Global News Podcast - China hits back against US tariffs

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

China has pledged to impose tariffs on some US imports in response to American import taxes on its products. Also: Swedish police investigate a school shooting, and scientists are monitoring Antarctic krill from space.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Discover how to lead a better life in our age of confusion. Enjoy this BBC audiobook collection, written and presented by bestselling author Oliver Berkman, containing four useful guides to tackling some central ills of modernity. Busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity and the decline of nuance. Our lives today can feel like miniature versions of this relentless churn of activity. We find we're rushing around more crazily than ever.

Somewhere, when we weren't looking, it's like busyness became a way of life. Start listening to Oliver Berkman, Epidemics of Modern Life, available to purchase wherever you get your audio books. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Gillian at 14 Hours GMT on Tuesday the 4th of February. These are our main stories. China hits back against President Trump's tariffs by saying it will impose its own import

taxes on American products. Police in Sweden say five people have been shot at a school. The UN calls for the airport in the rebel-held city of Goma in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo to be reopened immediately to address the humanitarian emergency there. Also in this podcast, as krill are threatened by global warming, they also have an incredible capacity to draw down atmospheric carbon and store it in the deep water, therefore helping us to tackle climate change. So that's why we call them the superheroes of the Southern Ocean.

We'll tell you why scientists are monitoring the tiny sea creatures from space. A new US-China trade war is looming, even as a threat of a North American one has receded for now. China has announced retaliatory tariffs on the United States in response to Donald Trump's tariffs of 10% on all Chinese goods which came into effect today. He had planned to impose hefty tariffs on Canada and Mexico as well, but they were given a last minute reprieve after pledging to bolster border security. So that left China on its own, although

Mr Trump has also said he's planning to impose tariffs on the European Union as well at some point. This is how the announcement of China's response was delivered on state television. On February 1, the US announced the imposition of a 10% tariff on Chinese products. The actions of the US seriously damaged the rules-based multilateral trading system and disrupt the stability of global industrial supply chains. China firmly opposes the erroneous practices of the US and urges the US to rectify them immediately. China's tariffs are due to take effect from next Monday. Our Beijing correspondent Laura Bicker told us what form they could take.

What they've said is they're going to impose a 15% levy on coal and liquefied natural gas and then there's a 10% levy on the likes of large agricultural vehicles, large trucks and large SUVs. So that's what they're doing in retaliation. But they've also launched a probe, an inquiry into the US tech Google, and they claim that it may have violated anti-monopoly rules here. So they are hitting back in a number of ways. All of these tariffs that China has announced won't take effect until Monday. So there's a bit of breathing room. And we do understand from the White House that President Trump will have a call with President Xi before the end of the week. And as well as announcing these tariffs, I

think it's fair to say that the statements from Beijing have not been as full of bluster as they were back in 2017. This time, there's been a very different tone. They have called on the US to meet China halfway. They've called for negotiations repeatedly. What is not clear is if there has been some form of negotiation before China hit back. And also what's not clear is what Donald Trump may want in return for lifting his tariffs and then what Beijing may be prepared to accept. Yes, because a lot of people are speculating, given these last minute reprieves for Mexico and Canada, that the same might happen for China.

I think there is a way China could negotiate even before Donald Trump announced his 10% tariffs and before Beijing announced their retaliation. There are a couple of signals that we've been watching. The first is that Donald Trump invited President Xi to the inauguration. That's never happened before. China in return sent the highest official that they've ever sent to such an event. And then of course Donald Trump said he'd had a very good call with President Xi. He's repeatedly praised President Xi and in interviews both with Fox News and then when he did his lecture to Davos, he said that he would be asking or perhaps asking for China's help to end the Ukraine war. He may want President Xi to put some pressure on Vladimir Putin to

end the war. That gives you an idea of what might be on the table. And assuming this all happens, what would the impact be for the rest of the world? That's a bigger problem because we're talking, you know, the world's leading economy. China is the world's factory floor. I mean, I've been in factory after factory and I think, you know, you look at the amount and the number of products, everything from leather shoes to bags to clothes, all come from China. Really what we've seen in the past is that these costs when it comes to this trade war do get passed to the consumer. It does get passed on. I mean, I met a, I was at a clothing firm that makes clothes for Walmart, for instance.

And he says, well, look, if Walmart, if I'm selling clothes to Walmart and the tariffs hit, it's as if they have to put their prices up. Now, they either hit the supplier, which is me, or they hit the consumer, or they hit both. In the end, I think when we're all looking at how much more we might pay for things, there is a fear, certainly from economists, that they are continually warning that in the end it might be the consumer that pays for this. Laura Bicker, so after the sharp falls in stock markets on Monday as the world brazed for what looked like a global trade war, what's the picture today now that it's just China

that's been hit for tariffs for the time being? Our business reporter is Mariko Oye. At first, when we woke up, things looked a bit better because Mexico and Canada, the tariffs that the US were going to impose on those two countries, they managed to delay it at least by a month. So as a result, we started seeing US stock markets making a bit of a comeback, so ending the day slightly lower, but at least making a bit of a comeback, so ending the day slightly lower, but at least making a bit of a recovery. And then Asian markets reopened higher. They haven't exactly recovered all the losses from the day before, but at least it looks

like a much better day. Then came 5 GMT, so that was around lunchtime Asia time. US hit China with new tariffs, the 10% tariffs that they've been threatening. And of course, this is on top of the slew of tariffs that Mr. Trump announced during the first term. And I think investors were initially wondering whether there could be some kind of a deal

like Mexico and Canada, but then the deadline passed and then boom, China hit back with its own re territory tariffs. So suddenly we started seeing reaction in the stock markets in Asia. I have to say it wasn't too bad. Japan's Nikkei ending the day slightly higher and Hong Kong's Hansen index has actually done quite well as well. Whereas the Chinese stock market, the mainland Chinese stock market remained closed because

of the Chinese New Year holiday. So we did see a bit of a reaction but not as bad as yesterday but definitely in terms of the tension, trade war tensions especially between the two biggest economies the world that has certainly escalated. And so there is relief about Mexico and Canada but the tariffs have only been delayed for a month so there's still a great deal of uncertainty. Are we in for a volatile period in the stock markets? Yes, I think it's fair to say that investors are bracing for that. When it comes to Mexico and Canada, it was interesting that we were actually having a

discussion in the newsroom as well. What did actually the Trump administration get from Mexico and Canada in order to delay this tariffs because a lot of the measures were already in place, but it was kind of emphasis that they are working on it and that guarantee has managed to win them that delay of 30 days. Mariko Oy. At least five people have been shot at a school in central Sweden. As we record this podcast, police say the extent of their injuries is unclear,

and they're still on site dealing with the situation. Loud bangs were heard at the Rysbergsk school in the city of Orebro, with witnesses saying they believed an automatic weapon was being discharged. BBC reporter Oksana Kondirenko, who studied in Orebro, told us what Swedish media are reporting. Monitoring the local public broadcast to SVT,

they are telling about five injured people. There was a controversial information about who these people are. Some were saying that they are police officers, but I think that now it's not the case. So we can see that these five injured people have been treated in a local hospital and we're hearing the latest from the teachers

who were at the school at the time. I must say it was an adult school, so adult training center, and one of the teachers who was in her study, she has been quoted saying that she heard about 10 shots, so five shots and then a pause and then five more shots. And Swedish police and Swedish media are saying that this is a very serious situation, quoting the Minister of Justice here. Swedish police and Swedish media are saying that this is a very serious situation, quoting the Minister of Justice here. They say that people should stay away from the area. It's a rather small town. It's 126,000 people, sixth largest city or let's say town in Sweden.

It was always very safe. It's rather small. You can walk to many places. You can cycle to many places. Personally, I have never witnessed any violence there. But now we understand that something has been going on there, and it's up for police to investigate. Oksana Kundirenko. Last week, rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo were threatening to march on the capital Kinshasa after seizing large swathes of territory in the east of the country, including the key regional hub of Goma. Now,

as we record this podcast, they're due to start a ceasefire today, which they say they've called for humanitarian reasons. The Alliance of Rebels includes the M23 group, which is backed by Rwanda. This comes as the United Nations has called for the airport in Goma to be reopened immediately so the humanitarian emergency there can be addressed. The UN says at least 900 people have been killed in the recent fighting around Goma and thousands more wounded. They desperately need help, as Stefan Dujaric, a spokesman for the UN Secretary General, explained. Colleagues say they are concerned about escalating health risk with the rainy season intensifying.

There are still bodies of people who died in the violence lying in the streets of Goma. Our colleagues tell us that morgues are at capacity and hospitals and health centres are overwhelmed with injured people. While efforts to chlorinate water are underway with the support of our humanitarian partners, the lack of drinking waters forcing people in Goma to rely on untreated water from Lake Kivu. Our Africa editor, Will Ross, told us more.

It's not just Goma City that's suffering at the moment. Do you have to remember that before this latest conflict around Goma flared up, the whole region was suffering with immense amounts of problems, largely brought on by the presence of so many dozens of groups. So you've got millions of people displaced who are reliant on some kind of humanitarian aid, and there are health volunteers who are working. But the problem is with the airport shut at Goma, that's kind of really putting the brakes on some of the humanitarian work that needs to go on. So

the humanitarian coordinator in the DR Congo, he basically described Goma as a lifeline and said it's incredibly important that it opens immediately. And he talked about the survival of thousands of people depending on the reopening of this airport. The rebels declared a ceasefire yesterday, days after saying that they were going to seize the capital. What's brought about this change of heart? And have we actually seen this ceasefire begin today? Yeah, it's difficult to be certain what brought it about. I mean, we're expecting there to be talks at the weekend between

Congo and Rwanda, or at least regional talks, at which we hope that the presidents of those two countries are present. So it's possible that the M23 have declared this ceasefire in order to go to those talks with some kind of goodwill. We haven't seen a dramatic kind of change on the ground, partly because it had been relatively calm for a few days after Goma was seized and then an attempt to move into South Kivu province seemed to stall. So we haven't seen a dramatic change with the declaration of the ceasefire, but there's a huge amount of mistrust between the Congolese government and the Rwandan government and the M23 rebel group. So at the moment,

everything is pinning on some effort at peace talk, some dialogue restarting, but we have to remember that just over the last year or so, we've had numerous ceasefires that were agreed that quickly broke down. And at the moment, the M23 does hold quite a lot of territory that it's captured in recent weeks. So it can kind of easily say, right, let's have a ceasefire and it stays put and it's made it clear that it will fight to defend the areas it controls. Will Ross. They may be tiny just a few centimetres long but krill are one of

the most important and abundant animal species on earth and Antarctic marine life including whales and seals are very partial to them but Rod Downey of the conservation group WWF says krill also serve another essential purpose. They're very much at the center of the food web above the ocean floor and in the Southern Ocean. They're the reason why humpback whales migrate thousands of miles every summer to spend the summer months feeding in the Southern Ocean. Take blue whales for example, so blue whales that live around Antarctica, they feed almost entirely on krill, but they also have an incredible and effective capacity to draw down atmospheric

carbon and store it in the deep water for many years, potentially for hundreds of years, therefore helping us to tackle climate change. So that's why we call them the superheroes of the Southern Ocean. But there are concerns that the warming of the oceans caused by climate change could be their kryptonite. So scientists have launched an ambitious mission to monitor the tiny sea creatures from space. Our science correspondent Victoria Gill explains how it works. The sheer number of these tiny beasts means that collectively they weigh an estimated 400 million tonnes.

That is similar to the combined weight of every human on Earth. But they are difficult to monitor. They are small and the southern ocean is very big. They also move around in these swarms on the ocean currents. So this latest mission developed by scientists from the charity WWF and the University of Strathclyde aims to measure them from space. Here's how. A team of scientists has already visited Antarctica on a research mission

to catch live krill and then measure how their presence changes the amount of light that seawater absorbs. As you add krill to the water its color changes and that the researchers say can be applied to satellite images of the ocean. There are of course already satellites capturing high-resolution images of Antarctica so while we won't be able to see individual krill in those pictures what we could get scientists say are snapshots of their density at the surface of the ocean. And that could reveal some vital clues about the health of the Antarctic marine food chain. Victoria Gill.

Still to come, could artificial intelligence speed up the detection of breast cancer? We've got five different companies who've had their AI tools tested with us. We've run them through 120,000 mammograms and we've seen that the performances look very promising. A trial of nearly 700,000 women in Britain aims to learn more. Discover how to lead a better life in our age of confusion. Enjoy this BBC audiobook collection written and presented by bestselling author Oliver Berkman, containing four useful guides to tackling some central ills of modernity – busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity, and the decline of nuance.

Our lives today can feel like miniature versions of this relentless churn of activity. We find we're rushing around more crazily than ever. Somewhere, when we weren't looking, it's like busyness became a way of life. Start listening to Oliver Berkman, Epidemics of Modern Life, available to purchase wherever you get your audiobooks. China has long been accused of persecuting its Uighur population. The mostly Muslim Uighurs come from the western region of Xinjiang. Human rights groups believe China previously detained more than one million of them against their will in so-called re-education camps,

sentenced hundreds of thousands of them to prison terms and destroyed mosques and other parts of their culture. Beijing has also been accused of mass sterilisations. China denies all this. But now rights campaigners say it has allowed a modest thaw in travel restrictions on some Muslim Uighurs. Our Asia Pacific editor is Mickey Bristow. I think firstly it's worth pointing out that is just around travel restrictions, all the other areas of oppression and repression that have been well documented even by the United Nations over the last decade or so, they appear to be still going on. This is about travel restrictions.

What Human Rights Watch has found out, it's interviewed people, Uighurs outside of China. What it's come to the conclusion of is that there's been an easing of restrictions in that some people inside Xinjiang, which is in the western region of China, as you mentioned there, have been allowed out of China to visit relatives who live outside of China. And some Uighurs who live outside of China already have been allowed back in to visit their relatives. Very tight restrictions as far as this goes, for example, people coming out, sometimes only one member of a family has been allowed out at a particular time, in some cases perhaps

to make sure that they're going to return back to family members still in Xinjiang. And people going into Xinjiang from outside, they're having to go through numerous police checks and sometimes have to join tour groups to get back into Xinjiang. And even when they get back in there, they're not allowed to stay with their relatives, would have to stay in hotel. So even in just this one area, there's still tight restrictions. So why is China allowing even this limited travel? Yeah, it's a good question and not one that's easy to answer. Like many things in Xinjiang, the Chinese government just doesn't announce what it's

done. People have to try and work out what's going on by talking to people there and from the outside have got access in there. It's the same with this case. The Human Rights Watch has spoken to people traveling in and out of Xinjiang. Human Rights Watch suggests that this is essentially China trying to create a sense of normality within Xinjiang to create the appearance that everything's okay, that the repression has ended.

And indeed, there is some other evidence to back this up. China itself, its media does lots of articles showing that people enjoying themselves, their lives in Xinjiang, their economic well-being improving, people going on holiday there. So there is some suggestion that this could be true, but I think it's also worth pointing out that China views people in Xinjiang exactly the same as it does the rest of China. It wants them to be ordinary Chinese citizens so presumably it's hoping to release some pressure on people in Xinjiang that will allow them then to really like to come back to normal. Miki Bristo. Since his return to office, President Trump has been intent on speeding up the deportation

of millions of migrants who have no legal status in the US. Now the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on a visit to El Salvador, says it has offered to house prisoners held in American jails, including those with US citizenship. Under the agreement, El Salvador will also accept migrants of any nationality who have been deported from the United States. Roman Grecier is the editor of the Salvadorian publication El Faro English. He told Lebo de Seco that there are many concerns about this resettlement agreement. It would be an unprecedented outsourcing of regional prisons to a regime whose policy of

systematic torture has been condemned at least since 2023 by local rights monitors is possibly constituting internationally triable crimes against humanity. So it has big legal implications as well. It's also unclear to me how sending US citizens and legal residents convicted and imprisoned in the US to El Salvador would play with US courts or with international law. What is El Salvador getting in return? Look, I think that's a great question.

And it's one that we will be watching closely in the coming weeks. What is clear right now is that since the US election day last November, Bukele has made public that at the top of his conversations with the Trump administration is USAID funding to organizations who he considers to be opposition groups, which in the case of El Salvador also include human rights organizations who receive considers to be opposition groups, which in the case

of El Salvador also include human rights organizations who receive USAID money or certain press groups. He said that even as recently as Monday that he repeated claims that USAID has a noxious influence in El Salvador and other countries in the world. So he's positioning that idea. And I suspect that will be pretty high up there on his wish list with Trump. But we don't actually know what he'll be getting from this, though he must be getting something pretty big considering what he's getting. Do you think that we might see this type of deal replicated in other Latin American countries? I think there are certain signs that it's already happening. Marco Rubio will actually

be traveling to Guatemala and during this trip, migration will be at the top of the agenda. The Bernardo Arevalo government has actually said to the US press that they're open to receiving regional migrants deported from the United States in a similar exchange of first putting forth goodwill and then negotiating with Marco Rubio. So I think that while they might not be as far-reaching in what they're offering to the Trump administration, the Guatemalan government, at least according to US press reports, has been open to discussing broad cooperation on a range of issues, including migration.

Roman Gressier from the Salvadorian publication El Faro English. Nearly three-quarters of a million women across Britain are being recruited for one of the world's biggest trials of artificial intelligence to detect breast cancer. Researchers want to learn whether AI can be used to speed up diagnosis of cases as well as freeing up radiologists. Similar studies have been done elsewhere in Europe but using fewer AI models to compare success rates. Fiona Gilbert, a professor of radiology at Cambridge University, is leading this latest trial in the UK. We think it's going to make us more accurate. Currently we've got these two people reading

2.2 million mammograms each year and actually we think that one person working with AI will be able to match that performance. Good trials, good evidence has already come out from Sweden, so that's excellent, but it was only using one particular machine type of mammography and only one AI tool. Norway is about to start a big trial, there's some studies going on in America as well. But we're the only country really able to take such a big cohort of women, compare women who are being X-rayed by different machines, and compare five different AI tools.

The public are understandably suspicious of AI, so what we've made sure is that it'll always be a human reading with the AI. The public are worried that we're going to give the data away to the companies who develop these tools. In this trial, we will always hold the data, the companies will not be allowed to keep the data and so we think that's really important to try and reassure people. In this study what we're going to do is tell everybody

we're going to be using the AI and allow women to opt out. So if people are really concerned we'd like them to tell us why they're concerned so that we can modify how we might use AI in the future. Fiona Gilbert a professor of radiology at Cambridge University. Since its first release 25 years ago The Sims continues to be one of the world's best-selling video game series. Players design not only houses but also the people inside them, everything from their jobs to their relationships. The franchise has sold

nearly 200 million copies and has been translated into 22 different languages. It gained such popularity in France that the country once released a postal stamp as a tribute to the game. Laura Kress has been finding out more about its appeal. So, so. That's Hello in Simlish, the made-up language of the hugely popular video game series The Sims. This February marks the 25th anniversary of the life simulation game where players design their own characters, give them personalities and keep them happy. Well, try to at least.

Oopey! Lillala Kala! Since its original 2000 release, the series has become a genuine cultural phenomenon, with Barbie star Margot Robbie set to produce a movie inspired by the universe, and pop stars including Katy Perry recording songs in Simlish. Yarby Denzel table goops, eevee dookam meeme shoops, hippie kipsey off her goop. Whilst creators Maxis and publishers EA are based in the US, it has a global fan base. The latest game, The Sims 4, has been translated into 18 different languages, including Russian, Chinese and Danish.

So why is the series still going strong after all these years? Hi everyone, it's The English Simmer here and welcome back to another... Molly, a British content creator, is known as the English Simmer online. A Simmer is a super fan of the game. Think like Taylor Swift's Swifties, but for the Sims. She says the series success springs from its open-ended gameplay and the willingness of developers to let players mod or modify its code to create whatever they want. S1A3LLY We have these amazing storytellers and just so much talent within the community to drive this game to be as open-ended as

you really want it to be and wherever your imagination will take you. Even at its launch, The Sims was a little different to other games at the time, where choices around sexuality or identity were rare. Players could pursue same-sex relationships. Later, options around gender and race opened up too. Amira is an American content creator who plays The Sims for a living. She created a darker skin tone pack for characters in the game. One common issue in a lot of video games is that the skin tone options don't get as dark as they should, but the difference between a lot of games and The Sims is I can do something about it.

The games also come under some criticism for its lack of accessibility options for disabled people but for the most part, The Sims' depth of customisation is what continues to attract a diverse crowd of gamers. That's a big part of why I play the game for so long. I can do what I want. I can make a sim with any body type, complexion, hair, whatever I want to do. It's like one of the most customizable games that I have. Diversity in and outside of video games is currently under some scrutiny in America's political landscape. Companies such as Amazon and Meta, which own social media apps, Facebook and Instagram,

have scaled back on their diversity programmes as Donald Trump, who's long campaigned against such policies, has returned as president. What does this mean for the inclusive spaces in gaming? Zoe DellaHunty-Light is a video producer for the British gaming website Eurogamer. While it's unlikely the Sims publisher, EA, will follow Meta and suddenly change its inclusive options in The Sims, the bigger concern is that meta-changing its DEI principles will galvanize certain toxic groups of gamers to become more open about their own hateful views. 25 years on from its release, it's clear that for some players The Sims has become that space. For these players it it's more than just a game.

It's now a place for community. A place for Simmers. Laura Crest reporting. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Mark Pickett, the producer of Chantel Hathl, the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Junaat Jaleel. Until next time, goodbye. Yoga is more than just exercise. It's the spiritual practice that millions swear by. And in 2017, Miranda, a university tutor from London, joins a yoga school that promises

profound transformation. It felt a really safe and welcoming space. After the yoga classes I felt amazing. But soon, that calm, welcoming atmosphere leads to something far darker. A journey that leads to allegations of grooming, trafficking and exploitation across international borders. I don't have my passport, I don't have my phone, I don't have my bank cards, I have nothing. The passport being taken, the being in a house and not feeling like they can leave. World of Secrets is where untold stories are unveiled and hidden realities are exposed.

In this new series, we're confronting the dark side of the wellness industry, where the hope of a spiritual breakthrough gives way to disturbing accusations. You just get sucked in so gradually and it's done so skillfully that you don't realize. And it's like this the secret that's there. I wanted to believe that, you know, that whatever they were doing, even if it seemed gross to me, was for some spiritual reason that I couldn't even understand. Revealing the hidden secrets of a global yoga network. I feel that I have no other choice. The only thing I can do is to speak about this and to put my reputation and everything else on the

line. I want truth and justice and for other people to not be hurt, for things to be different in the future. To bring it into the light and almost alchemize some of that evil stuff that went on and take back the power. World of Secrets Season 6 The Bad Guru Listen wherever you get your podcasts.