tensions

Bello Gambur dreads going to the stream before 2 p.m. 

Every morning, he leaves home with a herd of over 30 cattle, with his staff slung across his shoulders as they head into the bush. For about five hours, he watches them as they graze, rest, and wander, but none can drink. The only stream in the community lies just a short walk away, yet he must wait until 2 p.m. to take them there.

Going earlier, he says, could have deadly consequences.

All his life, the forty-year-old has lived as a herder in Mararaban Bare, a small community in the Numan Local Government Area of Adamawa State, North East Nigeria, where his ancestors migrated and settled a long time ago.  

Over the years, the herders lived in peace with their host community, but in 2017, violence broke out over water. The clash claimed many lives, and several properties were destroyed. In October, security operatives stepped in to quell a similar incident. 

So, Bello doesn’t mind his herd enduring hours of thirst if it helps keep the fragile peace.

He leads the cattle to the stream when most locals have finished using it and are back at their homes. Bello and the other herders go there between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to prevent coming in contact with the locals who visit the stream every morning to bathe, wash, and fetch water for domestic chores.  

The rationing also requires the locals to leave before 2 p.m. 

However, this arrangement has not ended the clashes between the groups, as locals believe it does little to address deeper grievances.

Tension keeps building 

“Irrigation farmers use the water from the canal to farm. And other community members drink the water, the cattle also drink from it, so this is a problem,” Alphonsus Bosso, a 55-year-old farmer and resident of Mararaban Bare, told HumAngle.

He said the tension is unlikely to end soon, especially with the dry season approaching. This competition for access to the stream intensifies during this period.

Alphonsus said a lasting solution would be to provide the herders with their own water source “because we no longer co-exist”. In some other Adamawa communities, humanitarian organisations have already supported the creation of alternative water sources, which have helped ease similar tensions, a model yet to reach Mararaban Bare.

“We used to have canals that served as water sources for our cattle, and we barely used the stream until the canals began to dry up,” said Muza Alhaji Shenya, a 37-year-old herder in the area. He linked the recent drying up of water bodies in the area to industrial expansion, particularly the construction of embankments to store water for sugarcane plantations. HumAngle saw some of these embankments during a visit.

However, environmental experts say the problem extends beyond industrial activity.

Hamza Muhammed Usman, the Executive Director of Environmental Care Foundation, a non-governmental organisation in Adamawa State that promotes a climate-friendly environment, food security, and peacebuilding, explained that prolonged dry spells, erratic rainfall, and deforestation, among other factors, are responsible for the shrinking water bodies in the state.

He said that overgrazing by livestock and human activities such as excessive farming on the same location and mining reduce vegetation cover, which disrupts the natural flow of water into its channels and bodies, especially in local government areas such as Numan, Fufore, some parts of Madagali, Maiha, Gombi, and the southern zone. 

Hamza also noted that migration and growing birth rates in the affected areas have increased the competition for water. “There are people from Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and other places trooping into Adamawa for greener pastures. This leads to overdependence on the limited resources,” he said. 

‘They pollute the water’

Locals insist that sharing the water with the cattle is unhealthy. 

“The cattle are polluting the water with mud and urine,” said Silas Simon, the community leader. “We dilute the water with alum when we want to consume.”

Even this treatment becomes difficult during the dry season, which starts in October. 

During the season, the herders in Mararaban Bare are left with two options: lead their cattle to the local stream or trek six kilometres into Bare, the nearest village with multiple water sources. The journey takes about six hours, making the local stream the closest option for many.

One herder, who treks to Bare to avoid being attacked by locals, said his cattle often drink water once a day, mostly in the afternoon, and sometimes, in the evening while returning to their settlement. There, water is provided for them in small containers, but much priority is given to the calves since the water is not enough. 

“The cows are getting thinner; their health has deteriorated over the years,” he said. “Every water source is drying up.”

“If we can have alternative water sources, then we won’t go to the stream for water where the people drink from,” Muza said. 

There is a borehole in Mararaban Bare, but it barely functions. 

Silas noted that if the borehole was functional, locals would use it as a water source and leave the stream for the herders, which would reduce the clashes.

“The borehole barely works. If it ever pumps water, it ceases at any time, so one has to wait for hours before the water runs again. Sometimes, people queue up from morning to evening and get unlucky because it ceases anytime,” he said. 

‘No agreement’

Several meetings have been held between the locals and herders to resolve the conflict, but no lasting agreement has been reached apart from a temporary water-use arrangement. Silas said tensions remain high, as youths from both groups often act as the main instigators during clashes.

“We do not wish to provoke anyone; we are only after the welfare of the cattle,” said Alhaji Ngala, the chairperson of herders in the community. He also noted that farms have taken over grazing routes, leaving them with “no freedom”. 

“If we can have access to grazing routes and enough water supply, then our minds will be at peace,” Ngala told HumAngle. 

Hamza, the climate-friendly environment advocate, urged the government to invest in solar-powered boreholes as a way of promoting clean energy and sustainable water supply across communities facing similar challenges. He also called for stronger conflict-resolution mechanisms across the state.

“Water scarcity is not just an environmental issue but a driver of insecurity, because in a place where there is tension, certain groups can take advantage of the situation to infiltrate such communities and cause problems,” Hamza said. 

Although the state government has collaborated with civil society organisations to adopt measures like afforestation, small-scale irrigation projects, and awareness campaigns, among other initiatives, to address the recurring clashes over water and limited resources. Hamza noted that many communities still lack the technical capacity and financial support to sustain these interventions.

“Some of the measures, like afforestation and proper waste management, are not owned properly by the locals,” Hamza said. 

He further called for integrated water resource management and inclusive governance to protect watersheds and prevent further land degradation. “Degraded lands can be restored through rotation. Herders should not graze on the same spot for more than five years, and farmers should do the same,” he said.

He also stressed the need for interdependence; farmers relying on cow dung as manure, and herders being granted access to reserved grazing areas.

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is set to meet his U.S. counterpart Pete Hegseth in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, two Indian officials confirmed. The meeting, taking place on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM), will mark the first direct interaction between the two leaders and comes at a delicate moment for bilateral relations strained by Washington’s punitive trade tariffs on Indian imports.

The discussions are expected to cover India’s ongoing plans to acquire six Boeing P-8I maritime patrol aircraft for its navy and a proposed new India-U.S. defence cooperation framework aimed at revitalising strategic ties. According to one official, the meeting could lay the groundwork for a bilateral visit either by Hegseth to New Delhi or Singh to Washington as both sides look to reset momentum in defence diplomacy.

Key Issues

Relations between India and the United States hit a low point earlier this year when U.S. President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on Indian imports to 50% to punish New Delhi for continuing to purchase Russian oil. The planned Singh-Hegseth meeting in Washington in August was consequently scrapped.

However, geopolitical shifts are now offering both sides an opening to rebuild ties. Following U.S. sanctions on Moscow’s top crude exporters, Indian refiners have reduced imports of Russian oil, aligning New Delhi’s actions more closely with Western interests. Washington, in turn, appears keen to re-engage with India to strengthen strategic cooperation in Asia particularly in countering China’s influence.

Why It Matters

The meeting is a key test of how far the India-U.S. strategic partnership can withstand trade disputes and geopolitical friction. Defence cooperation has been one of the strongest pillars of bilateral relations, spanning arms sales, joint exercises, and intelligence sharing under the Quad framework.

Reviving momentum now could reinforce India’s role as a security partner for the U.S. in the Indo-Pacific, especially as Washington seeks to deepen defence ties in the region amid rising tensions in the South China Sea and with China’s growing assertiveness.

India’s Defence Ministry: Seeking to secure technology transfers and diversify suppliers while preserving its strategic autonomy.

U.S. Department of Defense: Looking to reassure New Delhi of continued defence engagement despite trade frictions.

Boeing and U.S. defence contractors: Potential beneficiaries if new procurement deals move forward.

ASEAN nations: Watching the talks closely as regional defence alignments shift amid great-power competition.

What’s Next

Singh is expected to deliver formal remarks at the ASEAN meeting on November 1, where he may underscore India’s vision for regional security and freedom of navigation. If Friday’s talks go smoothly, analysts anticipate a high-level bilateral visit could follow within months a sign that the world’s two largest democracies are again moving toward strategic alignment after a period of economic friction.

For now, both sides remain cautious but pragmatic, aware that long-term interests especially in defence and Indo-Pacific security outweigh short-term trade disputes.

With information from Reuters.

MEXICO CITY — The United States slapped sanctions on Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Friday and said it was sending a massive aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, a new escalation of what the White House has described as a war against drug traffickers in the region. Also Friday, the U.S. military conducted its 10th strike on a suspected drug-running boat, killing six people in the Caribbean Sea.

The Treasury Department said it was sanctioning Petro, his wife, his son and a political associate for failing to stop the flow of cocaine to the United States, noting that cocaine production in Colombia has risen in recent years. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused Petro of “poisoning Americans.”

Petro denied those claims in a statement on X, saying he has fought to combat drug trafficking for decades. He said it was “quite a paradox” to be sanctioned by a country with high rates of cocaine consumption.

The sanctions put Petro in the same category as the leaders of Russia and North Korea and limit his ability to travel to the United States. They mark a new low for relations between Colombia and the United States, which until recently were strong allies, sharing military intelligence, a robust trade relationship and a multibillion-dollar fight against drug trafficking.

Elizabeth Dickinson, a senior analyst for the Andes region at the International Crisis Group, a think tank, said that while Petro and the U.S. government have had disagreements over how to tackle trafficking — with the Americans more interested in eradicating coca fields and Colombians focused on cocaine seizures — the two countries have been working for decades toward the same goal.

“To suggest that Colombia is not trying is false and disingenuous,” Dickinson said. “If the U.S. has a partner in counternarcotics in Latin America, it’s Colombia. Colombian forces have been working hand in hand with the Americans for literally four decades. They are the best, most capable and frankly most willing partner the U.S. has in the region.

“If the U.S. were to cut this relationship, it would really be the U.S. shooting themselves in the foot.”

Many viewed the sanctions as punishment for Petro’s criticism of Trump. In recent days, Petro has accused the U.S. of murder, saying American strikes on alleged drug boats lack legal justification and have killed civilians. He has also accused the U.S. of building up its military in South America in an attempt to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The quickened pace of U.S. airstrikes in the region and the unusually large buildup of military force in the Caribbean Sea have fueled those speculations.

On Friday, a Pentagon official said the U.S. ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to U.S. Southern Command to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States.”

The USS Ford is currently deployed to the Mediterranean Sea along with three destroyers. It would probably take several days for the ships to make the journey to South America.

The White House has increasingly drawn a direct comparison between the war on terrorism that the U.S. declared after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug traffickers.

Trump this month declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and said the U.S. was in an “armed conflict” with them, relying on the same legal authority used by the Bush administration after 9/11.

When reporters asked Trump on Thursday whether he would request that Congress issue a declaration of war against the cartels, he said that wasn’t the plan.

“I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We’re going to kill them, you know? They’re going to be like, dead,” Trump said during a roundtable at the White House with Homeland Security officials.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

China and the United States are set to resume high-level trade talks in Malaysia from Friday as both sides work to contain a sudden surge in tensions ahead of a crucial leaders’ summit in South Korea. Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer during his visit to attend an ASEAN summit from October 24 to 27.

The renewed strain in ties comes after Beijing expanded curbs on rare earth exports critical materials used in electronics and defense in retaliation for Washington’s decision to blacklist more Chinese companies from purchasing U.S. technology. The move has reignited fears of another trade war just as the two powers had shown tentative signs of improvement in recent months.

Why It Matters

These talks carry significant global implications. The world’s two largest economies are deeply interlinked, and renewed hostilities threaten to disrupt global supply chains, technological cooperation, and regional stability. Both Washington and Beijing are under pressure to prevent economic confrontation from spilling into diplomatic isolation ahead of the scheduled Trump-Xi summit.

The flare-up also underscores the fragility of U.S.-China relations. Despite earlier progress including a successful TikTok-related deal at a Madrid summit and a constructive Trump-Xi call in September the latest export and sanctions measures have quickly derailed the momentum toward reconciliation.

The main negotiators, He Lifeng, Scott Bessent, and Jamieson Greer, are expected to focus on two issues: China’s rare earth export restrictions and U.S. curbs on technology access. These topics strike at the heart of both countries’ strategic priorities industrial self-sufficiency for China and tech security for the U.S.

Southeast Asian nations, particularly Malaysia as the host, are watching closely. They stand to benefit economically if tensions ease but risk becoming collateral in any escalation, as both superpowers compete for influence in the region. Meanwhile, global markets are bracing for volatility, with tech and manufacturing sectors especially vulnerable to disruptions.

What’s Next

The Malaysia talks are being seen as a last attempt to restore calm before the Trump-Xi summit next week in South Korea. Both sides are expected to seek at least a symbolic agreement to keep communication channels open, though a comprehensive deal is unlikely given the current mistrust.

If the talks fail, trade and diplomatic friction could deepen, potentially leading to expanded sanctions or retaliatory measures that reverberate across Asia. For now, the focus is on whether Washington and Beijing can manage their rivalry without derailing global economic stability.

With information from Reuters.

Islamabad, Pakistan – Allah Meer’s parents were among the millions of Afghans who fled their country after the then-Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

His family settled in a refugee village in Kohat in northwestern Pakistan. That’s where Meer, now 45, was born. Meer says that more than 200 members of his extended family made the journey from Afghanistan to Pakistan, which has been their home ever since.

Over the past two years, as Pakistan has moved to send back hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees, the family has feared for its future, but managed to evade Islamabad’s dragnet.

Last week, the threat of expulsion hit home: Pakistan announced it would close all 54 Afghan refugee villages across the country as part of the campaign it began in 2023 to push out what it calls “illegal foreigners”. These include the villages in Kohat, where Meer and his family live.

“In my life, I visited Afghanistan only once, for two weeks in 2013. Apart from that, none of my family have ever gone back,” Meer told Al Jazeera. “How can I uproot everything when we were born here, lived here, married here, and buried our loved ones here?”

Amid heightened tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban, which returned to governing Afghanistan in 2021, families like Meer’s are caught in a vortex of uncertainty.

Fighting erupted between Afghan and Pakistani forces along the border earlier in October, pushing already strained relations into open hostility. On Sunday, officials from both sides met in Qatar’s capital, Doha, and signed a ceasefire agreement, with the next round of talks scheduled in Istanbul on October 25.

Yet, tensions remain high. And families like Meer’s fear that they could become diplomatic pawns in a border war between the neighbours.

From welcome to expulsion

Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As civil war gripped Afghanistan and the Taliban first rose to power in 1996, successive waves of Afghans fled across the border.

After the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 following the September 11 attacks on the US, the Taliban’s fall prompted thousands of Afghans to return home. But their return was short-lived.

The Taliban’s stunning comeback in August 2021 triggered yet another exodus, when another 600,000 to 800,000 Afghans sought refuge in Pakistan.

However, as relations between Kabul and Islamabad soured during the past four years, Pakistan – which was once the Taliban’s principal patron  – accused Afghanistan of harbouring armed groups responsible for the cross-border attacks. The government’s stance hardened towards Afghan refugees, even those who have lived in the country for decades – like Meer.

A father of 10, Meer earned a degree in education from a university in Peshawar, and now runs a vocational training project for Afghan refugee children backed by the United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR.

Since 2006, the UNHCR has issued what are known as Proof of Registration (PoR) cards to document Afghan citizens living in Pakistan. These cards have allowed them to stay in Pakistan legally, giving them some freedom of movement, although this is restricted, as well as access to some public services, including bank accounts.

But from June 30 this year, the Pakistani government has stopped renewing PoR cards and has invalidated existing ones.

“We all possess the UNHCR-issued Proof of Residence cards, but now, with this current drive, I don’t know what will happen,” Meer said.

In 2017, Pakistan also started issuing Afghan Citizenship Cards (ACC) to undocumented Afghan nationals living in the country, giving them identification credentials to provide them with a temporary legal status.

But the ACC is not a protection against deportation any more.

According to the UNHCR, more than 1.5 million Afghans left Pakistan – voluntarily or forcibly – between the start of the campaign in 2023 and mid-October, 2025.

‘Illegal in our home’

About 1.2 million PoR cardholders, 737,000 ACC holders and 115,000 asylum seekers  remain in Pakistan, Qaiser Khan Afridi, the UNHCR’s spokesperson in Pakistan, told Al Jazeera.

Pakistan’s tensions with the Taliban have added new precarity to their status.

“For over 45 years, Pakistan has shown extraordinary generosity by hosting millions of Afghan refugees,” Afridi said. “But we are deeply concerned by the government’s decision to de-notify refugee villages all over Pakistan and to push for returns [to Afghanistan].”

“Many of those affected have lived here for years, and now fear for their future. We urge that any return should be voluntary, gradual, and carried out with dignity and safety.”

Meer, who has volunteered for the UNHCR over the years, said that seven refugee villages in Kohat alone house more than 100,000 people. He accused both Pakistan and Afghanistan of using the refugee issue as political leverage.

“With the latest situation, our family elders have sat together to discuss options. We thought about sending some of our young men to Afghanistan to look for houses and means to do business, but the problem is, we have no connections there at all,” he said.

With his PoR card now invalidated by the Pakistani government, he has no recognised identity card, making it hard for him to access even medical facilities when his children need treatment for any illness.

“We are, for all practical purposes, considered illegal in a country that I and my children call home,” he said.

Caught between borders

Pakistan’s plan to expel Afghan residents began in late 2023, amid a rise in rebe attacks. Since then, violence has surged, with 2025 shaping up to be the most violent year in a decade.

Pakistani authorities argue Afghan refugees pose a security risk, accusing the Taliban government of sheltering armed groups, a charge Kabul denies.

Two years ago, Pakistan’s then interior minister, Sarfraz Bugti, alleged that 14 out of 24 suicide bombings in the country in 2023 were carried out by Afghan nationals. He did not provide any evidence to back his claim, and he did not clarify if the individuals were refugees living in Pakistan, or Afghan nationals who had crossed the porous border between the two countries.

But Meer fears that Afghan refugees in Pakistan will be distrusted back in Afghanistan, too, given the climate of animosity between the neighbours.

“We will be seen as Pakistanis, as enemies there, too,” he said.

Afridi, the UNHCR spokesperson, urged Pakistan to reconsider its repatriation drive.

“UNHCR calls on the government to apply measures to exempt Afghans with international protection needs from involuntary return,” he said.

“Pakistan has a proud history of hospitality, and it’s important to continue that tradition at this critical time,” he said.

Suicide car bomber strikes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amid unconfirmed reports that Qatar has offered to host peace talks.

Tensions are mounting between Pakistan and Afghanistan amid reports of a brutal border attack on the former’s troops as a fragile truce between the neighbours, and once allies, nears its expiry.

A 48-hour ceasefire between the two sides, which came into effect this week after days of bloody cross-border attacks, is set to expire at 13:00 GMT on Friday.

As the end of the truce approached, Pakistani police official Irfan Ali said a suicide car bomber backed by Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, attacked a military compound in Mir Ali, a city in North Waziristan district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Accounts of losses suffered during the attack varied.

The official, quoted by news agency The Associated Press, said three fighters were killed in an intense shootout and did not report any troop casualties.

News agency Reuters quoted Pakistani security officials as saying seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack by a fighter who rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the wall of a Pakistani military camp in North Waziristan.

The anonymous officials said two other fighters were shot dead as they tried to get into the facility. At least 13 were left injured.

Pakistan’s Geo News reported that four assailants from TTP were killed in a suicide attack on a military camp in North Waziristan, with security sources saying security forces had suffered no losses.

Pakistan’s army did not immediately comment.

Deadly clashes

The truce, imposed on Wednesday, brought a temporary halt to the deadliest clashes between the neighbours since 2021, when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of United States and NATO forces.

The conflict, which threatens to destabilise a region where groups like ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda are trying to resurface, was triggered after Islamabad demanded that Kabul rein in fighters who had stepped up attacks in Pakistan, saying they operated from havens in Afghanistan.

The Taliban denies the charge and accuses the Pakistani military of spreading misinformation about Afghanistan, provoking border tensions, and sheltering fighters to undermine its stability and sovereignty.

Media reported that Qatar has offered to host peace talks between the two countries in Doha, though neither government has confirmed the offer.

Reporting from Peshawar, Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder said there had been “some talk of a meeting in Doha … Friendly countries are trying to make efforts in order to ensure that the ceasefire is extended,” he said.

He described the situation on the border as “tense”, adding that Pakistan had stated that unless the Afghan side addressed its concerns, the situation would be “precarious and can escalate at any moment”.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Thursday that Pakistan had carried out two drone attacks on Kabul the previous day, just before the ceasefire came into effect. Doctors told AP that five people were killed and dozens were injured.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said on Thursday that 37 civilians were killed and 425 were wounded in Afghanistan as a result of cross-border clashes with Pakistan this week.

Pakistan has not provided figures for civilian casualties suffered on its side of the border.

On Thursday, Dawn cited Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the military, as saying 34 “India-backed terrorists” from “Fitna-al-Khawarij” – the government’s term for TTP – had been killed during multiple operations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the week.

TWO BIG Brother stars seemingly broke the rules in an unaired live stream moment.

A television news and fan account on X has revealed that two of the housemates broke Big Brother‘s rules by using code names to talk about who they wanted booted out next.

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One of the biggest rules in the Big Brother house is talking about nominations.

In a livestream which aired this weekend, Sam and Nancy were the two housemates to break the rules.

Using code names, the pair said that one of their fellow co-stars was “fake” while using a code name to describe her.

The TV news and fan account said on X: “So I’m just catching up on what’s gone down on the first hour of live streaming…

“Sam and Nancy broke the rules using code names, and they said they want Jenny evicted next, and that she’s fake – all of which Big Brother read back to the house.

“Jenny has then been left ‘so angry’ that she cried, and that she knew she’d get nominated if the house is split in two or something.

“Also Tate was involved in a convo with Nancy slagging off Jenny and Nancy got caught lying about it literally on the live stream????

“And to top it off, Elsa is jealous that Jenny confided in Marcus about it all.”

Fans reacted to the revelation, with one saying: “First and only time I want Jenny to face eviction. She would be iconic in the secret room.”

Another added: “Jenny is a threat, that’s my only explanation for the Jenny slander.”

While a third said: “I don’t understand why contestants break the rules. The rules were explained to them. If they’ve seen past seasons they know housemates get in trouble for rule breaking.”

And a fourth penned: “Ew nancy is so bitter, why is she being like this ??”

This comes after three housemates – Richard, Elsa and Cameron B – faced possible elimination in Friday’s episode.

Cameron B ultimately became the third housemate to be evicted this series.

The 25-year-old from Bolton entered the House on Day Two, alongside three other newcomers.

Axed star George Gilbert, 23, had also been on the chopping block before his shock exit.

The Sun revealed how the parish councillor was removed after ‘unacceptable language and behaviour’.

Sources told The Sun that George left his co-stars horrified after making offensive comments which could be interpreted as antisemitic and was immediately called to the Diary Room and ejected from the house. 

“Everyone was absolutely disgusted,” an insider said.

“Nobody could believe what he said – he was clearly out to shock people.”

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The US president’s announcement comes after China pledged to impose restrictions on the export of rare earth minerals.

United States President Donald Trump has suggested he may scrap a planned meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping this month over questions of technology and trade.

Trump and Xi had been expected to meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit at the end of this month, in an attempt to lower economic tensions.

But in a social media post on Friday, Trump criticised China over the new controls it announced on the export of rare earth metals. The US president also threatened China with the possibility of steep tariffs.

“I have not spoken to President Xi because there was no reason to do so. This was a real surprise, not only to me, but to all the Leaders of the Free World,” Trump said. “I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC, in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so.”

The relationship between Trump and his Chinese counterpart has been rocky, and both have imposed new measures aimed at countering each other in areas where they are competing for influence, such as technological development.

Rare earth metals are vital for such development, and China leads the world in refining the metals for use in devices like computers, smart phones and military weaponry.

On Thursday, China unveiled a suite of new restrictions on the exports of those products. Out of the 17 elements considered rare earth metals, China will now require export licences for 12 of them.

Technologies involved in the processing of the metals will also face new licensing requirements. Among the measures is also a special approval process for foreign companies shipping metallic elements abroad.

China described the new rules as necessary to protect its national security interests. But in his lengthy post to Truth Social, Trump slammed the country for seeking to corner the rare-earths industry.

“They are becoming very hostile, and sending letters to Countries throughout the World, that they want to impose Export Controls on each and every element of production having to do with Rare Earths, and virtually anything else they can think of, even if it’s not manufactured in China,” Trump wrote.

The Republican president warned he would counter with protectionist moves and seek to restrict China from accessing industries the US holds sway over.

“There is no way that China should be allowed to hold the World ‘captive,’ but that seems to have been their plan for quite some time, starting with the “Magnets” and, other Elements that they have quietly amassed into somewhat of a Monopoly position,” Trump said.

“But the U.S. has Monopoly positions also, much stronger and more far reaching than China’s. I have just not chosen to use them, there was never a reason for me to do so — UNTIL NOW!”

The Trump administration had previously imposed massive tariffs on China, one of the US’s largest trading partners.

But those tariffs were eventually eased after the two countries came to an agreement for a 90-day pause that is set to expire around November 9.

The US has previously taken aggressive steps aimed at hobbling China’s tech sector, which it views as a key competitor to its own.

“Our relationship with China over the past six months has been a very good one, thereby making this move on Trade an even more surprising one,” Trump said. “I have always felt that they’ve been lying in wait, and now, as usual, I have been proven right!”

A forum of regional countries, including India, voiced opposition to any foreign military infrastructure in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s regional neighbours, including India, have voiced a rare unified front by opposing foreign attempts to deploy “military infrastructure” in the country, as United States President Donald Trump presses to regain control of the Bagram airbase.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, members of the Moscow Format of Consultations on Afghanistan – which include US allies India and Pakistan – “reaffirmed their unwavering support for the establishment of Afghanistan as an independent, united and peaceful state”. The forum also includes Russia, China, Iran and Central Asian nations, all of whom strongly oppose any US return presence in Afghanistan.

The members “called unacceptable the attempts by countries to deploy their military infrastructure in Afghanistan and neighbouring states, since this does not serve the interests of regional peace and stability”.

Though the statement echoes last year’s forum language, it suggests broad regional opposition to Trump’s push to return to Bagram, which he handed over to Afghanistan’s Taliban five years ago as part of a deal paving the way for the US withdrawal from Kabul.

In backing the statement, India – a longtime US ally – navigates fraying ties with Washington and apparent rapprochement with the Taliban, which it long opposed but has in recent years cultivated ties with.

In the latest diplomatic outreach, India is set to welcome the Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi for a historic first visit to New Delhi this week, lasting from October 9-16.

After attending the Moscow forum, Muttaqi emphasised that Afghanistan will not accept any foreign military presence. “Afghanistan is a free and independent country, and throughout history, it has never accepted the military presence of foreigners,” he said. “Our decision and policy will remain the same to keep Afghanistan free and independent.”

Last month, Trump threatened “bad things” would happen to Afghanistan if it did not give back Bagram, and cited what he called its strategic location near China. The Taliban has rejected Trump’s calls to return the base.

Bagram is about 800km (about 500 miles) from the Chinese border, and about 2,400km (about 1,500 miles) from the nearest Chinese missile factory in Xinjiang.

Trump has referred to China as a key reason for wanting to retake control of Bagram, saying last month in London that the base is “an hour away from where [China] makes its nuclear weapons”.

Current and former US officials have cast doubt on Trump’s goal, saying that reoccupying Bagram might end up looking like a reinvasion, requiring more than 10,000 troops as well as the deployment of advanced air defences.

“The sheer logistics of negotiating redeployment and handing back would be extremely challenging and lengthy, and it’s not clear that this would serve either side’s strategic interests,” said Ashley Jackson, co-director at the Geneva-headquartered Centre on Armed Groups.

Bagram, a sprawling complex, was the main base for US forces in Afghanistan during the two decades of war that followed the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington by al-Qaeda.

Thousands of people were imprisoned at the site for years without charge or trial by US forces during its so-called “war on terror”, and many of them were abused or tortured.

The Taliban retook the facility in 2021 following the US withdrawal, which Trump first set in motion in his first term as president, and the collapse of the Afghan government with Joe Biden in the White House.

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is on his second visit to the White House in five months as he deals with increasing pressure to address US tariffs on steel, autos and other goods that are hurting Canada’s economy.

Carney and United States President Donald Trump met at the White House on Tuesday.

“From the beginning, I liked him, and we’ve had a good relationship,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, sitting next to Carney.

“We have natural conflict. We also have mutual love … you know we have great love for each other,” he added, saying the two men would discuss tariffs including potentially lowering tariffs on key Canadian sectors as part of efforts to ease trade tensions between Washington and Ottawa.

More than 77 percent of Canada’s exports go to the US.

A Canadian government official and several analysts played down the chances of an imminent trade deal with Trump and said the mere fact that discussions are continuing should be considered a success for Carney.

Among the topics up for discussion are trade and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which is critical to Canada’s economy and is up for a review next year.

Trump said he was willing to revisit the free trade agreement, which was enacted during his first term, or seek “different deals.”

“We could renegotiate it, and that would be good, or we can just do different deals,” he said. “We’re allowed to do different deals.”

Trump exhibited a fondness for Carney, something he didn’t display toward Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau. He described Carney as a “world-class leader” and said he’s a tough negotiator.

The prime minister last visited the Oval Office in May, when he bluntly told Trump that Canada would never be for sale in response to Trump’s repeated threat to purchase or annex Canada.

Since then, the prime minister has made numerous concessions to Canada’s biggest trading partner, including dropping some counter tariffs and scrapping a digital services tax aimed at US tech companies.

Carney’s office has said the working visit will focus on forging a new economic and security relationship with the US.

“In areas where we compete, we have to come to an agreement that works, ” Carney said.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Monday: “I’m sure trade will be a topic of discussion … and all of the other issues that are facing both Canada and the United States.”

While the majority of Canada’s exports are entering the US tariff-free under the USMCA, tariffs have pummeled Canada’s steel, aluminium and auto sectors and a number of small businesses.

“The reality is that right now, Canadian products have among the lowest tariff rate,” said Jonathan Kalles, a former adviser to Carney’s predecessor, Trudeau. “You don’t want to poke the bear when things could be much worse,” he said, adding that any meeting with Trump is a calculated risk.

“Carney will probably get a better deal through private negotiations, not the pomp and ceremony of going to the White House,” he said.

Growing pressure

Carney won an election in April promising to be tough with Trump and secure a new economic relationship with the US.

Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, said polls show Canadians have largely been willing to give Carney time to deal with Trump.

“But that amount of time is finite,” Kurl said, noting pressure may build with job losses mounting and economic growth hobbled by US tariffs.

Canada’s opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, has criticised Carney’s approach to Trump, noting the prime minister’s earlier pledge to “negotiate a win” by July 21. He said on Monday that it did not look like Carney would accomplish much in the trip.

Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-US trade, said in response that Canada has work to do on sectoral tariffs.

“Was the leader of the opposition suggesting that if the president of the United States invites us to go to Washington for a meeting and a working lunch, we should have just said ‘no’ and hung the phone up?” LeBlanc said in Parliament.

Asa McKercher, a specialist in Canada-US relations at St Francis Xavier University, said Carney’s meeting with Trump would be a success if there is any recognition that Canada has moved to address some of Trump’s persistent grievances.

“Carney has just set up this new defence agency and boosted military spending, so it would be great if Trump could reduce some of those sectoral tariffs on autos,” McKercher said, citing Trump’s past complaint that Canada is a “military free rider”.

NEW YORK — When a black teen-ager was killed in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn last summer after a run-in with a gang of whites, mayoral candidate David N. Dinkins made it clear what New York should expect from its top leader: “The tone and climate of the city does get set at City Hall.”

The perception that Dinkins could soothe racial tensions was probably the single biggest force behind his election as New York’s first black mayor. The last few weeks have brought a series of racial problems that have put the mayor under intense pressure to deliver on the expectations that he built.

“Though we cannot eliminate racial and ethnic friction overnight, we must take the first steps. Our beginning will, of course, be marked by small–sometimes indirect–steps. But even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” Dinkins said Monday.

But the mayor who exults in his city as a multi-ethnic “gorgeous mosaic” is feeling the cut of its sharp edges.

Each day seems to bring worse turmoil. Dinkins appears besieged, encircled by his detractors and undercut by the expectations that he himself raised. Some black leaders have gone so far as to publicly call him a traitor.

Dinkins faces two potentially explosive controversies in Brooklyn: As two juries have deliberated almost a week in the Bensonhurst slaying of Yusuf Hawkins, angry demonstrators have rallied each day outside the Brooklyn courthouse, and some of their leaders warn that violence is inevitable if the panels return anything less than a guilty verdict.

Meanwhile, blacks in Flatbush continue a four-month boycott of two Korean grocers that started with a dispute between one of the grocers and a black woman customer. While it is far from clear who was at fault in the original incident–the woman claims to have been beaten and the grocer contends that he merely pushed her to prevent her from shoplifting–it unmistakably tapped long-festering bitterness. Demonstrators have chanted such epithets as “Korean bloodsuckers” outside the stores, and have spat at customers who try to shop there.

A few blocks from the store, a group of more than a dozen blacks on Sunday beat three Vietnamese whom they apparently mistook for Korean.

Elsewhere in the city, smaller disputes add to the tension. A black City University professor is preaching black supremacy, while a white faculty member at the same school is saying that blacks are less intelligent and more prone to commit crime than whites. A group of white students at St. John’s University in Queens stands accused of raping a black woman. And Jimmy Breslin, one of the city’s most prominent columnists, has been suspended by New York Newsday after making racial comments about another staff member.

Dinkins’ low-key and cautious approach, which had initially seemed a soothing balm to the abrasion of former Mayor Edward I. Koch, now is being criticized as weakness and indecisiveness.

Roy Innis, national chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, said in an interview Monday: “We’ve got to have a commitment to telling the hard truth. David Dinkins is not strong enough to do it.”

Innis accused Dinkins of “reverse racism” for failing to denounce the grocery store boycott that is “reeking with raw and naked, palpable racism.” He attributed Dinkins’ reluctance to the mayor’s association with Sonny Carson, the self-proclaimed “anti-white” leader of the boycott, who worked for the Dinkins campaign before being dismissed for anti-Semitic remarks.

Other blacks, however, have accused Dinkins of pandering to whites, particularly after the mayor made a rare foray onto prime-time live television last Friday to appeal for tolerance. “We must repress our rage,” the mayor said.

“He is a lover of white people and the system. And last night, he bashed black people,” said C. Vernon Mason, a lawyer who has been involved in a number of racial cases. “He ain’t got no African left in him. He’s got too many yarmulkes on his head.”

Mason made his comments at a rally Saturday, where he called the mayor “a traitor,” and some people in a crowd of hundreds chanted, “Judas, Judas.”

Many of Dinkins’ critics seem to suggest that as a black, he should automatically hold sway over New York’s black community–a view that does not recognize the diversity of opinion and outlook among blacks in the city.

One source in Dinkins’ Administration noted that the mayor has alienated some factions, who say they are disappointed in the number of blacks he has appointed to key posts at City Hall. Others have not forgiven Dinkins’ denunciation of the Rev. Louis Farrakhan, the black Muslim leader who once described Judaism as a “gutter” religion.

Dinkins’ Friday night address won high marks from many quarters, however. Former Mayor John V. Lindsay described it as “superb.”

Nonetheless, any hopes that it might have turned the tide were dashed less than 36 hours later, when the three Vietnamese were beaten by the group of blacks who thought they were Korean. Police on Monday arrested two people in connection with the assault, which Police Commissioner Lee Brown said was not related to the boycott.

Dinkins and several state legislators Monday held a news conference to announce state legislation aimed at crimes committed by groups, and to make a new push for a bill to stiffen penalties for crimes that are motivated by bias.

Varanasi, India – Mohammed Ahmad Ansari has spent his entire life in the narrow and congested lanes of Varanasi, a city often described as the spiritual capital of India, and the constituency of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The 55-year-old has spent decades weaving Banarasi saris and thoroughly enjoys the clacking noises of handlooms at work against the backdrop of temple bells and evening calls of azan in the holy city that is widely believed to be the oldest settlement in India, dating back as early as 1800 BCE and known for the blend of Hindu-Muslim culture.

But of late, sales have taken a hit for a range of reasons, the latest being ongoing tensions between India and its neighbour, Bangladesh.

Diplomatic relations between the once-close allies have been sharply tested since August last year, when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to New Delhi from Dhaka after an uprising against her rule.

Bangladesh blames India for some of its troubles, including Modi’s support for Hasina when she was in power.

There have been a few attacks on religious minorities, including Hindus, since her overthrow, as those communities were viewed as Hasina supporters, and Indian businesses, too, have been boycotted or attacked in Bangladesh as the country demands that New Delhi hand over Hasina to face charges in her home country.

In April, Bangladesh restricted the imports of certain items from India, including yarn and rice. On May 17, India retaliated by banning the imports of readymade garments and processed food items from Bangladesh across land borders. While Bangladesh can still send its saris to India, it will have to use the more expensive and time-consuming sea route.

Banarasi saris are globally known for their exquisite craftsmanship, luxurious silk, meticulous zari work of fine gold and silver wire embroidery, and it can often take up to six months to weave a single sari. These can sell for as much as 100,000 rupees ($1,130) each, or more, depending upon the design and the material used.

“These saris are in high demand in Bangladesh during festivals and weddings, but the ban has led to a more than 50 percent drop in business,” Ansari told Al Jazeera.

This is the latest blow to the industry that has already been hit with earlier government policies – including the so-called demonetisation when India overnight invalidated high-value notes and a hike in power tariffs – as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and cheaper competition from saris made on advanced power looms in other parts of the country, particularly Surat in Gujarat in western India.

This onslaught of the past few years has added up, forcing weavers out of the business and halving their numbers to about 200,000 now, as the rest either left the city in search of other jobs or took up new jobs, like driving rickshaws to earn a living.

Pawan Yadav, 61, a wholesale sari trader in Varanasi, told Al Jazeera that the business has come to a standstill since the change of regime in Dhaka.

“We used to supply around 10,000 saris annually to Bangladesh, but everything has come to a halt,” Yadav said, adding that he is still owed 1.5 million rupees ($17,140) by clients in the neighbouring country, “but the recovery seems impossible due to the political turmoil.”

India has 108 documented ways of draping sarees that hold a special position globally for their intricate designs, vibrant colours symbolising timeless elegance and beauty.

Despite the current turmoil, the textile sector employs the second-highest number of people after agriculture in India, with more than 3.5 million people working in it, per government data. Within that, the sari industry is valued at approximately 80,000 crore rupees ($9.01bn), including some $300m in exports.

Varanasi’s weavers and traders, who voted Modi into parliament for the third consecutive time, are waiting for the prime minister to find an amicable solution to the trade issue with Bangladesh.

In 2015, the Modi government designated August 7 as the National Handloom Day and promised to bring a change in the lives of handloom weavers by promoting domestic products. But nothing meaningful has come of that so far, traders and weavers who spoke to Al Jazeera said.

“India has a unique handloom craft which no country can compete with,” but without sufficient businesses or reliable income, many artisans have been forced to abandon the trade, and now “it is difficult to even find a young weaver”, Ramesh Menon, founder of Save the Loom, a social enterprise working for the revival of handloom, said. “The need of the hour is to re-position handloom as a product of luxury, and not poverty.”

West Bengal traders welcome ban

The situation, however, is completely different in West Bengal, around 610km (380 miles) from Varanasi and along the border with Bangladesh.

The ban on the sari trade between the two countries has offered a new lease of life to the traders of cotton saris in Bengal, who had been losing market share to Dhaka’s saris.

Tarak Nath Das, a cotton sari trader for the past four decades in Shantipur in West Bengal, supplies saris woven by local artisans to various showrooms across the country.

After years of losses, the 65-year-old finally saw business boom in the last few weeks in the lead-up to the main festival of Durga Puja, and was all smiles.

“The saris from Bangladesh had devoured at least 30 percent of our market, and the local industry was bleeding. We have slowly started to recapture our old markets as orders have started pouring in. The sale of the saris during the just concluded festival was better by at least 25 percent as compared to last year,” Das told Al Jazeera.

Shantipur is home to more than 100,000 weavers and traders and is regarded as the hub of the sari business in eastern India. The town and surrounding areas in Nadia district are famous for their handloom weaving industry, which produces a fine variety of saris, including the highly popular Shantipur cotton sari.

Nearby areas of Hooghly and Murshidabad district are also famous for their cotton saris, and these are sold both locally and across the country as well as exported to Greece, Turkiye and other countries.

Sanjay Karmakar, 40, a wholesale trader of cotton saris in Nadia district, is also happy with the ban.

“The local women prefer to buy Bangladeshi saris as they come in attractive packaging and the fabric used there is slightly superior to ours,” he said.

That, coupled with younger women choosing leggings, tunics and other modern clothes over traditional saris, had been pinching sales.

Santanu Guha Thakurta, 62, a fashion creator, told Al Jazeera that Indian weavers and traders would benefit immensely from the import restrictions on Bangladesh. That also shut down cheap knockoffs of the more expensive designs.

“The restrictions came at the right time, just before the onset of the festival season and that immensely benefited the industry.”

India’s cricket team hoisted an imaginary trophy after winning the 2025 Asia Cup against Pakistan, refusing to accept the real one from Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi. The match came four months after a brief aerial war between the two nuclear-armed rivals over a deadly attack on a tourist area in Indian-administered Kashmir.

China railed for years against the United States’s bid to force the sale of TikTok, once accusing Washington of demonstrating “robbers’ logic” in response to the platform’s success.

Now, Beijing is touting talks on how the video-sharing platform’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, might relinquish ownership of its US operations.

The turnaround has raised questions about what China might expect in return, with analysts suggesting that Beijing has come to view TikTok as a useful bargaining chip to win concessions on more pressing issues.

China has yet to confirm a deal on TikTok, which Washington has cast as a propaganda tool of Beijing and a threat to privacy, and there are numerous outstanding questions about what a sale would entail.

Most crucial of all is the question of who would own and control TikTok’s recommendations algorithm, which has been credited with powering the platform’s explosive popularity in the US, where it claims more than 170 million users.

Under Chinese export controls introduced in 2020, companies are prohibited from transferring sensitive technologies like TikTok’s algorithm without government approval.

As recently as last month, the state-run China Daily warned in an editorial that the export restrictions presented a “red line for the TikTok transaction”.

If China is willing to hand over control of the algorithm, it will expect major concessions on such issues as trade, curbs on Chinese tech, and Taiwan, said Dexter Roberts, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub.

“If anything changed on the Chinese side that makes them now more willing to do a deal on TikTok, I think it’s because they sense that they can get a lot more out of the Trump administration than they originally thought, and they may be contemplating using TikTok as a bargaining lever,” Roberts told Al Jazeera.

On the US side, President Donald Trump seems eager to reach an agreement on TikTok quickly as part of an effort to lock down his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping since returning to the White House, Roberts said.

“And in order to get that sit-down and that ‘deal,’ it seems as if he’s willing to give a lot in return,” he said.

While both China and the US have hailed the prospects of a resolution to the standoff over TikTok, the sides have offered substantially different accounts of where things stand.

In a briefing on Monday, an unnamed senior White House official was quoted as telling media outlets that the Trump administration was confident that China was on board with a deal that would see TikTok’s algorithm licensed out to a new joint venture in the US.

Under the terms of the deal, Texas-based Oracle, whose billionaire cofounder Larry Ellison is a staunch backer of Israel, would oversee and retrain the licensed algorithm using US data, according to reports of the official’s comment.

Since the start of the 2023 war in Gaza, in which Israel’s attacks have killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, Ellison has committed cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure support to Israel.

Oracle’s growing role in TikTok’s future comes after several Republican lawmakers have, since 2023, accused the platform of promoting pro-Palestinian content.

The latest White House briefing came after Trump, who has repeatedly extended the deadline for forcing a sale of the platform, said on Friday that he had secured a deal during a nearly two-hour-long phone conversation with Xi.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Saturday that the spin-off would see TikTok controlled by a seven-member board, filled with six Americans, and would ensure that its algorithm is “controlled by America”.

“Both the US and China now support ‘info-nationalism’,” Jeffrey Towson, a digital strategy consultant formerly based in China, told Al Jazeera.

“China has long insisted information flows be controlled domestically, and not by foreign companies or entities. The US has now come to the same conclusion. Digital platforms create powerful control points. They can shape and limit what can be said, read and watched.”

While it is unclear how the sale of TikTok might proceed under Chinese law, an agreement on the platform could mark a de-escalation in trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, said Heiwai Tang, director of the Asia Global Institute in Hong Kong.

“If the current additional 30 percent US tariffs on China could be lowered, the gain for China would be significant,” Tang told Al Jazeera.

China has only gone as far as to say that the sides have reached a “basic framework consensus” on TikTok.

“China’s position on the TikTok issue is clear: The Chinese government respects the wishes of the company in question, and would be happy to see productive commercial negotiations in keeping with market rules lead to a solution that complies with China’s laws and regulations and takes into account the interests of both sides,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement after Xi’s call with Trump.

China’s language about a “framework” for resolving the TikTok dispute leaves room for negotiations, and “details like who actually gets the algorithm – which, of course, Washington has said the US gets – could still very much be up for grabs,” the Atlantic Council’s Roberts said.

Chunmeizi Su, a media and communications lecturer at the University of Sydney, who researches platforms such as TikTok, expressed doubt that the full details of TikTok’s algorithm would be provided in any licensing deal.

“TikTok’s algorithm is not just about TikTok; it’s a core technology that has been used among other apps under ByteDance. There is a red line here for the company. I believe they would rather shut down TikTok US altogether than reveal the details of their algorithms,” Su told Al Jazeera.

“If this is the bottom line, it means that the licensing deal will only provide surface-level technologies, or, in other words, a shell of TikTok US. And even this will take a long time to achieve.”

Though a deal on TikTok would lower the temperature between the US and China, the sides would probably avoid explicitly linking the sale to concessions in other areas, said Charlie Chai, vice head of research at Beijing-based 86Research.

“I don’t think there will be explicit trade-off or getting anything in return”, Chai told Al Jazeera. Washington could quietly delay new tariffs or export restrictions later, he said, but that would be done as “an extension of a good-faith negotiation”.

“It is important to preserve the political optics that no explicit trade was made at the expense of supposedly non-negotiable core interests, which can easily lead to allegations that neither Beijing nor Washington wants to face,” Chai added.

US President Trump tells reporters that ‘great American patriots’ are planning to buy the social media app.

United States lawmakers are in China on a rare visit as the two countries tussle over trade, the ownership of the TikTok social media platform and military dynamics in the South China Sea.

According to a US media pool report, the members of the US House of Representatives met on Sunday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and relayed that they hoped to “break the ice” as the superpowers try to make progress on stabilising ties.

The visit followed a call by the leaders of the two countries, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, on Friday. The two leaders spoke by phone, their first call in three months, but there was no announcement about the sale, ownership or algorithm of TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned social media app that has 170 million US users.

According to the White House on Saturday, an emerging deal would give US companies control over TikTok’s algorithm and US citizens would hold the majority of seats, six out of seven, on a board overseeing the app’s US operations.

The app’s algorithm controls what users see, and US officials have often warned that it is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities.

But Trump told reporters on Saturday evening that “great American patriots” were planning to buy the app, which was supposed to be banned in the US in January. The president has signed repeated orders to allow the app to continue working while his administration tries to reach a deal with its owner, China’s ByteDance, to sell its US operations.

“And they’re [the buyers] very smart technologically, and they will not let anything bad happen to TikTok,” Trump said.

Among the expected buyers is Oracle, a tech firm owned by Larry Ellison, one of the world’s wealthiest people and a Trump supporter.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News interview on Saturday that the Trump administration was “100 percent confident that a deal is done”.

“[Trump] recognised the need to protect Americans’ privacy and data while also keeping this app open,” Leavitt said, adding: “TikTok is a vital part of our democratic process,” and she anticipated the deal to be finalised in “the coming days”.

US President Trump tells reporters that ‘great American patriots’ are planning to buy the social media app.

United States lawmakers are in China on a rare visit as the two countries tussle over trade, the ownership of the TikTok social media platform and military dynamics in the South China Sea.

According to a US media pool report, the members of the US House of Representatives met on Sunday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and relayed that they hoped to “break the ice” as the superpowers try to make progress on stabilising ties.

The visit followed a call by the leaders of the two countries, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, on Friday. The two leaders spoke by phone, their first call in three months, but there was no announcement about the sale, ownership or algorithm of TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned social media app that has 170 million US users.

According to the White House on Saturday, an emerging deal would give US companies control over TikTok’s algorithm and US citizens would hold the majority of seats, six out of seven, on a board overseeing the app’s US operations.

The app’s algorithm controls what users see, and US officials have often warned that it is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities.

But Trump told reporters on Saturday evening that “great American patriots” were planning to buy the app, which was supposed to be banned in the US in January. The president has signed repeated orders to allow the app to continue working while his administration tries to reach a deal with its owner, China’s ByteDance, to sell its US operations.

“And they’re [the buyers] very smart technologically, and they will not let anything bad happen to TikTok,” Trump said.

Among the expected buyers is Oracle, a tech firm owned by Larry Ellison, one of the world’s wealthiest people and a Trump supporter.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News interview on Saturday that the Trump administration was “100 percent confident that a deal is done”.

“[Trump] recognised the need to protect Americans’ privacy and data while also keeping this app open,” Leavitt said, adding: “TikTok is a vital part of our democratic process,” and she anticipated the deal to be finalised in “the coming days”.

Indian troops have participated in the Russian-led Zapad-2025 military drills, Russian state agency TASS said on Tuesday, highlighting Moscow’s close ties with New Delhi, whose growing ties with the United States have been strained by the imposition of hefty tariffs by President Donald Trump.

The Indian Ministry of Defence confirmed that it had sent 65 armed forces personnel to participate in the five-day military exercise, a theatrical demonstration of firepower conducted jointly by Russia and Belarus to test their combat readiness in the event of an invasion.

The manoeuvres, which featured 100,000 troops in a display of might that included nuclear-capable bombers and warships, took place at a time of heightened tension with NATO countries, coming just days after the downing of Russian drones in Poland last week.

“Today we are conducting the final part of the Zapad 2025 strategic exercise,” said Putin, wearing a military uniform.

India was not the only foreign power involved, with “task forces and military contingents” from Iran, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Mali also joining in, TASS reported, citing the Kremlin.

But India’s participation, led by a battalion of the highly respected Kumaon Regiment and aimed at strengthening “the spirit of cooperation and mutual trust” with Russia, will have raised eyebrows amid signs that the US may be losing a key ally in Asia, seen as an important counterweight to China.

Strains emerged between the two countries last month after the Trump administration imposed 50 percent tariffs on Indian imports, accusing New Delhi of fuelling Moscow’s deadly attacks on Ukraine with its purchases of Russian oil.

Earlier this month, Trump seemed to confirm the rift, posting on social media that both India and Russia appeared to have been “lost” to “deepest, darkest China” as the three countries cozied up at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin.

India-US ties back on track?

But last week, Trump announced on X that India and the US are continuing negotiations to address trade barriers between the two nations. He previously accused India of imposing high tariffs on US goods.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded to Trump’s post on X, saying: “India and the US are close friends and natural partners”.

“I am confident that our trade negotiations will pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential of the India-US partnership,” Modi added.

On Tuesday, Modi thanked Trump for wishing him a happy 75th birthday.

“Thank you, my friend, President Trump, for your phone call and warm greetings on my 75th birthday. Like you, I am also fully committed to taking the India-US Comprehensive and Global Partnership to new heights,” he posted on X.

This is not the first time that India has participated in Russian military exercises. In 2021, shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, New Delhi said it sent an unspecified number of troops to Russia’s Volgograd region to join activities linked to “Counter Terrorism and Conventional operations”.

India’s ties with Russia go back to the erstwhile USSR, which provided extensive help to the Indian economy. Throughout the Cold War, India chose to remain non-aligned, but it sourced most of its weapons from the Soviet Union.

New Delhi still buys most of its defence equipment from Moscow, but over the past two decades, it has attempted to diversify its weapons imports.

Iran-Russia continue strategic alignment

Iran also participated in this year’s Zapad, according to the TASS, though the presence of its troops was not confirmed by official channels.

Tehran is known to be a close strategic partner of Russia, supplying it with self-detonating Shahed drones used in the Ukraine war and, according to Western intelligence sources, ballistic missiles.

This year, the two countries signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership treaty”, deepening their relationship on military and other fronts.

Tehran and Moscow launched a joint military drill in the Caspian Sea after Israel launched bombings of Iran, leading to 12 days of war. The US also joined the war after targeting an Iranian nuclear site with bunker buster bombs.

On Tuesday, the US confirmed that its military officials observed the military drills the previous day after accepting an invitation to the event.

The US presence on the sidelines comes as it tries to wrestle Russia into bringing its war in Ukraine to an end, while seeking closer ties with Belarus.

Moscow and Minsk insist, however, that the drills are defensive, adding that Western security concerns are ‘nonsense’.

Russia has showcased some of its advanced weapons while conducting a joint military drill with Belarusian troops amid heightened tensions with NATO countries following alleged violations of the airspaces of Poland and Romania by Moscow.

Approximately 7,000 troops, including 6,000 Belarusian soldiers, participated in exercises held at locations in Belarus and Russia.

Russia conducted a test strike with a Kalibr missile from the nuclear submarine named Arkhangelsk in the Barents Sea during the joint Russia-Belarus “Zapad” military drills, Russian news agency Interfax reported on Monday. The strike on the designated target was carried out by the submarine from an underwater position, Interfax reported.

Moscow and Minsk insisted on Tuesday that the drills are defensive, meant to simulate a response to an invasion.

But NATO states along the alliance’s eastern flank see them as a threat, particularly after alleged Russian drones crossed into Polish airspace last week. Warsaw has since warned that “open conflict” is closer now than at any point since World War II. Romania on Sunday accused Russia of drone incursion during its attacks on Ukraine.

Britain’s Labour Party-led government on Monday announced its fighter jets will fly air defence missions over Poland to counter aerial threats.

Russia has been at war with Ukraine since it launched a ground invasion in 2022.

Belarus’s Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin dismissed the NATO concerns.

“We have heard a lot of things … that we are threatening NATO, that we are going to invade the Baltic states,” he told reporters at the Barysaw base, east of Minsk. “Simply put, all kinds of nonsense.”

Still, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania have stepped up security, closing borders and carrying out counter-drills.

Belarus invites international observers

Belarus allowed rare media access, inviting foreign journalists, TV crews and even US army officers.

“Thank you for the invitation,” Bryan Shoupe, the US military attache, said as he shook hands with the Belarusian defence minister.

“Give the American guests the best places and show them everything that interests them,” the defence minister said. Cameras captured Khrenin shaking hands with two US Army officers, thanking them for attending.

The drills were a tightly choreographed show of force. Camouflaged armoured vehicles splashed across a river, helicopters swooped low over treetops, and young conscripts loaded shells into artillery systems. Others prepared drones for mock strikes.

Reporters were excluded from the naval manoeuvres in the Barents and Baltic seas, as well as the exercises near Grodna, close to the Polish and Lithuanian borders.

Minsk highlighted the limited scale of the drills, stressing that only 7,000 troops were involved. By comparison, the 2021 Zapad exercises included about 200,000 personnel, just months before Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Khrenin said the reduced numbers reflected Minsk’s efforts to ease tensions. “We have nothing to hide,” he insisted. “We are only preparing to defend our country.”

Belarus also pointed to the international presence, saying observers from 23 countries attended, many of them long-standing allies of Minsk and Moscow.

Ethiopia celebrates Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam as Egypt and Sudan express fears over water security.

Ethiopia has inaugurated Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile, as the $5bn project continues to sow dismay with downstream neighbours Sudan and Egypt.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has hailed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) as a “shared opportunity” for the region that is expected to generate more than 5,000 megaWatts of power and allow surplus electricity to be exported.

A handful of regional leaders, including Kenya’s President William Ruto and Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, attended the festivities in person on Tuesday, which kicked off the night before with lantern displays and drones writing slogans such as “geopolitical rise” and “a leap into the future”.

But Sudan and Egypt – who rely heavily on the Nile for water supplies – have expressed fears that the dam will threaten their water security and even breach international law. Their leaders did not attend the inauguration of the dam.

The Blue Nile, one of the Nile’s two main tributaries, flows north into Sudan and then Egypt. The dam is located just 14km (9 miles) east of the Sudanese border, measuring 1.8km (1.1 miles) wide and 145 metres (0.1 mile) tall.

“I understand their worries, because of course, if you look at Egypt from the sky, you see that the street of life is existent” thanks to the Nile, Pietro Salini, the CEO of Italian company Webuild that constructed the dam, told Al Jazeera. But “regulating the water from this dam will create an additional benefit” to neighbours, he added.

‘Continuous threat to stability’

GERD has spawned regional tension since it was launched in 2011, with years of cooperation talks between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt still stalled.

Last week, Sudan and Egypt released a joint statement calling Ethiopia’s actions “unilateral” and saying the dam posed a “continuous threat to stability”.

Sudan’s Roseires Dam, located about 110km (70 miles) downstream of GERD, faces potential future effects if Ethiopia were to perform large water releases without coordination, reports Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall.

“Roseires is the closest, it’s 60 years older, and when constructed was 25 times smaller – and will likely bear the brunt of the fallout if anything goes wrong at the Ethiopian dam,” Vall said.

But GERD may also provide benefits such as regulating the annual flow of the river and reducing potential flooding in villages on the banks of the Nile.

Abdullah Abderrahman, Roseires Dam administration manager, told Al Jazeera that GERD has helped to control overflow at Roseires that “used to be extremely big”.

“Then there is the reduction of the huge amounts of silt and trees that the rainy season used to bring into Roseires, causing its storage capacity to shrink by a third,” Abderrahman added.

Dessalegn Chanie Dagnew, associate professor of water resources at Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia and a member of the Ethiopian parliament, told Al Jazeera the dam’s benefits could eventually reach beyond assuaging flooding and silt.

Rather than creating tension, he said, GERD “will also serve as a project that can really bring about regional integration and cooperation”.