US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have agreed to halt new trade tariffs for 90 days to allow for talks, the US says. At a post-G20 summit meeting in Buenos Aires, Mr Trump agreed not to boost tariffs on $200bn (£157bn) of Chinese goods from 10% to 25% on 1 January. […]

Prime Minister Theresa May has called off Tuesday’s crucial vote on her Brexit deal so she can go back to Brussels and ask for changes to it. As it stands the deal “would be rejected by a significant margin” if MPs voted on it, she admitted. But she said she was confident of getting “reassurances” […]

Chinese exporters (and likey their American counterparts) have figured out a way for some items to skirt tariffs. U.S. Customs and Border Protection determined last week that Chinese hardwood plywood is circumventing lumber tariffs by using Vietnam , Panjiva Research pointed out on Monday. The end-around is expected to have begun when duties were applied to certain types […]

Sam Cobb was surprised to see so many people lined up for a hearing at the International Trade Commission in Washington on the morning of Monday, Aug. 20. The chief executive of Real Wood Floors, Cobb was a veteran of such proceedings, which were usually sleepy affairs, populated by white-shoe attorneys fighting over arcane legal […]

Police in Paris have fired tear gas on protesters as a fourth weekend of anti-government protests turned violent. The clashes came after up to 8,000 demonstrators gathered in the city centre. More than 500 people have been taken into custody. At least 30 people have been injured in the capital, including three police officers. The […]

Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, is facing fraud charges relating to alleged breaking of US sanctions on Iran, a Canadian court has heard. Details of the charges were revealed when a publication ban was lifted by a judge in Vancouver. Ms Meng, daughter of Huawei’s founder, was arrested in the […]

The French government says it fears “major violence” in Paris on Saturday as the national “yellow vests” protest movement shows little sign of easing. The government said it was scrapping the fuel tax increases in the budget – the original spark for the protests. But broader discontent with the government has spread, and protests have […]

Russia will develop missiles banned under a Cold War agreement if the US exits the pact, President Vladimir Putin has warned. His comments follow Nato’s accusation on Tuesday that Russia has already broken the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Signed in 1987 by the US and USSR, it banned both countries’ use of all short […]

Two days after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck near Anchorage, Alaska is still shaking. Since Friday’s tremor, the strongest to strike The Last Frontier since a 7.9 in the remote Rat Islands in 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey has recorded 166 aftershocks of magnitude 3.0 or higher around Anchorage as of 4:50 p.m. PST Sunday, USGS geophysicist Brad Aagaard told USA […]

Four senior figures behind efforts to limit climate change have warned that the planet “is at a crossroads” as key talks opened a day early in Poland. In a rare move, four former presidents of the United Nations-sponsored talks called for decisive action. The meeting in Katowice is the most critical on climate change since […]