Category: 2. World

The United States and China agreed to pause tariff hikes on each other’s goods for an additional 90 days, according to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Monday. Without the agreement, tariffs were set to immediately surge, risking a return to ultra-high levels that had formed an effective blockade on trade between the world’s two largest economies.

The news, first reported by CNBC, comes hours ahead of a 12:01 am ET deadline when tariffs on Chinese goods were set to rise to 54% from 30%, and Chinese tariffs on American exports would return to 34% from 10%.

In a joint statement with the US, China confirmed the 90-day trade truce extension and said it would maintain the 10% tariffs it has imposed on American goods during that period. The statement was based on the bilateral negotiations that took place in Sweden last month, it said.

The extension comes after Trump imposed a slew of “reciprocal” tariffs on trading partners around the world, which have raised the United States’ effective tariff rate to levels not seen since the Great Depression.

Higher tariffs on Chinese goods, America’s second-largest source of imports, would have almost certainly raised the costs many American businesses and consumers could pay — or already are paying — because of increased import taxes Trump has enacted.

After meeting in Sweden in July, Chinese negotiators went as far as to say that a deal was reached. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, both of whom attended the meeting, disputed that, saying nothing was final without Trump’s word.

“We’ll see what happens. They’ve been dealing quite nicely. The relationship is very good with President Xi and myself,” Trump said earlier on Monday.

A White House fact sheet on the extension said trade discussions with China have been “constructive” and quoted Trump saying: “We’re getting along with China very well.”

At the conclusion of last month’s meeting with Chinese trade officials, Bessent said he warned his Chinese counterparts that continuing to purchase Russian oil would bring about huge tariffs under legislation in Congress that allows Trump to impose levies up to 500%.

It’s not clear if the administration is prepared to double down on those threats yet. Trump recently threatened India, which also purchases Russian oil, albeit considerably less than China, with a 50% tariff rate if it continues to do so by the end of this month.

The move to penalize India and not other countries purchasing oil from Russia has been widely criticized by the Indian government, which claims it’s being unfairly singled out. Trump suggested that more countries could face similar threats. “You’re going to see a lot more. So this is a taste,” he said last week.

And over the weekend in a Fox News interview, Vice President JD Vance said such tariffs on China are on the table, though Trump had not yet made a decision.

“Given that we seem to be headed toward some type of deal with China leading to some kind of meeting between Xi and Trump, the administration has definitely been more conciliatory towards China in the past few weeks,” said Wendy Cutler, a former US trade negotiator who is now vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute.

Were China to give in to the administration’s desires to stop purchasing Russian oil, it would be done “quietly and gradually” rather than a Trump announcement on social media, she added.

Much remains unresolved

Bessent also said he voiced concerns and regrets about China’s sales of over $15 billion worth of dual-use technology equipment (that is, equipment that has both commercial and military uses) to Russia and its purchase of sanctioned Iranian oil.

Another sticking point between the US and China has been exportations of rare earth magnets. China agreed to increase exports, but Trump says China has not held up its end of the bargain.

The US also wants to find an American buyer for TikTok, which is currently owned by a Chinese company. Congress has set out a timeline for the app to find new ownership or face a US ban.

US stocks closed lower Monday ahead of key inflation data set to be published Tuesday morning.

This story has been updated. An earlier version misstated the tariff rate the United States would have placed on Chinese goods if the pause had not been extended

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Firefighters in Turkey are battling wildfires in the centre of the northwestern province of Canakkale, fanned by strong winds, and hundreds of residents have evacuated in precaution, local authorities and media said on Monday.

Airplanes, helicopters, vehicles and around 700 personnel are fighting against the blazes, city governor Omer Toraman said in a post on X.

Authorities also launched precautionary evacuations in areas at risk including a university campus, military area and residential areas and urged residents to avoid unnecessary travel to keep roads clear from traffic for emergency vehicles.

The city’s airport, the Dardanelles Strait, as well as a part of the highway, were shut due to the wildfires, and local television footage showed huge plumes of smoke billowing over the hills.

Water-spraying police vehicles were extinguishing blazes that spread to some residential buildings in the area, according to footage from Anadolu news agency.

Temperatures in the region reached 33 degrees Celsius with a wind speed reaching up to 66 kilometers per hour, according to Turkey’s meteorological service.

Some 50 people were affected by smoke and were treated at nearby medical facilities, with no life-threatening conditions, the governor said. 

Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, said Monday that it was selling off its stakes in some Israeli companies and terminating all contracts with Israeli asset managers handling investments over the situation in Gaza and the West Bank.

“We are invested in companies that operate in a country at war, and conditions in the West Bank and Gaza have recently worsened. In response, we will further strengthen our due diligence,” the fund’s CEO Nicolai Tangen said in a statement.

Norges Bank Investment Management, the body managing the fund, said it is divesting itself of 11 Israeli companies, out of 61, which are not included in an equity benchmark index created by Norway’s Finance Ministry.

The fund said the 11 were excluded “due to unacceptable risk of contribution to serious norm violations associated with business operations in the West Bank.”

Going forward, “the fund’s investments in Israel will now be limited to companies that are in the equity benchmark index,” it said.

The statement noted that it has raised issues with 39 companies since 2020 over concerns pertaining to the West Bank and Gaza, marking the majority of its due diligence related to conflicts around the globe.

It said that monitoring Israeli companies was intensified in the autumn of 2024, and that, “as a result, we have sold our investments in several Israeli companies.”

NBIM also said that all investments in Israeli companies managed by external managers would be moved in-house, and that it was “terminating contracts with external managers in Israel.”

In addition, NBIM said Norway’s Finance Ministry had asked it to review “its investments in Israeli companies, and to propose new measures that it deems necessary.”

It said it initiated the review and would present its findings before an August 20 deadline.

Norway’s wealth fund, also known as the oil fund, as it is fueled by vast revenue from the country’s energy exports, is the largest in the world with a value of around $1.9 trillion, with investments spanning the globe.

Last week, Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten reported that the fund had invested in Israeli Bet Shemesh Engines Holdings, which makes parts for engines used in Israeli fighter jets.

Displaced Palestinians carry food parcels and supplies from a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distribution point along the Netzarim corridor in the central Gaza Strip, August 8, 2025. (Ali Hassan/Flash90)

Tangen later confirmed the reports and said the fund had increased its stake after the Israeli offensive in Gaza began, which was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre of southern communities.

The revelations led Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store to ask Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg for a review.

Speaking at a press conference later Monday, Stoltenberg said he was glad Norges Bank had “acted quickly.”

“The fund’s ethical guidelines stipulate that it shall not invest in companies that contribute to violations of international law by states,” he told reporters.

“Therefore, the pension fund should not hold shares in companies that contribute to Israel’s warfare in Gaza or the occupation of the West Bank,” he said.

In the last year, the fund sold its stakes in an Israeli energy company and a telecoms group over ethics concerns, and its ethics watchdog has said it is reviewing whether to divest holdings in five banks.

Norway’s parliament in June rejected a proposal for the fund to divest from all companies with activities in the West Bank and Gaza.

Also on Monday, Norwegian pension fund KLP said it had excluded Israeli company NextVision Stabilized Systems “from its investments because the company supplies key components for military drones used in the war in Gaza.”

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WASHINGTON:  President Donald Trump said on Monday he was deploying 800 National Guard troops to the US capital and putting Washington’s police department under federal control to combat what he said was a wave of lawlessness, despite statistics showing that violent crime hit a 30-year low in 2024.

“I’m deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order and public safety in Washington, DC,” Trump told reporters at the White House, flanked by administration officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals.”

Trump’s announcement is his latest effort to target Democratic-run cities by exercising executive power over traditionally local matters, and he has shown particular interest in asserting more control over Washington.

The Republican president has dismissed criticism that he is manufacturing a crisis to justify expanding presidential authority in a heavily Democratic city.

Hundreds of officers and agents from over a dozen federal agencies, including the FBI, ICE, DEA and ATF, have fanned out across the city in recent days.

Trump said he would also send in the US military “if needed,” and Hegseth said he was prepared to call in additional National Guard troops from outside Washington. Bondi will oversee the police force takeover, Trump said.

In making his announcement, Trump described Washington as a hellscape of bloodthirsty criminals and unchecked violence.

The Democratic mayor of Washington, Muriel Bowser, has pushed back on Trump’s claims, saying the city is “not experiencing a crime spike” and highlighting that violent crime hit its lowest level in more than three decades last year.

Violent crime fell 26% in the first seven months of 2025 after dropping 35% in 2024, and overall crime dropped 7%, according to the city’s police department.

Trump ramps up rhetoric

Over the past week, Trump has intensified his messaging, suggesting he might attempt to strip the city of its local autonomy and implement a full federal takeover.

The District of Columbia, established in 1790, operates under the Home Rule Act, which gives Congress ultimate authority but allows residents to elect a mayor and city council. Trump said last week that lawyers are examining how to overturn the law, a move that would likely require Congress to revoke it.

Special conditions 

In taking over the Metropolitan Police Department, Trump invoked a section of the act that allows the president to use the force temporarily when “special conditions of an emergency nature” exist. Trump said he was declaring a “public safety emergency” in the city.

Trump’s own Federal Emergency Management Agency is cutting security funding for the National Capital Region, an area that includes D.C. and nearby cities in Maryland and Virginia. The region will receive $20 million less this year from the federal urban security fund, amounting to a 44% year-on-year cut.

The deployment of National Guard troops is a tactic the president used in Los Angeles, where he dispatched 5,000 troops in June in response to protests over his administration’s immigration raids. State and local officials objected to Trump’s decision as unnecessary and inflammatory.

A federal trial was set to begin on Monday in San Francisco on whether the Trump administration violated US law by deploying National Guard troops and US Marines without the approval of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.

The president has broad authority over the 2,700 members of the D.C. National Guard, unlike in states where governors typically hold the power to activate troops. Guard troops have been dispatched to Washington many times, including in response to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.

During his first term as president, Trump sent the National Guard into Washington in 2020 to help quash mostly peaceful demonstrations during nationwide protests over police brutality following the murder of George Floyd. Civil rights leaders denounced the deployment, which was opposed by Bowser.

The US military is generally prohibited under law from directly participating in domestic law enforcement activities.

Since the 1980s, Trump has used crime, especially youth crime in cities, as a political tool. His 1989 call for the death penalty in the Central Park jogger case, involving five Black and Latino teens later exonerated of raping and beating a woman, remains among the controversial moments of his public life.

The “Central Park Five” sued Trump for defamation after he falsely said during a presidential debate last year that they had pleaded guilty.

Jeddah: The Eastern Province Municipality has launched a project to document and digitize trees in Alkhobar, aiming to make it the first smart green city in the region.

The first phase will involve the recording and digital tagging of more than 100,000 trees.

The initiative is expected to strengthen Alkhobar’s global standing, as the city ranks 61st in the 2025 Smart Cities Index.

Officials said that the project reflects the municipality’s commitment to environmental sustainability while creating economic opportunities by encouraging private sector participation in tree-planting campaigns.

Each tree will be fitted with an electronic tag carrying detailed information such as its species, location and care guidelines, in both Arabic and English.

The tags will be geo-linked to create a comprehensive database of Alkhobar’s green assets.

The project will also promote investment in smart cities and sustainable infrastructure, raise environmental awareness and enhance social responsibility, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

More than 10,000 trees have already been tagged in areas including the Southern Corniche, the waterfront, the Northern Corniche and along main roads. The program will eventually cover all trees across the city.

The initiative aligns with the Saudi Green Initiative, which aims to reduce carbon emissions, plant 10 billion trees, and protect 30 percent of the Kingdom’s land and marine areas by 2030.

Across the Kingdom, cities are adopting sustainable urban strategies to improve air quality, expand green spaces and enhance biodiversity.

Saudi Arabia’s broader smart city vision includes megaprojects such as NEOM with its futuristic developments, The Line, Oxagon, Trojena and Sindalah, powered entirely by renewable energy.

Riyadh is advancing with integrated smart transport, digital healthcare and its massive Green Riyadh afforestation program.

Jeddah Economic City is being designed with smart energy grids and automated waste systems, while King Abdullah Economic City focuses on port innovation and digital ecosystems.

Qiddiya City near Riyadh is set to become a global entertainment and sports hub with AI-driven operations, and Mohammed bin Salman Nonprofit City in Riyadh is pioneering a global-first district dedicated to education, innovation and culture.

Jon Lee Anderson is “not done with Afghanistan”, despite having reported on it for more than 40 years, through invasions, occupations, the rise and fall of the Taliban and two great power retreats.

“I always want to go back,” said the New Yorker staff writer. “It gets into your skin. Afghanistan is an incredible place, an incredible society. It’s always like time travel to me, and I knew people there that are larger than life. They stay with you … I may return shortly.”

Now 68, Anderson reported from Afghanistan in the 1980s, as Soviet forces lost a 10-year war, and returned in the 2000s, after 9/11 prompted the US to invade. In 2002, Anderson published The Lion’s Grave, a well-received book on al-Qaida’s assassination of the mujahideen leader Ahmad Shah Massoud two days before the attacks on New York and Washington, and how the US ousted the Taliban.

In the foreword to his new book, Anderson writes of that time: “The mission of the US and its coalition allies appeared to have been a qualified success. The Taliban had vanished into the hills, as had al-Qaida, and a pliant new pro-western regime had been installed.”

The new book contains reporting on the 20-year US occupation, its chaotic end, and the Taliban’s return. So its title is telling: To Lose a War.

One standout chapter comes from 2010. US control had deteriorated. Given no choice, Anderson embedded with a cavalry squadron in Maiwand, in the south. The resulting report, The Day of the Superwadi, is bookended by the deaths of young Americans in IED explosions – an unsparing portrait of military might mired in lethal futility. At the time, Anderson refused to let it be published.

He was “severely disappointed to see that what had happened in Iraq, which I had witnessed firsthand [the subject of his 2004 book, The Fall of Baghdad] had happened in Afghanistan: the suicide blast walls were up, Kabul itself was behind this strange geometry of walls, westerners were cut off from the Afghans”.

Anderson “really disliked” embedding. He felt “incredibly alienated, displaced. It was exactly in the same area I’d reported from back in the late 80s, and yet I was even displaced from that. I left Afghanistan feeling really nonplussed and telling my editor I didn’t think I had a story. And he said: ‘No, come on. You can write it.’ And I did, and I still had this just, dead feeling. I don’t know if it’s the only story in the New Yorker’s history, or one of very few, where an author has asked the editors to kill it, but I did and they honored that. And I said: ‘I feel I have to go back, because this story doesn’t feel right.’ And I did go back.”

In 2011, Anderson embedded again but with Afghan soldiers, too, on the Pakistan border. The result was another powerful essay, Force and Futility.

“I was able to define better what I was seeing,” Anderson said. “Clearly, I was always a foreigner, an outsider, but I had that experience of being with Afghans.”

More than a decade later, putting together To Lose a War, Anderson finally saw the value of the piece he had killed. He “realized it had an integrity. It helps fill in the blanks. Ultimately, if I have a critical observation, it’s that the United States … I mean all of the west, but really it was always US-led … they never really engaged with Afghanistan. That was what I was feeling. I knew it to be just a terrible thing. [The US effort] was doomed because of that.”

Anderson provides compelling portraits of American soldiers in extremis. Prey to the shifting realities of Afghanistan, Lt Cols Bryan Denny and Stephen Lusky are driven, idealistic and lost.

“They were honorable men,” Anderson said. “At the point I was seeing them in the war, the chance to win had passed. They never came out and said, ‘This is doomed.’ They couldn’t: they had young, young boys they were trying to keep alive, and they were doing the best they could. But I had this really strong sense that they knew.

“This was their job. It was an honorable thing. And what was interesting, and I guess among some soldiers you do find this, was this sense of idealism. We tend to objectify them: guns and uniforms and so on. But actually the US military includes a hell of a lot of idealists, many more than you tend to meet in your life. They try to believe in what they’re doing, because they’re dealing with life and death every day. So I try to acknowledge that but also get to the human story.”

Maiwand, where Lt Col Denny served, was home to a physical reminder of Afghanistan’s bloody history. About 10 miles (17km) from the US base stood “a very large, oddly shaped dirt mound … ris[ing] inexplicably up from the flatland”. In 2011, it housed the Afghan national police. It was built thousands of years before, by Alexander the Great.

The Americans stayed for 20. Combat operations ended in 2014, under Barack Obama, but the last troops left in 2021, Joe Biden overseeing a withdrawal initiated by Donald Trump. The result was bloody chaos: 13 Americans and at least 170 Afghans killed by a suicide bomber, the Taliban surging back to power, civilians scrambling to get out.

Anderson helped Afghans escape. He also went back to report, “with the central question that we all had, which was: ‘Is this the old Taliban or the new Taliban?’ We didn’t really know.

“In the first missives out of there, we saw our colleagues interviewing guys dressed in the usual Kandahar shalwar kameez [traditional tunic and trousers], and also another group of Taliban dressed up in American special forces uniforms,” he continued. “And we saw that they no longer were prohibited to deal with the graven image, because they had smartphones. So there was this kind of hope that they were different.

“And so most of my foray involved trying to get in front of Taliban officials, whoever I could, and guys in the field, and ascertain where their heads were at and whether they were, in fact, the new warm and fuzzy or the old astringent and cruel Taliban.

“I came away, especially from the leadership, with apprehension. I didn’t feel that they dealt with me honestly … whether it was the guy in Bamiyan or the foreign minister designate or the information minister in Kabul. And so that remains unresolved.”

Anderson seems more certain about the fate of Afghan women.

“Pretty much every woman I met who was able to talk with me on their own asked me for help to get out of the country,” Anderson said. “Not just women. Pretty much everyone I met who was not with the Taliban asked me, whether it was a civil servant, an assistant in the ministries, stewardesses on an airplane.

“I met this group of women I talked to at length, and I followed up with some of them, and they knew what was coming. I don’t say it in the book, but I remained in touch with one. She managed to get her family out. First in Mexico, now in the States. I don’t know if they’re deportable [by Trump] or not.

“One woman said: ‘I know what’s coming. I know what they’re going to do.’ And she was right. It’s even worse than what one would have expected four years ago. Women have been formally prevented from speaking outside their homes, which are like fortresses. They can’t travel without a male companion from their family. I don’t even know what they’re doing about maternity wards in hospitals now.”

Anderson sees few signs for optimism.

“There are factions within the Taliban,” he said of the perennial struggle for power. “It’s not over. Will this come to blows? It could.”

Among warring parties is an Islamic State offshoot Anderson called “Frankenstein’s Isis, Isis Khorasan, which is just a more extreme version of the Taliban.

“Afghanistan has never gone to a new stage without spilling blood,” he continued. “There’s a few countries like that. This conceit we have in the west, that you can only get to the next threshold of history through peace negotiations or some kind of civic compact … it doesn’t happen in the old world. It doesn’t happen in this place. The new stages are always reached through bloodshed.

“And I don’t know how you break that dynamic, but this group in power now has not broken it, nor will they break it. They’re seeking it with new injustices that will need to be redeemed or avenged. And that’s just the way it is.

“And once again, the west turns away, because Afghanistan is a place of shame and failure. But it’s still there. Just like it was for the Soviets, just like it was for us, and so on back through time.”

US President Donald Trump has said he will try to get some territory back for Ukraine during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

“Russia’s occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They occupied prime territory. We’re going to try to get some of that territory back for Ukraine,” he told a news conference.

Trump said the talks in Alaska would be a “feel-out meeting” aimed at urging Putin to end the war, and that there would be “some swapping, changes in land”.

It is not the first time he has used the phrase “land-swapping”, though it is unclear what land Russia could cede to Ukraine. Kyiv has never lay claim to any Russian territories.

Trump said he will update European leaders if Putin proposes a “fair deal” during the talks, adding that he would speak to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky first “out of respect”.

“I’ll call him first… I’ll call him after, and I may say, ‘lots of luck, keep fighting,’ or I may say, ‘we can make a deal’”, he said.

Trump also said that while he and Zelensky “get along”, he “very severely disagrees with what he has done”. Trump has previously blamed Zelensky for the war in Ukraine, which was sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

The US president announced the meeting with Putin last Friday – the day of his self-imposed deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire or face more US sanctions.

In response to news of the Alaska summit, Zelensky said any agreements without input from Kyiv would amount to “dead decisions”.

United States President Donald Trump on Monday deployed military and federal law enforcement to curb violent crime in Washington, as he seeks to make good on his campaign pledge to be a “law and order” president.

The Republican leader said he would place the city’s Metropolitan Police under federal government control while also sending the National Guard onto the streets of the US capital.

The overwhelmingly Democratic city faces allegations from Republican politicians that it is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged — although violent offences are down.

“This is Liberation Day in DC, and we’re going to take our capital back,” Trump said.

Trump — a convicted felon who granted blanket clemency to nearly 1,600 people involved in the 2021 US Capitol riot in Washington — has complained that local police and prosecutors aren’t tough enough.

He said 800 DC National Guardsmen — “and much more if necessary” — would be deployed to the city of 700,000.

As Trump was speaking at the White House, several dozen demonstrators gathered outside.

“There is absolutely no need for the National Guard here,” said 62-year-old retiree Elizabeth Critchley, who brandished a sign with the slogan “DC says freedom not fascism.”

“It’s all for show. It’s just a big theatre,” she said.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was among several cabinet officials flanking Trump, said “other specialised” National Guard units could also be deployed.

“They will be strong, they will be tough, and they will stand with their law enforcement partners,” he said.

The new approach echoes Trump’s immigration policies that have effectively sealed the southern border amid mass deportations while deploying active-duty troops against protesters in Los Angeles.

New York, Chicago next?

The president told reporters he planned to roll out the policy to other cities, spotlighting New York and Chicago.

Unlike the 50 states, Washington operates under a unique relationship with the federal government that limits its autonomy and grants Congress extraordinary control over local matters.

Since the mid-1970s, the Home Rule Act has allowed residents to elect a mayor and a city council, although Congress still controls the city’s budget.

Data from Washington police shows significant drops in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, although that was coming off the back of a post-pandemic surge.

Trump posted on social media ahead of the news conference that he also wants to tackle homeless encampments, after signing an order last month making it easier to arrest homeless people.

He promised individuals “places to stay,” but “far from the Capital”. Trump said criminals would be jailed and that it would all happen “very fast”.

Federal law enforcement has already increased its presence after a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer was beaten during an attempted carjacking.

“Last week, my administration surged 500 federal agents into the district, including from the FBI, ATF, DEA, Park Police, the US Marshals Service, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security,” Trump said.

“You know a lot of nations, they don’t have anything like that … They made dozens of arrests.”

A Gallup poll in October found that 64 per cent of Americans believed crime had risen in 2024, although FBI data shows the lowest levels of violent crime nationwide in more than half a century.

“Let me be crystal clear — crime in DC is ending, and it’s ending today,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Landmark trial kicks off over Trump’s use of US military in policing role

Separately, a landmark trial kicks off over the Trump administration’s use of National Guard forces to support its deportation efforts and quell protests in Los Angeles, in a legal challenge to the US president’s break from long-standing norms against deploying troops on American streets.

The three-day non-jury trial before San Francisco-based US District Judge Charles Breyer will determine if the government violated a 19th-century law that bars the military from civil law enforcement when Trump deployed the troops in June, as the state of California claims in its legal challenge.

Los Angeles experienced days of unrest and protests sparked by mass immigration raids at places where people gather to find work, like Home Depot stores, a garment factory and a warehouse.

The administration denies that troops were used in civil law enforcement and plans to show that they were protecting federal property and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

Many of the troops have been withdrawn, but California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta said on Monday that 300 National Guard members are still going on immigration raids and restricting civilian movements in the state.

“The federal government deployed military troops to the streets of Los Angeles for the purposes of political theatre and public intimidation,” Bonta said in a statement. “This dangerous move has no precedent in American history.”

California and Gavin Newsom, the state’s Democratic governor, have asked Breyer to prohibit the troops from directly participating in domestic law enforcement activities. California and Newsom say the National Guard is accompanying ICE agents on raids and assisting in arrests, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 and other laws that forbid the US military from taking part in civilian law enforcement.

The Republican president ordered 700 Marines and 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June against Newsom’s wishes. California’s lawsuit ultimately seeks a ruling that would return its National Guard troops to state control and a declaration that Trump’s action was illegal.

The trial before Breyer will have a limited impact, however, on Trump’s plan to deploy hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington.

A ruling against the administration could restrict the actions of those troops and constrain Trump if he deploys such forces to police other American cities.

Trump said his efforts to fight crime will go beyond Washington, and he mentioned Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Baltimore.

Trump’s decision to send troops into Los Angeles prompted a national debate about the use of the military on US soil and inflamed political tensions in the second-most-populous US city.

A US appeals court has allowed Trump to retain control of California’s National Guard during the legal challenge.

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 11 (APP): Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, Jiang Zaidong has urged both nations to deepen cooperation, advance their shared future vision, and take concrete steps to ensure regional peace and stability.

Addressing the symposium on commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese people’s war of resistance against aggression and the world anti-fascist war, the ambassador stressed the need to work together to implement the important consensus reached by leaders of both countries to accelerate the building of a closer China-Pakistan community in the new era through concrete actions.

He said that as all-weather strategic cooperative partners and important members of the Global South and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, China and Pakistan have always understood, trusted, and supported each other in international and regional affairs, jointly upholding the UN-centered international system.

He said, “Together with Pakistan’s peace-loving friends, we bear history in mind, to honor all those who laid down their lives, cherish peace, and open up the future, is of profound significance.”

He said, “More than eighty years ago, the dark clouds of fascism shrouded the globe, threatening human civilization with unprecedented catastrophe.” He added, the Chinese people, together with the people of the world, defeated fascism with indomitable will and heroic struggle, winning a great victory.”

He said, “We fought shoulder to shoulder and erected a monument of history. China was the first country to resist fascist aggression, endured the longest fight, and inflicted the heaviest losses.”

He said that the Communist Party of China was the first to raise the banner of national resistance, actively advocated the establishment of the National United Front, and became the backbone of the whole-nation for fighting aggression.

He said that after fourteen years of hard fighting, the Chinese people secured a great victory in the war of resistance against aggression, paying a price of 35 million casualties, and achieved the complete victory of the World Anti-Fascist War, which is a historic accomplishment forever engraved on the monument of human progress.

He said that in this arduous struggle, Pakistan also made an indelible contribution as the port of Karachi worked around the clock to transship strategic materials for the allies, supporting China’s war of resistance. The shared trials and common struggle form a precious memory cherished by the Chinese and Pakistani peoples alike.

He said, “We share a common responsibility to write a new chapter for peace. As a founding member of the United Nations and the first country to sign the UN Charter, China steadfastly practices multilateralism, firmly upholds the authority of the UN, and resolutely follows the path of peaceful development and win-win cooperation.”

He said that committed to safeguarding world peace, the Chinese military has, over the past 35 years, dispatched more than 50,000 peacekeepers to UN operations in over 20 countries and regions to fulfill various peacekeeping tasks.

He said that under the guidance of President Xi Jinping, we hold high the banner of building a community with a shared future for humanity, implement the global development initiative, global security initiative, global civilization initiative, promote an equal and orderly multipolar world and universally universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, and contribute Chinese wisdom to making global governance fairer and more reasonable.

He said that shouldering the responsibility of a major country for common development, China has signed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation agreements with more than 150 countries and over 30 international organizations, and provided development assistance to more than 160 countries.

He said that in a few weeks, China will solemnly commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese people’s war of resistance against aggression and the world anti-fascist war.