First Thing: US and China agree ‘framework’ for trade deal ahead of Xi-Trump meeting | US news

Good morning.

The US and China have agreed a framework for a trade deal only days before Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping are due to meet.

The treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said the agreement, forged on Sunday on the sidelines of the Association of south-east Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Malaysia, would remove the threat of the imposition of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports starting on 1 November and include “a final deal” on the sale of TikTok in the US.

Trump arrived in Malaysia yesterday for the summit, his first stop in a five-day Asia tour that is expected to culminate in a face-to-face meeting with Xi in South Korea on Thursday.

• What about other trade deals that are still up in the air? There were hopes of a truce between the US and Brazil after what President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva described as a “positive” meeting with Trump in Malaysia. Their respective teams will start “immediately” to discuss tariffs and other matters, he said.

• And Canada? Trump said Saturday that he will raise US tariffs by 10% in retaliation for an advertisement sponsored by the Ontario government that accurately quoted Ronald Reagan at length saying tariffs don’t work.

The Trump administration’s military airstrikes against boats off Venezuela’s coast that the White House claims were being used for drug trafficking are “extrajudicial killings”, said Rand Paul, the president’s fellow Republican and US senator from Kentucky.

Paul’s strong comments came on Sunday on the Republican-friendly Fox News, three days after Trump publicly claimed he “can’t imagine” federal lawmakers would have “any problem” with the strikes when asked about seeking congressional approval for them.

• How many people have been killed in the airstrikes? US forces in recent weeks have carried out at least eight strikes against boats in the Caribbean off Venezuela’s coast, killing about 40 people that the Trump administration has insisted were involved in smuggling drugs.

Hurricane Melissa strengthens to category 5 as evacuations ordered in Jamaica’s capital

Hurricane Melissa strengthened into a powerful category 5 hurricane today, threatening days of catastrophic winds and rain in the northern Caribbean.

Jamaica’s government ordered mandatory evacuations for vulnerable areas across the country including in the capital, Kingston. Officials had earlier urged those in low-lying and flood-prone areas to seek refuge as Melissa rapidly climbs up the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.

During a press conference in Kingston on Sunday, Jamaican authorities said both international airports were closed and 881 shelters had been activated.

• What is the threat to Jamaica? “Many of these communities will not survive the flooding. Kingston is extremely low,” said Desmond McKenzie, the minister of local government.

In other news …

• Two US House Republicans are pushing the federal justice department to investigate the path to citizenship of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate favored to win the 4 November election for New York City mayor. Meanwhile, thousands of supporters packed Forest Hills stadium to hear him.

• The party of Argentina’s far-right president, Javier Milei, has won yesterday’s midterm elections after a campaign in which Donald Trump announced a $40bn bailout for the country and made continued aid conditional on the victory of his Argentinian counterpart.

• A recovery team has begun excavating the wreckage of a US P-47 Thunderbolt that crashed in the UK in 1944. Parts of the aircraft, piloted by 2nd Lt Lester Lowry, will be repatriated to his home state of Pennsylvania.

Stat of the day: Food benefits set to expire for 41 million people as US shutdown continues

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Saturday that food benefits under one of the country’s biggest social assistance programs would not be issued in November amid the ongoing federal government shutdown. More than 41 million depend on the monthly payments, according to the USDA.

Don’t miss this: ‘People thought I was a communist doing this as a non-profit’ – is Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales the last decent tech baron?

In an online landscape characterised by doom and division, the “people’s encyclopedia” stands out – a huge collective endeavour giving everyone free access to the sum of human knowledge. But with Elon Musk branding it Wokipedia and AI looming large, can it survive?

Climate check: One year after a historic dam removal, teens inspire river restoration worldwide – ‘It turns out you can win’

After the removal of the four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, the largest project of its kind in US history, the once-imperiled waterway has begun to thrive again. Native plants now bloom along the banks, wildlife has returned and the river’s ecosystems are regenerating from the microscopic level up. Recently 28 teenage tribal representatives celebrated this rebirth by becoming the first people in more than a century to kayak the entire 310-mile stretch from the Cascades to the Pacific.

Last Thing: AI can help authors beat writer’s block, says Bloomsbury chief

Authors will come to rely on artificial intelligence to help them beat writer’s block, the boss of the book publisher Bloomsbury has said. Nigel Newton, the founder and chief executive of the publisher behind the Harry Potter series, said the technology could support almost all creative arts, although it would not fully replace prominent writers.

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