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Trump holds ‘very good’ phone call with China’s President Xi

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Donald Trump said he held a “very good” phone call with China’s President Xi Jinping, as the US-president elect prepares to return to the White House next week.

“I just spoke to Chairman Xi Jinping of China,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately.”

Trump said the pair discussed trade, fentanyl, TikTok and other subjects, and that the call was “very good” for both countries.

“President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!” he wrote.

In a readout from China’s Foreign Ministry, Xi said he and Trump “attach great importance to mutual interactions,” and “hope for a good start of the China-US relationship” during Trump’s second term.

The phone call, believed to be the first between the pair since Trump left office after his first term, comes during a tense moment in Washington-Beijing relations.

Swiftly after the call, the US Supreme Court ruled that a controversial ban on TikTok can take effect on Sunday, rejecting an appeal from the popular app that claimed the ban violated the First Amendment.

Earlier, China’s Foreign Ministry said that Xi would skip Trump’s inauguration on Monday. Instead, Vice President Han Zheng will attend the ceremony in Washington, DC, as Xi’s special representative.

Xi sent Trump a message of congratulations after his reelection in November, telling him that the US and China “stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation,” and said he hoped the two countries could find a way ‘to get along with each other.”

In an interview with NBC following his reelection, Trump said he got along “very well” with Xi during his time in office.

But Trump’s rhetoric has not always been so amicable. As a candidate, Trump pledged to slap 60% tariffs on all goods coming in from China. As president-elect, he has tempered his claims, threatening to raise tariffs on Chinese goods by an additional 10% until Beijing prevents the flow of illegal drugs to the US.

Trump’s cabinet picks also comprise several prominent China hawks, including Marco Rubio, tapped for secretary of state and currently sanctioned by Beijing, and Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host tapped for defense secretary who has warned China is bent on defeating the US and achieving global domination.

A complicating factor, however, is Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of the electric vehicle giant Tesla, which makes more than half its cars in China. Musk is often invited to meet Chinese officials on his trips there.

Echoing some of Beijing’s talking points, Musk has previously said the two countries can maintain a “win-win” relationship, in a sharp break from Trump’s more zero-sum attitude.

Despite pointing to the prospects for cooperation, Xi told Trump that it is “natural for two big countries with different national conditions to have some disagreements,” singling out “the Taiwan question.”

Beijing has repeatedly stressed that it views Taiwan as a breakaway territory that must be “unified” with the mainland, and that it is willing to use force if necessary.

Trump was seen as a friend to Taiwan during his first term, but his rhetoric has since hardened. On the campaign trail, Trump claimed the self-ruling democracy should pay the US more for “protection” and that it had “stolen” America’s chip business.

(CNN)
(This story, originally published by CNN has not been edited by SLM staff)

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18 killed in Delhi Railway Station crowd crush

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At least 18 people, including ten women and three children, were killed in a tragic crowd crush at New Delhi Railway Station on Saturday night. 

The incident occurred around 8 PM local time as thousands of Hindu pilgrims gathered to board trains heading to Prayagraj city for the annual Mahakumbh Mela religious festival, located 624 kilometers southeast of the capital.

The crush took place on two platforms as massive crowds surged to catch trains to the festival. 

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Pope Francis hospitalized at Gemelli for bronchitis

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Pope Francis has been admitted to Rome’s Agostino Gemelli Hospital due to worsening bronchitis and has begun pharmacological treatment.

The Vatican confirmed his condition is stable, with a slight fever.

Several upcoming Jubilee events have been adjusted, with Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça presiding over Sunday’s Mass.

The pope has been suffering from bronchitis for more than a week.

Francis will not take part in a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday, the Vatican said later, adding that a planned public audience on Saturday and a visit on Monday to Rome’s famed Cinecitta film studios were cancelled.

Francis, who has been pontiff since 2013, has had influenza and other health problems several times over the past two years. As a young adult he developed a case of pleurisy and had part of one of his lungs removed, and in recent times he has been prone to lung infections.

Earlier this month, Francis told pilgrims at a weekly audience that he was suffering from a “strong cold,” which the Vatican later described as bronchitis.

The pope held several meetings on Friday before going to hospital. One was with Mark Thompson, CEO of the CNN news channel. The pope was “mentally alert but struggling to speak for extended periods due to breathing difficulties,” CNN later reported.

The pope also held meetings with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, senior Vatican official Cardinal Luis Tagle and with a Catholic philanthropy group that is based in Puerto Rico.

Video of the pope’s meeting with Fico showed Francis sitting at a desk in his Vatican residence, smiling, and speaking in a soft tone.

Francis has been suffering with respiratory issues since mid-December. He begged off reading statements at several of his public events in January and February, attending the occasions but asking aides to read his prepared remarks.

The pope also had two falls recently at his Vatican residence, bruising his chin in December and injuring his arm in January.

Despite his periodic health issues and reduced mobility, Francis has kept up a busy schedule, including foreign travel. In September he completed a 12-day tour across Southeast Asia and Oceania, the longest of his papacy.

Rome’s Gemelli hospital, the largest in the city, has a special suite for treating popes. Francis spent nine days there in June 2023, when he had surgery to repair an abdominal hernia.

Source: Vatican News

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Google Maps updates Gulf of Mexico name for US users

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Google Maps has changed the Gulf of Mexico’s name to the Gulf of America for people using the app in the US.

Explaining the move, Google said it was making the change as part of “a longstanding practice” of following name changes when updated by official government sources.

It said the Gulf – which is bordered by the US, Cuba and Mexico – would not be changed for people using the app in Mexico, and users elsewhere in the world will see the label: “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)”.

It comes after President Donald Trump ordered the body of water to be renamed in US government documents after he returned to office last month.

Mexico had decried the move, arguing that the US had no legal right to change the Gulf’s name.

The change was made by Google on Monday after the Geographic Names Information System, a US government database run by the Interior Department, listed an update to the Gulf’s name.

The listing reads: “The Gulf of America, formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico, with an average depth 5300 ft is a major body of water bordered and nearly landlocked by North America with the Gulf’s eastern, northern, and northwestern shores in the U.S. and its southwestern and southern shores in Mexico.”

It said the change was made in accordance with Trump’s executive order to “restore names that honor American Greatness”.

Following the signing of the order, President Trump proclaimed 9 February as “Gulf of America Day”.

“I call upon public officials and all the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities,” a White House statement said.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum had asked Google to reconsider its decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

She argued the US could not legally change the Gulf’s name because the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea dictates that an individual country’s sovereign territory only extends up to 12 nautical miles out from the coastline.

The Associated Press, a global media organisation, said that it would not change the name of the Gulf of Mexico in its style guide – which is used by most US media outlets.

Because of the style guide decision, the White House said it was barring an AP reporter from covering an executive order signing in the Oval Office.

“It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” AP’s Executive Editor Julie Pace said in a statement. “Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.”

Trump’s executive order, signed on 20 January, also ordered North America’s tallest mountain – Denali – be called Mount McKinley, which was its name previously.

That change is not yet reflected on Google Maps, though the AP has adopted the mountain’s old name in its style guide.

(BBC News)

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