China’s ambassador to the U.S. said Beijing has no choice but to respond to what he described as a trade war started by the U.S.

“We never wanted a trade war, but if somebody started a trade war against us, we have to respond and defend our own interests,” Ambassador Cui Tiankai said on “Fox News Sunday” in a rare U.S. television appearance.

His comments come amid rising political and economic tensions between the world’s two largest economies, and as international bodies and other countries warned that global growth will suffer if the dispute isn’t resolved.

Cui also dismissed as “groundless” a suggestion by Vice President Mike Pence that China has orchestrated an effort to meddle in U.S. domestic affairs.

Pence ramped up the rhetoric in a speech Oct. 4, saying Beijing has created a “a whole-of-government approach” to sway American public opinion, including spies, tariffs, coercive measures and a propaganda campaign.

His comments were some of the most critical about China by a hi..

(Bloomberg) — North Korea’s economy is in such dire straits that the reclusive nation can’t afford to go back on a promise to Donald Trump to wind down its nuclear program, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in an interview with Le Figaro.

Speaking to the French daily ahead of a meeting with President Emmanuel Macron, Moon explained why he believes North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will deliver on the pledges made at his historic summit with the U.S. leader in June.

“North Korea’s economy is in huge difficulty due to international sanctions,” Moon said, according to a transcript distributed by his presidential office. “If it breaks the agreement, it will not be able to afford the retribution from the U.S. and the international community.”

While North Korea’s economy has been impoverished for decades, the international community is hungry for news about the impact of the latest round of United Nations sanctions. Last year, the Asian country was estimated to have suffered its biggest eco..

The oldest human remains discovered in Poland were found a few years ago, but it’s only recently that scientists have uncovered the unfortunate fate of the Neanderthal to whom they once belonged.

It was only this year that researchers discovered that the bones, found amid the remains of animals, actually were once those of a Neanderthal child. A Neanderthal child, it turns out, that was eaten by a giant Ice Age-era bird, reported Science in Poland.

The bones, determined to be phalanges from the child’s hand, were dotted with dozens of holes and that was the clue that led researchers to determine what happened to the body.

“Analyses show that this is the result of passing through the digestive system of a large bird,” said Prof. Paweł Valde-Nowak of the Institute of Archeology of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, according to Science in Poland. His team discovered the bones in Poland’s Ciemna Cave. “This is the first such known example from the Ice Age.”

The bones are the oldes..