By MANUEL RUEDA

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The White House is urging Colombia to halt the implementation of new auto safety regulations that could jeopardize American car exports to Colombia, as both nations prepare to discuss tariffs recently imposed on Colombian products including coffee, avocados, flowers and oil.

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In a letter to Colombia’s Ministry of Commerce, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that plans by Colombia to change certification requirements for cars and auto parts entering the country could lead to the “total cessation” of U.S. automotive exports to Colombia, which were worth almost $700 million last year.

The letter, dated April 11, was leaked to Colombian media outlets Tuesday and a copy was also obtained by The Associated Press. In it Greer warns that if Colombia does not change its plans, it would be conducting an “unfair trading practice that may generate swift enforcement action by the United States.”

Colombian Minister of Commerce Cielo Rusinque refused to comment on the letter, but in a radio interview Tuesday she said the safety regulations would be among several issues that will be up for consideration when representatives of both nations meet to discuss tariffs later this month.

Since 2021, Colombia has been developing new technical requirements for brakes, car windows, tires and seatbelts that are aligned with international safety protocols developed by the United Nations.

Colombia’s government now wants manufacturers who sell cars and car parts to Colombia to get certification from a third party that verifies their products meet these international standards.

The office of the U.S. trade representative argues in its letter that cars manufactured in the United States must already comply with U.S. federal motor safety standards and that Colombia has not provided any proof that these standards are insufficient.

In a report on global trade barriers published earlier this year, the U.S. trade representative’s office said that manufacturers have told the U.S. government that they lack the capacity to obtain third party verification for their auto products.

The dispute over car exports comes just months after Colombia and the United States almost entered a trade war over deportation flights.

In January President Gustavo Petro refused to accept deportation flights from the United States, arguing that Colombian citizens on those flights were being treated in an inhumane manner. In response, Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Colombian exports such as coffee, flowers, avocados and oil.

The dispute was solved in less than 24 hours, with Petro once again accepting deportation flights from the U.S., though most of these are now operated by Colombia’s Air Force.

Colombia was hit with 10% tariffs on its exports to the U.S. earlier this month, when Trump unveiled his new economic emergency measures.

Last week, the Colombian government sent letters to U.S. officials inviting them to start negotiations over the new tariffs, which could seriously hurt the nation’s agricultural exports.

The U.S. is Colombia’s largest trading partner, and purchases about 30% of its annual exports.

Colombia and the U.S. signed a free trade agreement in 2012, that has also boosted Colombian imports of American corn, soy, machinery and chemicals.

In 2024, the U.S. had a 1.3 billion trade surplus with Colombia.

Officials in Oak Park Heights have declared a state of emergency as crews work to repair a municipal water main break between Lookout Trail and Peacan Avenue.

The break has caused underground water loss and excessive pumping of water from the city’s wells, with water losses appearing to be in excess of tens of thousands of gallons per day, city officials said, leading to the risk of underground erosion and loss of water service to residents if the condition worsens.

The repair, which is expected to cost $175,000, is complicated because the water main traverses between private properties and the topography is challenging, said City Administrator Jacob Rife. The water main is buried more than 20 feet deep in one area, requiring a larger excavation pit than normal, he said.

Making the repair even more complicated is the fact that excavators encountered large pieces of concrete and rebar construction debris – believed to be part of an old, demolished highway project — buried in the area, he said. In addition, there is a private garage directly adjacent to the dig site that complicated the excavation, he said.

Because of the challenges, city officials have decided to use a more-expensive “cured-in-place” polymer pipe liner to ensure the section is properly repaired, he said. Because there are only a few contractors who do that kind of work, city officials needed to declare a state of emergency to allow the city to move forward with a contract that is not subject to normal purchasing and competitive-bidding requirements, according to Rife.

“We want to make sure it gets fixed promptly and also want to make sure we have a solution that will last for the long term,” Rife said.

The current pipe was constructed in 1976, and “it’s had a good run,” he said. “It’s just in a unique location. You don’t expect a water main to be running in the road right of way and running through people’s back yards.”

The repair project is expected to start April 22 and continue until the end of the month, he said.

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When the Twin Cities were chosen as host for the 2026 World Junior Hockey Championship, St. Paul and Minneapolis checked every box the organizers needed to put on a top-notch show for fans from around the world.

For USA Hockey, one of the boxes checked was an experienced coach on-site who already has a World Juniors gold medal on his resume.

On Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center, site of the World Juniors finale in January 2026, Gophers coach Bob Motzko traded in his maroon and gold for familiar shades of red, white and blue as he was announced as the American squad’s head coach. It will be his third turn running the team comprising the nation’s top players under age 20.

“I’m so grateful to USA Hockey to have this opportunity,” Motzko said during a news conference in the Xcel Energy Center lobby. “I’ve been able to coach in this tournament before and … it is truly the greatest tournament, outside of the Olympics, in all of hockey.”

Motzko offered a memory of the 2017 tournament when the U.S. beat Canada in Montreal for the gold medal. The challenge prior to that was trying to stop a talented Russian teenager named Kirill Kaprizov.

In addition to his seven seasons as the Gophers’ head coach, and his 13 seasons running the St. Cloud State program, Motzko was Team USA’s head coach for World Juniors in 2017 and 2018, winning gold and bronze medals, respectively. Retired legendary American goalie John Vanbiesbrouck, general manager of Team USA, joked that he needed to get Motzko in a headlock to convince him to take the job a third time.

“We’ve been on a lot of foreign soil for this tournament in the past few years, and we haven’t hosted,” Vanbiesbrouck said. “We needed somebody with his experience, his leadership, and obviously it was a perfect fit.”

During his time with the Gophers, Motzko has a 161-82-21 record, winning Big Ten titles in four of the past five seasons, and taking Minnesota to the Frozen Four twice.

In addition to being the “home” team for World Juniors, which are being held in the Twin Cities for the first time since 1982, Team USA enters the tournament as the two-time defending gold medalists, with University of Denver coach David Carle leading the Americans to the title in 2024 in Gothenburg, Sweden, and earlier this year in Ottawa, Ontario.

Motzko’s staff is expected to include Gophers assistant coach Steve Miller, who has worked with Team USA in eight of the past nine World Juniors, and has amassed a resume that includes a bronze medal, a silver medal and four gold medals.

The process of picking the 25 or so players who will represent USA Hockey begins in earnest in late July when the World Junior Summer Showcase will be held over the course of a week at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis. The tournament will include teams from the USA, Canada, Finland and Sweden playing a series of scrimmages. Schedule and ticket information for those games will be available later this month.

“Outside of pro hockey, it’s probably the most intense tournament and most highly publicized tournament,” said Minnesota Wild coach John Hynes, who coached Team USA at the 2008 World Juniors. “The opportunity to represent your country, to work with the best junior players, and then going against the best junior players around the world in a best-on-best tournament, it’s an awesome experience.”

The 2026 World Juniors will begin in December with a series of pre-tournament games played in Mankato, Bemidji and two other sites yet to be named. The official tournament schedule is not available yet, but ticket packages are on sale at the mnsportsandevents.org website.

The tournament’s round robin round begins on Dec. 26. In total, there will be 29 games played at Xcel and at 3M Arena at Mariucci in Minneapolis over the course of 10 days featuring teams from the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Finland, Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany, Czechia, Latvia and Denmark. The gold medal game is scheduled for Jan. 5, 2026, in St. Paul.

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By JUAN A. LOZANO

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas judge on Tuesday threw out a federal rule that would have capped credit card late fees after officials with President Donald Trump’s administration and a coalition of major banking groups agreed that the rule was illegal.

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The ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth came a day after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a collection of major industry groups that had filed a lawsuit last year to stop the rule announced they had come to an agreement to throw out the rule. The groups that sued included the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The banks and other groups had alleged the new rule — proposed last year under the administration of President Joe Biden — violated the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure or CARD Act of 2009, which was enacted to protect consumers from unfair practices by credit card companies. The groups claimed the new rule did not allow credit card issuers “to charge fees that sufficiently account for deterrence or consumer conduct, including with respect to repeat violations.”

“The parties agree that, in the Late Fee Rule, the Bureau violated the CARD Act by failing to allow card issuers to ‘charge penalty fees reasonable and proportional to violations,’” attorneys with the CFPB wrote in a joint motion on Monday with the banking groups to vacate the rule.

The banks have been pushing hard to stop the late fee rule, due to the potential billions of dollars the banks would lose in revenue. The CFPB estimated when it issued the proposal last year that banks brought in roughly $14 billion in credit card late fees a year.

“This is a win for consumers and common sense. If the CFPB’s rule had gone into effect, it would have resulted in more late payments, lower credit scores, higher interest rates and reduced credit access for those who need it most. It would have also penalized the millions of Americans who pay their credit card bills on time and reduced important incentives for consumers to manage their finances,” the banking groups and others said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Even if the lawsuit had gone forward, the banking groups had a good chance of winning as Pittman in a December ruling had said they would have likely prevailed as he found that the new rule violated the CARD Act by not allowing credit card issuers to charge penalty fees that are reasonable and proportional to violations.

The CFPB has been in turmoil since the Trump administration earlier this year began dismantling it, targeting it for mass firings and dropping various enforcement actions against companies like Capital One and Rocket Homes. A federal judge last month issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily stopped the agency’s demise.

The CFPB was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices by a wide range of financial institutions and businesses.

Follow Juan A. Lozano on X at juanlozano70