President Donald Trump walks with Chinese president Xi Jinping at the Temple of Heaven on Thursday. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP PhotoView image in fullscreenPresident Donald Trump walks with Chinese president Xi Jinping at the Temple of Heaven on Thursday. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP PhotoFirst Thing: China trip winds down but Trump-Xi Iran accord remains elusiveUS president offers no news of any breakthrough on Iran. Plus, how renters’ rights could be key issue in midterms
In 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 Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, was giving him roses for the White House Rose Garden, according to a pool report.
But warm words aside, there have not been any major announcements from the summit, no breakthrough on Taiwan’s future, and an accord on the Iran war has remained elusive.
Trump has claimed that the US and China “feel very similar” about ending the war in Iran but offered no details about a possible breakthrough. “We did discuss Iran,” Trump said on the final day of the meeting. “We feel very similar about [how] we want it to end. We don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. We want the straits open.”
Trump departed Beijing on Friday. He said “a lot of good” came from his China visit and “we’ve settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve”. Trump also said that numerous deals had been struck between the US and China, including China buying 200 Boeing jets as well as US oil and soya beans. This deal has not been confirmed by either China or Boeing.
What has China said on Iran? On Fridy, China’s foreign ministry again called for a ceasefire in Iran and said the strait of Hormuz should be opened “as soon as possible”. Ahead of 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 of Hormuz. But that was walked back by US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Thursday, 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 took a muted approach as he sidestepped questions on Taiwan. A White House readout of the meeting published later also omitted mention of the country.
View image in fullscreenAn explosion lights up the sky over Kyiv, Ukraine, during a Russian missile and drone strike on 14 May. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/ReutersAt least 24 people, including three children, were reported killed in yesterday’s Russian attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
“The Russians practically demolished an entire section of the building with their missile,” president Zelenskyy said after visiting the site in Kyiv. The Ukrainian ministry of foreign affairs said it was “one of the deadliest attacks on Kyiv since the start of Russia’s full-scale war.”
Meanwhile, on Thursday the UN nuclear watchdog warned of “intensified” military activities near several Ukraine nuclear sites that posed significant safety risks.
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.”
View image in fullscreenAn activist holds a US flag during a rally in front of the US supreme court on 15 October 2025 in Washington DC. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty ImagesSouthern states are rushing to redraw congressional maps to eliminate Democratic districts and dilute the influence of Black voters in electing candidates, a bare-knuckled blitz occurring even in some states where voting in congressional primaries has begun, and prompted by the US supreme court’s decision gutting section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
“This is a five-alarm fire for Black representation in the south,” said Michael Li, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice. “The [supreme] court has signaled it’s going to be a redistricting wild west, and there will be no sheriff around.”
Which states are redrawing congressional maps? Tennessee Republicans have already enacted a new map. Louisiana is on the verge of implementing one. Alabama has successfully petitioned the US supreme court to allow it to eliminate a district currently represented by a Black Democrat. In South Carolina, the Republican governor is reportedly poised to call a special session to draw a new congressional map. States such as Texas, Missouri, Florida and North Carolina, which already redrew their maps to add Republican districts, could also draw maps again before 2028 elections.
View image in fullscreenRightwing Israelis gather for the annual ‘flag march’ near the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. Photograph: Atef Safadi/EPA Israeli nationalists chanted “death to the Arabs”, “may your villages burn” and “Gaza is a graveyard” – in a state-sponsored march through Jerusalem to mark the anniversary of the city’s capture and annexation.
The US supreme court upheld nationwide access to mail-order x, an abortion medication, in a shadow-docket decision on Thursday.
Closing arguments began on Thursday in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI, bringing the weeks-long courtroom battle nearer to a decision.
View image in fullscreenDisplaced people from Sudan at a refugee settlement in Adre, Chad. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesThe number of internal displacements triggered by conflict or violence around the world reached a record high in 2025 – reaching 32.3 million people – which was 60% higher than the previous year. That’s according to a report from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, amid conflicts such as those in DR Congo, Sudan, Iran and Lebanon. In total, 82.2 million people were displaced in 2025.
View image in fullscreenWorkers install the red carpet at the Palais des Festivals ahead of the opening ceremony of the 79th international film festival, Cannes, 12 May. Photograph: Andreea Alexandru/Invision/APWhen the lineup for the 2026 Cannes film festival was announced last month, one aspect immediately stood out: the near-total absence of major Hollywood studio films, writes Nadia Khomami.
View image in fullscreenNew Yorkers demonstrate for a rent freeze in New York City on 7 May 2025. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesWith housing costs for working-class families steadily climbing across the US, while billionaire fortunes soar to all-time highs, renters’ rights are becoming a defining policy in the upcoming midterm elections, tenant rights organizers say. Policies previously considered too extreme have become the centerpiece of insurgent political campaigns in the midterm elections.
View image in fullscreenA deforested clearing in Brazil’s Atlantic forest on 2 June 2024. Photograph: Brazil Photos/LightRocket/GettyBrazil’s Atlantic forest, the country’s most threatened biome, last year recorded its lowest level of deforestation since monitoring began 40 years ago, a new report shows. In 2025, it recorded 8,658 hectares of deforestation, marking the first time it has fallen below 10,000 hectares since 1985.
View image in fullscreenKing penguins have been coming to Useless Bay in southern Chile’s Tierra del Fuego region for hundreds of years. Photograph: Anastasia Austin/The GuardianWhen the birds started nesting on her land at Useless Bay in southern Chile’s Tierra del Fuego region, Cecilia Durán Gafo, a local landowner and former kindergarten teacher, now 72, decided she would protect them from people and predators. Today, she runs a reserve that oversees the world’s only continental king penguin colony. “Last year, 23 chicks survived – a record,” she says.
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