percent for 2021 it announced that figure at the opening of its annual legislative session in beijing china has strongly rebounded from the pandemic in contrast with other major economies it has contains the virus through strict restrictions and mass testing the government's budget report says that china will also boost its defense spending by 6.8 percent in the coming year. and for more i am joined by turn a list mathias bolinger who is joining us from beijing and mathias i'd like to start briefly with the economy with you as we've heard china has become one of the few economies that have growth last year now the government's having this target of more than 6 percent how do they plan to reach that when it comes to g.d.p. growth. the signal is very clear the economy is going back to normal or the government wants the economy to go back to normal as are the economies will have been able to contain the virus there are a few others i want so korea new zealand for example. they all have been back at gross towards the end of the year and china's not this uing its goals now whether they can reach

companies in china. beijing has accused washington of violating international trading norms as well. >> spea-- [speaking chinese] kate: both sides downplaying any idea of breakthrough. a number of american seeking unemployment benefits rose last week, bucking a trend that raised hopes about a labor market recovery. 770,000 new applications were reported across the country. 18.2 million americans are still reviewing -- receiving some kind of unappointed benefits. let's check in on the day's en wall street closed earlier. the s&p 500 is down 1.5%, the nasdaq is about 3% lower on the close as tech stocks weighted down trade, treasury yields soared again. the tenure -- 10 year yield bond hitting its highest. earlier, the major european indices closed higher. the dax closed up over 1%. the bank of england kept interest rates on hold. as much of france heads back into lockdown, affected businesses will be looking for more financial aid. the government will spend a further 1.2 billion euros per month to support affecte

doing to >>> back now with this dust storm that clouded the skies of beijing, china. turned originals. some of the >>> back now with this dust storm that clouded the skies of beijing, china. an air pollution warning was issued as visibility plunged and skies turned orange. some of the dust blew all the way from mongolia, nearly 800 miles from the chinese capital. >>> now to an incredible story from just outside philadelphia. a mother accused of making cyberattacks against girls who were also members of her daughter's cheerleading squad. here is megan tevrizian. >> reporter: this morning a pennsylvania mother faces criminal charges, accused of creating fake videos of her daughter's cheerleading teammates. police say raffaela spone altered videos of her daughter's cheerleading squad known as the victory vipers, depicting them naked and smoking from a vape pen and sent it to the girls and their coaches. >> if the essence of it was to knock them down, essentially to try to shame them or get them knocked off the team, what appeared to be the motivation. >> reporter: one me

washington that's not speak to that or any you in beijing for us so that china china reacting angrily to the sanctions what more are we hearing and seeing from beijing. beijing is definitely angry they've just summoned the e.u. ambassador to china to complain about these sanctions immediately china issued a statement criticizing the european union for interfering in china's domestic affairs saying that these sanctions were based on lies and that china reserves the right to impose further actions if the u.s. doesn't back down now these sanctions that china has imposed these are supercool sanctions are a little bit expanded compared to what the e.u. did the e.u. targeted for individuals in china in addition to a number of government bodies china impose sanctions on 10 individuals who are members of the e.u. parliament and their families as well as a democracy and human rights organization now this is going to have ramifications for the relationship between the e.u. and china china overtook the u.s. last year as the biggest trading partner of the e.u. and it took a few years it was final

move in a bloc to sanction china was back in 1989 as a result of beijing's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in tiananmen square now the european council at the time and the u.s. both issued sanctions on china that were quite damaging that was 30 years ago back then china was a much smaller country a much weaker economy and still those sanctions did little to influence china's pavia and now we've got china the 2nd largest economy in the world with quite a few powerful relationships with a plethora of countries and it's difficult to say that it will have any impact on time to the havior if anything china has signaled that it's only going to double down and protect what it considers its core interests what it is doing there as just of it as receiving the western bloc consist of canada the u.s. u.k. except euro. group together to put pressure on china's human rights abuses we've seen they just move closer to its or and allies china's foreign minister is currently in talks with russia's foreign minister in beijing today we've also had president xi jinping reach out to north korea and

international rules while china accuses the us of suppressing other countries' i'll get the view from beijing china wants from the u.s. . from prickly problems to public relations cool how taiwan turned the pineapple into a symbol of resistance against china. i'm going to spend a day welcome to do. glad you could join us and acrimonious exchange has marked the 1st high level meeting between the new u.s. administration and chinese officials u.s. secretary of state antony blinken accused china of threatening global stability while china's top diplomat young deity accused the u.s. of inciting countries to attack china the testy exchange came as blinken and national security adviser jake sullivan met chinese foreign minister one year and young do you see in alaska and this is a glimpse of how it went today will have an opportunity to discuss key priorities both domestic and global also discuss our deep concerns with actions by china including. hong kong taiwan cyber attacks on the united states. on cyber attacks let me say that whether it's the launch cyber attacks or the technologies that could be dep

washington well katrina you joins us live now from beijing katrina so china reacting there with fury to these sanctions what will we seeing and hearing now from beijing. well if you mean the chinese foreign ministry condemned this these acts and also chinese state media come down be heavy heavily critical of the e.u. and what it says is interfering in china's internal affairs they jean has said that this is based on lies and disinformation and as we just heard in that story it quickly slapped on its own reciprocal sanctions but it expanded them somewhat so the e.u. targeted 4 individuals here in china as well as a number of government bodies but the chinese reciprocal sanctions target 10 individuals including their families and these are members of the e.u. parliament as well as 4 organizations including a democracy and human rights think tack now this is definitely going to have ramifications for china's relationship with the e.u. china or of the took the u.s. is the largest trading partner last year and birthday parties were in the middle of finalizing a comprehensive investment tre

were made at the opening of its legislative session in beijing china has rebounded strongly from the pandemic and was the only need your economy to see economic growth last year it has contained the virus through strict restrictions and mass testing. now hong kong will be a key focus during the annual congress and beijing has laid out its intent to overhaul the electoral system there. the chaos in hong kong society shows that there are obvious loopholes and defects in the current electoral system and mechanisms of the hong kong special administrative region we don't want provides an opportunity for the china forces in hong kong to seize control of the hong kong as they are. and for more on this i'm joined by journalist mathias bowling there who is standing by for us in beijing and mathias we have to just mention for context last year this national people's congress imposed a national security law on hong kong that has led led to dozens of arrests in the region tell us now reforming the electoral system is in focus what does that mean. well in the past or until now beijing hired a mec

gerry: allies don't scene that interested in beijing china is too important for economists in europe ere for those countries to risk that confrontation, what should the u.s. do as it speaks to deal with the china challenge, here to discuss a former ambassador to china under president obama, ambassador thank you for joining me. >> you back, thank you. president biden has made it clear that he intends in some ways to continue president trump's approach of dealing with challenging of confronting china perhaps more than previous administrations and he wants to get allies involved the allies seem reluctant and maybe some of the others in asia already intimidated by china, how do you go about building a coalition to challenge china as a rose and more important in the world. >> one has to recognize that china is not going anywhere, china is always going to be there and china will continue to grow it is a major force that we have to reckon with, i believe the best approach frankly seems to be pursuing will reassess all the relationships that we do have we china trade policies, the trade tarif

continue behind closed doors james al-jazeera and courage katrina here on china's reaction from beijing. china's foreign ministry spoke this afternoon laying the blame for this tense atmosphere solely at the foot of washington china's foreign ministry spokesperson john lee jen said china was invited and then promptly the us open the meeting by starting with what he described as unfounded attacks on the chinese side he said it was impolite and the chinese officials had no choice but to fire back he also acknowledged the atmosphere in the room and said that it was dramatic and that there was a court smell of gunpowder in the air is what he said now i think the key thing to remember is one of the whole months of chinese president xi jinping has leadership here is really trying to come from a position of strength has made this promise to the chinese people since he's been in power that china will no longer be looked down on by the west and i think this was a very much the point of strength that chinese officials wanted to convey during the opening statement that they made during this alaska encounte

known, because they're widely seen as pawns in a wider geopolitical fight between washington and beijing chinaays that miss meng is a hostage and outside the courts, diplomats were saying it shows a lack of transparency in china's system that china has violated international protocols. there's no word on a verdict but this is a conviction that requires 99% >> complicated story, thank you, janis. >>> one peteam is busting brackets, after upsets number 2 ohio state oral roberts came up swinging the gators are up by five. and from weaver it puts oral roberts up late. florida would have one last time, it was no good, oral roberts wins it 81-78. >>> remember, sister jean? she predicted that other loyola ramblers would make it to the big game that translated to plenty of points on the other end, the ramblers ran away with the upset, they head back to the sweet skin with a 71-58 victory. the upsets kept coming late into the night. oregon state led by as much as 18 and they blocked 11 oklahoma state shots. the cowboys did make it a game late but the beavers went on to win, survive and advance they did

vetted by a committee appointed by beijing this year's meeting also saw chinese president xi jinping announced that his government had ended extreme poverty in china you have been following all of this for us in beijing katrina as this all comes to a close can you talk to us about the significance of the bills that we've seen voted through. well this national people's congress has an annual opportunity for 3000 members of the chinese communist party to past bills in china now this is a largely ceremonial event and many of these bills and documents are approved way ahead of schedule and also we expect that all of these will be passed so they voted on 10 different bills today and those include the budget for the next year or china's 5 and 15 year plan but of course the one that we're really looking out for that the international community was waiting for was this bill to reform hong kong's political system now when it comes to the vote today in beijing is great hall of the people we had $2895.00 officials approve this bill and only one abstention so it was pretty much unanimously passed as was expected now we've just gotten more details of what this

the sentient individuals are prohibited from entering china, beijing and macau, and from doing businessions between china and western countries flared over forced labor in xinjiang. china will impose anti-dumping tariffs on 200% on australian wine over the next 500 years -- over the next five years. it comes after a range of products. ties between the countries have been strained since they banned huawei and called for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. according to local reports, australia is investigating a potential cyberattack involving government issued smartphones and tablets. the department of parliamentary services was shut down over the weekend due to the potential breach. the defense ministry says the fault was linked to an external provider and connections to government systems were severed immediately over an abundance of caution. at least 14 people were injured after a suspected suicide bombing at a catholic church in central indonesia. the blast happened sunday morning just as sunday mass finished. three people on a motorbike attempted to enter

role in human rights abuses against muslim wiggers in northwest china the use foreign policy chief says the sanctions are meant to engage beijing in dialogue rather than changes policies and address our legitimate concern and china is against a blind eye and these measures that will annex an acceptable. there will be no change in due to fear in union determination to defend human rights and to respond to city is that your nation abuses as they said it respective or where they could it it infuriated beijing who almost immediately issued retaliatory sanctions of their own against several european politicians they said were spreading lies and misinformation china has repeatedly denied human rights abuses are perpetrated against religious and ethnic minorities but u.s. secretary of state anthony blinken said china is guilty of genocide against weekers and the same sions come just days after contentious meetings between chinese and american officials in alaska but on monday the white house said the sanctions are not a direct reaction to the alaska meetings under former president donald trump the u.s. took a unilateral approach to al

sanctions against 2 dozen officials it says have undermined hong kong's partial autonomy from beijing. china. were. wonder. if. on wednesday a spokesperson for the chinese ministry of foreign affairs weighed in on this new round of sanctions. you want to. leave public opinion and exert pressure he china will not succeed china has always been resolute in seattle . and national development and suddenly we urge the u.s. side to adhere to the be. international relational get it when you do not as you know things that endangered her interests. and this latest escalation in tensions comes ahead of bilateral meetings between washington and beijing for more on all this let's bring in professor richard walter host of economic update and author of the sick this is the system when capitalism fails to save us from pandemics or itself which is available on e-book now and to bust co-host an investigative journalist ben swan bet i want to start with you on this give us a rundown of what these sanctions include yeah so these sanctions are actually an extension if you will of sanctions that are already been

china has warned other countries not to criticise its radical overhaul of hong kong's political system, which tightens beijing's pressure china over hong kong would fail. new measures will halve the number of directly elected seats while only candidates considered patriotic will be allowed to run. hong kong's chief executive carrie lam has been outlining the new legislation — she touched on the process by which candidates will be judged to be eligible. translation: the second area we have to work on is the candidate _ eligibility review committee. you're all very concerned about the composition of this committee. details are not specified in the annex, that is, it will have to be done by way of local legislation. i'm joined now by ramon yuen, one of the district councillors for the hong kong democratic party. just listening to carrie lam there, is this the end of the road for your democratic dreams? {iii is this the end of the road for your democratic dreams?— is this the end of the road for your democratic dreams? of course we will fi . ht for democratic dreams? of course we will fight for democracy, _ democra

known because they're widely seen as pawns in a wider geopolitical fight between washington and beijing chinat ms. meng is being held as a hostage, that the u.s. is targeting huawei but outside the court today, diplomats were saying that it shows there is a lack of transparency in china's system, that china has violated international protocols. there is no word yet on a verdict, but this is a system that carries a conviction rate of 99% phillip, frances, back to you. >> janice, thank you. >>> how ditching your devices for a day could win you $2400. they were following her because she had beef jerky in her pocket. (laughing) (trumpet playing) someone behind me, come on. pick that up, pick that up, right there, right there. as long as you keep making the internet an amazing place to be, we'll keep bringing you a faster, more secure, and more amazing internet. xfinity. the future of awesome. i thought i was getting my floors clean. and then i learned my mop could be loaded with bacteria. so, i got a swiffer wetjet to get a cleaner... clean the spray breaks down dirt and the pad absorbs it deep i

percent or 2021 and announced the figure at the opening of its annual legislative session in a beijing china has rebounded strongly from the pandemic in contrast to other major economies it has contain the virus through strict restrictions and mass testing. senegalese police clashed with student protesters in the capital of dakar police officials that one person was killed as follows the detention of opposition leader go on wednesday his arrest has triggered the worst on rest seen in the west african country in years. authorities in a new zealand have downgraded a tsunami warning and told thousands of people they can return to their homes they had issued an evacuation a large after a series of powerful earthquakes off the country's northeastern coast. it's lebanon's currency plunged to a record low this week sending people back on to the streets for a new wave of protests it crippling economic crisis has gripped the country has only been a caretaker government in place to oversee much needed reforms the protesters wants and wants to bring an end to decades of political corruption and mismana

so no surprise we're seeing an immediate reaction from beijing. china has imposed sanctions on ten european individuals as well as four entities, accusing them of, quote, spreading lies and disinformation. this has the effect on the target of blocking them from entering mainland china, hong kong, or macao. it also bars their related companies, restricting them from doing business with china. now, this is all part of that multilateral effort with the u.s., uk, eu, and canada all levying their own sanctions on chinese individuals and officials accused of human rights abuses in xinjiang. and it is in line with the biden administration's strategy of working multilaterally, working with allies to counter china. there was also a strongly worded statement from the five eyes alliance as well as from u.s. secretary of state antony blinken saying, quote, the evidence including from the chinese government's own documents, satellite imagery, and eyewitness testimony is overwhelming. china's extensive program of oppression includes severe restrictions on religious f

is approaching this i see at the national people's congress in china it's just wrapping up and beijing china publicly stated it actually wants to expand its new capacity here. and it's true it's very china is probably the only country in the world that's got a really consistent program of actually building reactors are supposed to talking about building reactors going forward but even in china with all its engineering skills it's actually not been able to keep pace with what its original plans were because it's so expensive to do with to build new nuclear power stations and the engineering and concrete and steel requirements is so large but china is i think a country that will probably do more to use no air power but then if you live in a well thought of tearing government you cry from the mistakes that other governments make you can't learn from your own mistakes so i think that's often just a feature of the politics of china more than anything else and tom you talked about the economics of new camp happensis just not really where king not just the infrastructure but also managing the waste

of using coercion and aggression and hong kong taiwan in the south china sea beijing in turn accuse the us of violating international law and interfering with china's national sovereignty leaving a number of questions about whether relations between the 2 countries would be any different under the new administration as for the ongoing trade war reports of noted the trade relations between the 2 countries are likely to remain challenged after the in person talk show the president biden does not plan to abandon the trumpet ministrations rhetoric in fact biden has yet to pull back on any of the tariffs sanctions or other measures put in place to target china over the last 4 years and that includes the ongoing case against wall ways c.f.o. . is back in a canadian courtroom this week in her fight against extradition to the u.s. her team continues to argue she was wrongfully detained and that her rights were violated by canadian law enforcement officers who are working with the f.b.i. so joining me now to discuss the latest between the u.s. and china is boom bust co-host ch

they're currently reviewing that travel policies of 0 as the trainer you live for us there in beijing china many thanks indeed the u.s. president says that north korea will face consequences if it chooses the path of escalation on thursday pyongyang confirmed that it tested a new guided missile north korean officials say the weapon which is believed to be a ballistic type will act as a deterrent against any bill a true threat it was the 1st major provocation since joe biden took office in january robert broad reports now from seoul. north korea has been as you might expect heralding this as a major military success it has released through the official north korean news agency still pictures of the launch showing suitably jubilant north korean senior officials cheering one of the missiles on its way interestingly absent from the picture is the north korean leader kim jong un himself normally he is depicted watching these great milestone military achievements he wasn't apparently at this launch but they have released more details about this particular type of missile saying it is a newly deve

saying i'm the main foreign policy decision making body and this china has slapped sanctions on british individuals and organizations beijing retaliated china sanctioned. our supposed to work beijing is apparently willing to sacrifice a huge trade deal is signed with europe movie thing is going to suffer more from. the times are changing sanctions may no longer be a one way street. but even america's allies and the threat of some. since hanging over them the u.s. secretary of state warning german companies involved in russia's nordstrom to gas pipeline to europe also risk penalties got reaction from a lawmaker with the german social democratic party. the european union and its member states certainly have different views when it comes to security policy ideas with nato in the e.u. there are always joint dialogues and shared procedures i can't imagine that individual projects like north stream 2 or other projects would threaten the security policy interests of the e.u. as a whole or cause the member states to disagree the united states through its sanctions laws has ways of targeting individual companies involved in the cons

we see that the court process to itself is not transparent let's get more from katrina you in beijing china what more do we know at this stage about michael called riggs trial and the significance of these 2 cases internationally. well this is now the climax of what has been a long drawn out process for michael covering and also for michael spade or the 2nd canadian businessman who's also been trialled in dun dong they were both detained in china on december the december 2018 but it took another 13 months after that for them to be formally arrested and then another 5 months for them to be formally charged with spying and also providing intelligence to outside sources that's more than 800 days now that they've been detained with very little access to the outside world apart from letters to loved ones but little else canadian officials were granted monthly consular visits to them but because of card those visits will pause and they've been highly critical of we just heard of these 2 cases in the way they've been handled the canadian government has called them arbitrary political and unaccepta

saying i'm the main foreign policy decision making body and this china has slapped sanctions on british individuals and organizations beijing retaliated china sanctioned. our supposed to work beijing is apparently willing to sacrifice a huge trade deal is signed with europe movie thing is going to suffer more from now yet the times are changing sanctions may no longer be a one way street. britain's hospitality industry has fired back at the prime minister's suggestion that customers who have not received 1000 shard could be banned from bars. i do think that the basic concept of vaccines to the cation should not be totally alien to us maybe up to the individual public the world may be able to in the land look i think it's far too much for a problem if you don't particularly want to have the scene for whatever reason then you people are banned from going to pubs and things like that so i don't agree with that no i think if you're looking to travel abroad i get it because that way you can sort of contain the virus to like one country but just going out to the pub and stuff. i don't think it would give the landowner too much po

saying and the main foreign policy decision making body and this china has slapped sanctions on british individuals and organizations beijing retaliated china sanctioned. our supposed to work beijing is apparently willing to sacrifice a huge trade deal is signed with europe movie thing is going to suffer more from now. the times are changing sanctions may no longer be a one way street. in a bid for more diversity u.s. theatre has scrapped the production of cinderella because the cast was too white we believe unapologetically in the changes were making and we believe this all of our work and how did guests will follow us on these journey the artistic director of the minnesota productions says the cast was 98 percent white breaking its diversity policies but eyebrows have been raised as the company's based in a suburb the overwhelmingly white making it hard to fill the racial quotas and it ignited a firestorm on social media i will screw up my blouse or ever visit china ason dinner theater declaring the diversity caught at a local dinner theater is simply bad business and are necessary no problem one move venue to never get m

beijing to set out the government's plan for the next 5 years between a year reports from beijing. 2 thousands of china's most powerful political and i gather in beijing on friday to top the country's roadmap for the next 5 to 15 you. is the annual national people's congress or n.p.c. was perspiring last year following the corona virus outbreak this year covered $9000.00 cases are under control and analysts say president xi jinping will be touting an image of triumph as well as consolidating his power. he has been establishing his power through political and military achievements in the future he will focus on competing with. china's political future like i. was. strengthening loyalty to the chinese communist party is a priority beijing is preparing for the parties in 10 or in july during the congress china's leaders will release their annual outlining economic targets thinking is expected to encourage domestic consumption and continue to push for a more prosperous society to do this they will need to address the challenges of a widening wealth gap and aging population goal is also usually sets the last

sions and the main foreign policy decision making body and this china has slapped sanctions on british individuals and organizations beijing retaliated china sanctioned. our supposed to work beijing is apparently willing to sacrifice a huge trade deal is signed with europe movie thing is going to suffer more from now. the times are changing sanctions may no longer be a one way street. the taliban has warned the u.s. against the missing the 1st of may deadline for pulling its troops out of afghanistan the militant group says washington will be fully responsible if the violence continues on thursday though joe biden reiterated that getting the withdrawal done on time would be a tough task scoobie hard to me to move right. in terms of. tactical reasons hard to get those troops we will leave the question is when we . will there are currently 2 and a half 1000 u.s. troops in afghanistan the lowest number since operations began there in 2001 the taliban and says there is no reason for the pentagon to miss the withdrawal deadline as all tactical issues were settled in a deal signed off by for president ronald from last year brian