US President Donald Trump and Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichisigned a critical minerals deal and Tokyo pledged $550 billion of fresh investment in the US, as well as purchases of American pickups. Trump heaped praise on Takaichi, Japan’s first female leader, who is a conservative China hawk and a protegé of slain former PM Shinzo Abe, a Trump pal. Takaichi called for Trump to win the Nobel prize. The dealmaking bonhomie smoothed rocky relations between the US and its longstanding ally Japan. Trump’s next Asia stop is in South Korea tomorrow, ahead of a crucial Thursday summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. A mooted meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears not to be in the cards.
A week before COP30 climate summit in Brazil, Bill Gates has cautioned against a “doomsday outlook” on climate change. Record scrrrratch – what? The global philanthropist, who has poured billions into the effort to slow global warming, now says we should focus more energy on tackling disease and poverty in the developing world instead. Gates’s focus has shifted in part because of the Trump administration’s moves to slash foreign aid budgets – he wants to fill the void left by defunct USAID programs. Earlier this year his flagship clean energy venture fund shuttered its climate policy group.
Who’d have guessed it? Cameroon’s 92-year-old President Paul Biya was elected to an eighth seven-year term in office, after he was finally declared the victor of the West African country’s October 12th election on Monday. Biya officially won 53.7% of the vote, against just 35.2% for opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary – who had declared victory last week. Biya’s victory claim has prompted violent unrest in the oil-rich nation, including in Bakary’s hometown of Garoua. The protests had been expected to continue Tuesday, but a combination of bad weather and a fierce crackdown appear to have kept demonstrators at bay for now.
Historian Michael Bustamante joins Ian Bremmer to discuss Cuba's economic freefall, Trump's end game, and the hopes of Cuban Americans.
Think you know what's going on around the world? Here's your chance to prove it.
The release of Antrhopic’s Mythos, a powerful AI model with an extraordinary ability to identify software vulnerabilities, appears to have rattled the Trump administration.
The US Navy isn’t just intercepting Iranian-linked ships outside the Strait of Hormuz. It’s redirecting Iranian-linked ships in Asian waters, too.