Aurelia Butler

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    China Condemns JD Vance’s ‘Chinese Peasants’ Comment

    Beijing has denounced Vice President JD Vance’s rhetoric as “ignorant” after he said the United States was borrowing money from “Chinese peasants” in a television interview last week.“China’s position on Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations has been made very clear,” said Lin Jian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, during a news conference on Tuesday. “It is surprising and sad to hear the vice president say such ignorant and impolite words.”China has remained defiant in the face of the Trump administration’s tariffs and the latest threat from President Trump of an additional 50 percent tariff on Chinese goods unless Beijing reverses its retaliatory levies on U.S. imports. China’s Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday accused the United States of “blackmail,” and said that Beijing would “fight to the end.”In an interview with Fox News last week, Mr. Vance defended the Trump administration’s sweeping global tariffs, asking what the “globalist economy” has given the United States.Answering his own question, Mr. Vance said America was “incurring a huge amount of debt to buy things that other countries make” for its market. “We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture,” he said.Mr. Trump’s new policies, condemned by many international leaders, have wrought havoc on financial markets and spurred experts to issue warnings about inflation.The spiraling trade war between the two countries is poised to be costly to Americans, who last year purchased $440 billion of goods from China, making the country the second-largest source of imports after Mexico.Gillian Wong More

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    Belgian Prince Seeks Pension Benefits

    A court case by the Belgian king’s younger brother argued that he was entitled to a state pension to keep his wife and adult children financially safe.For attending galas, cutting ribbons and meeting diplomats, a Belgian prince takes home a royal allowance of 100,000 euros, nearly $110,000, a year. But what will happen when he stops working? For that, Prince Laurent of Belgium is seeking government benefits.A court this week agreed in part, recommending that the country’s lawmakers consider drawing up regulations for a federal pension for the prince, even as it dismissed his argument that his royal duties were in essence a job and that his incurred expenses were comparable to being self-employed.His lawyer, Olivier Rijckaert, said in an interview Tuesday that the court had effectively placed the prince in a special category, akin to a “super public servant.” Only one other person is in that category, his lawyer said: the prince’s older sister, Princess Astrid.The prince, who is 61, will now decide whether to wait for the law to be passed or to challenge the court’s ruling, hoping to speed the process, his lawyer said.Prince Laurent, the younger brother of King Phillippe, brought the case in 2023, suing Belgium’s National Institute for the Social Security of the Self-employed. He argued in court that without a pension, his wife, Princess Claire, and their three adult children would be left financially vulnerable upon his death or if he halted his duties, according to court documents.The prince receives a stipend of €400,000 a year, three-quarters of which is used to cover his staff’s salaries plus various trips and entertainment expenses, according to his lawyer. Prince Laurent is required to provide supporting documents for all of those expenses, Mr. Rijckaert said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Glenn Youngkin on D.E.I., Trump’s Tariffs and a Possible 2028 Run

    In an interview, the Republican governor of Virginia spoke at length about his views on diversity efforts, among other subjects.Five years ago, Glenn Youngkin was a co-chief executive at a major private equity firm, where he repeatedly made the case that diversity and inclusion were good for business.Now, he is the Republican governor of Virginia, a term-limited conservative who criticizes diversity, equity and inclusion programs and is seen as a potential future candidate for president.On Sunday, he spoke by phone about his thinking on diversity, President Trump’s tariffs and whether he might be interested in running for president in 2028.Here are excerpts from the interview, edited and condensed.When you began as co-chief executive at Carlyle, you were asked by Bloomberg Markets about whether there was a need for more racial and gender diversity. And you said addressing that challenge would be one of your key priorities. Do you still believe that racial and gender diversity are important?When you are building a world-class talent pool, you have to make sure that you are looking everywhere for it. And in order to do that, you will embrace a diverse work force that is inclusive.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Glenn Youngkin, an Anti-D.E.I. Governor, Once Championed Diversity

    Not long before he became Virginia’s governor, Mr. Youngkin helped lead, and spoke approvingly of, efforts to improve racial and gender diversity at his private equity firm.Before Glenn Youngkin was a culture warrior who cheered the demise of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, he was a financial executive who worried about a lack of diversity in his field.“One of the clear challenges in the financial sector broadly is both race and gender diversity,” Mr. Youngkin said in a 2018 interview with Bloomberg Markets, soon after becoming a co-chief executive at the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm.His company, he noted approvingly, had worked for years to address disparities in representation.“The second we stepped into this role, we emphasized that this approach was not only going to continue,” he added, “but it was going to be one of our key priorities.”Seven years later, Mr. Youngkin is the Republican governor of Virginia, an ambitious conservative who harnessed concerns about classroom instruction on race into political power, and who has energetically embraced President Trump’s hostility to D.E.I. initiatives.“D.E.I. is dead in Virginia,” he declared recently.In tone and emphasis, his transformation has been striking, and more drastic than commonly understood, according to interviews with half a dozen people who worked with Mr. Youngkin during his time leading Carlyle, as well as a review of company statements, official filings and other documentation from that time.But in many ways, the evolution of Mr. Youngkin — who some Republicans hope will run for president — reflects the ever more chameleonic nature of his party at the dawn of a second Trump era.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Some Calm Returns to Asian Markets Even as Trade Tensions Escalate

    Stocks rise in China after Beijing announces support measures a day after market plunges triggered by tariffs imposed by President Trump.After three days of global market turmoil not seen since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, stocks in Asia regained a measure of calm on Tuesday despite little let up in the escalating trade tensions caused by President Trump’s tariffs.Before markets opened in China, the government unleashed a series of measures to stabilize stocks. In turn, share prices in Hong Kong, a day after plunging 13.2 percent, rose 2 percent. Benchmarks in mainland China ticked higher, recovering from big declines the day before.In Japan, the Nikkei 225, a key benchmark in Japan, gained 6 percent, recouping a portion of the previous days losses. The uptick in sentiment followed comments made on Monday by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said he would soon begin discussions with the Japanese government regarding tariffs.The Kospi index rose in South Korea rose about 1.5 percent.Markets around the world were unmoored last week by Mr. Trump’s announcement of broad new tariffs — a base tax of 10 percent on American imports, plus significantly higher rates on dozens of other countries. Countries have responded with tariffs of their own on U.S. goods, or with threats of retaliation. China retaliated forcefully on Friday, matching a new 34 percent tariff with one of its own on many American imports.In the United States on Monday, the S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent after tumultuous trading that at one point pulled the benchmark into bear market territory, or a drop of 20 percent or more from its recent high. S&P futures, indicating how markets might perform when they reopen for trading on Wednesday in New York, were 1.5 percent higher.Wall Street executives and analysts are growing increasingly worried that escalating trade tensions could do lasting damage to the global economy.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    China Accuses U.S. of Blackmail After Trump Threatens More Tariffs

    The country’s commerce ministry called President Trump’s threat to escalate tariffs on China by another 50 percent “blackmail.”China lashed out at the United States on Tuesday after President Trump demanded that Beijing rescind its retaliatory tariffs or face an additional 50 percent U.S. levy, calling his threat “blackmail,” as tensions between the two major powers rose.The Ministry of Commerce, without referring to the American president by name, said that Beijing had noted that the United States had threatened to impose a further 50 percent tariff on China. It said that Beijing would take countermeasures to safeguard its interests.“The U.S. threat to escalate tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake, which once again exposes the blackmail nature of the United States,” the ministry’s statement said. “China will never accept it. If the United States insists on its own way, China will fight to the end.”China had announced last week that it would match Mr. Trump’s tariffs by imposing a retaliatory 34 percent tax on imports from America. The latest escalation that Mr. Trump described on Monday, if imposed, could bring the U.S. tariff on Chinese goods to 104 percent. For some products, though, the rate is likely to be much higher because of levies that date back to Mr. Trump’s first term. Mr. Trump also threatened to halt any further negotiations.American consumers last year bought $440 billion of goods from China, making it the second-largest source of U.S. imports after Mexico. Taken together, it could prove costly for American importers bringing in clothing, cellphones, chemicals and machinery from China.China said that the United States should cancel all unilateral tariffs against China, “stop suppressing China’s economy and trade, and properly resolve differences with China through equal dialogue on the basis of mutual respect.”China has been trying for months to engage in high-level talks with the Trump administration to try to lay the ground for a potential summit between Mr. Trump and China’s top leader, Xi Jinping. But despite Mr. Trump saying earlier this year that he was open to engaging with Mr. Xi, Beijing has struggled to receive much of a response from the White House.Berry Wang More

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    Mother and 3 Children Detained by ICE at Upstate N.Y. Farm Are Released

    The family was returned to New York after being taken into custody last month and held at a detention center in Texas, officials and advocates said.Three children and their mother have been released from federal custody after being detained by immigration enforcement agents last month at an upstate New York dairy farm, officials said on Monday.The case sent shock waves through tiny Sackets Harbor, N.Y., a village of about 1,400 people on Lake Ontario where the children were enrolled, and well liked, at the town’s school.The family’s detention was another move amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown to touch off protests. About 1,000 people rallied on the family’s behalf on Saturday, according to North Country Public Radio.The release of the woman and her children — a third grader and two high school students — was announced by Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, and the local state assemblyman, Scott Gray, a Republican“We are open to working with federal immigration enforcement to crack down on gang members or violent criminals,” Ms. Hochul said in a statement. “But I will never support cruel actions that rip kids out of school or tear families apart.”Mr. Gray said in a separate statement that “we are all profoundly grateful” that the family had been returned to New York.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    NYT Crossword Answers for April 8, 2025

    Barbara Lin helps us out in more ways than one.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — My first experience with Barbara Lin’s crosswords was in 2023, when I wrote the column for her Fourth of July puzzle. It was a breezy Tuesday grid with a timely wink, its themed entries stacked so as to create a tottering pile of burger toppings. It made me smile.That solving experience seems to have had a priming effect on me, because now, whenever I see Ms. Lin’s byline on a crossword, I am transported right back to the dog days of summer. I feel my spirits lift and my worries fade, and sometimes, I can even hear the ocean.I hope that today’s crossword leaves you in similarly, ahem, chipper spirits.Today’s ThemeIt seems like just yesterday we had a gambling-themed puzzle — because it was just yesterday — and here’s another one that antes up. In this case, however, the [Bluffer’s activity] of a POKER GAME (22A) makes up only a part of Ms. Lin’s gambit.Each of today’s themed entries represents a different interpretation of the revealer clue at 37A: [Contributes to a group gift … or a hint to 17-, 22-, 48- and 54-Across]. The answer is CHIPS IN. And the themed entries all have different kinds of CHIPS IN them.A poker game uses chips. The [Treat from a recipe printed on a Nestlé package] is a TOLL HOUSE COOKIE (17A), which contains chocolate chips. A [Crunchy Tex-Mex bowl] known as TACO SALAD (48A) includes tortilla chips. And your [Office workstation] DESKTOP COMPUTER (54A) contains microchips.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More