TGIF and welcome to the end of another working week. Here’s a recap of your daily dose of international business and political news.
First this Friday, US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone and agreed to further trade talks to resolve tariff disputes between the world’s two largest economies, Bloomberg reported.
Trump said the trade relationship with China had got “a little off track” but said “we’re in very good shape with China and the trade deal”.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would all represent Trump at the trade talks, Bloomberg noted.
Meanwhile, the BBC said Trump will visit China at some stage to help repair the fractured trade relationship after a "very good talk" with President Xi.
No other details were revealed about the suggested trip.
Elon Musk.
Elsewhere, tension between Trump and billionaire businessman Elon Musk escalated in full public view.
Trump called Musk “CRAZY” in capital letters on social media, and suggested he might target Musk’s government contracts, CNBC reported.
Trump wrote that Musk was “wearing thin” by the end of his tenure as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). “I asked him to leave,” Trump said.
More broadly, the S&P 500 fell during Thursday trading, led by a drop in shares of electric vehicle maker Tesla, after Trump said he was “very disappointed” with its CEO. Musk responded saying “without me, Trump would have lost the election”.
Bloomberg reported that Trump’s comments about ending Musk’s government contracts and subsidies could cut to the heart of the businessman’s fortune, especially at Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies.
Trump, meanwhile, banned people from 12 countries entering the US from Monday local time, while seven other countries faced partial bans.
He said that would protect Americans from “dangerous foreign actors”, the BBC reported. Trump noted a recent attack in Colorado as an example of foreign nationals entering the US without being “properly vetted”.
ECB President Christine Lagarde.
The European Central Bank cut its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 2% overnight, while it also lowered its inflation expectations because of a stronger euro and lower energy costs, CNBC reported.
One governing council member did not support the decision to cut rates, ECB President Christine Lagarde said.
Eurozone inflation fell below the 2% target rate in May to 1.9%. The ECB’s latest economic projections suggested inflation to average 2% this year, compared with a 2.3% forecast set in March.
Finally, people in English-speaking countries including the UK, US, Australia and Canada were more nervous about the rise of artificial intelligence than people in the largest EU economies, the Guardian reported.
The poll of 23,000 adults in 30 countries also showed a quarter of people globally still don’t fully understand what AI actually is.
The poll also revealed very few people wanted AI-produced online news stories, films or advertisements, but most people predicted that AI would become the primary producer of all that content in the future, the Guardian noted.
