Donald Trump

Hundreds gather to express opposition to US president’s attendance at ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters have held demonstrations opposing United States President Donald Trump’s visit to Malaysia for the ASEAN summit.

Protesters gathered in Kuala Lumpur’s Independence Square and the Ampang Park area of the city in separate demonstrations on Sunday morning and evening to oppose Trump’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Trump was in Kuala Lumpur to attend the 47th ASEAN summit, where he oversaw the signing of a ceasefire deal between Cambodia and Thailand and announced a number of trade deals.

In Independence Square, protesters wearing keffiyehs braved the midday sun while chanting “Free, Free Palestine”.

Asma Hanim Mahoud said she had travelled 300km (185 miles) from the state of Kelantan in northeast Malaysia to attend the protest and another demonstration on Friday in front of the US embassy.

“People who have a conscience know that Trump is a genocide enabler. Without him, Israel cannot kill all the children and people in Gaza,” she told Al Jazeera.

“It’s not rocket science.”

Mahoud was dismayed that the morning protest had been moved by authorities from Ampang Park, close to the venue of the ASEAN summit, where protests earlier in the week had taken place.

Police said they had expected between 1,000 and 1,500 protesters at the anti-Trump rally on Sunday, according to Malaysia’s Bernama news agency.

The turnout, while much lower, drew from a diverse swath of Malaysian society.

Choo Chon Kai, a leader of the Socialist Party of Malaysia, said he was attending the rally to protest US foreign policy in the Middle East and elsewhere.

“This is a solidarity rally against US imperialism, as well as solidarity with the people of Palestine and people all over the world who are victims of US imperialism,” Choo told Al Jazeera.

Choo also said he was disappointed the protest had been moved from the vicinity of the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, where Trump and other leaders gathered for the summit.

Protesters later gathered at Ampang Park, the original gathering site for the protest, in the evening to demonstrate against the US president’s visit.

“We just want to make a point that we are against the US policies, but unfortunately, our police have been very hostile to the protest and even shut down the area where we were going to protest,” Choo said.

Kuala Lumpur resident Mursihidah, who asked to be referred to by one name, said she and her husband had been attending pro-Palestine demonstrations since 2023.

Mursihidah said protesters should no longer have to take to the streets after more than two years of war.

Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire agreement earlier this month – an agreement also overseen by Trump – but violence has continued, with each side accusing the other of breaching the truce.

“I honestly don’t know why we’re still doing this,” she told Al Jazeera.

“This shouldn’t be happening, but somebody has to be their voice. We have to be their voice because they don’t have a voice.”

The leaders of Thailand and Cambodia have expanded a ceasefire deal in the presence of US President Donald Trump, who is in Malaysia for the ASEAN summit. In July, the president helped bring an end to their five-day border conflict.

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has said the United States government is “fabricating” a war against him as Washington sent the world’s biggest warship towards the South American country.

It signals a major escalation of the US’s military presence in the region amid speculation of an attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan government.

Maduro said in a national broadcast on Friday night that US President Donald Trump’s administration is “fabricating a new eternal war” as the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford, which can host up to 90 aeroplanes and attack helicopters, moves closer to Venezuela.

Trump has accused him, without providing evidence, of being the leader of the organised crime gang Tren de Aragua.

“They are fabricating an extravagant narrative, a vulgar, criminal and totally fake one,” Maduro added. “Venezuela is a country that does not produce cocaine leaves.”

Tren de Aragua, which traces its roots to a Venezuelan prison, is not known for having a big role in global drug trafficking but for its involvement in contract killings, extortion and people smuggling.

Maduro was widely accused of stealing last year’s election in Venezuela, and countries, including the US, have called for him to go.

Tensions are mounting in the region, with Trump saying he has authorised CIA operations in Venezuela and that he is considering ground attacks against alleged drug cartels in the Caribbean country.

Since September 2, US forces have bombed 10 boats, with eight of the attacks occurring in the Caribbean, for their role in allegedly trafficking drugs into the US. At least 43 people have died in the attacks.

United Nations officials and scholars of international law have said that the strikes are in clear violation of US and international law and amount to extrajudicial executions.

Venezuela’s Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said Saturday the country is conducting military exercises to protect its coast against any potential “covert operations”.

“We are conducting an exercise that began 72 hours ago, a coastal defence exercise … to protect ourselves not only from large-scale military threats but also to protect ourselves from drug trafficking, terrorist threats and covert operations that aim to destabilise the country internally,” Padrino said.

Venezuelan state television showed images of military personnel deployed in nine coastal states and a member of Maduro’s civilian militia carrying a Russian Igla-S shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile.

“CIA is present not only in Venezuela but everywhere in the world,” Padrino said. “They may deploy countless CIA-affiliated units in covert operations from any part of the nation, but any attempt will fail.”

Since August, Washington has deployed a fleet of eight US Navy ships, 10 F-35 warplanes and a nuclear-powered submarine for anti-drug operations, but Caracas maintains these manoeuvres mask a plan to overthrow the Venezuelan government.

Maduro said on Saturday he had started legal proceedings to revoke the citizenship and cancel the passport of opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez, whom he accuses of egging on an invasion.

Lopez, a well-known Venezuelan opposition figure who has been exiled in Spain since 2020, has publicly expressed his support for the deployment of US ships in the Caribbean and attacks on suspected drug trafficking vessels.

The opposition leader reacted on his X account, dismissing the move because “according to the Constitution, no Venezuelan born in Venezuela can have their nationality revoked.” He once more expressed support for a US military deployment and military actions in the country.

Lopez spent more than three years in a military prison after participating in antigovernment protests in 2014. He was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison on charges of “instigation and conspiracy to commit a crime”.

He was later granted house arrest and, after being released by a group of military personnel during a political crisis in Venezuela, left the country in 2020.

In the meantime, the US has also put Colombia’s leadership in its crosshairs.

The US Department of the Treasury slapped sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family and the South American country’s interior minister, Armando Benedetti.

Friday’s decision marked a significant escalation in the ongoing feud between the left-wing Petro and his US counterpart, the right-wing Trump.

In a statement, the US Treasury accused Petro of failing to rein in Colombia’s cocaine industry and of shielding criminal groups from accountability.

The Treasury cited Petro’s “Total Peace” plan, an initiative designed to bring an end to Colombia’s six-decade-long internal conflict through negotiations with armed rebels and criminal organisations.

Petro, a prolific social media user, quickly shot back that the Treasury’s decision was the culmination of longstanding Republican threats, including from US Senator Bernie Moreno, a critic of his presidency.

US President Donald Trump broke into dance with local performers as he arrived in Malaysia for the ASEAN summit. It marks his first trip to the Asia Pacific since his re-election.

US president begins trip to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea, with international trade and China on the agenda.

Oct. 25 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Saturday said he will add a 10% tariff to Canadian goods after the airing of a controversial ad featuring former President Ronald Reagan during the World Series.

As the Toronto Blue Jays were on their way to winning the opening game by an 11-4 score over the Los Angeles Dodgers, an anti-tariffs ad featuring edited comments made by Reagan regarding his tariffs on Japanese goods.

The ad spurred Trump to follow through on an earlier threat to increase the tariff on Canadian goods exported to the United States.

“Canada was caught red-handed, putting up a fraudulent advertisement on Ronald Reagan’s speech on tariffs,” Trump said Saturday in a Truth Social post.

“The sole purpose of this fraud was Canada’s hope that the United States Supreme Court will come to their ‘rescue’ on tariffs that they have used for years to hurt the United States,” the president said.

“Ronald Reagan loved tariffs for the purpose of national security and the economy, but Canada said he didn’t,” Trump added.

The president said Canada was supposed to immediately cease airing the ad and remove it, but “they let it run last night during the World Series, knowing that it was a fraud.”

“Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts and hostile act, I am increasing the tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now,” Trump added.

Reagan made the comments during an April 25, 1987, radio address to defend his tariff policy, but the Ontario government used and edited them without permission from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.

The Ontario ad runs for a minute and edits the former president’s comments, which Trump and others have called “misleading.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the ad’s intent is to “initiate a conversation” with U.S. officials and to reach “U.S. audiences at the highest levels,” CBS News reported.

The U.S. imposes a 10% tariff on Canadian energy, energy resources and potash and 35% for all other products that are not exempted by the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, according to the ReedSmith Trump 2.0 Tariff Tracker.

Oct. 25 (UPI) — Qatari officials are preparing peacekeeping troops for Gaza if needed to help maintain a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, President Donald Trump said during a refueling stop.

Air Force One stopped in Qatar on Saturday evening to refuel while the president is flying to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, amid a Southeast Asia trip that includes a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea.

Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani joined Trump on Air Force One for a short meeting.

Trump announced Qatar likely will be among the nations providing troops to maintain peace in Gaza while seated between the Emir and the prime minister, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Emir Al Thani told Trump he wanted to visit him at the refueling stop when he learned of the brief refueling stop by Air Force One.

“The Emir is one of the great rulers of the world,” the president responded, adding that the “prime minister has been my friend.”

He said they were instrumental in accomplishing the “incredible” feat of bringing about “peace in the Middle East.”

Also traveling to Southeast Asia on a separate flight is Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who made a stop in Qatar.

While there, he and other U.S. officials on Sunday will discuss a potential United Nations resolution or an international agreement to authorize the use of a multinational peacekeeping force in Gaza, according to The Times of Israel.

“Many of the countries that have expressed an interest in participating at some level, whether it be monetary or personnel or both, are going to need that because their domestic laws require it,” Rubio said of a resolution or an international agreement.

He said a team is working to outline a possible resolution or agreement.

Rubio also spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday to discuss continuing efforts to end all conflict in Gaza, State Department principal deputy spokesman Tommy Piggot said in a news release.

“During the call, Sec. Rubio and Prime Minister Netanyahu affirmed the strategic relationship between the U.S. and Israel,” Piggot added.

Rubio is also bound for Busan, South Korea, where the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit is scheduled from Monday through Nov.1.

US president says Ontario government’s anti-tariff ad featuring Ronald Reagan needed to be taken down ‘immediately’.

Donald Trump has announced an additional 10-percent tariff on Canada, as the United States president continues to slam his country’s northern neighbour over a contentious anti-tariff advertisement featuring former President Ronald Reagan.

In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said the ad “was to be taken down, IMMEDIATELY, but [Canada] let it run last night during the World Series, knowing that it was a FRAUD”.

“Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now,” he said.

The advertisement, produced by the Canadian province of Ontario, features a 1980s speech by Reagan in which the former Republican leader had warned against the ramifications that high tariffs on foreign imports could have on the US economy.

The US government suspended trade talks with Canada this week over the ad, accusing the Ontario provincial government of misrepresenting Reagan’s position and seeking to influence a looming US Supreme Court ruling on Trump’s tariffs policy.

On Friday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that, after consulting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the province would “pause its US advertising campaign effective Monday so that trade talks can resume”.

“Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses. We’ve achieved our goal, having reached US audiences at the highest levels,” Ford wrote on X.

“I’ve directed my team to keep putting our message in front of Americans over the weekend so that we can air our commercial during the first two World Series games.”

The Canadian government did not immediately comment on Trump’s announcement of additional tariffs on Saturday.

It is unclear whether the ad will run during the second World Series game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers, which is set for 8pm local time in Toronto on Saturday (00:00 GMT Sunday).

Since taking office in January, Trump has unveiled sweeping tariffs against a number of countries including Canada, straining relations with the US’s longtime ally.

More to come…

The United States has carried out strikes near Venezuela that President Donald Trump says are targeting drug gangs.

That is disputed, but the major military mobilisation has brought the issue of narcotics front and centre.

How bad is the problem in the country, and what’s Trump’s strategy?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Sanho Tree – Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and director of the Drug Policy Project

Carrie Sheffield – Senior policy analyst at the Independent Women’s Forum

Ernesto Castaneda – Director of the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University

Oct. 25 (UPI) — Kamela Harris said she may run again for U.S. president in the 2028 election.

The interview will be broadcast Sunday on the BBC and excerpts were released on Saturday.

The former vice president told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that her grandnices would “in their lifetime for” see a woman in the White House and “possibly” it could be her.

“I am not done,” Harris said. “I have lived my entire career as a life of service and it’s in my bones.”

Harris, who turned 61 on Monday, said she hasn’t made a decision yet, more than three years before the election.

Harris lost to Donald Trump in the 2024 election after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, just than a month before the Democratic convention.

Her book, 107 days, released on Sept. 23, details the short length of her campaign.

Harris dismissed polls that have her trailing in the Democratic nomination behind California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“If I listened to polls I would have not run for my first office, or my second office – and I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here,” said Harris, the former California senator, attorney general and state attorney who challenged Biden for the top spot on the ticket in 2020.

Harris again criticized her 2024 opponent, calling him a “tyrant.”

The White House responded to Harris’s comments.

“When Kamala Harris lost the election in a landslide, she should’ve taken the hint –the American people don’t care about her absurd lies,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.

“Or maybe she did take the hint and that’s why she’s continuing to air her grievances to foreign publications.”

Trump defeated Harris in the popular vote, 77.3 million to 75 million, and the Electoral College vote 312-226.

She noted warnings about him while campaigning have come true.

For example, “He said he would weaponize the Department of Justice – and he has done exactly that.”

And she noted changes to other agencies.

“You look at what has happened in terms of how he has weaponised, for example, federal agencies going around after political satirists … His skin is so thin he couldn’t endure criticism from a joke, and attempted to shut down an entire media organisation in the process.”

Business leaders and institutions are wrong to bow to the president’s demands, she said.

“There are many… that have capitulated since day one, who are bending the knee at the foot of a tyrant, I believe for many reasons, including they want to be next to power, because they want to perhaps have a merger approved or avoid an investigation.”

In July, Harris said she won’t run for California governor in 2026.

“For now, my leadership – and public service – will not be in elected office,” Harris said at the time.

Oct. 24 (UPI) — Former special counsel Jack Smith wants to testify in open hearings before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees about his investigations of President Donald Trump.

On Thursday, Smith’s lawyers sent letters to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who lead the chambers’ panels. Trump was indicted in two cases: attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and possession of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.

On Oct. 14, Jordan demanded that he testify behind closed doors with a transcript available, writing “your testimony is necessary to understand the full extent to which the Biden-Harris Justice Department weaponized federal law enforcement.” Jordan accused him of prosecutorial overreach and evidence manipulation.

But Smith, who resigned from his position before Trump returned to office in January, wants the hearings in public.

“Given the many mischaracterizations of Mr. Smith’s investigation into President Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Mr. Smith respectfully requests the opportunity to testify in open hearings before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees,” his attorneys, Lanny Breuer and Peter Koski, wrote.

Smith will need approval from the Justice Department, where he was employed when Joe Biden was president.

Smith’s attorneys said he will need guidance so he won’t violate rules to guard jury testimony.

“He is prepared to answer questions about the Special Counsel’s investigation and prosecution, but requires assurance from the Department of Justice that he will not be punished for doing so,” the letter said.

Smith’s lawyers also asked for “access to the Special Counsel files, which he no longer has the ability to access.”

“Jack Smith certainly has a lot of answering to do, but first, Congress needs to have all the facts at its disposal,” Grassley told CNN in a statement. “Hearings should follow once the investigative foundation has been firmly set, which is why I’m actively working with the DOJ and FBI to collect all relevant records that Mr. Smith had years to become familiar with.”

Smith issued reports on both cases but the one on Trump’s handling of sensitive documents found at Mar-a-Lago hasn’t been released. Attorney General Merrick Garland, before leaving office, said he wouldn’t release the report because of a criminal case involving two of Trump’s co-defendants was ongoing. But when Trump was elected president again, both cases were dropped.

The president and Republicans in Congress have accused Smith of pursuing politically motivated cases against Trump in an effort to undermine his candidacy for a second term.

But Smith “steadfastly adhered to established legal standards and Department of Justice guidelines, consistent with his approach throughout his career as a dedicated public servant,” while leading the investigations, the letter said.

Rep. Jamie Raskkin, a Democrat serving a district in Maryland, told The Hill that Smith’s offer should be accepted.

“Mr. Smith has made clear that he is prepared to address those allegations publicly, and I can think of no reason to deny the American people the opportunity to hear his testimony, under oath and with questioning from Members of both parties, and to let all Americans judge for themselves the integrity of Mr. Smith’s investigations,” Raskin wrote Thursday.

“There is no reason his appearance should be in the shadows of a backroom and subject to the usual tiresome partisan tactics of leak-and-distort.”

This week, it was reported Trump is pressing for his Justice Department to pay roughly $230 million as a settlement for two investigations. One involved the documents case and the other was ties of his 2016 campaign to the Russian government, which was investigated by another special counsel, Robert Mueller. No charges in the latter were made because of the ability to indict a sitting president.

Smith hadn’t spoken much publicly about his office’s investigations or through case failings.

On Oct. 8, he was interviewed by Andrew Weissman at University College London. Weissman was part of Mueller’s investigations and is now an MSNBC analyst.

“The idea that politics played a role in who worked on that case, or who got chosen, is ludicrous,” Smith told Weissmann.

“The people on my team were similar to what I saw throughout the [Department of Justice] throughout my career,” he said. “Apolitical people who wanted to do the right thing and do public service.”

If the United States federal government shutdown continues, millions of low-income Americans could lose access to a monthly benefit that pays for food.

About 42 million people receive money through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), sometimes called food stamps. The Department of Agriculture told states in an October 10 letter that if the shutdown continues, the programme would run out of money to pay for benefits in November.

President Donald Trump’s Republican administration is blaming the Democrats with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins repeating a false healthcare talking point on October 16 on X: “Democrats are putting free health care for illegal aliens and their political agenda ahead of food security for American families. Shameful.”

The government shutdown stems from disagreements between Democrats – who want Congress, as part of approving federal funding, to extend expiring enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), through which uninsured Americans can buy health insurance – and Republicans, who want to extend federal funding first before negotiating over whether or how to extend the ACA subsidies.

SNAP is a federal programme operated by state agencies. Participants receive an average individual monthly benefit of about $190 or $356 per household. Recipients may use the benefits to buy fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy products, bread and other foods. The majority of SNAP households live in poverty.

Lawmakers and social media users have made several statements about SNAP with varying degrees of accuracy about the shutdown and the Republican tax and spending law that Trump signed in July. Here’s a closer look:

Social media posts say food stamps will disappear on November 1

Many social media posts have said food stamps are going away as soon as November 1.

“Let that sink in – just in time for the cold season and the month of giving thanks,” one Instagram post said.

That could happen for millions of people. But it might not happen for all of them, and it could happen throughout the month of November because the monthly date when people receive their benefits varies by state.

The Trump administration could use SNAP’s contingency fund to pay for nearly two-thirds of a full month of benefits, or it could transfer other Agriculture Department funds, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank. The administration has said it has found funding to continue the Women, Infants and Children programme, another food programme for low-income families.

According to an Agriculture Department funding lapse plan, SNAP “shall continue operations during a lapse in appropriations, subject to the availability of funding”.

An Agriculture Department letter told states to hold off on steps that would lead to people receiving their November benefits. Federal regulations require that reductions be made in a way that higher-income recipients lose more benefits than the lowest-income recipients.

We asked administration officials for more detail but received no response to our questions.

Many state officials – including in Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin – said that if the shutdown continues, participants might not or will not receive benefits in November. A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Children and Families told PolitiFact that if the shutdown continues into November, benefits will not be issued.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday that he will deploy the National Guard and California Volunteers, a state agency, to support food banks and provide $80m in state money.

“Empty cupboards and stomachs are not abstract outcomes,” Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers told Rollins in a Wednesday letter. “They are the very real and near consequences of the dysfunction in Washington. These are also consequences you can prevent today.”

Meanwhile, food banks across the country have taken a hit from other Trump administration policies. ProPublica reported on October 3 that earlier in the year, the administration cut $500m in deliveries through the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which provides food to state distribution agencies.

So what have key lawmakers said on this issue and how true are their claims?

‘We are not cutting’ SNAP

– Mike Johnson, speaker of the US House of Representatives, on the TV programme Face the Nation on May 25

This is false.

Johnson spoke after the House passed a Republican-backed bill known at the time as the One Big Beautiful Bill, which included many of Trump’s policy priorities.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the nonpartisan number-crunching arm of Congress, estimated in May that 3.2 million fewer people per month on average would receive SNAP benefits over the next nine years based on the bill’s changes to work requirements and restrictions on states’ ability to waive the work requirements in areas with high unemployment.

A more recent August CBO analysis estimated the changes would reduce participation in SNAP by roughly 2.4 million people.

‘Nearly 25 cents of every $1 spent via SNAP goes to farmers and ranchers’

– Wisconsin state Representative Francesca Hong in a June 12 X post

This is true.

In a series of X posts, Hong said it wouldn’t be only families receiving food aid that would be hurt by the legislation.

A chart published this year by the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service showed that in 2023, farm establishments made 24.3 cents of every dollar spent on food at home, including at grocery stores and supermarkets.

‘About 20 percent of households with veterans rely upon’ SNAP

– House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries at a May 8 news conference

This is mostly false.

An April 2 study found that 8 percent of veterans rely on SNAP benefits. No state had a share higher than 14 percent. Studies with data from a few years earlier showed rates from 4.9 percent to 6.6 percent.

Louis Jacobson, Staff Writer Loreben Tuquero and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Madeline Heim contributed to this article.

US, China officials begin trade talks in Kuala Lumpur to pave way for high-stakes meeting between Trump and Xi.

United States President Donald Trump is set to arrive in Malaysia for the first leg of a five-day trip that spans Japan and South Korea, his first to a region reeling from his aggressive trade tariffs since taking office in January.

Top economic officials from the US and China kick-started talks in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, in a bid to chart a path forward after Trump threatened new 100 percent tariffs on Chinese goods and Beijing expanded export controls on rare earth magnets and minerals.

The talks aim to pave the way for a high-stakes meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea, which could bring some deals on tariffs, technology controls and Chinese purchases of US soya beans.

Trump will arrive on Sunday morning for his longest trip abroad since returning to the White House in January.

As he left the White House on Friday evening, Trump expressed confidence that he would have a “good meeting” with the Chinese leader. “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us,” he told reporters.

Trump-Xi meeting

On Thursday, Trump will meet Xi for the first time since his return to office in South Korea’s Busan.

Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese imports to a total of some 155 percent from November 1 if a deal is not found. That would almost certainly provoke a reaction from Beijing and end a truce that paused tit-for-tat hikes.

Beyond trade, the two leaders are expected to discuss Taiwan, a long-running point of contention, and Russia, a Chinese ally now subject to expanded US sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

Trump also said he will likely raise the issue of releasing Jimmy Lai, the founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily. Lai is serving a prison sentence in Hong Kong under Beijing-imposed national security laws.

“It’s on my list. I’m going to ask … We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters.

Ahead of Trump’s visit for the APEC summit, thousands of South Korean protesters are holding a rally in downtown Seoul, condemning his tariff policies and pressure on South Korea to invest in the US.

ASEAN summit

After skipping ASEAN summits in 2018, 2019 and 2020, Trump, whose disdain for multilateralism is well-documented, will attend the gathering of Southeast Asian nations for the second time.

Several other high-profile leaders from non-ASEAN countries will also be present in Malaysia, including Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

This year’s ASEAN summit comes as Malaysia and the US have been working to address a deadly border conflict that fully erupted between Thailand and Cambodia in July before a ceasefire calmed hostilities.

On Sunday, Trump is scheduled to meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who has been central in guiding and hosting Thai-Cambodian talks,  and they may oversee the signing of a ceasefire deal between Thailand and Cambodia.

The deal would formalise an agreement that ended the worst fighting in years between the two countries, though it falls short of a comprehensive peace deal.

Trump threatened earlier this year to withhold trade deals with the countries if they didn’t stop fighting, and his administration has since been working with Malaysia on an expanded ceasefire.

The president credited Anwar with working to resolve the conflict. “I told the leader of Malaysia, who is a very good man, I think I owe you a trip,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One.

The US leader on Sunday may also have a significant meeting with Lula, who wants to see the US cut a 40 percent tariff on Brazilian imports. The US administration has justified the tariffs by citing Brazil’s criminal prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally.

Lula on Friday criticised the US campaign of military strikes off the South American coast in the name of fighting drug trafficking and said he planned to raise concerns with Trump in Malaysia. The White House has not yet publicly confirmed whether a meeting is taking place.

Ontario to stop running advertisement featuring voice of US President Ronald Reagan saying that trade tariffs were a bad idea.

The Canadian province of Ontario has said it will pull an anti-tariff advertisement featuring former United States President Ronald Reagan’s voice, which prompted current US leader Donald Trump to scrap all trade talks with Canada.

Trump announced on his Truth Social network on Thursday that he had “terminated” all negotiations with Canada over what he called the “fake” advertising campaign that he said misrepresented fellow Republican President Reagan.

Less than 24 hours later, Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford said he was suspending the advertisement after talking to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney about the spiralling row with Washington.

“In speaking with Prime Minister Carney, Ontario will pause its US advertising campaign effective Monday so that trade talks can resume,” Ford said in a post on X.

Ford added, however, that he had told his team to keep airing the advertisement during two baseball World Series games this weekend, in which Canada’s Toronto Blue Jays will face the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The advertisement used quotes from a radio address on trade that Reagan delivered in 1987, in which he warned against ramifications that he said high tariffs on foreign imports could have on the US economy.

Reagan is heard in the advertisement saying that “high tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars”, a quote that matches a transcript of his speech on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library’s website.

Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses. We’ve achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels. I’ve directed my team to keep putting our…

— Doug Ford (@fordnation) October 24, 2025

The Ronald Reagan Foundation wrote on X on Thursday that the Ontario government had used “selective audio and video” and that it was reviewing its legal options.

An Al Jazeera analysis of the words used in the advertisement found that while it spliced together different parts of the 1987 speech by Reagan, it also appeared sincere to the meaning of Reagan’s message: that tariffs, if wielded as an economic weapon, must be used only sparingly and for a short time, or they can hurt Americans.

President Trump did not immediately react to the Ontario premier’s decision to pull the advertisement.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told reporters that Trump had made his “extreme displeasure” known and was expected to respond later to news of the advertisement’s impending removal.

A senior US official said that Trump would probably encounter Carney at a dinner on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea on Wednesday.

“They will likely see each other,” the official told the AFP news agency.

In his original social media post announcing the launch of the advertising campaign featuring Reagan’s voice, Ontario’s Ford says, “Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada.”

It’s official: Ontario’s new advertising campaign in the U.S. has launched. 

Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together.

Watch our new ad. pic.twitter.com/SgIVC1cqMJ

— Doug Ford (@fordnation) October 16, 2025

Oct. 24 (UPI) — The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group is headed to the Caribbean Sea to escalate the nation’s military presence amid strikes on alleged drug-running vessels.

The carrier strike group currently is in the Mediterranean Sea and includes three destroyers, in addition to the aircraft carrier, NBC News reported.

“The enhanced U.S. force presence in the [Southern Command area] will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a social media post.

“These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle [transnational criminal organizations],” he added.

The strike group will take about a week to cross the Atlantic Ocean to reach the Caribbean for its new deployment, where it will nearly double the number of vessels already deployed there.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the strike group to the Caribbean, where the U.S. military conducted its first nighttime strike on a vessel allegedly running drugs, he announced on Friday.

“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transitioning along a known narco-trafficking route and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth said in a post on X.

“Six male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters,” Hegseth said. “All six terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed.”

The nighttime strike was the third conducted this week, including one in the Pacific Ocean near Central America.

The strike also was the 10th conducted by the U.S. military against alleged drug runners, during which 43 reportedly have been killed while in international waters.

The United States has eight surface vessels, a submarine and about 6,000 sailors deployed in the Caribbean as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on drug running to the United States.

President Donald Trump previously notified Congress that the United States is engaged in conflict with drug cartels that send fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and other potentially deadly and illicit drugs to the nation.

The president also has designated several transnational gangs as terrorist organizations, including the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua.

Trump also has authorized the CIA to operate in Venezuela, where it is gathering intelligence on what the administration says is planned drug-smuggling to the United States.

The president is considering allowing strikes inside Venezuela to weaken President Nicolas Maduro‘s administration.

Trump has accused Maduro of profiting from Venezuelan drug smuggling to the United States and flooding the nation with deadly fentanyl and other narcotics.

The Trump administration recently raised to $50 million its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest.

Oct. 24 (UPI) — Protesters on Friday clashed again with Customs and Enforcement Agency agents and other law enforcement outside an immigration processing center in suburban Chicago.

Other ICE operations have been reported in the southwest Chicago area, where there is a sizable immigrant population.

About 12 miles from the ICE processing center in Broadview, an elementary school was on lockdown amid reports of agents in the area.

On Thursday, about 10 miles from Broadview, two Chicago Public Schools students allegedly were assaulted by federal agents on their way to school in Little Village near the Discount Mall. The area is part of Chicago’s Mexican community.

And in Gary, Ind., about 37 miles southeast of Broadview, there was an anti-ICE protest about deportation flights from an airport.

President Donald Trump has ordered National Guard personnel into Chicagoland but a federal judge has barred them before a full trial or the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in. FBI agents also have been sent to the area, along with local police and Illinois state troopers.

In Broadview, protesters have been showing up weekly at the processing center. On Friday, the protests were contained in what authorities called a safety zone.

They are demonstrating against the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” in an immigration crackdown that began Sept. 9.

“I believe that we are creating huge wounds, not only for the people who are being detained, but for the ICE officers who are doing these horrible things. I feel terrible for everybody,” Mary Kelly, who lives in nearby Oak Park, told WLS-TV.

Last Friday, Illinois State Police arrested 14 people, including one charged with obstructing/resisting police.

Residents and activists have challenged Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson’s executive orders that limit protests to between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. and restrict access to areas near the facility.

They showed up on Monday at a Village Board meeting, saying the rules infringe on their free speech.

“I witnessed agents hitting people on the ground who were doing nothing,” protester Amanda Tovar told officials.

She noted a viral incident in which the Rev. David Black was struck in the head by pepper balls by federal agents.

“We’ve been brutalized first by ICE, now by the Illinois State Police,” one speaker said. “I mean, what happened to us on Saturday is insane. We’re peaceful protesters. It’s a National Day of Protesting and we get beat up for staying past 6 p.m.”

Chicago Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez and State Sen. Celina Villanueva have criticized “fascist” tactics by federal authorities.

Alderman Daniel La Spata told WLS-TV there have been “numerous confirmed sightings of ICE” throughout the West Town community area, including Ukrainian Village, Wicker Park and the Humboldt Park border.

School on soft lockdown

A.N. Pritzker School, an elementary school, had a soft lockdown for the second day and won’t open “until further notice,” the school’s principal said in a message posted on its website.

The school is named after a business magnate, attorney and philanthropist who is the grandfather of Illinois Gov. JD Pritzer.

“This is a Soft Lockdown, it is not an actual emergency, but rather a safety precaution,” the message said.

The soft lockdown began in the early afternoon.

“I want to take a moment to speak to each of you with care and concern. It has been brought to our attention that ICE agents have been reported in our neighborhood. As your principal, my top priority is your safety and well-being,” the principal said in the message.

WMAQ-TV didn’t receive a response from the Department of Homeland Security.

Two protesting students detained

In Little Village, WGN-TV reported two students saw masked ICE agents in the area, and decided to join in a protest and were subsequently detained.

“These kids were en route to school,” Chicago Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez said. “They saw the horrific scenes when you see masked individuals coming for your neighbors. They were unfortunately detained. One had blood on his face.”

In all, four students from Benito Juarez High School watched the protest.

“I am so angry and frustrated that these students have to add this worry to their school day,” Liz Winfield, teacher at Benito Juarez told WGN. “They should be worrying about college acceptance or if they’re going to get a date for the school dance. It is outrageous and unacceptable. They shouldn’t be worried about being taken by ICE on the way to school in the morning.”

Witnesses said the agents, donning military-style camouflage gear and gas masks, deployed tear gas.

“I started coughing a bit and went to the park to recover and then they started throwing tear gas closer to Sacramento. They detained two young people,” State Rep. Edgar Gonzalez said.

A security guard was also arrested when he asked the agents to show a warrant.

Chicago police, responding to the situation, said they arrested one person for battery to one of their officers.

It was the second day that federal immigration agents targeted the area.

Photos and video were posted on social media. People also blew whistles warning neighbors about the agents, the Chicago Sun Times reported.

The agents were led by U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis ordered to attend a hearing Tuesday after he was accused of violating a temporary restraining order limiting federal agents’ use of certain tactics to suppress protests or prevent media coverage of immigration enforcement in Illinois.

Ellis, appointed by President Barack Obama, earlier ordered Bovino to sit for a deposition with attorneys in the case.

Protests in Indiana

Organizers on Friday led an anti-ICE demonstration at the Gary/Chicago International Airport, a joint civil-military public airport in Indiana. The airport is adjacent U.S. Customs facility where immigration processing takes place.

“There is a direct connection between NWI and Chicago ICE raids and it’s facilitated by the Gary/Chicago International Airport,” a protest flyer reads that was obtained by The TRiiBE, a collaboration with indie investigative newsroom Unraved Press and alt-weekly Chicago Reader.

On Oct. 10, Gary Mayor Eddie Melton’s statement condemned the increased ICE activity.

The probe comes as the US government seeks additional leverage against Beijing amid escalating trade tensions.

The United States has launched an investigation into whether China is out of compliance with a 2020 trade deal they struck together, as trade tensions ratchet up between the world’s two largest economies.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced the investigation on Friday, as President Donald Trump travels to Asia to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. China denies that it has failed to abide by the deal.

“China has scrupulously fulfilled its obligations in the Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement,” a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said in a social media post.

The probe into unfair trade practices could grant President Trump greater authority to impose more tariffs on China, which he has hit with massive trade duties during his second term in office.

“The administration seems to be looking for new sources of leverage to use against Beijing, while adding another pressure point to get China to buy more US soybeans as well as other goods,” Wendy Cutler, a former US trade negotiator who is now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told The Associated Press news agency.

The “Phase One” deal came at the end of Trump’s first term in office in 2020, when the US imposed a series of tariffs on China in the name of bringing greater “balance” to their commercial exchange.

In that agreement, Beijing agreed to buy more US agricultural and manufacturing goods.

A Federal Register notice (PDF) from the Office of the US Trade Representative alleges that China has not followed up on that promise or others related to intellectual property protections, forced technology transfers or financial services.

September, for instance, marked the first month since 2018 that China imported no soya beans from US farmers.

“The initiation of this investigation underscores the Trump Administration’s resolve to hold China to its Phase One Agreement commitments, protect American farmers, ranchers, workers, and innovators, and establish a more reciprocal trade relationship with China for the benefit of the American people,” Greer said in a statement.

A new round of US-China trade talks is set to take place on Saturday, and discussions will focus on China’s restrictions on the export of rare earth metals, essential for many US tech products.

Oct. 23 (UPI) — President Donald Trump late Thursday terminated all trade negotiations with Canada over an ad campaign using a speech on tariffs by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

In the statement on his Truth Social media platform, Trump said, “TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”

In the 1-minute ad, excerpts of Reagan’s April 25, 1987, radio address are heard.

“When someone says, ‘Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs,” Reagan is heard saying in the commercial over scenes of people working on farms and in cities.

“And sometimes it looks like it works, but only for a short time. But over the long run, such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer.”

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute took exception to the commercial and said the Ontario government did not seek permission to use and edit the former Republican president’s remarks.

Editing omitted the context of Reagan’s comments, which was to defend tariffs that he placed on Japanese imports, according to CNBC.

“The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute is reviewing its legal options in this matter,” it said in a statement.

CNBC published transcripts of the ad and Reagan’s original comments in their entirety for comparison.

In unveiling the reportedly $53.5 million ad campaign, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said, “Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together.”

Ford on Friday morning took to social media to quell the controversy.

“Canada and the United States are friends, neighbors and allies,” Ford said in a post on X.

“President Ronald Reagan knew that we are stronger together,” he continued. “God bless Canada and God bless the United States.”

Relations between the close trade allies have been greatly strained under the Trump administration over the president’s tariffs as well as remarks about making Canada the 51st state.

Trade tensions between the two have intensified, with the trade negotiations that Trump severed intended to bring stability and calm to their partnership.

Last week, the government of Ontario, Canada’s most populated province and home to its largest city, Toronto, unveiled a new ad campaign that uses Reagan’s words to criticize Trump’s tariffs.

Oct. 24 (UPI) — U.S. House Democratic Party leader Hakeem Jeffries on Friday endorsed Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor, 11 days before the Nov. 4 election.

Jeffries hasn’t issued a public statement but his endorsement was confirmed in a statement to The New York Times, with sources telling USA Today and Politico about the House minority leader’s plans.

Early voting begins Saturday.

Mamdani, who was born in India and raised in Uganda, is attempting to become the city’s first Muslim mayor.

Jeffries, who serves Brooklyn in New York, had held off endorsing Mamdani, who is a state assembly member serving Queens since 2020.

The state’s two U.S. senators, Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, haven’t endorsed Mamdani.

Mamdani has been endorsed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letita James.

Also, he has been backed by New York Reps. Jerry Nadler, Adriano Espaillat and Yvette Clarke. Two other House members, Ritchie Torres and Dan Goldman, have said they don’t plan to endorse in the election.

And New York Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs said he doesn’t plan to endorse him.

In the June 24 primary, Mamdani, 34, defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, 67, and Mayor Eric Adams, 65. His opponents then chose to run as independents, but Adams dropped out on Sept. 28 and endorsed Cuomo on Thursday.

Mamdani is favored to defeat Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, 71, a Guardian Angels founder and radio show host. President Donald Trump has pressured Sliwa to drop out to give a better chance for Cuomo over Mamdani, whom he has labeled as a Communist.

Jeffries told The New York Times said they have had “areas of principled disagreement,” including Israel’s war in Gaza, but agreed on other matters, such as the desire to retain New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

“Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly focused on addressing the affordability crisis and explicitly committed to being a mayor for all New Yorkers, including those who do not support his candidacy,” Jeffries wrote.

“In that spirit, I support him and the entire citywide Democratic ticket in the general election.”

Jeffries first met with Mamdani in July in Brooklyn before the primary. They met again in August.

Jeffries had said he was focused on the federal government shutdown rather than the New York City race.

“Stay tuned,” he told reporters this week in Washington. “I have not refused to endorse. I have refused to articulate my position, and I will momentarily, at some point, in advance of early voting.”

Jeffries has questioned how Mamdani would implement his policies and combat antisemitism and gentrification.

“We’ve got to figure out moving forward how we turn proposals into actual plans so that he is successful if he becomes the next mayor, because we need the city to be successful,” Jeffries told CNN last month.

Jeffries noted that his district, which includes historically Black communities, has “been subjected to gentrification and housing displacement.”

Mamdani has sharply criticized Israel and the war in Gaza, which Mamdani describes as genocide.

During Wednesday’s debate, he said: “I look forward to being a mayor for every single person that calls the city home. All 8.5 million New Yorkers, and that includes Jewish New Yorkers who may have concerns or opposition to the positions that I’ve shared about Israel and Palestine.”

Hundreds of rabbis had signed a letter criticizing him.

And powerful real estate and finance industries have donated millions of dollars to political action committees opposing his candidacy.

The Israeli parliament has voted to annex the occupied West Bank – a move unlikely to become law but described as an “insult” by United States Vice President JD Vance.

President Donald Trump insists annexation won’t happen, but Israeli settler violence is escalating.

So are US-Israeli relations in upheaval?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Alon Pinkas – Former Israeli ambassador and Consul General in New York

Mark Pfeifle – Republican strategist and president of Off the Record Strategies

Gideon Levy – Columnist at Haaretz newspaper and author of “The Punishment of Gaza”