export_ofoct.com
[00:01.22] More hostages might be released in Gaza. VOA's Jeff Caster reports.
[00:04.69] The U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas said in a statement Friday it is willing to release an American-Israeli hostage, Eden Alexander, along with the bodies of four dual nationals who died in captivity.
[00:14.77] The statement on Telegram did not say when the release would take place or what the group expected in return.
[00:20.61] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office is questioning the offer, accusing Hamas of trying to manipulate the ongoing cease-fire talks in Qatar.
[00:28.32] Netanyahu's office said the prime minister will meet with his ministerial team Saturday night to receive a detailed report from negotiators and decide on next steps for the release of hostages. Jeff Caster, VOA News.
[00:38.94] South Africa's ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in the U.S. That's according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a post on X on Friday afternoon.
[00:48.50] Rubio accused Ibrahim Rasool of being a "race-baiting politician" and declared him "persona non grata." No additional details were available from the State Department.
[00:57.80] An executive order was signed in early February by President Donald Trump that cut aid to the Black-led South African government.
[01:04.71] Trump said South Africa's white Afrikaners were targeted in a new law that allows the government to "expropriate private land."
[01:11.61] Tit-for-tat tariffs from Mexico, Canada, the EU and China continue as the U.S. is set to impose new tariffs on April 2. VOA's Carolyn Presutti has the story.
[01:22.80] The unpredictability drives U.S. stocks wild. Analysts say if it continues, all governments lose. Jeffrey Schott is with the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
[01:34.22] "They think that if they protect their economy, they're going to increase the productivity and the competitiveness of industries in their own market.
[01:44.58] And actually what they're doing is putting them at a disadvantage in terms of price and access to global markets."
[01:53.35] The U.S. argues economic pain now will yield great results later. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: "the tariffs, we've got strategic industries we've got to have. We wanna protect the American worker that a lot of these trade deals haven't been fair."
[02:08.75] The administration is sending a signal that it's not business as usual here. It's now more exports and less imports.
[02:15.66] The next round of tariffs goes into effect April 2. Carolyn Presutti, VOA News, the White House.
[02:22.57] Two astronauts who have been living on the International Space Station since June of last year are about to get their ride back to Earth.
[02:29.21] SpaceX launched four astronauts from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday night to the space station.
[02:35.05] Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have been on the space station since their Boeing Starliner capsule suffered a malfunction and returned to Earth without them.
[02:43.02] Wilmore and Williams are expected back on Earth next week.
