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This is Danielle Jalowiecka with the BBC News. Hello.
In a dramatic change of policy, Donald Trump has paused higher tariffs on goods entering the United States from most countries, excepting China. In a post on social media, the president said levies would be lowered to 10% on many countries, but taxes on Chinese imports would rise to 125%. He accused Beijing of showing a "lack of respect" and ripping off America. Our correspondent Stephen McDonell is in the Chinese capital. Beijing's well aware that Donald Trump's gonna try and wedge them to try and paint China as the sort of bad guy in this, but what they're likely to do is just to sort of keep riding it out. That's work for them. They would say to this point, while this kind of pantomime continues in Washington as they would see it and then eventually an offramp will present itself and they'll just take it. The main financial markets in Asia are starting to open after U.S. indexes soared in response to Mr. Trump's latest announcement on tariffs. In New York, all three main indexes closed up more than 6% after days of turmoil that have seen stocks tumble. The U.S. treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, insisted that the change of policy was not influenced by the global falls. But the senior Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said the decision showed Mr. Trump was reeling and retreating. "Donald Trump is feeling the heat from Democrats and across America about how bad these tariffs are. We're gonna continue to put the heat on him because there is still much damaging tariffs in place." "This is government by chaos and you cannot run a country with such chaos." The World Trade Organization is forecasting that the trade of goods between the U.S. and China could fall by 80% because of their deteriorating relationship. Jonathan Josephs reports. The World Trade Organization fears poorer countries will suffer the most as President Trump tries to bring back manufacturing and jobs to his country. Based on last year's trade figures, an 80% reduction would mean a $466 billion drop in trade between the two countries, with fewer soybeans, pharmaceuticals, electronics and toys being sold across the Pacific The WTO director-general, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, warned that splitting into two blocks could shrink the global economy by 7% in the long term. The United States has imposed fresh sanctions on Iran days after President Trump announced he was planning direct talks with Tehran over its nuclear program. The measures target five entities and one individual connected to Iran's Atomic Energy Organization. The move seems designed to increase pressure on Tehran before Saturday's talks in Oman. World News from the BBC. Rescue workers in the Dominican Republic are continuing to search for survivors almost two days after the roof of a music venue collapsed during a concert. A hundred twenty-four bodies have already been pulled out from the ruins of the Jet Set club. The emergency services say they believe there are another 20 people under the rubble. The venue's roof collapsed in the early hours of Tuesday during a concert by the popular merengue singer, Rubby Pérez, who died in the accident. The U.S. defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, says he's not concerned about potential retaliation from Beijing if the U.S. reinforces its military presence in Panama to deter Chinese influence over the Panama Canal. On a visit to the country, Mr. Hegseth said the U.S. would counter what he called Beijing's "threats" to the region. A former senior Facebook executive has said its parent company Meta undermined national security and betrayed American values in order to build an $18 billion business in China. Appearing in front of a Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing, Sarah Wynn-Williams alleged that the owner of Facebook and Instagram worked closely with Beijing on potential ways of allowing censorship and content control in China. "Mark Zuckerberg pledged himself a free speech champion. Yet I witnessed Meta work hand in glove with the Chinese Communist Party to construct and test custom built censorship tools that silenced and censored their critics." Miss Wynn-Williams became a whistleblower when she submitted a complaint with the U.S. markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging that Meta misled investors. Meta has described her testimony as "divorced from reality." In football, Barcelona have comprehensively beaten Borussia Dortmund 4-0 in their European Champions League quarterfinal first leg. In Wednesday's other game, Paris Saint-Germain came from behind to beat Aston Villa 3-1. BBC News. |