Global News Podcast - Higher US tariffs on hold but China trade war grows

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

President Donald Trump has announced a 90-day pause for countries hit by higher US tariffs, but a trade war with China has escalated. Also: Inuit people accuse adventurer of ignorance over Baffin Island trek claim.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil and in the early hours of Thursday the 10th of April, these are our main stories. Donald Trump pauses higher tariffs on most countries, causing stock markets to soar, but hikes import taxes on Chinese goods to 125%. Rescuers continue to search the ruins of a nightclub in the Dominican Republic two days after a roof collapse that killed more than 120 people. The main opposition party in Tanzania says its leader has been arrested at a rally.

Also in this podcast. We have a series of jewels here from Gloria Swanson from the 1930s, Grace Kelly, an engagement ring, and her tiara, a necklace that belonged to Elizabeth Taylor. A dazzling display of Cartier's finest creations is being exhibited here in London. creations is being exhibited here in London. In a dramatic change of policy, Donald Trump has paused higher tariffs on goods entering the United States from other countries with one notable exception, China. Stock markets

surged almost immediately when he announced the move after days of big falls and jitters on the bond markets Mr. Trump denied he was backtracking on pronouncements He'd made just a few days ago saying you have to be flexible and he further increased the eye watering tariffs He's already imposed on China to 125 percent, accusing Beijing of showing a lack of respect by its retaliation with its own import taxes on U.S. goods. Mr. Trump insisted his strategy to make America richer was working. They all want to make a deal. Somebody had to do what we did. And I did a 90-day pause

for the people that didn't retaliate because I told them if you retaliate we're going to double it. And that's what I did with China because they did retaliate. So we'll see how it all works out. I think it's going to work out amazing. I think that our country is going to be at the end of a year or shorter but I think we're going to have something that nobody would have dreamt possible. But Democrats accuse the US President of behaving in a reckless manner and say he's backtracked because he's feeling the heat from Americans worried about the tariffs. The senior Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, said his party would continue to put pressure

on Mr Trump. This is government by chaos. He keeps changing things from day to day. His advisers are fighting among themselves, calling each other names, and you cannot run a country with such chaos, with such unpredictability, with such lack of understanding of what's going on in the world and the facts. When there's chaos, already damage is done, irretrievable damage is done. For now there is relief for many investors, governments and businesses, but how long will that last?

Our Washington correspondent is Anthony Zirka. It is a pause, but it's not a pause. Obviously it was well received by the markets. This is what investors seem to want. Donald Trump suspending the larger of his tariffs, reciprocal tariffs on many of America's closest trading partners. But it's still a 10% baseline tariff on every one and those massive new tariffs on China. So it was a change, a strategic retreat, perhaps, whether Donald Trump intended this as his plan from the beginning, which is what you hear from the White House or this was a reaction

to sinking stock markets and bond prices going haywire that I think only Donald Trump knows. Yes but even though there is a temporary reprieve for the markets this is very worrying for businesses who are trying to plan ahead and for other countries that are trying to to do deals with Donald Trump. Yes, Scott Bissett, the US Treasury Secretary, said that there was stability now, and I think it's difficult to see any kind of stability or predictability in what the White House is doing. Even the announcement of this suspension of tariffs raised more questions initially than it answered who it was applying to, what exactly the new baseline would be, whether Canada and Mexico were included in these new tariffs or not.

And it took a while for the White House to kind of tick through all of this. And that's exactly the kind of uncertainty that is going to make it very difficult for businesses in the United States to make investments in domestic manufacturing for instance as they've been encouraged to do so by the Trump White House and for foreign countries to try to organize their policies and foreign businesses trying to decide whether exporting to the United States makes sense when they don't know what tariffs are going to

look like in 90 days, certainly, but maybe even less time than that. Not surprisingly, Democrats have attacked him, called him amateur, talked about market manipulation, but even Republicans are getting very worried about this. We've had divisions among Donald Trump's top advisors, Elon Musk and his trade advisor Peter Navarro. Is there anything that they can do to try to stabilize what's going on with the the US trade policy? Well there have been moves by Congress to roll back some of Donald Trump's

tariff powers. You have to remember that terrorists really are the responsibility of the US Congress. They should be enacted in law, but the Congress years ago gave the President these emergency powers to put terrorists in and Donald Trump has taken those powers and run with it. There's been a move in the US Senate to curtail some of that, to require congressional approval for terrorists that last over a set amount of time. But Donald Trump still has allies in Congress, particularly in the House of Representatives, which is trying at this point the Republicans and Republican leadership in the House

to sneak a provision into a vote that comes up either later today or tomorrow that will make it very difficult for Congress to add these kind of restrictions on Donald Trump's tariff powers. So while there is growing unease, particularly when the stock market was swooning, growing unease about Donald Trump's trade policies and polls showing that Americans and American voters were getting concerned and disapproving of what

Donald Trump was doing, it doesn't look like Congress is going to move in any sort of definitive way to change this policy. And what next when it comes to the trade standoff with China? That is the big question that's looming now. It doesn't seem like either side is willing to blink. It's an escalation, in fact, as the United States puts new tariffs on, China responds and then Donald Trump adds new tariffs and China responds to that. This is no longer one of these situations where you would expect both sides to sit down and negotiate amicably. This seems much more like an extended face-off where both sides will be feeling pain and the question is which

side succumbs to that pain first. Anthony Zirka, well in the previous round of tit-for for tat tariffs between the world's two biggest economies, China ignored suggestions from the White House that it was open to doing a deal and instead upped its tariffs on US goods to 84% much to the Trump administration's frustration. So how will China respond to these latest US tariffs of 125%? Here's our Beijing correspondent Stephen McDonnell. Well, it's still very early in the morning here in Beijing, but no doubt what the Chinese

government will say is that, look, other countries shouldn't be expected to feel grateful just because Donald Trump eased up on some of the chaos that he's responsible for in the first place. They'll also say that everything they've been saying to this point about the damaging nature of tariffs remains true today, perhaps even more so. For ordinary Chinese people I think what they'll take from this is that there is likely at some point to be a negotiated settlement between Beijing and Washington. Now the question is where the trigger comes from.

In the meantime, Beijing knows that Donald Trump's going to try and wedge them to sort of paint China as the bad guy in this scenario. I think they're likely to just try to ride it out until that happens, while the pantomime, as they would see it, plays out in Washington. And then that eventually an off-ramp will present itself and they'll take it. The tariffs going both ways now from China to the US are so high anyway it kind of wouldn't matter how much you raise them according to some analysts it's already so damaging for any company that wants to trade either way, the pressure is already there. Obviously, the damage is going to cut both ways and pressure is going to come to bear both ways. Beijing has argued that it can, like I say, it's been telling its own people that it can ride this out,

just as I suppose Donald Trump's saying the same to his people. Stephen MacDonald in Beijing. Well, as the European Union itself tries to contend with Donald Trump's tariffs, politicians in Europe's largest economy, Germany, have finally agreed to form a coalition government after weeks of haggling. The Christian Democrats won the most votes in the elections in February, but they fell short of the majority, with the far-right AFD surging into second place. However, the Christian Democrats have formed a coalition with the Social Democrats who came third, even as for the first time the AFD has topped an opinion poll. Here's our Europe regional editor, Paul Moss.

They thought it would take longer. Germany's right-of-centre Christian Democrats had serious political differences to overcome with the left-of-centre Social Democrats over how to encourage economic growth, whether to cut the welfare bill, and above all how to tackle the thorny issue of immigration. And anyway, coalition forming in Germany normally proceeds at a glacial pace. But then these times are not normal. Germany already faced serious and pressing issues. And then came Donald Trump's tariffs. Many Germans, and indeed many other Europeans, felt this was no

time for the continent's largest economy to be without a leader. Under pressure to get their act together, the Christian Democrat leader Friedrich Merz announced that the two parties had reached a coalition agreement, and Mr. Merz had a message, he said, for President Trump. Germany is back on track. Germany will fulfil the obligations in terms of defence, and Germany is willing to strengthen their own competitiveness. Of course, it's not just the US that the new German government has to convince. The far-right Alternative for Deutschland party was excluded from coalition talks. But by chance a survey out on Wednesday for the

first time showed it to be the country's most popular. The AFD's many supporters will be furious to see the country's two established parties once again join forces in government. Political stability in Germany is likely to remain elusive. Paul Moss, as we record this podcast, rescue workers in the Dominican Republic say they believe there are at least 20 bodies remaining under the collapsed roof of a nightclub. The remains of 124 people have been recovered so far, two days after the accident at the Jet Set Club in the capital Santo Domingo. People are desperately waiting

for news of their loved ones. Cesar is one of them. Everyone here who's waiting for his family are just, you can see it in their faces, everyone here is pure sadness. We've been through like five hospitals and it's the same thing everywhere. What they're doing is you just have to print the hospitals and it's the same thing everywhere. What they're doing is you just have to print the picture and give it to them and they verify and if they do think it's your family or your loved one then they take you to them. Our correspondent Will Grant has been watching the rescue efforts and gave us this update. In front of me are two huge cranes still lifting debris and rubble out of the site and loading them onto trucks.

There is earth moving equipment in there too and of course an absolute hive of activity made up of emergency service workers, rescue teams, soldiers and police. Outside, as you were hearing, the family members are gathered waiting for updates with friends and support networks around them. But it is a very, very harrowing time. And those groups of people around it, including the journalists, are staying, speaking in hushed tones so that the teams inside the building can continue to listen for the faintest sounds of survivors among the rubble. And what do we know about those who died?

Well there were some very well-known figures in Dominican society, starting not least with Rubi Perez, the singer who was performing that night and a hugely popular artist in the Dominican Republic. As well there were two former MLB baseball players. They were both beloved in this country where baseball is a religion, and they had represented the country and they had represented the Dominican Republic in the U.S. And there was a local politician too. So there were some high-profile figures, but also a lot of families. I spoke to one girl whose father is still inside the building

as well as her stepmother and her aunt. And any clue yet as to how this roof came to collapse so completely? That is the question that the authorities say they will get to in time. They're fully focused for the time being on purely the search and rescue effort. There was a fire in the building just two years ago and a lot of fingers of blame are being pointed at that, at structurally weakening the building. But the investigations are ongoing and the venue's owner says he is complying with it fully and transparently. Will Grant in the Dominican Republic. A British adventurer who made headlines after she claimed to be the first woman to travel alone across Canada's largest island is facing a backlash

from indigenous groups who accuse her of displaying privilege and ignorance and a dangerous colonial attitude. They've pointed out that Inuit women have been making the same journey for generations. Camilla Hempelmann Adams, the daughter of a renowned adventurer, has apologised for the distress she's caused. Peter Goffin reports. Peter Goffin It is, by any measure, a great accomplishment to trek Baffin Island. Five hundred square kilometres of craggy, icy, sparsely populated terrain at the edge of the Arctic Circle, where even in early

spring temperatures can fall to 40 degrees below zero Celsius. The problem, say indigenous advocates, is that Camilla Hempelman Adams claimed to be unique. That in crossing the Uxayuk Pass last month, walking 240 kilometers across the island on her own, she had done something no woman had ever done. She spoke to the BBC before setting off on her journey. Such a beautiful place and I just love to be able to challenge myself with its remoteness. An extreme environment, I just thought, wow, maybe I can push myself, push those boundaries. Why not give it a go?

Bath and was calling my name. It's always been a place I've loved. Ms. Hempelman-Adams said Parks Canada, the government department that manages the trail she walked, had told her there was no historical record of a woman making the journey alone. But advocates say that whether it was recorded or not, the Inuit people, who have lived on Baffin Island for centuries, crisscrossed the island on foot as a basic part of their traditional nomadic lifestyle. Inuit critics of Ms. Hempelman

Adams have said her claim showed a quote, dangerous colonial attitude, and was an echo of the European explorers who claimed to have discovered Canada in spite of the Indigenous cultures already living and thriving there. Others said it was as though indigenous experiences were being erased from history. Ms. Hempelman Adams has apologized, saying it was never her intention to misrepresent any historical achievements or cause distress to local communities. Recognizing indigenous culture and history has become more important than ever in Canada, as the country reckons with its colonial past. In 2015, a government commission ruled that Canada had committed cultural genocide against Indigenous peoples,

having made a concerted effort over the centuries to strip them of their languages and traditions. Peter Goffin. Peter Goffin. Still to come, we hear about the AI tool being developed by governments to predict who will become a murderer, which campaigners are calling chilling and dystopian. These database algorithmic systems for supposedly predicting crime are repeatedly shown to be inherently flawed, that they use historic racist data from the criminal justice system. Unless you've been hiding under a very large pixelated rock, you've probably heard of Minecraft. It's the best-selling video game of all time and the franchise's first feature film is in cinemas now.

But how much do you know about the game's creator, software developer Marcus Person? Find out about the man behind Minecraft on Good Bad Billionaire, the podcast exploring the minds, motives, and money of some of the world's richest individuals. Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. You're listening to the Global News Podcast. The main opposition party in Tanzania says its leader, Tundulu, has been arrested by police after attending a rally in the south

of the country. Rights campaigners have accused the government of President Samia Suluhoo Hassan of targeting opponents ahead of October's elections. Our Africa regional editor, Will Ross, reports. In recent weeks, Tundu Lisu has been holding rallies across Tanzania. His main message to the crowds has been that there's no chance of a free and fair election in October unless there are reforms. He wants changes in the Electoral Commission, which he says must not include people appointed directly

by President Samir Saluh Hassan. The leader of the Chadhema party has been repeating the slogan, no reforms, no election. Mr Lisu has been arrested several times before and in 2017 he survived an assassination attempt when he was shot 16 times. Will Ross, the Zimbabwean government says it's made an initial payment of just over $3 million to white farmers who were forced from their land a quarter of a century ago by the then President Robert Mugabe as part of his often chaotic redistribution programme to try to address colonial era inequities. Shingai Nyoka reports from Harare. It's being hailed as a momentous occasion. Zimbabwe, which has struggled to honour its

2020 compensation agreement signed with local white farmers, today announced the first payout, $3.1 million, which will cover close to 400 farms. It's a tiny fraction, just 1% of the total compensation value for these properties. The remainder will be paid through US dollar-denominated treasury bonds. A representative from the farmers' group told the BBC that the development is an important step forward. Zimbabwe faced political and economic sanctions from western countries following the land seizures. Shingai Nyokka in Zimbabwe. Artificial intelligence can predict all manner of things, from the weather to traffic jams

to health risks. But what about the likelihood that someone will go on to commit a violent crime? Well, it may sound like something out of a movie, but the UK government is developing an algorithm which analyses the data of thousands of convicted British criminals in an effort to pinpoint which individuals are more likely to commit murder. The project was uncovered by the civil liberties group Statewatch, who have called the scheme chilling and dystopian. Griff Ferris is one of the researchers who investigated it. So there are similar systems mostly being used by police and law enforcement agencies in France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and I will say that the same issues are coming up time and time and time again because these database algorithmic systems for supposedly

predicting crime are repeatedly shown to be inherently flawed, that they use historic racist data from the criminal justice system and all that means is that they are reproducing and reinforcing that same racism. Elah Bicknell has been following the story. So the scheme was not public knowledge, Jeanette. It was revealed from a Freedom of Information request and that's a right that allows anyone to ask a question of a UK public authority. And it revealed that the tool was formerly known as the Homicide Prediction Project.

It's an 18th month project collecting data on convicted criminals from the UK Police National Computer, as well as the UK probation services and Manchester Police, which is one of the UK's largest police regional services. And from it, it's developing an algorithm which is predicting who is likely to commit a violent crime, specifically a murder and of all the records being processed it's estimated that there are

a hundred thousand to half a million. Looking at obvious things such as the nature of previous convictions to the date of which they happened to more esoteric things like has this person ever been a witness? Have they ever received a fine? What age were they when they first interacted with the police? So a real spread of data. And this raises all kinds of ethical concerns. Yes. So State Watch, who led this investigation, their aims as a civil liberties group, they say, is to expose and challenge new ways of

surveillance and the ways it could lead to coercion and control. And they say that this project poses such a risk, infringing on people's privacy, especially if it reveals information about victims or witnesses in these criminal cases and sensitive information such as mental health, domestic abuse, and even suicide. And another ethical concern they have raised is discrimination. They say that this tool will be inaccurate and perpetuate historic biases seen in the police, but also biases found in the current stage of artificial intelligence, particularly racial biases and biases against those of poorer backgrounds.

What has the government said in response to all this? particularly racial biases and biases against those of poorer backgrounds. What has the government said in response to all this? We asked the UK government for a right to reply and they answered saying that their motive for this project is for the interest of public safety and to prevent serious violent crime. They say this project is for research purposes only and the data is from convicted offenders from 2015. They also say that the data is securely stored and encrypted and will be deleted six months after the project concludes and any reports on the findings will be released in due course to the public. Ella Bicknell, for nearly two centuries Cartier has epitomised glamour and untold wealth.

Its elegant and sophisticated creations have bejeweled the heads, necks and arms of film stars, style icons and royals, including the late Queen Elizabeth. And now a large collection of tiaras, necklaces and other gem-studded works of art are being displayed in a literally priceless exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum that starts on Saturday. Sarah Montague has been for a sneak preview with the curator, Helen Molesworth. Our story here starts with Cartier and the beginning of Paris, London and New York as the legacy of what's going to be the Cartier Empire. and New York as the legacy of what's going to be the Cartier Empire. So this is a room of inspiration where we look at very early on how the Cartier brothers drew inspiration for these designs that have become so famous all over the world.

And in 1900s it was Louis Cartier who was the creative director who said to his workmen, go out into the streets of Paris and draw what you see, take inspiration from the ironwork and the 18th century stonework of Paris. And what comes from that, in the room we've walked into now with a big sign that says France, over sparkling bright white jewels, is the garland style. And we're looking here at a series of jewels that are openwork, very lacy, but they have a neo-classical 18th century style with tassels, ribbons, lots of laurel wreaths to them, almost sort of neo-empire.

But what's really lovely about these is that they're mounted in platinum, which is a new metal, again, that Louis Cartier kind of pioneered the use of in jewellery, very light but solid, so it could hold diamonds in place with tiny little drops. It almost looks like they're floating in air. Let's go on to the next room. We're in front of a case now, the new royalty. What's this? We have a series of jewels here from Gloria Swanson from the 1930s, Grace Kelly, an engagement ring and her tiara, a necklace that belonged to Elizabeth Taylor, a brooch that was once owned by Sir Elton John, the tank wrist

watch that belonged to Jackie Kennedy and was later bought by Kim Kardashian and a fantastic watch lent to us by Tyler the Creator. Okay so what's up next? You mentioned colour, tutti frutti. We've got here the wonderful designs that Cartier came up with in the 20s, where they matched the greens and the reds of India in carved gemstones with the blue of carved sapphires, which had not been done before. And this sort of took the world by storm.

It's so opulent. It is so opulent. Does it make you happy? For me, I hope this brings people joy. We want people to come to the exhibition and feel happy. Do they feel conflicted as well, given the provenance of some of the jewels, given the wealth? Well, we take provenance very seriously at the V&A and we do all our due diligence. So if you want to feel, you know, not worried too much, the V&A is one of the best places to come for that.

And so then it's just the wealth? I know that if it's a grey day in London outside or there's all these terrible things happening in the world, if I come inside and look at a beautifully lit, colourful gem-set necklace, I don't feel worse, I feel a bit better. Jules again here, and my, I mean, we're back with tiaras, a lot of tiaras.

We're in the royal section here, where we look at the relationship between Cartier and some of their key clients like the British royal family. I mean particularly the Queen because she was the coronation Cartier is important. We have a particular brooch on loan thanks to His Majesty the King and the Royal Collection. This is the Williamson diamond brooch. It's I mean it's the size of your hand and it's a beautiful flower that has got openwork petals on a long diamond baguette stem, but right in the middle we have a 23.6 carat bright, brilliant-cut pink diamond,

which is of course very rare. Now the reason it's so special that we have it here in the V&A today is that underneath it in the V&A today is that underneath it in the exhibition we are displaying the drawings that were made for the brooch. These have never been seen before. That was curator Helen Molesworth talking about the forthcoming Cartier exhibition here in London. Let's return now to our main story. The US President Donald Trump pausing most of his higher tariffs

for 90 days on most countries, but not for China. Instead, his administration is increasing the import duties on Chinese goods entering the US to 125%. Speaking at the White House, the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave this explanation for the tariff hike against Beijing. China is the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world and they are the biggest source of the US trade problems and indeed they are problems for the rest of the world and President Trump responded very courageously to that and we are going to work on a solution with our trading partners. This latest move by Mr. Trump follows days of financial turmoil in the markets and worrying wobbles in traditional safe havens such as the bond markets or gold

as our business editor Simon Jack reports. Tonight he admitted that I noticed people getting a bit queasy out there saying he wasn't oblivious to what was going on in those market gyrations. But that astonishing assertion from Scott Besson, the Treasury Secretary, saying that they'd goaded China into retaliation in a way to split them off from the rest of the international pack. And that's where we are now with these two big heavyweights. And it's not immediately clear where the convenient ladder is for either party to sort of climb down from this trade war.

So the other actors have left the stage for the moment. And while the world breathes a bit of a sigh of relief, whilst the two biggest economies in the world are at each other's throats in a full blown trade war, the world economy does not escape that, but a few sighs of relief tonight. Simon Jack. trade war. The world economy does not escape that. But a few sighs of relief tonight. Simon Jack. 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 globalpodcasts.bbc.co.uk.

This edition was mixed by Masood Ibrahim Kale. The producer was Liam McSherry. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Janet Jalil. Until next time, goodbye. On our podcast, Good Bad Billionaire, we explain how the world's billionaires made all their money. Pop stars and tech titans, founders and filmmakers, inventors and investors, we cover them all. And for the first time, we're talking about a video game designer. Yep, we're talking about Marcus Persson, the Swedish coding king who programmed the world's most successful game, Minecraft, all by himself.

He made a billion, but is he good, bad or just another billionaire? Find out on Good Bad Billionaire, listen on the BBC app or wherever you get your podcasts.