Spare a thought for the mother with hot, irritable children in tow, trying to get to the other side of the road.

Typically timed to the pace of “a six-foot man”, the crossing window disappears quickly for those with mobility issues or negotiating prams and toddlers.

“It’s just time,” Committee for Sydney policy manager Estelle Grech says.

“If you increase it, we can give a little bit more dignity in crossing the road,” she told the Sweltering Cities Gender & Heat Community Symposium on Friday.

Ms Grech said design shortfalls that disproportionately burden women and other under-served groups are exacerbated by extreme heat.

“It makes it so much harder than it should be,” she said.

As global temperatures trend higher, heatwaves are becoming increasingly frequent, long and severe.

They are already the deadliest natural disaster in the country and those numbers are expected to climb, with the national climate risk assessment projecting a 444 per cent increase for heat-related deaths in Sydney under 3C of warming.

Western Sydney is the epicentre of the heat problem, with summer temperatures approaching 50C on occasion and suburbs largely under-served in terms of cooling green spaces, sheltered bus stops and comfortable homes.

Social researcher Rebecca Huntley says Australians often underestimate how hot parts of the country can get and the poor insulation of the housing stock.

“There’s so much more we can do in that area,” the director of research at 89 Degrees East said.

Dr Huntley shared her own experience living in a very poorly insulated rental for a short period, with no air-conditioning and fans running constantly.

“And then I got the $1500 energy bill for three months.”

She was able to buy a better-performing home before long but the experience gave her insight into the struggles of having little choice but to stay in a poorer-performing home.

In her research, Dr Huntley has observed worsening pressures of extreme heat, especially for those rearing children.

Cancelled weekend sports and challenges getting to school safely were some common concerns.

Caring professions, dominated by women, also face risks from extreme heat.

A hot, humid day puts a stop to outdoor activities for workers in aged care and child care, disrupting routines.

Extreme heat has also been found to complicate existing health conditions in the community, including mental health issues, which puts an extra burden on nurses and doctors.

Additionally, essential workers are often not paid enough to afford to live near their places of work.

As a result, they can be subject to long walks to bus stops in beating sun that can zap them of energy for the workday.

Sweltering Cities executive director Emma Bacon said women from Sydney, especially the Western suburbs, had consistently reached out with concerns about rising temperatures and climate change.

“The impacts are in their homes,” she told AAP.

“They’re in their bodies, in terms of their health.

“They’re worried about their family members and their communities.”

Britain will back Jaguar Land Rover with a Stg1.5 billion ($A3.1 billion) loan guarantee to help support its supply chain in the wake of the luxury carmaker’s production shutdown following a cyberattack.

Jaguar Land Rover’s shutdown has lasted nearly a month, and the government had been exploring options to support the company and its supply chain, with some small suppliers saying they had one week left at most before they ran out of cash.

The carmaker, which is owned by India’s Tata Motors, has three factories that together produce about 1000 cars per day, and sustain many jobs in the area around Birmingham, Britain’s second biggest city, and the northern city of Liverpool.

A survey on Friday showed that some firms were reducing staff hours or making redundancies.

Business minister Peter Kyle said the cyberattack was “not only an assault on an iconic British brand, but on our world-leading automotive sector”.

“This loan guarantee will help support the supply chain and protect skilled jobs,” he said.

The business ministry said the loan would be privately financed and guaranteed by Britain’s export credit agency UK Export Finance, and was expected to unlock 1.5 billion pounds of support for the carmaker’s supply chain.

The switch from petrol guzzlers to electric wheels is a priority in the race to decarbonise transport but Australia could be underplaying a complementary policy lever.

Reducing car dependence in favour of more trips via bus, bike and foot was once the main game for slashing roads emissions but as the electric vehicle market has matured, “mode shift” has taken a back seat.

“This is a massive policy blindside,” says RMIT sustainability and urban planning lecturer Liam Davies.

Dr Davies spoke to AAP after the federal government released its plan to decarbonise transport, unveiled as one of six sector road maps to meet its commitment to cut emissions by 62-70 per cent by 2035.

Moving people and goods from A to B is directly responsible for 22 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and is the nation’s third largest source of climate pollution after energy and resources.

The Climate Change Authority advice, which informed the Labor government’s official targets, highlights vehicle electrification and low liquid carbon fuels for planes and other hard-to-electrify sectors as priorities.

An increase in use of public and active transport was flagged as a complement to the shift to zero-emissions vehicles but Dr Davies says policymakers could be doubling down on mode shift.

“The single biggest way we can reduce emissions as quickly as possible is to use the same cars we have, just drive them a lot less,” he says.

All transport infrastructure is carbon-intensive to build and maintain but especially so for the roads and highways needed to support sprawling, car-dominated cities.

Less car-dependency also brings with it a host of other benefits, including a healthier population, safer streets and improved live-ability.

“Areas that are a bit denser, from an activity perspective, that have more things around, that are more walkable, that have good public transport, they’re generally more appealing,” he says.

A 2023 Climate Council report suggested Australia should be aiming to halve the number of car trips nationwide by the end of the decade, underpinned by “significant investment” in electrified public transport and well-connected infrastructure for walking, cycling and scooting.

Shared and active transport may be overlooked in many parts of Australia but low emissions cars and trucks are also needed to meet transport decarbonisation goals and getting more on the road is not without challenge.

Australia has not set a formal target for EV adoption but the Climate Change Authority says half the cars sold between now and 2035 will need to be electric to meet the lower end of the 62-70 per cent emissions target.

Motorists are increasingly embracing low-emissions vehicles but upfront price and charging infrastructure remain hurdles.

The Labor government announced $40 million for kerbside and fast-charging when it unveiled its 2035 targets, money Electric Vehicle Council senior policy manager Bjorn Siem describes as “a start” to address infrastructure gaps.

Another federal measure, the Vehicle Efficiency Standard, is expected to help bolster competition by incentivising manufacturers to sell more fuel-efficient cars.

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen expects the number of EVs available to the market to “explode” as importers respond to the scheme over the next 12 months.

The efficiency standard only kicked in in January and Mr Siem says it’s too early to tell if it’s working but he’s optimistic it will do its job.

The policy analyst has been preparing an assessment of the landscape for electric vehicle adoption and confirms Australia is not where it needs to be to meet 2035 emissions targets.

To build momentum, Mr Siem says local, state and territory governments need to step up, including better planning to support charging infrastructure, to support the “great measures” put in place by the Commonwealth.

The possibility of “disincentives” could also slow adoption, namely the consideration of a road-user charge policy eyed off to make up for revenue lost to less tax paid on fuel.

The industry advocacy group has been urging government to wait until electric vehicles reach 30 per cent of new car sales before charging a fee based on public road use and the latest rhetoric suggest state and federal treasurers are alert to the risk of slowing EV adoption.

Mr Siem says a road-user scheme would hit the trucking industry hardest, which presently has few incentives to electrify aside from avoiding fuel excise tax.

Australia’s trucking industry faces an uphill climb to decarbonisation, with vehicles well above international averages for weight and length, and carting their loads very long distances.

Trucks are already subject to rules that dictate which roads they can travel along put in place to reflect the extra wear and tear of heavy vehicles.

Batteries add even more weight.

Australian Trucking Association chief executive officer Mathew Munro has been pushing for road upgrades to withstand the extra weight of electric trucks as well as changes to the road accessibility regulations.

In addition, the trucking industry group wants a voucher program to cover half the gap between the upfront price of a new electric truck and a combustion engine and the introduction of a low carbon fuel standard applied to suppliers.

“They could meet their obligations by selling low carbon fuel or by deploying EV fast chargers or green hydrogen refuelling stations,” Mr Munro says.

South Korea is unable to pay an upfront sum in investment in the United States as US President Donald Trump has suggested under a deal to cut tariffs and is seeking an alternative solution, a presidential adviser in Seoul says.

Since a handshake deal by the allies’ leaders in July to lower US tariffs to 15 per cent from 25 per cent, as Trump earlier imposed, South Korea has said the $US350 billion ($A535 billion) in investment would be in the form of loans and loan guarantees as well as equity.

Trump in remarks this week said South Korea would provide the investment “upfront,” despite the government’s contention that kind of outlay could plunge Asia’s fourth largest economy into a financial crisis.

“The position we’re talking about is not a negotiating tactic but rather it is objectively and realistically not a level we are able to handle,” South Korea’s National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said on Channel A News television.

“We are not able to pay $US350 billion in cash,” he said.

South Korea, which pledged $US350 billion toward US projects in July, has baulked at US demands for control over the funds and South Korean officials say talks to formalise their trade deal are at a deadlock.

On Thursday, Trump touted the amount of money he said his sweeping tariffs are bringing into the United States, saying: “We have in Japan it’s $US550 billion, South Korea’s $US350 billion. That’s upfront.”

Last week South Korean President Lee Jae-myung told Reuters that without safeguards such as a currency swap, South Korea’s economy, with foreign exchange reserves of $US410 billion, would plunge into a crisis if it were made to make a massive outlay.

Wi, the top security adviser to Lee, said nobody would question South Korea’s position on the feasibility of the amount if it were required as a cash payment upfront.

“We’re discussing alternatives,” he said, adding South Korea is targeting a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping hosted by the country next month, which Trump is expected to attend, to finalise the trade deal with the US.

Progressive leaders could take their cues from Anthony Albanese on charting a course through uncertain political times, an analyst says.

Fresh from his visit to the United Nations in New York, the prime minister met with international leaders at the Global Progress Action summit – a gathering of progressive leaders and policy experts from more than 20 countries – on the first day of his three-day visit to the United Kingdom.

He joined Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Iceland’s Kristrun Frostadottir, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, whose plummeting political favourability is in stark contrast with the ascendant Australian leader.

The UK leader later welcomed Mr Albanese to Downing Street for one-on-one talks.

The UK and Australia have similar values and a bond that is being strengthened with the AUKUS agreement, Mr Albanese told reporters after the meeting.

“We also talked and have agreed to further advance our relationship through critical minerals by sharing co-operation as well,” he said.

Mr Albanese praised the UK-Australia free trade agreement, which entered into force in May 2023, saying “we’re seeing exports to the United Kingdom increase across a range of products, particularly in food areas and agriculture”.

“We’ve always had bipartisan relations between Australia and the UK,” Mr Albanese said after a “constructive” meeting with UK opposition leader Kemi Badenoch of the Conservatives and members of her front bench.

Head of Politics and International Relations at Monash University Zareh Ghazarian said Mr Albanese’s emphatic election victory in May could be a path other leaders such as Mr Starmer follow in the face of a rising tide of far-right movements and growing US isolationism.

“Issues such as service delivery, the state of the economy, seeking to address cost of living issues in the Australian context worked really effectively and I think they may provide a hint to the (UK) Labour Party about what sorts of issues they can focus on,” Dr Ghazarian told AAP.

“What are often seen to be more traditional policy areas still resonate with voters, so I think it’s going to be a test over the coming months to see whether that continues or whether there is a genuine shift occurring in the appetites of voters in democratic systems.”

Mr Albanese will travel to Balmoral to meet King Charles III on Saturday, before he addresses a crowd at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool on Sunday, underscoring his close relationship with the progressive movement in the UK.

At the gathering, the party decides its approach and settles policy disputes.

“Obviously international events are going to be a major feature of the discussions around the conference, the relationship with Europe and the United States is going to be very important,” Dr Ghazarian said.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said AUKUS and economic opportunities, including Australia’s investment into the UK, would be front and centre of the talks with the British prime minister.

“In the last few years, we’ve really seen a very significant strategic dimension to be applied to what is our oldest relationship, and that’s very much through AUKUS,” Mr Marles told Sky News.

“We are seeing us engage so much more closely together on strategic issues as a result of this, and that definitely will be part of the conversation that Anthony Albanese has with Keir Starmer.”

The prime minister’s final stop before heading home will be in the United Arab Emirates, where he will meet President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The pair will discuss a free trade agreement known as the Australia-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

US President Donald Trump’s fresh tariff hike on branded pharmaceuticals could dampen investment and research in Australia’s $2.6 billion export industry.

On Friday, Mr Trump said the US would place a 100 per cent tariff on branded or patented pharmaceutical product imports from October 1  unless a pharmaceutical company was building a manufacturing plant in the US.

There are fears Australian biotech CSL – one of the country’s largest companies – and several other local industry players could be hurt by the move, which comes after Mr Trump slapped a 50 per cent tariff on Australian steel and aluminium imports to the US in June. 

Lowy Institute fellow Jenny Gordon said “a bigger risk is more long-term in that it’s the decline in investment in biotech and the mRNA vaccines, the downplaying of vaccines, which will reduce demand”.

“Those are some of the things that will have a longer-term impact on some of the products that Australian firms sell,” Dr Gordon said.

“It reduces supply of the latest technology and to the extent to which our researchers are working with (US) researchers, they won’t be developing the same kinds of things coming down the pipeline.”

Pharmaceuticals were “one of the areas where we’ve found a niche where we’re excellent and we’ve built an export market”, she said.

Stephen Duckett, a professor in the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne, said the US move represented “President Trump ripping up the Australia-US free trade agreement”.

“The tariffs will affect companies like CSL where they buy plasma in the US and process it in Australia and sell it back into the United States,” Professor Duckett said.

CSL said in a statement on Friday it was confident of a tariff exemption given Mr Trump’s comments about companies building manufacturing facilities in the US.

CSL shares rallied in Friday trade to finish down $3.76, or 1.90 per cent lower, at $194.23 after the Melbourne-based company initially shed billions in market value on news of the tariff hike.

It could have been worse.

Back in July, Mr Trump flagged a possible 200 per cent tariff on pharmaceuticals – one of Australia’s largest exports to the US. 

Health Minister Mark Butler on Friday said the government was still working to understand the implications for local exporters.

“We’ve been making the case, since it first became clear that the US was going to take some action in this area, about the benefits of continued free trade in pharmaceuticals between our countries,” he told reporters in Adelaide.

Australia’s health and life sciences industry, including pharmaceuticals, is worth about $5.6 billion annually and is one of the nation’s largest export sectors, employing about 260,000 people.

Some $2.6 billion worth of pharmaceuticals are exported from Australia annually, according to the federal government.

Donald Trump can wait. 

After a week in the US, where Anthony Albanese locked in a formal meeting with the unpredictable right-wing president, the prime minister now finds himself in more welcoming company. 

The centrepiece of day one of his UK trip is formal talks at 10 Downing Street on Friday, local time, with his British counterpart Keir Starmer.

On this side, Mr Albanese will enjoy the embrace of fellow travellers from the political left, with a spate of like-minded leaders also in town.

So too is Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, one of the harshest critics of Israel’s actions in Gaza, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who surged to office on a campaign of Trump-bashing.

They are all attending the Global Progress Action Summit, which brings together leaders, policy experts and strategists from more than 20 countries.

Mr Albanese might draw ideas, or conservative-beating strategies from his discussions – but he also arrives in the UK with plenty of harsh realities to deal with: Ukraine, Gaza and AUKUS among them.

The UK is one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters, with Mr Starmer rallying Western nations to commit forces and funding towards a “coalition of the willing” to keep the peace following a ceasefire with Russia.

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair, ex-New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern and rising US Democratic stars such as Pete Buttigieg are in London for the global gathering of progressive leaders.

Australia and its former colonial power also co-ordinated their formal recognition of Palestine, doing so at the United Nations.

Mr Albanese’s first formal meeting of his UK tour was with Mr Blair, who has put forward a plan to temporarily head up a governing body for Gaza once Israel’s war in the enclave ends.

Mr Albanese also held a bilateral with Mr Sanchez, and Mr Carney, as well as one figure from the right: UK opposition leader Kemi Badenoch.

The AUKUS nuclear submarine deal between Australia, the US and UK is also likely to be discussed, as the White House continues its review of the trilateral defence pact.

Questions remain over the supply of the submarines, given both the US and UK are facing significant backlogs in their shipyards.

Monash-Warwick Alliance International relations researcher Tom Howe said Australia had a lot riding on London’s ability to deliver on its promises.

“The UK is supposed to be deploying and rotating a submarine out of the base in Perth from 2027,” he told AAP.

Mr Albanese will be able to pick up the issue with Mr Trump on October 20, when he will embark on a state visit to the White House.

US President Donald Trump has unveiled a fresh round of punishing tariffs on a broad range of imported goods, including 100 per cent duties on branded drugs and 25 per cent levies on heavy-duty trucks.

The latest salvo, which Trump said was to protect the US manufacturing industry and national security, follows sweeping duties on trading partners of up to 50 per cent and other targeted levies on imported products such as steel.

The barrage has cast a pall over global growth and paralysed business decision-making around the world, while the Federal Reserve has said it is also contributing to higher consumer prices in America.

Trump’s latest announcements on Truth Social did not mention whether the new levies would stack on top of existing national tariffs.

But recently struck trade deals with Japan, the EU, and the United Kingdom include provisions that cap tariffs for specific products such as pharmaceuticals.

Tokyo said it was analysing the potential impact of the new measures, which Canberra called “unfair” and “unjustified”.

Trump also followed through on a pledge to “bring back” America’s furniture business, saying he would start charging a 50 per cent tariff on imported kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities and a 30 per cent tariff on upholstered furniture.

All the new duties take effect from October 1.

“The reason for this is the large scale ‘FLOODING’ of these products into the United States by other outside Countries,” Trump said on Thursday.

Stocks of pharmaceutical companies across Asia fell as investors reacted to the news, with Australia’s CSL hitting a six-year low, Japan’s Sumitomo Pharma tumbling more than three per cent and pharmaceutical indices in Hong Kong and India down more than one per cent.

The new actions are seen as part of the Trump administration’s shift to better-established legal authorities for its tariff actions, given the risks associated with a case before the Supreme Court on the legality of his sweeping global tariffs.

The new 100 per cent tariff on any branded or patented pharmaceutical product will apply to all imports unless the company has already broken ground on building a manufacturing plant in the United States, Trump said.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), an industry group, said companies “continue to announce hundreds of billions in new US investments. Tariffs risk those plans.”

The Trump administration has opened a dozen probes into the national security ramifications of imports such as planes, semiconductors and critical minerals to form the basis of new tariffs.

Trump has made the levies a key foreign policy tool, using them to renegotiate trade deals, extract concessions and exert political pressure on other countries.

His administration has played down the impact on consumer prices and touted tariffs as a significant revenue source, claiming Washington could collect $US300 billion ($A459 billion) by the end of the year.

Some economies that have already struck deals might get a reprieve on the latest duties.

The EU’s deal with the US stipulates it will pay a 15 per cent tariff on goods including pharmaceuticals, while Japan has an agreement that its tariff rates will not exceed others including the EU.

In Australia, Health Minister Mark Butler told reporters the government was working to understand the implications of the new “unfair, unjustified tariffs after 20 years of free trade”.

More than half of the $US85.6 billion in ingredients used in medicines consumed in the United States are manufactured in the US, with the remainder from Europe and other US allies, the PhRMA said.

Furniture imports to the United States hit $US25.5 billion in 2024, up seven per cent from the previous year.

About 60 per cent of those imports came from Vietnam and China, according to Furniture Today, a trade publication.

Higher tariffs on commercial vehicles could put pressure on transportation costs just as Trump has vowed to reduce inflation, especially on consumer goods such as groceries.

The US Chamber of Commerce earlier urged the department not to impose new truck tariffs, noting the top five import sources were Mexico, Canada, Japan, Germany, and Finland, “all of which are allies or close partners of the United States posing no threat to US national security”.

Australia’s largest pharmaceutical company has brushed off investor concerns after Donald Trump announced massive tariffs on medicines shipped to the United States.

It remains unclear whether CSL would be directly impacted by the US president’s proposed 100 per cent tariffs, which he announced in a post on social media.

CSL, Australia’s seventh-largest public firm by market capitalisation, makes up the bulk of Australia’s $2.2 billion pharmaceutical export trade to the US.

The ASX blue-chip stock’s main exports to the US are medicines derived from blood plasma manufactured at its plant in Melbourne.

The firm also has a substantial footprint in the US, where it employs 19,000 staff, or about two thirds of its overseas workforce.

Health Minister Mark Butler said the government was still working to understand the implications of the announcement for Australian exporters.

“We’ve been making the case, since it first became clear that the US was going to take some action in this area, about the benefits of continued free trade in pharmaceuticals between our countries,” he told reporters in Adelaide.

Due to prohibitions on sourcing blood plasma in Australia, CSL collects plasma in the US, ships it to its Melbourne factory and ships back the final product.

Most vaccines CSL sells in the US are produced at its vaccine-manufacturing plant in North Carolina and the company has announced further expansion plans in America.

The company said it was confident it would be exempted from the imposts, given Mr Trump said companies building manufacturing facilities in the US would not be impacted.

“CSL will be actively monitoring further announcements from the administration in relation to the detail of the tariffs,” a CSL spokesperson said in a statement.  

“As per previous market guidance, we do not expect any material impact from these tariffs.”

Mr Trump said a 100 per cent tariff would be imposed unless a pharmaceutical was building a manufacturing plant in the US by October 1.

Citi healthcare analyst Laura Sutcliffe said CSL had flexibility to move around steps in its manufacturing structure if needed to adapt to the tariffs, although there were questions around whether its supply chain was insulated from impact.

CSL’s share price slumped 3.6 per cent shortly after the stock market opened, before retracing some of its losses to sit 1.7 per cent lower by late morning.

Trade Minister Don Farrell spoke with US trade representative Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit during the week, but there was no indication from the Americans about an impending tariff announcement.

The opposition said it was deeply concerning that exporters could be subjected to “harmful” tariffs and stood ready to help the government protect Australia’s pharmaceutical sector.

US pharmaceutical companies lobbying the White House have previously put Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in their crosshairs, arguing the government program unfairly suppresses prices.

The Albanese government has flatly refused any negotiation on the PBS.

“None of these latest announcements from the US administration make a jot of difference to our determination to protect the PBS,” Mr Butler said.

Pharmaceutical industry body Medicines Australia opposed the tariffs but was more concerned by Mr Trump’s “most favoured nation” proposal, which would force companies to lower US drug prices to the lowest international benchmark, potentially threatening the PBS.

“This is already impacting Australian patients access to new innovative treatment options – with decisions being made to slow new products launching in Australia which will exacerbate the delays to listing on the PBS,” said chief executive Liz de Somer.

Mr Trump also announced 50 per cent tariffs on kitchen cabinets and vanities and a 25 per cent tariff on all “heavy (Big!) trucks” imported to the US.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order declaring that his plan to sell TikTok’s US operations to US and global investors will meet the requirements in a 2024 law that says the short video app will be banned unless its Chinese owners sell it.

The new US company will be valued at around $US14 billion ($A21 billion), Vice President JD Vance said.

Trump has delayed enforcement of the law until December 16 amid efforts to extract TikTok’s US assets from the global platform, line up American and other investors and win approval from the Chinese government.

“There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but the fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans’ data privacy as required by law,” Vance said.

Trump said: “I spoke with President Xi. We had a good talk, I told him what we were doing, and he said go ahead with it.”

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has credited TikTok, which has 170 million US users, with helping him win re-election last year and has 15 million followers on his personal account. The White House also launched an official TikTok account last month.

“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump said.

He added Rupert Murdoch, Dell founder Michael Dell and “probably four or five absolutely world-class investors” would be part of the deal.

Republican House politicians said they want to see more details of the deal to ensure it represents a clean break with China.

“As the details are finalised, we must ensure this deal protects American users from the influence and surveillance of CCP-aligned groups,” said US representatives Brett Guthrie, Gus Bilirakis and Richard Hudson.

Trump, during his first term, signed an executive order attempting to ban the app if it didn’t split off its US business, warning that TikTok’s “data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information.”

Beijing previously called the demand that TikTok be spun off from its Chinese parent company an act of “robbery,” but Chinese officials changed their tune as the US-China trade war progressed.

with AP