Tuesday morning news: May 14, 2019

China fires latest shot in trade war with U.S. » Beijing on Monday returned fire in the escalating trade war between China and the United states.

China is increasing tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods. That in response to President Trump raising tariffs last Friday from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion in Chinese exports.

President Trump on Monday called last week’s tariffs a “positive step.” The White House says the U.S. will win the trade war because it’s hurting China more than the United States.

TRUMP: I love the position we’re in. There can be some retaliation, but it can’t be very, very substantial by comparison.

On June 1st, China will increase duties of 5 percent to 25 percent on more than 5,000 American goods. The list will include spinach, coffee, and other agricultural products.

President Trump said Monday that his administration will take more steps to help U.S. farmers hurt by the trade war.

TRUMP: We’re going to take the highest year, the biggest purchase that China has ever made with our farmers, which is about $15 billion, and do something reciprocal to our farmers, so our farmers can do well. 

Trump addressed the Chinese government in a tweet on Monday, saying—“You had a great deal, almost completed, & you backed out!”

The Trump administration said Chinese negotiators last week reneged on numerous concessions, tanking progress in the trade talks.

Lower Mississippi Valley gets break in weather after flooding » Residents in the lower Mississippi Valley got a much needed break in the weather Monday after heavy rains flooded streets and homes over the weekend.

In Harris County, Mississippi, rescuers found a man clinging to a tree after floodwaters swept his car off a road. Officials rescued another man and his 4-year-old child from the roof of their submerged pickup truck.

Homes also flooded in New Orleans. Ryan Murray walked down his stairs in the middle of the night to find water rising on the first level. He said had he not woken up, his dog might have drowned.

MURRAY: My biggest concern is that if I was at work and he was in his cage and that happened, he would have drowned in his cage. 

Two inches of rain fell in just one hour in New Orleans, and the city’s drainage system couldn’t keep up.

Former President Jimmy Carter recovering after hip surgery » Former President Jimmy Carter is recovering at his home in Plains, Georgia, after undergoing emergency surgery. WORLD Radio’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Carter was on his way to go turkey hunting on Monday when he fell and fractured his hip. Doctors operated to repair it a short time later.

A spokeswoman for the former president said he is doing well. In a statement she said his “main concern … is that turkey season ends this week, and he has not reached his limit. He hopes the State of Georgia will allow him to rollover the unused limit to next year.”

She said the 94-year-old is otherwise healthy. Carter was diagnosed with cancer in 2015. He received treatment for seven months until scans showed no sign of the disease.

Reporting for WORLD Radio, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Sweden reopening rape case against Julian Assange » Swedish prosecutors say they still have reason to believe Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is guilty of rape or a lesser offense. The country’s deputy director of Public Prosecution Eva-Maria Persson announced a new development in the case on Monday.

PERSSON: I have today taken the decision to reopen the preliminary investigation. 

Persson heard there through a translator. That means prosecutors will ask the UK to extradite Assange to Sweden, setting up a legal tug of war with the United States. The U.S. wants him to stand trial in America for his alleged role in hacking into a Pentagon computer.

Attorney Anthony Hanratty, who has specialized in extradition, says Sweden’s announcement puts UK authorities in a difficult spot.

HANRATTY: In reality it’s going to be up to the home secretary in effect, because only he can decide whether to defer the U.S. extradition proceedings and allow the Swedish one to go through first. 

Assange hid out in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years, until Ecuador revoked his political asylum last month. He’s currently serving a 50-week jail sentence in the UK for jumping bail in 2012.

Doris Day dies at 97 » Actress and singer Doris Day died Monday at her home in California after a bout with pneumonia. Day dreamed of being a dancer, but an automobile accident shattered her right leg along with her promising dancing career.

MUSIC: [Sentimental Journey]

She later became a singer, recording her first hit in 1945: a song called “Sentimental Journey.”

MUSIC: [Sentimental Journey]

Day made her film debut in the well-received musical Romance on the High Seas in 1948. She also starred in thrillers like Storm Warning and lighthearted romantic comedies such as Pillow Talk with Rock Hudson. She received her only Academy Award nomination for that role. She also starred in her own CBS television series for three years called The Doris Day Show from 1968 to 1971.

Day also launched an animal protection charity, which later merged with the Humane Society of the United States.

Doris Day was 97 years old.

(AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File) In this Wednesday May 1, 2019 file photo WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange being taken from court, where he appeared on charges of jumping British bail seven years ago, in London. 

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