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BBC News with Sue Montgomery.
The United States has handed its first major concession to China in their escalating trade war by exempting some electronic goods from what President Trump calls reciprocal tariffs. A low-profile announcement said the exemption would include smartphones, computers and semiconductors imported from China, sparing them from tariffs of more than 100%. Here's our North America technology correspondent, Lily Jamali. What we are seeing is a policy that is aimed at on-shoring production of the products that American consumers buy. The issue is that when you talk about consumer electronics, the U.S. manufacturing base just isn't configured in such a way to support that on-shoring of that kind of manufacturing. And I think that the Trump administration confronted that reality in fairly short order here. So despite what they want, the reality set in. The United Nations says more than 100 people are feared to have been killed in attacks by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in western Sudan. Some observers are describing the assaults on al-Fasher and in two nearby displacement camps as one of the worst violations in the two-year civil war. Here's Charles Haviland. One advocacy group describes the RSF as being on the rampage, destroying homes, markets and healthcare facilities on Friday and Saturday and killing hundreds. It said "the humanitarian situation in al-Fasher was collapsing." The United Nations said more than 100 people had been killed, including nine workers for the charity, Relief International. The RSF has denied that it committed atrocities in the Zamzam camp. It claimed one incriminating video had been staged using actors. Polls have closed in Gabon's presidential election. It's the first since a military takeover two years ago ousted the Bongo family, who were in power for more than half a century. According to the Interior Ministry, turnout was 87 per cent. The White House says its talks with Iran and the country's nuclear program, the first such meeting for seven years, marked a step forward. The host, Oman, said the indirect negotiations took place in a friendly atmosphere. Washington wants to block what it sees as Iran's attempts to develop nuclear weapons. The lead negotiator for the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, Wendy Sherman, said the U.S. has some bargaining power. "The United States still has a primary embargo against Iran. And lifting that primary embargo would be a big step that would help the Iranian economy, particularly if indeed Iran, as it says it would, would allow America into Iran. Whether the president would play that card, I don't know. But the Republican Congress seems to support him in anything he wants to do." World News from the BBC. Tens of thousands of supporters of Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vučić, have held a demonstration in Belgrade to counter months of student-led protests against him. There have been regular anti-government demonstrations since November. Here's Guy De Launey. Supporters were bussed in from around the country and as far afield as Kosovo and Bosnia. That boosted attendance to more than 50,000, according to an independent monitor. But last month's massive anti-corruption protest attracted around six times that number, with no buses required. Mr. Vučić claims those protesters are being used by forces bent on what he calls a "color revolution." He's calling for prosecutors to restore peace and order to the country. The Russian ambassador in London has told the BBC that Russia does not pose a threat to Britain. But Andrei Kielin did not deny clearly that his country had placed surveillance sensors in waters around Britain. British intelligence has reported that Moscow has placed underwater sensors to track British nuclear submarines. Mr. Kielin said that all such threats were "extremely exaggerated." Algeria's foreign ministry has protested against France's detention of its consular agent over last year's kidnapping of an Algerian dissident in France. The ministry called the arrest "unjustified," warning it would severely damage bilateral relations which were reset just a week ago. French media reported that three people were under investigation on suspicion of briefly kidnapping Amir Boukhors, a critic of Algeria's government based in Paris. A congressional committee in Peru has dismissed an investigation into President Boluarte over allegations that she accepted luxury Rolex watches as bribes. One committee member said the prosecution's complaint was inadmissible and that her presidential immunity shielded her. BBC News. |