US President Donald Trump broke into dance with local performers as he arrived in Malaysia for the ASEAN summit. It marks his first trip to the Asia Pacific since his re-election.
Published On 26 Oct 202526 Oct 2025
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Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched a rare four-hitter to get the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers back in the World Series.
Published On 26 Oct 202526 Oct 2025
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Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto flipped the World Series script in favour of the reigning champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are headed home for three games and flying high after a 5-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 2 on Saturday.
Yamamoto was spectacular while pitching a complete game, striking out eight batters and walking none, while Will Smith drove in three runs, including a solo home run in the seventh inning that put the Dodgers ahead for good.
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“Yeah, he was just locked in tonight,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Yamamoto. “It was one of those things he said before the series: losing is not an option, and he had that look tonight.”
The win leve;led the best-of-seven series at 1-1 and put the star-studded Dodgers back on track in their bid to become Major League Baseball’s (MLB) first repeat champions in 25 years.
A day after a humbling 11-4 defeat that exposed the thinness of the Dodgers’ bullpen, and may have allowed some doubt to creep into their clubhouse, the team turned the ball over to their ace in the hopes he could right the ship.
Making his first start since pitching a complete-game gem in the National League Championship Series, Yamamoto again went the distance, and left Blue Jays hitters baffled one day after they were seemingly hitting pitches at will.
“Going into the game, the pregame bullpen, I was feeling really good with the splitter,” Yamamoto said about his signature pitch.
“I’m very happy and proud of the fact that I was able to bring a big contribution and give a chance for the team to win.”
The Dodgers made a fast start as Freddie Freeman hit a two-out double in the first inning before Smith singled to put the visitors ahead 1-0.
Toronto threatened in the bottom half of the inning, getting runners on first and third with no outs, but Yamamoto retired the next three batters to get out of the jam and never looked back.
Yamamoto was so dominant that he retired the final 20 batters he faced on the night, a remarkable run that started when he got Alejandro Kirk out on a sacrifice fly that scored George Springer in the third.
“He made it hard for us to make him work,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said of Yamamoto’s performance. “He was in the zone, split was in and out of the zone. It was a really good performance by him.”
The Dodgers, who also had their hands full with Toronto starter Kevin Gausman, broke through in the seventh when Smith homered into the second deck in left field before Max Muncy’s solo shot two batters later.
Los Angeles added two more runs in the eighth on a wild pitch before Smith grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored Shohei Ohtani.
Gausman, who prior to Smith’s homer had retired 17 Dodgers batters in a row, took the loss after allowing three runs and striking out six batters in 6-2/3 innings.
“I thought Kev matched [Yamamoto] pitch for pitch, really,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “They both had low pitch counts. It was kind of a classic pitchers’ duel, and they made a couple more swings.”
Game 3 is on Monday.
Nearly two dozen world leaders are descending in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur for a three-day summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from Sunday to Tuesday, and multiple other meetings on the sidelines.
This will be the 47th summit of the ASEAN.
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Here’s what you need to know:
ASEAN is made up of 10 members – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Together, they have a population of 678 million people and a gross domestic product of $3.9 trillion, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
This year, ASEAN will induct its 11th member, East Timor. The country gained independence from Indonesia in 2002 and is home to 1.4 million people.
The summit will bring together leaders from every country in the bloc except for Myanmar’s acting president, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
The ASEAN summit is accompanied annually by the East Asia Summit, a gathering of leaders of the ASEAN nations, the US, China, India, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
This year, US President Donald Trump, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, newly appointed Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will be attending.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak will represent Moscow while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take part virtually.
Beyond the leaders of ASEAN and the East Asia Summit nations, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will be in Kuala Lumpur too.
The heads of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the International Labour Organization and the International Federation of Association Football, better known as FIFA, will also attend some sessions, according to Bernama, Malaysia’s state news agency.
Apart from the ASEAN summit and the East Asia Summit, ASEAN will also hold separate conclaves with leaders of key powers in Kuala Lumpur.
There’s also a peace deal to be signed on Sunday when Cambodia and Thailand ink a pact to end a deadly border dispute. The ceremony will be presided over by Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, according to Bernama.
The long-running border conflict rekindled in July when dozens of people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced along the border. A ceasefire was reached after five days with the help of Malaysia, China and the US.
Despite the high-profile nature of the event, some critics have questioned whether the deal will be more of a photo-op for Trump than a lasting resolution. Ceasefire violations have continued since July while the original issue around border demarcation has also not been resolved, according to Mu Sochua, a former Cambodian opposition leader and president of the Khmer Movement for Democracy.
She told Al Jazeera the threat of tariffs from Trump helped bring Thailand and Cambodia to the negotiating table in a move that was effective in the short term but also controversial. “Critics in both countries say it amounted to economic blackmail – trading peace for trade benefits rather than addressing justice, sovereignty or local needs,” she said.
The ASEAN summit will discuss pressing issues like US tariffs and access to rare earth minerals, which are essential to high-tech manufacturing and whose production is dominated by China.
Trump launched his “Liberation Day Tariffs” in April against most US trading partners in a bid to lower the US trade deficit. After much negotiation, US tariffs for most ASEAN countries range from 10 to 20 percent while Brunei’s tariff rate is 25 percent. Tariffs for Laos and Myanmar are both 40 percent.
In response to Trump’s tariffs, China has tightened export restrictions on rare earths, a move that has been felt around the world.
Marco Foster, ASEAN director at the professional services firm Dezan Shira & Associates, told Al Jazeera that most attendees will be vying for a chance to speak to Trump about tariffs. “Pretty much everyone is going to be going after him or trying to get in the room with him or his people to talk about their deal,” he said. “Everyone will want to have a sideline meeting with Trump.”
Attendees are also expected to discuss pressing issues like Myanmar’s civil war and the proliferation of scam centres in Southeast Asia, which have earned criminal networks tens of billions of dollars.
Myanmar’s acting president will not attend the ASEAN summit, and Myanmar will not take the helm from Malaysia as next year’s ASEAN chair because it has been embroiled in a civil war since 2021. Instead, the role will fall to the Philippines.
In 2021, ASEAN issued a Five-Point Consensus, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Myanmar and humanitarian assistance while creating a special ASEAN envoy to help mediate the conflict. Four years later, critics said it has had little impact on the crisis.
Charles Santiago, co-chairman of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, told Al Jazeera that he expected Myanmar and the fallout from the civil war to be discussed at the summit.
“Myanmar has become a destabilising factor, both [in terms of] security and social cohesion in the other parts of Southeast Asia,” he said. The civil war has facilitated the spread of the flow of drugs and weapons while creating a refugee crisis, he added.
Still, Santiago said he did not expect much to come from the ASEAN summit. “This will be a major photo opportunity for everybody,” he said, but “nothing much will happen” in terms of policy.
ASEAN has sometimes been criticised for lacking an enforcement mechanism to force members to abide by its rulings. This makes it different from other regional blocs like the European Union, whose members must abide by EU laws and rulings.
It’s a criticism that has been heard recently around issues like Myanmar as well as the Cambodian-Thai border conflict.
Foster said this feature is a legacy of ASEAN’s unique history. The organisation was founded in 1967 after a major wave of decolonisation around the world. Its structure reflects the norms of the era, he said.
“Because of the narrative that ASEAN was born out of independence, it will never lead to an ASEAN that will limit [member states’] independence by accepting rules from a body that is above the state,” Foster said. “The nation state will always be the number one in ASEAN.”
US president says Ontario government’s anti-tariff ad featuring Ronald Reagan needed to be taken down ‘immediately’.
Published On 25 Oct 202525 Oct 2025
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Donald Trump has announced an additional 10-percent tariff on Canada, as the United States president continues to slam his country’s northern neighbour over a contentious anti-tariff advertisement featuring former President Ronald Reagan.
In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said the ad “was to be taken down, IMMEDIATELY, but [Canada] let it run last night during the World Series, knowing that it was a FRAUD”.
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“Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now,” he said.
The advertisement, produced by the Canadian province of Ontario, features a 1980s speech by Reagan in which the former Republican leader had warned against the ramifications that high tariffs on foreign imports could have on the US economy.
The US government suspended trade talks with Canada this week over the ad, accusing the Ontario provincial government of misrepresenting Reagan’s position and seeking to influence a looming US Supreme Court ruling on Trump’s tariffs policy.
On Friday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that, after consulting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the province would “pause its US advertising campaign effective Monday so that trade talks can resume”.
“Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses. We’ve achieved our goal, having reached US audiences at the highest levels,” Ford wrote on X.
“I’ve directed my team to keep putting our message in front of Americans over the weekend so that we can air our commercial during the first two World Series games.”
The Canadian government did not immediately comment on Trump’s announcement of additional tariffs on Saturday.
It is unclear whether the ad will run during the second World Series game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers, which is set for 8pm local time in Toronto on Saturday (00:00 GMT Sunday).
Since taking office in January, Trump has unveiled sweeping tariffs against a number of countries including Canada, straining relations with the US’s longtime ally.
More to come…
The US is deploying the world’s largest aircraft carrier to Latin America as part of the Trump administration’s stated goal of combating drug trafficking. But as regional tensions soar, Venezuela is accusing Washington of trying to overthrow its government.
Published On 25 Oct 202525 Oct 2025
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Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, has energised liberal voters and has strongly condemned Israel’s war on Gaza.
Polling places have opened for the start of in-person voting for one of the year’s most closely watched elections in the United States, the New York City mayor’s race.
New Yorkers on Saturday began choosing between Democrat Zohran Mamdani, who has built up a sizeable lead in the polls, Republican Curtis Sliwa and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat appearing on the ballot as an independent. The incumbent mayor, Eric Adams, is also on the ballot, but dropped out of the race last month and recently threw his support behind Cuomo.
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Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist, has energised liberal voters, drawn to his proposals for universal, free child care, free buses, and a rent freeze for New Yorkers living in about 1 million rent-regulated apartments.
Cuomo has assailed Mamdani, who would be the city’s first Muslim mayor, over his criticism of Israel.
Mamdani, who has weathered anti-Muslim rhetoric during the contest, says Israel’s military actions in Gaza have amounted to genocide, a view shared by a UN inquiry, genocide experts and numerous rights groups.
In an emotional speech on Friday, Mamdani said the attacks against him are “racist, baseless”.
“To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity, but indignity does not make us distinct. There are many New Yorkers who face it. It is the tolerance of that indignity that does,” said Mamdani, who in June beat Cuomo to achieve a landslide victory in the Democratic mayoral primary.
Cuomo has portrayed Mamdani’s policies as naive and financially irresponsible. He has appealed to voters to pick him because of his experience as the state’s governor, a position he gave up in 2021 after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment.
New York has allowed early voting since 2019, and it has become relatively popular. In June’s mayoral primary, about 35 percent of the ballots were cast early and in person, according to the city’s campaign finance board.
In neighbouring New Jersey, the governor’s race is also being closely followed. It features Republican state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli against Democratic US Representative Mikie Sherrill. New Jersey adopted early voting in 2021.
The off-year elections in the two states could be bellwethers for Democratic Party leaders as they try to decide what kinds of candidates might be best to lead their resistance to Republican President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The races have spotlighted affordability and cost of living issues as well as ongoing divisions within the Democratic Party, said Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
“New York City pits the progressive wing against the establishment old guard in Mamdani versus Cuomo, while New Jersey is banking on moderate candidate Mikie Sherrill to appeal to its broad middle,” she said.
The New Jersey gubernatorial candidates, in their final debate earlier this month, sparred over the federal government shutdown, Sherrill’s military records, Trump’s policies and the high cost of living in the state.
The winner would succeed Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, who is term-limited.
New York City mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani has condemned Islamophobic attacks against him after opponent Andrew Cuomo laughed at a radio host’s remark that Mamdani would ‘cheer another 9/11’. In an emotional speech, Mamdani said such rhetoric reflects a wider tolerance of anti-Muslim sentiment.
Published On 25 Oct 202525 Oct 2025
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If the United States federal government shutdown continues, millions of low-income Americans could lose access to a monthly benefit that pays for food.
About 42 million people receive money through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), sometimes called food stamps. The Department of Agriculture told states in an October 10 letter that if the shutdown continues, the programme would run out of money to pay for benefits in November.
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President Donald Trump’s Republican administration is blaming the Democrats with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins repeating a false healthcare talking point on October 16 on X: “Democrats are putting free health care for illegal aliens and their political agenda ahead of food security for American families. Shameful.”
The government shutdown stems from disagreements between Democrats – who want Congress, as part of approving federal funding, to extend expiring enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), through which uninsured Americans can buy health insurance – and Republicans, who want to extend federal funding first before negotiating over whether or how to extend the ACA subsidies.
SNAP is a federal programme operated by state agencies. Participants receive an average individual monthly benefit of about $190 or $356 per household. Recipients may use the benefits to buy fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy products, bread and other foods. The majority of SNAP households live in poverty.
Lawmakers and social media users have made several statements about SNAP with varying degrees of accuracy about the shutdown and the Republican tax and spending law that Trump signed in July. Here’s a closer look:
Many social media posts have said food stamps are going away as soon as November 1.
“Let that sink in – just in time for the cold season and the month of giving thanks,” one Instagram post said.
That could happen for millions of people. But it might not happen for all of them, and it could happen throughout the month of November because the monthly date when people receive their benefits varies by state.
The Trump administration could use SNAP’s contingency fund to pay for nearly two-thirds of a full month of benefits, or it could transfer other Agriculture Department funds, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank. The administration has said it has found funding to continue the Women, Infants and Children programme, another food programme for low-income families.
According to an Agriculture Department funding lapse plan, SNAP “shall continue operations during a lapse in appropriations, subject to the availability of funding”.
An Agriculture Department letter told states to hold off on steps that would lead to people receiving their November benefits. Federal regulations require that reductions be made in a way that higher-income recipients lose more benefits than the lowest-income recipients.
We asked administration officials for more detail but received no response to our questions.
Many state officials – including in Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin – said that if the shutdown continues, participants might not or will not receive benefits in November. A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Children and Families told PolitiFact that if the shutdown continues into November, benefits will not be issued.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday that he will deploy the National Guard and California Volunteers, a state agency, to support food banks and provide $80m in state money.
“Empty cupboards and stomachs are not abstract outcomes,” Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers told Rollins in a Wednesday letter. “They are the very real and near consequences of the dysfunction in Washington. These are also consequences you can prevent today.”
Meanwhile, food banks across the country have taken a hit from other Trump administration policies. ProPublica reported on October 3 that earlier in the year, the administration cut $500m in deliveries through the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which provides food to state distribution agencies.
So what have key lawmakers said on this issue and how true are their claims?
– Mike Johnson, speaker of the US House of Representatives, on the TV programme Face the Nation on May 25
This is false.
Johnson spoke after the House passed a Republican-backed bill known at the time as the One Big Beautiful Bill, which included many of Trump’s policy priorities.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the nonpartisan number-crunching arm of Congress, estimated in May that 3.2 million fewer people per month on average would receive SNAP benefits over the next nine years based on the bill’s changes to work requirements and restrictions on states’ ability to waive the work requirements in areas with high unemployment.
A more recent August CBO analysis estimated the changes would reduce participation in SNAP by roughly 2.4 million people.
– Wisconsin state Representative Francesca Hong in a June 12 X post
This is true.
In a series of X posts, Hong said it wouldn’t be only families receiving food aid that would be hurt by the legislation.
A chart published this year by the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service showed that in 2023, farm establishments made 24.3 cents of every dollar spent on food at home, including at grocery stores and supermarkets.
– House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries at a May 8 news conference
This is mostly false.
An April 2 study found that 8 percent of veterans rely on SNAP benefits. No state had a share higher than 14 percent. Studies with data from a few years earlier showed rates from 4.9 percent to 6.6 percent.
Louis Jacobson, Staff Writer Loreben Tuquero and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Madeline Heim contributed to this article.
Donald Trump has departed for Malaysia, where he’s set to attend the ASEAN summit and hold trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Speaking before he left, the US President criticised Canada over its ‘crooked ad’ about tariffs, and said he’d be open to meeting North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Published On 25 Oct 202525 Oct 2025
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Ontario to stop running advertisement featuring voice of US President Ronald Reagan saying that trade tariffs were a bad idea.
Published On 25 Oct 202525 Oct 2025
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The Canadian province of Ontario has said it will pull an anti-tariff advertisement featuring former United States President Ronald Reagan’s voice, which prompted current US leader Donald Trump to scrap all trade talks with Canada.
Trump announced on his Truth Social network on Thursday that he had “terminated” all negotiations with Canada over what he called the “fake” advertising campaign that he said misrepresented fellow Republican President Reagan.
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Less than 24 hours later, Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford said he was suspending the advertisement after talking to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney about the spiralling row with Washington.
“In speaking with Prime Minister Carney, Ontario will pause its US advertising campaign effective Monday so that trade talks can resume,” Ford said in a post on X.
Ford added, however, that he had told his team to keep airing the advertisement during two baseball World Series games this weekend, in which Canada’s Toronto Blue Jays will face the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The advertisement used quotes from a radio address on trade that Reagan delivered in 1987, in which he warned against ramifications that he said high tariffs on foreign imports could have on the US economy.
Reagan is heard in the advertisement saying that “high tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars”, a quote that matches a transcript of his speech on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library’s website.
Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses. We’ve achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels. I’ve directed my team to keep putting our…
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) October 24, 2025
The Ronald Reagan Foundation wrote on X on Thursday that the Ontario government had used “selective audio and video” and that it was reviewing its legal options.
An Al Jazeera analysis of the words used in the advertisement found that while it spliced together different parts of the 1987 speech by Reagan, it also appeared sincere to the meaning of Reagan’s message: that tariffs, if wielded as an economic weapon, must be used only sparingly and for a short time, or they can hurt Americans.
President Trump did not immediately react to the Ontario premier’s decision to pull the advertisement.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told reporters that Trump had made his “extreme displeasure” known and was expected to respond later to news of the advertisement’s impending removal.
A senior US official said that Trump would probably encounter Carney at a dinner on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea on Wednesday.
“They will likely see each other,” the official told the AFP news agency.
In his original social media post announcing the launch of the advertising campaign featuring Reagan’s voice, Ontario’s Ford says, “Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada.”
It’s official: Ontario’s new advertising campaign in the U.S. has launched.
Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together.
Watch our new ad. pic.twitter.com/SgIVC1cqMJ
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) October 16, 2025
The emotional speech against Islamophobia from the NYC mayoral race frontrunner comes a day before early voting begins.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani gave an emotional speech addressing “racist, baseless attacks” from his opponents, a day before early voting begins in the race he is projected to win.
Speaking outside a mosque in the Bronx on Friday, Mamdani criticised his opponents for bringing “hatred to the forefront”, noting that their Islamophobia not only affects him as the Democratic nominee for mayor but also close to one million Muslims living in New York.
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“To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity, but indignity does not make us distinct. There are many New Yorkers who face it. It is the tolerance of that indignity that does,” Mamdani said in his speech, less than two weeks ahead of the November 4 general election.
Mamdani, who is currently a member of the New York State Assembly, said that while he had tried to focus his election campaign on his core message of affordability, his opponents in recent days had shown that “Islamophobia has emerged as one of the few areas of agreement”.
His speech also came a day after his top opponent, former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, laughed after radio host Sid Rosenberg said that Mamdani “would be cheering” if another September 11 attack occurred.
Cuomo, who is a member of the Democratic Party but lost the Democratic primary election to Mamdani in June, responded in agreement with Rosenberg: “That’s another problem.”
Basim Elkarra, the executive director of Muslim advocacy group CAIR Action, described Cuomo’s appearance on the radio programme as “despicable, dangerous, and disqualifying”.
“By agreeing with a racist radio host who suggested a Muslim elected official would ‘cheer’ another 9/11, Cuomo has crossed a moral line,” Elkarra said.
“Cuomo’s willingness to engage in this kind of hate speech, on this kind of platform, shows exactly the kind of leader he is: someone who would rather stoke fear than bring people together,” he said.
Speaking on Friday, Mamdani said he had also been “slandered” by Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa on the debate stage, “when he claimed that I support global jihad”, and faced advertisements from Super Political Action Committees that “imply that I am a terrorist, or mock the way I eat”.
He also shared his memories of his “aunt who stopped taking the subway after September 11 because she did not feel safe in her hijab”, and a staff member who had the “word terrorist spray painted” on their garage, as well as the advice he had received that he “did not have to tell people” he was Muslim, if he wanted to win elections.
Earlier on Friday, Mamdani received a long-anticipated endorsement from Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democratic Party in the US House of Representatives and the representative of New York’s eighth congressional district, which includes the Brooklyn neighbourhoods of East Flatbush, Coney Island and Brownsville.
While Mamdani has earned endorsements from top Democrats, including New York Governor Kathy Hochul, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and independent Senator Bernie Sanders, the vocally pro-Palestinian candidate has struggled to win over other top New York Democrats, such as Senator Chuck Schumer.
Despite the reluctance of some establishment figures within the Democratic Party, Mamdani resoundingly won the party’s primary election to choose its candidate for the general election back in June.
Current NYC Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who did not contest the primary after facing corruption allegations, endorsed Cuomo this week after withdrawing from the race, although his name will still appear on the ballot.
A recently published poll from AARP and Gotham Polling and Analytics shows Mamdani well ahead of his opponents with the support of 43.2 percent of voters.
He is followed by Cuomo with 28.9 percent and Sliwa with 19.4 percent, while 8.4 percent said they were undecided or preferred another candidate.
Cost of living was the main issue for nearly two-thirds of voters, with public safety and housing affordability also areas of concern, in the same poll.
The probe comes as the US government seeks additional leverage against Beijing amid escalating trade tensions.
Published On 24 Oct 202524 Oct 2025
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The United States has launched an investigation into whether China is out of compliance with a 2020 trade deal they struck together, as trade tensions ratchet up between the world’s two largest economies.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced the investigation on Friday, as President Donald Trump travels to Asia to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. China denies that it has failed to abide by the deal.
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“China has scrupulously fulfilled its obligations in the Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement,” a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said in a social media post.
The probe into unfair trade practices could grant President Trump greater authority to impose more tariffs on China, which he has hit with massive trade duties during his second term in office.
“The administration seems to be looking for new sources of leverage to use against Beijing, while adding another pressure point to get China to buy more US soybeans as well as other goods,” Wendy Cutler, a former US trade negotiator who is now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told The Associated Press news agency.
The “Phase One” deal came at the end of Trump’s first term in office in 2020, when the US imposed a series of tariffs on China in the name of bringing greater “balance” to their commercial exchange.
In that agreement, Beijing agreed to buy more US agricultural and manufacturing goods.
A Federal Register notice (PDF) from the Office of the US Trade Representative alleges that China has not followed up on that promise or others related to intellectual property protections, forced technology transfers or financial services.
September, for instance, marked the first month since 2018 that China imported no soya beans from US farmers.
“The initiation of this investigation underscores the Trump Administration’s resolve to hold China to its Phase One Agreement commitments, protect American farmers, ranchers, workers, and innovators, and establish a more reciprocal trade relationship with China for the benefit of the American people,” Greer said in a statement.
A new round of US-China trade talks is set to take place on Saturday, and discussions will focus on China’s restrictions on the export of rare earth metals, essential for many US tech products.
Angry US reaction to Knesset vote to annex occupied West Bank.
The Israeli parliament has voted to annex the occupied West Bank – a move unlikely to become law but described as an “insult” by United States Vice President JD Vance.
President Donald Trump insists annexation won’t happen, but Israeli settler violence is escalating.
So are US-Israeli relations in upheaval?
Presenter: Adrian Finighan
Guests:
Alon Pinkas – Former Israeli ambassador and Consul General in New York
Mark Pfeifle – Republican strategist and president of Off the Record Strategies
Gideon Levy – Columnist at Haaretz newspaper and author of “The Punishment of Gaza”
Published On 24 Oct 202524 Oct 2025
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Canadian PM Mark Carney says Ottawa “can’t control” US trade policy but will “stand ready” to resume talks “when the Americans are ready.” His remarks came after President Donald Trump halted negotiations and accused Canada of “cheating” over ads opposing US tariffs.
Published On 24 Oct 202524 Oct 2025
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United States President Donald Trump has begun construction of a $300m ballroom on the site of what was the White House’s East Wing.
The construction, which began on Monday, is the first major structural change to the complex since 1948. It involves tearing down the existing East Wing, which had housed the first lady’s offices and was used for ceremonies.
The work is being funded via private donations from individuals, corporations and tech companies, including Google and Amazon, raising uncomfortable questions about the level of access this might give donors to the most powerful man in the country.
A pledge form seen by CBS News indicated that donors may qualify for “recognition” of their contributions. Further details of this have not emerged, however.
The estimated cost of building Trump’s ornate, 8,360sq-metre (90,0000sq-ft) ballroom, which he says will accommodate 999 people, has varied since plans were announced earlier this year.
In a statement made in August, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated the cost would be about $200m. However, this week, Trump raised that to $300m.
Construction began during a US government shutdown and, therefore, without the approval of the National Capital Planning Commission, the federal agency responsible for overseeing these operations, which is closed.
On Monday, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “For more than 150 years, every President has dreamt about having a Ballroom at the White House to accommodate people for grand parties, State Visits, etc. I am honored to be the first President to finally get this much-needed project underway – with zero cost to the American Taxpayer!”
He added that he himself will also be contributing to the bill: “The White House Ballroom is being privately funded by many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly.”
However, it seems that at least some of the donations are being made as part of deals struck with Trump over other issues.
YouTube will pay $22m towards the ballroom construction as part of a legal settlement with Trump pertaining to a lawsuit he brought in 2021 over the suspension of his account after the Capitol riot that year when his supporters stormed the seat of Congress on January 6 in a bid to prevent the transfer of the presidency to Joe Biden. YouTube and Google have the same parent company, Alphabet.
The White House did not disclose how much donors would contribute. Other prominent donors – some of which have had recent legal wrangles in the US – were on a list the White House provided to the media. They include:
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement with Amazon over allegations that the multinational tech company founded by Jeff Bezos had enrolled millions of consumers to its streaming platform, Prime, without their consent and made it difficult to cancel the subscriptions.
Under the settlement, Amazon will pay $2.5bn in penalties and refunds, fix its subscription process and undergo compliance monitoring.
US-based multinational Apple – which produces the iPhone, iPad and MacBook – is headed by CEO Tim Cook.
On Tuesday, Apple asked a US appeals court to overturn a federal judge’s ruling in April that prevents it from collecting commissions on certain app purchases.
Coinbase is the largest US cryptocurrency exchange. It is led by CEO Brian Armstrong.
On September 30, a US federal judge ruled that shareholders could pursue a narrowed lawsuit accusing the company of hiding key business risks, including the risk of a lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the risk of losing assets in bankruptcy.
Last month, the US Department of Justice won a major antitrust case against Google. A federal court ruled that the tech giant illegally monopolised online search and search advertising.
Aerospace and defence manufacturer Lockheed Martin is headed by President and CEO Jim Taiclet.
In February, Lockheed Martin agreed to pay $29.74m to resolve federal allegations that the company had overcharged the US government by submitting inflated cost data for contracts of F-35 fighter jets from 2013 to 2015.
The CEO of the tech group is Satya Nadella, who earned a record $96.5m in fiscal year 2025.
The Lutnick family is associated with businessman Howard Lutnick, who is also Trump’s commerce secretary.
Lutnick is the CEO of the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald. His company Cantor Gaming has previously been accused of repeatedly violating state and federal laws, Politico reported in February.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are listed as separate donors.
The brothers are US investors and entrepreneurs, known for cofounding the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and Winklevoss Capital.
Last month, the SEC agreed to settle a lawsuit over Gemini’s unregistered cryptocurrency-lending programme offered to retail investors.
Other companies, conglomerates and individuals on the list include:
Constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein told Al Jazeera that the private funding violates the Anti-Deficiency Act.
The Anti-Deficiency Act is a US federal law that decrees the executive branch of government cannot accept goods or services from private parties to conduct official government functions unless Congress has specifically signed off on the funds.
The act protects the “congressional power of the purse”, Fein said.
“Think of this analogy: Congress refuses to fund a wall with Mexico. Could Trump go ahead and build the wall Congress refused to fund with money provided by Elon Musk or other billionaire pals of Trump?”
Fein added: “Trump is completely transactional. Funders of the ballroom will be rewarded with regulatory favours or appointments or given pardons for federal crimes.”
The Trump administration says it has ‘terminated’ all trade talks with Canada over a commercial published by the Ontario government that features comments on tariffs by the late US President Ronald Reagan, which his foundation says are misleading.
Published On 24 Oct 202524 Oct 2025
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US president says fraudulent advertisement featuring the late President Ronald Reagan to blame for termination of talks.
Published On 24 Oct 202524 Oct 2025
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United States President Donald Trump said all trade talks with Canada have been terminated following what he called a fraudulent television advertisement in which the late President Ronald Reagan spoke negatively about tariffs.
“The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform late on Thursday.
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“The ad was for $75,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the US Supreme Court, and other courts,” Trump wrote.
“Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED,” Trump added.
Earlier on Thursday, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute said on social media that a TV advertisement created by the government of Ontario in Canada “misrepresents the ‘Presidential Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade’ dated April 25, 1987.”
The foundation also said that Ontario had not received its permission “to use and edit the remarks” of the late US president.
The foundation added that it was “reviewing legal options in this matter” and invited the public to watch the unedited video of Reagan’s address.
Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford said earlier this week that the advertisement in question – featuring President Reagan criticising tariffs on foreign goods while saying they caused job losses and trade wars – had caught Trump’s attention.
“I heard that the president heard our ad. I’m sure he wasn’t too happy,” Ford said on Tuesday.
In an earlier post on social media, Ford posted a link to the advertisement and the message: “Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together,” he said.
It’s official: Ontario’s new advertising campaign in the U.S. has launched.
Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together.
Watch our new ad. pic.twitter.com/SgIVC1cqMJ
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) October 16, 2025
Trump’s announcement on the end of trade talks also followed after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he aimed to double his country’s exports to countries outside the US because of the threat posed by the Trump administration’s tariffs.
Carney also told reporters that Canada would not allow unfair US access to its markets if talks on various trade deals with Washington fail.
Canada and the US have been in talks for weeks on a potential deal after Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminium and autos earlier this year, prompting Canada to respond in kind.
The Canadian prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s announcement that all talks had ended because of the advertisement.
More than three-quarters of Canadian exports go to the US, and nearly 3.6 billion Canadian dollars ($2.7bn) worth of goods and services cross the border daily.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – When US President Donald Trump lands in Malaysia for Southeast Asia’s headline summit this weekend, he will be delivering Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim a diplomatic coup.
US presidents rarely visit Malaysia, a multiracial nation of 35 million people sandwiched between Thailand and Singapore, which for decades has maintained a policy of not picking sides in rivalries between great powers.
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Trump is just the third US leader to travel to the Southeast Asian country, which is hosting a Sunday-to-Tuesday summit for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), following visits by former US Presidents Barack Obama and Lyndon B Johnson.
After skipping ASEAN summits in 2018, 2019 and 2020, Trump, whose disdain for multilateralism is renowned, will be attending the gathering of Southeast Asian nations for just the second time.
The US president will be joined by a host of high-profile leaders from non-ASEAN countries, including Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Opting not to attend are Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who Trump is expected to meet in South Korea at next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
Trump’s visit, in many ways, is emblematic of the delicate balancing act that Anwar’s government has sought to maintain as Malaysia navigates the headwinds of the heated rivalry between the US and China.
Malaysia is deeply entwined with both the US and Chinese economies.
The US, which has a large footprint in Malaysia’s tech and oil and gas industries, was the Southeast Asian country’s top foreign investor and third-biggest trading partner in 2024.
China, a major purchaser of Malaysian electronics and palm oil, the same year took the top spot in trade and was third for investment.
But Malaysia’s efforts to walk a fine line between Washington and Beijing have become increasingly fraught as the superpowers roll out tit-for-tat tariffs and export controls while butting heads over regional flashpoints such as Taiwan and the South China Sea.
“Optimally, Malaysia wants to productively engage both China and the US on a variety of issues,” said Thomas Daniel, an analyst at the Institute of Strategic & International Studies in Kuala Lumpur.
“It is in our interest,” Daniel told Al Jazeera.
Anwar has cast Trump’s visit as a chance to bolster economic ties, champion regional peace and stability, and elevate ASEAN’s standing on the international stage.
Anwar has also pledged to use the rare opportunity for face time with Trump to constructively raise points of difference between Washington and Kuala Lumpur, particularly the Palestinian cause.
“The through-line is autonomy: avoid entanglement, maximise options, and extract benefits from both poles without becoming anyone’s proxy,” Awang Azman Awang Pawi, a professor at the University of Malaya, told Al Jazeera.
During Trump’s visit, US tariffs on Malaysia, currently set at 19 percent, and China’s mooted export controls on rare earths are expected to be high on the agenda.
For Malaysia, the priority is preserving “rules-based” trade that allows for countries to deepen economic ties despite their political differences, said Mohd Ramlan Mohd Arshad, a senior lecturer at the MARA University of Technology in Shah Alam, near Kuala Lumpur.
A prolonged economic cold war between the US and China is the “worst thing” that could happen to Malaysia, Arshad told Al Jazeera.
Trump, who has made no secret of his ambitions for the Nobel Peace Prize, is also expected to witness the signing of a peace accord between Thailand and Cambodia, which engaged in a brief border conflict in July that left at least 38 people dead.
For Anwar, who has led a multiracial coalition of parties with diverse and competing interests since 2022, the balancing act also involves political considerations at home.
US support for Israel’s war in Gaza has been a bone of contention in Muslim-majority Malaysia, where the plight of Palestinians has inspired frequent public protests.
In the run-up to the summit, critics have demanded that Anwar rescind Trump’s invitation over his role in supporting the war, which a United Nations commission of inquiry last month determined to constitute genocide.
“A person like Trump, no matter how powerful, should not be welcomed in Malaysia,” former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar’s former mentor-turned-nemesis, said in a video message last month.
Defending the invitation, Anwar has stressed his view of diplomacy as “practical work” for advancing his country’s interests “in an imperfect world”.
“It demands balance, discipline, and the courage to stay the course even when the ground shifts beneath us,” he told a conference in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month.
As a small power, Malaysia has always put pragmatism at the centre of its foreign policy, said Sharifah Munirah Alatas, an international relations lecturer at the National University of Malaysia.
“Anwar and Malaysia cannot afford to do otherwise,” Alatas told Al Jazeera.
“And given the current highly unpredictable Sino-American tension induced by the Trump 2.0 era, ASEAN will remain actively non-aligned, without taking sides.”
Awang Azman, the University of Malaya professor, said that while Trump’s visit will elevate Malaysia and ASEAN’s profile by itself, the true test of the summit’s success will be tangible outcomes on issues such as the Thailand-Cambodia conflict and trade.
“It’s not just a photo op if a ceasefire accord and concrete trade language land on paper,” Awang Azman said.
“If either track stalls, the visit is still symbolically significant – given the rarity of US presidential trips to Malaysia – but the narrative will revert to optics over outcomes.”
Petro, however, did acknowledge that a disruption in the two countries’ military cooperation could have serious consequences.
Published On 23 Oct 202523 Oct 2025
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Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has indicated that a suspension of aid from the United States would mean little to his country, but that changes to military funding could have an effect.
“What happens if they take away aid? In my opinion, nothing,” Petro told journalists on Thursday, adding that aid funding often moved through US agencies and employed Americans.
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But a cut to military cooperation would matter, he added.
“Now, in military aid, we would have some problems,” Petro said, adding that the loss of US helicopters would have the gravest impact.
US President Donald Trump had threatened over the weekend to raise tariffs on Colombia and said on Wednesday that all funding to the country has been halted.
Colombia was once among the largest recipients of US aid in the Western Hemisphere, but the flow of money was suddenly curtailed this year by the shuttering of USAID, the government’s humanitarian assistance arm. Military cooperation has continued.
The Trump administration has already “decertified” Colombia’s efforts to fight drug trafficking, paving the way for potential further cuts, but some US military personnel remain in Colombia, and the two countries continue to share intelligence.
Petro has objected to the US military’s strikes against vessels in the Caribbean, which have killed dozens of people and inflamed tensions in the region. Many legal experts and human rights activists have also condemned the actions.
Trump has responded by calling Petro an “illegal drug leader” and a “bad guy” – language Petro’s government says is offensive.
Petro has recalled his government’s ambassador from Washington, DC, but he nevertheless met with the US’s charge d’affaires in Bogota late on Sunday.
Although Trump has not announced any additional tariffs on top of the 10-percent rate already assessed on Colombian goods, he said on Wednesday he may take serious action against the country.
Petro said Trump is unlikely to put tariffs on oil and coal exports, which represent 60 percent of Colombia’s exports to the US, while the effect of tariffs on other industries could be mitigated by seeking alternative markets.
An increase in tariffs would flip a long-established US policy stance that free trade can make legitimate exports more attractive than drug trafficking, and analysts say more duties could eventually bolster drug trafficking.
Although his government has struggled to take control of major hubs for rebel and criminal activity, Petro said it has made record seizures of 2,800 metric tonnes of cocaine in three years, partly through increased efforts at Pacific ports where container ships are used for smuggling.
He also repeated an accusation that Trump’s actions are intended to boost the far right in Colombia in next year’s legislative and presidential elections.
United States President Donald Trump sanctions Russia’s two biggest oil companies – after scrapping a summit with President Vladimir Putin on the Ukraine war.
The European Union has also announced new measures targeting Russian oil and assets.
Will they bring an end to the war any closer?
Presenter: Bernard Smith
Guests:
Anatol Lieven – Director of the Eurasia programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
Steven Erlanger – Chief Diplomatic Correspondent for Europe at The New York Times
Chris Weafer – CEO of Macro-Advisory, a strategic consultancy focused on Russia and Eurasia
Published On 23 Oct 202523 Oct 2025
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