Summit

Top trade negotiators for the U.S. and China said they came to terms on a range of contentious points, setting the table for Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping to finalize a deal and ease trade tensions that have rattled global markets.

After two days of talks in Malaysia wrapped up Sunday, a Chinese official said the two sides reached a preliminary consensus on topics including export controls, fentanyl and shipping levies.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking later in an interview with CBS News, said Trump’s threat of 100% tariffs on Chinese goods “is effectively off the table” and he expected Beijing to make “substantial” soybean purchases as well as offer a deferral on sweeping rare-earth controls. The U.S. wouldn’t change its export controls directed at China, he added.

“So I would expect that the threat of the 100% has gone away, as has the threat of the immediate imposition of the Chinese initiating a worldwide export control regime,” Bessent said. He separately told ABC News he believed China would delay its rare-earth restrictions “for a year while they reexamine it.”

Bessent telegraphed a wide-ranging agreement between Trump and Xi that would extend a tariff truce, resolve differences over the sale of TikTok and keep up the flow of rare-earth magnets necessary for the production of advanced products from semiconductors to jet engines. The two leaders are also planning to discuss a global peace plan, he said, after Trump said publicly he hoped to enlist Xi’s help in ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The encouraging signals from both sides of the negotiations were a marked contrast from recent weeks, when Beijing’s announcement of new export restrictions and Trump’s reciprocal threat of staggering new tariffs threatened to plunge the world’s two largest economies back into an all-out trade war.

Staving off China’s rare-earth restrictions is “one of the major objectives of these talks, and I think we’re progressing toward that goal very well,” U.S .Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Trump predicted a “good deal with China” as he spoke with reporters on the sidelines of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, saying he expected high-level follow-up meetings in China and the U.S.

“They want to make a deal, and we want to make a deal,” Trump said.

Still, markets will be closely watching the details of the ultimate agreement, after nearly a year of head-spinning changes to trade and tariff policies between Washington and Beijing.

Chinese trade envoy Li Chenggang said he believes that the sides had reached consensus on fentanyl — suggesting the U.S. might lift or reduce a 20% tariff it had imposed to pressure Beijing to halt the flow of precursor chemicals used to make the deadly drug. He said the nations would also address actions the Trump administration took to impose port service fees on Chinese vessels, which prompted Beijing to put retaliatory levies on U.S.-owned, -operated, -built or -flagged vessels.

Li, whom Bessent called “unhinged” just days ago, described the talks as intense and the U.S. position as tough, but hailed the signs of progress. Both sides will now brief their leaders ahead of a planned summit between Trump and Xi on Thursday.

“The current turbulences and twists and turns are ones that we do not wish to see,” Li told reporters, adding that a stable China-U.S. trade and economic relationship is good for both countries and the rest of the world.

The reopening of soybean purchases, if realized, could provide a significant political win for Trump.

China imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. farm goods in March, effectively slamming the door shut on American soybeans before the harvest even began. The Asian nation last year purchased $13 billion in U.S. beans — more than 20% of the entire crop — for animal feed and cooking oil, and the freeze has rocked rural farmers who represent a key political base for the president.

Perhaps more important is resolving the the U.S.’ rare-earths tussle with China, which fought back against Trump’s trade offensive earlier this year by cutting off supplies of the materials. Although flows were restored in a truce that saw tariffs lowered from levels exceeding 100%, China this month broadened export curbs on the materials after the U.S. expanded restrictions on Chinese companies.

The negotiations took place at the skyscraper Merdeka 118 as Trump met with Southeast Asian leaders at a nearby convention center, where he discussed a series of other framework trade agreements, seeking to diversify U.S. trade away from China.

The Chinese delegation was led by He, China’s top economic official, and included Vice Finance Minister Liao Min. Greer, the U.S. trade representative, was also part of the talks.

Trump’s meeting with Xi this week will be their first face-to-face sit-down since his return to the White House. The U.S. leader has said direct talks are the best way to resolve issues including tariffs, export curbs, agricultural purchases, fentanyl trafficking and geopolitical tinderboxes such as Taiwan and the war in Ukraine.

“We’ll be talking about a lot of things,” he said. “I think we have a really good chance of making a very comprehensive deal.”

Flatly and Xiao write for Bloomberg. Bloomberg writers Sam Kim and Tony Czuczka contributed to this report.

Both countries’ negotiating teams will start ‘immediately’ to address US tariffs and sanctions, says Brazil’s President Lula.

United States President Donald Trump and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have held what Brazil described as a constructive meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Kuala Lumpur, raising hope for improved relations after stinging US tariffs.

Lula said the Sunday meeting with Trump – who is an ally of his political rival, embattled former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro – was “great” and added that their countries’ negotiating teams would get to work “immediately” to tackle tariffs and other issues.

“We agreed that our teams will meet immediately to advance the search for solutions to the tariffs and sanctions against Brazilian authorities,” Lula said in a message on X following the meeting.

Trump had linked the July tariff move – which brought duties on most Brazilian goods entering the US to 50 percent from 10 percent – to what he called a “witch hunt” against Bolsonaro, far-right leader who has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup after losing the 2022 presidential election.

Bolsonaro’s supporters rioted in the political centre of the country’s capital, evoking a riot by Trump’s supporters in Washington, DC on January 6, two years earlier.

The US government has also sanctioned numerous Brazilian officials, including Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the trial that led to Bolsonaro’s conviction.

Ahead of the meeting on Sunday, though, Trump said he could reach some agreements with Lula and expected the two countries to enjoy strong ties despite his concerns about Bolsonaro’s fate.

“I think we should be able to make some pretty good deals for both countries,” Trump said.

Lula previously described the US tariff hike as a “mistake”, citing a $410bn US trade surplus with Brazil over 15 years.

‘Conclude negotiations in weeks’

Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said that negotiations would start immediately and that Brazil had requested a pause in tariffs while talks proceed, though it was unclear whether the US had agreed.

“We hope to conclude bilateral negotiations that address each of the sectors of the current American [tariffs on] Brazil in the near future, in a few weeks,” Vieira said.

He added that Lula also offered to help mediate between the US and Venezuela, where Washington has deployed its largest warship and threatened ground strikes targeting alleged drug cartels, operations Caracas has denounced as “fabricated” pretexts for war.

Bolsonaro was not mentioned during the Trump-Lula meeting, said Marcio Rosa, the executive secretary for Brazil’s Foreign Ministry.

Higher US tariffs on Brazilian goods have begun reshaping the global beef trade, pushing up prices in the US and encouraging triangulation via third countries such as Mexico, while Brazilian exports to China continue to boom.

Thailand and Cambodia sign an enhanced ceasefire agreement following a deadly five-day conflict along their border in July.

Thailand and Cambodia have signed an expanded ceasefire agreement in the presence of United States President Donald Trump in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, building on a deal that ended deadly border fighting in July.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed the agreement on Sunday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Kuala Lumpur, shortly after Trump’s arrival.

​​”We did something that a lot of people said couldn’t be done,” said Trump, who co-signed the agreement along with summit host Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, as he made his first trip to Asia since returning to the White House.

Thailand’s Anutin said the agreement creates “the building blocks for a lasting peace”, while the Cambodian premier Hun called it a “historic day”.

Tariffs wielded as threat

The agreement builds on a truce reached three months ago when Trump used the threat of higher tariffs against both countries to persuade them to end five days of fighting that resulted in dozens of deaths and the displacement of hundreds of thousands.

The first phase of the agreement involves Thailand releasing 18 Cambodian soldiers, and the removal of heavy weapons from the border region, with Malaysian troops to be deployed to ensure fighting does not restart.

Territory along the 800km (500-mile) frontier between Thailand and Cambodia has been disputed for decades.

Following the signing of the ceasefire agreement on Sunday, Trump inked separate economic deals with Cambodia and Thailand, involving an agreement on reciprocal trade with Phnom Penh and a deal on critical minerals with Bangkok.

Malaysia’s Anwar, who was also present at the signing, praised the agreement during his opening remarks at the summit, saying “it reminds us that reconciliation is not concession, but an act of courage.”

Thais cautious

Reporting from Sa Kaeo, Thailand, Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng said the agreement signed on Sunday essentially reinforced “agreements that have already been made”.

Malaysian troops had been supposed to deploy under the initial peace agreement signed in July, but had not yet arrived, he said.

He said that while Thais welcomed “any kind of move towards peace”, they were viewing the agreement as “the beginning of the end” to the conflict, rather than hailing it as having resolved the dispute in itself.

“The devil is going to be in the details of this agreement,” he said.

He said the Thai military had been working to clear some disputed border areas, at the same time as some villages had been building new bomb shelters in recent weeks.

“So people here are still concerned this could go either way,” he said.

Ou Virak, president of Phnom Penh’s Future Forum think tank, told The Associated Press news agency that Trump wielding the threat of tariffs had been a significant factor in bringing the fighting to a halt.

“That’s probably the main reason, if not the only reason, but definitely the main reason why the two sides agreed immediately to the ceasefire.”

Now, he said, “there’s a ceremony for Trump to be in front of cameras” so he can be “seen as the champion that brings an end to wars and conflicts”, giving him “more ammunition for his bid for [the] Nobel Peace Prize”.

Nearly two dozen world leaders are descending in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur for a three-day summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from Sunday to Tuesday, and multiple other meetings on the sidelines.

This will be the 47th summit of the ASEAN.

Here’s what you need to know:

What is ASEAN, and who’s attending the summit?

ASEAN is made up of 10 members – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Together, they have a population of 678 million people and a gross domestic product of $3.9 trillion, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

This year, ASEAN will induct its 11th member, East Timor. The country gained independence from Indonesia in 2002 and is home to 1.4 million people.

The summit will bring together leaders from every country in the bloc except for Myanmar’s acting president, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

The ASEAN summit is accompanied annually by the East Asia Summit, a gathering of leaders of the ASEAN nations, the US, China, India, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

This year, US President Donald Trump, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, newly appointed Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will be attending.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak will represent Moscow while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take part virtually.

Beyond the leaders of ASEAN and the East Asia Summit nations, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will be in Kuala Lumpur too.

The heads of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the International Labour Organization and the International Federation of Association Football, better known as FIFA, will also attend some sessions, according to Bernama, Malaysia’s state news agency.

What events will take place during the summit?

Apart from the ASEAN summit and the East Asia Summit, ASEAN will also hold separate conclaves with leaders of key powers in Kuala Lumpur.

There’s also a peace deal to be signed on Sunday when Cambodia and Thailand ink a pact to end a deadly border dispute. The ceremony will be presided over by Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, according to Bernama.

The long-running border conflict rekindled in July when dozens of people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced along the border. A ceasefire was reached after five days with the help of Malaysia, China and the US.

Despite the high-profile nature of the event, some critics have questioned whether the deal will be more of a photo-op for Trump than a lasting resolution. Ceasefire violations have continued since July while the original issue around border demarcation has also not been resolved, according to Mu Sochua, a former Cambodian opposition leader and president of the Khmer Movement for Democracy.

She told Al Jazeera the threat of tariffs from Trump helped bring Thailand and Cambodia to the negotiating table in a move that was effective in the short term but also controversial. “Critics in both countries say it amounted to economic blackmail – trading peace for trade benefits rather than addressing justice, sovereignty or local needs,” she said.

What will be discussed at the summit? 

The ASEAN summit will discuss pressing issues like US tariffs and access to rare earth minerals, which are essential to high-tech manufacturing and whose production is dominated by China.

Trump launched his “Liberation Day Tariffs” in April against most US trading partners in a bid to lower the US trade deficit. After much negotiation, US tariffs for most ASEAN countries range from 10 to 20 percent while Brunei’s tariff rate is 25 percent. Tariffs for Laos and Myanmar are both 40 percent.

In response to Trump’s tariffs, China has tightened export restrictions on rare earths, a move that has been felt around the world.

Marco Foster, ASEAN director at the professional services firm Dezan Shira & Associates, told Al Jazeera that most attendees will be vying for a chance to speak to Trump about tariffs. “Pretty much everyone is going to be going after him or trying to get in the room with him or his people to talk about their deal,” he said. “Everyone will want to have a sideline meeting with Trump.”

Attendees are also expected to discuss pressing issues like Myanmar’s civil war and the proliferation of scam centres in Southeast Asia, which have earned criminal networks tens of billions of dollars.

Why is Myanmar skipping the summit? 

Myanmar’s acting president will not attend the ASEAN summit, and Myanmar will not take the helm from Malaysia as next year’s ASEAN chair because it has been embroiled in a civil war since 2021. Instead, the role will fall to the Philippines.

In 2021, ASEAN issued a Five-Point Consensus, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Myanmar and humanitarian assistance while creating a special ASEAN envoy to help mediate the conflict. Four years later, critics said it has had little impact on the crisis.

Charles Santiago, co-chairman of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, told Al Jazeera that he expected Myanmar and the fallout from the civil war to be discussed at the summit.

“Myanmar has become a destabilising factor, both [in terms of] security and social cohesion in the other parts of Southeast Asia,” he said. The civil war has facilitated the spread of the flow of drugs and weapons while creating a refugee crisis, he added.

Still, Santiago said he did not expect much to come from the ASEAN summit. “This will be a major photo opportunity for everybody,” he said, but “nothing much will happen” in terms of policy.

What are ASEAN’s limitations?

ASEAN has sometimes been criticised for lacking an enforcement mechanism to force members to abide by its rulings. This makes it different from other regional blocs like the European Union, whose members must abide by EU laws and rulings.

It’s a criticism that has been heard recently around issues like Myanmar as well as the Cambodian-Thai border conflict.

Foster said this feature is a legacy of ASEAN’s unique history. The organisation was founded in 1967 after a major wave of decolonisation around the world. Its structure reflects the norms of the era, he said.

“Because of the narrative that ASEAN was born out of independence, it will never lead to an ASEAN that will limit [member states’] independence by accepting rules from a body that is above the state,” Foster said. “The nation state will always be the number one in ASEAN.”

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.

Oct. 23 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are to meet and discuss trade and other matters during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Busan, South Korea.

Trump is scheduled to leave the United States on Friday, with stops planned in Malaysia and Japan ahead of the APEC conference that has a leaders meeting scheduled for Oct. 31 and Nov.1.

He and Xi agreed to meet on Oct. 30, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Thursday.

The planned meeting comes after Trump announced he would impose 100% tariffs on top of existing tariffs on all Chinese-made goods in retaliation for China’s earlier announcement of global restrictions on the use of rare earth minerals.

China dominates the world’s rare earth minerals market and intends to restrict their export and require companies to sign licensing agreements to use them, no matter where those firms might be headquartered.

“We’ll make a deal on everything,” Trump told media while at the Oval Office on Wednesday.

The in-person meeting would be the first between the two since 2019 and could include discussions regarding the war in Ukraine.

Trump said Xi would “like to see that war end,” Politico reported.

The president also anticipates discussing a variety of issues with the Chinese leader, including nuclear power, China’s reliance on Russian oil and trade.

The bilateral summit will be a “pretty long meeting” to enable the two world leaders to “work out a lot of our questions and our doubts,” Trump said, as reported by the South China Morning Post.

Trump will depart the United States late Friday night and arrive in Malaysia on Sunday morning, local time.

“President Trump will participate in a bilateral meeting with the prime minister of Malaysia in the afternoon, and then we will attend the [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] leaders’ working dinner that evening,” Leavitt said.

The president will depart Malaysia on Monday morning and arrive in Tokyo to meet with new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who is the first woman to be elected to the position.

Following his meeting with Takaichi, Trump will continue to Busan, South Korea, to hold a bilateral meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung ahead of his meeting with Xi.

The president will return to the United States after meeting with the Chinese president, Leavitt said.

SEOUL, Oct. 23 (UPI) — North Korea successfully tested a “new cutting-edge weapons system” involving hypersonic missiles, state-run media reported Thursday, amid heightened regional tensions ahead of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea.

Two hypersonic projectiles were launched in a northeast direction from the Pyongyang area and hit targets on a plateau of Kwesang Peak in Orang County, North Kamgyong Province, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

“The new weapon system was tested as part of the defense capability development program to enhance the sustainability and effectiveness of strategic deterrence against potential enemies,” KCNA said.

The test, held Wednesday, was overseen by a delegation of officials led by Pak Jong Chon, secretary of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was not present at the test.

“The new cutting-edge weapon system is a clear proof of steadily upgrading self-defensive technical capabilities of the DPRK,” Pak said, according to KCNA.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

Seoul’s military on Wednesday said that it detected the launch of several short-range ballistic missiles, which flew for roughly 217 miles before falling on land.

U.S. Forces Korea denounced the North’s launches and its “relentless pursuit of long-range missile capabilities,” acts that are prohibited by U.N. Security Council resolutions.

“The United States condemns these unlawful and destabilizing actions, and we call on the DPRK to refrain from further acts in violation of the UNSCR,” USFK said in a statement.

The launch was North Korea’s fifth of the year, and the first since South Korean President Lee Jae Myung took office in June. Lee has made efforts to improve relations between the two Koreas, with conciliatory gestures such as removing propaganda loudspeakers from border areas.

The missile test comes ahead of South Korea’s hosting of the APEC summit in Gyeongju on Oct. 30-Nov. 1. U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to visit Gyeongju before the official summit for bilateral meetings with leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korea’s Lee.

Analysts had speculated that the North may conduct a provocation ahead of the event as Pyongyang continues its push to be recognized as a nuclear-armed state.

The regime unveiled its latest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-20, at a massive military parade earlier this month. The ICBM, which North Korean state media called the regime’s “most powerful nuclear strategic weapon,” is a solid-fuel missile believed capable of reaching the continental United States.

Hypersonic weapons, meanwhile, travel at least five times the speed of sound and are maneuverable mid-flight, making them a challenge for missile detection and interception systems.

SEOUL, Oct. 22 (UPI) — North Korea fired a flurry of short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, Seoul’s military said, a week ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump‘s scheduled visit to South Korea for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

“Our military detected several projectiles presumed to be short-range ballistic missiles fired from the Junghwa area of North Hwanghae Province in a northeasterly direction around 8:10 a.m. today,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters.

The missiles flew approximately 217 miles, the JCS said, and may have landed inland rather than in the East Sea.

“Under a robust South Korea-U.S. combined defense posture, the military is closely monitoring North Korea’s various movements and maintaining the capability and readiness to overwhelmingly respond to any provocation,” the JCS said.

Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said at a press conference that the missiles did not reach Japan’s territorial waters or exclusive economic zone. She added that Tokyo was coordinating closely with Washington and Seoul, including sharing real-time missile warning information.

The launch was North Korea’s fifth of the year, and the first since South Korean President Lee Jae Myung took office in June. Lee has made efforts to rehabilitate relations between the two Koreas, with conciliatory gestures such as removing propaganda loudspeakers from border areas.

The missile test comes ahead of South Korea’s hosting of the APEC summit in Gyeongju on Oct. 30-Nov. 1. Trump is expected to visit Gyeongju before the official summit for bilateral meetings with leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korea’s Lee.

Analysts had speculated that the North may conduct a provocation ahead of the event as Pyongyang continues its push to be recognized as a nuclear-armed state.

The regime unveiled its latest intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-20, at a massive military parade earlier this month. The ICBM, which North Korean state media called the regime’s “most powerful nuclear strategic weapon,” is a solid-fuel missile believed capable of reaching the continental United States.

North Korea last fired a flurry of short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on May 8, in what South Korean officials characterized as a potential weapons test before export to Russia. Pyongyang has supplied missiles, artillery and soldiers to Russia for its war against Ukraine and is believed to be receiving much-needed financial support and advanced military technology in return.

WASHINGTON — Plans are on hold for President Trump to sit down with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to talk about resolving the war in Ukraine, according to a U.S. official.

The meeting had been announced last week. It was supposed to take place in Budapest, although a date had not been set.

The decision was made following a call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The official requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

The back-and-forth over Trump’s plans are the latest bout of whiplash caused by his stutter-step efforts to resolve a conflict that has persisted for nearly four years.

Lee writes for the Associated Press. This is a developing story that will update.

Oct. 20 (UPI) — One month before the U.N. climate summit in Belém, Brazil, organizers face a serious accommodation shortage. The Amazonian city, which will temporarily serve as the nation’s capital during the event, lacks enough rooms for the thousands of visitors expected, threatening the participation of many delegations.

Amid a COP30 already marked by tensions over climate financing and carbon-reduction commitments, a new complication has emerged: hotel prices have soared, forcing Brazil’s government to organize cruise ships and makeshift lodging to meet demand.

The situation risks making COP30 one of the least inclusive in history, as many groups — including small nations, civil society organizations and media outlets — may lack the means to participate in one of the year’s most important climate meetings.

The 30th Conference of the Parties of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP30, is to will bring together nearly 200 countries and dozens of organizations to negotiate actions to address the climate crisis.

The summit will take place in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon from Nov. 10 to 21, and aims to set new emission-reduction and climate-finance commitments through 2035 under the Paris Agreement.

It will be the first time the conference is held in the Amazon rainforest, a region vital to regulating the global climate.

The Brazilian government has pledged that no delegation will be left without lodging and has launched an official platform to coordinate reservations in hotels, private homes and vessels converted into floating hotels.

However, environmental groups and local media say prices remain out of reach for many delegations and that oversight is insufficient to prevent speculation. In some cases, rates have increased tenfold compared with previous years, even for modest accommodations.

The shortage of tourist infrastructure in Belém is also creating additional logistical challenges, including limited transportation, strained basic services and delays in key projects, such as the so-called “Leaders’ Village,” where heads of state will stay.

Diplomatic expectations for COP30 are especially high, as the summit will mark the start of a new cycle of climate commitments. Countries will be required to present updated proposals with targets extending through 2035.

However, the process is moving slowly and lacks ambition. Several major economies — including China, India and some G20 members — have yet to submit draft plans or have indicated they intend to maintain goals similar to those set in 2020, with few adjustments.

A preparatory ministerial meeting for COP30, held in Brasília last week, brought together representatives from more than 70 countries to coordinate positions and lay the groundwork for the summit.

During the sessions, ministers agreed that the conference should focus on the effective implementation of the Paris Agreement rather than issuing new political statements.

However, the meeting exposed persistent divisions on key issues, particularly climate financing. The draft of the so-called “Baku-Belém Roadmap,” which calls for mobilizing $1.3 trillion annually by 2035, drew criticism for lacking detail and verifiable mechanisms.

There were also disagreements over indicators to measure progress on adaptation and on the level of ambition for new national targets. The meeting kept dialogue open, but many core issues remain unresolved and will be the subject of direct negotiations in Belém under strong diplomatic pressure.

Russia’s foreign policy framework places emphasis on adopting a plurality of approaches, including serious dialogues through conventional diplomacy, to all kinds of disputes and has taken concrete steps to coordinate the resolution of those in the Arab world. After lengthy preparations toward hosting the “Russia-Arab world” summit, primarily aimed at discussing regional security and energy relations and showcasing Moscow’s enduring influence in the Middle East, the Kremlin abruptly put off the scheduled gathering, citing contradictory positions and extremely low interest among Arab leaders, including those in North Africa.

The Russia-Arab Summit was supposed to open and be decisive for advancing the agreements on the Gaza Strip, agreements that have been energetically promoted by Egypt and Qatar, considered friends of Russia. It was also meant to address aspects of the Palestinian issue, to stop the bloodshed as soon as possible, and to offer possible pathways for the grave humanitarian issues faced by the people.

Notably, the overwhelming majority in the Arab world showed little interest in Russia being the organizer. Later, considering the apathy towards participation, “President Vladimir Putin reached an understanding with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al Sudani and the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States to postpone the summit,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Arab media reporters on October 13, during his media briefing.

“The final documents are practically ready, so we will still have the opportunity to get together, back for the summit,” Lavrov reassured. The relations with Arab countries are steadily progressing. The League of Arab States has demonstrated its value and is consolidating its role as a key pillar of the emerging multipolar world, authoritatively and actively participating in global affairs—in economics, finance, and increasingly contributing to the resolution of regional and, more broadly, political issues.

There is a noticeable sustained growth in trade turnover with the League’s member states, which has now exceeded $34 billion. Whilst this figure is modest compared to the trade volumes the United States and the People’s Republic of China maintain with the Arab world, it is several times greater than the trade turnover recorded two decades ago. That lapses, however—the growth dynamics are still positive. Arab partners are also showing keen interest in agricultural cooperation, including supplies of Russian food products and fertilizer.

Furthermore, in the sphere of cultural cooperation, Russia has traditionally maintained strong educational ties with many Arab states, a practice dating back to the Soviet era. Tourism is growing bilaterally. The fundamental trend remains the development of constructive relations grounded in mutual respect, the accommodation of each other’s interests, and the consolidation of a stable balance between them.

According to various reports monitored by Modern Diplomacy, the Kremlin was forced to shelve the gathering after only a handful of leaders, including Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, and the head of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, confirmed their attendance. For nearly a decade, the Middle East served as the stage for Putin’s long-sought return to global prominence. But analysts say the Arab majority expressed little interest in participating in deliberations, geopolitics, and conflict settlement with Moscow.

Nevertheless, an aide to the president of Russia, Yury Ushakov, in mid-October explicitly explained that “naturally, the Russian side outlined its principled position in favor of a comprehensive Middle East settlement on a generally recognized international legal basis that would ensure lasting peace for all the peoples in that region.”

In particular, Ushakov noted that Vladimir Putin provided a detailed assessment of the current situation, stressing Russia’s interest in achieving a peaceful resolution through political and diplomatic methods in the region and other similar conflicts around the world. In this context, Putin congratulated Donald Trump on his successful efforts to normalize the situation in the Gaza Strip. The US president’s peace work has been duly appreciated in the Middle East, in the United States itself, and in most countries around the world.

In several frank exchanges of views, experts noted the essential political developments in the Middle East and stressed the growing significance of the necessity for establishing peace. “But Russia’s diplomatic role in the Middle East has declined as a result of the Ukraine war,” said Hanna Notte, a Berlin-based expert on Russian foreign policy. “When it comes to all the big developments, the major players in the region don’t look towards Moscow anymore.”

But, the fact remains for geopolitical reasons, the primary objectives and challenges, that the situation has been very difficult and the future trends are uncertain in the region—the Middle East and North Africa. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, meeting with his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita, also acknowledged Moscow’s readiness to work together with other interested countries to help resolve the issues facing the Middle East and North Africa.

“This certainly envisages continued cooperation as part of Russia’s interaction with the Arab League,” according to Lavrov. With Israel and Palestine, Russia hoped the agreements on Gaza reached through the mediation of Egypt, Qatar, the United States, and Turkey will be strictly and fully adhered to in every context and in the logically established international legal framework. 

On September 29, the White House released US President Donald Trump’s comprehensive plan to resolve the situation in the Gaza Strip. The 20-point document includes, among other measures, the establishment of temporary external administration in the Palestinian enclave and the deployment of international stabilization forces there. On October 9, Trump announced that Israeli and Hamas representatives had agreed on the first step of the peace plan after negotiations. According to Trump, the agreement included the release of all hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops to an agreed-upon line in Gaza.

Despite years of cultivating ties with the Arab countries, Putin called off, on 10th October, the Russia-Arab world summit, a clear sign of Russia’s dwindling influence in the Middle East. Notwithstanding that, Russia has been jostling to sustain its traditional relations across Central Asia and the Caucasus, and also with the former Soviet republics—including Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

Substantive steps have been taken on Gaza, for instance, during the summit held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on October 13, and hopefully, the agreements on Gaza, reached with the mediation of Egypt, Qatar, the United States, and Türkiye, will be strictly and fully implemented. Key priorities include ensuring the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to all those in need, creating the necessary conditions for the return of displaced persons, and addressing the comprehensive destruction of the enclave’s civilian infrastructure. 

The UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions can additionally bring a long-awaited and lasting peace to all the peoples of the Middle East—an outcome in which we are deeply invested, achieving long-term stabilization in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone and the wider Middle East.

Kilian Jornet, one of the world’s most accomplished mountaineers, did something this month that left even other elite athletes gasping: He climbed all 72 summits in the contiguous United States that stand over 14,000 feet tall.

In 31 days.

That’s like climbing California’s Mt. Whitney — the nation’s tallest mountain outside of Alaska — two-and-a-half times per day, every day, for a month.

But reaching so many summits, so quickly, was only half the battle. In fact, it was “the fun part,” a surprisingly rested-looking Jornet said in a Zoom interview from Seattle earlier this month, three days after summiting Mt. Rainier in knee-deep snow to complete the grueling journey, which he started in early September.

The hard part was negotiating the spaces in between.

Spanish mountaineer Kilian Jornet treks through the Sierra Nevada range known as the Normans 13, which connects 13 summits over 14,000 feet.

(Andy Cochrane)

“If you’re driving, you see the landscape,” Jornet explained. “But you don’t feel it.”

OK, how do you feel it?

By running the hundreds of miles of remote mountain ridges, and biking the thousands of miles of desolate highway, that separate the towering summits scattered across Colorado, California and Washington.

In total, Jornet covered 3,198 miles under his own power. He biked 2,568 miles. He ran 629 miles. He climbed 403,638 vertical feet.

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Tommy Caldwell, arguably the best technical rock climber of his generation and the first to climb Yosemite’s nearly impossible Dawn Wall, followed Jornet’s progress on Instagram. When the Spaniard finished, Caldwell posted, “my mind is officially blown.”

Like many elite climbers, Jornet, 37, slips into a stoic, been-there-done-that voice when describing mountain conditions that would terrify mere mortals. But he broke character, briefly, talking about climbing the summit of Mt. Shasta in Northern California.

As often happens on that free-standing volcano, a howling gale struck just as Jornet approached the 14,162-foot summit.

Shaky video shot by a climbing partner shows Jornet’s trekking poles flailing and his feet sliding around on the ice as he struggles — and fails — to remain upright in what sounds like a hurricane.

“It was crazy,” he conceded, “probably the windiest day I have ever had in the mountains.”

Asked why, exactly, he puts himself through so much agony, he snapped back into aw-shucks mode. He sank into his comfy seat, smiled with the confidence of a man who has parried that question a thousand times, and said:

“Why not?”

Spanish mountaineer Kilian Jornet climbed 72 summits over 14,000 feet in the contiguous U.S. in 31 days.

(Nick Danielson)

In an age saturated with professional outdoor athletes competing for social media attention and lucrative sponsorships — and in a world where the most iconic summits have been climbed, the biggest waves have been surfed and the wildest rivers have been run — one fashionable way to stand out is by setting a fastest known time, or “FKT.”

Jornet’s jaunt over and between those 72 summits, which he dubbed “States of Elevation” and gorgeously documented for his 1.8 million followers on Instagram, was, by all accounts, the fastest known time. It was also the only known time. Apparently, nobody else has tried to link all of those summits together in a single, human-powered push.

“Yes, it’s hard,” Jornet said with a laugh when asked if the constant, grinding pain was worth it. But after a while, “you get used to the discomfort, it’s just part of it, it doesn’t really bother you.”

The finale of Jornet’s 72-peak feat was a 14,441-foot volcano covered with glaciers, one of the broadest and most visually imposing mountains on the planet. Few people even attempt to climb Mt. Rainier this time of year because the weather can be so brutal.

As Jornet pedaled closer to the peak, it started to rain down in the flats, so he knew that meant snow on the mountain.

Crossing the glaciers with their immense, yawning crevasses hidden by fresh snow would have been too dangerous, so Jornet chose a steep and challenging rock route known as Success Cleaver. But even that was buried in knee-deep snow.

After summiting Mt. Rainier, Jornet posted that his U.S. journey was, “never about just the numbers, but rather a deep connection to wild places, and true test of resilience in body and mind.”

Anyone else claiming that might have been met with eye rolls, but Jornet is one of the few outdoor athletes who probably doesn’t need to pad his resume: He cemented his legacy as one of the all-time greats long ago.

Spanish mountaineer Kilian Jornet hikes in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado in September.

(Nick Danielson)

Born just outside of Barcelona in 1987, he grew up in a ski area in the Pyrenees where his father was a mountain guide. He climbed his first mountain over 10,000 feet when he was 5.

At 20, he won the first of six titles in the Sky Runner World Series, an international competition consisting of long, high-altitude foot races that test speed and endurance on steep mountainsides.

At 26, he set FKTs for climbing Switzerland’s Matterhorn and France’s Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Western Europe. A year later, he broke the speed record climbing the bitterly cold and deadly Denali, in Alaska, the tallest mountain in North America.

A few years after that, he climbed Mt. Everest twice in one week without supplemental oxygen.

In addition to all of the technical mountaineering, Jornet has been one of the most successful ultramarathoners in history, winning the prestigious Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc, a 100-mile race through the Alps, four times.

After his early career dominating distance races in relatively cold climates, Jornet showed up at Northern California’s Western States ultramarathon in 2010. It’s a 100-mile race that starts near the shore of Lake Tahoe and descends to the Sacramento suburbs in late June, when the sun and temperatures can be unforgiving.

He was comically unprepared. “I didn’t do any heat training,” Jornet recalled, “so when I arrived I was like, ‘Should I have brought water for this race?’” Still, he came in third, then returned the next year to win.

In June, he went back to the Western States 100 for the first time in 14 years. The event has evolved since then: The field is fitter and more professional. But even at his relatively advanced age, Jornet came in third, dropping more than an hour off his winning time in 2011.

Back then, he relied mostly on raw talent, Jornet said. “I train much better now, I know I need to prepare specifically and put in the work.”

But does he ever just kick back and spend a weekend sprawled on the couch, a remote in one hand and a bowl of ice cream in the other?

“For me, that’s not relaxing,” he said, recalling the time he and his wife, Emelie Forsberg, also a world champion runner and skier, tried to take a normal vacation.

They had just completed a race on Reunion Island, off the coast of Madagascar, when they decided to spend a week on the nearby tropical island of Mauritius.

“We said we’d just sit on the beach and read books, and that’s all,” Jornet said. But by the end of the first day they looked at each other and wondered if they should change their flight to get back to running and skiing in the mountains. “It was like, yes, yes, yes for both of us,” Jornet said.

Spanish mountaineer Kilian Jornet in the Sierra Nevada range known as the Normans 13, which connects 13 summits over 14,000 feet.

(Andy Cochrane)

After years living in Chamonix, France, a hard-partying resort in the Alps regarded as the mountain sports capital of the world, Jornet and Forsberg moved to a house by a remote fjord in Norway. It’s a quiet place to raise their three young children, grow their own vegetables and train in the surrounding mountains, some of which have no names.

“Sometimes when you’re climbing Everest, or Mont Blanc, or Mt. Whitney, it’s like you’re climbing the famous name,” Jornet said. As he matures, he prefers climbing mountains simply “because they’re beautiful.”

But he still craves big challenges.

Last year, he climbed all 82 summits in the Alps over 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) in 19 days, traveling the 750 miles between them on foot and bicycle.

“This was, without any doubt, the most challenging thing I’ve ever done in my life, mentally, physically, and technically,” he wrote on social media. “But also maybe the most beautiful.”

That got him thinking even bigger, trying to imagine the most “aesthetic line” for a similar expedition in the United States.

After landing in Denver last month, he went straight to the trailhead for 14,256-foot Longs Peak. “But I really felt like crap,” he said, blaming a combination of jet lag and the air being so much drier in Colorado than in Norway.

For the first week, he wondered if he should just quit. But then, somewhere along the way, his body switched, “from fighting to adapting,” and he settled into a comfortable rhythm.

After summiting 56 mountains in Colorado, Jornet hopped on his bike and pedaled 900 miles to California, where 15 more high peaks awaited. At times, the headwind was so brutal he slowed to a maddening crawl, even when going downhill.

He’d also lost 10 pounds in the mountains and, at 5’7” and about 130 pounds, his slender frame has nothing to spare. So he spent much of his time on the bike shoveling calories — even spiking his water bottles with generous helpings of olive oil — to replace lost fat.

His long slog on the bike ended in Lone Pine, a dusty town four hours north of Los Angeles, where the Eastern Sierra rise 10,000 feet, like a solid granite wall, from the desert floor.

Jornet had covered nearly 200 miles that day, and faced a 6,000-foot climb to the Cottonwood Lakes trailhead, where he would sleep before starting the toughest part of the whole trip.

The road up to Cottonwood Lakes is 23 miles of harrowing switchbacks, with vertigo-inducing views of the valley below at almost every turn. The drive, alone, freaks out a lot of people.

“It was cool that I arrived there in the dark,” Jornet said, undaunted by the prospect of pedaling off the side of a cliff. “Nice to do the climb when it wasn’t so hot.”

The next morning he started running “Norman’s 13” — a baker’s dozen of 14,000-foot summits along the Sierra Crest between Lone Pine and Bishop, the most remote and punishing alpine terrain in California. He made astonishing time: cruising over 14,032-foot Mt. Langley and 14,505-froot Mt. Whitney like they were speed bumps.

But for all their imposing altitude, the standard routes up Langley and Whitney don’t require any special skills, they’re just long hiking trails with very little exposure to deadly falls. Things changed when Jornet reached a section called the Palisades Traverse, just up the hill from Big Pine.

There, a ridge of jagged granite rises like an upside down saw’s blade over one of the last remaining glaciers in California. There are no hiking trails, just daunting towers of shattered and jumbled rock, where seemingly any misstep can lead to a thousand-foot fall.

Only the most committed mountaineers go there, and they tend to take their time, waiting for good weather and climbing with ropes and harnesses.

But when you’re on a mission like Jornet’s, you don’t get to “choose your weather,” he said. You just start and then you’re committed, you have to take what comes.

What came the day he reached the traverse was a surprising, early-season blizzard. It covered the usually reliable, grippy granite with about 4 inches of snow and ice. The storm made climbing “more complicated,” Jornet said, and more miserable.

It was cold and “I was completely soaked,” Jornet said. But with the help of Matt Cornell, a well-known climber from Bishop, he was able to keep going and finish the 100 miles of Norman’s 13 in 56 hours, shaving more than 19 hours off the previous record.

He only slept once during that span, he said, for about an hour and a half, lying in the middle of a trail.

When speed climbing over peaks, Jornet traveled light, carrying only the bare essentials to stay nourished and protected from the weather.

When possible, he was accompanied by photographers and videographers, most of whom had to be exceptional athletes to keep up.

He also stayed in contact with his press team and social media producers, and he sometimes slept in a support RV at the trailheads.

But after the frigid Palisades Traverse he indulged in a bit of luxury, pizza and a glorious night in a hotel bed in Bishop. The next morning, he hiked 14,252-foot White Mountain and then hopped on the bike for the 500-mile ride to the unexpected ordeal that awaited him on Mt. Shasta.

Having survived that with no serious damage, he biked through Oregon, finally with a tailwind, and then surmounted Mt. Rainier.

When he finally descended, instead of popping champagne in front of cameras and an adoring crowd, he and a few close friends spent a quiet night in an RV, swapping stories from the road and sharing shots of pickle juice — an inside joke that started somewhere during the trip.

“I’m not a big celebration guy,” Jornet explained.

He wouldn’t say what his next project will be, but several times he returned to the idea of climbing without crowds or fanfare.

“I do these things because I love them, because they bring me joy and happiness, not because I think they’re very important.”

One place he can sit quietly is at home in Norway, looking out the window, across the fjord to the nameless, snowcapped mountains in the distance.

He lets his eyes linger on their faces, settling on pretty lines to climb up or ski down.

EXPLAINER

FIFA boss Gianni Infantino was among attendees in Egypt, continuing a string of appearances with the US president Donald Trump.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s participation in Summit for Peace held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt on Monday may have been a surprise to those who were expecting only world leaders, presidents and high-ranking officials to be in attendance at the Red Sea resort town.

Infantino was photographed next to the co-chair of the event, United States President Donald Trump, in the latest joint appearance by the pair during the second Trump presidency.

Here is all to know about Infantino’s presence in Egypt:

Why was FIFA president at the Egypt Peace summit?

Infantino stated that Trump had invited him to the Summit for Peace and that “FIFA is here to help, to assist and to put ourselves at disposal for whatever we can do to make sure that this peace process comes to fruition and to the best possible end.”

His invitation followed the FIFA president becoming more vocal on the Israel-Gaza conflict in recent days.

Last week, he called for football to support efforts towards peace in the Middle East in the lead-up to two World Cup qualifiers that involved Israel, after pro-Palestinian demonstrations were planned at stadiums in Norway and Italy.

After Friday’s Israel-Hamas ceasefire announcement, Infantino praised the US-brokered plan and singled out Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

“The role of President Trump has been absolutely fundamental and crucial in the process. Without President Trump, there would be no peace,” he said.

What role did Infantino play at the Summit for Peace?

In Sharm el Sheikh, the FIFA president stressed football’s important role in creating new hope in the Middle East region.

Infantino pledged the governing body’s support to rebuild football infrastructure in Gaza as part of wider post-war reconstruction efforts following Monday’s peace summit.

“Football’s role has to be to support, has to be to unite, has to be to give hope in the region. In Gaza, in Palestine, we will, of course, help to rebuild all the football facilities. We will help to bring football back – together with the Palestinian Football Association – in every corner of the country. We will bring (footballs), we will build pitches, we will bring instructors, we will help organise competitions, we will launch a fund to help rebuild football infrastructure in Palestine,” he announced.

Infantino added that FIFA would contribute with mini-pitches and “FIFA arenas” and invite other partners to join the effort, saying “football brings hope to children, and it’s very, very important.”

What is the relationship between Infantino and Trump?

Trump first met Infantino at the White House in 2018, during his first presidential term, after the US was awarded the co-hosting rights to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

They have appeared at summits together before; in 2020, they shared the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It was during this summit that Infantino first called Trump “my great friend”, according to reporting by The Washington Post.

The pair remained in contact when Trump left office in early 2021, but since the second Trump presidency, which coincided with June’s FIFA Club World Cup staged in the US, Infantino has been seen repeatedly with the US president.

Most recently, on August 22, Infantino was filmed inside the Oval Office after he gifted a gold replica World Cup trophy to Trump.

In late 2024, Infantino relocated to Trump’s hometown in Miami due to his North American-based World Cup commitments, ensuring the two friends have easy access for any joint public appearances in the future.

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt — President Trump arrived in Egypt on Monday for a global summit on Gaza’s future as he tries to advance peace in the Middle East after visiting Israel to celebrate a U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Hamas.

The whirlwind trip, which included a speech at the Knesset in Jerusalem earlier in the day, comes at a fragile moment of hope for ending two years of war between Israel and Hamas.

“Everybody said it’s not possible to do. And it’s going to happen. And it is happening before your very eyes,” Trump said alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

More than two dozen countries are expected to be represented at the summit. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was invited but declined, with his office saying it was too close to a Jewish holiday.

Despite unanswered questions about next steps in Gaza, which has been devastated during the conflict, Trump is determined to seize an opportunity to chase an elusive regional harmony.

“You’ve won,” he told Israeli lawmakers at the Knesset, which welcomed him as a hero. “Now it is time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.”

Trump promised to help rebuild Gaza, and he urged Palestinians to “turn forever from the path of terror and violence.”

“After tremendous pain and death and hardship,” he said, “now is the time to concentrate on building their people up instead of trying to tear Israel down.”

Trump even made a gesture to Iran, where he bombed three nuclear sites during the country’s brief war with Israel earlier this year, by saying “the hand of friendship and cooperation is always open.”

Trump is on a whirlwind trip to Middle East

Trump arrived in Egypt hours late because speeches at the Knesset continued longer than expected.

“They might not be there by the time I get there, but we’ll give it a shot,” Trump joked after needling Israeli leaders for talking so much.

Twenty hostages were released Monday as part of an agreement intended to end the war that began on Oct. 7, 2023, with an attack by Hamas-led militants. Trump talked with some of their families at the Knesset.

“Your name will be remembered to generations,” a woman told him.

Israeli lawmakers chanted Trump’s name and gave him standing ovation after standing ovation. Some people in the audience wore red hats that resembled his “Make America Great Again” caps, although these versions said “Trump, The Peace President.”

Netanyahu hailed Trump as “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House,” and he promised to work with him going forward.

“Mr. President, you are committed to this peace. I am committed to this peace,” he said. “And together, Mr. President, we will achieve this peace.”

Trump, in an unexpected detour during his speech, called on the Israeli president to pardon Netanyahu, whom he described as “one of the greatest” wartime leaders. Netanyahu faces corruption charges, although several hearings have been postponed during the conflict with Hamas.

The Republican president also used the opportunity to settle political scores and thank his supporters, criticizing Democratic predecessors and praising a top donor, Miriam Adelson, in the audience.

Trump pushes to reshape the region

The moment remains fragile, with Israel and Hamas still in the early stages of implementing the first phase of Trump’s plan.

The first phase of the ceasefire agreement calls for the release of the final hostages held by Hamas; the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel; a surge of humanitarian aid to Gaza; and a partial pullback by Israeli forces from Gaza’s main cities.

Trump has said there’s a window to reshape the region and reset long-fraught relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

“The war is over, OK?” Trump told reporters traveling with him aboard Air Force One.

“I think people are tired of it,” he said, emphasizing that he believed the ceasefire would hold because of that.

He said the chance of peace was enabled by his Republican administration’s support of Israel’s decimation of Iranian proxies, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The White House said momentum is also building because Arab and Muslim states are demonstrating a renewed focus on resolving the broader, decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict and, in some cases, deepening relations with the United States.

In February, Trump had predicted that Gaza could be redeveloped into what he called “the Riviera of the Middle East.” But on Sunday aboard Air Force One, he was more circumspect.

“I don’t know about the Riviera for a while,” Trump said. “It’s blasted. This is like a demolition site.” But he said he hoped to one day visit the territory. “I’d like to put my feet on it, at least,” he said.

The sides have not agreed on Gaza’s postwar governance, the territory’s reconstruction and Israel’s demand that Hamas disarm. Negotiations over those issues could break down, and Israel has hinted it may resume military operations if its demands are not met.

Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble, and the territory’s roughly 2 million residents continue to struggle in desperate conditions. Under the deal, Israel agreed to reopen five border crossings, which will help ease the flow of food and other supplies into Gaza, parts of which are experiencing famine.

Roughly 200 U.S. troops will help support and monitor the ceasefire deal as part of a team that includes partner nations, nongovernmental organizations and private-sector players.

Superville and Megerian write for the Associated Press. Megerian reported from Washington. AP writers Will Weissert and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.

Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will chair an international summit to discuss the US president’s proposal to end Israel’s war on Gaza in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday.

The meeting will involve leaders from more than 20 countries, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement on Saturday.

It will aim “to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security and stability”, the statement said.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer said they would attend, along with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Pedro Sanchez of Spain. French President Emmanuel Macron has also confirmed his attendance.

It was not immediately clear whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, or any representatives of the Hamas Palestinian group, would attend.

The announcement comes as tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed north along the coast of Gaza, by foot, car and cart back, to their abandoned and mostly destroyed homes in the Strip, as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appeared to be holding.

Israeli troops partially pulled back under the first phase of a US-brokered agreement reached this week to end Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 67,000 people and left much of the famine-struck enclave in ruins.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said that the ceasefire “ended one form of violence, but the struggle continues”.

“People walk this exhausting, tiring journey back here [in the north] because they belong here. They keep telling us that they belong to this part of the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip, and they will never be uprooted from here,” Mahmoud said.

“But spending a night here is going to be very difficult,” he said. “The struggle to survive continues to present itself in the most aggressive way, not each day but each hour.”

Gaza’s Government Media Office has said that 5,000 public operations have been carried out after the ceasefire came into force to improve the lives of Palestinians in the enclave.

Among them are more than 850 rescue and relief missions carried out by the Gaza Civil Defence, police and municipal teams to recover bodies, remove rubble and secure destroyed areas.

About 150 bodies have been recovered from various areas across the enclave since Friday morning, the Civil Defence said. Separately, Nasser Hospital reported that 28 bodies were recovered from southern Gaza’s Khan Younis alone.

More than 900 service missions to restore water and sewage lines have also been carried out, the agency added.

These missions are being carried out with the bare minimum of resources as Israel’s blockade on Gaza remains in place, restricting the entry of fuel and equipment. During the genocide, Israeli attacks destroyed ambulances, fire trucks and civil defence centres, further crippling emergency and recovery efforts across the enclave.

The mayor of Khan Younis said that 85 percent of the southern Gaza governorate has been destroyed by Israeli attacks, adding that about 400,000 tonnes of rubble must be removed from the city’s streets.

Calls for crossings to open

Aid groups have also urged Israel to reopen more crossings to allow aid into Gaza.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was ready to restore 145 food distribution points across the territory, once Israel allows for expanded deliveries. Before Israel completely sealed off Gaza in March, United Nations agencies provided food at 400 distribution points.

“What is most important now for us to reach the north is crossings to be opened,” Antoine Renard, a WFP representative and the country director for Palestine, told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah.

He explained that in a previous ceasefire in January, the WFP had enabled “practically a third of all the different goods that managed to enter into Gaza”.

“The conditions should be the same 1760225956. We expect that the good practices that we had in January 2025 will be again applied in this ceasefire,” Renard said.

Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said the group is working with “friendly countries” to ensure the entry of aid into Gaza, “despite the massive destruction caused by the war”.

UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram said on Saturday that the children’s agency expects to significantly scale up supplies of high-energy food for malnourished children, menstrual hygiene supplies and tents, starting on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Israeli captives held in Gaza by Hamas and other armed groups are expected to “come back” on Monday, US President Trump said, with 20 living captives and the bodies of 28 others due to be handed over as part of the ceasefire deal.

In exchange, Israel is due to release some 250 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, as well as about 1,700 people detained from Gaza over the past two years of war and held without charge. The Israel Prison Service said that detainees have been transferred to deportation facilities at Ofer and Ktzi’ot prisons, “awaiting instructions from the political echelon”.

In past exchanges, Israel has delayed the release of Palestinian prisoners and subjected them to harsh treatment, including physical abuse, humiliation and restrictions on family contact, before eventually releasing them. Rights groups have documented numerous cases of Palestinians arriving in dire health conditions after prolonged interrogation and detention without charge or trial.

In Tel Aviv, tens of thousands of people gathered in Hostages Square after two years of protests led by family members of captives calling for their return.

Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his daughter, Ivanka Trump, took the stage in the square with the US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who played a key role in the ceasefire negotiations.

“I dreamed of this night. It’s been a long journey,” Witkoff said. Some yelled, “Thank you, Trump, thank you Witkoff”, and booed when the envoy mentioned Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Turning to the captives, Witkoff said: “As you return to the embrace of your families and your nation, know that all of Israel and the entire world stands ready to welcome you home with open arms and endless love.”

Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said that Israeli captives’ families credit Trump for the deal, not Netanyahu.

“The family members of captives have no faith in their government, no faith in the Israeli prime minister, whom they accused of prolonging the war for his own personal and political gain,” Salhut said.

“The cheers for [Trump] and for Steve Witkoff come because the family members and those who are protesting say this happened because of the Americans.”

Summit Financial Wealth Advisors, LLC disclosed in a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it sold 101,515 shares of food distribution giant Sysco(SYY -0.11%), cutting the vast majority of its stake in the firm.

What happened

According to a Monday SEC filing, Louisiana-based Summit Financial Wealth Advisors, LLC sold 101,515 shares of Sysco during the quarter ended June 30. The estimated transaction value was $7.4 million based on the average closing price for the quarter. The fund’s remaining Sysco holding totaled 4,295 shares, worth $325,266, meaning the firm cut about 95% of its stake.

What else to know

The transaction reduced the Sysco position to 0.1% of fund AUM, down from 1.6% in the prior quarter.

Top holdings after the filing:

• SCHD: $53.05 million (9.5% of AUM)
• VUG: $49.21 million (8.8% of AUM)
• VYMI: $36.55 million (6.6% of AUM)
• NOBL: $24.6 million (4.4% of AUM)
• SPBO: $23.2 million (4.2% of AUM)

As of Monday, Sysco shares were priced at $81.72, up about 5% year over year but underperforming the S&P 500 by more than 10 percentage points during the same period.

Company Overview

Company Snapshot

Sysco distributes a broad range of food products—including frozen foods, fresh meats and seafood, dairy, canned and dry goods, beverages, and non-food supplies—to the foodservice industry.

The company generates revenue primarily through large-scale distribution operations, leveraging its logistics network to supply restaurants, healthcare, education, hospitality, and other institutional clients.

Sysco’s primary customers include restaurants, hospitals, nursing homes, schools, hotels, and other foodservice providers across North America and select international markets.

Sysco is a leading global food distribution company with a significant presence in North America and international markets.

Foolish take

Summit Financial’s decision to unload nearly all of its Sysco shares is notable, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the firm has lost confidence in the food distributor. Large managers regularly rebalance portfolios to free up cash or reallocate into higher-conviction ideas. In this case, Sysco had been a modest position for Summit—reflecting less than 2% of reportable assets—and now barely registers at just 0.1%.

For investors, the bigger question is how Sysco stacks up in today’s market. Shares have risen just over 5% in the past year, a steady climb but well short of the S&P 500’s double-digit gains. The lag highlights Sysco’s profile: It’s a defensive stock with dependable cash flows and a long history of paying dividends, not a high-growth story. Its dividend yield is about 2.6%, compared to an average of about 1.25% for the broader S&P 500.

Nevertheless, recent headlines—including a $388 million deal with the U.S. Navy and continued investments in distribution facilities—underscore Sysco’s ability to secure stable revenue streams. Still, the stock’s performance will ultimately depend on restaurant traffic and consumer confidence, both of which are highly sensitive to broader economic trends.

Glossary

13F assets: Securities and assets that institutional investment managers must report quarterly to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) if above a certain threshold.
AUM (Assets Under Management): The total market value of investments managed by a fund or financial institution on behalf of clients.
Dividend Yield: A financial ratio showing how much a company pays in dividends each year relative to its share price.
Distribution operations: The logistical processes involved in delivering products from suppliers to customers, often on a large scale.
Institutional clients: Organizations such as pension funds, endowments, or corporations that invest large sums of money.
Logistics network: The system of transportation, warehousing, and coordination used to move goods efficiently from suppliers to customers.
Reportable: Refers to holdings or transactions that must be disclosed to regulators, such as the SEC, due to their size or nature.
TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.
Underperforming: Delivering a lower return compared to a benchmark or index over a specific period.

Sept. 25 (UPI) — War Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned the nation’s military leaders from around the world to meet at a Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., for an unspecified reason on Tuesday.

The number of generals and admirals called to the meeting is the most summoned for a meeting in many years, according to The New York Times.

Other media outlets reporting the meeting include The Hill and CNN, which said hundreds of military leaders are expected to attend the high-level meeting.

“The secretary of War will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” War Department spokesman Sean Parnell told The Hill in a prepared statement.

He did not elaborate on the meeting’s primary purpose.

“It’s being referred to as the general squid games,” an unnamed military official told CNN.

Many in the military have suggested the meeting might regard conditions with the Defense Department, a widespread purge of military officers or possibly a major military campaign that might be in the works.

Hegseth’s directive to attend the meeting went to all senior officers holding the rank of brigadier general and higher and their counterparts in the U.S. Navy.

More than 800 generals and admirals could heed the call and arrive at the meeting, which has raised security concerns regarding having that many senior military officials gathered at the same place at the same time.

An unnamed congressional aide suggested the meeting might involve overhauling the U.S. military command structure or possibly a pending major military campaign.

When Hegseth was being vetted for his current position, he criticized the large number of four-star generals and admirals in the U.S. military and said the nation won World War II with far fewer.

Israel and the US are boycotting the UN-hosted event, but other countries are building on an earlier declaration.

France and Saudi Arabia are preparing to host a one-day summit at the United Nations, a day ahead of the start of the General Assembly, both of which will be heavily focused on Israel’s war on Gaza and the elusive two-state solution.

At the UN headquarters in New York, world leaders will convene Monday to revive the long-stalled notion amid warnings that a contiguous Palestinian state could “vanish altogether” as a result of Israel’s hegemonic moves in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

France is expected to announce its official recognition of a Palestinian state, and others like Belgium are considering doing the same. It will come one day after the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Portugal all recognised Palestinian statehood in historic moves despite vehement opposition from Israel and the United States.

Israel and its top allies are boycotting the summit, with Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, describing the major multilateral event as a “circus” and sticking to Israel’s common refrain that such moves “reward terrorism”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under heavy domestic political pressure amid the surge in recognitions for a state of Palestine. Israeli media reports his far-right government is considering partial or full annexation of the occupied West Bank in response, but that Netanyahu needs US support and cover, which he will seek while in New York for the UNGA.

The UN has expressed hope that the summit could “inject new momentum into efforts to establish a UN roadmap towards two states”.

Monday’s summit is expected to expand on the “New York Declaration” that was adopted by the General Assembly earlier this month after a July conference also co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia. Israel and the US boycotted those international gatherings as well.

The seven-page declaration that was endorsed outlined “tangible, timebound, and irreversible steps” towards a two-state solution, while also condemning Hamas and calling it to surrender, disarm, and release all captives held in Gaza. It further called for an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza as Israel continues to starve the famine-stricken Palestinian people.

French President Emmanuel Macron will be a leading figure in the summit on Monday, but Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to attend via video link despite being a co-host.

In response to the growing global consensus against its genocidal war in Gaza and its occupation of the West Bank, Israel has been advancing plans to annex parts of the West Bank with the explicit aim of ending the prospects of a future Palestinian state.

Israeli diplomats have also teased possible measures specifically against France and Macron, telling Israeli media that they might close down the French consulate in Jerusalem, possibly expel French diplomats or limit intelligence cooperation.

Netanyahu has also lashed out at Macron, claiming that he is fueling “the anti-Semitic fire” in France.

Qatar, which has been mediating between Israel and Hamas but was bombed by Israel earlier this month, on Monday welcomed the announcements by the UK, Canada, Australia and Portugal,

Israel has also only intensified its genocidal war in Gaza in response to the limited international mobilisation, particularly ramping up its ground invasion of Gaza City and deadly air and naval strikes across the besieged enclave.

The Israeli army killed at least 25 members of a Palestinian family in strikes on homes in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood on Sunday while pushing forward with its tanks and claiming all attacks were hitting “terrorist” targets.

Remember the vaunted Trump-Putin summit? It was just a month ago this week, but Americans could be excused for having forgotten. Nothing good has come of it. The cringy Alaska photo-op for the American and Russian presidents certainly didn’t yield President Trump’s long-promised deal to end Vladimir Putin’s criminal war on Ukraine.

In fact, as each day since has shown, worse than nothing has come from that failed bro-fest. Which begs renewed attention to it. Putin arrived to Trump’s literal red-carpet welcome and left with an apparent if unstated license — as then-candidate Trump said last year of the Russians — “to do whatever the hell they want.”

And they have.

On Tuesday last week, a Russian bomb hit a group of Ukrainian retirees collecting their pension checks, killing two dozen and injuring more — another day’s civilian toll in Putin’s ongoing offensive, the harshest in more than three years of war and one that’s struck U.S. and European installations. The next day, stunningly, about 20 Russian drones flew over next-door Poland, a NATO ally, forcing the alliance to scramble jets to shoot down threats over its territory for the first time in NATO history.

And mostly we’ve heard bupkis from Trump — except to keep blaming the war on his predecessor President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, never Putin. Even servile Senate Republicans have roused themselves to press for punishing sanctions against Russia, but Trump withholds his blessing.

You’d think the self-proclaimed “president of peace” would at least be riled that Putin’s impunity since Alaska is a stick in the eye to Trump’s wife as well. Melania Trump wrote Putin a letter — which Trump delivered at their summit — urging him to protect children. “It was very well received,” Trump boasted later.

Oh, yeah? Putin’s public response to the first lady has been missiles and drones that have killed and injured Ukrainian children in their beds and at their schools. Meanwhile, nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children remain kidnapped in Russia, a war crime.

What a tragic irony that the president who promised he’d end the Ukraine war on “day one,” and who incessantly contends Russia never would have invaded had he, Putin’s friend, been president in 2022, now presides over Russia’s escalation of the war and its unprecedented incursion into NATO territory. And Trump acts all but impotent.

For three years until his return to power, Russia did not test the United States’ pledge to “defend every inch” of NATO territory. Now it has. And at the news of the Poland intrusion, Trump, the supposed leader of the free world, showed himself to be little more than an internet troll.

“What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones? Here we go!” was his online outburst long hours after the news last Wednesday. The next day he suggested the drones’ flight into Poland “could have been a mistake,” provoking rebuttals from Polish leaders and NATO allies. And when NATO’s European members last Friday reinforced the alliance’s eastern flank defenses against Russia, they announced no U.S. contributions.

Much was made last spring of Trump’s nickname among some Wall Street types for his on-again, off-again tariffs: “TACO,” for Trump Always Chickens Out. But that moniker better describes Trump’s Russia stance: He repeatedly sets up a face-off against Putin, and invariably face-plants.

For weeks ahead of the August summit, Trump threatened “extreme consequences” if Russia didn’t agree to a cease-fire. Then, as quickly as U.S. soldiers rolled out the red carpet for Putin, Trump rolled up his cease-fire talk. After hours under Putin’s sway, he came away talking not about what Russia would do for peace but what territorial concessions Ukraine would make. And a month later, he’s still resisting Congress’ proposed sanctions against Russia, even as he’s levied big tariffs on India and China in part as punishment for buying Russian oil.

Nothing Trump claimed would happen as a consequence of his summitry has come to pass. Not a meeting between Putin and Zelensky, nor a trilateral follow-up with the Nobel-coveting Trump joining as mediating peacemaker. Putin has had high-level meetings since the Alaska summit, but they’ve been with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un — all drawn closer in solidarity against the United States’ hegemony.

Trump’s embarrassingly weak response to Russia’s aggression, together with his passivity in the face of Israel’s defiance in renewing its offensive in starving Gaza, recently prompted a New York Times analysis declaring “the bystander phase of the Trump presidency.” A Wall Street Journal headline said Trump is “sidelining himself” in foreign policy. On Wednesday, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman wrote that, just as Trump sought to rename the Department of Defense to be the Department of War, the White House should be called “Waffle House.” (Or Taco Bell?) The criticisms are international: Poland’s deputy prime minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, said in a video last week that Putin, by his hostilities, is “mocking” Trump’s peace talk.

There’s mockery indeed in Moscow, where politicians and state-run media continue to celebrate Putin as the summit winner. Russians weren’t quaking in their valenki when Trump told “Fox & Friends” hosts on Friday that his patience with Russia is “running out fast.” Alexei Zhuravlyov, a leader of the Russian State Duma, said Trump’s “normal state” is “either waiting to talk to Putin, talking to Putin or explaining how well he talked to Putin.” Pundit Mikhail Rostovsky dismissed Trump’s fussing and threats as “a new ‘Groundhog Day.’”

“The Kremlin believes that Russia is slowly but surely achieving its goals in Ukraine,” Rostovsky added. “Therefore Moscow does not intend to stop there.”

Putin has said as much himself. Only Trump doesn’t seem to hear him. Or doesn’t want to.

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