Beijing has confirmed that Donald Trump will arrive on Wednesday for the first visit to China by a US president in nearly a decade. But while the summit heralds a pivotal moment between the world’s two largest economies, the odds appear stacked against the White House. 

‘Creditor-debtor dynamic’
Trump “may want to temper his expectations” for the summit, Jacob Dreyer said in The New York Times. Beijing once viewed presidential visits as “global validation” for its rise, but China has now “begun to chart its own course” as its leaders realise their nation has “learned all it can from America”. Although Trump wants to improve the US-China relationship, “maintaining a tense stability is about all he can hope for”.

The US president has “fewer cards to play” now, said The Hill’s Brahma Chellaney. After his decision to go to war against Iran “boomeranged” into a “global energy shock”, a meeting intended as a “show of strength” for the US is looking more like “damage control”. The war has depleted American munitions and weakened the country’s economy, accelerating a shift in the US-China relationship from a “rivalry of near-peers” to “something closer to a creditor-debtor dynamic”. The question facing Trump in Beijing is “not whether he can strike a deal”, but rather “what he will give up to get one”.

‘Minimum level of predictability’
Xi Jinping “may be able to get Iran to agree to terms that allow Trump to get out of his war”, said The Independent’s world affairs editor Sam Kiley. But in return, China’s leader is likely to seek an end to the $11billion (£8.1billion) US military aid programme for Taiwan.

“The thing about selling out Taiwan in terms of Trump is there’s really no consequence for him,” a White House source told Politico. “He’s not going to run again. He doesn’t have this ideological concern about the future of democracy. He looks at things only in practical economic terms.”

The summit is “unlikely to deliver decisive breakthroughs” between the U.S. and China, Yingfan Chen and Dingding Chen said on The Diplomat. Its significance will not be in “transforming” the dynamic between the two countries. Rather, this is about “maintaining a minimum level of predictability” in their relationship so that competition between them can continue “within constraints the system can absorb”. 

Restrictions on high-risk uses of artificial intelligence in the EU will be delayed by more than a year under a deal struck by its legislators. The deal “marks a notable rollback” in the bloc’s “digital rulebook after years of Brussels proudly marketing itself as the world’s tech cop”, said The Register.

What is changing?
The EU’s AI Act came into force in August 2024 following “years of talks”. But as part of a “phased rollout”, the rules governing high-risk uses were only “set to kick in this August”, said Politico.

Now, the bloc has “hit the regulatory equivalent of ‘snooze for 16 months’”, said The Register. “The headline change pushes back enforcement of rules covering systems” in areas such as biometrics, critical infrastructure, education, employment, migration, and border control until December 2027. EU officials insist the delay is “about timing, not watering down the law”. They claim the rules are “moving faster than the standards needed to support them” and that companies currently “lack the guidance and technical tools required for compliance”.

Is this a win for Big Tech?
The change of heart is a “big win” for tech firms and industry groups that have been lobbying the EU to “soften” the AI Act, said The Register. As recently as last week, bosses from companies including ASML, Airbus, Ericsson, Nokia, SAP, Siemens and Mistral AI “publicly warned that Europe risked over-regulating itself out of the global AI race”.

The new deal marks the “first significant rollback” of rules in the digital sphere, and came after the EU faced pressure from the US over its tech laws. There were also “warnings” from its own industry and governments that “strict restrictions had put the bloc at a disadvantage in a global AI race”, said Politico. “Only a couple of countries around the world” followed the EU’s lead on restrictions, so the bloc “faced criticism” for “cracking down on AI too early”. 

What is staying the same?
Some aspects of the AI Act will keep to their original schedule. Bans on unacceptable-risk AI have applied since February 2025, according to the European Commission. The transparency obligations under Article 50, including disclosure for chatbot interactions, will come into force from 2 August.

A worker from the Indonesian government’s Environmental Agency pulls rubbish from the Kali Tebu River in Surabaya, East Java. An estimated 35% of the nation’s waste is “unmanaged”, with much of it ending up in rivers, oceans and along roadsides. 

Juni Kriswanto / AFP / Getty Images

“Is it a red wine, or a white?” said The Economist. Actually, “blouge”, made with a mix of rouge and blanc grapes, “is both”. The resulting tipple is “light and refreshing, like a white, but with the structure and depth of a red”.

Mixing red and white is “not a new idea”, and winemakers have long been making champagnes from different coloured grapes. But trendy blouge wines are popping up in bars worldwide as producers break “new ground” with a growing number of “fresher” versions, often with “playful names to emphasise their novelty and expand their appeal”.

The pretty colours “tempt the Instagram lens”, said The Telegraph. Blouge also appeals to “aperitivo-hour drinkers” on the lookout for wines with the “appeal of a light cocktail; often fruity and chilled, perhaps with a vestige of florality and a tinge of either astringency or sweetness”.

BoogieWoogie from Aubert et Mathieu is due to arrive in the UK this month, said The Guardian. A “light and juicy” blend of red and white grenache grapes, this is the “perfect match for tapas, pizza and picnics”. Or try Domaine Lucas Madonia: The Blouge 2024, a “high-quality, natural” wine made with grapes from a vineyard set on a “steep mountainside in the Swiss Alps of Valais”. Best enjoyed “cold on a sunny day after work”, the “fruity, aromatic blend” of chasselas white and gamay red grapes has a “clean, lively finish” with hints of “juicy strawberries and raspberries”.

Europe should behave more like China does if it wants to survive this age of chaos
Mark Leonard in The Guardian
China and Europe “stand to lose the most” from the Iran war, writes Mark Leonard of the European Council on Foreign Relations. But, as Europe’s leaders “watch like rabbits caught in the headlights”, China “is better prepared”. Beijing has been “quietly stockpiling oil” and “cornering the global market” in “technologies of the future”. Europe must “do the same”, not only to get “on a more equal footing” with China but also “to withstand” future threats “in our age of un-order”.

Powerful women can help weather this storm
Libby Purves in The Times
In the “new landscape” wrought by the “local election storm”, the “first things I notice are women”, writes Libby Purves. Angela Rayner and Kemi Badenoch could soon be Westminster’s “rival giants”, and “it took a female backbencher to push the button” over Keir Starmer’s leadership while her 217 male Labour colleagues “froze”. I’m fascinated “by peculiarly female moments of firmness on both sides of the aisle: a reckless willingness to be unbending” that’s “perhaps not unconnected” to “centuries of being ordered about”.

Iran is on its knees, and can’t demand anything significant from Trump
Con Coughlin in The Telegraph
“No matter how hard they pretend” otherwise, Tehran’s “ayatollahs desperately need to seal a deal” with America, writes Con Coughlin. With its economy collapsing and “key infrastructure” destroyed, Iran can’t withstand the US naval blockade much longer. Yet “prominent Western commentators” assume any Donald Trump initiative is “doomed to failure” and argue “Iran has the upper hand”. This risks diverting Iran from accepting that “the only realistic deal” is one that “ends hostilities and allows the country to rebuild”.