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Top US and Chinese officials are meeting in London in a bid to defuse trade tensions over rare earth minerals and advanced technology after a phone call between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping last week.

The two sides are aiming in Monday’s talks to build on a preliminary trade deal struck in Geneva in May, which briefly lowered the temperature between Washington and Beijing and offered relief for investors battered by months of Trump’s global trade war.

Since then, the agreement to mutually suspend most of the 100 percent-plus tariffs for 90 days has been followed by barbs and accusations from both sides.

But after reaching a tentative understanding with Xi on resuming the flow of critical minerals, Trump said on Thursday that he expected Monday’s meeting to go “very well”.

Who is leading the US and Chinese delegations?

The US delegation in London is headed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The Chinese contingent will be led by Vice Premier He Lifeng.

The venue of the meeting has not been disclosed.

What happened during last week’s call between Xi and Trump?

Monday’s meeting comes four days after Trump and Xi spoke by phone, their first direct interaction since Trump’s January 20 inauguration.

After the more than hourlong call on Thursday, Trump said the conversation was focused on trade and had resulted in a “very positive conclusion” for both countries.

In the first readout of the call, Trump posted on his social media site, Truth Social: “I just concluded a very good phone call with President Xi, of China, discussing some of the intricacies of our recently made, and agreed to, Trade Deal.”

“There should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products. Our respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined. During the conversation, President Xi graciously invited the First Lady and me to visit China, and I reciprocated,” he added.

For his part, Xi was quoted by Chinese state TV as saying after the call that the two countries should strive for a win-win outcome and dialogue and cooperation are the only right choice for both.

In recent weeks, both sides have accused the other of breaching their deal made in Geneva and aimed at dramatically reducing tariffs – an agreement Trump touted as a “total reset” after he announced tariffs on all US trading partners on April 2.

The tentative truce struck on May 11 in Geneva brought US tariffs on Chinese products down from 145 to 30 percent while Beijing slashed levies on US imports from 125 to 10 percent.

The agreement gave both sides a three-month deadline to try to reach a more lasting deal.

In what ways have US export controls played a role?

Renewed tensions between the US and China began just one day after the May 12 announcement of the Geneva agreement to temporarily lower tariffs.

The US Department of Commerce issued guidance saying the use of Ascend artificial intelligence chips from Huawei, a leading Chinese tech company, could violate US export controls.

The agency warned companies “anywhere in the world” against using AI chips made by Huawei, claiming they illegally contained, or were made with, US technology.

Beijing publicly criticised Washington’s move to limit access to American technology, accusing the US of trying to stymie China’s ability to develop cutting-edge AI chips.

On May 15, Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson He Yongqian accused the US of “abusing export control measures”, adding that China would take steps to defend its business interests.

Lutnick wasn’t in Geneva last month, but he is a lead negotiator in Monday’s talks in London. His Commerce Department oversees export controls for the US, and some analysts believe his participation is an indication of how central the issue has become for both sides.

China issuing rare earth licences to US companies

In response to Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement, Beijing suspended exports to all countries of six heavy rare earth metals and associated magnets on April 4.

The move upended global supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers and military contractors.

China produces 90 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals, which are essential components in permanent magnets – used in a swath of high-tech applications.

Without mentioning rare earths specifically, Trump took to social media last month to attack China’s trade restrictions.

“The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US,” Trump posted on Truth Social on May 30.

After Xi and Trump’s phone call last week, however, the Chinese government hinted that it is addressing US concerns, which have also been echoed by some European companies.

On Saturday, China’s Commerce Ministry said it had approved some rare earth exports, without specifying which countries were involved.

It issued a statement saying it had granted some approvals and “will continue to strengthen the approval of applications that comply with regulations”.

On Monday, the rare earth suppliers of three big US automakers – General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – got clearance from Beijing for a handful of export licences.

Washington wants access to as many rare earths as quickly as possible, Kevin Hassett, head of the National Economic Council at the White House, said on the CBS TV network’s Face the Nation programme on Sunday.

“We want the rare earths, the magnets that are crucial for cellphones and everything else to flow just as they did before the beginning of April, and we don’t want any technical details slowing that down,” Hassett said.

What challenges remain?

Student visas don’t normally figure in trade talks, but a recent US announcement that it would begin revoking the visas of Chinese students has emerged as another flashpoint between Washington and Beijing.

On May 28, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration would begin to “aggressively” revoke the visas of Chinese university students.

He also said the US would revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from China and Hong Kong.

China is the second largest country of origin for international students in the US after India.

More than 270,000 Chinese students studied in the US in the 2023-2024 academic year.

Beijing’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning criticised Washington’s decision to revoke the visas, saying it “damaged” the rights of Chinese students.

Other concerns continue to strain the bilateral relationship from the illicit fentanyl trade to the status of democratically governed Taiwan and US complaints about China’s state-dominated economic model.

Still, Trump’s geopolitical bluster goes well beyond China. While promising to reshape relationships with all US trading partners, Trump so far has reached only one new trade agreement – with the United Kingdom.

Russia has launched 479 drones against Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the three-year war, according to the Ukrainian air force.

The air force said early on Monday that it had downed 460 drones as well as 19 missiles launched overnight.

Russia’s continued to step up its drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, despite declaring, under pressure from United States President Donald Trump, that it is interested in pursuing peace talks. The record launch came just ahead of the start of a prisoner swap agreed at recent talks between the pair.

Of the hundreds of projectiles fired at numerous targets, only 10 reached their destination, Kyiv officials said. One person was reported injured.

Russia’s escalation of aerial attacks has been matched by a renewed battlefield push in the eastern and northeastern parts of the roughly 1,000km (621-mile) front line in occupied parts of Ukraine.

The onslaught follows a secretive Ukrainian drone attack that damaged several Russian bombers parked at airbases deep inside the country in what was an embarrassment for the Kremlin and, according to Kyiv, a palpable hit on its ability to strike across the border with missiles.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said one target of Kyiv’s strike was the Dubno airbase in Ukraine’s Rivne region, which hosts tactical aviation aircraft.

The mayor of the western city of Rivne, Oleksandr Tretyak, said the overnight drone launch was “the largest attack” on his region since the start of the war.

Prisoner swap

Late on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy conceded that in some areas targeted by the Russian offensive, “the situation is very difficult”. However, he provided no details.

Ukraine is shorthanded on the front line against its bigger enemy and needs further military support from its Western partners, especially air defences. However, uncertainty about the US policy has led to doubts about how much help Kyiv can count on.

Two recent rounds of direct peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul have yielded no breakthroughs beyond pledges to swap thousands of prisoners, including dead and seriously wounded soldiers.

Since the agreement, believed to concern an exchange of around 1,200 prisoners by each, was struck last week, the pair has accused one another of failing to meet their obligations.

However, the first batch of POWs was repatriated on Monday afternoon.

“Today’s exchange has begun. It will be done in several stages in the coming days,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram app. “Among those we are bringing back now are the wounded, the severely wounded, and those under the age of 25,” he added.

The Russian defence ministry also said the first exchange had been carried out. It did not say how many prisoners had been swapped, but did note that the numbers on each side matched.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Monday that its forces shot down 49 Ukrainian drones overnight over seven Russian regions.

Two drones hit a plant specialising in electronic warfare equipment in the Chuvashia region, located more than 600km (373 miles) east of Moscow, officials reported.

Since the beginning of the war in 2022, Russia has targeted both military and civilian areas of Ukraine with Shahed drones. The attacks have killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations. However, Russia claims it attacks only military targets.

Alexander Gusev, head of Russia’s Voronezh region, said 25 drones had been shot down there overnight, damaging a gas pipeline and sparking a small fire.

The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces also claimed that its special operations troops struck two Russian jets stationed at the Savasleyka airfield in Russia’s Novgorod region, located some 650km (404 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Los Angeles has witnessed a third night of protests against the immigration crackdown by United States President Donald Trump’s administration.

The administration’s decision to deploy the national guard has widened the rift between Republicans and Democrats, including the leadership of California. And now, the Trump administration has indicated that it might send US marines in to help quell the protests.

That scenario would mirror the events of 1992 when marines were deployed alongside the national guard for law enforcement in Los Angeles during riots that followed the acquittal of four policemen filmed beating Rodney King, a Black man.

What is the latest from the protests?

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) declared the protests in downtown LA an “unlawful assembly”.

“You are to leave the Downtown Area immediately,” the LAPD said in a post on X.

One group of protesters shut down a major thoroughfare in central Los Angeles, the 101 Freeway.

The LAPD wrote that the freeway was shut down “due to demonstrators throwing objects onto the SB [San Bernardino] lanes of the 101 Freeway and damaging multiple police vehicles”.

The protest also spilled over to San Francisco, where protesters rallied in solidarity with those in Los Angeles outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building. San Francisco police declared this an unlawful assembly and arrested about 60 people.

On Saturday, Trump deployed about 2,000 national guard soldiers to Los Angeles despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

What is unlawful assembly?

Legally, an unlawful assembly refers to an intentional meeting of three or more people that disrupts public peace.

Why are there protests in LA?

The protests began on Friday night after ICE officials arrested 44 people for violating immigration laws.

The US Department of Homeland Security later said ICE officials had arrested a total of 118 immigrants who did not have the required documents to stay in the US.

Uniformed ICE agents went through the city in caravans of unmarked military-style vehicles to make the arrests.

The protests sprung up as a response to these operations. Crowds of demonstrators gathered outside a facility where some of the detainees were believed to be held.

Where are the Los Angeles protests?

The protests are largely taking place in downtown Los Angeles, where protesters spray-painted anti-ICE slogans on the walls of the Edward R Roybal Federal Building.

Which agencies are now involved?

ICE was the agency leading the immigration arrests.

After protests broke out on Friday, the LAPD was called in to quell civil unrest.

Police Chief Jim McDonnell said at a news conference on Sunday that in recent days, many protests in the city have been peaceful.

“However, when peaceful demonstrations devolve into acts of vandalism or violence, especially violence directed at innocent people, law enforcement officers and others, we must respond firmly.”

On Saturday, Trump ordered the deployment of at least 2,000 national guard soldiers to Los Angeles County.

Newsom asked Trump to rescind this order. “We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved,” he wrote.

“This is a serious breach of state sovereignty – inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed.”

Bass described Trump’s deployment of the national guard in Los Angeles as “a chaotic escalation”.

Could the marines be deployed next?

The US military’s Northern Command issued a statement on Sunday saying about 500 marines are in a “prepared to deploy status” and they are ready to assist the Department of Defense.

“The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in an X post on Sunday.

Deranged = allowing your city to burn & law enforcement to be attacked.

There is plenty of room for peaceful protest, but ZERO tolerance for attacking federal agents who are doing their job.

The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE. https://t.co/KVjvvnaL70

Other Republicans have echoed Hegseth’s sentiments.

“One of our core principles is maintaining peace through strength. We do that on foreign affairs and domestic affairs as well. I don’t think that’s heavy-handed,” Mike Johnson, speaker of the US House of Representatives, told ABC News.

In an X post on Sunday, Newsom described Hegseth’s threat to deploy the Marines as “deranged behavior”.

How many people have been arrested?

At least 10 people were arrested during the protests on Sunday, LAPD Captain Raul Jovel said at the news conference.

However, he added that this number was “fluid and preliminary” and arrests were ongoing. On Saturday, 29 people were arrested, according to McDonnell.

Jovel said three officers were injured in the clashes. He added that the injuries were not significant enough for the officers to be transported to hospital.

What’s happening to Waymo in Los Angeles?

The protesters have also vandalised and set ablaze several self-driving cars that belong to the ride-hailing company Waymo.

Los Angeles media outlets reported that protesters spray-painted anti-ICE messages on multiple self-driving cars lined up between Arcadia and Alameda streets in Los Angeles.

On Sunday in a post on X, the LAPD advised against visiting the area.

What are Trump administration officials saying?

In a series of posts on his Truth Social platform, Trump criticised Newsom and Bass, both Democrats.

In one post on Sunday, he wrote: “Governor Gavin Newscum and ‘Mayor’ Bass should apologise to the people of Los Angeles for the absolutely horrible job that they have done, and this now includes the ongoing L.A. riots. These are not protesters, they are troublemakers and insurrectionists. Remember, NO MASKS!”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in an X post: “A message to the LA rioters: you will not stop us or slow us down. @ICEgov will continue to enforce the law.”

A message to the LA rioters: you will not stop us or slow us down. @ICEgov will continue to enforce the law.

And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

What are Democrats saying?

Democrats have tried to walk a fine line between condemning the ICE raids and the national guard deployment while also opposing violence against law enforcement officials.

“We will always protect the constitutional right for Angelenos to peacefully protest. However, violence, destruction and vandalism will not be tolerated in our City and those responsible will be held fully accountable,” Bass wrote in an X post.

Bass also posted on Sunday that she had a meeting with Newsom and McDonnell. “Angelenos – don’t engage in violence and chaos. Don’t give the administration what they want,” she wrote, referring to the Trump administration.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who is from California, posted a statement on X on Sunday. She wrote: “Deploying the National Guard is a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos. In addition to the recent ICE raids in Southern California and across our nation, it is part of the Trump Administration’s cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division.”

My statement on what’s unfolding in Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/rujs8mrVPK

Are there parallels between the LA violence and the Rodney King riots?

The Trump administration’s response to the protests in Los Angeles has drawn parallels with the riots that engulfed America’s second most populous city in 1992.

In 1991, the police were chasing King, an African American man, for driving while intoxicated. When officers caught up with him, they ordered him out of his car. A video recorded by a bystander showed King being beaten by the police officers for 15 minutes. As a result, King ended up with bone fractures, broken teeth and brain damage.

Four officers were charged with excessive use of force. In 1992, a jury found the four officers not guilty. Hours after the verdict, riots broke out in LA.

Then-California Governor Pete Wilson deployed 2,000 national guard soldiers to the city. Additionally, 1,500 marines were deployed – the last time the elite force was deployed for domestic law enforcement.  The unrest lasted six days and resulted in the deaths of 63 people and widespread looting and arson.

Unlike the riots, the ongoing protests in Los Angeles have largely been peaceful with isolated clashes with law enforcement officials.