United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order extending the China tariff deadline for another 90 days.
The extension came only hours before midnight in Beijing, when the 90 day pause was set to expire, CNBC reported on Monday, citing a White House official.
The White House did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
Earlier on Monday, Trump said he has been “dealing very nicely with China” as Beijing said it was seeking positive outcomes.
If the deadline had passed, duties on Chinese goods would have returned to where they were in April at 145 percent, further fuelling tensions between the world’s two largest trading partners.
While the US and China slapped escalating tariffs on each other’s products this year, reaching prohibitive triple-digit levels and snarling global trade, both countries in May agreed to temporarily lower tariffs at a meeting between negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland.
But the pause comes as negotiations still loom. Asked about the deadline on Monday, Trump said: “We’ll see what happens. They’ve been dealing quite nicely. The relationship is very good with [China’s] President Xi [Jinping] and myself.”
“We hope that the US will work with China to follow the important consensus reached during the phone call between the two heads of state,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian in a statement.
He added that Beijing also hopes Washington will “strive for positive outcomes on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit”.
In June, key economic officials convened in London as disagreements emerged and US officials accused their counterparts of violating the pact. Policymakers again met in Stockholm last month.
Even as both countries appeared to be seeking to push back the reinstatement of duties, US trade envoy Jamieson Greer said last month that Trump will have the “final call” on any such extension.
Ongoing negotiations
Kelly Ann Shaw, a senior White House trade official during Trump’s first term and now with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, said she expected Trump to extend the 90-day “tariff detente” for another 90 days later on Monday.
“It wouldn’t be a Trump-style negotiation if it didn’t go right down to the wire,” she said.
“The whole reason for the 90-day pause in the first place was to lay the groundwork for broader negotiations, and there’s been a lot of noise about everything from soybeans to export controls to excess capacity over the weekend,” she said.
Ryan Majerus, a former US trade official now with the King & Spalding law firm, welcomed the news.
“This will undoubtedly lower anxiety on both sides as talks continue, and as the US and China work toward a framework deal in the fall. I’m certain investment commitments will factor into any potential deal, and the extension gives them more time to try and work through some of the longstanding trade concerns,” he said.
For now, fresh US tariffs on Chinese goods this year stand at 30 percent, while Beijing’s corresponding levy on US products is at 10 percent.
Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has slapped a 10-percent “reciprocal” tariff on almost all trading partners, aimed at addressing trade practices Washington deemed unfair.
United States President Donald Trump on Monday invoked a “crime emergency” in the US capital, allowing his Department of Justice to take control of Washington, DC’s local law enforcement. He simultaneously announced the Pentagon would deploy US National Guard forces to the city of more than 700,000.
Gathered just blocks away, with the White House looming in the background, protesters erupted in a chorus of “boos”.
The Pentagon later said 800 soldiers were activated on Monday, with 100-200 of them supporting law enforcement.
Trump’s latest move, said Keya Chatterjee, the executive director of Free DC, was not just another salvo against the long marginalised rights of the residents of the city, but a “major escalation”.
“This goes beyond the sort of words people have been using, like ‘unprecedented and ‘unusual,’” said Chatterjee, whose group advocates for DC self-determination.
“This is just authoritarianism,” she told Al Jazeera, over the chants from the crowd.
‘Represent ourselves’
The rights of the hundreds of thousands of residents of Washington, DC have been the subject of debate since it was established by Congress in 1790 with land from Maryland and Virginia.
The district continues to fall under the direct auspices of the federal government, having never been granted statehood. However, it maintains a level of local autonomy per the Home Rule Act of 1973, which allows residents to elect some local officials. Congress still reviews all legislation passed by those elected officials and approves the district’s budget.
The city’s superlative as the first Black majority city in the US, and its current status as a Black plurality city, has further added a racial dynamic to what advocates have long decried as the systematic disenfranchisement of its residents.
Civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton called the move the “ultimate affront to justice and civil rights,” in a statement.
“Donald Trump was inspired to take this disgusting, dangerous, and derogatory action solely out of self interest,” Sharpton said in a statement. “Let’s call the inspiration for this assault on a majority Black city for what it is: another bid to distract his angry, frustrated base over his administration’s handling of the Epstein files.”
In March, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser agreed to rename the Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House, where Monday’s protest was held, amid pressure from Trump and concerns that federal funding could be withheld.
Bowser said Monday that the deployment of the National Guard was “unsettling”, but not without precedent.
“My message to residents is this,” Bowser said. “We know that access to our democracy is tenuous. That is why you have heard me and many Washingtonians before me advocate for full statehood.”
Protesters gather near the White House after US President Donald Trump announces a ‘crime emergency’ in Washington, DC [Ken Cedeno/Reuters]
For many gathered on Monday, Trump’s move again underscored how little power they had in directly influencing the policies of the local law enforcement that directly oversees their community.
Amari Jack, a 20-year-old college student, described what he saw as “the first step” in a wider consolidation of power over the city, noting Trump has for years floated the idea of taking more full control of the metropolis surrounding the White House. Such a move would likely require Congress overturning the Home Rule Act.
“I came out today because I was really scared about the potential that DC could lose any autonomy it has,” Jack told Al Jazeera.
“I feel like as DC natives, born and raised, we need to be able to represent ourselves and enrich our communities. We can’t just have a president come in and rule over our home.”
Crime as a pretext?
For his part, in an order declaring the “emergency”, Trump decried what he called the “city government’s failure to maintain public order and safety”, claiming crime rates posed “intolerable risks to the vital Federal functions that take place in the District of Columbia”.
Speaking to reporters from the White House, Trump vowed to “take our capital back”, outlining what he described as “massive enforcement operations targeting known gangs, drug dealers and criminal networks to get them the hell off the street”.
Trump further claimed he was “getting rid of the slums”, and would clear homeless people from the city, without offering further details of his plans.
Among those pushing back on the characterisation was the District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb, who called the move “unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful.”
“There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia,” he said.
While DC crime rates are typically higher than the national average, violent crime rates have dropped significantly in recent years, plummeting 35 percent from 2023 to 2024 and another 26 percent this year compared to the same period last year, according to Metropolitan Police data.
Early this year, the Justice Department announced that violent crime in DC had hit a 30-year low.
Groups like the Center for American Progress have attributed the decline to both local law enforcement strategies, as well as “investments in crime prevention and resources such as housing and education and employment supports”.
Twenty-year-old Radha Tanner, like many gathered, saw Trump as using the pretext of crime to enact a wider political mission, one that paints Democrat-dominated cities like DC as “unsafe and riddled with crime”.
Over 90 percent of DC voters supported Trump’s Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, in the 2024 election. Trump, in turn, won about 6.5 percent of the vote.
Tanner saw Monday’s moves as in line with Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, California to aid in immigration crackdowns and the protests they spurred.
“He’s doing this to make an example out of a city full of Democrats that is vulnerable because we don’t have representation,” Tanner said.
‘Best place for us to resist’
Maurice Carney, 60, saw a similar goal in Trump’s actions, arguing that long-term investment, not a short-term commandeering of local law enforcement or the deployment of the National Guard, would actually show a real commitment to addressing crime.
“When you see this increase in militarisation, whether it’s in DC or on the African continent or anywhere else in the world, you always see an increase in violence, either from resistance or from creating an environment that’s unstable,” said Carney, who works with a DC-based group that advocates for citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Like it or not, DC is seen as the capital of the empire, the capital of the world,” Carney told Al Jazeera. “So if Trump wants to show he’s this ‘law and order’ guy, DC is the best place for him to do that.”
Barcelona’s domination of Real Madrid last season resulted in Los Blancos bringing an end to Carlo Ancelotti’s second tenure – even though he had delivered a league and European double a year previous.
Rumours rumbled for most of the season, after a low-key start at home and abroad, that former Real midfielder Xabi Alonso would be making the switch from Bayer Leverkusen to replace Ancelotti.
With their La Liga and UEFA Champions League defence over, the Madrid-based club wasted little time in announcing Alonso, conveniently at a time when Brazil cranked up their interest in Ancelotti.
All seemed well for a dignified departure for the Italian, club football’s most decorated manager, who now will lead the record World Cup winners into next year’s 2026 edition.
For the perfectly written script to continue, however, Alonso will need to make a strong start on all fronts. Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at the new La Liga season.
When does the La Liga season begin?
The first match of the new Spanish campaign is on Friday, August 15 and sees Girona, who finished only a point above the relegation zone last season, entertain a Rayo Vallecano side that claimed ninth spot in La Liga last year.
Girona were the league’s surprise package two seasons ago when they finished third – only four points behind Barcelona.
Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, third from right, and Marc-Andre ter Stegen lift the trophy after winning La Liga [Albert Gea/File Photo/Reuters]
When are Barcelona and Real Madrid’s first La Liga fixtures?
Barcelona kick off their La Liga defence on Saturday, August 16, when they make the trip to Mallorca.
Real Madrid are not in action until Tuesday, August 19, when they complete the first round of Spanish top-flight fixtures with a trip to Espanyol.
What transfers have Real Madrid and Barcelona made?
It has been a quiet transfer window for Barcelona, whose finances had been heavily in the spotlight last year with La Liga rules limiting spending on wages and transfers – complicating the registration of Dani Olmo.
The Spanish international arrived from RB Leipzig in Germany for a fee of $62.5m in the summer of 2024, but was nearly forced into a free transfer away from the Catalan club due to their dire financial situation.
The loan of Marcus Rashford, who made his debut in the 5-0 pre-season demolition of Como, from Manchester United is Barca’s only major addition in the off season to their ranks so far.
Real Madrid, meanwhile, have been quick to bolster a defence that has been hampered by injury and suspension throughout last season.
Trent Alexander-Arnold was a much-heralded arrival at a snip from Liverpool for $11.3m. Little expense was spared, however, in the capture of Spanish defensive duo Alvaro Carreras from Benfica for $57.7m and Dean Huijsen for $67m from Bournemouth.
Real Madrid’s Trent Alexander-Arnold moved from Liverpool in time to play at the FIFA Club World Cup [Hannah Mckay/Reuters]
What were the results between Barcelona and Real Madrid last season?
Barcelona won all four El Clasico matches between the football clubs last season, including the decisive La Liga clash, a May 11 meeting in Catalonia. The 4-3 win all but sealed the title for Barca, and also ended any thought that Ancelotti may stay on as manager of Real.
A 4-0 demolition of Real in Madrid on October 26 kicked off the derbies last season, the first major warning signs that Los Blancos may have a turbulent ride ahead.
That defeat for Ancelotti’s side was compounded by a 5-2 hammering in the Spanish Super Cup final in January, before a 3-2 Copa Del Rey final win for Barca in late April left Real facing up to the prospect of a trophyless season.
Where will the spotlight focus on Barcelona and Real Madrid?
The lack of any major additions to Barcelona’s title-winning squad will throw doubt on whether manager Hansi Flick will be able to push the players to go again without further competition for places.
An early-season injury to Robert Lewandowski may mean an early opportunity for Rashford to make his mark in attack alongside Lamine Yamal and Raphinha. The England international has many questions himself to answer following his demise from his status as the star of Old Trafford.
Ferran Torres, the 25-year-old Spanish international, will also be a candidate to start in the place of Lewandowski in the early-season games.
With the resolution of Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s dispute, both the backlines and midfield appear well-resourced for Barca. Flick’s side will be fully expected to put up a stern defence of their La Liga title and to go all the way in the Champions League, a competition they were heavily favourites to win last season until their shock semifinal elimination by Inter Milan.
Barcelona’s Marcus Rashford acknowledges fans before a match against Como [Bruna Casas/Reuters]
Real Madrid will have to cope with the loss of Luka Modric in midfield, only a year after the retirement of Toni Kroos – an absence believed to have heavily contributed to Real’s demise last season.
The link-up between the front three of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo was another area of concern for Real. Indeed, so much so that it affected the role of Jude Bellingham, who was forced to sit deeper in midfield following the arrival of the former.
Mbappe eventually silenced the critics. The French international’s tally of 40 goals in all competitions surpassed that of Cristiano Ronaldo in his first season with Madrid.
Nonetheless, the link-up between an attack and midfield, which is now missing both of its mainstays for more than a decade, will be the major problem for Alonso to solve.
Can Atletico Madrid challenge Real and Barcelona?
Atletico finished 14 points off top spot last season, but had offered hope at one stage, with a 15-game winning streak, that glory was on the cards.
Diego Simeone’s side finished sixth in the League Phase of the Champions League, but were eventually eliminated by Real, who themselves had to reach the knockout stage via playoffs. They did also have a disappointing group-stage exit at the Club World Cup, including a 4-0 defeat by Paris Saint-Germain.
Simeone’s side are always based on a solid defence, and the permanent capture of Clement Lenglet following his loan from Barcelona last season ensures that is likely to continue.
An already formidable forward line is boosted by the arrival of Thiago Almada from Botafogo, for an undisclosed fee, following a season-long loan at Lyon last season.
The 24-year-old helped Argentina to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the Copa America last year and was part of his country’s side at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Alongside fellow countryman Julian Alvarez, France and Atletico legend Antoine Griezmann, and Giuliano Simeone, the son of the manager, Almada could well sprinkle the magic needed to elevate Atletico to the top of the pile.
Atletico Madrid’s Thiago Almada, centre, in action in pre-season against Newcastle United [Lee Smith/Reuters]
Brazilian police have said there were no injuries after shots were fired near an under-20 World Cup water polo women’s game between China and Canada in the city of Salvador.
China won 12-8 on Sunday – the opening day of the tournament – but footage showed the game being briefly interrupted as players got out of the pool, lay down and took cover by a small barrier after hearing gunshots outside the water polo venue in the Pituba neighbourhood. China led Canada 3-2 at the time.
“The match stopped for about a minute. Our team saw that the police were taking care of it,” Marco Antonio Lemos, head of the Bahia state water sports federation, said in a statement on Monday.
Police said the cause of the shots was a confrontation with an alleged local thief who was outside the venue and tried to escape. No more details were given.
Spectators were told about the incident after the game had resumed.
Five more Palestinians, including a child, have died of malnutrition as a result of Israel’s punishing blockade of Gaza in the past 24 hour reporting period, the Health Ministry has said, as people in the enclave and many beyond its besieged borders mourned several journalists assassinated by Israel.
The ministry on Monday said most of these victims died in the past three weeks, as Israel-imposed starvation engulfs the entire population, with the total number of severe hunger deaths now at 222, including 101 children.
The Palestinian Wafa news agency later reported the death from malnutrition of an additional child, five-year-old Mohammed Zakaria Khader, bringing the overall death toll in the past 24 hours to six.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said “children in Gaza are dying from starvation and bombardments”.
“Entire families, neighbourhoods, and a generation are being wiped out,” the UN agency wrote in a post on social media. “Inaction and silence are complicity. It’s time for statements to turn into action and for an immediate ceasefire.”
At least 46 Palestinians were killed in Israeli raids across Gaza since dawn on Monday, including six aid seekers, medical sources have told Al Jazeera.
In one of the latest attacks, the al-Aqsa Hospital reported the killing of four Palestinians by Israeli forces in the south and east of Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said three civilians were killed and others were injured in an Israeli attack on the Zeitoun neighbourhood of southern Gaza City.
Meanwhile, on a daily basis, Israeli forces and US contractors are continuing to kill Palestinians desperately seeking aid at distribution points run by the controversial United States and Israeli-backed GHF.
Among those killed on Sunday was Ismail Qandil’s son. Speaking at the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Qandil told Al Jazeera that his son was unarmed and was looking for food when he was killed.
“He had no bullets, no weapon to shoot with. What did we do? What did we do for this to happen to us? Enough with the hunger and genocide,” he said.
“We are in a famine. We are being slaughtered. We can’t carry on. We send our sons to bring food, and they kill them. We are not members of the resistance, and we are not members of movements or anything. We are being destroyed.”
Israeli strikes kill Palestinian journalists
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 61,499 people and wounded 153,575 since October 7, 2023. The toll includes at least 270 journalists and media workers.
An outpouring of grief and condemnation followed the Israeli assassination of five Al Jazeera Arabic staff in Gaza, including prominent correspondent Anas al-Sharif, in a drone attack late on Sunday that hit a tent for journalists positioned outside the main gate of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital.
The attack came days after the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, Irene Khan, warned of “unfounded accusations by the Israeli army” against al-Sharif after Israel repeatedly and falsely accused the 28-year-old reporter of being a Hamas affiliate.
Speaking on Monday, Khan said that Israel killed al-Sharif over his work as a journalist and that Israeli claims he was a Hamas member are totally unsubstantiated.
“If they had real evidence [of this], do you not think that they would put it out, up front, right away in the international arena? Of course they would. But why are they not doing that? Because they don’t have that evidence,” she told Al Jazeera.
“They simply [say] that any journalist who is reporting on Gaza must be a ‘Hamas member’, just as anyone who criticises Israel has to be ‘anti-Semitic’.
Meron Rapoport, a veteran Israeli journalist and editor of the Local Call news site, said the Israeli military’s accusation did not “make sense at all”. “The Israeli explanations are, at best, very lacking,” Rapoport told Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv.
He said Israel likely targeted al-Sharif now because of two main factors: first, his important role in “telling the world that there is famine in Gaza”, which “really hurt Israel internationally”; and, second, because of the planned upcoming seizure of Gaza City, which Israel wants to minimise coverage of.
“The less eyes and the less cameras and the less voices that will document this, what could be really a slaughter … is better for Israel,” Rapoport said.
Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum, who reports for the network’s English channel, said the journalists were “working around the clock to unearth facts on the ground and keep the world informed about what has been going on in Gaza”.
“Now, we can see that the Israeli military is stepping up its attacks on journalists,” he said.
An explosion at a US Steel plant near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States has left one dead and dozens injured or trapped, with emergency workers on site trying to rescue victims, officials said.
An Allegheny County Emergency Services spokesperson, Kasey Reigner, on Monday said one person died and two were currently believed to be unaccounted for. Multiple other people were treated for injuries, Reigner said.
A fire at the plant started around 10:51am (14:50 GMT), according to Allegheny County Emergency Services.
“It felt like thunder,” Zachary Buday, a construction worker near the scene, told WTAE-TV. “Shook the scaffold, shook my chest, and shook the building, and then when we saw the dark smoke coming up from the steel mill and put two and two together, and it’s like something bad happened.”
Dozens were injured and the county was sending 15 ambulances, in addition to the ambulances supplied by local emergency response agencies, Reigner said.
Air quality concerns and health warnings
The plant, a massive industrial facility along the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, is considered the largest coking operation in North America and is one of four major US Steel plants in Pennsylvania that employ several thousand workers.
The Allegheny County Health Department said it is monitoring the explosion and advised residents within one mile (1.6 kilometres) of the plant to remain indoors, close all windows and doors, set air conditioning systems to recirculate, and avoid drawing in outside air, such as using exhaust fans. It said its monitors have not detected levels of soot or sulfur dioxide above federal standards.
The plant converts coal to coke, a key component in the steel-making process. According to the company, it produces 4.3 million tons (3.9 million metric tonnes) of coke annually and has approximately 1,400 workers.
In recent years, the Clairton plant has been dogged by concerns about pollution. In 2019, it agreed to settle a 2017 lawsuit for $8.5m. Under the settlement, the company agreed to spend $6.5m to reduce soot emissions and noxious odours from the Clairton coke-making facility.
In another lawsuit, residents said that following a massive 2018 fire, the air felt acidic, smelled like rotten eggs, and was hard to breathe due to the release of sulfur dioxide.
Last year, the company agreed to spend $19.5m in equipment upgrades and $5m on local clean air efforts and programmes as part of settling a federal lawsuit filed by the Clean Air Council and PennEnvironment and the Allegheny County Health Department.
The lawsuits accused the steel producer of more than 12,000 violations of its air pollution permits.
David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment, an environmental group that has previously sued US Steel over pollution, said there needed to be “a full, independent investigation into the causes of this latest catastrophe and a re-evaluation as to whether the Clairton plant is fit to keep operating.”
In June, US Steel and Nippon Steel announced they had finalised a “historic partnership”, a deal that gives the US government a say in some matters and comes a year and a half after the Japanese company first proposed its nearly $15bn buyout of the iconic American steelmaker.
