Trump and China’s Xi meet face-to-face to try to solve trade tensions

News from Trump’s trip to Asia:

• Trump announces plans to lower tariffs on China: The president told reporters aboard Air Force One that the U.S. would lower tariffs implemented earlier this year as punishment on China for its selling of chemicals used to make fentanyl from 20% to 10%. That brings the total combined tariff rate on China down from 57% to 47%.
• Nuclear weapons testing: Trump appeared to suggest the U.S. will resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in three decades, saying it would be on an “equal basis” with Russia and China. Trump offered few details but made the announcement on social media minutes before he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
• 25 million metric tons of soybeans: China has agreed to purchase the substantial sum of soybeans from the U.S. annually as part of an agreement reached by its leaders, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday.

The guarantors of the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal have told Hamas that Israel will resume — and they will not object to — military strikes on targets within the Israeli-occupied zone of the Palestinian territory after a deadline for militants to leave the area expired Thursday.

A senior U.S. official said that in messages passed to Hamas by Egypt and Qatar on Wednesday the group was told its remaining fighters in the yellow zone had 24 hours to leave or face Israeli strikes. After the deadline passed, the official said, “Israel will enforce the ceasefire and engage Hamas targets behind the yellow line.”

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic conversations.

National Guard soldiers patrol at Union Station, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Military leaders have ordered the National Guard in every state to develop a “quick reaction force” of troops trained to deal with civil disturbances and riots that can be ready to deploy with just hours’ notice.

It’s the latest indication of longer-term Trump administration plans to more readily send soldiers into U.S. streets.

A set of memos circulated this month direct Guard units in all 50 states and the U.S. territories to train a contingent of soldiers in a specialized course that includes the proper use of batons, body shields, stun guns and pepper spray.

The memos, reported earlier by The Guardian, give various numbers for each state’s force — often 500 each — that total more than 23,000 troops in all.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said she has authorized local funds to be used to make sure that residents enrolled in SNAP and WIC receive their November benefits despite the federal shutdown and federal aid suspension.

According to the D.C. government, about 85,000 District households receive SNAP each month, and 8,300 households receive WIC benefits, which allows them to purchase items such as baby formula.

“We were hopeful it wouldn’t come to this — and we still need the federal government to reopen as soon as possible — but for right now, we’re moving forward to ensure we take care of DC residents in November,” Bowser said in a statement.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan said they are launching an investigation into the donors and money flowing to the renovation and construction project.

“The public has a right to know exactly who is funding the destruction of a protected historic structure, how much they are contributing, and what, if anything, they have been promised in return,” the senators said in a statement.

They are the top Democrats on the three committees with jurisdiction over the White House and its construction projects.

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Construction is pictured before President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive to greet families during a Halloween event on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The construction for Trump’s planned ballroom was mostly hidden behind a white wall as attendees gathered on the South Lawn for the event. Above the wall, large construction machinery could be seen in the area.

Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in a joint statement with other Democratic lawmakers that the Trump administration is defying federal laws.

“This bizarre presidential determination is not only morally indefensible, it is illegal and invalid,” they said.

The Trump administration is “skipping over the tens of thousands of refugees who have been waiting in line for years,” and “prioritizing a single privileged racial group—white South African Afrikaners,” they said.

The administration has not yet consulted with Congress about its plan, as is required by law. They said the process that exists to ensure such decisions reflect “the rule of law, not the racial preferences or political whims of any one president.”

Attorneys representing the coalition of protesters and journalists suing federal authorities over allegations of excessive use of force expressed frustration Thursday over senior Border Patrol official Greg Bovino no longer being required to appear in court daily.

“Defendant Bovino himself has stated publicly that the reporting requirement the government now challenges poses no obstacle to his work,” the attorneys said in a Thursday court filing. “Indeed, he said after the district court’s order that he ‘looks forward’ to reporting to Judge Ellis.”

An appeals court intervened Wednesday and suddenly blocked an order that required Bovino to give unprecedented daily briefings to a judge about immigration sweeps in Chicago. The suspension came just hours before his first meeting with the judge.

The president and his wife opted against costumes, but Trump, in his regular suit, wore a red hat that said “USA” while the first lady wore a beige coat.

The young children of White House staffers — accompanied by their parents — were among the first in line of costumed trick-or-treaters to get candy from the Trumps.

“I am directing you to collectively identify 48 attorneys and 4 paralegals from within your Military Department who may be suitable for detail” to the Justice Department to act as special assistant U.S. attorneys, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in a memo this week and reviewed by The Associated Press.

It’s the latest effort to send military and civilian attorneys working for the Pentagon to the Justice Department, this time to staff offices based along the U.S. southern border or where federal immigration enforcement operations are taking place.

The memo says the Justice Department asked for 20 lawyers to help support its offices in Memphis, where the National Guard has been deployed by Trump; 12 for West Texas — specifically for the cities of El Paso, Del Rio and Midland — and three lawyers and two paralegals for Las Cruces, New Mexico.

▶ Read more about Hegseth’s order

On Monday, Flashfood saw twice as many people downloading its app as usual; by Wednesday, downloads were eight times higher. Flashfood said Thursday that its app has 1.5 million downloads.

The Toronto-based app partners with 2,000 North American grocery stores to offer discounts on food that is nearing its expiration date. The company works with Kroger, Meijer, Piggly Wiggly and Giant Eagle, among other chains.

Flashfood says it has rerouted more than 145 million pounds (65.8 million kilograms) of food from landfills and saved shoppers more than $370 million since it was founded a decade ago.

The Justice Department is investigating whether leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement defrauded donors who contributed millions of dollars during racial justice protests in 2020.

That’s according to multiple people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press.

In recent weeks, federal law enforcement officials have issued subpoenas and warrants as part of an investigation into the Black-led organizations that helped spark a national reckoning on systemic racism.

The investigation invites fresh scrutiny to a foundation whose leaders in recent years have faced criticism about their public accounting of donations.

The recent burst of investigative activity is also unfolding at a time when civil rights groups have raised concerns about the Trump administration targeting left-leaning groups.

▶ Read more about the investigation

People continue to line up at food banks across the nation despite looming concerns over federal funding for SNAP. The program supports about 40 million people with food assistance. (AP video: Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos and Tassanee Vejpongsa)

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks alongside Vice President JD Vance about the impact of the government shutdown on the aviation industry, outside of the West Wing of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

“Our traffic will be snarled. It will be a disaster in aviation,” Duffy told reporters outside the White House after a closed-door meeting with aviation industry leaders and Vice President JD Vance.

That’s because air traffic controllers will have missed at least two full paychecks by Thanksgiving, Duffy said, which could lead to more of them calling out sick.

The State Department has ordered non-essential U.S. diplomats and their families to leave Mali due to terrorism threats and a severe fuel crisis stemming from a jihadi group’s blockade of fuel tankers entering the landlocked West African nation.

Just two days after repeating a warning from American citizens to leave Mali, the department on Thursday said it had moved to so-called “ordered departure” status for non-essential embassy personnel and families from the capital of Bamako. “Ordered departure” requires those covered to leave, although they do so at government expense.

The al-Qaida-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin group, or JNIM, announced in September that it was imposing a blockade on tanker trucks entering Mali as part of its fight against the country’s military authorities. The group’s fighters have set more than 100 trucks on fire, paralyzing the country’s fuel supply.

FILE – Voters wait in line to cast there ballot at a polling place at Rowan College in Mt Laurel, N.J., Oct. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

California’s Democratic senators are demanding the U.S. Justice Department immediately cancel plans to send federal election observers to the state for its statewide election next week.

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff wrote that the plan is based on “blatantly partisan motivations” and is “clearly linked” to President Donald Trump’s most recent attack on the legitimacy of California’s elections.

“Watch how totally dishonest the California Prop Vote is!” Trump wrote last weekend on Truth Social, referring to Proposition 50, the lone issue on the state’s special election ballot Tuesday.

The senators told Bondi that Trump’s statement “is a stain on this deployment and any actions that the department might attempt to take based on it.”

They said the department should — at a minimum — provide greater transparency and coordinate with state and local election administrators “to prevent any activities that may lead to voter intimidation or interference with elections.”

FILE – Mayor Andre Dickens gives the final State of the City address of his first term at Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Thursday that because of the SNAP benefit cutoff, the city will stop cutting off water service to people who don’t pay their bills and that city-owned or funded housing will stop evicting people or charging them late fees.

Both measures will last through Jan. 31.

Dickens said the effort is intended to help people who are losing SNAP benefits or federal workers going without pay, but said eligibility would be “pretty open” to anyone requesting help.

The announcement came as the Atlanta Community Food Bank said it would spend $5 million in reserves to bolster food supplies.

Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, has declined to consider state aid for SNAP recipients, although the state has more than $14 billion in reserve cash. Dickens, a Democrat likely to be reelected on Tuesday, said “this might be a good time” to use some of that surplus.

A coalition of cities together with community, business and union organizations filed a lawsuit Thursday that aims to ensure food benefits for tens of millions of low-income Americans don’t get halted this weekend by the Trump administration.

The lawsuit comes as a federal judge in Boston heard a motion on a similar lawsuit over SNAP, saying she expected to make a ruling later Thursday. The program could be suspended as early as Saturday due to the government shutdown.

Volunteer Joel Hernandez helps load a vehicle during a food distribution targeting federal employee households affected by the federal shutdown as well as SNAP recipients, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

“Denying millions of Americans access to basic food security is unlawful and unconscionable, and it threatens to push local nonprofit food banks, food pantries, and other organizations beyond the breaking point,” Diane Yentel, president and CEO, National Council of Nonprofits.

The SNAP program, which costs about $8 billion per month, serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net.

Refugee advocacy groups are sharing strong reactions to the Trump administration’s new limit on entries from last year’s ceiling of 125,000 set under Democratic President Joe Biden to 7,500, who will most ly be white South Africans.

“By privileging Afrikaners while continuing to ban thousands of refugees who have already been vetted and approved, the administration is once again politicizing a humanitarian program,” Sharif Aly, president of IRAP, said in a statement.

“Concentrating the vast majority of admissions on one group undermines the program’s purpose as well as its credibility,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President & CEO of Global Refuge.

Human Rights First condemned the decision as a “new low point” in U.S. foreign policy.

“This decision will further destabilize front-line states that host over two-thirds of the world’s nearly 43 million refugees, undermining U.S. national security in tandem,” said Uzra Zeya, president of Human Rights First.

The top Democrats on three Senate committees are suggesting to Trump that his proposed White House ballroom is “unauthorized, unprecedented” and a “likely misuse of federal authority.”

The senators raised conflict-of-interest concerns about major government contractors being among the donors contributing to the $300 million project, saying it presented a “profound risk of pay-to-play corruption.”

In a letter sent to Trumpthey request an itemized list of donors, the amounts they gave and if any are foreigner individuals or entities. They also ask for a detailed breakdown of the ballroom plan’s finances, They also ask what steps are being taken to preserve furniture and other historical items previously in the East Wing.

The letter’s signers were: Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, ranking member of the environmental committee, Martin Heinrich, ranking member of the energy committee and Gary Peters, ranking member of the government affairs committee.

Illinois Gov JB Pritzker’s request to “suspend” a Chicago area immigration crackdown during Halloween has been shutdown by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Pritzker made the request this week after federal agents deployed a chemical agent in a Chicago neighborhood preparing up for a Halloween parade. Neighbors said several children were affected and U.S. citizens were among those handcuffed.

The crackdown that started nearly two months ago has led to tense clashes and roughly 3,000 arrests across Chicago’s metro area, which includes parts of Indiana.

Pritzker says Illinois families “deserve to spend Halloween without fear.”
But Noem says immigration agents are keeping communities safe and blasted Pritzker’s request as “shameful.” She spoke to reporters in Gary, Indiana, after highlighting recent arrests.

The top U.N. official on Thursday blasted President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States will restart its testing of nuclear weapons.

Antonio Guterres, the U.N. Secretary General, said in a statement that “current nuclear risks are already alarmingly high” for any other countries to join in.

“We must never forget the disastrous legacy of over 2,000 nuclear weapons tests carried out over the last 80 years,” he said, according to his deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haqq. “Nuclear testing can never be permitted under any circumstances.”

Former Vice President Kamala Harris speaks, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

The former vice president said Proposition 50 is California’s chance to fight back against President Donald Trump’s plan to gain more GOP seats in Texas and other states.

“We as Californians are standing up to level the playing field,” Harris said in a social media post.

Voting concludes Nov. 4. If passes, it would realign district boundaries to make as many as five additional seats winnable for Democrats in next year’s midterm elections. Republicans currently hold nine of the state’s 52 congressional seats.

The top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee said that the Trump administration’s gradual efforts to block Democrats from briefings on national security matters is “against every norm of how national security policy has worked” and “an erosion of trust” with the public.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said Thursday that a partisan briefing on the U.S. military’s boat strikes in waters off South America this week was “outrageous” and should have never happened.

Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing to examine worldwide threats at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)

“Every United States senator ought to read in,” Warner told reporters. “And until that happens, I don’t know how you even begin to rebuild trust.”

Warner criticized Republican senators who attended the meeting, including members of leadership and more moderate members of the GOP conference. He said that “somebody should have walked out.”

The briefing came as the Senate is expected to vote next week on a war powers resolution that would prohibit strikes in or near Venezuela, unless Congress approves the military action.

The head of the Oklahoma Human Services agency notified employees via email Wednesday that as a result of the federal shutdown they plan to furlough employees who make more than $50,000 annually, effective Nov. 2.

The agency also plans to implement a hiring freeze for most positions, eliminate most travel and overtime, and reduce or suspend some of its contracts, according to the email from OHS Director Jeffrey Cartmell.

“As you know, nearly 75% of OKDHS’ funding comes from federal sources,” Cartmell wrote in the email obtained by The Associated Press.

“After exhausting every available option to minimize the impact on staff and sustain essential operations, the continuing lapse in federal appropriations leaves us no choice but to implement these temporary measures.”

The government shutdown is exacting a heavy mental toll on the nation’s military familiesleaving them not knowing from week to week whether their paychecks will arrive.

Alicia Blevins, whose husband is a Marine, said she’s going to see a therapist in large part because of the grinding uncertainty.

“I don’t feel like I have the tools to deal with this,” said Blevins, 33, who lives at Camp Lejeune, a Marine base near North Carolina’s coast. “I don’t want to dump all this on my husband. He’s got men that he’s in charge of. He’s got enough to deal with.”

Even though the Trump administration has found ways to pay the troops twice since the shutdown began on Oct. 1, the process has been fraught with anxiety for many Americans in uniform and their loved ones. Both times, they were left hanging until the last minute.

The Trump administration is restricting the number of refugees it admits into the country to 7,500 and they will mostly be white South Africans, a dramatic drop after the U.S. previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution from around the world.

The administration published the news Thursday in a notice on the Federal Register.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau greets Afrikaner refugees from South Africa, May 12, 2025, at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

No reason was given for the numbers, which are a dramatic decrease from last year’s ceiling set under the Biden administration of 125,000. The Associated Press previously reported that the administration was considering admitting as few as 7,500 refugees and mostly white South Africans.

The memo said only that the admission of the 7,500 refugees during 2026 fiscal year was “justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest.”

▶ Read more about refugee admissions

Vice President JD Vance will lead the closed-door meeting at the White House on Thursday, according to a White House official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity to share details of the meeting.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has warned in recent days that flight delays could grow as air traffic controllers who are missing paychecks because of the shutdown call out sick. Duffy and Vance will be joined at the roundtable by former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, and leaders from the aviation industry, according to the official.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the United States is ready to help the Cuban people recover from devastation wrought by Hurricane Melissa despite long-standing hostility between Washington and Havana, the U.S. emargo on the communist island nation and Rubio’s own harsh criticism of the Cuban government.

In a statement released Thursday, Rubio said the State Department is issuing “a Declaration of Humanitarian Assistance for Cuba and is prepared to provide immediate humanitarian assistance directly and via local partners who can most effectively deliver it to those in need.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the media after visiting the Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel, Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (Fadel Senna/Pool Photo via AP)

He noted that current U.S. law allows for exemptions on exports to Cuba that include private donations of food, medicine, other humanitarian goods to Cuba and disaster response.

On Wednesday, U.S. officials said several dozen disaster relief workers and urban search and rescue teams are being deployed to Caribbean nations affected by the storm but didn’t mention Cuba.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on a Cancun-based human smuggling organization that has allegedly smuggled thousands of people from Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Asia into the U.S.

Bhardwaj Human Smuggling Organization and its leader Vikrant Bhardwaj and a group of firms are also accused of being involved in drug trafficking, bribery, and money laundering.

Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley said the Trump administration “will continue to target and dismantle terrorist transnational criminal organizations to protect the American people.”

Johnson, a Republican, says it’s no surprise talks are picking up in the Senate on ways to end the government shutdown, particularly with SNAP food aid about to end Saturday.

“We’re just fed up with it,” he said at his daily news conference at the Capitol, on day 30 of the shutdown. “Turn this thing back on.”

The speaker has kept the House out of legislative session for more than a month, a remarkable closure preventing other business during the shutdown.

The U.S. stock market is drifting around its record heights Thursday, as Wall Street sifts through mixed developments on everything from the U.S.-China trade war to profits for Big Tech behemoths.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% and edged a bit further from its all-time high set Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 199 points, or 0.5%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.6% from its record set the day before.

Stocks also dipped in Europe, following a mixed finish in Asia, coming off a much anticipated meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies. President Trump hailed his talk with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as a “12” on a scale of zero to 10, and Trump said he would cut tariffs on China. But while the talks may offer some stability for the near term, major tensions remain between the two countries.

▶ Read more about the financial markets

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent added that as part of the deal President Trump struck with Xi, China will start by purchasing 12 million metric tons of soybeans from the U.S. between now and January.

“So you know, our great soybean farmers, who the Chinese used as political pawns, that’s off the table, and they should prosper in the years to come,” Bessent said in an interview on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria.”

The Trump administration is forging ahead with plans to eject some nonprofits from a popular student loan forgiveness program if their work is deemed to have a “substantial illegal purpose” — a move that could cut off some teachers, doctors and other public workers from federal loan cancellation.

New rules finalized Thursday give the Education Department expanded power to ban organizations from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. The Trump administration calls it necessary to block taxpayer money from lawbreakers. Critics say it turns the program into a tool of political retribution.

Set to take effect in July, the policy is aimed primarily at organizations that work with immigrants and transgender youth.

It grants the education secretary power to exclude groups from the program if they engage in activities including the trafficking or “chemical castration” of children, illegal immigration and supporting terrorist organizations. “Chemical castration” is defined as using hormone therapy or drugs that delay puberty — gender-affirming care common for transgender children or teens.

▶ Read more about the Trump administration and student loans

A Senate hearing for Trump’s surgeon general pick, Casey Means, has been postponed because she went into labor.

The news from a spokesperson for the Senate health committee comes just hours before Means was scheduled to appear virtually before the committee for her confirmation hearing. It wasn’t immediately clear when the hearing would be rescheduled.

Meansa Stanford-educated physician-turned-wellness influencer, has been expecting her first child.

President Donald Trump, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, second left, shake hands before their meeting at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

• Rolling back tariffs: Trump told reporters while heading home on Air Force One that he had agreed to cut his 20% tariff increase, imposed over China’s role in producing fentanyl and chemicals used to make it, to 10%. China confirmed that it will take average tariffs on Chinese goods to 47%, down from 57%. The two sides agreed to continue to work on cracking down on illicit flows of the drug into the U.S.
• Sales of computer chips to China: Trump said he discussed U.S. sales of computer chips to China. Trump and former President Joe Biden had imposed restrictions on access to the most advanced chips such as those used for artificial intelligence. China will speak with Silicon Valley chipmaker Nvidia about purchasing its computer chips, he said. That won’t include its next-generation Blackwell AI chip, he said, “but a lot of the chips.”
• U.S. soybeans and other farm exports: Trump said the Chinese side has committed to buying “a tremendous amount” of American soybeans, sorghum and other farm products. The Chinese side did not provide any details.
• No TikTok deal itself: Beijing said it will work with the Trump administration to resolve issues related to TikTok’s ownership.