First Thing: China trip winds down but Trump-Xi Iran accord remains elusive | Jem Bartholomew

Donald Trump walking with Xi Jinping at the Temple of Heaven on Thursday. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP View image in fullscreen Donald Trump walking with Xi Jinping at the Temple of Heaven on Thursday. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP First Thing: China trip winds down but Trump-Xi Iran accord remains elusive US president offers no news of any breakthrough on Iran. Plus, how renters’ rights could be key issue in midterms On his visit to China, Donald Trump has seemed to revel in Chinese hospitality and flattery. Walking in the Zhongnanhai garden, in Beijing, the US president was overheard saying that his counterpart, Xi Jinping, was giving him roses for the White House rose garden, according to a pool report. Warm words aside, there have not been any major announcements from the summit, no breakthrough on Taiwan’s future, and an accord on the Iran war has remained elusive. Trump has claimed that the US and China “feel very similar” about ending the war in Iran but offered no details about a possible breakthrough. “We did discuss Iran,” Trump said on the final day of the meeting. “We feel very similar about [how] we want it to end. We don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. We want the straits open.” Trump departed Beijing on Friday. He said “a lot of good” came from his China visit and “we’ve settled a lot of different problems that other people wouldn’t have been able to solve”. Trump also said numerous deals had been struck between the US and China, including China buying 200 Boeing jets as well as US oil and soya beans. This deal has not been confirmed by either China or Boeing. What has China said on Iran? On Friday, China’s foreign ministry again called for a ceasefire in Iran and said the Strait of Hormuz should be opened “as soon as possible”. Before the summit, there was speculation the US might appeal to China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, to use its leverage to encourage the country to reopen the strait. But that was walked back on Thursday by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who said: “We don’t need their help.” What about talks over Taiwan? They weren’t mentioned much. Xi took a firm tone, declaring that “Taiwan independence” and peace in the Taiwan strait were “incompatible”. Trump sidestepped questions on Taiwan, and a White House readout of the meeting published later omitted any mention of the country. At least 24 killed in Kyiv in one of deadliest Russian attacks since start of war View image in fullscreen An explosion lights up the sky over Kyiv, Ukraine, during a Russian missile and drone strike on 14 May. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/Reuters At least 24 people, including three children, were reported killed in Thursday’s Russian attacks on Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. “The Russians practically demolished an entire section of the building with their missile,” the Ukrainian president said after visiting the site. The Ukrainian ministry of foreign affairs said it was “one of the deadliest attacks on Kyiv since the start of Russia’s full-scale war”. Meanwhile, on Thursday the UN nuclear watchdog warned of “intensified” military activities near several of Ukraine’s nuclear sites that posed significant safety risks. What do Russia’s renewed heavy attacks tell us? Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, said on Thursday that Russia’s heavy bombardment of Kyiv showed Moscow was “banking on escalation rather than negotiation. Kyiv and its partners are ready for negotiations aimed at a just peace,” Merz said. “Russia, for its part, is continuing the war.” Southern states rush to redraw electoral maps to dilute Black voting power View image in fullscreen An activist holds a US flag during a rally in front of the US supreme court in Washington DC in October last year. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images Southern states are rushing to redraw congressional maps to eliminate Democratic districts and dilute the influence of Black voters in electing candidates, a bare-knuckled blitz occurring even in some states where voting in congressional primaries has begun, and prompted by the US supreme court’s decision gutting section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. “This is a five-alarm fire for Black representation in the south,” said Michael Li, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice. “The [supreme] court has signaled it’s going to be a redistricting wild west, and there will be no sheriff around.” Which states are redrawing congressional maps? Tennessee Republicans have already enacted a new map. Louisiana is on the verge of implementing one. Alabama has successfully petitioned the US supreme court to allow it to eliminate a district currently represented by a Black Democrat. In South Carolina, the Republican governor is reportedly poised to call a special session to draw a new congressional map. States such as Texas, Missouri, Florida and North Carolina, which have already redrawn their maps to add Republican districts, could draw maps again before 2028 elections. In other news … View image in fullscreen Rightwing Israelis gather for the annual ‘flag march’ near the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. Photograph: Atef Safadi/EPA Israeli nationalists chanted “death to the Arabs”, “may your villages burn” and “Gaza is a graveyard” during a state-sponsored march through Jerusalem to mark the anniversary of the city’s capture and annexation. The US supreme court upheld nationwide access to mail-order mifepristone, an abortion medication, in a shadow-docket decision on Thursday. Closing arguments began on Thursday in Elon Musk’s lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI, bringing the weeks-long courtroom battle nearer to a decision. Stat of the day: Internal displacements caused by violence or conflict at record high of 32.3m in 2025 View image in fullscreen Displaced people from Sudan at a refugee settlement in Adré, Chad. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images The number of internal displacements triggered by conflict or violence around the world hit a record high in 2025, reaching 32.3 million people, which was 60% higher than the previous year. That’s according to a report from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, amid conflicts such as those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Iran and Lebanon. In total, 82.2 million people were displaced around the world in 2025. Culture pick: Cannes spotlight reverts to auteurs as Hollywood retreats from festival View image in fullscreen Workers install the red carpet at the Palais des Festivals ahead of the opening ceremony of the 79th international film festival, Cannes, on 12 May. Photograph: Andreea Alexandru/Invision/AP When the lineup for the 2026 Cannes film festival was announced last month, one aspect immediately stood out: the near-total absence of major Hollywood studio films, writes Nadia Khomami. Don’t miss this: The rent is too damn high – how renters’ rights could be key issue in midterms View image in fullscreen New Yorkers demonstrate for a rent freeze in May last year. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images With housing costs for working-class families steadily climbing across the US, while billionaire fortunes soar to all-time highs, renters’ rights are becoming a defining policy in the upcoming midterm elections, tenant rights organizers say. Policies previously considered too extreme have become the centerpiece of insurgent political campaigns in the midterm elections. Climate check: Brazil’s Atlantic forest records lowest deforestation in 40 years View image in fullscreen A deforested clearing in Brazil’s Atlantic forest in June 2024. Photograph: Brazil Photos/LightRocket/Getty Brazil’s Atlantic forest, the country’s most threatened biome, last year recorded its lowest level of deforestation since monitoring began 40 years ago, a report shows. In 2025, it recorded 8,658 hectares (21,394 acres) of deforestation, marking the first time it has fallen below 10,000 hectares since 1985. Last thing: How a kindergarten teacher became the accidental guardian of 200 king penguins View image in fullscreen King penguins have been coming to Useless Bay in southern Chile’s Tierra del Fuego region for hundreds of years. Photograph: Anastasia Austin/The Guardian When the birds started nesting on her land at Useless Bay in southern Chile’s Tierra del Fuego region, Cecilia Durán Gafo, 72, a former kindergarten teacher, decided she would protect them from people and predators. Today, she runs a reserve that oversees the world’s only continental king penguin colony. “Last year, 23 chicks survived – a record,” she says. 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