The ‘SPY’ kids with $250 Billion riding on their lives

Beijing is seeking the elimination of US tariffs, while Washington sees the discussions as a test of bilateral engagement between the two major economic powers.

Less than a year since the EU and UK struck a post-Brexit deal, the sides are apparently preparing for a trade war. Tensions over the Northern Ireland Protocol have pushed things to the brink.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces a comprehensive in-principle free trade agreement with the UK, arrived at after 16 months of talks. London said the deal ends tariffs on British exports such as clothing, footwear, ships and bulldozers. It estimated that trade between the two countries last year was worth £2.3 billion ($3.2 billion, 2.7 billion euros).

The two countries join the ASEAN nations, China, South Korea, and Japan. The pact will cover 30% of the world's population and 53% of last year's exports.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke to his Chinese counterpart amid rising international concern over Beijing's recent military incursions into Taiwan's air defense zone.

For years, Vietnamese children and teenagers have been disappearing in Germany. Those responsible are unscrupulous human traffickers whose networks span continents. The young Vietnamese are smuggled into Germany via Russia and Eastern Europe. Many end up in the world of crime, working as slaves for the Vietnamese mafia. This film tells their story. One high-ranking investigator describes the phenomenon as "modern slavery". This is how many children and young people are brought from Vietnam to Germany: They are crammed into vans, loaded into refrigerated trucks, on the road for months, held along the way in abandoned warehouses or apartments. They are beaten, raped, exploited, they fear for their lives. They are lured by the prospect of a better life, as promised to their families by the criminals.

More Afghans facing extreme poverty are turning to opium production as a means of survival. Despite promises to the contrary, the Taliban are unlikely to oppose cultivation of the narcotic cash crop.

Africa's free trade area started a year ago amid much fanfare. But its impact has been low amid the coronavirus pandemic and an economic downturn on the continent.

Australia's vocal criticism of China's human rights record has long angered Beijing. When Canberra called for an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus in 2020, Beijing slapped high tariffs on some Australian products.

Uganda wants to curb its borrowing and boost exports in sectors such as meat and dairy as the East African country lifts restrictions triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, President Yoweri Museveni, and government officials. Uganda's trade push follows several years of reduced Chinese lending to the continent and as programmes designed to offer relief to indebted countries as they recover from COVID 19-induced slumps start to expire.

Australia is caught in the middle of the US-China trade dispute, which is dominating Davos this year. Meanwhile, Australia has just booked its 27th consecutive year of growth, says Finance Minister Mathias Cormann.

The Taliban are taking steps to halt Afghanistan's opium trade even as the country's economy crumbles. It is unclear how the Taliban government plans to replace this illicit source of income for millions of farmers.