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May 15, 2026 - World

US president hails ‘fantastic’ deals, but details remain scarce after pageantry and little progress at much-hyped summit with XiTrump in China – latest updatesDonald Trump left China on Friday after a much-hyped summit of the world’s two major powers that was rich in pageantry and promises of stability, but offered little by way of tangible progress.The US president had gone into the two-day talks with China’s Xi Jinping weakened by his prolonged war in Iran, and did little to change the perception that he and his nation are diminished on the global stage. Continue reading...

May 15, 2026 - World

US president offers no news of any breakthrough on Iran. Plus, how renters’ rights could be key issue in midtermsDon’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning.On his visit to China, Donald Trump has seemed to revel in Chinese hospitality and flattery. Walking in the Zhongnanhai garden, in Beijing, the US president was overheard saying that his counterpart, Xi Jinping, was giving him roses for the White House rose garden, according to a pool report.What has China said on Iran? On Friday, China’s foreign ministry again called for a ceasefire in Iran and said the strait of Hormuz should be opened “as soon as possible”. Before the summit, there was speculation the US might appeal to China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, to use its leverage to encourage the country to reopen the strait. But that was walked back on Thursday by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who said: “We don’t need their help.”What about talks over Taiwan? They weren’t mentioned much. Xi took a firm tone, declaring that “Taiwan independence” and peace in the Taiwan strait were “incompatible”. Trump sidestepped questions on Taiwan, and a White House readout of the meeting published later omitted any mention of the country.What do Russia’s renewed heavy attacks tell us? Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, said on Thursday that Russia’s heavy bombardment of Kyiv showed Moscow was “banking on escalation rather than negotiation. Kyiv and its partners are ready for negotiations aimed at a just peace,” Merz said. “Russia, for its part, is continuing the war.” Continue reading...

May 15, 2026 - World

Mirroring of each other’s attire may signal alignment – though the look wasn’t a huge departure for either leaderWhen Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met for a welcome ceremony in Tiananmen Square this week with the world’s gaze on them, they mirrored one another in strikingly similar suits.Both were blue, single-breasted with flap pockets. Both had two buttons with only the top one done up. Both wore red ties. Continue reading...

May 15, 2026 - World

As Donald Trump returns from his trip to Beijing, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the consensus of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” panel is that the American president appears weaker now before the summit.And Trump all but admitted it.On Friday morning, longtime political analyst John Heilemann pointed to Trump’s admission that the Chinese leader talked about the US as a “declining nation,” without pushback, was a particularly humiliating effort by the American president to ingratiate himself to Xi.Pointing to Trump posting on Truth Social, “When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100% correct,” Heilemann admitted he was stunned that Trump would admit that in public thinking it would help him make the case for his presidency.“So basically, this is Xi Jinping saying, hey, let's not get into war. But the implication was decline, that the U.S. was in decline and Trump's response to that was so sad,” he exclaimed to agreement from the panel. “I mean, not just the fact that he's blaming Joe Biden, but let's read the first sentence of it where he says something like yesterday, when Xi Jinping, so elegantly, I have it here: ‘When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation,’ that's all you need.”“It's like — that's just — it's an amazing thing to write,’ he elaborated. “It's a wonder — one of the more incredible Trump sentences ever. ... Because I can't ever say anything critical of Xi Jinping. Never does. Right?““You didn't have to to pin the tail on the donkey and say, the United States is the declining power for it to be very clear that in the optics and dynamics and on any metric that Trump understands, let alone the rest of the world: which of those two countries is the declining country? “ he added. “And Xi Jinping didn't need to say it directly. It's pretty clear to everyone where they stand in terms of relative power.” - YouTube youtu.be

May 15, 2026 - World

Belarus’ authoritarian leader has greeted U.S. evangelist Franklin Graham, who arrived in the tightly controlled country to hold the largest evangelical gathering in its history