Good morning. We’re covering China’s suspension of critical exports and a deadly Russian missile attack in eastern Ukraine. Plus, an art forest in Thailand.
China struck back at U.S. tariffs with an export pauseChina has suspended exports of certain rare earth minerals and magnets that are crucial for the world’s car, semiconductor and aerospace industries. The move is in retaliation for President Trump’s sharp increase in tariffs. The metals and the special magnets made with them can now be shipped out of China only with special export licenses. But Beijing has barely started setting up a system for issuing the licenses. Industry executives said that supplies of minerals and products outside the country could run low. Trump’s rapidly escalating trade war with China has scrambled prospects for many global businesses. And there is no end in sight, my colleagues Ana Swanson and Ben Casselman report. The U.S. administration has been waiting for the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, to call Trump, but Beijing appears wary of putting Xi in an unpredictable situation with the U.S. president. Charm offensive: Today, Xi will arrive in Vietnam, his first stop on a weeklong tour that will also take him to Malaysia and Cambodia. He is expected to oversee the signing of around 40 agreements, including deals that would advance plans for Vietnam to accept Chinese loans for part of an $8.3 billion railway connecting northern Vietnam with China.
A Russian attack killed at least 34 in UkraineTwo Russian ballistic missiles slammed into the city center of Sumy, Ukraine, where people had gathered to celebrate Palm Sunday. At least 34, including two children, were killed yesterday in what appeared to be the deadliest attack against civilians this year. Video of the Russian strike and its aftermath showed mangled and bloodied bodies lying motionless, burning cars and debris covering the road, as screams and sirens wailed in the background. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said the attack showed that Moscow had no real interest in a cease-fire despite the Trump administration’s efforts to broker one. Kyiv has warned that Russia is preparing to push into the Sumy region, in Ukraine’s northeast, and open a new front in the war. Politics: Petro Poroshenko, a former president who now leads an opposition party, spoke to our Kyiv bureau chief about prospects for peace talks. He has recently stepped up his criticism of Zelensky.
Saudi Arabia and the U.S. held talks on nuclear technologyThe Trump administration revived talks with Saudi officials over a deal that would give Saudi Arabia access to U.S. nuclear technology and potentially allow the country to enrich uranium. “We’ve not reached the details on an agreement, but it certainly looks like there is a pathway to do that,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said yesterday in Riyadh. For years, Saudi Arabia has pressed the U.S. to help it develop a nuclear energy program, as Saudi officials look beyond oil to provide energy and diversify the economy. Iran: After a first meeting, U.S. and Iranian officials agreed to move forward in their talks on curbing Tehran’s nuclear program. A second meeting is planned for Saturday.
As climate change melts ice in the Arctic, the region is becoming more accessible and contested. The world’s major militaries from the U.S., Russia, China and Europe are all training for a winter war. A reporter and a photographer traveled to Finland to watch the war games unfold. Lives lived: Irmgard Furchner, whose role as a teenage secretary at a Nazi concentration camp led to her conviction as an accessory to more than 10,000 murders, died at 99. Mario Vargas Llosa, the Nobel Prize-winning author whose novels reverberated far beyond his native Peru, died at 89.
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