From a refugee camp in Pakistan to an exhibit at the Smithsonian, Saeeda Etebari has had a remarkable journey, even more extraordinary because she is deaf in a region where there is less opportunity for people with disabilities and also a woman in a field dominated by men. Munaza Shaheed profiles the talented young jewelry-maker.
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Month: April 2018
The next generation of life-saving robots could be inspired by cockroaches. Faith Lapidus explains how.
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Mark Zuckerberg has apologized for what he calls a “breach of trust” regarding the exploitation of as many as 87 million users’ data by Cambridge Analytica. Questions are swirling in Washington as the CEO of Facebook prepares to testify before Congress. But, whether the hearings will bring about real change around privacy rights remains to be seen. Tina Trinh reports.
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The 2018 World Cup of freestyle wrestling opened Saturday in the U.S. state of Iowa without Russia and Iran, two traditionally strong teams in the sport.
Iran, the six-time defending champ, pulled out in March without citing a reason, although many tied it to the resignation of the Iranian federation president, Rasoul Khadem, over issues related to the country’s state policy of refusing to compete against Israeli competition.
Khadem quit in protest after United World Wrestling (UWW) ruled that an Iranian wrestler threw a match at the Under-23 World Championships in November to avoid having to face an Israeli opponent and temporarily banning the athlete and his coach.
Russia pulled out of the tournament a week ago after saying it did not have enough time for the visa process needed to get the athletes cleared for the journey to Iowa City.
UWW invited Mongolia and India to replace Iran and Russia the annual meet, considered the second-biggest event outside of the World Championships, which will be held in Hungary in October.
“Our team was poised to do well [even if] Russia and Iran [were competing], so that’s a little bit disappointing,” said Rich Bender, the director of USA Wrestling.
“Certainly, in light of the current political situation and the relations between our governments and the drama around what’s going on in our State Departments, with their embassy and ours, this was not the year to wait until the last minute to apply,” he said of the Russians.
Bill Zadick, the U.S. freestyle coach, said, “It’s disappointing that they [Russians and Iranians] weren’t able to make it to the event because they have great wrestling traditions.”
“Despite our difference in politics on the government side, our federations share a brotherhood and have a really positive relationships that I think both sides value,” he added.
The U.S. team beat India in its first match, while Mongolia beat Kazakhstan.
Some material for this report came from AP, Sioux City Journal, Des Moines Register and Interfax.
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Hackers have attacked networks in a number of countries, including data centers in Iran where they left the image of a U.S. flag on screens along with a warning: “Don’t mess with our elections,” the Iranian IT ministry said Saturday.
“The attack apparently affected 200,000 router switches across the world in a widespread attack, including 3,500 switches in our country,” the Communication and Information Technology Ministry said in a statement carried by Iran’s official news agency IRNA.
The statement said the attack, which hit internet service providers and cut off web access for subscribers, was made possible by a vulnerability in routers from Cisco, which had earlier issued a warning and provided a patch that some firms failed to install over the Iranian new year holiday.
A blog published Thursday by Nick Biasini, a threat researcher at Cisco’s Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group, said: “Several incidents in multiple countries, including some specifically targeting critical infrastructure, have involved the misuse of the Smart Install protocol. … As a result, we are taking an active stance, and are urging customers, again, of the elevated risk and available remediation paths.”
On Saturday evening, Cisco said those postings were a tool to help clients identify weaknesses and repel a cyber attack.
Iran’s IT Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi posted a picture of a computer screen on Twitter with the image of the U.S. flag and the hackers’ message. He said it was not yet clear who had carried out the attack.
Azari-Jahromi said the attack mainly affected Europe, India and the United States, state television reported.
“Some 55,000 devices were affected in the United States and 14,000 in China, and Iran’s share of affected devices was 2 percent,” Azari-Jahromi was quoted as saying.
In a tweet, Azari-Jahromi said the state computer emergency response body MAHER had shown “weaknesses in providing information to (affected) companies” after the attack, which was detected late on Friday in Iran.
Hadi Sajadi, deputy head of the state-run Information Technology Organization of Iran, said the attack was neutralized within hours and no data was lost.
The story was written by Reuters.
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Some 30 percent of Air France flights were cancelled Saturday as strikes over pay rises appear to be intensifying.
And that’s just part of France’s travel troubles this month. Most French trains will screech to a halt as a strike over President Emmanuel Macron’s economic reforms resumes Saturday night – a strike that is set to last through Monday.
Screens at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport showed red “cancelled” notes next to multiple flights Saturday, as families around France and Europe headed off on spring vacations.
The one-day Air France walkout is affecting international and domestic travel, notably a quarter of flights at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports. Air France is urging passengers to check the status of their flights before coming to the airport and offering to change tickets for free.
It’s the fifth Air France strike since February, and the number of cancelled flights is rising. Unions this week announced more strikes this month to coincide with national rail walkouts.
Air France unions want 6 percent pay raises after years of salary freezes. Air France is offering 1 percent raises, saying anything higher will hurt its turnaround efforts.
The strikes have been costing Air France some 20 million euros ($24.6 million) a day and have hurt its share price.
Meanwhile, the SNCF national railway announced that 80 percent of high speed trains and two-thirds of regional trains will be canceled starting Saturday night as unions stage another two-day walkout.
About a quarter of Eurostar trains to London will be cancelled, and no trains were expected to run at all to Switzerland, Spain or Italy.
It’s part of three months of rolling train strikes seen as the biggest challenge to Macron since he took office last year. Rail unions are angry at plans by Macron’s government to abolish a generous benefits system that gives train workers jobs for life.
Both the government and unions are holding firm despite continuing negotiations. France prides itself on its railways, seen as a pillar of public service.
Macron argues that the special status for train workers is no longer tenable in a globalized and increasingly automated economy. It’s part of his broader plans to overhaul the French economy to make it more competitive.
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Almost half of the Australian military personnel who’ve left the defense force in the past five years have some sort of mental disorder, according to a new study. The Australian government says it is the most comprehensive study ever undertaken in Australia of the effect of military service on the mental, physical and social health of veterans, including those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For many former Australian service men and women, adapting to civilian life can be tough. According to a new study by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, about half suffer debilitating conditions that include anxiety and depression. Some retired soldiers, however, believe the true number of those affected is much higher.
Robin Lee was in the Australian army for 14 years, and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder before he left the military in 2015.
He says the system for helping veterans with mental health issues is poor.
“These men are serving, getting problems,” said Lee. “They know they have problems but they have to go through a recognition process that is just disgusting. (It has) been mishandled at every level.”
The Australian government acknowledges that leaving the military can be a “daunting and challenging experience.”
The Veterans Affairs minister is Darren Chester.
“The government is determined to put veterans and their health at the center of everything we do,” said Chester. “We are putting veterans first, we are putting veterans’ families first. In a nutshell, the research we are releasing today is confirming that we are heading in the right direction but more needs to be done to assist veterans and their families during the critical transitional period to civilian life.”
Ministers say that free treatment for any mental health condition is now available to all veterans. The research into the mental and physical impact of Australia’s military service is continuing. Six further reports will be released by the end of next year.
The Australian Defense Force comprises the Navy, Army and Air Force. It has more than 100,000 personnel, including permanent military personnel, reservists and civilian employees.
This story was written by VOA’s Phil Mercer in Sydney.
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April 7 marks the 70th anniversary of the World Health Organization. It also marks World Health Day. In the past seven decades much has been accomplished, but much still needs to be done.
The World Health Organization has spearheaded efforts to free the world of killer diseases like smallpox. It has formed partnerships to end other diseases, including polio. Only 17 children contracted polio last year. The cases were all in remote areas of Pakistan.
WATCH: On World Health Day, What’s Been Accomplished in 70 Years
In March, South Sudan joined the list of countries that have stopped Guinea worm disease. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter began the campaign to eradicate guinea worm in 1986 when the parasite afflicted 3.5 million people in Asia and Africa. Since then, the WHO has certified 199 countries, territories, and areas as free of Guinea worm disease.
Access to other lifesaving vaccines, like the measles vaccine, is out of reach for many people. That’s why the World Health Organization declared the theme for this World Health Day “health for all.”
“Good health is the most precious thing anyone can have,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, in a news release from WHO headquarters in Geneva. “When people are healthy, they can learn, work, and support themselves and their families. When they are sick, nothing else matters. Families and communities fall behind. That’s why WHO is so committed to ensuring good health for all.”
James Fitzgerald oversees the development of universal health coverage in the Americas at the Pan American Health Organization, a regional division of the World Health Organization.
“Much of the world is talking about universal health coverage at the moment. It is one of the global challenges that we have,” he said. Universal health care, he added, includes both access to medical care and coverage so families don’t have to impoverish themselves to care for a member who is sick.
But there are barriers that prevent people from accessing care, leaving 2 out of 3 people in the Americas as well as half the people in the world without access to health care.
Fitzgerald explains that the barriers are pretty much universal: lack of health care institutions; not enough doctors, nurses, technicians and others involved in the health industry; and a lack of funds for health at the national, local and individual levels. He also cites social discrimination within the health systems.
It’s a tall order to get countries to invest in national health services. The WHO argues that when people have access to health care, they live more productive lives, epidemics can be held at bay more easily, and the countries are more likely to prosper.
The story was written by Carol Pearson.
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April 7 marks the 70th anniversary of the World Health Organization. It also marks World Health Day. VOA’s Carol Pearson looks at what’s been accomplished over the past seven decades and what still needs to be done.
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Millions of people worldwide face financial ruin; their assets wiped out because of a catastrophic illness or accident that saddles them with staggeringly high health bills they are unable to pay.
This nightmare scenario rarely, if ever, occurs in countries that have universal health coverage. Such systems insulate people from the financial disasters that occur in countries where national health schemes do not exist.
“Today, about 100 million people fall into poverty because of health expenditure,” said Rudiger Krech, World Health Organization director for health systems and innovation. He told VOA that every country, poor and rich alike, can afford universal health coverage.
“It is not just a matter of money, but of political will, of political choice. So, you can afford health coverage for everyone, even if you are not one of the most affluent countries in the world,” he said.
For example, he said that relatively low-income countries such as Cuba and Costa Rica have developed good health systems; while in the United States, one of the world’s richest countries, “people have to pay huge amounts of their salaries and their income for health services.”
“We call these catastrophic health expenditures because people are losing their fortune because they had a big accident or an open-heart surgery,” he said. “So, this still pulls people into poverty.”
Half of world lacks full coverage
The World Health Organization reports at least half of the world’s population lacks full coverage for essential health services. More than 800 million people, or nearly 12 percent of the world’s population, spend at least 10 percent of their household budgets to pay for health care, WHO said. In 2015, it said the world spent an eye-watering $7.3 trillion on health, representing close to 10 percent of global Gross Domestic Product.
WHO is on a mission to make it possible for all people and communities to receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. As such, it is using this year’s World Health Day, April 7, to promote the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal that calls for the adoption of universal health coverage in 90 percent of the world’s countries by 2030.
“I think this is a goal that people all over the world should aspire toward,” said Shih-Chung Chen, Taiwanese minister of health and welfare.
“I will not say that it will be achieved by 2030,” Chen told a group of visiting journalists, “but I think all countries should have the willingness to try to achieve this, and that is why we want to participate in the World Health Assembly. That would allow us to contribute toward that goal.”
Last year, China blocked Taiwan from participating in the WHA as an observer and, so far this year, Taiwan has not received an invitation to attend.
Taiwan’s system
“I think that in order to ensure that health is a basic human right, no country’s experience should be left out,” said the Taiwanese health minister. “We are extremely proud of our universal health coverage system. I think this would be a very important way for us to share with the world.”
Taiwan’s single payer National Health Insurance, a compulsory program that was launched in 1995, provides comprehensive, affordable coverage for the island’s more than 23 million inhabitants. The government calculates “a family of four pays roughly $100 U.S. per month as the premium.” This comes to about 2 percent of the average household income. Average life expectancy in Taiwan has risen to 80 years, on a par with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.
“More than 85 percent of the people in Taiwan report very high satisfaction with our national health Insurance,” Chen said.
Low health expenditure
The health minister told VOA that Taiwan’s total health expenditure is 6 percent of GDP, the lowest in the world, compared with more than 16 percent for the United States.
“The U.S. is entirely capable of providing universal health care to its citizens,” he said. “However, because the U.S. has a multitude of systems in place that have been there for a long time and there are a lot of stakeholders involved, it would be a bit difficult. In addition, the U.S. places a lot of importance on freedom of choice.”
Chen said the world could learn a lot from Taiwan’s health insurance program. Unfortunately, he said Taiwan was not able to help because it is barred from participating in international organizations such as the World Health Organization.
Krech told VOA it was the United Nations, not WHO, that decided whether Taiwan could be included in international health matters.
“We are talking to Member States and obviously Taiwan is not a Member State. But, it is Chinese Taiwan and Chinese Taipei and, therefore, it is under this “One China” policy.
“That does not bar us from discussing with representatives of Chinese Taipei, at all,” he said. “We have regular exchanges. We see what is happening.”
This story was written by Lisa Schlein.
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U.S. President Donald Trump expressed sympathy Saturday for the victims and survivors of a crash involving a bus carrying a Canadian junior hockey team that killed 15 people late Friday.
The Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League were on their way to the town of Nipawin for a playoff game when their bus collided with a tractor-trailer about 5 p.m. on a highway about 30 kilometers north of Tisdale, in northeastern Saskatchewan.
A semi-trailer slammed into a bus carrying a youth hockey team in western Canada, killing 15 people and injuring 14 in a catastrophic collision that a doctor compared to an airstrike and left the vehicles obliterated in the snow. The crash sent shockwaves through the team’s small hometown and a country united by the national sport.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said 14 other people had been injured, three of them critically.
In a tweet, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he could not imagine what the parents of the players were going through. “My heart goes out to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy,” he said.
National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman said Saturday, “Our thoughts are with the players, families, coaches, team management and all those throughout the community that have been affected by the tragedy.”
Bettman added, “The NHL mourns the passing of those who perished and offers strength and comfort to those injured while traveling to play and be part of a game they love.”
Hockey Canada, the country’s national governing body of ice hockey, expressed its sadness on Twitter:
The team had been scheduled to play the Nipawin Hawks on Friday night. “Tonight’s game is canceled,” the Hawks said on Facebook.
The Broncos consisted of 24 players, all from Canada, with the youngest age 16 and the oldest 20.
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A bus carrying a group of Canadian junior hockey players collided Friday with a semi-trailer on a rural highway in Saskatchewan, killing 14 people, Canadian media reported citing police.
Fourteen more were injured, including three critically, in the accident involving the Humboldt Broncos team bus, which was heading north for a Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff game against the Nipawin Hawks, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix reported.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police inspector Ted Monroe said at a news conference late Friday that there were “fatalities among the passengers on the bus” and “a number of serious injuries.”
“It is a significant accident, we had a tractor trailer and a bus collide,” Monroe told reporters, declining to go into further detail about the victims.
Police said the crash took place about 28 kilometers (18 miles) north of Tisdale, Saskatchewan as the bus was traveling on highway 35.
“This is much bigger than anyone can begin to imagine,” Broncos team president Kevin Garinger told the Canadian broadcaster CBC. “We are just in utter disbelief and shock at the loss that’s fallen upon us.”
The Broncos team is comprised of 24 players, all from Canada, with the youngest age 16 and the oldest 21.
“It’s a horrible accident, my God,” said Darren Opp, president of the Nipawin Hawks hockey team. “It’s very, very bad.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his sadness at the tragic incident involving such young athletes.
The Saskatchewan league is a feeder system for higher levels of hockey with many graduating to play at U.S. and Canadian colleges and major junior league level, while some go on to the National Hockey League. Former NHL players like defenseman Chris Chelios, goaltender Ron Hextall, forward Rod Brind’Amour and hall of fame goaltender Glenn Hall all played in the SJHL.
Friday’s fatal smash brought back memories of a single vehicle bus crash in December 1986, also in Saskatchewan, that killed four members of the Western Hockey League Swift Current Broncos.
A memorial was placed on the side of the highway at the site of the crash, about four kilometers east of Swift Current.
The Swift Current Broncos expressed their condolences.
“Humboldt Broncos weighing heavy in our hearts and minds tonight,” the team said on Twitter.
Former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy, who survived when the Swift Current bus skidded off the highway in snowy conditions, also sent a message of support.
“Sending all my thoughts and prayers to those impacted with the @HumboltBroncos bus crash,” Kennedy said.
This story was written by the Agence France Presse.
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Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. And in Pakistan where the sport is called football, there’s no shortage of fans. Although football is still considered a man’s game in Pakistan, in Lyari town in the country’s largest city of Karachi, it’s gaining rapid popularity with a new group of fans — young girls. Shayan Salim has the details.
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The Catholic Easter custom of hunting brightly colored eggs and chocolate bunnies may be over now, but in the Orthodox world, Easter comes one week later. And it brings with it, its own unique traditions. One of them is the centuries-old practice of drawing elaborate patterns on Easter eggs decorated and painted using hot wax. Mariia Prus and Konstantin Golubchik produced this report from Alexandria, Virginia that is narrated by Katherine Gypson.
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Following the success of West Virginia teachers in securing a pay raise, educators in Oklahoma and Kentucky are walking out of their classrooms, demanding that lawmakers increase education spending in their states. Arizona teachers may soon follow suit. From Washington, VOA’s Jill Craig has more.
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Federal law enforcement authorities are in the process of seizing Backpage.com and its affiliated websites.
A notice that appeared Friday afternoon at Backpage.com says the websites are being seized as part of an enforcement action by the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Internal Revenue Service.
The notice doesn’t characterize or provide any details on the nature of the enforcement action.
It says authorities plan to release information about the enforcement action later Friday.
Backpage.com lets users create posts to sell items, seek a roommate, participate in forums, list upcoming events or post job openings.
But Backpage.com also has listings for adult escorts and other sexual services, and authorities say advertising related to those services has been extremely lucrative.
This story was written by the Associated Press.
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The Trump administration is considering ways to require imported automobiles to meet stricter environmental standards in order to protect U.S. carmakers, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Responding to the story, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Donald Trump “will promote free, fair and reciprocal trade practices to grow the U.S. economy and continue to [bring] jobs and manufacturers back to the U.S.”
Citing unnamed senior administration and industry officials, the Journal said Trump had asked several agencies to pursue plans to use existing laws to subject foreign-made cars to stiff emission standards.
It appears such nontariff barriers could have a greater potential effect proportionately on European automakers, which collectively import a greater percentage of cars from plants outside the U.S., according to sales figures from Autodata.
In comparison, Japanese and Korean brands made about 70 percent of the vehicles they sold last year in the United States at North American plants. European brands built only 30 percent in North America.
The White House initiative was still in the planning stage, with officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency working to craft a legal justification for the policy, the paper said. It said there were hurdles to its implementation, including opposition from some in the administration.
The EPA and the Commerce Department, which the newspaper said was also involved in the effort, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters. Neither did representatives for Ford, General Motors or Fiat Chrysler.
This story was written by Reuters.
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U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration said Friday that the United States was not engaged in a trade war with China, even as Trump threatened to impose tariffs on an additional $100 billion worth of Chinese goods and Beijing warned it was willing to fight back.
“This is just a proposed idea, which will be vetted by USTR [the U.S. trade representative], and then open for public comment, so nothing has happened, nothing has been executed,” said White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow amid growing concerns about escalating rhetoric between Washington and Beijing.
The economic adviser said Beijing’s theft of intellectual property was “at the root” of U.S. concerns and added “we can’t allow them [China] to steal our technology, because when they steal our technology, they are stealing the guts of the American future.”
Leaders have good relationship
The adviser stressed Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have a good relationship, and “ongoing talks may solve a lot of problems, but we are serious. I just really underscore this, we are serious.”
The White House blamed China for trade practices it said were illegal and unfair.
“China created this problem, and the president is trying to put pressure on them to fix this, and take back some of the terrible actions that they’ve had in the last several decades,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders during a briefing on Friday.
The U.S. and China are in routine contact, but “this is a negotiation period, that’s why it doesn’t happen immediately, and there’s a process, and we’re going through that process,” said Sanders.
China offers warning
Meanwhile, Beijing showed no intention of backing down.
“China is already fully prepared. If the United States announces an additional $100 billion list of tariffs, we will not hesitate to immediately make a fierce counterstrike. We are not ruling out any options,” said China’s Commerce Ministry spokesman, Gao Feng.
“Under these conditions, it’s even more impossible for both sides to conduct any negotiations on this issue,” Gao added.
In a Twitter post Friday morning, Trump continued to protest China’s trade practices and the World Trade Organization:
On Thursday, Trump announced he had instructed the U.S. trade representative to consider whether tariffs on another $100 billion of Chinese goods would be appropriate after China issued a list of U.S. goods, including soybeans and small aircraft, worth $50 billion for possible tariff hikes. The United States had proposed tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods earlier this week.
Last month, after a monthslong investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the U.S. trade representative determined that China had repeatedly engaged in unfair trade practices to obtain America’s intellectual property and pressure technology transfer from U.S. companies to Chinese entities.
Tariffs a tactic?
Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics, told VOA it was unclear when and whether the threatened tariffs would be imposed.
“It seems likely the tariffs are being used as a negotiating tactic to try to get concessions from the Chinese side in terms of market access for U.S. firms and protection of its intellectual property, so there’s still a possibility that these tariffs will never come into force,” he noted.
While it was not a surprising the White House pushed back against China’s retaliatory threats, some experts were surprised by how swiftly it did, according to Riley Walters, Asia economy and technology policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.
Walters cautioned it was a risky move to use tariff threats as a negotiating tactic because it can affect lives and income of Americans.
Expect more rhetoric
If the tariffs go into effect, “what it could mean is both increasing cost for American consumers, but also an uncompetitive edge for American exporters to China. If you are a soybean producer, and if your goods go up 25 percent in China, then you are less price competitive than other exporters to China of soybeans,” Walters said.
Walters expects more rhetoric between the White House and China in the coming weeks. Evans-Pritchard predicted that if the USTR published another list of goods worth $100 billion to be subjected to tariffs, China would respond with the same measures.
“Once we started talking about $150 billion — which would be what’s on the cards, given the $50 billion existing tariffs plus $100 billion proposed — basically that is all of China’s goods imported from the U.S. So it will start looking elsewhere to retaliate,” Evans-Pritchard said.
This story was written by VOA’s Peggy Chang. Jingxun Li of VOA’s Mandarin service contributed to this report.