“When we arrived here, we were told by locals that when the floodwaters started coming in Mokwa, more bodies were flowing in from more villages upstream and so this used to be where homes were. Several homes, over 300 of them, were washed away or completely destroyed by the flood waters,” said Idris, as clothes and residents’ other belongings lied scattered in piles across the ground.
Despite a temporary tariff truce reached between them earlier this month, divisions between Washington and Beijing remain wide, with recent ruptures over higher education, artificial intelligence (AI) chips and rare earth minerals.Here’s all we know about how relations between China and the United States are worsening despite diplomatic efforts.
What did the US and China agree on tariffs?escalated after Trump’s administration raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145 percent earlier this year, with cumulative US duties on some Chinese goods reaching a staggering 245 percent. China retaliated with 125 percent tariffs of its own on US goods.Under an agreement reached on May 12 following two days of
trade talks in Geneva, tariffs on both sides were dropped by
115 percentage points
for 90 days, during which time negotiators hope to secure a longer-term agreement. For now, the US has maintained a 30 percent tariff on all Chinese goods while Beijing has a 10 percent levy on US products.Another survivor said: “I escaped with only my nightdress. Right now, I can’t even identify where our home used to be.”
“The grim task of recovering bodies and what little the residents and victims of this disaster can is what’s been going on since we arrived here in the early afternoon,” said Idris, standing in front of a dilapidated house as children and adults alike dig for belongings and bodies.“When we arrived here, we were told by locals that when the floodwaters started coming in Mokwa, more bodies were flowing in from more villages upstream and so this used to be where homes were. Several homes, over 300 of them, were washed away or completely destroyed by the flood waters,” said Idris, as clothes and residents’ other belongings lied scattered in piles across the ground.
Residents believe that the floods may have been caused by “a bigger problem upstream, maybe a dam burst, but up to now officials are not confirming that”, said Idris. “But the amount of water that came into this community is so much that nobody had any time to prepare to evacuate.”Meteorologists warn that more rain is expected in the coming days, raising fears of further flooding across the region.