From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David Byrd reporting.
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Thai officials trying to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave say they are concerned the weather could thwart their efforts. The provincial governor Narongsak Osottanakorn said early Saturday that officials are still trying to figure out the best plan of action.
"We have to try to set the plan and find which plan is the best."
Billionaire Elon Musk, meanwhile, has announced his company will send engineers and equipment to Thailand to help the rescue effort.
Heavy rains are forecast for the area in the next few days, which could flood parts of the cave where the water has been pumped out and make a rescue impossible.
The search for victims from the sinking of a tourist boat off the coast of Thailand is set to resume Saturday. The death toll rose to at least 33 on Friday. The search had been suspended Friday night because of darkness.
The boat was carrying 105 people including 93 tourists, 11 crew and one tour guide when it capsized in rough seas late Thursday off Thailand's Phuket island.
Discussions between U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean officials are set to resume on Saturday.
The meetings come amid reports of American intelligence assessments, that is, that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is continuing to develop the infrastructure for his nuclear program.
Pompeo hopes to press North Korea to work toward a timetable to end its nuclear program and lay out details of how verification of that can be carried out.
For more on these stories, visit our website voanews.com. This is VOA news.
China said Friday that it was "forced to take a necessary counterattack" and responded in kind to the United States after Washington imposed tariffs on 800 Chinese import products valued at $34 billion.
Beijing said it applied retaliatory tariffs on 545 U.S. items also worth $34 billion.
As Lisa Schlein reports from Geneva, the head of the World Trade Organization is cautioning against nations entering into retaliatory trade wars.
The Geneva-based WTO will not comment on specific actions, but the organization's director-general, Roberto Azevêdo, has sent out a series of tweets warning nations against giving in to protectionist impulses. In his tweet, the WTO chief says recent developments show that more restrictive measures are on the way.
His spokesman, Dan Pruzin, says Azevêdo fears the deterioration in trade relations may be worse than previously anticipated and is likely to have very serious consequences.
"With further escalation, the effects would only grow in magnitude, hitting jobs and growth in the countries involved and sending economic shock waves around the world."
WTO chief Azevêdo is urging all parties to sit down and discuss ways of tackling the issues at the root of the growing trade tensions.
Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva.
Also Friday, Russia announced it was introducing extra duties on U.S. goods in retaliation for U.S. levies on steel. Products targeted include construction equipment, products in the oil and gas industry and mining tools.
U.S. employers kept up a brisk hiring pace in June by adding 213,000 jobs.
The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate rose to 4.0 percent from 3.8 percent as more job seekers and entered the market.
The job gain showed that the 9-year-old U.S. economic expansion remains on solid ground
Russia is denying any role in the poisoning of a British couple whom British authorities insist are the latest victims of Novichok allegedly a Russian-made military-grade nerve agent first implicated in an assassination attempt on a former Russian spy and his daughter.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday Moscow is concerned that nerve gas has been used in Europe, but had no information [and] that confirmed, that is, was the Russian substance Novichok that was used.
British nationals Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley both fell ill in Amesbury, showing symptoms that British medical personnel have described as consistent with the March poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
For more on these stories, visit our website. I'm David Byrd in Washington.
