Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled on Sunday that the U.S. and China will significantly de-escalate their trade war under a framework he negotiated.
In an interview on CBS News’ Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, Bessent said an additional 100% tariff that President Donald Trump threatened earlier this month is “effectively off the table,” along with China’s rare earth restrictions.
“So I would expect that the threat of the 100% has gone away, as has the threat of the immediate imposition of the Chinese initiating a worldwide export control regime,” he said.
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet Thursday on the sidelines of a regional economic conference in South Korea, where they will determine the final details of a deal.
Bessent said Trump’s 100% tariff threat, which would have boosted the overall rate above 150%, created significant leverage during the talks in Malaysia with Vice Premier He Lifeng over the weekend.
The two sides also discussed American agricultural exports to China and Beijing’s role in helping curb the fentanyl trade.
Farmers have been warning of an economic crisis in rural America as crop prices fall and costs remain high, while China has held off on buying any U.S. soybeans this harvest season, despite traditionally being their top export market.
Bessent declined to give specific details but said soybean farmers will be “extremely happy with this deal for this year and for the coming years.”
He added that a recent Chinese purchase of soybeans from Argentina had been planned before the U.S. extended a currency lifeline to Buenos Aires but was timed to take advantage of a drop in export duties.
“Those soybeans were always going to be on the market. It’s a global market. The three leading suppliers are Brazil, Argentina and the U.S.,” Bessent said. “And I believe that we have brought the market back into equilibrium, and I believe that the Chinese will be making substantial purchases again.”
While he indicated China will ease its export controls on rare earths, Bessent suggested U.S. restrictions will remain.
When asked about limits on chip exports and curbs on Chinese investments in the U.S., he replied, “There have been no changes in our export controls.”
Three people have been killed and at least 32 others injured in an overnight Russian air attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, the city’s mayor has said.
Two high-rise residential buildings were hit in the strikes, Vitali Klitschko said, adding in a Telegram post that six children were among the injured.
Meanwhile, Russian air defences destroyed two drones heading towards Moscow on Sunday,according to the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin.
The latest Russian bombardment comes as Moscow has stepped up attacks on civilian targets and energy infrastructure ahead of winter, with Ukrainian authorities saying nearly 1,200 drones have been launched in the past week alone.
Officials in Kyiv said the three people were killed when a drone struck a nine-storey residential building in the Desnianskyi district to the north-west of the city, with 24 others injured in the same attack.
Damage was also reported to at least three other residential buildings in Kyiv. Seven people including two children are being treated in hospital, officials said.
Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022, and it currently controls around a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.
There has been marginal movement along the front lines as fighting on the ground continues, while Ukraine has sought to hurt Russia’s warfighting ability by striking its military production plants and oil facilities that are essential to its economy.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has recently called on allies to supply his armed forces with long range weapons to continue doing so.
However, he came away from a recent meeting at the White House and subsequent EU summit empty-handed.
US President Donald Trump did announce new sanctions targeting Russia’s largest oil companies this week – the first time he had done so in his current term – as did the EU.
On his way to Asia over the weekend, Trump said he had a “great relationship” with Putin but that recent events had been “disappointing”, suggesting a meeting between the two was conditional on a peace deal being likely.
Trump has appeared increasingly frustrated with Russian conditions for bringing the war to a close, with a summit in Alaska in August failing to yield any tangible results.
The US president had previously said fresh sanctions on Moscow were contingent on European allies cutting their Russian energy imports. The EU has pledged to do so by 2028.
Zelensky has agreed to a US proposal to cease fighting along the current front lines so peace negotiations can begin – though this falls short of Russian demands that Ukrainian forces completely withdraw from the eastern Donbas region.
However, senior Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who met US officials in Washington on Friday and Saturday, told CNN that he believed Russia, Ukraine and the US were close to a diplomatic solution to end the war.
“It’s a big move by President Zelensky to already acknowledge that it’s about battle lines,” Dmitriev said.
“You know, his previous position was that Russia should leave completely so actually, I think we are reasonably close to a diplomatic solution that can be worked out.”
Lizzo is facing a copyright infringement lawsuit over a snippet of a song the singer shared on social media that referenced the controversy around Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad.
The GRC Trust, a Georgia-based revocable trust, filed the lawsuit in federal court in California on Tuesday (October 21), alleging that Lizzo’s track – known alternately as I’m Goin’ In Till October or Good Jeans – sampled without permission the 1970 song Win Or Lose (We Tried) by soul singer and songwriter Sam Dees.
Lizzo’s allegedly infringing work “incorporates, interpolates, and samples instrumental and vocal elements of the [Sam Dees] composition,” states the GRC Trust’s complaint, which can be read in full here. “Representatives for Lizzo acknowledge the same.”
However, a representative for Lizzo told BBC News and Bloomberg Law that they were “surprised that The GRC Trust filed this lawsuit,” given that Lizzo’s song “has never been commercially released or monetized, and no decision has been made at this time regarding any future commercial release of the song.”
Lizzo circulated the snippet on platforms including TikTok and Instagram this past summer. The track gained attention in part through its reference to Sydney Sweeney’s appearance as a model for jeans company American Eagle.
The ads’ catchphrase, “Sydney Sweeney has good jeans,” was seen as a pun on “genes,” and some criticized the campaign as racist for suggesting that Sweeney’s blue eyes and blond hair constitute “good genes.”
Lizzo’s track included the lyric “Bitch, I got good jeans like I’m Sydney,” and it was circulated alongside a video of Lizzo washing a Porsche in cutoff shorts and a denim top. According to news reports, the track has disappeared from Lizzo’s social accounts.
The GRC Trust’s complaint states that they attempted an “informal resolution” of the dispute, but the talks “reached an impasse, necessitating the filing of this case.”
The complaint argues that Lizzo and Atlantic “have obtained profits they would not have realized but for their infringement of GRC’s rights in the composition. As such, GRC is entitled to disgorgement of defendants’ profits attributable to defendants’ infringement in an amount to be established at trial.”
“To be clear, the song has never been commercially released or monetized, and no decision has been made at this time regarding any future commercial release of the song.”
spokesperson for Lizzo
The lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop Lizzo and Atlantic from using the track any further, along with damages for “all of defendants’ profits plus all GRC’s losses,” plus attorneys’ fees and court costs.
The trust is beng represented via Jimmy Ginn, president of Ginn Music Group, an Atlanta-based music catalog investor.
This is not the only copyright lawsuit filed by GRC Trust recently. In September, the trust sued Kanye West, alleging that West’s track LORD LIFT ME UP sampled Sam Dees’ 1975 song Just Out Of My Reach.
And it’s not Lizzo’s first time around in copyright court. In 2019 the singer was sued for copyright infringement over her hit track Truth Hurts.
Justin “Yves” Rothman and brothers Justin and Jeremiah Raisen, who worked as songwriters on another Lizzo track, Healthy, said their work for Healthy was used in Truth Hurts without credit or compensation.
The case was dismissed in 2022 after the parties involved reached an out-of-court settlement.Music Business Worldwide
Pakistan seems to have caught the geopolitical winds just right. Last month, Pakistan signed a defence agreement with Saudi Arabia. Under this bold pact, an attack on one will be regarded as an attack on both, a dramatic escalation of security guarantees in a region already crowded with rivalries. At the same time, Islamabad has quietly dispatched rare earth mineral samples to the United States and is exploring deeper export agreements. Washington, for its part, appears newly interested in treating Pakistan as more than a peripheral irritant.
These moves suggest momentum. Commentators in Islamabad and Riyadh call it a renaissance of Pakistani foreign policy, a belated recognition of the country’s strategic indispensability. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s presence at the Gaza peace summit only reinforced the impression of a nation returning to centre stage in the Muslim world.
But this is no overnight miracle. It is the product of necessity, pressure and shifting alignments in a volatile region. Behind the optics lie harder realities.
The first driver of Pakistan’s foreign policy push is the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Washington’s abrupt exit left a vacuum it still struggles to fill. With a hostile Iran and an entrenched Taliban, the US needs a counterweight in the region. Pakistan, with its geography, intelligence networks and long entanglement in Afghan affairs, suddenly matters again.
US President Donald Trump’s demand that the Taliban hand over the Bagram airbase, five years after signing the deal that paved the way for the US withdrawal, underscores America’s search for leverage. If that gambit fails, Pakistan becomes the obvious fallback: the only state with both logistical capacity and political connections to help Washington maintain a presence in the region.
The second factor is the uneasy US-India relationship. Over the past decade, Washington has drawn New Delhi deeper into its Indo-Pacific strategy, strengthening its global profile in ways Pakistan sees as threatening. Yet US-India friction has grown. Disputes over visas and tariffs have festered. India’s embrace of Moscow has raised eyebrows in Washington.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s August visit to Beijing sent a clear signal that India is willing to hedge its bets with China. Economically, his “Make in India” programme, modelled on East Asia’s low-cost export strategies, could undercut US manufacturing. For Trump, eager to maintain balance in Asia, Pakistan appears useful again as a counterweight to India’s flirtations with Beijing.
The third and most precarious driver is mineral diplomacy. Islamabad’s outreach to Washington centres on promises of access to rare earth minerals, many of which are located in the restive region of Balochistan. On paper, this looks like a win-win: Pakistan gains investment, and the US secures critical resources. But the reality is darker. Balochistan remains Pakistan’s poorest province despite decades of extraction. Infrastructure projects stand underused, airports lie empty and unemployment remains stubbornly high.
The Balochistan Mines and Minerals Act 2025, passed by the provincial legislature in March, has only deepened discontent. Under the act, Islamabad is formally empowered to recommend mining policies and licensing decisions in Balochistan, a move that has provoked opposition across the political spectrum. Critics argue it undermines provincial autonomy and recentralises control in Islamabad. Even right-wing religious parties, such as the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), seldom aligned with nationalist groups, have expressed opposition, portraying the law as yet another attempt to dispossess local communities of their rightful stake in the province’s resources.
This backlash underscores a dangerous trend. Resource exploitation without local participation fuels resentment and insurgency. By opening mineral wealth to foreign investors without social safeguards, Islamabad risks deepening the alienation of a province already scarred by conflict and militarisation. What looks like salvation in Islamabad can look like dispossession in Quetta.
Taken together, these drivers show that Pakistan’s foreign policy shift is less a renaissance than a calculated pivot under pressure. The Afghan vacuum, the recalibration of US-India ties and the lure of mineral diplomacy all explain Islamabad’s newfound prominence. But none erases underlying fragilities. Washington may once again treat Pakistan as disposable when its priorities change. India’s weight in US strategy is not going away. And Balochistan’s grievances will only deepen if resource deals remain extractive and exclusionary.
The applause in Riyadh, the visibility at the Gaza summit and the polite handshakes in Washington should not be mistaken for a strategic rebirth. Pakistan is manoeuvring carefully, improvising under pressure and seeking to turn vulnerabilities into opportunities. But the real test lies at home. Unless Islamabad can confront governance failures, regional inequalities and political mistrust, foreign policy gains will remain fragile.
In the end, no defence pact or minerals deal can substitute for a stable social contract within Pakistan itself. That is the true renaissance Pakistan still awaits.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
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Mona McSharry and Ellen Walshe, two stars of Irish swimming right now, both closed out their world Cup campaigns with a new Irish record. They each took the silver medal in their respective event tonight, and set a new best time.
McSharry set the first of the night, shaving a hundredth of a second from her previous standard with a swim of 29.58. She was 29.59 at both the 2021 Short Course World Championships and last week in Westmont, but made the most of a faster first 25 this week.
Walshe closed out the session with her third Irish record in three swims in Toronto, adding the 200 IM to the 400 IM and 200 fly marks she had set on Days 1 and 2. Both of those had been broken by herself last week, while the 200 IM was a longer-standing record – albeit only from last December.
She had swum a time of 2:05.52 in Budapest at the Short Course World Championships, placing 5th, but took three-quarters of a second off that time tonight.
She was out significantly slower on the fly tonight, but was pretty much even with her record pace at halfway. Tonight’s freestyle leg was the main reason for the time drop, as she closed in 29.27 compared to 29.87.
Split Comparison
2024 – Short Course World Championships
2025 – World Cup, Toronto Stop
50
26.94
27.61
100
59.12 (32.18)
59.07 (31.46)
150
1:35.65 (36.53)
1:35.48 (36.41)
200
2:05.52 (29.87)
2:04.75 (29.27)
Her final 50 tonight was the fastest in the field, and she was the only swimmer to close under 30 seconds. That saw her rise from 6th at the 150m mark to place 2nd, as she made full use of her underwaters to beat out Brit Abbie Wood for the silver medal.
She now ranks 15th all-time in the event, and is in the top-15 in both the 200 IM (#15) and 400 IM (#8) in short course.
McSharry and Walshe have each now set six national records at the World Cup this year. Together with Lottie Cullen, there have been 13 new national records in just over two weeks.
A new study has pinpointed how the APOE4 gene variant sabotages the brain’s energy balance, blocking neurons from burning fat for fuel when glucose runs low, a discovery that could reveal new ways to prevent or slow Alzheimer’s disease.
Everyone inherits two copies of the APOE gene, one from each parent. The gene has several versions, or alleles: APOE2, APOE3, and APOE4. While APOE3 is the most common and relatively neutral, APOE4 dramatically raises the risk of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
For years, scientists have known of this link, but not the mechanism underpinning it. A new study co-led by Aarhus University, Denmark, and the Max Delbrück Center in Germany has identified the mechanism by which APOE4 causes damage in the brain.
“The ability to use glucose diminishes in the aging brain, forcing nerve cells to use alternative sources for energy production,” said corresponding author Thomas Willnow, a professor in the University’s Department of Biomedicine. “APOE4 appears to block nerve cells from utilizing lipids as an alternative energy source when their supply of glucose decreases.”
Glucose is the brain’s primary fuel source, supplying the energy needed for neurons to communicate, repair, and maintain healthy function. Unlike other organs, the brain can’t store much glucose, so it relies on a constant supply from the bloodstream and a finely tuned system that converts it into usable energy within cells. As we age, this system becomes less efficient. Glucose uptake and metabolism gradually decline, leading to subtle energy shortages that can impair memory and cognition.
In Alzheimer’s disease, this energy crisis becomes more severe: neurons lose their ability to use glucose effectively, even in the presence of normal blood sugar levels. Brain imaging studies consistently show reduced glucose metabolism in areas responsible for learning and memory, suggesting that this “fuel failure” may be one of the earliest and most damaging events in the disease process.
To get to the bottom of this failure, the researchers used a mix of human brain tissue, lab-grown brain organoids (miniature brain models), and genetically modified mice. They compared cells carrying APOE3 (the “normal” version) and cells carrying APOE4 (the high-risk version). They examined how these versions affected how fats are processed in the brain cells (lipid metabolism); neuron and glial cell function, especially astrocytes and microglia; and the accumulation of tau and amyloid-beta proteins, two hallmark proteins that clump in Alzheimer’s brains.
The “normal” (APOE3) variant allows lipids used by neurons for energy; the APOE4 variant stops that happening
Aarhus University/Anna Greda
APOE4 was found to cause toxic lipid buildup. APOE normally helps shuttle cholesterol and other fats around the brain. APOE4, however, mismanages lipid transport, leading to fat accumulation inside neurons. This buildup stresses the neurons, making them more vulnerable to damage. The fat overload in astrocytes and microglia activates inflammatory pathways. Chronic brain inflammation contributes to neuronal death and worsens amyloid and tau pathology.
APOE4 also interfered with lysosomal function, the brain’s waste disposal mechanism. As a result, toxic proteins and damaged fats aren’t cleared effectively, which accelerates degeneration. Structural analysis showed that APOE4’s altered shape made it prone to sticking to cell membranes and lipids abnormally. This structural instability is the root of its malfunction.
“By using transgenic mouse models and stem-cell-derived human brain cell models, we discovered that the pathway enabling nerve cells to burn lipids for energy production doesn’t work with APOE4, because this APOE variant blocks the receptor on nerve cells required for lipid uptake,” said Anna Greda, assistant professor at the Willnow lab at Aarhus University and the study’s co-lead author.
The researchers acknowledge the study’s limitations. The principal one is that most models were lab-based, so results might not capture the full complexity of the human brain. And, while animal models approximate human disease progression, they don’t replicate it perfectly. Additionally, APOE4 effects may differ by sex and ethnicity, which this study didn’t deeply explore.
Nonetheless, the study’s findings have therapeutic potential. Understanding that APOE4’s toxicity comes from mismanaged lipids and inflammation opens new drug targets, particularly in lipid metabolism and lysosomal repair.
“Our research suggests that the brain is highly dependent on being able to switch from glucose to lipid as we age,” said the study’s other lead author, Jemila Gomes, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Willnow lab. “It seems that individuals who are carriers of the APOE4 gene may be compromised to do so, increasing their risk of nerve cell starvation and death during aging.”
Some labs are already testing “APOE4 stabilizers” that could make it behave more like APOE3. Since lipid metabolism is involved, diet and cholesterol control might partly influence disease progression in APOE4 carriers, though this remains under investigation.
Two suspects have been arrested over the theft of precious crown jewels from Paris’s Louvre museum, French media say.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said one of the men had been taken into custody as he was preparing to take a flight from Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Items worth €88m (£76m; $102m) were taken from the world’s most-visited museum last Sunday, when four thieves wielding power tools broke into the building in broad daylight.
France’s justice minister has conceded security protocols “failed”, leaving the country with a “terrible image”.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the arrests had been made on Saturday evening, without specifying how many people had been taken into custody.
One of the suspects was preparing to travel to Algeria, police sources have told French media, while it’s understood the other was going to Mali.
Specialist police can question them for up to 96 hours.
The Paris prosecutor criticised the “premature disclosure” of information related to the case, adding that it hindered efforts to recover the jewels and find the thieves.
The thieves reportedly arrived at 09:30 (06:30 GMT), shortly after the museum opened to visitors.
Pictures from the scene showed the ladder leading up to a first-floor window.
Two of the thieves entered by cutting through the window with power tools.
They then threatened the guards, who evacuated the premises, and cut through the glass of two display cases containing jewels.
A preliminary report has revealed that one in three rooms in the area of the museum raided had no CCTV cameras, according to French media.
French police say the thieves were inside for four minutes and made their escape on two scooters waiting outside at 09:38.
The museum’s director told French senators this week that the only camera monitoring the exterior wall of the Louvre where they broke in was pointing away from the first-floor balcony that led to Gallery of Apollo.
CCTV around the perimeter was also weak and “ageing”, Laurence des Cars said, meaning that staff failed to spot the gang early enough to stop the theft.
Gold and silver can be melted down and the gems can be cut up into smaller stones that will be virtually impossible to track back to the robbery, Dutch art detective Arthur Brand told the BBC.
Security measures have since been tightened around France’s cultural institutions.
The Louvre has transferred some of its most precious jewels to the Bank of France following the heist. They will now be stored in the Bank’s most secure vault, 26m (85ft) below the ground floor of its elegant headquarters in central Paris.
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have been banned from Villa Park for their Europa League game against Aston Villa. But who decides when away fans are banned and what constitutes a high-risk game? Samantha Johnson looks at the reasons and the politics behind banning orders in European football.
