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U.S. sanctions 6 Chinese and Hong Kong officials over involvement in ‘transnational repression’ and acts to erode city’s autonomy

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The United States sanctioned six Chinese and Hong Kong officials who it alleged were involved in “transnational repression” and acts that threaten to further erode the city’s autonomy, with China threatening to take countermeasures.

The six officials included Justice Secretary Paul Lam, security office director Dong Jingwei and police commissioner Raymond Siu.

The sanctions are expected to further escalate tensions between Washington and Beijing, who are already locked in friction over trade tariffs and other issues like Taiwan.

“Beijing and Hong Kong officials have used Hong Kong national security laws extraterritorially to intimidate, silence, and harass 19 pro-democracy activists who were forced to flee overseas, including a U.S. citizen and four other U.S. residents,” the U.S. State Department said.

The statement dated Monday said the six officials sanctioned were linked to entities or actions that engaged in coercing, arresting, detaining or imprisoning individuals under the authority of the city’s security law, or implementing the law.

The other three affected officials were Sonny Au, the secretary-general for the city’s committee for safeguarding national security, and Dick Wong and Margaret Chiu, both assistant commissioners of the police.

Since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020 to quell the 2019 massive anti-government protests, Hong Kong authorities have prosecuted many leading activists in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

The crackdown has drawn criticism from foreign governments, especially because the city was promised that its Western-style civil liberties and semi-autonomy would be kept intact for at least 50 years during the 1997 handover. Beijing and Hong Kong governments insist the law is necessary for the city’s stability.

Over the past two years, Hong Kong authorities have issued arrest warrants for 19 activists based overseas, with bounties of $1 million Hong Kong dollars ($128,536) for information leading to each of their arrests. The affected activists included former pro-democracy lawmakers Nathan Law and Ted Hui. They also canceled the passports of some of the overseas-based activists under a new security law introduced to the city last year.

The Hong Kong office of China’s foreign ministry condemned the sanctions, saying they again exposed the ill-intention of the U.S. to undermine the city’s prosperity and contain China’s development. It urged Washington to stop interfering in the city’s affairs.

“China will surely take effective countermeasures against these despicable acts by the U.S.!” it said in a statement.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said China would take resolute countermeasures for any wrong actions by the U.S. He argued the actions taken by Hong Kong police against “anti-China elements” who fled abroad were carried out according to the law and that the U.S. has no right to interfere with the city’s national security cases.

The Hong Kong government strongly condemned the U.S. for the sanctions, saying it despises them and is not intimidated by them.

“It, once again, clearly exposed the U.S.’ barbarity under its hegemony, which is exactly the same as its recent tactics in bullying and coercing various countries and regions,” it said in a statement.

It said the “absconders” mentioned by the U.S. government are wanted for arrest because they continued to blatantly engage in activities endangering national security overseas. It said the U.S. has given cover for those “who have committed these evil deeds,” and therefore it was necessary for the city to take lawful measures to combat the acts.

“The imposition of the so-called ‘sanctions’ in the guise of defending human rights and democracy indeed constitute a demonstration of shameless hypocrisy with double standards on the part of the U.S.,” it said.

Lam, the justice secretary, said the sanctions do not affect him. “They do not affect my work; they do not affect my life.”

He said the sanctions represented “blatant tyrannical bullying intended to deter people from participating in safeguarding national security” in a statement.

But Frances Hui, one of the overseas-based activists targeted by the authorities, wrote on X that it was a critical step in addressing the city’s worsening crackdown. She said they hoped it marked the beginning of a sustained effort to hold perpetrators accountable.

The latest U.S. sanctions were not the first related to the city. During Donald Trump’s first presidential term, his government also imposed sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy.

In 2021, the U.S. slapped more sanctions on officials over Beijing’s crackdown on political freedoms in the semi-autonomous city under former U.S. President Joe Biden administration.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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6 products set to get more expensive under Trump’s tariffs: cars, groceries and more

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President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries this week and that will result in significant price shocks to U.S. consumers, economists and analysts say. Everything from clothes to iPhones to homes to cars could be impacted—not to mention retirement accounts as result of a meltdown in the stock market. (Scroll down to see the list).

The Yale Budget Lab estimates that the average U.S. household will pay $3,800 more annually as a result of levies announced this week and earlier in the year, which include a 10% universal tariff along with specific additional tariffs for 60 countries that face higher rates under an unusual formula. These come in addition to earlier tariffs placed on Canada, China, Mexico, automobiles, and steel and aluminum tariffs. The U.S. economy at large could lose $100 billion to $180 billion annually.

The right-leaning Tax Foundation says the tariffs are the largest tax increase on Americans consumers since the 1980s. “You can view it as a tax on consumers,” said Ashish Shah, chief investment officer of public investing at Goldman Sachs, at a media event Thursday. Consumers are “going to bear the cost of higher goods.”

It’s too soon to know exactly how the tariffs, which are taxes on goods imported from other countries, will affect prices, or even what the final rates will end up being. Trump has left the door open to negotiations. But here are some financial analysts and economists predictions for price increases as things stand now.

1. Groceries

The high price of eggs was a salient issue during the presidential election, and Trump said he would bring down prices on day one of his presidency. With the announced tariffs, not only will prices not drop, but the cost of many other perishable groceries will likely increase before the end of the month, experts say. Around 15% of the U.S.’s overall food supply is imported, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Prices for produce like avocados, bananas, grapes, and melons are all expected to rise, as are the prices for items including beef, cheese, chocolate, coffee, olive oil, seafood, and more. Fresh produce is expected to see a higher increase, according to the Yale Budget Lab.

2. Cars

Even without Trump’s tariffs, car prices have spiraled so high as to be unaffordable for many. The average price for a new car hit $49,500 in Q1 2025, according to CarGurus. Meanwhile, new vehicles priced under $30,000 accounted for just 13% of inventory, compared to 37% in Q1 2020.

With tariffs, the average list price could increase by over $3,300 to approximately $52,800, according to a CarGurus analysis. Meanwhile, the share of listings priced under $30,000 would decline even more, while vehicles priced above $50,000 would increase by 15%. The Yale Budget Lab puts the average expected increase even higher, at $4,000.

“I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American cars,” Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker last week.

Even used cars aren’t immune. The tariffs will likely increase repair costs, because many components are sourced from other countries.

3. Homes

Homes, already historically expensive and priced out of reach for many buyers, would rise dramatically under universal tariffs—builders estimate the average home cost could increase by $9,200, according to the March 2025 National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.

That’s because many of the supplies used to build homes are imported from other countries. For example, the U.S. imported 11.8 billion board feet of softwood lumber from Canada in 2024, which is a primary component in home building, according to the NAHB.

NAHB also notes that the cost of many other components of homes, including appliances, will increase. “NAHB estimates that approximately 7.3% of all goods used in new residential construction originated from a foreign nation in 2024.”

While Trump has said the goal is for companies to produce more goods and items domestically, experts say doing so will take years—if not decades. And there are many items that the U.S. simply cannot get or produce domestically, like all of that Canadian lumber.

“NAHB has urged the president to reconsider his directive to impose tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese goods, given the long lead time and significant production capacity needed to create additional domestic supply,” the organization says.

4. Clothing

The tariffs “disproportionately affect clothing and textiles, with apparel prices rising 17% under all tariffs,” according to the Yale Budget Lab.

Leather products and apparel are expected to increase 18.3% and 16.9%, respectively, overall, according to the Yale Budget Lab.

5. Alcohol

Booze prices are likely to increase since the U.S. imports large amounts of wine from countries in the European Union, Australia and New Zealand. It also imports beer from Canada, Mexico and Europe.

As with other items in the list, the scope of the price increases will depend on the producers, what country they are being imported from, and how much of the cost increase they pass onto U.S. consumers. This includes at restaurants and bars—consumers’ nights out just got more expensive.

6. iPhones and other technology

Apple produces most iPhones in China, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. The “reciprocal” tariff placed on the country will send the cost sky-rocketing by as much as 43%, according to analysts. Other Apple products—including iPads, Apple Watches, and Airpods—will face similar increases.

Apple isn’t the only tech company that will be hard hit. Most rely on products from countries like Taiwan, Vietnam, and China. Those countries have been hit with tariffs of 32%, 34%, and 46%, respectively.

Tariffs won’t affect everyone equally

Experts say low-income families will feel the cost of the increases more acutely than other socioeconomic groups, as the price of basics like food and clothing rise.

“Tariffs burden households at the bottom of the income ladder more than those at the top as a share of income,” Yale’s Budget Lab notes.

Historically, tariffs have resulted in higher prices and reduced quantities of goods and services for business and consumers, according to the Tax Foundation. That has resulted in lower income, reduced employment, and lower economic output in the past.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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Vimeo CEO says he wasn’t allowed to use adverbs when he was working at Amazon—here’s why he thinks it helps companies to not ‘lose their way’

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  • Philip Moyer says his stint at Amazon was one of the most impactful of his career, in part due to the company’s emphasis on customers over shareholders.

Vimeo’s new CEO, Philip Moyer, has been around the block among the biggest tech companies.

While he most recently led Google’s applied AI engineering team, his career included a 15-year stint as a general manager in sales and technology at Microsoft and two years at Amazon’s financial services. The latter experience was the most “instructive,” he admits, and it centered around a unique policy against using adverbs.

But the reason is more logical than you may think.

“When we would write press releases, we weren’t allowed to use adverbs,” Moyer tells Fortune. “We had to actually not talk about the features of our products. But instead, the problems we were solving for customers, and I would tell you that it was a really instructional reset in the language that I had to use.”

Corporate speak can cause companies to ‘lose their way’

Amazon has long been known for its unique leadership practices, such as a “two pizza rule” that defines small team size, as well as 16 principles like “bias for action” and “disagree and commit.” However, the company’s emphasis on customer value—versus shareholder value—is what most impressed Moyer. A failure to focus on the customer can be “one of the most dangerous things” for a company, he says.

“When they bring in outside consulting organizations, they talk in corporate speak, or they talk in terms of numbers as opposed to problems and people, I think that’s when companies lose their way,” Moyer adds.

He’s brought his lessons with him in his new role as chief executive at Vimeo. While the video-sharing platform was heading down a path of decline last year, Vimeo is now on track for double-digit growth by the end of the year, Moyer says.

How to get ahead in the business world, according to Vimeo’s CEO

As now the leader of an $800 million company, Moyer learned many of his lessons the hard way, and he has advice for future business leaders:

“First and foremost, do not be anxious,” Moyer says. “They’re going to do amazing as long as they do the work.”

He also adds that it’s important to remember that despite any perception, no enterprise is created as easily as you may think.

“Every company, every great AI unicorn, any company I’ve ever worked for was never the overnight success that it appears in the press release. It’s always a 10-year journey,” he says.

Take OpenAI, for example—one of the fastest-growing companies in the world. The artificial intelligence startup did not explode in popularity until 2023, thanks in part to its success with ChatGPT. However, OpenAI was founded in late 2015, and its visionaries, like Sam Altman, were likely working on the concept years prior.

Those who are willing to put in the hard work, even when it may go unnoticed at first, will come out ahead on the other side, Moyer adds.

“You can do a lot of work in the dark—a lot of work that people don’t see—but as long as you’re doing the work, you ultimately will be successful in the thing that you’re working on.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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