CHICAGO — A judge on Tuesday ordered a senior U.S. Border Patrol official to meet her each evening to discuss the government’s immigration crackdown in the Chicago area, an extraordinary step following weeks of street confrontations, tear gas volleys and complaints of excessive force.

“Yes, ma’am,” responded Greg Bovino, who has become the face of the Trump administration’s immigration sweeps in America’s big cities.

Bovino got an earful from U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis as soon as he settled into the witness chair in his green uniform.

Ellis quickly expressed concerns about video and other images from an illegal immigration drive that has produced more than 1,800 arrests since September. The hearing is the latest in a lawsuit by news outlets and protesters who say agents have used too much force, including tear gas, during demonstrations.

“My role is not to tell you that you can or cannot enforce validly passed laws by Congress. … My role is simply to see that in the enforcement of those laws, the agents are acting in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution,” the judge said.

Bovino is chief of the Border Patrol sector in El Centro, Calif., one of nine sectors on the Mexican border.

The judge wants him to meet her in person daily at 6 p.m. “to hear about how the day went.”

“I suspect, that now knowing where we are and that he understands what I expect, I don’t know that we’re going to see a whole lot of tear gas deployed in the next week,” Ellis said.

Ellis zeroed in on reports that Border Patrol agents disrupted a children’s Halloween parade with tear gas on the city’s Northwest Side over the weekend. Neighbors had gathered in the street as someone was arrested.

“Those kids were tear-gassed on their way to celebrate Halloween in their local school parking lot,” Ellis said. “And I can only imagine how terrified they were. These kids, you can imagine, their sense of safety was shattered on Saturday. And it’s going to take a long time for that to come back, if ever.”

Ellis ordered Bovino to produce all use-of-force reports since Sept. 2 from agents involved in Operation Midway Blitz. She first demanded them by the end of Tuesday, but Bovino said it would be “physically impossible” because of the “sheer amount.”

Lawyers for the government have repeatedly defended the actions of agents, including those from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and told the judge that videos and other portrayals have been one-sided.

Besides his court appearance, Bovino still must sit for a deposition, an interview in private, with lawyers from both sides.

The judge has already ordered agents to wear badges, and she’s banned them from using certain riot control techniques against peaceful protesters and journalists. She subsequently required body cameras after the use of tear gas raised concerns that agents were not following her initial order.

Ellis set a Friday deadline for Bovino to get a camera and to complete training.

Attorneys representing a coalition of news outlets and protesters claim he violated the judge’s use-of-force order in Little Village, a Mexican enclave in Chicago, and they filed an image of him allegedly “throwing tear gas into a crowd without justification.”

Over the weekend, masked agents and unmarked SUVs were seen on Chicago’s wealthier, predominantly white North Side, where video showed chemical agents deployed in a street. Agents have been recorded using tear gas several times over the past few weeks.

Bovino also led the immigration operation in Los Angeles in recent months, leading to thousands of arrests. Agents smashed car windows, blew open a door to a house and patrolled MacArthur Park on horseback.

Fernando writes for the Associated Press.

Beever-Jones was a threat against Australia almost immediately as she came inches from getting on the end of a Beth Mead cross after just three minutes.

She was offside when she lobbed goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold minutes later, but finally got on the scoresheet when Russo was brought down by Alanna Kennedy – the Australia defender receiving a red card – and Beever-Jones netted from the resulting free-kick.

The 22-year-old continued to cause problems before she was forced off prematurely, picking up a knock with less than 10 minutes left.

“She was so bright. She was making really good runs and making herself a nuisance,” said former England defender Anita Asante on ITV.

“She was also asking questions of Sarina because I’m sure she wants to play every single minute she can for England.”

Beever-Jones only played 74 minutes during their success in Switzerland, coming off the bench twice and starting once – an experience which taught her how to react to the disappointment of not being selected and how to manage those emotions.

“I’m always a believer in timing. I look back to the Euros and yeah, I wish I could have played more, I wish I could have helped more,” she told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“But for me, as soon as it ended I thought, ‘right, go back to my club, smash it, do what you can do and hit the ground running’.”

Beever-Jones did just that and has scored four goals in six WSL matches, leading to many calling for her to start this week’s friendlies.

She played 27 minutes as a second-half substitute in Saturday’s defeat by Brazil, but Wiegman gave her the opportunity against Australia out wide and was pleased with what she saw.

“[Beever-Jones and Russo] have played together before. I think we have three players who can play at centre-forward and all three are good and very different,” said Wiegman.

“Aggie can also play on the sides. That is what you saw today, that she is very agile and quick with the ball which can help the team.”

Chelsea team-mate Ellie Carpenter was part of the opposition’s backline and aware of Beever-Jones’ threat.

She has taken on the regular number nine spot at Chelsea with Australia forward Sam Kerr still returning to full fitness and an injury to Mayra Ramirez.

Former England striker Ian Wright told ITV that Beever-Jones has “the right attitude” by taking her opportunities and waiting patiently for them.

“She can play in the nine and also out wide. She has every attribute to be a world-class striker,” club-mate Carpenter added.

“She is hard to defend against. I’m happy for her that she got more minutes tonight and has shown why she can be a regular starter for England.”

Tensions have grown between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago over support for US military action in the Caribbean.

Venezuela has declared Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister a persona non grata, as the two countries continue to feud over United States military activity in the Caribbean Sea.

On Tuesday, Venezuela’s National Assembly voted in favour of the sanction against Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who has been sparring with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. It designates her as unwelcome in the country and bars her from entering.

Asked a day earlier about the prospect, Persad-Bissessar told the news agency AFP: “Why would they think I would want to go to Venezuela?”

The two countries – separated by a small bay just 11km (7 miles) wide at its narrowest point – have been at loggerheads in recent weeks over the US military activity in the region.

Persad-Bissessar is one of the few Caribbean leaders to applaud the build-up of US military forces in the Caribbean as well as its bombing campaign against alleged drug-trafficking boats.

“I, along with most of the country, am happy that the US naval deployment is having success in their mission,” Persad-Bissessar said shortly after the first missile strike was announced on September 2.

“I have no sympathy for traffickers; the US military should kill them all, violently.”

But that stance has put her at odds with Maduro’s government. Just this week, Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Yvan Gil Pinto told the United Nations General Assembly that the US strikes were an “illegal and completely immoral military threat hanging over our heads”.

Legal experts have compared the bombing campaign with extrajudicial killings, citing likely violations of international law. At least 13 strikes have occurred so far against 14 maritime vessels, most of them small boats.

An estimated 57 people have been killed in the US attacks. Their identities are unknown, and no definitive evidence has been provided to the public so far to link them to drug trafficking.

Relations frayed over US strikes

Labelling Persad-Bissessar a persona non grata is just the latest chapter in the tit-for-tat between the two countries.

On Tuesday, AFP reported that Trinidad and Tobago was considering a “mass deportation” of undocumented migrants, most of whom are Venezuelans, from its territory.

According to a memorandum reviewed by the news agency, Trinidad and Tobago’s homeland security minister, Roger Alexander, ordered a halt to any planned releases of “illegal immigrants” in detention.

“Consideration is currently being given to the implementation of a mass deportation exercise,” the memo said.

That comes after Maduro ordered the “immediate suspension” of a major gas deal with Trinidad and Tobago on Monday, citing the island nation’s reception of a US warship.

The island is hosting one of several US warships deployed near Venezuelan waters by President Donald Trump. Venezuelan officials have accused the US president of seeking to overturn Maduro’s government.

In cancelling the gas deal, Maduro accused Persad-Bissessar of transforming the Caribbean nation “into an aircraft carrier of the American empire against Venezuela”.

The Pentagon has so far deployed seven warships, a submarine, drones and fighter jets to the Caribbean, as well as another warship to the Gulf of Mexico.

The rate of the US bombing campaign has increased in recent weeks, with six strikes announced over the last week alone.

Its scope has also broadened, with strikes taking place this month in the Eastern Pacific Ocean near Colombia, as well as the Caribbean waters off Venezuela’s shores.

Some observers believe the Trump administration is using the US military to pressure and destabilise Maduro, who was re-elected last year in what the US has dismissed as a fraudulent election.

Persad-Bissessar, however, has been steadfast in her support of the US campaign, saying she would rather see drug traffickers “blown to pieces” than have them contribute to deaths in her country.

SINGER Chris Brown has been allowed to return to the US from Britain — but only under stringent bail conditions. 

The Forever hitmaker, 36, is accused of attacking music producer Abraham Diaw at the Tape club in London’s Mayfair. 

Yesterday, he won an appeal to vary conditions and is now allowed to leave the UK before his trial next October. 

Judge Tony Baumgartner told the Grammy Award-winner: “You will have to come back to the UK when you are required to do so.” 

Brown, along with Dallas rapper Omololu Akinlolu, 38, denies actual bodily harm and grievous bodily harm in February 2023.

He also faces one count of having an offensive weapon — namely a tequila bottle. 

MCQUEEN BEE

Jorgie Porter: I’ve kissed whole village & was lads’ mag babe…I want sex scenes

HOME SWEET HOME

Martin Freeman wins YEAR long battle over £5m mansion

Brown appeared at Southwark Crown Court today wearing a baggy white shirt, black tie and glasses to for an application to vary bail conditions. 

Akinlolu was wearing a cream cricket jumper and brown chinos. 

The pair confirmed their names simultaneously with a ‘yes ma’am’ in front of a public gallery filled with fans of the R and B star. 

The pair are required back at Southwark crown court on January 28 for a pre-trial hearing. 

Brown and Akinlolu will then face a week-long trial on 26 October next year. 

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday indefinitely barred the Trump administration from firing federal employees during the government shutdown, saying that labor unions were likely to prevail on their claims that the cuts were arbitrary and politically motivated.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston granted a preliminary injunction that bars the firings while a lawsuit challenging them plays out. She previously issued a temporary restraining order against the job cuts that was set to expire Wednesday.

Illston, who was nominated by former President Clinton, has said she believes evidence will show the mass firings were illegal and in excess of authority.

Federal agencies are enjoined from issuing layoff notices or acting on notices issued since the government shut down Oct. 1. Illston said her order does not apply to notices sent before the shutdown.

The Republican administration has slashed jobs in education, health and other areas it says are favored by Democrats. The administration also said it will not tap roughly $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as SNAP, flowing into November.

The American Federation of Government Employees and other labor unions sued to stop the “reductions in force” layoffs, saying the firings were an abuse of power designed to punish workers and pressure Congress.

“President Trump is using the government shutdown as a pretense to illegally fire thousands of federal workers — specifically those employees carrying out programs and policies that the administration finds objectionable,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement thanking the court.

The White House referred a request for comment to the Office of Management and Budget, which did not immediately respond.

Lawyers for the government say the district court does not have the authority to hear personnel challenges and that President Trump has broad authority to reduce the federal workforce as he pledged to do during his campaign.

“The president was elected on this specific platform,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Velchik said. “The American people selected someone known above all else for his eloquence in communicating to employees that you’re fired; this is what they voted for.”

Trump starred on a long-running reality TV series called “The Apprentice” in which his signature catchphrase was telling candidates they were fired.

About 4,100 layoff notices have gone out since Oct. 10, some sent to work email addresses that furloughed employees are not allowed to check. Some personnel were called back to work, without pay, to issue layoff notices to others.

The lawsuit has expanded to include employees represented by additional labor unions, including the National Treasury Employees Union, the American Federation of Teachers, and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. All Cabinet departments and two dozen independent agencies are included in the lawsuit.

Democratic lawmakers are demanding that any deal to reopen the government address expiring health care subsidies that have made health insurance more affordable for millions of Americans. They also want any government funding bill to reverse the Medicaid cuts in Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill passed this summer.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to negotiate with Democrats until they agree to reopen the government.

This is now the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history. The longest occurred during Trump’s first term over his demands for funds to build the Mexico border wall. That one ended in 2019 after 35 days.

Har writes for the Associated Press.

The ex-wife of the Angels employee who gave pitcher Tyler Skaggs fentanyl-laced opioid pills was steadfast in her testimony Monday and Tuesday that Angels executives knew of her then-husband’s opioid abuse for several years before Skaggs died after chopping up and snorting the pills in 2019.

The testimony of Camela Kay directly contradicted that of the Angels then-vice president of communications, Tim Mead, and traveling secretary Tom Taylor, both of whom testified during the first week of a trial in Orange County Superior Court that is expected to last until December.

Skaggs’ widow, Carli, and his parents, Debbie Hetman and Darrell Skaggs, are the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Angels and are seeking $118 million in lost earnings, unspecified damages for pain and suffering plus punitive damages.

Camela Kay’s testimony fortified the Skaggs family’s contention that the Angels knew that Eric Kay — the team’s communications director of 23 years who is now serving a 22-year prison term for his role in Skaggs’ death — had serious drug problems and that his supervisors and co-workers did not follow team and Major League Baseball policies in dealing with the issues.

Leah Graham, another in the Skaggs family’s deep roster of accomplished attorneys, questioned Camela Kay, taking her through a timeline beginning in 2013 when she first recognized that her husband had a drug problem.

During an Angels road trip to New York to play the Yankees, Eric admitted to her, “I take five Vicodin a day,” Camela testified. She said he made the admission in front of Mead and Taylor, whom she described as shocked, and they told her they “were going to do whatever they could to help him.”

She continued to suspect illicit drug use, however, and the issues came to the forefront in 2017, when the Kay family staged in intervention at their home on Oct. 1, the day after the Angels’ season ended.

Camela testified about a phone call that day in which she said she told Taylor that Eric’s sister, Kelly Miller, had notified her that Eric was distributing pills to Skaggs. Camela said of Taylor’s reaction, “He blows me off.”

The next day, Mead and Taylor visited the Kay home to try to convince Eric to go to rehab for “opioid addiction,” according to Camela. He said Eric told Mead to go into his bedroom and find pills he had stashed there. Mead returned with a handful of baggies containing pills.

“I was standing afar, and Tom was on the couch with Eric, and all of a sudden I see Tim walk out of our bedroom with baggies of pills,” Camela Kay said.

She said Mead placed the pills on the coffee table in front of the couch where Eric Kay and Taylor were sitting. She testified that she believed her then-husband — their divorce was finalized in 2023 — was selling the baggies of opioids to players to make extra money because the family had financial difficulties.

Both Mead and Taylor denied in their testimony that they had any recollection of finding or seeing any baggies full of pills. Mead said he recalled “very little of that morning” and did not remember going into Eric Kay’s bedroom or finding pills there.

Camela Kay testified that she witnessed team employees and players handing out opioid pills on a team flight. On cross-examination, Angels lawyer Todd Theodora asked her how many team flights she had been on, and Camela answered 10 to 12.

Theodora also pointed out discrepancies in her testimony compared to what she said in her deposition several months ago. He also pointed out that in nearly 200 texts and emails to Angels personnel, she never warned them that her husband might be taking or distributing opioids.

Camela said she had strong suspicions throughout the 2018 season that Eric was still using because he displayed erratic behavior and noted that she shared those concerns with Taylor, whose office at Angel Stadium was adjacent to her husband’s.

The Angels have attempted to establish that Eric Kay was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, although Camela disputed that. When Theodora pressed her on her assertion that she had never heard her husband was bipolar, she replied, “He had a drug addiction.”

Camela testified that Eric told her that he was taking opioids to mask mental health issues that included depression, but that he was not taking prescribed medication for bipolar disorder.

A crisis occurred Easter Sunday — April 21, 2019 — when Eric was acting erratically at work and was hospitalized that evening after Taylor had driven him home. While taking Eric’s items from Taylor’s car, Camela said, she found an Advil bottle filled with blue pills next to the car and dumped them on the passenger seat to show Taylor.

Taylor testified that he while he did recall Eric acting erratically and driving him home, he didn’t recall the blue pills in the Advil bottle.

Although Camela said she was forceful in telling Mead and Taylor that Eric needed detox and inpatient care, instead he went through an outpatient rehab program in late April and May. He returned to work — by this time moving up to the position Mead had held before he departed that spring to become president of the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. — and about a month later was assigned to go on the trip to Texas that resulted in Skaggs’ death.

Angels communications employee Grace McNamee testified last week that when she learned Eric Kay was going on the trip, she asked colleague Adam Chodzko, “Is this a good idea?”

“Maybe I was talking out loud, the mother in me, it just felt like maybe Eric should spend some time at home after being on leave for, you know, bipolar and mental illness,” McNamee testified.

Testimony last week from Angels human resources executive Mayra Castro established that Eric Kay wasn’t fired, but instead was allowed to resign Nov. 2, 2019. Graham said this bolstered the Skaggs family’s contention that the Angels repeatedly gave Kay special treatment rather than treating his behavior the way they would with other employees.

Castro told Graham that a 63-year-old longtime Angels custodial worker was fired for drinking a hard seltzer during a break. The employee was not visibly intoxicated and told HR she was unaware the drink contained alcohol, Castro testified. The Skaggs family’s lawyers suggested that had Kay been punished similarly, Tyler Skaggs would still be alive.

Castro also admitted to deleting and then restoring an August 2019 text she sent to a co-worker that said of Kay, “Dude he gave me tweaker vibes.” The co-worker responded: “Omfg, I always thought he definitely looked like a tweaker and sketch.” Castro testified that she realized deleting the text was wrong and turned it over to the Skaggs family‘s legal team as part of discovery.

Oct. 28 (UPI) — Tech mogul Elon Musk launched his own online encyclopedia with his company xAI, calling it Grokipedia as a rival to the non-profit Wikipedia.

Grokipedia, named for xAI’s chatbot Grok, uses Wikipedia as its source and it’s modeled like Wikipedia. But it has sanitized versions of pages about Musk, reporting nothing critical of him. The page says it has 885,279 pages.

The venture launched on Monday, with the site initially crashing then coming back online later. It has been reported by Musk as an improved and less biased version of Wikipedia.

Republican lawmakers and White House AI czar David Sacks have called Wikipedia “hopelessly biased.”

On X, Sacks said, “An army of left-wing activists maintain the bios and fight reasonable corrections. Magnifying the problem, Wikipedia often appears first in Google search results, and now it’s a trusted source for AI model training. This is a huge problem.”

The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, said in a statement last month, “Wikipedia informs; it does not persuade.”

“Unlike newer projects, Wikipedia’s strengths are clear: it has transparent policies, rigorous volunteer oversight, and a strong culture of continuous improvement. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, written to inform billions of readers without promoting a particular point of view,” Lauren Dickinson, a spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation, said in a statement.

“This human-created knowledge is what AI companies rely on to generate content; even Grokipedia needs Wikipedia to exist,” she added.

On Monday, Musk posted on X that the launch was “Grokipedia version 0.1,” but that “Version 1.0 will be 10X better, but even at 0.1 it’s better than Wikipedia imo.”

Forces from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), supported by local militias and Ugandan troops, repelled an early morning attack by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) on the mining hub of Manguredjipa in North Kivu province on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025.

The assault, which began around 5:30 a.m., targeted the town located 100 kilometres west of Butembo in Lubero territory. Locals told HumAngle that the ADF rebels were first sighted at the Ngoma Institute in DRC, with sources saying the assailants approached from a farm in Mangingi, a peripheral quarter of Manguredjipa.

A priest from the St. Joseph Catholic Parish in Manguredjipa noted that the coalition forces were present “in large numbers” and quickly pursued the attackers. “Until 7 a.m. this morning, gunfire was still being heard in Manguredjipa,” the priest revealed.

A local of the Brazza area corroborated the swift action, saying, “They were not lucky to reach the centre of the town, because they arrived near a position of the Wazalendu, and the FARDC were on alert.” 

Clashes were ongoing in the area where the rebels had invaded when HumAngle spoke to locals.

The incursion triggered a rapid displacement of residents from the southeastern area of Manguredjipa, including Brazza, Mangingi, and Matonge, who sought refuge in the town’s centre. Military analysts suggest the ADF aimed for the city’s commercial heart and a nearby health facility. While official casualty figures remain unknown, residents have reported one civilian fatality. A young man was hit by a bullet while fleeing his Mangingi quarter towards the centre of the town.

The ADF offensive on Manguredjipa follows clashes just the day before. On Monday, October 27, 2025, a coalition of FARDC, Wazalendo, and UPDF forces engaged ADF rebels spotted in N’tembe, a village ten kilometres from Manguredjipa.

One resident, Nelson, believes the Monday fighting was a prelude to the attack on the town. “We heard gunfire throughout the day on Monday, and the group of assailants targeted the position of our forces to get to Manguredjipa,” he said, adding that the daylight timing of the successful defence likely averted a greater tragedy. “God helping, they arrived in the town by daybreak. If they had arrived at night, we should have counted several deaths, especially as heavy rain fell in the town during the night.”

Chris Evans might need some new superhero gear for his next gig. Perhaps a supercharged stroller?

The Marvel alum, 44, and his wife, Portuguese actor Alba Baptista, 28, on Friday welcomed their first child together in Evans’ home state of Massachusetts, People reported Tuesday. The couple named their newborn daughter Alma Grace Baptista Evans, according to the outlet.

Representatives for Evans and Baptista did not reply immediately Tuesday to The Times’ request for comment.

Evans and Baptista, who began dating around 2021, wed in 2023 in a pair of ceremonies in Cape Cod and Portugal, Evans explained amid much fanfare during a panel that year at New York Comic Con. The couple’s East Coast nuptials were attended by Evans’ fellow Marvel legends Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Page Six reported at the time.

During the Comic Con panel, Evans called the festivities “wonderful and beautiful,” but said that he and his belle were happy to be winding down after the whole ordeal.

“Planning a wedding, it’s a lot,” he said. “For those of you who are married, you know, it takes a lot out of you, but now that we’re through that, we’ve just kinda been enjoying life and gearing up for autumn, my favorite season. It’s like the best time of year right now. … Now we’re just relaxing and enjoying life and reflecting.”

Evans last year confided about his aspirations toward fatherhood to “Access Hollywood,” saying he “absolutely” hoped to be a “superhero dad” like his “Red One” co-star Dwayne Johnson.

“The title of ‘dad’ is an exciting one,” the actor said.

Since passing Captain America’s shield to Anthony Mackie in 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” Evans has flexed his creative muscles with high(er) brow indies including Celine Song’s buzzy romance “Materialists” and Ethan Coen’s dark detective comedy “Honey Don’t.”

But despite intel from the source himself, Marvel die-hards aren’t buying that Evans’ time with the franchise has come to a close. They’ll know once and for all come December, when “Avengers: Doomsday” hits theaters.

Baptista for her part has tacked several film credits onto to her resume since Netflix canceled her cult-favorite series “Warrior Nun” in 2022. She is notably slated to appear in A24’s upcoming film “Mother Mary,” which will feature original songs by Charli XCX and Jack Antonoff and an ensemble cast including FKA Twigs and Hunter Schafer of “Euphoria” fame.

WASHINGTON — President Trump faces the most important international meeting of his second term so far on Thursday: face-to-face negotiations with Xi Jinping, who has made China a formidable economic and military challenger to the United States.

The two presidents face a vast agenda during their meeting in Seoul, beginning with the two countries’ escalating trade war over tariffs and high-tech exports. The list also includes U.S. demands for a Chinese crackdown on fentanyl, China’s aid to Russia in its war with Ukraine, the future of Taiwan and China’s growing nuclear arsenal.

Trump has already promised, characteristically, that the meeting will be a major success.

“It’s going to be fantastic for both countries, and it’s going to be fantastic for the entire world,” he said last week.

But it isn’t yet clear that the summit’s concrete results will measure up to that high standard.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that the two sides have agreed to a “framework” under which China would delay implementing tight controls on rare earth elements, minerals crucial for the production of high-tech products from smartphones and electric vehicles to military aircraft and missiles. He said China has also agreed to resume buying soybeans from U.S. farmers and to crack down on fentanyl components.

In return, Bessent said, the United States will back down from its stinging tariffs on Chinese goods.

Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador in Beijing under then-President Biden, said that kind of deal would amount to “an uneasy trade truce rather than a comprehensive trade deal.”

“That may be the best we can expect,” he said in an interview Monday. Still, he added, “it will be a positive step to stabilize world markets and allow the continuation of U.S.-China trade for the time being.”

But U.S. and Chinese officials have been close-mouthed on what, if anything, has been agreed on regarding Xi’s other big trade demand: easier U.S. restrictions on high-tech exports to China, especially advanced semiconductor chips used for artificial intelligence.

Burns said the two superpowers’ technology competition is “the most sensitive … in terms of where this relationship will head, which country will emerge more powerful.”

Giving China easy access to advanced semiconductors “would only help [the Chinese army] in its competition with the U.S. military for power in the Indo-Pacific,” he warned.

Other former officials and China hawks outside the administration have said, even more pointedly, that they worry that Trump may be too willing to trade long-term technology assets for short-term trade deals.

In August, Trump eased export controls to allow Nvidia, the world leader in AI chips, to sell more semiconductors to China — in an unusual deal under which the U.S. company would pay 15% of its revenue from the sales to the U.S. Treasury.

Matthew Pottinger, Trump’s top China advisor in his first term, protested in a recent podcast interview that the deal risked trading a strategic technology advantage “for $20 billion and Nvidia’s bottom line.”

Underlying the controversy over technology, some China watchers warn, is a basic mismatch between the two presidents: Trump is focused almost entirely on trade and commercial deals, while Xi is focused on displacing the United States as the biggest economic and military power in Asia.

“I don’t think the administration has a strategy toward China,” said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. “It has a trade strategy, not a China strategy.”

“The administration does not seem to be focused on competition with China,” said Jonathan Czin, a former CIA analyst now at Washington’s Brookings Institution. “It’s focused on deal making. … It’s tactics without strategy.”

“We’ve fallen into a kind of trade and technology myopia,” he added. “We’re not talking about issues like China’s coercion [of smaller countries] in the South China Sea. … China doesn’t want to have that bigger, broader conversation.”

It isn’t clear that Trump and Xi will have either the time or inclination to talk in detail about anything other than trade.

And even on the front-burner economic issues, this week’s ceasefire is unlikely to produce a permanent peace.

“As with all such agreements, the devil will be in the details,” Burns, the former ambassador, said. “The two countries will remain fierce trade rivals. Expect friction ahead and further trade duels well into 2026.”

“Buckle up,” Czin said. “There are likely more sudden moves from Beijing ahead.”

In the long run, Trump’s legacy in U.S.-China relations will rest not only on trade deals but on the larger competition for economic and military power in the Pacific Rim. No matter how this week’s meetings go, those challenges still lie ahead.

Britain’s Cameron Norrie described his upset of Carlos Alcaraz as “the biggest win of my career” as he reached the Paris Masters last 16 with a gritty comeback against the world number one.

Norrie, who was beaten in straight sets by the Spaniard in this year’s Wimbledon quarter-finals, won 4-6 6-3 6-4 in the second round of the ATP Masters 1,000 event in the French capital.

“This win is so big for me,” said Norrie, who missed the Olympic Games in Paris and the US Open last year because of a forearm injury.

“I had lost the first round of the qualifiers here last year. Coming back from my injury, I’ve been trying to enjoy my tennis in the second half of the year and I was able to do that.

“To get the biggest win of my career, my first win over a world number one, and probably the most confident player in the world right now, I am pleased with the way I did it.”

Alcaraz won the first set before Norrie responded strongly in the second by breaking early and maintaining his momentum to set up the decider.

The world number 31 then played an incredible backhand pass to break Alcaraz in the final set and saved two break points on his way to victory.

“I actually went for a walk this morning with my coach and we talked through serving for the match and what I needed to tell myself,” said Norrie, who beat Sebastian Baez in straight sets in Monday’s first round.

“I was so, so tight serving for the match yesterday against Baez.

“I told myself I deserved to be in this moment, I want to be here, and I felt quite relaxed.

“It was a nice walk, a very important walk.”

The Briton will next face the winner of the second-round match between wildcards – and cousins – Valentin Vacherot and Arthur Rinderknech.

Alcaraz, who registered 54 unforced errors on Tuesday, was returning from an ankle injury and playing his first match on the tour since beating Taylor Fritz in the Japan Open final at the end of September.

He now risks losing his number one ranking if rival Jannik Sinner, who will face Belgium’s Zizou Bergs in the second, goes on to win the Paris tournament.

“I’m really disappointed about my level,” Alcaraz said after the defeat.

“I had all the ideas clear, all the goals clear but even in the first set which I won, I felt I could do a lot more than I actually did.

“I have to give credit to Cam. He played really well, a solid match, and I think that was the key.”

Hurricane Melissa has made landfall in Jamaica, as forecasters predicted the Category 5 storm would likely cause “catastrophic” flash flooding, landslides and widespread damage, directly affecting up to 1.5 million people.

The United States National Hurricane Center urged Jamaican residents to remain sheltered in “your safe place” as ferocious winds and torrential rain tore into the western flank of the Caribbean nation on Tuesday, after making landfall in the parishes of St Elizabeth and Westmoreland.

“THIS IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND LIFE-THREATENING SITUATION!,” it said in a post on X.

The National Hurricane Center reported maximum sustained winds of 295km/h (185mph). Director Michael Brennan said that a storm surge of 2.7 to 4 metres (9 to 13 feet) was expected, warning people to remain indoors when the eye of the storm crosses over the island.

“For Jamaica, it will be the storm of the century for sure,” said cyclone specialist Anne-Claire Fontan of the World Meteorological Organization, adding that rainfall was set to exceed 700mm (27.5 inches) – about twice the amount expected in an average rainy season.

Desmond McKenzie, a local government minister, told Al Jazeera that the island nation had done everything possible to protect itself. “We are prepared, but I don’t know if we can be prepared for a Category 5 hurricane,” he said, adding that last year’s Hurricane Beryl killed four people and caused “extensive damage”.

“As it becomes closer to us, we expect to experience stronger winds, more rains, and also some significant damage to the western side of the country,” Leiska Powell, an emergency services manager with the Red Cross in Jamaica, told Al Jazeera.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is warning that at least 1.5 million people in Jamaica alone may experience the repercussions of Hurricane Melissa.

Robian Williams, a journalist for the Kingston-based radio station NationWide Radio 90FM, told Al Jazeera that the wind gusts had “toppled trees and downed power lines”.

“Many of us here are out of electricity. First responders are actually out on the road just trying to clear the blockade,” she said.

Some 25,000 tourists are currently on the island. As they ride out the storm, the office of Prime Minister Andrew Holness has said that hoteliers are offering “distress rates” and shelter spaces for those stranded.

Holness said Jamaica had received calls of support from the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and France, as well as other Caribbean nations.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, said the top priority was “to save as many lives as possible”.

“When you have massive flooding, one of the biggest problems is water”, he said, warning of “all kinds of health risks and epidemic risks” without clean water.

Jamaica’s South East Regional Health Authority issued a crocodile alert, warning on Instagram that large reptiles displaced by rapidly rising waters in rivers, gullies and swamps could “move into residential areas”.

Next stop: Cuba

The extremely violent hurricane has been barreling across the Caribbean, with winds of nearly 300km/h (185mph) recorded, making it the most powerful tropical storm recorded this year globally, according to an AFP analysis of US weather data.

It is predicted to move east towards Cuba through Wednesday, weakening to a Category 4 storm. Evacuation efforts have begun in anticipation, with reports on social media and state television showing buses transporting people to shelters.

Officials said evacuations were under way for more than 600,000 people from coastal areas, including Santiago, the island’s second-largest city. Authorities in the eastern Cuban province of Holguin will be evacuating more than 200,000 people. A similar number of people are also being moved to safety from the eastern town of Banes.

“This phenomenon is very dangerous,” Deputy Prime Minister Eduardo Martínez said in a statement from Banes, where he was located in what appeared to be a shelter. “It is unprecedented.”

A hurricane warning has been declared for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin, while a tropical storm warning is in effect for Las Tunas.

Forecasters expect up to 510mm (20 inches) of rain for parts of Cuba, along with a significant storm surge along the coast.

Melissa has also drenched the southern regions of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with a tropical storm warning still in effect for Haiti.

The hurricane was forecast to turn northeast after Cuba and strike the southeast Bahamas by Wednesday evening.

The storm has plodded along at a pace slower than many people walk, hovering at 5km/h (3mph) before picking up slightly to 7km/h (4mph) this morning.

Meteorologists say this is particularly dangerous. “Slow-moving major hurricanes often go down in history as some of the deadliest and most destructive storms on record,” said AccuWeather’s chief meteorologist, Jonathan Porter.

“This is a dire situation unfolding in slow motion.”

After a string of exotic stealthy combat jets, both crewed and uncrewed, the newest Chinese military aircraft to break cover is somewhat different, but nonetheless interesting. The latest development concerns an advanced jet trainer, but one that clearly has potential as a light combat aircraft, too.

The new jet, the designation of which remains unknown, appears to be a product of the Hongdu Aviation Industry Group (HAIG), based in Nanchang, and best known for producing trainers. Initial imagery of the jet shows it both on the ground and under flight test, wearing a yellow primer paint finish. The aircraft has a classic tandem two-seat trainer configuration, two engines, and a conventional layout with swept wings, horizontal stabilizers, twin outward-canted tailfins, and twin ventral fins. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the aircraft is powered by a pair of homegrown WS-17 turbofans, which are fed by caret-type engine intakes.

A large head-up display is visible in the front cockpit in at least one image. Other features point toward a combat role, at least as a secondary mission, including the overall size of the aircraft and wingtip hardpoints, presumably for air-to-air missiles. The gray-colored nosecone may well accommodate a radar, a feature of both lead-in fighter trainers (LIFT) and combat jets.

Notably, there are also signs that the aircraft is intended to be suitable for carrier operations. It features notable robust tricycle landing gear, including twin nosewheels, while the prominent leading-edge root extensions would also help improve maneuverability at high angles of attack and at low airspeeds, such as during the approach to the carrier.

The appearance of the new aircraft at this point is interesting, especially as China already has more than one active advanced jet trainer/LIFT program.

The first of these is the Guizhou JL-9, exported as the FTC-2000 Mountain Eagle, development of which began around 2001, as a continuation of the earlier JJ-7/FT-7 design, itself derived from the J-7/F-7 fighter, the Chinese version of the MiG-21 Fishbed. The JL-9 added an entirely new front fuselage, with a fire-control radar, and the engine intakes were relocated to the fuselage sides. Befitting its LIFT role, the JL-9 has a double-delta wing and modern integrated avionics. On the other hand, the flight-control system is mechanical rather than fly-by-wire, and the single WP-13 engine is relatively primitive, inherited from the JJ-7/FT-7, although the aircraft is supersonic.

The JL-9G is a navalized version of the JL-9, a dedicated carrier trainer with strengthened landing gear and enlarged wings with leading-edge slats and leading-edge root extensions, among other changes.

The JL-9G was originally fitted with a tailhook, but this appears to have led to structural problems and was deleted. Therefore, the JL-9G can be used to practice carrier takeoffs from land-based ‘dummy decks’ but cannot be used for arrested recoveries. However, at least touch-and-goes have been carried out by the JL-9G aboard the aircraft carrier Liaoning or Shandong.

Interesting that this news was largely missed:
According to Huitong’s CMA-Blog:

“The latest image (June 2024) indicated JL-9G practiced touch-and-go onboard the aircraft carrier Liaoning or Shandong.” pic.twitter.com/B54aL5GoQY

— @Rupprecht_A (@RupprechtDeino) June 10, 2024

More ambitious than the JL-9 is the Hongdu JL-10, a type that has been exported as the L-15 Falcon, and which first flew in 2006. This was designed from the outset as a modern, advanced jet trainer/LIFT, and its design was aided by Russia’s Yakovlev. This is a twin-engine aircraft, similar in appearance to the Yak-130 Mitten and similarly powered by a pair of Ukrainian AI-222-25 turbofans.

The JL-10 was intended to provide a trainer better optimized for pilots headed toward frontline fighters like the J-10, J-16, and J-20. From the start, it included a fully digital cockpit with head-up display, color multifunctional displays, and ‘hands on throttle and stick’ control. It also has a digital fly-by-wire flight-control system and six stores pylons.

In common with the JL-9, a version of the JL-10 has also been developed as a carrier trainer. Although primarily used from shore bases, at least a mockup of the tailhook-equipped JL-10J has appeared on the aircraft carrier Fujian.

Regarding the rumoured JL-10J carrier-capable jet trainer, another hint was spotted next to the carrier Fujian: It appears to be an unfinished JL-10J mockup stored on the dockside .

So question is: Two tails as shown in the latest CG or just one like the regular JL-10? pic.twitter.com/BM8W8MRGWK

— @Rupprecht_A (@RupprechtDeino) March 19, 2024

The JL-9 and JL-10 are also complemented by the less-advanced Hongdu JL-8, widely exported as the K-8 Karakorum and jointly developed by China and Pakistan starting in the mid-1980s. This is a straight-wing subsonic aircraft and serves primarily as an intermediate trainer, in much greater numbers than the more capable LIFT types.

The new HAIG trainer suggests that China is continuing to look for ways to optimize its fast-jet training pipeline, with the aircraft, like its immediate predecessors, likely expected to serve the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and Navy (PLAN). As such, a fully equipped carrier-capable version might well go aboard China’s carriers.

It may be the case that the new HAIG trainer is primarily intended to serve the PLAN, which would make sense given the rapid pace of development and the growing ambitions for China’s carrier air wing.

With the JL-9G clearly not considered entirely adequate as a navalized trainer, a carrier-capable advanced jet trainer/LIFT for the PLAN would make a good deal of sense. Meanwhile, the development of improved navalized versions of the JL-10 appears to continue, although the new design may supersede this.

At the same time, a land-based version of the new trainer could also be of considerable interest to the PLAAF, as it increasingly builds a fifth-generation fighter fleet and looks toward the integration of sixth-generation combat types.

For both services, there is also a question about the long-term viability of the powerplant of the JL-10, since this relies on Ukrainian engines, the supply of which is hardly straightforward. There have been reports that the JL-10 has at least been tested with Chinese-made WS-17 turbofans, but this remains unconfirmed for now.

Finally, there is the possibility of exports. The new HAIG design would appear to be especially well-tailored to the light combat aircraft market. Here, it would face competition from designs like the South Korean FA-50 and the Italian M-346. However, it seems to be more optimized for combat missions, including high performance and agility. While the FA-50 and M-346 are very much LCA derivatives of existing trainers, it is possible that operational missions were baked into the HAIG design from the outset.

Perhaps more importantly, as a Chinese design, it will be immune to the tight export restrictions that typically apply to Western aircraft in the same class. Past experience has shown that Beijing is generally open to granting export licenses to countries that might be prohibited from buying Western designs, especially those that use U.S.-licensed components. The aforementioned FA-50 and M-346, for example, both rely on American engines, making them harder to export.

In some respects, the design of the HAIG aircraft has parallels with Taiwan’s T-5 Brave Eagle. This was also developed for the advanced jet trainer/LIFT roles, and although the end result incorporates more than 80 percent new components, it was notably derived from an existing combat aircraft: the F-CK-1, which you can read more about here.

For now, we don’t know exactly what roles the new Chinese trainer/LCA might fulfil, but with the stealthy J-20 established in service, the J-35 waiting in the wings, and a series of even more advanced combat aircraft now apparently well into development, the appearance of an advanced training jet to prepare pilots for these platforms is certainly timely. Meanwhile, an export-configured light attack aircraft could also be very attractive to a number of foreign air forces.

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