The rate of human metapneumovirus (HMPV) infections, which is similar to the flu, in northern China is decreasing, a health official said on Sunday, amid international concern about a potential pandemic.

HMPV, which belongs to the same family as the human respiratory syncytial virus, causes symptoms similar to the flu or a cold, such as fever, cough, and nasal congestion. Symptoms often resolve on their own, although they can lead to lower respiratory tract infections in children, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals.

“Human metapneumovirus is not a new virus and has been with humans for at least several decades,” said Wang Liping, a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, during a press conference by the National Health Commission of China.

Wang added that the recent increase in cases of the virus, first detected in the Netherlands in 2001, is due to better detection methods.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday the creation of a body to “collect tariffs, duties, and all revenue from foreign sources,” comparing it to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which collects taxes from Americans.

“We will begin charging those who profit at our expense through trade, and they will finally start paying what they owe,” Trump said in a message on his social media platform, Truth Social.

He indicated that the new body, to be called the External Revenue Service, will begin operations on January 20, the day Trump is sworn in as the 47th president of the U.S. and when he is expected to make the first decisions of his second term.

The Republican also criticized “soft and pathetically weak trade deals” that have been in place until now.

“The U.S. economy has provided growth and prosperity to the world while we taxed ourselves,” he stated.

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Trump has been insisting on raising tariffs for months and has even declared that “tariff” is, for him, “the most beautiful word in the dictionary.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), one of Donald Trump’s largest legal opponents during his first term, said on Tuesday that it is preparing for “the worst-case scenario” regarding immigration under the new Republican administration, which will take office on January 20.

The ACLU has strengthened its alliances with other organizations to challenge the new U.S. government’s anti-immigrant measures in court, especially in states that share a border with Mexico.

“We will be litigating as we have been since the first Trump administration, through to the Biden administration, challenging any policy that is enacted that violates the Constitution and threatens the rights and dignity of immigrants in our country,” warned Victoria López, program and strategy director for the ACLU in Arizona, during a press conference.

In this regard, Felicia Gómez, from the ACLU in the border counties of San Diego and Imperial in California, stated that the fight will also be against “the threat of further dismantling of the asylum system by the Trump administration.”