Month: February 2025

Global benchmarks trade mixed as investors continue to eye Trump

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Tokyo — Global shares traded mixed on Monday as investors continued to watch economic data and policy moves from U.S. President Donald Trump, as both are likely to impact upcoming central bank moves.

France’s CAC 40 dipped nearly 0.1% in early trading to 8,171.59, while Germany’s DAX added 0.4% to 22,560.00. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.1% to 8,742.97.

U.S. markets are closed on Monday for a holiday.

In Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose in early trading after the Cabinet Office reported that the economy grew at a better-than-expected annual rate of 2.8% in October-December, underlined by steady exports and moderate consumption. But the benchmark quickly fell back and then recovered to be little changed, finishing up less than 0.1% at 39,174.25.

On a quarter-to-quarter basis, the world’s fourth-largest economy grew 0.7% for its third straight quarter of growth. Japan marked its fourth straight year of expansion, eking out 0.1% growth last year in seasonally adjusted real gross domestic product, which measures the value of a nation’s products and services.

In other regional markets, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2% to 8,537.10. South Korea’s Kospi surged 0.8% to 2,610.42. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng reversed course, to slip less than 0.1% to 22,616.23, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.3% to 3,355.83.

Markets around the world are nervously watching what upward pressure may come from tariffs that Trump has announced recently. But analysts now think Trump may ultimately avoid triggering a punishing global trade war.

His most recent tariff announcement, for example, won’t take full effect for at least several weeks. That leaves time for Washington and other countries to negotiate.

The Federal Reserve’s goal, as well as that of the Bank of Japan, is to keep inflation at 2%.

In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude added 28 cents to $71.02 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 34 cents to $75.08 a barrel.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar declined to 151.90 Japanese yen from 152.25 yen. The euro cost $1.0472, down from $1.0495.
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New downloads of DeepSeek suspended in South Korea, data protection agency says

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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — South Korea’s data protection authority on Monday said new downloads of the Chinese AI app DeepSeek had been suspended in the country after DeepSeek acknowledged failing to take into account some of the agency’s rules on protecting personal data.

The service of the app will be resumed once improvements are made in accordance with the country’s privacy law, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) said in a media briefing.

The measure that came into force on Saturday aims to block new downloads of the app, the agency said, though DeepSeek’s web service remains accessible in the country.

The Chinese startup appointed legal representatives last week in South Korea and had acknowledged partially neglecting considerations of the country’s data protection law, the PIPC said.

Italy’s data protection authority, the Garante, said last month it had ordered DeepSeek to block its chatbot in the country after failing to address the regulator’s concerns over its privacy policy.

DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

When asked about earlier moves by South Korean government departments to block DeepSeek, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told a briefing on February 6 that the Chinese government attached great importance to data privacy and security and protected it in accordance with the law.

The spokesperson also said Beijing would never ask any company or individual to collect or store data in breach of laws.
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Scientists race to discover depth of ocean damage from Los Angeles wildfires

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Los Angeles — On a recent Sunday, Tracy Quinn drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to assess damage wrought upon the coastline by the Palisades Fire.

The water line was darkened by ash. Burnt remnants of washing machines and dryers and metal appliances were strewn about the shoreline. Sludge carpeted the water’s edge. Waves during high tide lapped onto charred homes, pulling debris and potentially toxic ash into the ocean as they receded.

“It was just heartbreaking,” said Quinn, president and CEO of the environmental group Heal the Bay, whose team has reported ash and debris some 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of the Palisades burn area west of Los Angeles.

As crews work to remove potentially hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous materials from the Los Angeles wildfires, researchers and officials are trying to understand how the fires on land have impacted the sea. The Palisades and Eaton fires scorched thousands of homes, businesses, cars and electronics, turning everyday items into hazardous ash made of pesticides, asbestos, plastics, lead, heavy metals and more.

Since much of it could end up in the Pacific Ocean, there are concerns and many unknowns about how the fires could affect life under the sea.

“We haven’t seen a concentration of homes and buildings burned so close to the water,” Quinn said.

Fire debris and potentially toxic ash could make the water unsafe for surfers and swimmers, especially after rainfall that can transport chemicals, trash and other hazards into the sea. Longer term, scientists worry if and how charred urban contaminants will affect the food supply.

The atmospheric river and mudslides that pummeled the Los Angeles region last week exacerbated some of those fears.

When the fires broke out in January, one of Mara Dias’ first concerns was ocean water contamination. Strong winds were carrying smoke and ash far beyond the blazes before settling at sea, said the water quality manager for the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental nonprofit.

Scientists on board a research vessel during the fires detected ash and waste on the water as far as 100 miles (161 kilometers) offshore, said marine ecologist Julie Dinasquet with the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Things like twigs and shard. They described the smell as electronics burning, she recalled, “not like a nice campfire.”

Runoff from rain also is a huge and immediate concern. Rainfall picks up contaminants and trash while flushing toward the sea through a network of drains and rivers. That runoff could contain “a lot of nutrients, nitrogen and phosphate that end up in the ash of the burn material that can get into the water,” said Dias, as well as “heavy metals, something called PAHs, which are given off when you burn different types of fuel.”

Mudslides and debris flows in the Palisades Fire burn zone also can dump more hazardous waste into the ocean. After fires, the soil in burn scars is less able to absorb rainfall and can develop a layer that repels water from the remains of seared organic material. When there is less organic material to hold the soil in place, the risks of mudslides and debris flows increase.

Los Angeles County officials, with help from other agencies, have set thousands of feet of concrete barriers, sandbags, silt socks and more to prevent debris from reaching beaches. The LA County Board of Supervisors also recently passed a motion seeking state and federal help to expand beach clean ups, prepare for storm runoff and test ocean water for potential toxins and chemicals, among other things.

Beyond the usual samples, state water officials and others are testing for total and dissolved metals such as arsenic, lead and aluminum and volatile organic compounds.

They also are sampling for microplastics, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, that are harmful to human and aquatic life, and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a group of man-made chemicals shown to cause cancer in animals and other serious health effects. Now banned from being manufactured, they were used in products like pigments, paints and electrical equipment.

County public health officials said chemical tests of water samples last month did not raise health concerns, so they downgraded one beach closure to an ocean water advisory. Beachgoers were still advised to stay out of the water.

Dinasquet and colleagues are working to understand how far potentially toxic ash and debris dispersed across the ocean, how deep and how fast they sunk and, over time, where it ends up.

Forest fires can deposit important nutrients like iron and nitrogen into the ocean ecosystem, boosting the growth of phytoplankton, which can create a positive, cascading effect across the ecosystem. But the potentially toxic ash from urban coastal fires could have dire consequences, Dinasquet said.

“Reports are already showing that there was a lot of lead and asbestos in the ash,” she added. “This is really bad for people so it’s probably also very bad for the marine organisms.”
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Breakfast is booming at US restaurants. Is it also contributing to high egg prices?

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It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem.

Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Eggs Up Grill has 90 restaurants in nine southern states, up from 26 in 2018. Florida-based Another Broken Egg Café celebrated its 100th restaurant last year.

Fast-food chains are also adding more breakfast items. Starbucks, which launched egg bites in 2017, now has a breakfast menu with 12 separate items containing eggs. Wendy’s reintroduced breakfast in 2020 and offers 10 items with eggs.

Reviews website Yelp said 6,421 breakfast and brunch businesses opened in the United States last year, 23% more than in 2019.

In normal times, producers could meet the demand for all those eggs. But an ongoing bird flu outbreak, which so far has forced farms to slaughter nearly 159 million chickens, turkeys and other birds — including nearly 47 million since the start of December — is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. In January, the average price of eggs in the U.S. hit a record $4.95 per dozen.

The percentage of eggs that go to U.S. restaurants versus other places, like grocery stores or food manufacturers, is not publicly available. U.S. Foods, a restaurant supplier, and Cal-Maine Foods, the largest U.S. producer of shell eggs, did not respond to The Associated Press’ requests for comment.

But demand from restaurants is almost certainly growing. Foot traffic at U.S. restaurants has grown the most since 2019 for morning meals, 2019, according to market research firm Circana. Pre-lunchtime hours accounted for 21% of total restaurant visits in 2024.

Breakfast sandwiches are the most popular order during morning visits, Circana said, and 70% of the breakfast sandwiches on U.S. menus include eggs.

Eggs Up Grill CEO Ricky Richardson said breakfast restaurants took off after the COVID pandemic because people longed for comfort and connection. As inflation made food more expensive, customers saw breakfast and lunch as more affordable options for eating out, he said.

The growth in restaurant demand reverses a pattern that emerged during the pandemic, when consumers tried to stock up on eggs for home use but restaurants needed fewer of them because many of them had to close for a time, according to Brian Earnest, a lead economist for animal proteins at CoBank.

U.S. egg consumption declined for more than five decades before reaching a low of 247 per person in 2008, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As nutritional research and marketing established eggs as an inexpensive protein source instead of heart-clogging cholesterol bombs, per capita consumption of egg products grew to the equivalent of 292 fresh eggs in 2019, the data shows.

“Consumers think eggs are really fresh, so if you’re making something with eggs, you know it’s fresh,” Earnest said.

Before the pandemic reduced demand and bird flu outbreaks impacted supplies, the USDA had forecast that Americans would continue eating more eggs. By 2023, the most recent year for which annual data is available, they were down to 249 eggs per person.

Other trends have impacted the economics of eggs. To address animal rights concerns, McDonald’s and some other companies have switched to 100% cage-free eggs, which limits the sources they will buy from. Ten states, including California and Colorado, have passed laws restricting egg sales to products from cage-free environments.

“It makes the market much more complicated than it was 20 years ago,” Earnest said.

The higher prices are hitting restaurants hard. Wholesale egg prices hit a national average of $7.34 per dozen last week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That was 51% higher than at the beginning of the year. Wholesale costs may be higher than retail prices since grocers use eggs as a loss leader to get customers in the door.

Some chains, like Waffle House, have added a surcharge to help offset the cost of eggs. Others may turn to egg substitutes like tapioca starch for some recipes or cut egg dishes from the menu, said Phil Kafarakis, the president and CEO of the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association.

First Watch President and CEO Chris Tomasso said eggs are critical for the chain’s brand and are found in the majority of its offerings, whether at the center of the plate or as an ingredient in batters. So far, he said, the company has been able to obtain the eggs it needs and isn’t charging extra for them.

First Watch is also increasing portion sizes for non-egg items like meat and potatoes, Tomasso said.

Richardson, of Eggs Up Grill, said he recently met with franchisees to discuss adding a surcharge but they decided against it.

“Eggs have always been and will continue to be an important part of American diets,” Richardson said.
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Chad officials seal schools as measles epidemic hits poor district

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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Chad health officials have sealed several dozen schools, sent thousands of children and their teachers home, and restricted movements to and from the Bologo district — 400 kilometers south of the capital, N’djamena — to contain a measles epidemic. Officials blame vaccine hesitancy for the rapid measles spread within the past two weeks.

State TV reports that thousands of children in Chad’s Bologo district have been ordered to stay home for a week as their schools remain closed to prevent measles from spreading. Many churches and mosques in the district are closed too.

About 50 cases of measles were confirmed within the past two weeks, said Oumar Mahamat Traore, chief health official in Bologo, appointed by Chad’s central government in N’djamena.

He said the situation is very concerning because all seven of the hospitals in Bologo district have at least five children receiving treatment for measles. He said parents should make sure all children having high fever, runny nose, red and watery eyes and rashes on their faces and bodies accompanied by small white spots inside the mouth are immediately rushed to the nearest hospital, where they will receive free treatment.

Traore spoke to VOA on Saturday by telephone. He said it is difficult to know the number of children affected by the measles epidemic because more than 80% of civilians in Bologo prefer African traditional medicine and go to conventional hospitals only in critical circumstances.

Hospitals have not reported any deaths, but some affected children are in critical condition, according to government officials.

Chad’s government said health workers have been dispatched to Bologo and surrounding towns and villages to educate civilians against popular beliefs that the viral disease is divine punishment for wrongdoing and can be treated only by offering traditional sacrifices to the gods.

Health workers are raising awareness that measles can be treated with conventional medicine.

The United Nations reports that measles is one of the main causes of death among children in Chad. Outbreaks occur often because vaccination coverage remains low throughout the central African state.

Chad’s Health Ministry says vaccine hesitancy is to blame for millions of children not being inoculated against childhood diseases including measles.

In 2023, Doctors Without Borders reported that more than 1.3 million children between the ages of 6 months and 10 years old were inoculated against measles.

Chad said there were plans with its international partners to inoculate at least 4 million children in the country of close to 18 million people.

But armed conflicts and tensions triggered by elections to end a three-year transition that followed the death of President Idriss Deby Itno in 2021 made it impossible for humanitarian agencies to continue vaccination drives.

Officials hope that with peace returning and constitutional order reestablished — with the election of Mahamat Idriss Deby as president and the new parliament — more vaccine campaigns will be organized.

Measles is a highly contagious infection of the respiratory system that can lead to severe complications and death. The U.N. says it is one of the most contagious diseases in the world.

In the absence of specific treatment, vaccination is the most effective medical tool against measles, the World Health Organization said. The vaccine is safe, effective and inexpensive, according to the U.N.  
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No need for one country to control chip industry, Taiwan official says

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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — There is no need for one country to control the semiconductor industry, which is complex and needs a division of labor, Taiwan’s top technology official said on Saturday after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the island’s chip dominance.

Trump repeated claims on Thursday that Taiwan had taken the industry and he wanted it back in the United States, saying he aimed to restore U.S. chip manufacturing.

Wu Cheng-wen, head of Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council, did not name Trump in a Facebook post but referred to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s comments on Friday that the island would be a reliable partner in the democratic supply chain of the global semiconductor industry.

Wu wrote that Taiwan has in recent years often been asked how its semiconductor industry had become an internationally acclaimed benchmark.

“How did we achieve this? Obviously, we did not gain this for no reason from other countries,” he said, recounting how the government developed the sector from the 1970s, including helping found TSMC, now the world’s largest contract chipmaker, in 1987.

“This shows that Taiwan has invested half a century of hard work to achieve today’s success, and it certainly wasn’t something taken easily from other countries.”

Each country has its own specialty for chips, from Japan making chemicals and equipment to the United States, which is “second to none” on the design and application of innovative systems, Wu said.

“The semiconductor industry is highly complex and requires precise specialization and division of labor. Given that each country has its own unique industrial strengths, there is no need for a single nation to fully control or monopolize all technologies globally.”

Taiwan is willing to be used as a base to assist “friendly democratic countries” in playing their appropriate roles in the semiconductor supply chain, Wu said.
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Why US regulators are banning Red Dye Number 3 from American food

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U.S. health officials have banned Red Dye No. 3 from American foods, decades after the synthetic coloring was banned in Europe. As VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports, studies have linked the bright red color additive to cancer in male laboratory rats.
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Taiwan pledges chip talks and investment in bid to ease Trump’s concerns 

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TAIPEI — Taiwan President Lai Ching-te pledged on Friday to talk with the United States about President Donald Trump’s concerns over the chip industry and to increase U.S. investment and buy more from the country, while also spending more on defense.

Trump spoke critically about Taiwan on Thursday, saying he aimed to restore U.S. manufacturing of semiconductor chips and repeating claims about Taiwan having taken away the industry he wanted back in the United States.

Speaking to reporters after holding a meeting of the National Security Council at the presidential office, Lai said that the global semiconductor supply chain is an ecosystem in which the division of work among various countries is important.

“We of course are aware of President Trump’s concerns,” Lai said.

“Taiwan’s government will communicate and discuss with the semiconductor industry and come up with good strategies. Then we will come up with good proposals and engage in further discussions with the United States,” he added.

Democratic countries including the United States should come together to build a global alliance for AI chips and a “democratic supply chain” for advanced chips, Lai said.

“While admittedly we have the advantage in semiconductors, we also see it as Taiwan’s responsibility to contribute to the prosperity of the international community.”

Taiwan is home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, a major supplier to companies including Apple and Nvidia, and a crucial part of the developing AI industry.

TSMC is investing $65 billion in new factories in the U.S. state of Arizona, a project begun in 2020 under Trump’s first administration.

TSMC’s Taipei-listed shares closed down 2.8% on Friday, underperforming the broader market, which ended off 1.1%.

A senior Taiwan security official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity in order to speak more freely, said if TSMC judged it was feasible to increase its U.S. investment, Taiwan’s government would help in talks with the United States.

TSMC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The official added that communications between Taiwan and U.S. economic, security and defense officials at present was “quite good” and “strong support from the United States can be felt”.

US support

The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Chinese-claimed Taiwan, but is the democratically governed island’s most important international backer and arms supplier.

Trump cheered Taiwan last week after a joint U.S.-Japan statement following Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s visit to Washington called for “maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait” and voiced support for “Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations.”

But Taiwan also runs a large trade surplus with the United States, which surged 83% last year, with the island’s exports to the U.S. hitting a record $111.4 billion, driven by demand for high-tech products such as semiconductors.

Lai said that the United States is Taiwan’s largest foreign investment destination, and that Taiwan is the United States’ most reliable trade partner.

Trump has also previously criticized Taiwan, which faces a growing military threat from China, for not spending enough on defense, a criticism he has made of many U.S. allies.

“Taiwan must demonstrate our determination to defend ourselves,” Lai said, adding his government is working to propose a special budget this year to boost defense spending from 2.5% of its GDP to 3%.

His government is involved in a standoff with parliament, where opposition parties hold a majority, over cuts to the budget, including defense spending.

“Certainly, more and more friends and allies have expressed concern to us, worried whether Taiwan’s determination for its self-defense has weakened,” Lai said.

 
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Federal judge pauses Trump order restricting gender-affirming care for trans youth

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BALTIMORE — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s recent executive order aimed at restricting gender-affirming health care for transgender people under age 19.

The judge’s ruling came after a lawsuit was filed earlier this month on behalf of families with transgender or nonbinary children who allege their health care has been compromised by the president’s order. A national group for family of LGBTQ+ people and a doctors organization are also plaintiffs in the court challenge, one of many lawsuits opposing one of the many executive orders Trump has issued.

Judge Brendan Hurson, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden, granted the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order following a hearing in federal court in Baltimore. The ruling, in effect for 14 days, essentially puts Trump’s directive on hold while the case proceeds. The restraining order could also be extended.

Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order directing federally run insurance programs to exclude coverage for gender-affirming care. That includes Medicaid, which covers such services in some states, and TRICARE for military families. Trump’s order also called on the Department of Justice to vigorously pursue litigation and legislation to oppose the practice.

The lawsuit includes several accounts from families of appointments being canceled as medical institutions react to the new directive.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argue Trump’s executive order is “unlawful and unconstitutional” because it seeks to withhold federal funds previously authorized by Congress and because it violates anti-discrimination laws while infringing on the rights of parents.

Like legal challenges to state bans on gender-affirming care, the lawsuit also alleges the policy is discriminatory because it allows federal funds to cover the same treatments when they’re not used for gender transition.

Some hospitals immediately paused gender-affirming care, including prescriptions for puberty blockers and hormone therapy, while they assess how the order affects them.

Trump’s approach on the issue represents an abrupt change from the Biden administration, which sought to explicitly extend civil rights protections to transgender people. Trump has used strong language in opposing gender-affirming care, asserting falsely that “medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex.”

Major medical groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics support access to gender-affirming care.

Young people who persistently identify as a gender that differs from their sex assigned at birth are first evaluated by a team of professionals. Some may try a social transition, involving changing a hairstyle or pronouns. Some may later also receive puberty blockers or hormones. Surgery is extremely rare for minors.
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Google drops pledge against AI for weapons, surveillance

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Technology company Google recently broke with its long-standing policy against developing AI weapons. VOA’s Matt Dibble has more from Silicon Valley.
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Some veterinarians didn’t know they had bird flu, study suggests

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NEW YORK — A new study shows that bird flu has silently spread from animals to some veterinarians.

The study published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention echoes two smaller ones that detected evidence of infection in previously undiagnosed farmworkers. In those studies, several of the infected workers remembered having symptoms of H5N1 bird flu, while none of the veterinarians in the new paper recalled any such symptoms.

The new study is more evidence that the official U.S. tally of confirmed human bird flu infections — 68 in the last year — is likely a significant undercount, said Dr. Gregory Gray, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

“This means that people are being infected, likely due to their occupational exposures, and not developing signs of illness and therefore not seeking medical care,” Gray said.

He said it shows that officials cannot fully understand bird flu transmission by only tracking people who go to medical clinics with symptoms.

Evidence of antibodies

CDC researchers went to an American Association of Bovine Practitioners veterinary conference in September 2024 in Columbus, Ohio. They recruited 150 vets from 46 states to fill out a questionnaire and agree to have their blood drawn. None said they had suffered red eyes or other symptoms associated with bird flu.

Testing found three of the vets, or 2%, had evidence of antibodies to H5N1 infection. All three worked with dairy cattle, as well as other animals. None had worked with a herd known to be infected, although one had worked with a flock of infected poultry.

Gray and some colleagues did a study last year of 14 dairy farmworkers and found that two, or 14%, had evidence of past infections. Both had experienced symptoms but were never diagnosed.

Another study published last year by the CDC checked 115 dairy workers. The researchers found that eight of them, or 7%, had evidence in their blood of recent infection. Half recalled feeling ill.

The studies were far too small to use as a basis to provide a solid estimate of how many undiagnosed human infections are out there, Gray said. But even just a very small percentage could translate to hundreds or thousands of Americans who were infected while working with animals, he noted.

That’s not necessarily a reason to be alarmed, said Jacqueline Nolting, an Ohio State University researcher who helped CDC with the latest study.

Available studies suggest people who are infected mount antibody responses and may develop natural immunity, which is “good news,” she said.

However, if the virus changes or mutates to start making people very sick, or to start spreading easily from person to person, that would be “a completely different story,” Nolting said.

Caution around sick birds 

The H5N1 bird flu has been spreading widely among wild birds, poultry, cows and other animals. Its escalating presence in the environment increases the chances people will be exposed and potentially catch it, officials have said.

Right now, the risk to the public is low, the CDC says. But officials continue to urge people who have contact with sick or dead birds to take precautions, including wearing respiratory and eye protection and gloves when handling poultry.

“No one’s really questioning that the virus has been moving around the country more than has been reported,” said Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. 

He said he expected to see stepped-up information reminding veterinarians across the country to protect themselves with gloves, masks and other equipment to halt infection.
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Global AI race is on, world leaders say at Paris summit

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At this week’s Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, world leaders and technologists gathered to discuss the rapidly evolving field of generative artificial intelligence. Many are eager to join the global AI race, while others are proceeding with caution. Tina Trinh reports.
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Senate confirms Kennedy for top US health post after close vote

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Donald Trump’s health secretary, putting the prominent vaccine skeptic in control of $1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country.

Republicans fell in line behind Trump despite hesitancy over Kennedy’s views on vaccines, voting 52-48 to elevate the scion of one of America’s most storied political — and Democratic — families to secretary of the Health and Human Services Department.

Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, was the only “no” vote among Republicans, mirroring his stands against Trump’s picks for the Pentagon chief and director of national intelligence. All Democrats opposed Kennedy.

The GOP has largely embraced Kennedy’s vision to “Make America Healthy Again” by directing the public health agencies to focus on chronic diseases such as obesity.

Kennedy, 71, whose name and family tragedies have put him in the national spotlight since he was a child, has earned a formidable following with his populist and sometimes extreme views on food, chemicals and vaccines.

His audience only grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Kennedy devoted much of his time to a nonprofit that sued vaccine makers and harnessed social media campaigns to erode trust in vaccines as well as the government agencies that promote them.

With Trump’s backing, Kennedy insisted he was “uniquely positioned” to revive trust in those public health agencies, which include the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes for Health.

Last week, Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, said he hoped Kennedy “goes wild” in reining in health care costs and improving Americans’ health. But before agreeing to support Kennedy, potential holdout Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican a doctor who leads the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, required assurances that Kennedy would not make changes to existing vaccine recommendations.

During Senate hearings, Democrats tried to prod Kennedy to deny a long-discredited theory that vaccines cause autism. Some lawmakers also raised alarms about Kennedy financially benefiting from changing vaccine guidelines or weakening federal lawsuit protections against vaccine makers.

Kennedy made more than $850,000 last year from an arrangement referring clients to a law firm that has sued the makers of Gardasil, a human papillomavirus vaccine that protects against cervical cancer. If confirmed as health secretary, he promised to reroute fees collected from the arrangement to his son.

Kennedy will take over the agency amid a massive federal government shakeup, led by billionaire Elon Musk, that has shut off — even if temporarily — billions of taxpayer dollars in public health funding and left thousands of federal workers unsure about their jobs.

On Friday, the NIH announced it would cap billions of dollars for medical research given to universities and hospitals to develop treatments for diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s.

Kennedy, too, has called for a staffing overhaul at the NIH, FDA and CDC. Last year, he promised to fire 600 employees at the NIH, the nation’s largest funder of biomedical research.
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China’s fuel demand may have passed its peak, IEA says

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London — China’s demand for road and air transport fuels may have passed its peak, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday, citing data showing that the country’s consumption of gasoline, gasoil and jet fuel declined marginally in 2024. 

Combined consumption of the three fuels in China last year was at 8.1 million barrels per day (bpd), which was 200,000 bpd lower than in 2021 and only narrowly above 2019 levels, the IEA said in a monthly report. 

“This strongly suggests that fuel use in the country has already reached a plateau and may even have passed its peak,” it said. 

After decades of leading global oil demand growth, China’s contribution is sputtering as it faces economic challenges as well as making a shift to electric vehicles (EVs). 

The decline in China’s fuel demand is likely to accelerate over the medium term, which would be enough to generate a plateau in total China oil demand this decade, according to the Paris-based IEA. 

“This remarkable slowdown in consumption growth has been achieved by a combination of structural changes in China’s economy and the rapid deployment of alternative transportation technologies,” the IEA said. 

A slump in China’s construction sector and weaker consumer spending reduced fuel demand in the country, it said, adding that uptake of EVs also weighed.  

New EVs currently account for half of car sales and undercut around 250,000-300,000 bpd of oil demand growth in 2024, while use of compressed and liquified natural gas in road freight displaced around 150,000 bpd, it said. 
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Chinese apps face scrutiny in US but users keep scrolling 

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Seoul — As a high school junior in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, Daneel Kutsenko never gave much thought to China.

Last month, though, as the U.S. government prepared to ban TikTok – citing national security concerns about its Chinese ownership – Kutsenko downloaded RedNote, another Chinese video-sharing app, which he felt gave him a new perspective on China.

“It just seems like people who live their life and have fun,” Kutsenko told VOA of RedNote, which reportedly attracted hundreds of thousands of U.S. users in the leadup to the now-paused TikTok ban.

Kutsenko’s move is part of a larger trend. Even as U.S. policymakers grow louder in their warnings about Chinese-owned apps, they have become a central part of American life.

TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, boasts 170 million U.S. users. China’s AI chatbot DeepSeek surged to the top of Apple’s App Store rankings, including those in the United States, for several days after its release last month.

Another major shift has come in online shopping, where Americans are flocking to digital Chinese marketplaces such as Temu and Shein in search of ultra-low prices on clothes, home goods, and other items.

According to a 2024 survey by Omnisend, an e-commerce marketing company, 70% of Americans shopped on Chinese platforms during the past year, with 20% doing so at least once a week.

Multifaceted threat

U.S. officials warn that Chinese apps pose a broad range of threats – whether to national security, privacy, human rights, or the economy.

TikTok has been the biggest target. Members of Congress attempting to ban the app cited concerns that China’s government could use TikTok as an intelligence-gathering tool or manipulate its algorithms to push narratives favorable to Beijing.

Meanwhile, Chinese commerce apps face scrutiny for their rock-bottom prices, which raise concerns about ethical sourcing and potential links to forced labor, Sari Arho Havrén, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based research organization, said in an email conversation with VOA.

“It raises questions of how sustainably these products are made,” Havrén, who focuses on China’s foreign policy and great power competition, said. Moreover, he said, “the pricing simply kills local manufacturers and businesses.”

Many U.S. policymakers also warn Chinese apps pose greater privacy risks, since Chinese law requires companies to share data with the government on request.

‘Curiosity and defiance’

Still, a growing number of Americans appear unfazed. Many young people in particular seem to shrug off the privacy concerns, arguing that their personal data is already widely exposed.

“They could get all the data they want. And anyway, I’m 16 – what are they going to find? Oh my gosh, he goes to school? There’s not much,” Kutsenko said.

Ivy Yang, an expert on U.S.-China digital interaction, told VOA many young Americans also find it unlikely that they would ever be caught up in a Chinese national security investigation.

“What they’re chasing is a dopamine peak. They’re not thinking about whether or not the dance videos or the cat tax pictures they swipe on RedNote are going to be a national security threat,” Yang, who founded the New York-based consulting company Wavelet Strategy, said.

Yang said the TikTok ban backlash and surge in RedNote downloads may reflect a shift in how young Americans see China – not just as a geopolitical rival, but as a source of apps they use in daily life.

She also attributes their skepticism to a broader cultural mindset – one shaped by a mix of curiosity, defiance, and a growing distrust of institutions, including conventional media.

Jeremy Goldkorn, a longtime analyst of U.S.-China digital trends and an editorial fellow at the online magazine ChinaFile, said growing disillusionment with America’s political turmoil and economic uncertainty has intensified these shifts.

“It makes it much more difficult for, particularly, young people to get worked up about what China’s doing when they feel so horrified about their own country,” Goldkorn said during a recent episode of the Sinica podcast, which focuses on current affairs in China.

Polling reflects this divide. A 2024 Pew survey found 81% of Americans view China unfavorably, but younger adults are less critical – only 27% of those under 30 have strongly negative views, compared to 61% of those 65 and older.

Digital barrier

While Chinese apps are expanding in the United States, in many ways the digital divide remains as impenetrable as ever.

China blocks nearly all major Western platforms and tightly controls its own apps, while the U.S. weighs new restrictions on Chinese tech.

Though President Donald Trump paused the TikTok ban, his administration has signaled broader efforts to curb China’s tech influence.

Trump officials have hinted they could take steps to regulate DeepSeek, the Chinese digital chatbot.

The Trump administration also recently signaled it intends to close a trade loophole that lets Chinese retailers bypass import duties and customs checks.

Broader challenges

Even as Washington debates how to handle the rise of Chinese apps, some analysts say the conversation risks obscuring the deeper issue of the broader role of social media itself.

Rogier Creemers, a specialist in digital governance at Leiden University, told VOA that while Chinese apps may raise valid concerns for Western countries, they are just one part of a larger, unaddressed problem.

“There’s a whole range of social ills that emerge from these social media that I think are far more important than anything the Chinese Communist Party could do,” he said, pointing to issues like digital addiction, declining attention spans, and the way social media amplifies misinformation and political unseriousness.

“And that would apply whether these apps are Chinese-owned or American-owned or Tajikistani-owned, as far as I’m concerned,” he added.

The United States, Creemer said, has taken a more hands-off approach to regulating online platforms, in part due to strong free speech protections and pushback by the tech industry.

Apps or influence?

For millions of Americans, the bigger debates about China and digital influence barely register when they open TikTok.

Kutsenko said neither he nor his friends have strong opinions about U.S.-China tensions. They just wanted an alternative to TikTok – one that felt fun, familiar, and easy to use.

It’s a sign that while policymakers see Chinese apps as part of a growing tech rivalry, for many Americans they’re just another way to scroll, shop, and stay entertained, no matter where they come from.
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Trump pushes for lower interest rates alongside reciprocal tariffs

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WASHINGTON — As his trade advisers finalized plans to enact reciprocal measures on every country that charges duties on U.S. imports, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he will push for lower interest rates alongside his tariff policies.

“Interest Rates should be lowered, something which would go hand in hand with upcoming Tariffs!!! Lets Rock and Roll, America!!!” Trump said on social media Wednesday morning.

To maintain the Federal Reserves’ autonomy from politics, U.S. presidents traditionally avoid even the appearance of meddling in monetary policy and the nation’s interest rates, which is the purview of the central bank.

Trump, however, has not shied from the practice. In a videoconference address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, Trump said he would “demand that interest rates drop immediately.”

“I know interest rates much better than they do,” he said of Fed officials. He has ramped up his criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whom he appointed in 2017 for a term that ends in 2026.

Trump’s push to lower interest rates is intended to go hand in hand with punitive measures on trading partners.

The president said Wednesday afternoon that he would approve reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday or Thursday.

“We’re going to be doing reciprocal tariffs,” he said. “Very simply, if they charge us, we charge them.”

Reciprocal tariffs are “absolutely a high priority for the president,” White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told reporters Wednesday, promising “a lot more action on it today.”

Hassett said the White House has begun negotiations with other countries early to lay the groundwork for imposing such tariffs, although he acknowledged the details about which sectors or how they will be implemented is a “work in progress.”

Under World Trade Organization rules, member countries have the right to impose tariffs on imports. Countries negotiate those rates at the WTO to determine the maximum tariff rate a member country can impose on imports from other member countries.

Inflation, looming trade war

U.S. inflation rose to 3% in January, according to government data released Wednesday. Last month, the annual pace was 2.9%.

Trump campaigned on lowering high consumer prices he blamed on his predecessor, Joe Biden. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt again attributed the increase to the previous administration.

“This is an indictment on the Biden administration’s mismanagement of the inflation crisis and their lack of transparency,” she said during her briefing Wednesday.

Trump wants to lower interest rates and inflation, she said. “He believes that the whole of government economic approach that this administration is taking will result in lower inflation.”

However, some economists warn that combining high tariffs and low interest rates will have the opposite effect.

Trump’s plan reflects a “misunderstanding of how the economy works,” said Joseph Gagnon, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“Tariffs raise prices directly, that is inflationary, but also cutting interest rates is inflationary if you do it excessively,” he told VOA. “Especially with today’s data, cutting interest rates would not be a good idea.”

During testimony Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee, Powell said the Fed was in no rush to cut interest rates because the economy had stabilized. He noted that inflation, while still above the Fed’s 2% target, was at 2.6% last year, and he said the labor market was cooling without plummeting, with the unemployment rate at 4%.

Gagnon also warned of a looming trade war. Trump already had announced Monday his decision to impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports beginning March 12.

The duties will hit top U.S. steel supplier Canada, followed by Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Germany. Additionally, Canada is the leader in aluminum exports to the American market.

European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday the move “will not go unanswered,” saying it will trigger tough countermeasures from the 27-nation bloc, potentially targeting iconic American industries such as bourbon, jeans and motorcycles. EU trade ministers are meeting Wednesday to determine their next moves.

China, Mexico and Canada

Last week, Trump imposed an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods, which the White House said was aimed at halting the flow of fentanyl opioids and their precursor chemicals.

On Monday China began slapping retaliatory actions on some American goods, including 15% duties on coal and natural gas imports and 10% on petroleum, agricultural equipment, high-emission vehicles and pickup trucks. The country also immediately implemented restrictions on the export of certain critical minerals, and it launched an antitrust investigation into American tech giant Google.

Trump delayed enacting a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada for a month — until March 4 — to allow negotiations over his demands for the U.S. neighbors to secure their borders and stop the flow of the illegal drug fentanyl.

The duties could affect about $1.323 trillion in trade imports that come from China, Mexico and Canada, according to U.S. government data. This accounts for 43% of U.S. imports and 5% of the $27 trillion U.S. gross domestic product.

If enacted, the new import taxes on Canada, Mexico and China will increase the average tariff rate from its current level of 3% to 10.7% based on contemporary trade patterns, said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at financial advisory firm RSM.

“Should the trade skirmishes escalate to include the European Union and turn into an all-out trade war, expect U.S. economic growth to ease back to 2% as the tariffs drag down growth and employment, stoke inflation and widen the current account deficit, all amid higher interest rates,” he wrote on RSM’s Real Economy Blog.

VOA’s Celia Mendoza contributed to this report.
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Zimbabwe to pay displaced, foreign white farmers

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HARARE, ZIMBABWE — Zimbabwe’s government said Wednesday it will compensate foreign investors who lost assets in the country’s controversial land reforms in the early 2000s but were protected by bilateral investment protection agreements.

Zimbabwean Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said in a statement the government will pay 94 former farmers from countries such as Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and the former Yugoslavia.

The farmers are covered under Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreements, or BIPPAs, that Zimbabwe signed with the farmers’ countries.

Ncube said $20 million is being paid out of the 2024 budget and another $20 million would come from the 2025 budget.

“This is a very important issue for our arrears clearance and debt resolution process for Zimbabwe, because some of the countries for which we want support, their farmers, their investors, into Zimbabwe were affected by the land reform program in the early 2000s,” Ncube said. “But we’re only targeting those countries where the BIPPAs were ratified properly.”

The aim, he said, is to have cleared the entire $146 million liability for BIPPA farmers by the end of 2028.

“We believe that this is very important for building trust, for honoring our commitments,” he said.

Zimbabwe’s government is aiming to rebuild its financial reputation after requesting debt relief and restructuring from international financial institutions and other countries in 2022.

According to the African Development Bank, Zimbabwe’s total foreign debt is $21 billion — including interest — which it has been failing to service for years.

However, Eddie Mahembe, an independent economist based in Harare, says resettled farmers, not the government, should pay the $146 million, to prevent increasing the country’s debt.

“Why is the government paying for the farms which were allocated to individuals?” Mahembe said. “They are farming. Some are doing tobacco. They’ve been selling their tobacco over the years, and we are seeing … that there is now a move toward giving them title deals. Why is the government assuming that debt?”

Others are concerned that Harare is paying only former farmers of foreign origin. Displaced white Zimbabwean farmers want to be compensated as well, as per a 2020 agreement.

That agreement called for Harare to pay $3.5 billion to the farmers driven off their land under a program backed by then-President Robert Mugabe starting in 2000.

Trevor Gifford, former head of Zimbabwe’s Commercial Farmers Union, said, “Twenty-five years from the start of land reform in Zimbabwe, the majority of displaced title deed holders remain destitute due to the nonpayment of compensation. The government failed to honor its commitment on paying [on time] under the global compensation agreement, which is now expired.”

He said the government’s move to give title deeds to the farmers who took over the land will create confusion and keep away foreign investors.

“The issuing of title deeds on top of existing title deeds, which have still not been paid for in terms of the international norms for land reform, is reckless and does not create any confidence for prospective investments in Zimbabwe,” Gifford said.

Graham Rae was displaced from his farm about 100 kilometers east of Harare and is now farming in neighboring Zambia. He said that until he is compensated, he will not surrender title deeds to the land for which he was dispossessed.

“You can’t steal a car and then sell it to me and think you’ve washed your hands and now it’s a legal car,” Rae said. “It’s still illegal and by the mere fact that I’m buying a stolen car from you, I’m complicit in the theft, so there are going to be lots of problems. I find that fraudulent, I just find that very sad that Zimbabwe has regressed into a basket case where there’s no rule of law, and that the rule really is at the barrel of a gun — if you don’t agree, you disappear.”

For now, the Zimbabwe government says it will issue titles to the resettled farmers so that they can use them to borrow money for capitalization of their businesses.
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New York health department confirms first case of new mpox strain

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The New York State Department of Health on Tuesday confirmed its first case of the new mpox strain, adding to the global concerns over the spread of the little-known variant.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were three confirmed cases in the country — in California, Georgia and New Hampshire — caused by the clade Ib strain. The agency said the three cases were not linked.

The World Health Organization declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years in August, following an outbreak of the viral infection in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has spread to neighboring countries.

The New York State Department of Health declined to provide further information on the case.
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Vance stakes claim to US leadership in AI

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U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance on Tuesday vowed that the United States would maintain its leadership position in the development of advanced artificial intelligence and warned leaders of other countries not to adopt regulatory standards that might “kill” the new technology “just as it’s taking off.” 

“The United States of America is the leader in AI, and our administration plans to keep it that way,” Vance told an audience of world leaders at an AI summit in Paris. He said the administration of President Donald Trump “will ensure that the most powerful AI systems are built in the U.S. with American-designed and manufactured chips.” 

Vance said that the U.S. is open to collaboration with its allies. “But,” he said, “to create that kind of trust, we need international regulatory regimes that foster the creation of AI technology rather than strangles it, and we need our European friends in particular to look to this new frontier with optimism rather than trepidation.” 

Regulations criticized 

The vice president criticized the European Union’s regulatory structure, in particular the privacy-focused General Data Protection Regulation and the misinformation-focused Digital Services Act, and he said the Trump administration will not accept foreign governments “tightening the screws on U.S. tech companies with international footprints.” 

Vance also appeared to criticize the effort in Europe to replace power generated by burning fossil fuels with more sustainable sources, saying that countries are “chasing reliable power out of their nations” at a time when AI systems demand ever-greater access to electricity. 

“The AI future is not going to be won by handwringing about safety,” Vance said. “It will be won by building — from reliable power plants to the manufacturing facilities that can produce the chips of the future.” 

While dozens of countries in attendance at the summit signed a joint declaration on “building trustworthy data governance frameworks to encourage development of innovative and privacy-protective AI,” the U.S. and U.K. did not. 

More calls for reduced regulation 

Although not as dismissive of regulations and safety concerns as Vice President Vance, other leaders at the summit appeared to agree that the regulatory burden on companies in the AI field should be lightened. 

French President Emmanuel Macron, the summit’s host, said that while safety concerns are important, Europe also needs to make it easier for AI firms there to move quickly and innovate at the same pace as other countries. 

“At the national and European scale, it is very clear that we have to resynchronize with the rest of the world,” Macron said. 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen defended the bloc’s privacy regulations and other standards, pointing out that they are meant to help businesses by creating rules that apply uniformly across all 27 member countries. 

“At the same time, I know that we have to make it easier, and we have to cut red tape — and we will,” von der Leyen said. 

Veiled China comments 

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, who also attended the summit, said Beijing is prepared to work with other countries to develop AI technology, and it is willing to share its discoveries in the field with the aim of creating “a community with a shared future for mankind.” 

In his remarks on Tuesday, Vance did not mention China by name but appeared to warn other nations against engaging in the kind of collaboration that Zhang described. 

Vance spoke of “hostile foreign adversaries” that “have weaponized AI software to rewrite history, surveil users and censor speech” and authoritarian regimes that have “stolen and used AI to strengthen their military intelligence and surveillance capabilities to capture foreign data and create propaganda to undermine other nations national security.” 

Partnering with authoritarian regimes, Vance said, “means chaining your nation to an authoritarian master that seeks to infiltrate, dig in and seize your information infrastructure.” 

The remarks came at a time when the U.S. is taking wide-ranging action to prevent China from gaining access to the most cutting-edge AI technologies. Recent news reports revealing that a seemingly innovative Chinese AI chatbot known as DeepSeek has been collecting user data and storing it on insecure servers in China has led several nations to restrict access to the service. 

On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Gou Jiakun said in a press conference: “We take the safety and security of AI seriously, and support entrepreneurial innovation by Chinese companies, thus contributing China’s part to global AI development.” 

“We have helped developing countries enhance capacity building, advocating that AI technologies should be open-sourced and there should be greater accessibility to AI services so that the benefits of AI can be shared by all countries. That said, we are against drawing lines along ideological difference, overstretching the concept of national security, or politicizing trade and tech issues,” Gou said.  

Tech researchers concerned 

Vance’s remarks about excessive AI safety concerns were in sync with actions taken so far by the Trump administration. On the day he took office, President Trump rescinded an executive order signed by his predecessor entitled, “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence.” 

Following Vance’s remarks Tuesday, U.S.-based artificial intelligence researchers warned that a world in which the U.S. declines to require companies to adopt AI safety precautions could make collaboration with colleagues in countries with stronger protections difficult. 

“In order to build effective AI, you have to source data globally, so you have more accurate, complete and representative data sets,” Susan Ariel Aaronson told VOA. She is a professor at George Washington University and co-leader of the National Science Foundation’s Trustworthy AI Institute for Law and Society. 

“Many AI researchers believe we’re running out of data,” Aaronson said. “The future for these firms, the future [for these] markets are overseas, and so we need rules to govern how we interact with policymakers and users in those markets.”  

Mona Sloane, a professor at the University of Virginia who leads an AI research lab, told VOA that maintaining access to those data sets is a prevailing concern. 

“If you talk to people in the research community in the United States, those folks are acutely worried about access to data sets, about collaborating [internationally] on AI questions, or using AI in their research,” she said. 

“There will be very severe implications for research in the United States on AI — but also with AI — by getting cut off from these international conversations,” Sloane said. 
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American EV makers adjust to possible end of federal tax credit

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The latest offerings for electric vehicles take center stage at the 2025 Chicago Auto Show as some federal tax incentives could end. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more.
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