United States

President Donald Trump’s deal to dramatically slash tariffs on China thrilled markets and offered a sliver of relief for businesses across the country. It also revealed an important lesson: Even Teflon Don can’t outrun economic reality.

Global stocks surged Monday after the U.S. and China agreed to de-escalate tariffs that had effectively frozen trade between the world’s largest economies.

Dow Futures on Wall Street soared after the White House said both sides had agreed to drastically reduce tariffs for 90 days. 

S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures jumped over 3% and 4%, respectively, ahead of the opening bell.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and chief trade negotiator Jamieson Greer will meet China's economic tsar He Lifeng in Switzerland this weekend for talks that could be the first step toward resolving a trade war disrupting the global economy.

News of the planned Geneva meeting, first announced by Washington late Tuesday, sent U.S. equity index futures higher. Stock markets in China and Hong Kong followed suit during Asian trading on Wednesday.

The US and Ukraine have signed a deal that will give Washington access to some of the war-torn country's natural resources.

Months in the making, it sets up an investment fund that Ukraine hopes will cement US assistance as the country struggles to repel Russia three years after the invasion.

The BBC has seen a draft of the deal but not the final text. Based on that and the public statements from both sides, here are seven key takeaways.

A trade war between the world's two biggest economies is now in full swing.

Chinese exports to the US face up to 245% tariffs, and Beijing has hit back with a 125% levy on American imports. Consumers, businesses and markets are braced for more uncertainty as fears of a global recession have heightened.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's government has repeatedly said it is open to dialogue, but warned that, if necessary, it would "fight to the end".

Here's a look at what Beijing has in its arsenal to counter US President Donald Trump's tariffs.

At least eight American firms disclosed lobbying agreements with companies fully or partially owned by Chinese entities between March and April, a significant uptick from prior months, as President Donald Trump escalated a trade war with China, according to a Washington Examiner review of congressional and Department of Justice records. 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has demanded El Salvador release hundreds of Venezuelans who were deported from the United States, who he described as being “kidnapped,” after his Salvadoran counterpart earlier proposed a prisoner swap.

Speaking on a television broadcast on Monday, Maduro demanded that Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele “provide proof of life for all the kidnapped young people,” allow their families and lawyers to visit the mega-prison where they’re being kept, and to release them “unconditionally.”

El Salvador's president has offered to repatriate 252 Venezuelans deported by the US and imprisoned in his country - if Venezuela releases the same number of political prisoners.

Nayib Bukele appealed directly to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a post on social media.

He said many of the Venezuelan deportees had committed "rape and murder", while Venezuelan political prisoners were jailed only because they opposed Maduro, whose re-election last year is widely disputed.

The self-proclaimed “world’s coolest dictator,” El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele, is offering Venezuela’s president a prisoner swap — 252 detainees, including many deported to El Salvador from America, in exchange for 252 of Nicolás Maduro’s political prisoners. 

‘The only reason they are imprisoned is because they opposed you and your electoral fraud,’ Nayib Bukele wrote in a taunting post to Nicolás Maduro about detainees in Venezuela.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the U.S. may “move on” from trying to secure a Russia-Ukraine peace deal if there is no progress in the coming days, after months of efforts have failed to bring an end to the fighting.