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Trump says China’s Xi Jinping agreed to accelerate purchases of US goods

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Published On 26 Nov 2025

President Donald Trump stated the day after a phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping was characterized by Beijing as “positive, friendly, and constructive” and that the two leaders have “more or less agreed” to increase purchases of goods from the United States.

Trump claimed to have asked the Chinese leader to “accelerate purchases from the US” while speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Tuesday night.

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Trump said, “I believe the actions of President Xi will surprise uspleasantly.”

I told him, “I’d like you to buy it a little more quickly. You should purchase more, please. And he seemed to have accepted that, he said.

Trump’s optimistic outlook on trade with China comes after Beijing announced last month that it would resume purchases of US soybeans and halt expanded restrictions on rare earths exports to the US amid a strained trade relationship with Washington.

According to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, China has pledged to buy 12 million tonnes of soya beans this year from US farmers, but the Reuters news agency reports that the Chinese purchases have been slower than expected.

According to information from the US Department of Agriculture, China has ordered nearly two million tonnes of US soybeans, according to Reuters.

Trump and Xi made the phone call on Monday following their meeting in South Korea, where they agreed on the terms of a draft trade agreement that is still pending.

According to China’s official Xinhua news agency, Xi was quoted as telling Trump in the call that “China and the United States once fought side by side against fascism and militarism.”

Additionally, Xi stated to Trump that “the post-war international order includes Taiwan’s return to China.”

Taiwan is considered to be a part of China’s territory, and it has not ruled out the possibility of using force to reunite the island’s self-ruled, democratic island with the mainland.

The US has historically opposed China’s potential use of force to seize Taiwan, and domestic law requires Taipei to receive sufficient military hardware to deter any armed attack.

Trump has remained ambiguous about whether he would send US troops to the Taiwan Strait, while his administration has urged Taiwan to increase its defense budget.

In a later post on Truth Social, Trump mentioned Xi’s comments on Taiwan and claimed to have had a “very good” conversation with the Chinese leader, which included topics like Ukraine, Fentanyl, and US farm products.

“China is a very important part of our relationship,” we say! Following our three-weekly, incredibly fruitful meeting in South Korea, this call was made. According to Trump, there have been significant improvements on both sides since then in ensuring that our agreements remain accurate and current.

He said, “We can now concentrate on the big picture.”

The US leader added that he had accepted Xi’s invitation to travel to Beijing in April and that he had also invited Xi to make a state visit to the US later in the year.

Washington’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday that Mao Ning’s “positive, friendly, and constructive” conversation between Trump and Xi had begun.

Mao added that “communication between the two heads of state on issues of common concern is essential for the stable development of China-US relations.”

Italy adds ‘femicide’ to the criminal code to curb violence against women

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Published On 26 Nov 2025

The Italian parliament has officially included the term “femicide,” which is intentional killing of women and girls due to their gender, in its penal code. It is punishable by life in prison.

According to Italian public broadcaster RAI, the bill was unanimously approved on Tuesday, demonstrating what Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called a sign of “political cohesion against the barbaric nature of violence against women.”

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Since its inception, Meloni’s government has supported the bill, as have other anti-stalking laws. A bill that prohibits sexual activity without “free and actual consent” is also being debated by the legislature.

According to The Associated Press news agency, we have increased funding for antiviolence centers and shelters, promoted an emergency hotline, and carried out innovative education and awareness-raising initiatives, Meloni said. We won’t stop at this, though, because these are concrete steps forward. Every day, we must do much more.

The vote also coincided with the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

According to AP, Italy reported 106 femicides last year, 62 of which were committed by a partner or former partner, citing the statistics agency in Italy.

According to UN Women, nearly two-thirds of female homicides were committed by a partner or family member, which is in line with global trends.

Giulia Cecchettin, a 22-year-old university student, was stabbed by her boyfriend in November 2023, raising the alarm over the persistent problem of violence against women in Italy. He was later given a life-long prison term.

Non Una di Meno and Non One Less, two rights movements in Italy, claim Meloni’s government is too focused on bringing about punishments rather than preventing violence.

Italy’s public school systems are among the few in the EU where sexual education is not required, and many programs call for parental approval.

New Zealand mother jailed for life over ‘suitcase murders’ of her children

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A New Zealand woman was given a life sentence for tarnishing her two children and storing their bodies in storage units.

Hakyung Lee’s sentencing was announced on Wednesday after her sentencing in September 2018 for the heinous murders of her two children, ages 8 and 6, respectively. The case was referred to as the “suitcase murders” in New Zealand.

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Lee, who was born in South Korea, admitted to killing the children but entered a not-guilty blunder. One year after the children’s father passed away from cancer, the murders occurred.

The 45-year-old was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years, despite requests from Lee’s attorneys for a lower penalty.

He claimed that she had killed “particularly vulnerable” children.

However, he reportedly approved of Lee being put on hold for treatment at a supervised psychiatric facility, according to the New Zealand Herald newspaper.

You may not be able to bear having your children around you as a reminder of your previous happy life, Venning said. “You knew your actions were morally wrong.

As the judge handed down the sentence, Lee sat in court, bowing her head and keeping her eyes fixed to the floor.

Since New Zealand abolished the death penalty in 1989, life imprisonment is the most severe form of punishment available.

After bodies were discovered in suitcases in Auckland on August 11, 2022, New Zealand police investigators [Dean Purcell/New Zealand Herald via AP Photo]

Lee, who claimed her husband’s death left her daughter Yuna Jo and son Minu Jo in agony, lacing their fruit juice with a prescription medication overdose.

Lee claimed she intended to commit suicide while the children were being cared for, but the timing was incorrect.

She placed her dead children in plastic bags before putting them in suitcases at a suburban storage facility close to Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand.

The bodies remained in storage until 2022, when a suspicious family broke into the contents of a sold-in storage locker.

“Deep descent” into mental illness

Police gathered the identities of the children, how long they had been dead, and ultimately who had killed them using DNA and other forensic evidence.

Lee, who had since changed her name and fled South Korea for her birth country, was eventually found and detained in Ulsan, a port city.

In New Zealand, she was sent to stand trial.

Lee, who had two attorneys to her, was represented throughout the trial.

Not whether Lee murdered her children, to whom she had confessed, but whether she knew that her actions were wrong, was the subject of the trial.

According to the attorneys, Lee’s husband, Ian Jo, passed away in 2017 after a “deep descent” into mental illness that led to her believing the only way to end her life was to kill her children and then herself, according to Radio NZ.

A forensic psychiatrist described Lee’s mental state, including suicidal thoughts, suicidal thoughts, and the belief that killing her children was the right course of action in her testimony for the defense.

Lee’s actions were criticized by the prosecution as being purposeful and aimed at concealing the bodies before fleeing the country.

The family of Lee was told at the sentencing hearing on Wednesday that the murders had left a lot of emotional scars.

Why didn’t she die by herself if she had wished to die? Choon Ja Lee, Lee’s mother, stated in a statement read to the court. Why did she bring her own children with her?

Lee’s brother-in-law claimed that the other grandmother of the children was still unaware of the murders because she had cancer.

According to a statement read to the court, Sei Wook Cho claimed that his “daily existence is a time bomb of fear” that the grandmother would discover.

Cuba condemns ‘aggressive’ US stance towards Venezuela as tensions rise

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Cuba has accused the United States of pushing towards the violent removal of Venezuela’s leadership, warning that the growing deployment of US military forces in the Caribbean represents an “exaggerated and aggressive” threat to regional stability.

“We appeal to the people of the United States to stop this madness”, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said in a statement on Tuesday.

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He cautioned that “the US government could cause an incalculable number of deaths and create a scenario of violence and instability in the hemisphere that would be unimaginable”, adding that such actions would breach international law as well as the United Nations charter.

The condemnation comes as US President Donald Trump weighs additional actions against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, with the White House refusing to rule out more forceful measures.

The Trump administration has repeatedly accused Maduro of leading a campaign to smuggle drugs into the US, even though it has not provided any evidence to back its claim.

Over the past two months, the US has bombed 21 boats in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, killing at least 83 people. It claimed that these boats were involved in drug trafficking, but authorities have released no evidence showing narcotics were present, and legal scholars argue that even if drugs were found, the attacks would likely still violate international law.

The US military footprint in the region is now the largest it has been in decades, with roughly 15, 000 US personnel stationed across the Caribbean.

Trump has repeatedly insisted he is not seeking to topple the Venezuelan government.

Still, recent developments have heightened concerns about potential US intervention. On Saturday, the Reuters news agency reported – citing four US officials – that Washington was preparing to enter a new phase of operations related to Venezuela, and two of those officials said the options included attempting to overthrow Maduro.

Last month, Trump authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela. Meanwhile, the US has also maintained a $50m reward for Maduro, an incentive that has expanded significantly since Trump’s first term.

Maduro, who has governed since 2013, maintains that Washington aims to remove him from power and says both the Venezuelan military and people would resist such efforts.

Tensions rose further this week when the US formally added the Cartel de los Soles – or Cartel of the Suns – to its list of foreign terrorist organisations (FTO). Cartel de los Soles is a term that Venezuelans use to describe high-level corruption by the country’s senior officials and leaders, but it isn’t an organised cartel, per se.

Trump told advisers on Monday that he intends to speak directly with Maduro at a date yet to be announced.

A Caribbean tour

Amid the soaring tensions, top US military officials began a tour of the Caribbean this week, meeting with leaders in the region.

Dan Caine, the top US military officer, travelled to Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday for talks with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. According to a summary released by Caine’s office, the two reaffirmed bilateral ties and “exchanged views on challenges affecting the Caribbean region, including the destabilizing effects of illicit narcotics … and transnational criminal organization activities”.

Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also assured Persad-Bissessar of Washington’s commitment to “address shared threats and deepen collaboration across the Caribbean”, the Pentagon said.

He began his tour of the Caribbean on Monday with a stop in Puerto Rico, where he met US troops.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled to continue the diplomatic push on Wednesday in Santo Domingo, where he will meet Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader and Defence Minister Carlos Antonio Fernandez Onofre. The Pentagon said the visit is intended “to strengthen defense relationships and reaffirm America’s commitment to defend the homeland”.

Most Caribbean leaders have responded cautiously to the US strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats, calling for restraint and dialogue. Persad-Bissessar, however, has openly supported the attacks.

In early September, she said she had no sympathy for drug traffickers, declaring that “the US military should kill them all violently”. Her comments prompted criticism from regional figures and some domestic opposition politicians.

Indonesia’s Jakarta now the world’s largest city, Tokyo falls to third: UN

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Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is the world’s largest city, according to a new UN report, which includes 36.6 million people living there, followed by Dhaka, Bangladesh, which has 36.6 million residents.

Jakarta, a coastal city on the west of Java, replaced Tokyo in the UN’s most recent assessment, which had previously been named the world’s largest city.

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The Japanese capital, which has a 33.4 million population, dropped to third place, trailing only Dhaka, Bangladesh’s densely populated capital, from ninth place, and is now projected to be the largest city in the world by 2050.

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ report, “World Urbanization Prospects 2025,” also found that there are now 33 megacities, or urban areas with more than 10 million inhabitants, out of the eight megacities that were present in the world in 1975.

19 of the 33 megacities in the world are located in Asia, and nine are among the top 10. The top 10 Asian cities include New Delhi, India (30.2%), Shanghai, China (29.6%), Guangzhou, China (27.6%), Manila, Philippines (24.7%), Kolkata, India (22.5%), and Seoul, South Korea (22.5%).

Cairo, Egypt’s top 10 city, has a population of 32 million people, according to the UN.

The largest city in sub-Saharan Africa is Lagos, which has grown rapidly while Sao Paulo in Brazil, which has 18.9 million residents.

On October 23, 2025, people in Bangladesh’s Dhaka cross the second Buriganga bridge using rickshaws and motorcycles.

Continuing to grow

Due to issues like flooding and rising sea levels, which are made worse by climate change, people from rural areas are relocating to the capital, looking for employment, or fleeing their hometowns.

The rising sea levels also cause problems for Jakarta. By 2050, it is thought that up to a quarter of the city will be submerged.

Indonesia’s government is constructing a brand-new, purpose-built capital city in East Kalimantan, Nusantara, in Borneo island, because the issue is so serious. The UN projects that Jakarta will have a new home for its officials and parliamentary buildings, but it is estimated that by 2050 there will be 10 million more residents.

Concerns over inequality and affordability will also have to be addressed by the city’s growing population, which included app-based motorcycle ride-share and delivery riders, who took to the streets of the Indonesian city earlier this year.

Tehran, Iran’s capital, has a population of nine million people right now, according to the UN report, which is facing water rations because it is about to run out of water.

As a result of the UN’s new measures, which attempted to resolve differences in how different nations defined urbanization, the new assessment also underwent changes.

Additionally, according to the UN, the majority of cases in its report were based on the size of individual cities, rather than on the size of separate cities, with a few exceptions.

FBI probes Democrats who urged US troops to defy illegal orders

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Six Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a social media video urging American military personnel to “defy illegal orders” have been requested by the FBI for interviews.

The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that it was reviewing Senator Mark Kelly, a veteran of the US Navy and one of the six lawmakers, for possible breaches of military law.

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In a social media post, President Donald Trump claimed that the lawmakers are “punishable by DEATH” and that the offense is “punishable by DEATH.”

In the video, there are no less than six Democratic lawmakers who have served in either the intelligence or military.

One of the six in the video, Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, stated to reporters on Tuesday that the FBI’s counterterrorism division is “opening what appears to be an inquiry against the six of us.”

Slotkin referred to it as a “scare tactic” by Trump.

I’m just wondering if a president of the United States would be right to pursue and try to rig the federal government against those who disagree with the video. Slotkin remarked.

“Horror and intimidation”

The lawmakers claimed that US law was accurately reflected in their video statements. American troops swear an oath to the US Constitution, not the president, and must adhere to “any lawful general order or regulation,” as required by military law.

US Representatives Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio, and Chrissy Houlahan, all of whom are veterans, are the other Democrats in the video that was released last week.

The four House Democrats released a joint statement, claiming that “President Trump is using the FBI to intimidate and harass members of Congress.” The FBI contacted the House and Senate Sergeants-at-Arms yesterday to request interviews.

No amount of harassment or intimidation will ever prevent us from carrying out our duties and upholding our Constitution, they added.

Senator Kelly did not respond right away.

According to a Department of Justice official, the FBI interviews were intended to determine “if there is any wrongdoing, and then go from there.”

Kash Patel, a Trump appointee, is in charge of the FBI.

In a memo released on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed Kelly to the Navy’s secretary of the navy for “potentially unlawful comments” made in the video last week. By December 10th, Hegseth requested a brief on the review’s conclusions.

The FBI and the Pentagon’s inquiries, together, represent an extraordinary escalation for federal law enforcement and military installations, which have traditionally avoided political conflict. Even as they are members of Congress, they also highlight the administration’s willingness to impose legal restrictions on its critics.

“Frivolous investigation”

Republicans have also voiced criticism as a result of the inquiries.

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska criticized both social media inquiries, saying it was “reckless and completely wrong” to accuse the lawmakers of treason and sedition for correctly pointing out that service members can refuse illegal orders.

According to Murkowski, “The Department of Defense and FBI certainly have more important priorities than this frivolous investigation.”

The FBI has not stated why they were seeking the interviews, despite the lawmakers’ claim that they have no further information.

In an interview with a journalist, Patel, the FBI director, explained why he was unable to provide specifics and described the bureau’s investigation as an “ongoing matter.”

When asked what he thought of the video, Patel responded, “What goes through my head is the same thing that goes through my head in any case: Is there a lawful predicate to launch an investigation and investigation, or is there not?” The FBI’s career agents and analysts will make that choice.

Legislators argued in the video that troops were needed to “stand up for our laws… our Constitution.” Kelly, who first retired as a captain and then transitioned to the position of fighter pilot, said that “you can refuse illegal orders.”

In the video, the lawmakers did not discuss specific circumstances.

Despite some legal issues, Slotkin criticized the Trump administration’s actions at an event in Michigan on Tuesday, citing the country’s continued efforts to deploy National Guard troops into US cities and its condemnation of small boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, which officials claim were used to transport drugs.

“It wasn’t just one incident; it was the sheer volume of people who came to us and said, “I’m worried,”,” he continued. I’m concerned that I’ll be asked to do something that I’m not sure if I should do because I’m currently being sent to LA or Chicago, North Carolina, or both, and I’m being sent to Washington, said Slotkin. “So that’s where it came from,” the statement read.

Troops are legally required to reject orders that are unlawful, especially those issued by uniformed commanders.