WORLD BRIEFS
Queen Elizabeth II has sent congratulations to Britain’s Royal Air Force on the 100th anniversary of its founding.
The queen’s message was read at a breakfast reception held Sunday at a central London building that served as the RAF’s first headquarters.
The Royal Air Force was created on April 1, 1918 through the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.
Its reputation is strongly associated with the extraordinary bravery and skill of the pilots who defended Britain against Germany’s Luftwaffe during World War II.
Elizabeth said in her anniversary wishes that the RAF has “defended our freedom gallantly.”
Top air force officers attended the reception, but the job of reading the queen’s message fell to 16-year-old Aircraftsman Adam Wood, one of the RAF’s youngest members. BEIJING
China says it’s rolling out new tariffs on U.S. meat, fruit and other products as retaliation against taxes approved by President Donald Trump on imported steel and aluminum.
The Chinese finance ministry says in a statement that the new tariffs begin Monday.
The announcement follows through on warnings Chinese officials have made for several weeks in an escalating trade dispute with the United States.
China’s Customs Tariff Commission is increasing the tariff rate on eight imported U.S. products, including pork, by 25 percent.
It’s also imposing a new 15 percent tariff on 120 imported U.S. commodities, including fruits.
The tariffs mirror Trump’s 25 percent charge on imported steel and 15 percent hike on aluminum.
Trump’s tariffs are partly a response to complaints that Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology.
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
The Persian Gulf island nation of Bahrain says it has discovered its largest oil field since the country’s first oil well began operation nearly 90 years ago.
The government said Sunday that the new resource is “understood to dwarf Bahrain’s current reserves.”
Details about the initial findings of size and extraction viability are to be released by the Oil Ministry at a news conference Wednesday. Bahrain says the tight oil and deep natural gas field was discovered off the west coast of the island in the Khaleej Al Bahrain Basin.
The non-OPEC producer extracts oil from an offshore field it shares with Saudi Arabia and the onshore Bahrain field.
— The Associated Press
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