Live from NPR news in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton.
China has shown the world's two biggest economies can hurt each other. U.S. firms are
looking for suppliers outside of China and China has cut back on purchases of U.S.
“soybeans and a prime to U.S. manufacturers of crucial minerals and metals on the”
eve of Trump's state visit to Beijing this week. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News that the U.S. wants to reshape its trading relationship with China. On trade look, the United States is very clear we have to be able to make our own stuff. We cannot depend on China or any country for that matter for a hundred percent of anything that we need. You know, when you depend on any other country for a hundred percent
of what you need, you're very vulnerable. Likewise, you know, China wants to, they want China wants the world to be dependent on them for a hundred percent because it gives them strength and leverage. So that's a perfect example of an area in which our interests are not aligned. Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping momentarily. The Trump administration is
withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments to California and is threatening to suspend
“more unless states show their prosecuting Medicaid fraud. And Piers of Jacqueline Diaz has more.”
Vice President JD Vance announced these actions as part of his role as the administration's frauds are. He said the White House is targeting California because it isn't taking fraud seriously. The administration is sending letters to all 50 states. It's threatening to freeze funding to the state's Medicaid programs unless they aggressively go after Medicaid fraud. And if they don't, Vance said the administration will look to make other cuts. And if we continue to find
problems, we can turn off other resources within their state Medicaid programs as well. As part of this crackdown, the administration is also imposing a six month freeze on some new Medicare enrollments by hospice at home care providers. Jacqueline Diaz and PR News. Debate continues on Capitol Hill about the origins of the COVID virus. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard testimonies today suggesting the virus originally
“came from a lab in China. And PR's Katie Rittle reports. For years, Republican leaders have been”
suggesting that the COVID-19 virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory and that public health officials at the time worked to cover this fact up. Today, a man named James Erdman III, who works for the CIA reinforced this narrative intelligence community leaders and senior analysts downplayed the possibility that the COVID pandemic originated as a result of a lab incident. There's limited evidence on the origins of the virus. Many scientists say the most likely scenario is that it came from
animals in the wild. Katie Rittle and PR News. The Senate has confirmed Kevin Warsh is chairman of the Federal Reserve. The vote brings new leadership to the world's most powerful central bank at a fraught moment for the global economy. The Fed is trying to confront stubborn inflation and deep divisions over interest rates. SP500 rose more than half a percent today. This is NPR News from Washington. Chronic wasting disease has been discovered in the National Elk Refuge in Wyoming.
It adds urgency to a 2021 plan to re-examine the size of the 11,000 strong Jackson Elk heard the nation's largest migratory heard. The first case of the disease in the refuge was discovered
last month. Chronic wasting disease is always fatal and easily transmissible. The State Department
says it will suspend a requirement that some world cup fans pay a bond of up to $15,000 to come to the US this summer and PR's Becky Sullivan has more. Visitors from 50 countries are subject to the bonds payments, which were imposed by the Trump administration last year. It's part of a crackdown on immigration. Five of those countries have teams participating in the world cup. All of them from Africa. Algeria, Cabo Verde, Cote de War, Senegal, and Tunisia.
Now visitors with verified world cup tickets will be allowed to skip those bond payments so long as they opt in to the FIFA past system unveiled by the White House last fall. Several participating countries are subject to partial or total travel bands including Haiti, Iran, and Senegal. Though the White House has committed to making exceptions for players, coaches, and staff. Becky Sullivan and Pierre News, Washington.
A museum in Illinois is wondering how it got a speeding ticket for its replica of the car in the TV show Night Rider that hasn't moved from its display in years. The Volo Museum near Chicago says it got a $50 ticket from New York City. It includes a traffic cam photos of a black trans-am with California license plate night. It's unclear why the museum ended up with the ticket. This is NPR News.
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