resume

Russian President Vladimir Putin today ordered his top officials to draft proposals on possible nuclear weapons testing. Putin was reacting to U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media posting last week, stating the U.S. would begin conducting new testing. 

It remains unclear whether Trump was referring to restarting live nuclear detonations or tests on the reliability of warhead delivery systems, like the one conducted today with an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, which already occur regularly. U.S. officials have appeared to clarify, at least to some degree, that Trump’s testing will be limited to delivery systems and the nuclear deterrent apparatus, not detonations. Still, there are questions as to his true intent, which could always change. Regardless, Russian officials “assess that Washington is aiming to prepare and conduct nuclear tests,” according to the official Russian TASS news outlet.

Given Trump’s Truth Social post, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov told Putin that it was “advisable to prepare for full-scale nuclear tests” immediately. He added that Russia’s Arctic testing site at Novaya Zemlya could host such tests at short notice. The site is widely believed to have been used for the recent launch systems test of Russia’s mysterious Burevestnik (also known to NATO as SSC-X-9 Skyfall) cruise missile

Belousov offered no further details, so we asked several nuclear weapons experts for their assessments on how quickly Russia could detonate a nuclear device – something it hasn’t done since 1990 – and what it would entail to make it happen. Some responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

Hans
Kristensen — Director, Nuclear Information Project, Federation of American Scientists. Writes the bi-monthly Nuclear Notebook and the world nuclear forces overview in the SIPRI Yearbook.

“Short notice is relative. The quickest would be to drive a warhead into an existing tunnel and seal it off. But that wouldn’t give them any new data and probably risk a leak.

So, unless they already have one prepared, if they want to do a new fully instrumented test, I suspect it would involve preparing a tunnel, the device, and rigging all the cables and sensors to record that data. There has been a lot of tunnel-digging at Novaya Zemlya for quite some time for their existing experiments, so presumably a new fully instrumented test would be in addition to that. 

Preparing a new one would probably take several months, possibly six-plus, but difficult to estimate because we don’t know what they already have prepared.“

Jon B. Wolfsthal, Director of Global Risk, American Federation of Scientists.

“Russia also has an active nuclear maintenance program as does the U.S. However, Russia tests near the Arctic Circle at Novaya Zemlya Island. As a result, they can really only – barring a real emergency – test in summer and late fall. So it would take them some time, and at least until next year. 

However, if they want to gain a lot of technically useful data from a test, it may take them longer. Just to conduct a basic test could take less than 12 months. But as I have said, this is what an arms race looks like. Action/reaction cycles. Russia will test if we do. I suspect they will not if we do not. 

I don’t know what Russia would test. It would not have to be a massive bomb to be useful. You generally only need to test the first stage of a thermonuclear device to get useful data. It could be as small as 1 to 5 kilotons or up to 15 to 20, but there is no way for people outside of the Russian scientific community to predict well.”

Daryl G. Kimball has been Executive Director of the Arms Control Association (ACA) and publisher and contributor for the organization’s monthly journal, Arms Control Today, since September 2001.

“The U.S., China, and Russia all have ‘nuclear test readiness’ plans and I would assess that Russia would be able to resume nuclear explosive testing more quickly than the United States. 

I just know it would be less than the optimistic 24-36 months for a full-scale underground contained nuclear test explosions at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). Russia would not be encumbered by the same safety and environmental safeguards and domestic political obstacles that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) would have to deal with in order to conduct a full-scale multi-kiloton nuclear explosion underground at the former U.S. nuclear test site in Nevada.

But, most importantly, there is no technical, military or political reason why Putin or Trump should order the resumption of nuclear explosive testing, and Defense Minister Belousov’s comments are counterproductive and irresponsible. 

The United States and Russia deploy some 1,700 strategic nuclear warheads and they possess other sub-strategic nuclear weapons. Their arsenals consist of various, well-tested warhead types. The United States conducted more than 1,030 nuclear test explosions and Russia 715, the vast majority of which were to proof-test new warhead designs. Neither side needs to or wants to develop a new warhead, so any new nuclear test explosions would be purely for ‘show,’ which would be extremely irresponsible.“

Ankit
Panda — Expert on nuclear policy, Asia, missiles, & space. Stanton Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Author of ‘Kim Jong Un and the Bomb.’

“We know from both open source and official U.S. assessments that the Russians maintain a relatively high level of test readiness at Novaya Zemlya. They’ve also strongly emphasized the parity principle on the testing issue, so it makes sense that they’d take these steps given Trump’s recent comments. 

They want to be positioned so that if the U.S. tests, they can follow quickly. The specific timeline of Russian readiness is difficult to nail down, but they could test probably without significant instrumentation without much difficulty. I would think weeks if there was sufficient political demand for a rapid demonstration.“

Stephen
Schwartz — Editor/Co-author ‘Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of US Nuclear Weapons Since 1940‘.

“The United States has an enormous advantage in nuclear testing over every other country in the world, partly because we conducted more tests than everyone else combined (1,030, involving 1,149 individual detonations), and because we have a very elaborate and well-funded ($345 billion to date) Stockpile Stewardship program. Since 1996, this has enabled us to ‘test’ our nuclear bombs and warheads via extremely powerful computers, eliminating the need for actual underground tests and providing us with critical insights into our weapons we could not obtain from physical nuclear testing alone.

So given that, and given Trump’s recent out-of-the-blue demand that we resume nuclear testing immediately, it is unfortunately not surprising that Russia is responding the way that it is. In Russia, as in the United States, there are political and military leaders and weapons scientists who have never given up on one day resuming nuclear testing. Russia, like the United States, has long maintained a readiness program to resume nuclear testing. It is an unfortunate escalation of at least rhetoric at this point, sliding the United States and Russia, and perhaps also China and maybe North Korea and other states further down the road toward resuming nuclear testing, which has not happened in decades.

Right now, we and the Russians conduct what are known as subcritical tests, which are tests that do not result in a nuclear yield, but nevertheless provide useful scientific information that can make our weapons more safe and reliable. 

Russia could probably resume underground nuclear testing pretty quickly. Satellite imagery from 2023 and this past July indicates that they’ve been doing some work at the test site to expand the facilities there and potentially make them more ready to resume nuclear testing. I suspect Russia could probably do this faster than the United States. Our testing would take place in Nevada – at least that’s the only test site that we have available right now, and it would probably take on the order of one to three years (for the U.S.) to do a fully instrumented test.

We can’t see inside the [Russian] buildings that have gone up, so we don’t know exactly what’s going on there. But, if I have to guess, and it is only a guess, I would say a matter of several weeks to several months, perhaps [for a Russian test]. But it really depends on what their intentions are. 

If they simply want to blow something up to demonstrate that they’ve returned to doing that kind of testing that can be done fairly quickly if they want to actually have a scientifically and militarily useful test where there’s all sorts of diagnostic equipment and they’re able to measure the results, and determine something about the test other than the fact that it simply went off, that could take more time.

If they’ve been planning and preparing, if they have personnel and equipment there, they could probably do something fairly quickly – on the very short end, potentially a matter of a few weeks to perhaps a few months. It could be longer; it could be a matter of six months. But again, if you only want to send a political message that we are resuming nuclear testing, you can take a nuclear bomb or warhead out of your stockpile and transport it to Novaya Zemlya, stick it in an underground tunnel, seal it off and detonate it.“

We reached out to the White House to see what concern, if any, they have about Putin’s order for proposals on how to resume nuclear testing. We are waiting for a response. The experts we spoke with, however, voiced their own worries.

“As for concerns, Russia’s testing could enable them to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons via computer simulations where now it is hard for them to do so,” explained Wolfsthal. “Russia could close the testing advantage the U.S. now possesses.”

Contact the author: [email protected]

Tehran, Iran – Iran is “not in a hurry” to resume talks with the United States over its nuclear programme, Tehran’s foreign minister has told Al Jazeera.

Iran remains prepared to engage in indirect negotiations with Washington if the US chooses to talk “from an equal position based on mutual interest”, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera Arabic in an interview at his office in Tehran that was broadcast on Sunday.

The official also asserted that a critical “shared understanding” regarding Israel is developing across the region.

Tehran’s top diplomat said conditions set by the US for talks to resume – which reportedly include an emphasis on direct negotiations, zero uranium enrichment, and limits on Iran’s missile stocks and its support for regional allies – are “illogical and unfair”.

That makes talks untenable, he suggested.

“It appears they are not in a hurry,” he remarked. “We are not in a hurry, either.”

Araghchi’s insistence comes despite the pressure from reimposed United Nations sanctions and other challenges facing the Iranian establishment.

Rather, the foreign minister said he believes regional dynamics are turning against Israel, the US’s closest ally in the Middle East.

“I sometimes tell my friends that Mr Netanyahu is a war criminal who has committed every atrocity, but did something positive in proving to the entire region that Israel is the main enemy, not Iran, and not any other country,” Araghchi said in reference to the Israeli prime minister.

The comments came two days after Oman’s chief diplomat, for the first time, publicly joined the chorus of disapproval aimed at Netanyahu and his hardline government.

“We have long known that Israel, not Iran, is the primary source of insecurity in the region,” Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi told the audience at the IISS Manama Dialogue 2025 regional forum.

He said over the years, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has “at best sat back and permitted the isolation of Iran”, a stance that he believes “needs to change”.

In the past 48 hours, the heinous lie that the unlawful Israeli and U.S. bombing of Iran was motivated by an imminent nuclear threat has been thoroughly debunked by

– The International Atomic Energy Agency Chief, who has explicitly stated that Iran “is not and was not”… pic.twitter.com/C2uBzBLOHD

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) November 2, 2025

Oman has for years acted as a mediator between Iran and the US in nuclear, financial, prisoner exchange and other regional issues.

Tehran and Washington were slated to sit down for a sixth round of talks in mid-June, when Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities. That launched a 12-day war that killed more than 1,000 people in Iran and inflicted billions of dollars in infrastructure damage.

After media reports last week said the administration of US President Donald Trump had sent a new message to Tehran via Oman, Iran’s government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani confirmed that messages had been received.

But she did not elaborate on the content or Iran’s potential response. The White House has not publicly confirmed sending the missive.

During his interview, Araghchi said “almost all” of the about 400kg (880lb) of 60-percent enriched uranium possessed by Iran is “buried under the rubble” of nuclear facilities bombed by the US and Israel.

“We have no intention of removing them from under the rubble until conditions are ready. We have no information on how much of the 400kg is untouched and how much is destroyed, and we will have no information until we dig them out,” he said.

The Iranian foreign minister pointed out that China and Russia have formally announced they do not recognise the UN sanctions recently reimposed against Iran by the European signatories to its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

France, the United Kingdom and Germany have signalled they want to restart talks with Tehran. However, no substantial progress has been made.

In the meantime, they have imposed sanctions and restrictions, both in relation to Iran’s alleged drone exports to Russia and its nuclear programme.

The three European powers in September announced they were suspending their bilateral air services agreements with Iran, affecting Iranian carriers like Iran Air.

Some of the flights appear to be gradually coming back, though, with Iranian state television airing footage of an Austrian Airlines flight landing in Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport on Sunday night.

Germany’s Lufthansa is also scheduled to resume flights to Tehran, but the precise restart date has not been publicly announced.

Tehran rebukes US plans for nuclear tests, citing hypocrisy over peaceful nuclear programme accusations.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has condemned calls by United States President Donald Trump for the Pentagon to resume nuclear weapons testing, calling the move both “regressive” and irresponsible”.

“Having rebranded its ‘Department of Defense’ as the ‘Department of War,’ a nuclear-armed bully is resuming testing of atomic weapons,” Araghchi wrote in a post on X late Thursday.

“The same bully has been demonising Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and threatening further strikes on our safeguarded nuclear facilities, all in blatant violation of international law,” he said.

Trump made the surprise announcement in a Truth Social post on Thursday shortly before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Trump said he had instructed the Pentagon to immediately resume nuclear weapons testing “on an equal basis” with other countries like Russia and China, whose nuclear weapons arsenal will match the US in “five years”, according to Trump.

Ankit Panda, a nuclear security expert and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Al Jazeera that Trump’s decision was likely a response to recent actions by Russia and China rather than Washington’s ongoing dispute with Iran over its nuclear programme.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced this week that Moscow had tested its Poseidon nuclear-powered super torpedo, after separately testing new Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missiles earlier in the month, according to the Reuters news agency.

China also recently displayed its nuclear prowess at a military parade in September, which featured new and modified nuclear weapons systems like the Dongfeng-5 nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile.

Having rebranded its “Department of Defense” as the “Department of War”, a nuclear-armed bully is resuming testing of atomic weapons. The same bully has been demonizing Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and threatening further strikes on our safeguarded nuclear facilities, all in… pic.twitter.com/ft4ZGWnFiw

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) October 30, 2025

Despite these public displays of firepower, neither Russia nor China has carried out a nuclear test – defined as a nuclear explosion above ground, underground, or underwater – in decades, according to the United Nations.

Nuclear testing is banned by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban-Treaty of 1996. The US, China, and Iran all signed but have not ratified the original treaty, while Russia withdrew its ratification in 2023.

Moscow carried out its last nuclear test in 1990 while still the Soviet Union, and China carried out its last nuclear test in 1996, according to the UN. The last nuclear test by the United Kingdom was in 1991, followed by the US in 1992 and France in 1996. North Korea is the only country that has carried out nuclear tests in the past two decades, with its last test in 2017.

Trevor Findlay, a nuclear security expert and honorary professional fellow at the University of Melbourne, told Al Jazeera that it was unclear what type of testing Trump was referring to in his post.

“My assumption is that he means missile launches of nuclear-capable missiles, as North Korea and Russia have been doing very publicly. These do not carry an actual nuclear warhead [but likely a dummy], nor do they create a nuclear explosion,” he said.

“The US already tests its own missiles periodically, both existing ones and ones in development, often splashing down in the Pacific. It does announce them but tends not to make a big deal of it, like North Korea and Russia,” he said.

Trump, meanwhile, has called for the “total dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear programme and says he does not want Tehran to obtain a nuclear weapon. In June, the US and Israel also carried out air strikes on Iranian military and nuclear facilities in part to slow its progress.

Tehran has maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only, and it has never carried out a nuclear test, according to the Carnegie Endowment’s Panda.

“Iran has never done any nuclear tests. They’ve constantly been saying they are not intending to make a nuclear bomb,” Panda told Al Jazeera. “The only thing that Iran has which might be taken seriously is some highly enriched uranium. That’s it. They have not even tested a nuclear ballistic missile.”

Palestinians in Gaza have experienced the deadliest 24 hours since the start of the United States-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect almost three weeks ago.

Israel killed more than 100 people, including 46 children, in attacks late on Tuesday and on Wednesday. Medical sources told Al Jazeera the strikes hit all over Gaza.

This adds to dozens of previous ceasefire violations with a rocky outlook ahead. Let’s take a look at where things stand:

What’s the latest?

The Israeli military said by noon on Wednesday that it was returning to the ceasefire in line with instructions from the political leadership but remained ready to attack again if necessary.

It said it hit more than 30 targets in the besieged enclave, claiming that the targets were “terrorists in command positions within terror organisations”.

But as more residential buildings were flattened by the Israeli bombs, at least 18 members of the same family in central Gaza, including children, parents and grandparents, were among the victims.

Civil Defence teams once again had to use small tools and their hands to dig in the rubble of bombed areas to search for survivors and the dead. Several tents belonging to displaced Palestinian families were also targeted.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 68,643 people have been killed and 170,655 wounded since the start of Israel’s genocidal war in October 2023.

What was Israel’s justification?

On Tuesday, Israel announced that the body of a captive transferred from Gaza by Hamas through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) did not match one of the 13 to be handed over as part of the ceasefire.

Israeli forensic analysts determined that the remains belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, who was taken to Gaza during the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and whose partial remains were recovered in November of the same year.

Israeli officials reacted furiously, especially far-right ministers in the coalition government who are against stopping the war on Gaza and want Hamas “destroyed”. An organisation run by the families of the captives also expressed outrage and demanded action.

A short time later, the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, said it would hand over the remains of an Israeli captive at 8pm (18:00 GMT), but it held off after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “powerful strikes” on Gaza.

Heavy gunfire and explosions were also heard in the southern city of Rafah. Israel alleged this was an attack by Hamas fighters, something Hamas rejected.

Israel also accused the Palestinian group of “staging” the recovery of a captive’s remains after showing footage purportedly of Hamas fighters burying a body before calling in the ICRC.

The ICRC said its personnel “were not aware that a deceased person had been placed there prior to their arrival”.

What’s in the ceasefire?

As part of the agreement, which entered into force on October 10, Hamas handed over all remaining 20 living captives held in Gaza within several days.

The group has also handed over the remains of 15 deceased Israeli captives as part of the deal with 13 others remaining unrecovered or undelivered.

Israel has allowed some humanitarian aid into Gaza, but supplies have been well below the 600 trucks a day specified in the ceasefire, a level that is required to help the famine-stricken population.

Israel has also prevented tents and mobile homes from entering the enclave but has let some heavy machinery enter to search for the remains of its captives.

After all the remains are handed over, a second phase of the ceasefire could potentially enter into force, allowing the deployment of an international stabilisation force and the reconstruction of Gaza.

Israeli officials have repeatedly stressed that they will not allow the formation of a sovereign Palestinian state and have been advancing with a plan to illegally annex the occupied West Bank despite international criticism.

What is Hamas saying?

Hamas has accused Israel of fabricating “false pretexts” to renew aggression in Gaza.

Before the attacks over the past day, Hamas  said Israel had carried out at least 125 violations.

Since October 10, the Health Ministry in Gaza said, at least 211 Palestinians have been killed and 597 wounded in Israeli attacks while 482 bodies have been recovered.

Hamas has also accused Israel of obstructing efforts to recover the bodies of the captives while using the same bodies as an excuse to claim noncompliance.

It pointed out that Israel has prevented enough heavy machinery from entering Gaza to recover the remains and has prevented search teams from accessing key areas.

The Qassam Brigades said its fighters have recovered the bodies of two more deceased captives, Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch, during search operations conducted on Tuesday.

Hamas and other Palestinian factions have said they are prepared to hand over administration of Gaza to a technocratic Palestinian body while maintaining that armed resistance is a result of decades-long occupation and apartheid by Israel.

What does this mean for Gaza’s civilians?

Since the start of the war, civilians have been the main casualties of Israel’s war on Gaza.

They have been disproportionately targeted, as they were in the latest overnight attacks, and have also seen Gaza’s infrastructure and means of living destroyed by bombs and invading Israeli forces.

Because nowhere in Gaza is fully safe, Palestinians underwent another day of panic that the Israeli attacks could be extended.

Israeli warplanes and reconnaissance aircraft continued to hover over the enclave.

What happens now?

The US has repeatedly expressed support for Israel despite its ceasefire violations, emphasising Israel’s right to defend itself.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the ceasefire “is not in jeopardy” despite the strikes.

Mediator Qatar has previously condemned violations of the agreement and accused Israel of undermining its implementation. But along with Egypt, it has worked to ensure the deal stays alive.

Direct flights between India and China have resumed as relations between the countries appear to be thawing.

IndiGo flight 6E 1703 from Kolkata landed in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Monday, carrying about 180 passengers.

Flights between the two countries were first suspended during the Covid pandemic in early 2020 and did not restart after a deadly clash in a disputed Himalayan border area escalated tensions.

But the two countries have been steadily rebuilding relations, and last year they reached a landmark agreement on border patrols.

The Indian government had said the resumption of direct flights would “facilitate people-to-people contact” and help “the gradual normalisation of bilateral exchanges” in a statement announcing the development earlier this month.

It is part of a series of developments that indicate a gradual normalisation of ties between the neighbours.

In August, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited China for the first time in seven years, meeting President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. Earlier that month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had visited India and discussed “de-escalation, delimitation and boundary affairs” with officials in Delhi.

In July, India had also restarted issuing visas for Chinese tourists.

According to travel data provider OAG, the two countries operated around 2,588 scheduled flights in 2019 before services were suspended.

At the Kolkata airport on Sunday evening, airline staff lit brass oil lamps to mark the resumption of direct flights as IndiGo passengers checked in.

A senior Chinese consular official, Qin Yong, told reporters at the airport that it was a “very important day for the India-China relationship”.

Passengers expressed happiness that the time taken to reach China would now reduce.

Krishna Goyal, who said he was travelling for business to China, told ANI news agency that direct flights would boost trade and relations between the countries.

“Earlier, we had to change two or three flights [to reach China]. We used to go to Singapore from Kolkata and from there to China,” he said.

China Eastern Airlines is set to launch a flight connecting Shanghai and Delhi next month. It will fly three times a week from 9 November, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in India posted on X.

Additional reporting by Neyaz Farooquee in Delhi

Canadian PM Mark Carney says Ottawa “can’t control” US trade policy but will “stand ready” to resume talks “when the Americans are ready.” His remarks came after President Donald Trump halted negotiations and accused Canada of “cheating” over ads opposing US tariffs.

EuroLeague said the decision to allow Israeli clubs to play home games was in response to the October 10 ceasefire agreement.

Basketball’s top European competitions are set to become the first to return to Israel since the October 7, 2023 attacks, after clubs agreed on Tuesday to resume EuroLeague and EuroCup games in the country from December 1, following recent ceasefire and peace initiatives in the region, the organisation said.

Games involving Israeli teams have been held at neutral venues since October 2023 due to the conflict in Gaza.

Six-time champions Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv are the Israeli clubs in this season’s EuroLeague, while Hapoel Jerusalem play in the EuroCup.

Maccabi have been playing their home games in Belgrade, Serbia, where they host Real Madrid on Wednesday.

Hapoel Tel Aviv have made their home in Sofia, Bulgaria, where their next home game is on October 29 against Partizan Belgrade.

“After thoughtful deliberation, ECA clubs agreed on the proposal to set December 1, 2025, as the date for games to resume in Israel. Until then, Euroleague Basketball will continue to carefully monitor developments, stay in close contact with local and foreign authorities, visiting teams, and all relevant organisations,” EuroLeague Basketball said in a statement.

“Euroleague Basketball and its participating clubs welcome the recent peace plan with optimism and hope. The organisation reaffirms its belief in the power of basketball to bring people and communities together, and its commitment to contributing to peace through the shared values of sport, respect, and unity.”

Israel and Hamas have accused each other of repeated breaches of the ceasefire since it was formally agreed upon eight days ago, with flashes of violence and recriminations over the pace of returning captives’ bodies, bringing in aid and opening borders.

Commercial flights between the countries to restart as diplomatic thaw eases tensions over border clashes.

State-backed China Eastern Airlines will resume Shanghai-Delhi flights from November 9, the airline’s website shows, as China and India resume direct air links amid a diplomatic thaw, largely triggered by aggressive United States trade policies, after a five-year freeze.

The flights will operate three times a week on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, the airline’s online ticket sales platform showed on Saturday.

China Eastern Airlines did not immediately respond to the Reuters news agency’s emailed request for comment.

India’s foreign ministry said earlier this month that commercial flights between the two neighbouring countries would restart after a five-year freeze.

The announcement followed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to China in more than seven years, for a summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation regional security bloc. The two sides discussed ways to improve trade ties, while Modi raised concerns about India’s burgeoning bilateral trade deficit.

India and China’s foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Shanghai-Delhi flights.

India’s largest carrier, IndiGo, previously announced it would start daily nonstop flights between Kolkata and Guangzhou.

State-backed Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport said at the time of the IndiGo announcement that it would encourage airlines to open more direct routes, such as between Guangzhou and Delhi.

Direct flights between the two countries were suspended during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and did not resume after deadly clashes along their Himalayan border led to a prolonged military stand-off later that year.

Four Chinese soldiers and 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the worst violence between the neighbours in decades.

India and China’s diplomatic thaw comes amid US President Donald Trump’s increasingly belligerent trade polices.

The US president raised the tariff rate on Indian imports to a stiff 50 percent in September, citing the nation’s continuing purchases of Russian oil.

He also urged the European Union to impose 100 percent tariffs on China and India, ostensibly as part of his efforts to pressure Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.

Latest move underscores efforts to normalise ties and draw closer in wake of Trump’s policies, stiff tariffs.

India and China plan to resume direct flights this month between some of their cities after a five-year suspension as relations between the two countries begin to thaw, Indian authorities have announced.

The closer ties come in the face of the United States President Donald Trump administration’s aggressive trade policies.

Direct flights between the two countries were suspended during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and did not resume as Beijing and New Delhi engaged in prolonged border tensions.

On Thursday, India’s embassy to China said in a post on social media platform WeChat that flights between designated cities will resume by late October, subject to commercial carriers’ decisions.

The resumption is part of the Indian government’s “approach towards gradual normalization of relations between India and China,” the embassy added.

India’s largest carrier IndiGo announced on Thursday that it would resume flights from Kolkata, India, to Guangzhou, China, from October 26.

The resumption comes after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited China for the first time in seven years to attend last month’s meeting of regional security bloc, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

There, Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed that India and China were development partners, not rivals, and discussed ways to strengthen trade ties amid global tariff uncertainty fuelled by Trump.

The US president raised the tariff rate on Indian imports to a stiff 50 percent last month, citing the nation’s continuing purchases of Russian oil. He also urged the European Union to slap 100 percent tariffs on China and India as part of his efforts to pressure Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.

Relations between China and India plummeted in 2020 after security forces clashed along a disputed border in the Himalayan mountains. Four Chinese soldiers and 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the worst violence in decades, freezing high-level political engagements.

Qatar’s foreign ministry said delegations were meeting in Doha to review the implementation of a truce signed in July.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the M23 armed group have resumed negotiations in Qatar as violence deepens in the country’s mineral-rich eastern provinces in spite of a recently signed an agreement to reach a full peace deal.

Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said delegations from Kinshasa and the M23 were meeting in Doha to review the implementation of a truce signed in July. “We’ve received the two parties here in Doha to discuss the earlier agreement,” Ansari said at a news briefing on Tuesday.

The deal, brokered by Qatar, committed both sides to a ceasefire and a path to a final settlement. Under its terms, talks were supposed to begin on 8 August and conclude by 18 August. Both deadlines passed without progress, and the agreement has faltered amid accusations of violations from both sides.

Ansari said the current discussions include plans to create a mechanism for monitoring the truce, as well as an exchange of prisoners and detainees. He added that the United States and the International Committee of the Red Cross were closely involved in supporting the talks.

The Qatar-led initiative followed a separate ceasefire agreement signed in Washington between Rwanda, who back M23, and DRC in June. But the M23 rejected that deal, demanding direct negotiations with Kinshasa to address what it called unresolved political grievances.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that he ended the conflict, and several others, describing DRC as the “darkest, deepest” part of Africa and asserting that he “saved lots of lives.” On Monday, Trump claimed that nine million people were “killed with machetes” during the decades-long war, insisting, “I stopped it.”

Rights groups have dismissed Trump’s claims as misleading. “It is far from the reality to say that he has ended the war,” said Christian Rumu of Amnesty International. “People on the ground continue to experience grave human rights violations, and some of these amount to crimes against humanity,” he added, calling on Washington to accelerate efforts to secure peace.

Despite multiple ceasefire attempts, fighting has intensified in North and South Kivu provinces, forcing more than two million people from their homes this year. Human Rights Watch last week accused the M23 of carrying out ethnically targeted “mass killings,” while United Nations experts have said Rwandan forces played a “critical” role in supporting the group’s offensive.

Rwanda denies involvement, but the M23’s capture of vast areas, including the regional capital Goma earlier this year, has fuelled fears of a wider regional conflict.

The DRC’s eastern region, home to some of the world’s richest deposits of gold, cobalt, and coltan, has been devastated by years of armed conflict, with civilians bearing the brunt of atrocities despite repeated international mediation efforts.

Air Canada flights will resume on Sunday after the government ordered cabin crew to end a strike that led to hundreds of cancellations, the airline has said.

The Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) told staff to return to return to work by 14:00 EDT (18:00 GMT) and said that a collective agreement that expired on 31 March would be extended until a new one was agreed, Air Canada added.

Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu ordered binding arbitration to end the dispute, after more than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants walked earlier on Saturday causing 700 cancellations.

The union accused the government of “caving to corporate pressure”, having resisted a forced agreement.

Flight attendants are calling for higher salaries and to be paid for work when aircraft are on the ground.

The strike took effect at 00:58 EDT on Saturday, though Air Canada began scaling back its operations before then.

Air Canada said it had suspended all flights, including those under its budget arm Air Canada Rouge, for the duration of the strike, and advised affected customers not to travel to the airport unless with a different airline.

Flight attendants picketed major Canadian airports, where passengers were trying to secure new bookings earlier in the week.

But later on Saturday, Hadju said “stability and supply chains” must be preserved, while the two parties had been “unable to resolve their differences in a timely manner”.

She invoked Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to restart negotiations arbitrated by the government, with a resulting deal being legally binding.

Air Canada, which flies directly to 180 cities worldwide, said the first flights will begin this evening, but cautioned that it would take several days to return its operations to normal.

“During this process, some flights will be canceled over the next seven to 10 days until the schedule is stabilised,” it said in a statement. “Air Canada deeply regrets the inconvenience for its customers.”

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (Cupe) described Hadju’s decision to intervene in the dispute as “violating our charter rights”, saying it will cause “incalculable damage” to workers’ rights.

It alleges that forcing a bargain to end the strike will “ensure unresolved issues will continue to worsen by kicking them down the road”.

Cupe has yet to publicly respond to the directive to end the strike.

In contract negotiations, Air Canada said it had offered flight attendants a 38% increase in total compensation over four years, with a 25% raise in the first year.

Cupe said the offer was “below inflation, below market value, below minimum wage” and would still leave flight attendants unpaid for some hours of work, including boarding and waiting at airports ahead of flights.

The union and the airline have publicly traded barbs about each other’s willingness to reach an agreement.

Earlier this month, 99.7% of employees represented by the union voted for a strike.

Cupe has asserted that it had been negotiating in good faith for more than eight months, but that Air Canada instead sought government-directed arbitration.

“When we stood strong together, Air Canada didn’t come to the table in good faith,” the union said in a statement to its members. “Instead, they called on the federal government to step in and take those rights away.”

Aug. 16 (UPI) — Hours after Air Canada flight attendants went on strike and the airline indefinitely paused all flights, the Canadian government intervenued Saturday and ordered operations to resume.

Jobs Minister Patty Haju ordered the company’s management and the union back to participate in binding arbitration to hash out their differences on wages and compensation. It wasn’t known when flights will resume after opereations were paused early Saturday.

“After eight months of negotiations by the parties, and after meeting with both parties last night and urging them to work hard to reach a deal, it is disappointing to have to conclude today that Air Canada and CUPE flight attendants are at an impasse and remain unable to resolve their dispute,” she said in a statement released Saturday aftetnoon Eastern time.

“The government firmly believes that the best deals are reached by the parties at the bargaining table. It has now become clear that this dispute won’t be resolved at the table. Canadians are increasingly finding themselves in very difficult situations and the strike is rapidly impacting the Canadian economy.”

She invoked Section 107 of the Canadian Labor Code, which directs the Canadian Relations Board to arbitrate the dispute.

“I am exercising this authority because it is critical to maintaining and securing industrial peace, protecting Canadians and promoting conditions to resolve the dispute,” she said. “Despite the parties’ resolution of several key differences, the CIRB is best positioned to help them find a solution on the outstanding items.”

Also, she extended the terms of the existing agreement until a new one is determined by an arbiter.

“This decision will help make sure that hundreds of thousands of Canadians and visitors to our country are not impacted because of cancelled flights,” she said. “Further, the shipments of critical goods such as pharmaceuticals and organ tissue, over 40% of which are moved by Air Canada, should continue to reach their destinations.”

The Air Canada union asked her to direct the parties to enter into binding arbitration.

But on Saturday afternoon, the union blasted the order to end the strike and posted images and video stirkers.

“Now, when we are at the bargaining table with an obstinate employer, the Liberals are violating our Charter rights to take job action and give Air Canada exactly what they want — hours and hours of unpaid labor from underpaid flight attendants, while the company pulls in sky-high profits and extraordinary executive compensation.

“This sets a terrible precedent. Contrary to the Minister’s remarks, this will not ensure labor peae at Air Canada.”

More than 130,000 travelers worldwide fly on the airline daily.

Canada’s largest airline has more than 1,000 flights, including 170 international ones, and from 50 Canadian airports. Between more than 50 U.S. airports and Canada, there are 430 daily flights.

Locked out at 1:30 a.m. EDT were 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Air Canada Express, with regional 300 flights and operated by Jazz Aviation and PAl Airlines, is not affected.

The flight attendants went on strike at 12:58 a.m. EDT.

Picket lines had been set up at airports throughout Canada, the CBC reported.

The last negotiations were on Friday night and no new talks were scheduled.

On Wednesday, the airline served the union a statutory 72-hour lockout notice in response to the union’s 72-hour strike notice.

Air Canada was canceling flights ahead of the work stoppage.

“The carriers have since been gradually reducing their schedules of about 700 daily flights to manage the labour disruption created by CUPE’s strike notice,” the airline said. “Some 130,000 customers will be impacted each day that the suspension continues. At this time, Air Canada remains engaged and committed to negotiate a renewal to its collective agreement with CUPE.”

The airline said it “deeply regrets the labor disruption is having on customers.”

Wesley Lesosky, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ Air Canada component, told the CBC it is up to the airline when they would be back on flights. The airline hadn’t responded to the media site.

Air Canada Chief Operating Officer Mark Nasr earlier said after an agreement, it could take up to a week to fully restart operations.

The carrier advised people not to go to the airport if they are booked on the airline.

“Air Canada will notify customers with imminent travel of additional canceled flights and their options,” the airline said. “For those customers due to travel soon whose flights are not yet cancelled, Air Canada has put in place a goodwill policy to allow them to rebook their travel or obtain a credit for future travel.”

Compensation differences

Flight attendants want to be compensated for work before the flights take off and after they land. Typically with most airlines, they get paid only for the hours they are in the air.

The airline, in its latest offer, proposes a 38% increase in total compensation that “would have made our flight attendants the best compensated in Canada.”

The union said a proposed 8% raise in the first year is offset by inflation.

Hajdu told The Canadian Press on Friday that it is “critical” for the two sides to return to the negotiating table.

“It’s very important that we stay focused on the two parties,” Hajdu said. “They have the primary responsibility to solve this. This is a corporation and a union who have all the tools they need, as well as tools from the federal mediation service, to get this deal done.”

On Friday, the minister said she wasn’t ready to intervene in the dispute, and saw a path forward to a deal because most issues have been resolved.

The union accused her of speaking “on behalf” of the company.

“Every party has expressed support for our effort to end unpaid work, except for the governing Liberal Party,” Lesosky said during a news conference Thursday.

Hajdu posted Friday on Facebook that she met with both sides.

“It is unacceptable that such little progress has been made. Canadians are counting on both parties to put forward their best efforts.”

Travel options

The carrier advised people not to go to the airport if they are booked on the airline.

“Air Canada will notify customers with imminent travel of additional cancelled flights and their options. For those customers due to travel soon whose flights are not yet cancelled, Air Canada has put in place a goodwill policy to allow them to rebook their travel or obtain a credit for future travel,” the airline posted.

Air Canada is partnered with Star Alliance, which includes more than 20 airlines, including Lufthansa and United Airlines. Code-sharing flights might be affected.

The New York Times listed ideas for travelers.

Travelers can change flight dates and receive a one-time $50 credit per passenger or opt for an airline credit equal to the value of the ticket for one year.

Travelers are eligible for a full refund requested through the app or website. The airline said it will attempt to rebook travelers on other airlines. Canada’s second-biggest airline is WestJet Airlines, though it has many fewer international destinations.

Because of peak summer travel, options may be limited.

Keelin Pringnitz and her family were returning from a European vacation to Ottawa, but were left stranded at Heathrow Airport in London.

“It was an end of my maternity leave kind of trip,” Pringnitz told CBC. “We went to the Faroe Islands and Norway, travelling through Air Canada to London.”

She said they could fly to the United States, but no assistance once they land there.

“It didn’t go over well with the line,” she said. “Nobody really seemed interested. Everybody seemed a little bit amused almost at the suggestion, or exasperated, because it is a bit ridiculous to offer to take stranded passengers to a different country to strand them there.”

For those with travel insurance, some plans include trip cancellations, including a strike.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction over Air Canada flights that depart from the U.S., has a similar policy like the Canadian government. Refunds must be given within 30 days and rebooked if possible. There is no mandatory compensation for delays.

“For U.S. travellers, the key now is to think strategically,” Anton Radchenko, AirAdvisor’s founder, said in a statement to USA Today. “Don’t just look for the fastest alternative route; look for the most stable one. This may mean flying via smaller, less congested hubs like Detroit or Minneapolis, where rerouting is easier, or securing refundable one-stop connections through partner airlines before seats vanish.

“Keep all receipts, track your communications with the airline, and, if possible, pay with a credit card that includes trip interruption coverage. Above all, treat this strike as a high-impact event that demands proactive planning, not reactive scrambling.”

Sinner, 23, and 22-year-old Alcaraz have created a duopoly in the men’s game over the past two seasons.

Because of his brilliance, Sinner has remained the world number one – despite serving a three-month doping ban this year in a case which rocked the sport.

The pair have gained a grip on the Grand Slam tournaments, winning the past six majors between them.

Their epic French Open battle was another demonstration of how the absorbing rivalry – which the ATP Tour has long pinned its hopes on filling the Federer-Nadal-Novak Djokovic void – could be a blockbuster for years to come.

“You cannot compare what the ‘Big Three’ did for 15-plus years. [Our rivalry] is not that big yet,” said three-time Grand Slam champion Sinner, who is aiming for his first non-hard court major.

“This is the second consecutive Grand Slam that we are in the final and playing each other – I believe it’s good for the sport.

“The more rivalries we have from now on, the better it is, because people want to see young player going against each other.”

The quality, excitement and tension of the recent Roland Garros final accelerated interest in the pair.

Alcaraz fighting back from two sets down – and having saved three championship points – to win a five-setter in over five hours has whetted the appetite for Wimbledon.

The five-time major champion expects to be pushed “to the limit” again at the All England Club.

“It’s going to be a great day, a great final. I’m just excited about it,” he said.

“I just hope not to be five and a half hours again. But if I have to, I will.”

Wimbledon, United Kingdom – Expectations will run high, and so will the temperatures in southwest London, when Carlos Alcaraz steps on Centre Court to defend his Wimbledon title against Jannik Sinner on Sunday.

The next instalment of an enthralling rivalry between the top two players in men’s tennis will come under the limelight once again at one of the biggest stages in the game – the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club – on a hot afternoon in the United Kingdom’s capital.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Alcaraz expects to be pushed to the limit by world number one Sinner in a meeting that has already drawn comparisons with the great Wimbledon finals of the modern era.

“I expect to be on the limit, to be on the line [in the final],” Alcaraz said while speaking to the media moments after Sinner’s near-faultless semifinal 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 win over Novak Djokovic on Friday.

A few hours earlier, the Spaniard had booked a spot in his third consecutive Wimbledon final with a resilient performance against Taylor Fritz, which brought him a 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) win.

It will be the 13th on-court meeting between the two, and their second Grand Slam final in the space of five weeks.

Their duel in the French Open final lasted five hours and 29 minutes and added fuel to the fiery-yet-friendly rivalry between the young tennis stars.

🚨 THE REMATCH IS HAPPENING 🚨@janniksin will face @carlosalcaraz in the Wimbledon final on Sunday!@Wimbledon | #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/JedFZHXoZL

— ATP Tour (@atptour) July 11, 2025

A French Open final repeat on the cards?

Alcaraz knows his opponent all too well and expects nothing short of another spectacle.

“Whatever Jannik has is because he has learned from everything – he just gets better after every match, every day,” Alcaraz said of the top seed.

The Spaniard said he expected Sinner to be in better shape mentally and physically for the Wimbledon final, but that he was not looking forward to another hours-long match.

“I just hope not to be five and a half hours on court again. But if I have to, I will.”

Meanwhile, Sinner – the tall, stoic and speedy Italian who stands between Alcaraz and a chance to become only the fifth man to win three straight Wimbledon titles – believes beating the holder will be “very tough”.

“I’m very happy to share the court with Carlos once again. It’s going to be difficult, I know that,” Sinner said on Friday.

The Australian Open champion said he loves playing Grand Slam finals – Sunday’s will be his fifth in two years.

“I always try to put myself in these kinds of situations that I really love. Sundays at every tournament are very special.”

The 23-year-old from northern Italy termed Alcaraz as the favourite, given his record at the tournament and on grass courts.

“He is the favourite. He won here the last two times. He’s again in the final. It’s very tough to beat him on grass, but I like these challenges.”

‘Fire vs ice’

Out of the 12 occasions that both players have met, four have been at Grand Slams, but this is only their second meeting in the final.

The pair’s only other meeting at Wimbledon came in the fourth round in 2022, when Sinner won 6-1, 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3. Alcaraz, however, brushed aside the reference by saying that both men are changed players from what they were three years ago.

“We’re completely different players on grass and on all surfaces.”

The 22-year-old from Murcia, in southeastern Spain, will be buoyed by his 5-0 record against Sinner in the past two years.

Despite Alcaraz’s success against his nemesis, it is Sinner who has consistently topped the men’s rankings by racking up regular wins and points on the ATP circuit.

All things considered, there is not much that separates the two ahead of their highly anticipated match.

Just ask Djokovic.

While the 24-time Grand Slam champion picked Alcaraz due to his past success at Wimbledon, Djokovic predicted “a very close match-up, like they had in Paris” when asked to choose a winner.

“I think I will give a slight edge to Carlos because of the two titles he’s won here and the way he’s playing and the confidence he has right now, but it’s just a slight advantage, because Jannik is hitting the ball extremely well.”

It is not just their contrasting styles of play – Sinner relies on his baseline game and shot speed, while Alcaraz likes to cover the court with his nimble footwork and excellent coverage – but also their on-court personalities that set the two apart while making them an engaging pair to watch.

Before the French Open final, Alcaraz said in an interview that a “fire vs ice” analogy fits them perfectly.

“I guess you can say I am like fire because of the way I react on court and show emotions, while Jannik remains calm,” the Spaniard said with his trademark smile.

In the shadow of the greats

For the fans, though, the pair offer another chance to pick sides and look forward to tennis tournaments that could pit the two against each other.

“It’s a dream final,” Catherine Shaw, a tennis fan who watched both the men’s semifinals on Centre Court, told Al Jazeera.

“They are the next big thing when it comes to tennis rivalries, so it’s exciting times for tennis fans.”

Stepping out in the shadows of some of the greatest players and rivals – Stefan Edberg vs Ivan Lendl, Bjorn Borg vs John McEnroe, Andre Agassi vs Pete Sampras and Rafael Nadal vs Roger Federer – the young players will have big shoes to fill.

Both are aware of the weight their match-up carries but refuse to be compared with their heroes just yet.

“I think the things that we are doing right now are great for tennis,” Alcaraz said ahead of the final.

“We just fight to engage more people to watch tennis. We’re fighting for tennis to be bigger, as all the tennis players are doing.

“For me, it’s sharing the big tournaments with Jannik, or just playing in the finals of the tournaments… We’re still really young.

“I hope to keep doing the right things for the next five to 10 years, so our rivalry is on the same table as those players.”

June 30 (UPI) — Imports of livestock from Mexico will resume in phases starting next week after a ban in May at ports of entry because of fear of the spread of New World screwworm, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday.

Ports of entry will allow certain cattle, horses and bison to go into Arizona, New Mexico and Texas after they were banned on May 11, the agency said in a news release.

The screwworm has been eradicated from the United States for decades. But it has been detected in Mexico as far north as Oaxaca and Veracruz, about 700 miles away from the U.S. border.

When NWS maggots burrow into the flesh of a living animal, they cause serious and often deadly damage to the animal, USDA said. Mature screwworm larvae can grow up to two-thirds of an inch.

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service experts and their counterparts in Mexico worked to increase New World Screwworm surveillance, detection and eradication.

A phased reopening of the southern ports will start Monday in Douglas, Ariz., based on the lowest risk because of the geography of Sonora and an effective collaboration between APHIS and Sonora.

The other openings are set for July 14 in Columbus, N.M.; July 21 in Santa Teresa, N.M.; Aug. 18 in Del Rio, Texas; and Sept. 15 in Laredo, Texas.

In the past eight weeks, there hasn’t been a notable increase in reported NWS cases in Mexico or any northward movement, the agency said.

USDA has been conducting sterile NWS fly dispersal seven days each week, including the dispersal of more than 100 million flies each week.

Five teams of APHIS staff were sent to observe and gain a deeper understanding of Mexico’s NWS response.

“At USDA we are focused on fighting the New World Screwworm’s advancement in Mexico,” USDA Secretary Brooke L. Rollins said. “We have made good progress with our counterparts in Mexico to increase vital pest surveillance efforts and have boosted sterile fly dispersal efforts. These quick actions by the Trump Administration have improved the conditions to allow the phased reopening of select ports on the Southern Border to livestock trade.

“We are continuing our posture of increased vigilance and will not rest until we are sure this devastating pest will not harm American ranchers.”

On June 18, she met with cattle fever tick riders along the Rio Grande River. If the NWS advances northward into the United States, these tick riders “will play a crucial role in spotting and combating this pest,” an agency news release said.

USDSA is building a fly-production center at Moore Air Base in Edinburg, Texas, that could boost domestic sterile fly production by up to 300 million flies per week. Another one is planned at Moore Air Base, which alo could boost domestic sterile fly production by up to 300 million flies per week.

This week, Mexico will begin renovation of its sterile fruit fly facility in Metapa with completion by July 2026. The changes will allow for production of between 60 and 100 million sterile NWS flies each week.

The goal is produce an estimated 400 to 500 million flies each week to re-establish the NWS barrier at the Darien Gap, which is the border between Panama and Colombia.

Only cattle and bison, born and raised in Sonora or Chihuahua, in Mexico, or are treated according to cattle and bison NWS protocol when entering the U.S. will be eligible for import.

Equines may import from anywhere in Mexico though there is a seven-day quarantine at the port of entry.

USDA plans to remove any federal regulatory hurdles for sufficient treatments and work with state officials on emergency management plans in states.

The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association back the agency’s efforts.

TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said late Sunday that trade talks with the U.S. have resumed after Canada rescinded its plan to tax U.S. technology firms.

President Trump said Friday that he was suspending trade talks with Canada over its plans to continue with its tax on technology firms, which he called “a direct and blatant attack on our country.”

The Canadian government said that “in anticipation” of a trade deal “Canada would rescind” the digital services tax, which was set to go into effect Monday.

Carney and Trump spoke on the phone Sunday, and Carney’s office said they agreed to resume negotiations.

“Today’s announcement will support a resumption of negotiations toward the July 21, 2025, timeline set out at this month’s G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis,” Carney said in a statement.

Carney visited Trump in May at the White House, where he was polite but firm. Trump traveled to Canada for the Group of 7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, where Carney said that Canada and the U.S. had set a 30-day deadline for trade talks.

Trump, in a post on his social media network last Friday, said Canada had informed the U.S. that it was sticking to its plan to impose the digital services tax, which applies to Canadian and foreign businesses that engage with online users in Canada.

The digital services tax was due to hit companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb with a 3% levy on revenue from Canadian users. It would have applied retroactively, leaving U.S. companies with a $2-billion bill due at the end of the month.

Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, called Carney’s retreat a “clear victory” for Trump.

“At some point this move might have become necessary in the context of Canada-U.S. trade negotiations themselves, but Prime Minister Carney acted now to appease President Trump and have him agree to simply resume these negotiations, which of a clear victory for both the White House and big tech,” Béland said.

He said it makes Carney look vulnerable to Trump’s outbursts.

“President Trump forced PM Carney to do exactly what big tech wanted. U.S. tech executives will be very happy with this outcome,” Béland said.

Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne issued a statement after speaking Sunday with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

“Rescinding the digital services tax will allow the negotiations of a new economic and security relationship with the United States to make vital progress,” his statement said.

Trump’s announcement Friday was the latest swerve in the trade war he’s launched since taking office for a second term in January. Progress with Canada has been a roller coaster, starting with the U.S. president poking at the nation’s northern neighbor and repeatedly suggesting it would be absorbed as a U.S. state.

Canada and the U.S. have been discussing easing a series of steep tariffs Trump imposed on goods from America’s neighbor.

Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as 25% tariffs on autos. He is also charging a 10% tax on imports from most countries, though he could raise rates on July 9, after the 90-day negotiating period he set would expire.

Canada and Mexico face separate tariffs of as much as 25% that Trump put into place under the auspices of stopping fentanyl smuggling, though some products are still protected under the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement signed during Trump’s first term.

Gillies writes for the Associated Press.

June 29 (UPI) — Iran likely can resume uranium enrichment to make a nuclear bomb in a few months, despite damage to nuclear facilities by United States and Israel airstrikes, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog chief said.

Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said there was a “very serious level of damage” to the nuclear facilities during an interview with CBS News on Saturday.

U.S. President Donald Trump said U.S. airstrikes on June 21 “obliterated” the facilities, including Fordo, which is underground in a mountain. Initial intelligence assessments suggested that the strikes were successful but set back Iran’s program by months — not years.

“It can be, you know, described in different ways, but it’s clear that what happened in particular in Fordo, Natanz, Isfahan, where Iran used to have and still has, to some degree, capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion and enrichment of uranium have been destroyed to an important degree,” Grossi said. “Some is still standing. So there is, of course, an important setback in terms of those of those capabilities.”

He explained what remains.

“The capacities they have are there,” Grossi said. “They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that. But as I said, frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there.”

He wants International Atomic Energy officials to be able to return sites for an assessment.

“Although our job is not to assess damage, but to re-establish the knowledge of the activities that take place there, and the access to the material, which is very, very important, the material that they will be producing if they continue with this activity,” Grissi said. “This is contingent on negotiations, which may or may not restart.”

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who said the facilities were “seriously damaged,” posted on X on Friday that “Grossi’s insistence on visiting the bombed sites under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent.”

Israel was fearful that Iran was nearly ready to have a nuclear bomb within months, and began airstrikes on June 13. Israel relied on American B-2 fighter jets that can send bombs deep into the ground.

Earlier this month, the IAEA said Iran amassed enough 60% enriched uranium to potentially make nine nuclear bombs.

Under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, nuclear deal, which was negotiated by Iran, the United States and the EU, Iran wasn’t permitted to enrich uranium above 3.67% purity, which is the level need to fuel commercial nuclear power plants. Iran also was not allowed to carry out any enrichment at the Fordo plant for 15 years.

In 2018, President Donald Trump abandoned the agreement among world powers, and instead reinstated U.S. sanctions in an attempt to stop Iran from moving toward making a bomb. Iran resumed enrichment at Fordo in 2021.

On Friday, the IAEA said radiation levels in the Gulf region remain after the bombings.

Grossi, citing regional data through the 48-nation International Radiation Monitoring System, said the “the worst nuclear safety scenario was thereby avoided.”

The main concern IAEA had was for the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and the Tehran Research Reactor because strikes to either facility, including off-site power lines, would have cause some type of radiological accident felt in both Iran and neighboring nations, but “it did not happen,” he said.

Grossi noted that the airstrikes would have caused localized radioactive releases inside the impacted facilities and localized toxic effects, based on the roughly 900 pounds of enriched uranium Iran is thought to have had before the attacks.

Trump has said he would “absolutely” consider bombing Iran again if intelligence found that it could enrich uranium to concerning levels.

Rafael Grossi raises concern over Iran’s stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium, just below weapons grade.

Iran may be able to restart uranium enrichment in a matter of months despite a wave of attacks by the United States and Israel that targeted its nuclear infrastructure, according to the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi.

The remarks came on Saturday, days after US President Donald Trump insisted this month’s attacks had set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back “by decades”.

Speaking to CBS News on Saturday, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said while key facilities had been hit, some are “still standing”.

“They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium,” Grossi said, adding that it could even be sooner.

He raised concerns over Iran’s stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium, just below weapons grade, which could theoretically produce more than nine nuclear bombs if refined further.

He acknowledged the IAEA does not know whether this stockpile was moved before the bombings or partially destroyed. “There has to be, at some point, a clarification,” he said.

Israeli attacks

The Israeli assault began on June 13 with strikes on Iran’s nuclear and military sites.

Israel claimed the attacks were designed to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, an accusation Tehran has consistently denied. The US joined the offensive days later, hitting three of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

In the wake of the attacks, Iranian lawmakers moved to suspend cooperation with the IAEA and denied Grossi’s request to inspect facilities, including the underground enrichment plant at Fordow.

“We need to be in a position to confirm what is there, where it is, and what happened,” Grossi said.

The Iranian Ministry of Health reported at least 627 civilian deaths across the country during the 12-day assault that also saw 28 people killed in Israel in retaliatory strikes launched by Iran, according to Israeli authorities.

On Saturday, Iran’s judiciary said an Israeli missile strike on Tehran’s Evin Prison on June 23 killed 71 people, including military recruits, detainees and visitors.

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday that his first call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping since returning to office was “very positive,” announcing that the two countries will hold trade talks in hopes of breaking an impasse over tariffs and global supplies of rare earth minerals.

“Our respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined,” Trump wrote on his social media platform after the call, which he said lasted an hour and a half.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will represent the U.S. side in negotiations.

The Republican president, who returned to the White House for a second term in January, also said Xi “graciously” invited him and First Lady Melania Trump to China, and Trump reciprocated with his own invitation for Xi to visit the United States.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Trump initiated the call between the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies.

The ministry said in a statement that Xi asked Trump to “remove the negative measures” that the U.S. has taken against China. It also said that Trump said “the U.S. loves to have Chinese students coming to study in America,” although his administration has vowed to revoke some of their visas.

Comparing the bilateral relationship to a ship, Xi told Trump that the two sides need to “take the helm and set the right course” and to “steer clear of the various disturbances and disruptions,” according to the ministry statement.

Trump had declared one day earlier that it was difficult to reach a deal with Xi.

“I like President XI of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH!!!” Trump posted Wednesday on his social media site.

Craig Singleton, senior director of China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the phone call “simply paused escalation on trade” but “didn’t resolve core tensions” in the bilateral relations.

With the White House still weighing more punitive measures, the current calm could be upended as Beijing also is prepared to fight back the moment Washington escalates, Singleton said. “We’re likely one competitive action away from further confrontation,” he said.

In his note, Gabriel Wildau, managing director at the consultancy Teneo, wrote that the call “prevented derailment of trade talks but produced no clear breakthroughs on key issues.”

Trade negotiations between the United States and China stalled shortly after a May 12 agreement between the two countries to reduce their tariff rates while talks played out. Behind the gridlock has been the continued competition for an economic edge.

The U.S. accuses China of not exporting critical minerals, and the Chinese government objects to America restricting its sale of advanced chips and access to student visas for college and graduate students.

Trump has lowered his 145% tariffs on Chinese goods to 30% for 90 days to allow for talks. China also reduced its taxes on U.S. goods from 125% to 10%. The back and forth has caused sharp swings in global markets and threatens to hamper trade between the two countries.

Bessent had suggested that only a conversation between Trump and Xi could resolve these differences so that talks could restart in earnest. The underlying tension between the two countries may persist, though.

During the call, Xi said that the Chinese side is sincere about negotiating and “at the same time has its principles,” and that “the Chinese always honor and deliver what has been promised,” according to the Foreign Ministry.

Even if negotiations resume, Trump wants to lessen America’s reliance on Chinese factories and reindustrialize the U.S., whereas China wants the ability to continue its push into technologies such as electric vehicles and artificial intelligence that could be crucial to securing its economic future.

The United States ran a trade imbalance of $295 billion with China in 2024, according to the Census Bureau. Although the Chinese government’s focus on manufacturing has turned it into a major economic and geopolitical power, China has been muddling through a slowing economy after a real estate crisis and COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns weakened consumer spending.

Trump and Xi last spoke in January, three days before Inauguration Day. The pair discussed trade then, as well as Trump’s demands that China do more to prevent the synthetic opioid fentanyl from entering the United States.

Despite long expressing optimism about the prospects for a major deal, Trump became more pessimistic recently.

“The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US,” Trump posted last week. “So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”

Weissert and Megerian write for the Associated Press.

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Following a broad weekly rally on Wall Street amid a de-escalation in the US-China trade war, risk-off sentiment once again prevailed in global markets following a major downgrade of US credit ratings by Moody’s. Global equity indices fell during Monday’s Asian session as sell-offs in US assets resumed, with US stock futures, the dollar, and government bonds all declining.

Moody’s downgrades US credit ratings

On Friday, Moody’s Ratings, a major American credit rating agency, downgraded the “US long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings” to Aa1 from the top-tier Aaa due to mounting concerns over rising government debt and widening fiscal deficits.

The agency stated: “Over more than a decade, US federal debt has risen sharply due to continuous fiscal deficits. During that time, federal spending has increased while tax cuts have reduced government revenues. As deficits and debt have grown, and interest rates have risen, interest payments on government debt have increased markedly.”

Moody’s downgrade followed similar moves by rival agencies: Standard & Poor’s cut its US sovereign credit rating to AA+ in 2011, and Fitch Ratings made the same downgrade in 2023.

The decision led to a rise in US government bond yields as investors demanded a higher premium to compensate for perceived risks. The 10-year Treasury yield rose by 5 basis points (1 basis point = 0.01 percentage point) to 4.48% on Friday, climbing further to 4.51% during Monday’s Asian session. The downgrade also appeared to dampen investor appetite for other US assets, including equities and the dollar.

Moody’s expects federal budget flexibility to remain “limited” without adjustments to taxation and government spending. The agency projected that the US deficit would expand by approximately $4 trillion (€3.58 trillion) over the next decade if the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is extended. “Federal interest payments are likely to absorb around 30% of revenue by 2035, up from about 18% in 2024 and 9% in 2021,” Moody’s added.

“It does speak to a level of market risk in US debt, which is to say that the value of US bonds could be compromised if the economy can no longer run at the growth rates necessary to service the government’s liabilities,” Kyle Rodda, senior market analyst at Capital.com in Australia, said.

Risk-off sentiment prevails

US equity futures fell sharply during Monday’s Asian session following Moody’s downgrade. As of 4:42 am CEST, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.65%, the S&P 500 dropped 0.92%, and the Nasdaq Composite declined by 1.22%.

Asian equities also came under pressure amid the risk-off tone. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 0.66%, Australia’s ASX 200 declined 0.46%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 0.56% during the same period.

The ripple effect is expected to spill into European markets, though major indices such as the Euro Stoxx 600 and the DAX were set to open flat.

The US dollar also weakened against other G10 currencies, particularly safe-haven currencies including the euro, the Japanese yen, and the Swiss franc. Gold prices rose amid increased haven demand, although the yellow metal pulled back from an intraday high, likely due to pressure from rising US bond yields. Gold futures initially surged over 1% before retreating and were 0.8% higher, trading at $3,213 per ounce as of 4:12 am CEST.

Despite market jitters, Rodda believes the impact of Moody’s move will be short-lived. “I don’t think it will have a lasting impact,” he said, although he views the downgrade as “a reminder of the very loose fiscal policy the US is running and the structural problems related to US public finance.”