President Xi Jinping of China kicked off a weeklong tour of Southeast Asia Monday, landing in Hanoi and trying to rally other nations to Beijing’s side as American tariffs threaten manufacturing networks and economic growth. In an essay published Monday in Vietnamese state media just before his arrival, Mr. Xi called on other countries to…
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel visited the White House two months ago, President Trump sold him a brazen dream: The United States would take control of the Gaza Strip, move out the Palestinian population of about two million souls and turn the devastated seaside enclave into a glittering “riviera.” This week, as the…
A doubling of American tariffs on Chinese goods. Nationalist Chinese bloggers comparing President Trump’s levies to a declaration of war. China’s Foreign Ministry vowing that Beijing will “fight to the end.” For years, the world’s two biggest powers have flirted with the idea of an economic decoupling as tensions between them have risen. The acceleration…
As its trade negotiators rushed to Washington to seek a reprieve from President Donald J. Trump’s blanket tariffs, South Korea on Wednesday announced new measures to soften the blow of levies on the country’s carmakers. The two efforts underlined the delicate balance that South Korea needs to strike after the country, one of the most…
The U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, on Tuesday sharply criticized Israel’s renewed blockade of aid to Gaza as a violation of its obligations under international law and said it had opened “the floodgates of horror.” “Gaza is a killing field and civilians are in an endless death loop,” Mr. Guterres said in prepared remarks to…
A senior Panamanian official on Monday said he had uncovered evidence of misconduct by a Hong Kong company, a finding that could delay or even scuttle a ports deal that has put China at loggerheads with the United States. Last month the Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison agreed to sell a business that encompasses 43…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in the past listed the three main threats facing Israel as “Iran, Iran and Iran.” He has largely staked his career on being Israel’s protector against Iranian nuclear ambitions, has openly confronted the country in recent months and is at war with Iran-backed militias around the region. Many Israelis were…
There aren’t a lot of countries Israel’s prime minister can visit without risking arrest. Which makes the red-carpet treatment Benjamin Netanyahu received in Hungary — Europe’s only proud “illiberal democracy” — all the more noteworthy. Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, invited Mr. Netanyahu right after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant last November…
President Trump’s announcement last week that he will impose a 20 percent tariff on goods coming from the European Union sent shock waves across the 27-nation bloc, the latest move in an unfolding trade war that is tearing the close partners apart. This week, Europe will push ahead with its first countermaneuver — one of…
President Trump’s self-proclaimed “liberation day,” in which he announced across-the-board tariffs on the United States’ trading partners, carries an echo of another moment when an advanced Western economy threw up walls around itself. Like Brexit, Britain’s fateful vote nearly nine years ago to leave the European Union, Mr. Trump’s tariffs struck a hammer blow at…