China's Shenzhou-19 crew sends New Year greetings from space

The Shenzhou-19 crew members aboard China's orbiting space station on Tuesday sent their New Year greetings, wishing for more remarkable achievements for the country's manned space program in the year of 2025.

On Tuesday, the last day of 2024, Chinese astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong, and Wang Haoze remained busy and completed the retrieval of extravehicular experiment payloads.

In addition to their busy work, the three astronauts also sent their New Year greetings from the space station.

"Hello everyone, I am astronaut Cai Xuzhe. Today is the last day of 2024, and I hope that all of you can join me, full of energy, forge ahead courageously, and running into the year of 2025. Let's go," Cai said.

"I am astronaut Song Lingdong. Recently, we have been conducting experiments on musculoskeletal loading using the equipment cabinet in human systems research. We are also using advanced equipment such as ultrasound equipment and instrument for counteracting bone loss to carry out in-orbit weightlessness protection. As the new year is just around the corner, I wish for our space laboratory to achieve fruitful results and for everyone to have a bumper harvest and an endless good fortune," Song said.

"I am astronaut Wang Haoze, and I will introduce our new friend Xiaohang to everyone. Xiaohang, up a little, Xiaohang, down a little, Xiaohang, take a photo. In the future, Xiaohang will be upgraded to perform tasks such as cabin inspection, inventory management, product status checks, and question answering, becoming our smart assistant. Finally, together with Xiaohang, I wish everyone a happy New Year," Wang said.

As the new year arrives, the astronauts have also captured the first light of dawn in 2025 in the space station.

The Shenzhou-19 crew has been in orbit for two months. In 2025, the crew will continue to routinely conduct space science and application experiments and tests, as well as extravehicular activities.

"Let us look forward to more remarkable achievements in China's manned space program in 2025. May you all come true in the New Year, fireworks to the stars," said the three astronauts.

"Daring to lead at the forefront of the tide and striving with oars raised to sail towards excellence, the China Astronaut Research and Training Center wishes all the people across the country a Happy New Year," said the staff of the center.

China's Shenzhou-19 crew sends New Year greetings from space

U.S. President Donald Trump's rollout of sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" may lead to global economic recession and will exacerbate inflation in the country, said a Spanish scholar.

Amid widespread opposition, Trump on Wednesday signed two executive orders, imposing a 10-percent "minimum baseline tariff" on all imported goods and higher rates on certain trading partners.

Felix Valdivieso, a professor at IE Business School, told China Central Television (CCTV) that following the imposition of the tariffs, all consumers in the world will feel the pinch.

"These measures will have global economic impacts and may even lead to a recession. Analysts at Moody's Ratings have pointed out that these tariffs will drive up prices. Price increases will directly affect consumers' personal income and spending power, as well as their purchasing power," Valdivieso said.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday announced his government will implement a 14.1 billion euro plan to support the economy in the face of Trump's tariffs.

He called the tariffs a "unilateral attack", saying they will harm the interests of people and businesses in both the EU and the United States itself, an opinion shared by Valdivieso.

"In other words, the U.S. is trying to make money by imposing tariffs, which will also drive up prices of domestic products. According to estimates by American analysts, the price of each car in the U.S. will go up by about 1,000 to 2,000 U.S. dollars after the tariffs are imposed. With car exports to the U.S. blocked, there will be two consequences for Europe. One is that Europe will have to find other markets to sell cars. The other is that it will have to bear the consequences of the decline in car sales in some way, so it has to reduce car production lines and lay off employees," he said.

Trump's tariffs may lead to global recession, exacerbate US inflation: Spanish scholar