpretation of his arguments.

The case was brought by Beatty, an officio member of the center’s board.

Her lawyer, Nathaniel Zelinsky, told the judge that the board’s latest renaming gambit “is part and parcel of everything” he considered earlier this year when he ruled against the center’s first renaming bid.

He urged Cooper to intervene now on a temporary basis because he didn’t trust that the center wouldn’t move ahead with its plans in secrecy and before the judge made a final decision.

“I’m worried that they might do this in the middle of the night,” Zelinsky said at one point.

The board is arguing that the Trump-related name changes are necessary to secure private contributions to the Kennedy Center for what it describes as desperately needed repairs, and it has even suggested that the center could be demolished — if the changes were to be blocked — because of the poor shape that its infrastructure is in.

Seizing on that suggestion Thursday, Zelinsky told Cooper that the threat “is breathtaking.”

“It is a not-so-subtle threat along the lines of, ‘My, what a nice Kennedy Center you have here — a shame if something were to happen to it,’” he told Cooper.

During its vote earlier this month, the center’s board also approved a plan to close its doors for two years to undertake extensive renovations. That decision, too, is likely to face more court challenges.

Speaking on CNN’s “The Arena with Kasie Hunt,” Beatty said Trump and the Kennedy Center board with his allies can’t be trusted.

“I don’t trust (Trump). This is the same president that told us we were going to get a remodeled, renovated ballroom, and he demolished the entire East Wing, the Rose Garden, over budget and unfinished,” Beatty said.

“I can’t predict what this president would do because he has been so unpredictable,” she added. “But what we know we can count on, he will do something that is very unreasonable and that something that doesn’t make sense. And that’s why we continue to fight.”

CNN’s Logan Schiciano contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional details.

ICE grants $16.7 million contract to buy thousands of electric shock gloves

August 27, 2026 / 7:32 PM EDT / CBS News

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has granted a $16.7 million no-bid contract for 6,000 gloves that can deliver electric shocks, a new use-of-force tool that the agency claims will help officers control resisting detainees and avoid using more serious or lethal weapons.

Dubbed the G.L.O.V.E., or Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, the device operates as a conventional patrol glove until an officer activates its “electrical mode.” Once activated, the device must make direct contact with a person’s skin to deliver a painful shock designed to force compliance.

In contract paperwork released on a federal database Thursday, ICE describes the gloves as “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices,” and says the new technology will offer personnel a lower-impact option during arrests, detainee transports and disturbances surrounding detention facilities. According to the agency’s procurement rationale, the gloves may be used when a person is “actively or passively resisting” and an officer needs to gain control quickly.

Federal records show ICE signed the contract Wednesday with a Kentucky-based company known as Compliant Technologies LLC, but formally posted the award Thursday. The six-month deal includes the gloves, support equipment and services. The gloves themselves cost $2,495 apiece.

The agency argues the devices reduce agency reliance on physical force and, in more dangerous encounters, grant officers an alternative to resorting to a firearm.

“ICE does not currently have an empty hand use of force device to provide to the field amidst unprecedented levels of threats and violence against ICE officers and agents to help ensure they can de-escalate tense situations before they turn violent,” the agency wrote in procurement documents.

ICE said the gloves would be deployed under approved policies, training requirements and accountability standards, though procurement documents do not account for those safeguards in detail.

Compliant Technologies’ instruction manual says users of the gloves should “always give the subject(s) a reasonable opportunity to comply before force is used.” It suggests using them for up to 15 seconds, unless the subject becomes more violent or endangers people. The company also states that the devices should not be used to punish people, and shouldn’t be used on the elderly, pregnant women, small children or “the severely handicapped.”

The G.L.O.V.E., developed by Compliant Technologies LLC, sits on a table after a demonstration at the Oklahoma County Detention Center in Oklahoma City, March 22, 2023. (Brett Dickerson/Oklahoma City Free Press via AP) Brett Dickerson

ICE first announced the planned purchase earlier this month. The plan has drawn opposition from congressional Democrats and civil rights advocates who question how the gloves will be used and whether ICE has adequate safeguards in place to prevent abuse.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and 15 other Democratic senators urged ICE on Thursday to abandon the purchase, warning that a device capable of inflicting an electric shock during civil immigration arrests raises questions about proportionality, medical safety, constitutional rights and oversight.

“A device capable of delivering an electrical shock through direct contact with an individual presents substantial risks if deployed during civil arrests,” the senators wrote, adding that the risks would be heightened without clear limits, adequate training and comprehensive oversight. Lawmakers demanded that ICE disclose its rules for authorized uses, safeguards and procedures for reviewing deployments, moving forward.

The Department of Homeland Security has defended the purchase, accusing critics of trying to deny federal law enforcement officers safety equipment. In a statement to CBS News, a DHS spokesperson called the pushback from Democrats “despicable and a deliberate attempt to undermine and endanger our officers.”

“ICE is constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field to ensure they have the tools and equipment necessary to safely arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our country. Every decision is made with careful consideration and appropriately reviewed to ensure that any technology ICE utilizes is consistent with all applicable law enforcement policies and standards,” the spokesperson said, adding that personnel are “highly trained in de-escalation tactics.”

CBS News has reached out to Compliant Technologies for comment.

The contract marks a meaningful expansion for the glove technology that up until this point has been used primarily by local police departments and jails. Critics argue the new tactic could make it easier for immigration officers to inflict pain during routine law enforcement encounters, with use of force even less visible to the public.

ICE has drawn scrutiny in recent months for its use-of-force practices, including attempted vehicle stops in Maine and Texas last month that ended with ICE agents fatally shooting two people.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/ice-to-spend-up-to-20-million-on-electric-shock-gloves/