What we covered here
• Trump’s Asia trip: President Donald Trump has arrived in South Korea, where he will attend an Asian economic summit, meet with the prime minister, and is expected to hold a high-stakes meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
• Day 28 of shutdown: Senate Democrats again blocked Republicans’ stopgap funding bill from advancing as both parties remain firm in their positions. Vice President JD Vance met with GOP senators today as Senate Democrats insist the impasse won’t end until Trump gets involved.
• Shutdown impacts: The Federal Aviation Administration is reporting staffing shortages and flight delays as air traffic controllers missed their first full paycheck since the shutdown began. And a coalition of 25 Democratic-run states sued the Trump administration to prevent cuts to federal food assistance set to kick in this weekend.
Our live coverage has moved here.
Trump says he "didn't come to South Korea to see Canada" amid escalating trade feud
President Donald Trump has expressed disinterest in meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during his trip to South Korea, amid escalating trade tensions between the North American neighbors.
“For those that are asking, we didn’t come to South Korea to see Canada!” the president posted to social media as he arrived in Gyeongju.
Both Trump and Carney are expected to attend events around the APEC summit here in South Korea.
On Saturday, Trump said he would be increasing tariffs on Canda by 10% over what he called a “fake” ad that featured parts of a 1987 anti-tariff speech by former President Ronald Reagan. Trump has since declined to say when the tariffs would go into effect.
Trump and Carney were also both in Malaysia on Sunday for a summit with South Asian leaders. At the time, Trump said he was not open to meeting with Carney, saying: “I don’t want to meet with him, no. Not going to be meeting with him for a while.”
Canada is the US’s second largest trading partner.
As Trump prepares to meet Xi, his defense chief talks up security threats posed by China
As US President Donald Trump prepares to sit down with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea this week, his defense secretary warned of the “severe” regional security threat posed by China.
“The security situation around Japan and in the region remains severe,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters following a bilateral meeting with his Japanese counterpart Shinjirō Koizumi in Tokyo Wednesday.
The US needs to “continue building strong lethal combat, credible forces that are ready to deter war, and if necessary, fight and fight to win,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth praised the longstanding friendship between the US and Japan that has further blossomed during Trump’s visit. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Tuesday said Japan was committed to “fundamentally reinforce its defense capabilities” and heralded a “new golden age” for US-Japan relations.
Japan’s Minister of Defense Koizumi said his country will review its National Security Strategy and other related documents that lay out the nation’s security policy, and take measures to achieve a defense spending target of 2% of gross domestic product.
Hegseth said he hoped Japan’s commitment to increase defense spending will be “implemented as soon as possible” but said that there were “no demands placed on Japan” from the US.
