First Thing: Trump says rare earths deal and tariff cut agreed with China
Overall US tariffs on Chinese goods will be lowered to 47% after talks. Plus: the far right loses support in Dutch election
Good morning.
Donald Trump has said that Washington and Beijing have settled their dispute over rare earths after crucial trade talks with the Chinese president in South Korea.
According to China’s commerce ministry, a consensus had been reached during recent talks by both sides’ trade teams in Kuala Lumpur, which included a reduction in Trump’s “fentanyl tariff” imposed on Chinese goods, along with reciprocal measures by Beijing to suspend export controls.
After the talks in Busan, Trump told reporters tjat Xi Jinping had agreed to work “very hard” to prevent the production of fentanyl. In return, Trump said he would lower fentanyl-linked tariffs from 20% to 10%, thereby lowering overall tariffs from 57% to 47%.
What else was agreed? Trump said China would axe its restrictions on rare earth exports, in a deal he said would last one year before being negotiated annually, and also buy US soya beans.
Was Taiwan discussed? No. And while Ukraine was discussed, Trump said that the topic of Chinese use of Russian oil was not really discussed.
Trump directs Pentagon to ‘match’ Russia and China in nuclear weapons testing
Trump has directed the Pentagon to “immediately” match other nuclear powers in their testing of nuclear weapons, specifically citing Russia and China.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said: “Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.” The message was posted less than an hour before Trump met Xi in South Korea on Thursday.
When did the US last hold a full nuclear weapons test? In 1992 – and neither China nor Russia are known to have held any such tests since the same period. It is unclear what weapons testing could take place.
Revealed: ICE violates its own policy by holding people in secretive rooms for days or weeks
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have increasingly been keeping people in temporary holding rooms for days or even weeks at a time in breach of federal policy, a Guardian investigation has found.
The rooms, which are often small concrete spaces without beds, are used to detain people after they have been arrested but before they are transferred or released. In June, the agency changed its internal policies that previously banned it from detaining people in these rooms for more than 12 hours, raising the limit to three days.
Some facilities have recorded massive rises in detention lengths since June, with one facility in New York experiencing a nearly 600% average rise. ICE holding facilities do not receive the same level of oversight as larger ICE detention centers.
Are several people detained together? Yes. A former ICE official said the risk of people being sexually assaulted while in a holding room, either by ICE staff or another detainee, rises the longer they are held.
In other news …
Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces have killed hundreds of patients and staff inside a hospital in El Fasher, according to the World Health Organization and the Sudan Doctors Network. Thousands have fled the North Darfur city as accounts emerge of the paramilitary group killing civilians.
The centrist D66 party has made huge gains in the Dutch election, while the party of the far-right leader Geert Wilders has lost support.
Five new suspects have been arrested in connection with the Louvre robbery, police have said – but the jewels remain missing.
Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive contender for Congress, has been indicted over her participation in a protest outside an ICE processing facility near Chicago.
Stat of the day: In the first six months of 2025, there were more than 520 US plots and acts of terrorism and targeted violence
There is strong evidence that political violence is on the rise in the US: in the first six months of 2025, there were more than 520 plots and acts of terrorism and targeted violence, causing 96 deaths and 329 injuries. This is a nearly 40% increase compared with the first six months of 2024, according to data from the study of terrorism and responses to terrorism at the University of Maryland.
Don’t miss this: ‘Scamming became the new farming’: inside India’s cybercrime villages
To the uninitiated, the town of Jamtara in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand might not stand out. But look closer and you begin to see pockets of obvious wealth. In India, the town has become known for one thing: running scam operations to siphon money from strangers’ bank accounts. “You lived in fear of being ‘Jamtara-ed’,” writes Snigdha Poonam in this long read on how the district ended up a synonym for digital deceit in the country.
Climate check: Hurricane Melissa hits Cuba after turning Jamaica into ‘disaster area’
Hurricane Melissa – the strongest cyclone to lash Jamaica since records began nearly two centuries ago – has hit Cuba after devastating parts of the neighboring country, which was declared a disaster area by Jamaica’s prime minister. Climate scientists say global heating has made extreme weather, including storms, more intense.
Last Thing: Can anyone learn to be cool?
After a study found that people around the world identify common traits when asked what “cool” people are like, the Guardian writer Elle Hunt went on a mission: to find out if she could learn to be cool. “I am usually wearing head-to-toe Uniqlo. Affordable, yes, practical, certainly – but hardly cool,” she writes as she traces the history of the origins of “cool” and how it’s changed over the last century.
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