The Guardian

From tariffs to rare earths, Chinese and US presidents ‘make outstanding group of decisions’ at crunch trade talks
Trump-Xi meeting: US president says rare earths deal and tariff cut agreed
Analysis: price of confrontation was too high for both sides
As Donald Trump flew out of Busan airport in South Korea after his meeting with China’s Xi Jinping, the US president sounded upbeat about progress made during less than two hours of talks.
Trump discussed the outcome of the meeting, which he described as a 12 on a scale of one to 10, with “an outstanding group of decisions made”. He added: “We’ve come to a conclusion on many important points.”
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Donald Trump hails ‘amazing’ trade talks with Chinese counterpart, with ‘no roadblock at all on rare earth’
Five key takeaways from Trump-Xi meeting
Analysis: price of confrontation was too high for both sides
Donald Trump has described crucial trade talks with the Chinese president in South Korea as “amazing”, saying their dispute over the supply of rare earths had been settled and that he would visit China in April.
Xi Jinping has not commented on Thursday’s discussions but noted that the economic and trade teams from both countries had “reached a basic consensus on addressing our respective major concerns” during recent talks in Kuala Lumpur, according to Chinese state media. That had “provided the necessary conditions” for their meeting on Thursday, he added.
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Donald Trump said the US and China had agreed ‘to a lot of things’ during trade talks in South Korea, and would be having further discussions. The US president described Xi Jinping as ‘distinguished and respected’, while the Chinese leader said: ‘We do not always see eye to eye with each other, and it is normal.’ Trump hailed the trade talks as ‘amazing’, saying the dispute over the supply of rare earths had been settled and that he would visit China in April
Trump meets Xi in South Korea – live updates
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Will US sanctions squeeze Russia’s war machine? Plus: The art genius of Gerhard Richter

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Donald Trump’s sudden decision last week to sanction Russian oil producers suggested the US president has finally lost patience with Vladimir Putin after a series of fruitless talks over ending the war in Ukraine.
Could it break the deadlock? Oil sanctions have the potential to genuinely damage Moscow’s finances, as the Russian president himself admitted last week. It remains to be seen, though, whether economic pressure alone can bend Putin’s arm over a conflict he views as defining to his legacy.
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US president will meet his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jae Myung, but expectations of a breakthrough on tariffs are low
Donald Trump heads to South Korea on Wednesday to meet President Lee Jae Myung, with deadlocked talks over a $350bn trade deal between the two countries threatening to cast a shadow over the event.
After arriving on a flight from Tokyo, where he signed a rare earths deal with Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, the US president is due to address a summit of CEOs and meet Lee in the town of Gyeongju, a historical city playing host to the annual Apec summit.
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Soyinka, 91, who recently compared US president to Idi Amin, says ‘I have no visa – I am banned’
The Trump administration has revoked the visa for Wole Soyinka, the acclaimed Nigerian Nobel prize-winning writer who has been critical of Trump since his first presidency, Soyinka revealed on Tuesday.
“I want to assure the consulate … that I’m very content with the revocation of my visa,” Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel prize for literature, told a news conference.
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US says one person survived latest strikes, having killed 51 people in attacks on at least 13 vessels in recent weeks
The US military killed 14 people and left one survivor in more strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Monday, as the Trump administration continued to expand its campaign beyond the Caribbean.
The latest strikes mean the US has now attacked at least 13 vessels and brought the officially acknowledged death toll to 51 people since the campaign began at the start of September.
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Trump’s threats against the country and attacks on nearby boats cannot be justified under international law
We should not be surprised that Donald Trump, having had no problem aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, is willing to flout the law when it comes to his bellicose threats to Venezuela and his lethal attacks on nearby alleged drug-running boats. Living up to the “No Kings” fears expressed by protesters across the United States, Trump acts as if he is above the law. The only way to rein in such criminality is to show his followers the dangerous implications of his conduct.
Despite his administration’s vow to launch “no more open-ended conflicts”, Trump has summoned an aircraft carrier to the Caribbean Sea and is already sending military helicopters provocatively near the Venezuelan coast. The Trump administration denies that its goal is regime change, but that certainly seems to be the purpose, as some officials privately concede. Ousting Venezuela’s autocratic leader, N..

Sanae Takaichi says she will nominate Trump for peace prize as two leaders sign agreement on rare earths
What are rare earths – explained in 30 seconds
Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has pledged to realise a “golden age” in relations with the US and to “fundamentally reinforce” her country’s defence posture at the start of a visit by Donald Trump.
The US president, who is in Japan on the second leg of a week-long tour of Asia, and Takaichi quickly signed an agreement laying out a framework to secure the mining and processing of rare earths and other minerals.
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