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US-China trade talks ‘stalled’, says Scott Bessent

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US-China trade talks ‘stalled’, says Scott Bessent

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Trade talks between the US and China are “a bit stalled” and may need to be reinvigorated with a call between Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said.

The comments suggest that the two sides have made little progress since they agreed two weeks ago during talks in Geneva to a truce that would reduce tit-for-tat tariffs that had soared to as high as 145 per cent.

“I believe we will be having more talks in the next few weeks and I believe we might at some point have a call between the president and party chair Xi,” Bessent told Fox News on Thursday.

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“Given the magnitude of the talks . . . this is going to require both leaders to weigh in with each other,” he said. “They have a very good relationship and I am confident that the Chinese will come to the table when President Trump makes his preferences known.”

China’s ministry of foreign affairs on Friday declined to comment on Bessent’s remarks.

Trump has on various occasions raised the possibility of a phone call with Xi. He insisted before the talks on May 12 that they had spoken but China has consistently denied this.

After the talks in Switzerland, the two countries said they would slash tariffs on each other’s goods for at least the next 90 days, with the extra levies the US imposed on China this year falling to 30 per cent and China’s declining to 10 per cent.

As part of the deal, China also agreed to “suspend or cancel” non-tariff measures against the US, but did not provide any details.

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The Chinese ministry of commerce said after the talks that both sides had agreed to set up a “China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism, to maintain close communication on respective concerns in the economic and trade fields and to carry out further consultations”.

It said the two sides would hold consultations regularly or as needed, “alternating between China and the United States, or in a mutually agreed third country”.

But since then, there have been few public announcements on the talks from either side, with the Trump administration instead imposing further restrictions on the use of US technology by Chinese companies.

Shortly after the Geneva talks, Washington warned companies around the world that using artificial intelligence chips made by Huawei could trigger criminal penalties for violating US export controls.

The US commerce department has also told US companies that offer software used to design semiconductors to stop selling their services to Chinese groups, in the latest attempt to make it harder for China to develop advanced chips.

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“From the perspective of the long-term and complex nature of the struggle with the US, we should not only be fully prepared for negotiations but also be ready for a prolonged confrontation,” wrote Huo Jianguo, a vice-chair of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies on Beijing, in Communist party affiliated media China Economic Net.

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Russia says talks on US peace plan for Ukraine ‘are proceeding constructively’

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Russia says talks on US peace plan for Ukraine ‘are proceeding constructively’

FILE – Russian Presidential foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, left, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, center, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, foreground right, and Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Special Presidential Representative for Investment and Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries Kirill Dmitriev, behind Witkoff, arrive to attend talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Dec. 2, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

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Video: First Batch of Epstein Files Provides Few Revelations

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Video: First Batch of Epstein Files Provides Few Revelations

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First Batch of Epstein Files Provides Few Revelations

The Justice Department, under pressure from Congress to comply with a law signed by President Trump, released more than 13,000 files on Friday arising from investigations into Jeffrey Epstein.

Put out the files and stop redacting names that don’t need to be redacted. It’s just — who are we trying to protect? Are we protecting the survivors? Or are we protecting these elite men that need to be put out there?

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The Justice Department, under pressure from Congress to comply with a law signed by President Trump, released more than 13,000 files on Friday arising from investigations into Jeffrey Epstein.

By McKinnon de Kuyper

December 20, 2025

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Apple, Google tell workers on visas to avoid leaving the U.S. amid Trump immigration crackdown

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Apple, Google tell workers on visas to avoid leaving the U.S. amid Trump immigration crackdown

With reported months-long consulate and embassy delays, Google and Apple say employees on H-1B visas should stay put in the U.S. right now to avoid the risk of getting stranded abroad. The latter tech company’s headquarters campus is seen in Mountain View, Calif.

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Apple and Google are warning some U.S-based employees on visas against traveling outside of the country to avoid the risk of getting stuck coming back, as the Trump administration toughens vetting of visa applicants, according to recent internal memos from the tech companies that were reviewed by NPR.

U.S. consulates and embassies have been reporting lengthy, sometimes months-long delays, for visa appointments following new rules from the Department of Homeland Security requiring travelers to undergo a screening of up to five years’ of their social media history — a move criticized by free speech advocates as a privacy invasion.

For Apple and Google, which together employ more than 300,000 employees and rely heavily on highly-skilled foreign workers, the increased vetting and reports of extended delays were enough for the companies to tell some of their staff to stay in the U.S. if they are able to avoid foreign travel.

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“We recommend avoiding international travel at this time as you risk an extended stay outside of the U.S.,” Berry Appleman & Leiden, a law firm that works with Google, wrote to employees.

The law firm Fragomen, which works with Apple, wrote a similar message: “Given the recent updates and the possibility of unpredictable, extended delays when returning to the U.S., we strongly recommend that employees without a valid H-1B visa stamp avoid international travel for now,” the memo read. “If travel cannot be postponed, employees should connect with Apple Immigration and Fragomen in advance to discuss the risks.”

Apple and Google declined to comment on the advisories, which were first reported by Business Insider.

It’s the latest sign of how the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies are affecting the foreign-born workforce in the U.S.

Earlier this year, the White House announced that companies will be subjected to a $100,000 fee for all new H-1B visas, a type of visa popular among tech companies eager to hire highly skilled workers from abroad.

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H-1Bs typically last three years, and applicants have to return to an embassy or consulate in their home country for a renewal, but reports suggest such a routine trip could lead to people being stranded for months as a result of the Trump administration’s new policies.

On Friday, The Washington Post reported that hundreds of visa holders who traveled to India to renew their H-1Bs had their appointments postponed with the State Department explaining that officials needed more time to ensure that no applicants “pose a threat to U.S. national security or public safety.”

At Google, the Alphabet Workers’ Union has been campaigning for additional protections for workers on H-1B visas. Those workers would be particularly vulnerable in the event Google carried out layoffs, since losing employer sponsorship could jeopardize their legal status, said Google software engineer Parul Koul, who leads the union.

The need to support H-1B holders at Google, she said, has “only become more urgent with all the scrutiny and heightened vetting by the Trump administration around the H1B program, and how the administration is coming for all other types of immigrant workers.”

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