ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Trump headed for Asia for the first time this term, a trip where he’s expected to work on investment deals and peace efforts before meeting face-to-face with Chinese President Xi Jinping to try to de-escalate a trade war.
“We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us,” Trump told reporters Friday night as he left the White House. “I think we’ll have a good meeting.”
The president was taking a long-haul flight that has him arriving in Malaysia on Sunday morning, the first stop of a three-country visit.
His trip comes as the U.S. government shutdown drags on. Many federal workers are set to miss their first full paycheck next week, there are flight disruptions as already-squeezed air traffic controllers work without pay, and states are confronting the possibility that federal food aid could dry up. As Republicans reject Democratic demands to maintain healthcare subsidies for many Americans, there’s no sign of a break in the impasse.
Some Democrats criticized the president for traveling abroad during the standoff.
“America is shut down and the President is skipping town,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said.
Trump’s first stop is at a regional summit in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital. He attended the annual Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations summit only once during his first term, but this year it comes as Malaysia and the U.S. have been working to address a military conflict between Thailand and Cambodia.
On Sunday, he’s scheduled to meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, followed by a joint signing ceremony with the prime ministers of Thailand and Cambodia.
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 to nail down an expanded ceasefire.
The president credited Ibrahim 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,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Trump on Sunday may also have a significant meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who wants to see the U.S. cut a 40% tariff on Brazilian imports. Trump has justified the tariffs by citing Brazil’s criminal prosecution of his ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup.
Beyond trade, Lula on Friday also criticized the U.S. campaign of military strikes off the South American coast in the name of fighting drug trafficking. He said he planned to raise concerns with Trump at a meeting on Sunday in Malaysia. The White House has not yet confirmed the meeting is set to take place.
Stops in Japan and South Korea
From there, Trump heads to Japan and South Korea, where he’s expected to make progress on talks for at least $900 billion in investments for U.S. factories and other projects that those countries committed to in return for easing Trump’s planned tariff rates down to 15% from 25%.
The trip to Tokyo comes a week after Japan elected its first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi. Trump is set to meet with Takaichi, who is a protege of late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Trump was close to Abe, who was assassinated after leaving office.
Trump said Takaichi’s relationship with Abe was “a good sign” and “I look forward to meeting her.”
While there, Trump is expected to be hosted by Japanese Emperor Naruhito and meet with U.S. troops who are stationed in Japan, according to a senior U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity about the planned trip.
In South Korea, Trump is expected to hold a highly anticipated meeting with China’s Xi on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
The APEC summit is set to be held in Gyeongju, and the Trump-Xi meeting is expected to take place in the city of Busan, according to the U.S. official.
The meeting follows months of volatile moves in a trade war between China and the U.S. that have rattled the global economy.
Trump was infuriated this month after Beijing imposed new export controls on rare earths used in technology and threatened to hike retaliatory tariffs to sky-high levels. He has said he wants China to buy U.S. soybeans. But this week Trump was optimistic, predicting he would reach a “fantastic deal” with Xi.
The U.S. president also said he might ask Xi about freeing Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper founder, saying that “it’ll be on my list.”
The only meeting that could possibly eclipse the Xi summit would be an impromptu reunion with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Speculation has been rife since South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young told lawmakers this month it was possible that Trump could again meet with Kim in the demilitarized zone, as he did during his first term in 2019.
But such a meeting is not on the president’s schedule for this trip, according to the U.S. official.
Trump suggested it was hard to reach the North Korean leader.
“They have a lot of nuclear weapons, but not a lot of telephone service,” he said.
Price and Schiefelbein write for the Associated Press. Price reported from Washington and Schiefelbein from aboard Air Force One. AP writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
The fastest high-speed train travels at a speed of 267mph and it’s the only one of its kind in the world. Recently, one woman decided to ride it just to see how rapid it was
Christine Younan Deputy Editor Social Newsdesk
08:43, 21 Sep 2025
The woman was impressed by her travels (stock)(Image: Getty Images)
The world’s fastest train is no joke as it travels at a top speed of 267mph (430km/h). It’s the world’s only high-speed commercial maglev line which runs between a city to the airport. Now one woman decided to board the rapid train – and was left amazed.
TikTok user Silvana, who boasts over 1,400 followers, had been travelling across China and during her 10-hour layover in Shanghai was able to hop on the train. Her caption read: “Took the world’s fastest train during my 10hr layover in Shanghai! This is the Maglev train in Shanghai China which stands for Mag (magnetic) & lev (levitation). It hovers above the train tracks and it can go up to 431 km/hr.”
This magnetic levitation (maglev) allows the train to “fly” above the tracks, resulting in a smooth, friction-free ride. It connects Shanghai’s Pudong airport to the city centre.
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Silvana continued: “I wanted to explore Shanghai City for a bit and this seemed to be the fastest way to get there from the airport haha.
“It cost me 80 Yuan / €10,50 for a return ticket and it got me to Long Yang Rd. Station in under 8 minutes.
“From here I just took another metro ride for only 4 Yuan / €0,50 and I was right in the centre of Shanghai City!
“Such a crazy experience.”
Though it can reach a top speed of 267mph (430km/h), its current commercial operating speed is actually 186mph (300km/h).
The 30 km line, utilising German Transrapid technology, opened in 2006, offering a fast and efficient, albeit costly, airport transfer.
Silvana, who calls herself a backpacker on her TikTok, was currently travelling across Asia when she decided to take the train.
Since she shared it, one of her followers was left starstruck by her experience as the post scooped up dozens of likes and comments.
Meanwhile, one user kicked off a Reddit thread by asking people who have travelled on the world’s fastest train.
One said: “Incredibly smooth. Imagine flying but with no turbulence.
“Shame it’s basically a glorified gadget bahn with less riders than the actual metro lines to the airport.
“I can’t say it’s that much of an improvement over regular high speed rail though.”
Another added: “I was just there for the first time last month. It’s super smooth! You can feel a bit of tilt on the curves, in a fun way. Otherwise it felt similar to conventional HSR.”
It’s after 10pm and the sky has only just lost the high blue of the day. Sitting by the Baltic Sea, toes in the water, I gaze at distant, tree-covered islands as gentle waves lap over the long, flat rocks. I follow a rough, winding path back to my cabin, through woods so quiet you can hear the pine needles fall.
I’m in Santalahti woods, near Kotka on the south-east coast of Finland, on the trail of Finnish author, novelist, painter and illustrator Tove Jansson (1914-2001). Best known as creator of the Moomins, and for her love of island living, Jansson also wrote for adults. Last year, her first novel, The Summer Book, was made into a film starring Glenn Close and directed by Charlie McDowell. One film critic has described it as “an ode to Finnish archipelago nature”.
The Summer Book is a series of 22 vignettes on island summer living, featuring a young girl, Sophia, and her grandmother. I first read the slim volume in the early days of the Covid lockdown.
During that uncertain, fearful time, and every year since, reading it has been a balm, a reminder to slow down and pay attention. I’ve come to Finland to explore Finnish summer living, fill my lungs with archipelago air and try to find a little of the stillness and wonder that Jansson’s writing gives me.
Tove Jansson pictured in 1956. Photograph: Ian Dagnall Computing/Alamy
In Finland, summer is to be savoured. The south of the country receives just six hours of daylight a day in winter, and in the far north the sun remains below the horizon in December. It’s this darkness that makes Finns revere and celebrate summer. Schoolchildren get a 10-week summer holiday, and most Finns take July off work. Summer is mostly spent in one of the half a million summer cottages, known as mökki, usually by a lake or on one of the tens of thousands of islands scattered along the coastline.
Amenities vary, but there’s a deep affection for traditional rustic cabins: off-grid, without electricity or running water, and definitely no wifi. Cottage living, or mökkielämä, is focused on slow living in harmony with nature: time in the woods, in the sea, picking berries, and relaxing in the sauna.
I begin my journey on Pellinki, in the Porvoo archipelago, about an hour east of Helsinki. This part of Finland is bilingual. (Like 80% of Pellinki residents, Tove Jansson was a Swedish speaker; in Swedish the island is called Pellinge). It’s a quick hop across the water on a free ferry into a different, slower pace of life. Through the woods I spy dozens of cute red and yellow painted cabins, each by a stretch of water.
Tove spent many childhood summers on Pellinki, and she drew her first Moomin cartoon here – on the wall of an outhouse – as a teenager. To generate extra income, island families would rent their homes for the summer, moving into an outbuilding. Tove’s family rented the home of the boat-building Gustafsson family. Abbe Gustafsson, the same age as Tove, became a lifelong friend and the children turned their daily chore of milk collection into an elaborate challenge: there were trees to be navigated in one direction, streams to jump over and “evil” cracked rocks to sprint past.
The forested islands of Pellinki (Pellinge)
This childhood game was the inspiration for The Book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My, which has been adapted into the puzzle-solving outdoor Island Riddles trail. Clues are in rhyme, and I try a few, filtering water to make the next clue rise to the surface in a small well, and hunting for a red umbrella in the trees. “You just have to play like a child and use your imagination,” Erika Englund, a local who devised the trail, tells me.
From the woods you can see the small island of Bredskär, where the Jansson family built a house in 1947. Craving further solitude, Tove built a cabin on the even tinier island of Klovharun in 1964, where she spent 28 summers with her life partner, graphic artist Tuulikki Pietilä. The couple lived a very simple life here, with the island, each other, and their vast imaginations for company.
The landscapes of Pellinki, Bredskär and Klovharun are easily recognisable throughout Tove’s work in all mediums. The sea and the weather play a central role: storms rage, belongings are lost and found in the sea, and life is lived with respect for the elements.
Porvoo is the nearest town to Pellinki and a stopping point on the way to the archipelago. The old town is one of the best preserved in Finland, built after a catastrophic fire in 1760. I wander through the winding streets, admiring the colourful wooden homes and learning about the town’s history as a salt trading port, with Birgitta Palmqvist from Porvoo Tours.
Porvoo has one of the best preserved old towns in Finland. Photograph: Riekkinen/Getty Images
I stay at the handsome art nouveau-style Runo hotel in the town centre. The building has been a bank and the town library, and now has 56 minimal, Finnish-style rooms, changing art displays and an award-winning breakfast.
On the outskirts of Porvoo I visit Kannonnokka, where a sauna has been partly built into rock deep in the woods. Sauna culture is essential to Finns: in 2020, Unesco recognised Finnish sauna culture as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and there are an estimated 3.3 million saunas in a country of 5.6 million people (though everyone I speak to gives a higher number). Even in the tiny cabin on Klovharun there was a sauna in the cellar (more important than running water). Kannonnokka sauna is kept at 60C for longer, laidback sessions, with dips in the cold plunge pool and gently warm whirlpool bath. Afterwards, the young couple who run the venue cook delicious pancakes over the fire.
As a young artist, Tove painted murals for local buildings in towns along the Finnish coast. In Kotka, 50 miles east of Porvoo, a huge fairytale mural remains on show in the town’s youth work department. It’s a delight, with layers of stories, hidden Moomin characters and gemstone embellishments.
In Hamina, a neighbouring town, panoramic fantasy scenes decorate the walls of the town hall: mermaids flirt with cadets under water and shipwrecked treasure fills Hamina harbour. In Kotka, I visit Maritime Centre Vellamo, where Courage, Freedom, Love! A Moomin Adventurelaunched this year (it runs until March 2027) to mark 80 years since the first Moomin book was published.
Children can play inside a replica Moomin house, clamber on the rocks surrounded by an animated sea, and dress up in a little theatre. Also on display is Tove and Tuulikki’s boat, Victoria, built for the couple by Abbe Gustafsson.
From Kotka I catch a free ferry to Kaunissaari (90 minutes). The island’s name translates to “beautiful island” – fitting, given its pine forests, long white beaches and pretty marina. The harbour is a cluster of red wooden cottages with wildflower gardens, and boat sheds with spooled fishing nets outside. There’s a fascinating island museum, packed to the rafters with memorabilia from centuries of hardy island living. I follow winding paths through the trees to find a long, sandy beach, which I have all to myself. I can’t resist a swim – even without a sauna to plunge into. I warm up at Kaunissaaren Maja restaurant, where the simple salmon soup recipe has not changed in 70 years.
The cabin on the tiny island of Klovharun built by Jansson in 1964
Near Kotka I stay in my own little summer cottage. The amenities are basic: a kitchen diner and one bedroom, but of course a sauna. I set it to heat then spend an hour walking through the woods and around the bay, watching the sunset. The long daylight hours are perfect for happihyppely, a Finnish concept translated literally as “oxygen hopping”: taking a short walk for fresh air and exercise. Back at my cabin I jump between the heat of the sauna and dips in the icy Baltic Sea. I exhale, with the night, the light and the summer stretching out in front of me. I can see why Tove Jansson loved this coastline: all I need for a dreamy summer is right here.
The trip was provided by Visit Finland. Runo Hotel in Porvoo has doubles from €171B&B. Self-catering cabins at Santalahti resort start from €89 (sleep two); sauna cottages from €198 (sleeps up to four)
A 22 year old woman was left horrified by the view after travelling for over 30 hours to see the historic World Heritage site, Machu Picchu – and others were just as disappointed by their visits
Machu PIcchu can be rather foggy (stock image)
Set high in the Andes Mountains in Peru, you’ll find the majestic Machu Picchu. Built in the fifteenth century, it was abandoned when the Incan Empire was conquered by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century. It wasn’t until 1911 that the archaeological complex was made known to the outside world.
As well as being a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it was selected as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World in 2007. This ramped up the number of tourists who visit – and the Incan citadel attracts around 1.6 million visitors a year.
One of the many tourists who has visited the historic site is globe-trotter Leonie, who took to her TikTok page to share a video of herself after reaching Machu Picchu. She travelled for around 30 hours to get there, so was expecting big things.
However, she seemed pretty underwhelmed when she saw the view. In an online post, she said: “Seeing one of Seven Wonders of the World: Machu Picchu. Did 8 hours plane, 17 hours of bus, biking and rafting, 5 hours of hiking for this view.”
Leonie posed with her hands over her mouth in dismay, before turning the camera to show how cloudy it was on site. Instead of seeing the historic houses and buildings, the view was concealed by a thick, grey fog that made the whole mountain look eerily creepy.
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According to Exploor Peru, Machu Picchu is often covered in fog, especially in the early mornings, due to its high altitude and proximity to the Amazon rainforest. The fog can be quite dense, particularly during the rainy season (November to March), and can obscure views of the ruins and surrounding peaks.
However, the fog often clears out as the day progresses, and sunny periods can follow, revealing the stunning landscape.
Several people soon took to the comment section of Leonie’s video, which has been viewed more than 8.8 million times. It turns out, Leonie wasn’t the only one who had been left underwhelmed by her visit.
“Machu Picchu was so disappointing when I went in January,” one person commented.
Meanwhile, a second viewer wrote: “I’d stay there for days waiting to clear out – no way.”
Another person said: “Bruh this is why I’m avoiding planning a trip to see Machu Picchu or the Northern Lights – I couldn’t deal with the disappointment.”
However, on the bright side, another viewer wrote: “You know it’s about the journey, not always the destination.”
