Israel diverts aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg, who in a video says she’s been ‘kidnapped’

(LONDON) — Russia announced on Thursday that it is returning to Ukraine five children who have been separated from their families by the war.

Maria Lvova-Belova, the Kremlin’s commissioner of children’s rights, told reporters that the Ukrainian children will be reunited with their families in Ukraine by the end of this month.

The children were on a list of 339 children that Ukrainian officials gave their Russian counterparts during the last round of peace talks earlier this month in Istanbul, Turkey — negotiations that failed to bring the three-year war to an end.

In response to a question from the Russian news agency Interfax, Lvova-Belova, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, said the delay in sending the Ukrainian children back to their county was “due to their studies.”

“They are finishing the school year and after that they will return to their relatives in Ukraine,” she said.

Lvova-Belova did not mention status of the other children on Ukraine’s list.

According to Lvova-Belova, Russia is preparing its own list of Russian children believed to be in Ukraine. She said it will be handed over to Ukrainian officials whenever the next round of negotiations is scheduled.

“We also have children in Ukraine who require reunification with Russian families,” Lvova-Belova said. “At the moment, we have eight children on the list who are in EU countries. They were evacuated there from Ukraine, and their parents are in Russia. And from Ukraine, we have about 10 people, with whom we are also currently negotiating their return.”

Ukrainian officials have alleged that many of the country’s children have been abducted and taken to Russia since the war began in February 2022, when Russian troops invaded Ukraine.

In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges related to the abduction of Ukrainian children.

The Kremlin, however, has denied the allegations, saying the children were taken out of war zones for their own protection.

ABC News’ Anna Sergeeva contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump earlier this month announced far-reaching “reciprocal tariffs” on scores of countries, but he soon suspended the levies on all but one: China.

Instead, Trump ratcheted up China tariffs to a whopping total of 145%. In response, China slapped 125% tariffs on U.S. goods and issued other countermeasures.

The trade war between the world’s two largest economies amounts to a battle of wills in which each stands poised to draw on economic advantages and political pressure points, analysts said. An assessment of each side’s leverage, they added, helps reveal how the standoff may unfold.

“The stakes are extremely high and the only issue remaining is who is going to blink first,” Yasheng Huang, professor of global economics and management at MIT, told ABC News.

Potential economic damage

The U.S. and China each are among the other’s top trade partners, meaning a sizable chunk of each economy depends on the relationship.

U.S. consumers and firms purchase more goods and services from China than the other way around, putting China at risk of a larger loss in economic activity if trading comes to an effective halt, analysts said.

Still, they added, the trade imbalance also threatens acute product shortages and price increases for U.S. consumers.

“The U.S. imports more from China than it exports to China — that gives the U.S. an advantage,” Shang-Jin Wei, a professor of finance and economics at Columbia University who studies the U.S.-China trade relationship, told ABC News.

“But the very fact that the U.S. buys so much from them also means that it is dependent on their supply of low-cost goods,” Wei said.

Last year, the U.S. imported about $438 billion worth of goods and services from China, making it the largest destination for China’s exports. In all, that figure accounts for about 15% of China’s exports, according to the U.S. Trade Representative. China makes up a primary source of consumer electronics like laptops and smartphones, as well as footwear, apparel and toys.

U.S. tariffs are expected to lower China’s gross domestic product growth this year by 0.7%, though the Chinese economy is still forecast to expand by more than 4%, J.P.Morgan said on Tuesday.

The loss of relatively cheap Chinese goods, meanwhile, is expected to raise prices for U.S. shoppers. Over the weekend, the Trump administration issued a tariff exemption for some consumer electronics from China, but price hikes are expected for a host of other goods.

On the other hand, China purchased about $143 billion of U.S. goods last year, including crops such as soybeans and wheat, as well as oil and gas.

Roughly 930,000 U.S. jobs are supported by exports to China, the U.S.-China Business Council said in a report last year. During Trump’s first term, the U.S. provided financial relief to some farmers to make up for lost sales to China.

Essential materials

The U.S. or China could also derive leverage from specialized goods that would be difficult for the other country to replace in the event of trade restrictions.

Earlier this month, China imposed export restrictions on some rare earth elements and magnets that make up critical inputs in some U.S. auto, energy and defense products. For now, Chinese companies can still export to U.S. buyers, though the Chinese firms must receive approval from the Chinese government.

Rare earths are vital for a range of defense technologies, including F-35 fighter jets, Tomahawk missiles and radar systems, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, said on Tuesday.

The U.S. is not prepared to immediately make up for a potential loss of those components through domestic industry, CSIS found.

“The U.S. dependency on China for rare earths is extremely high,” Huang said. “China can shut it off or turn it on at will — that is leverage.”

Meg Rithmire, a professor of business administration at Harvard University, said the U.S. could seek out alternative sources abroad but China remains the dominant source of such materials.

“It doesn’t seem like this is the kind of thing that will cripple anyone in the short term, but the supply chains are such that it could get messy in the medium term,” Rithmire said.

Meanwhile, China relies on the U.S. for some important components of its electronics, auto and technology products, Huang said.

China could likely withstand a temporary shortfall, Huang added, though a long-term shortage of such goods would pose a problem.

“It would definitely hurt them — no question about it,” Huang said.

Tolerance for financial pain

Analysts told ABC News that China’s authoritarian form of government affords it greater capacity to tolerate a prolonged period of economic hardship.

By contrast, separate branches of government and regular elections in the U.S. make it more difficult for the country to hold out through potential widespread financial challenges, they added.

The Chinese public faces limits on public expression and little recourse for bringing its displeasure to bear on political representatives, analysts said.

“There’s a lot structurally built into the Chinese system to withstand political pain, which isn’t the case for the U.S.,” Rithmire said. “The U.S. system incorporates the unhappiness of people as they experience the economic effects.”

The countries’ different responses to COVID-19 exemplify how their respective political systems respond to flagging general welfare, analysts said.

China maintained a zero-COVID policy for several years, severely restricting individual mobility and hamstringing a broad swath of the nation’s economy. In the U.S., on the other hand, eight states never issued COVID lockdowns, while the federal government focused on economic stimulus and expedited vaccine development.

“The trade war, as substantial as it is, doesn’t compare to the COVID lockdown that China implemented,” Huang said. “We have solid evidence that the political system is quite immune from economic hardship.”

Still, that tolerance of economic pain has limits, Wei said. Over the past half century, the Chinese government has drawn legitimacy from its ability to deliver economic growth and improved living standards, he added.

“Anything that hurts that can undermine their power,” Wei said.

Ultimately, the standoff may endure until each country sees a pathway out of the trade spat that promises sufficient political benefit.

“Is there a productive off-ramp for each side?” Huang said.

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(COPENHAGEN) — Two college students, both United States citizens, were detained while visiting Denmark on their spring break, according to officials and an attorney representing the family of one of the young men.

Owen Ray, a 19-year-old studying at the University of Miami in Ohio, and his unnamed friend were detained at Copenhagen Airport on April 1 over an alleged dispute with an Uber driver the night prior, Jordan Finfer, a U.S.-based attorney for Ray’s family, told ABC News.

In an account relayed to Finfer, who then shared the details with ABC News, Ray said he and a friend were in an Uber on March 31 when they realized they had entered the wrong address for their destination — and the driver allegedly refused to take them anywhere else.

All parties — Ray, the friend and the Uber driver — eventually got out of the car, and an altercation then allegedly occurred, Finfer said, based on Ray’s account.

Finfer says Ray told him that the driver kicked Ray in the groin, and in response, Ray pushed him away and the driver fell, the attorney recounted, adding that Ray and his friend then ran away.

The two students were detained at Copenhagen Airport the next day while trying to return home, Finfer told ABC News. Local police detained them after deeming them “flight risks,” claiming they were planning to run from the incident, he said.

“On the evening of March 31, 2025, Owen Ray and a friend were the victims of an unprovoked verbal and physical assault by an Uber driver in Denmark,” Andy and Sara Buchen-Ray, the parents of Owen Ray, said in a statement to ABC News. “They did nothing to instigate the attack. We urge the Danish authorities to recognize Owen’s innocence and release him immediately. Our family is heartbroken, and we want our son home to celebrate Easter with us this week.”

“The safety of everyone who uses the Uber app is a top priority, and we take reports of violence very seriously,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News on Sunday.

“Any additional questions about the investigation should be directed to the Danish police,” the statement added.

Ray’s Denmark-based attorney, Eigil Strand, confirmed to ABC News that as of 10:50 p.m. Thursday Danish time, both of the young men are still being detained, while Danish police say neither student has been charged.

A Copenhagen police spokesperson told ABC News, “The Copenhagen Police can confirm, that on March 31, two American citizens were arrested in Copenhagen, and on March 31 they were brought before the court charged with common assault. They were sentenced to 10 days pre-trial detention. This verdict has since extended until April 24.”

The U.S. State Department provided a statement on Sunday saying, “We are aware of media reports of two U.S. citizens detained in Denmark. Staff at our embassy in Copenhagen are providing consular assistance,” according to Chicago-based ABC affiliate WLS.

“The Department has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens abroad,” it continued. “Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.”

ABC News’ Benjamin Siu contributed to this report.

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