Trump and Xi to Meet at White House on Trade, AI and Iran

Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will hold talks at the White House on Thursday, with trade irritants, artificial intelligence safeguards and the war in Iran among the issues on the table.

Washington wants Beijing to use its leverage to push Iran toward accepting U.S. terms to end a conflict now nearly seven months old. China has so far resisted those urgings and the economic pressure accompanying them. Xi, for his part, is seeking a permanent halt to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and a loosening of export restrictions on advanced chips.

The meeting follows an agreement on Wednesday to extend a one-year trade truce that had been due to expire on Nov. 10. The extension runs for two months, postponing the search for a more durable arrangement.

Both sides appear to believe time favours them as they jockey for advantage in what is expected to be the defining economic and national security contest of the coming years.

Ahead of the leaders' talks, China's commerce ministry said Beijing would maintain close communication with Washington after their first dialogue on artificial intelligence. The comments came after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng held economic and trade talks in New York. The ministry offered no further detail on the AI discussions, though Bessent has said the U.S. proposed a notification mechanism between the two countries for national security-related AI incidents.

The White House is preparing a black-tie dinner in Xi's honour in the East Room, first lady Melania Trump said, with decor drawing on the colour red's longstanding cultural significance in Chinese history. Tables will be dressed in red linens and set with the Reagan-era china service, whose design alternates gold and red bands, while urns will hold red blossoms.

The evening will open with a toast recalling the "Toast to Peace" between President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing in 1972. The menu features sesame-crusted sea bass with braised bok choy and roasted eggplant, followed by White House honey ice cream. American tenor Christopher Macchio will lead the after-dinner entertainment, with musicians from the U.S. military also performing.

Separately, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump's ban on three news outlets from the White House grounds, ordering early Thursday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico have their access restored. The ruling gives the outlets at least a temporary reprieve in an unusual confrontation between the president and outlets whose coverage he dislikes.

Trump announced the ban on Friday, attacking what he called "fake news" and later arguing that the outlets' reporting posed a risk to national security. In a joint lawsuit, the outlets contended the ban was a blatant violation of the First Amendment because it singled them out over the content of their coverage.

In his late-night ruling, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly directed the White House to "immediately return, reinstate, and restore" the three outlets' access. He said they had met the legal thresholds for a temporary restraining order, in effect for 14 days, and were likely to succeed in showing their press passes were revoked without due process.