APEC summit to close in South Korea after Trump, Xi agreed on trade truce

APEC summit to close in South Korea after Trump, Xi agreed on trade truce HYUNGJIN KIM and KIM TONGHYUNG November 1, 2025 at 8:12 AM 0 Banners for APEC 2025 Korea are displayed during the 2025 AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit at Gyeongju station in Gyeongju, South Korea, Friday, Oct.

- - APEC summit to close in South Korea after Trump, Xi agreed on trade truce

HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG November 1, 2025 at 8:12 AM

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Banners for APEC 2025 Korea are displayed during the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit at Gyeongju station in Gyeongju, South Korea, Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

GYEONGJU, South Korea (AP) — Leaders of 21 Asian and Pacific Rim nations are to set to wrap up their annual economic forum on Saturday after President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on a temporary truce on their trade war, generating relief around the world.

This year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the South Korean city of Gyeongju was heavily overshadowed by Thursday's Trump-Xi meeting that ended with the two leaders dialing back their earlier trade steps and de-escalating their trade tensions.

The high-stakes meeting was arranged on the sidelines of APEC. Trump, known for his dismissal of multilateralism, quickly left South Korea after reaching deals with Xi, allowing the Chinese president to steal the limelight at the summit.

During the APEC summit's opening session Friday, Xi said China would support global free trade and supply chain stability in an apparent effort to position his country as an alternative to Trump's protectionist policies. In written remarks sent to a CEO summit held in conjunction with APEC, Xi said that "Investing in China is investing in the future."

Xi met his Japanese, Canadian and Thai counterparts bilaterally on the sidelines of APEC on Friday. He's to meet South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Saturday for talks that Seoul officials said would touch on efforts to achieve denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

That agenda at the Xi-Lee meeting angered North Korea, a non-APEC member. North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Ho on Saturday slammed South Korea for talking about "its daydream" of realizing North Korea's denuclearization, saying North Korea will show how such a push is "a pipedream" that can never be realized. Park's statement was seen as applying pressure on both South Korea and China ahead of their bilateral summit.

Trump earlier repeatedly expressed his desire to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong U n during his visit to South Korea, but North Korea hasn't responded. Trump and Kim met three times in 2018-19, but their nuclear diplomacy eventually collapsed. North Korea has since vowed not to place its advancing nuclear program on a negotiating table, but experts say the North would aim for winning extensive sanctions relief in return for a partial surrender of its advancing nuclear program.

Friday's APEC meeting focused on ways to boost trade and investment, and Saturday's meeting is expected to center on artificial intelligence, demographic challenges and new growth strategies.

As the host nation, South Korea has been prodding members to adopt a joint declaration at the end of APEC's second and final day session on Saturday. In a 2018 APEC summit in Papua New Guinea, members failed to come up with a joint declaration due to U.S.-China discord over trade.

South Korean officials earlier said that issuing a joint statement strongly endorsing free trade would be unlikely because of differing positions among APEC members

Established in 1989, APEC champions free and open trade and investment to accelerate regional economic integration. But the APEC region now faces challenges like strategic rivalry between the U.S. and China, supply chain disruptions, aging populations and the impact of AI on jobs.

The U.S. strategy has been shifted to economic competitions with China rather than cooperation, with Trump's tariff hikes and "America first" agenda shaking markets and threatening decades of globalization and multinationalism.

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APEC summit to close in South Korea after Trump, Xi agreed on trade truce

APEC summit to close in South Korea after Trump , Xi agreed on trade truce HYUNGJIN KIM and KIM TONGHYUNG November 1, 2...

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White House restricts access for journalists to press secretary's office

White House restricts access for journalists to press secretary's office By Andrea ShalalNovember 1, 2025 at 8:22 AM 0 White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt takes questions from reporters during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 23, 2025.

- - White House restricts access for journalists to press secretary's office

By Andrea ShalalNovember 1, 2025 at 8:22 AM

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt takes questions from reporters during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 23, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A new White House rule issued Friday restricts the ability of credentialed journalists to freely access the offices of press secretary Karoline Leavitt and other top communications officials in the West Wing, near the Oval Office.

The new memorandum from the National Security Council bans journalists from accessing Room 140, also known as "Upper Press," without a prior appointment, citing the need to protect potentially sensitive material. It said the change would take effect immediately.

The White House move follows restrictions put in place earlier this month for reporters at the Department of Defense, a move that prompted dozens of journalists to vacate their offices in the Pentagon and return their credentials.

The National Security Council said the change was made to protect sensitive material now being routinely handled by White House communications officials as a result of changes to the council.

"In order to protect such material, and maintain coordination between National Security Council Staff and White House Communications Staff, members of the press are no longer permitted to access Room 140 without prior approval in the form of an appointment with an authorized White House Staff Member," the memo said.

Previously, credentialed White House journalists could access Room 140, which is a short hallway from the Oval Office, on short notice to speak with Leavitt, her deputy Steven Cheung and other senior officials.

"Some reporters have been caught secretly recording video and audio of our offices, along with pictures of sensitive info, without permission," Cheung wrote in a post on X, adding that some reporters wandered into restricted areas, or eavesdropped on private, closed-door meetings.

"Cabinet Secretaries routinely come into our office for private meetings, only to be ambushed by reporters waiting outside our doors," Cheung wrote.

Journalists can still access another area where lower-level White House spokespeople have desks, the council memo said.

The White House Correspondents' Association, which represents journalists covering the White House, said the new restrictions would hinder reporters' ability to question officials, ensure transparency and hold government accountable.

"The White House Correspondents' Association unequivocally opposes any effort to limit journalists from areas within the communications operations of the White House that have long been open for newsgathering, including the press secretary's office," said Weijia Jiang, current president of the group.

The administration of former President Bill Clinton announced a similar step in 1993, but later rescinded the measures after a storm of criticism.

The Trump administration months ago removed Reuters, the and Bloomberg News from the permanent "pool" of reporters covering the president, although it allows those outlets to participate on a sporadic basis.

Friday's announcement comes weeks after the crackdown on press access by the Defense Department, which now requires news outlets to sign a new policy or lose access to press credentials and Pentagon workspaces.

At least 30 news organizations, including Reuters, declined to agree to the Pentagon restrictions, citing a threat to press freedoms and their ability to conduct independent newsgathering.

The Pentagon policy requires journalists to acknowledge new rules on press access, including that they could be branded security risks and have their Pentagon press badges revoked if they ask department employees to disclose classified and some types of unclassified information.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft)

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White House restricts access for journalists to press secretary's office

White House restricts access for journalists to press secretary's office By Andrea ShalalNovember 1, 2025 at 8:22 A...

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Two federal judges require Trump administration to use emergency funds to partially cover food stamp benefits

Two federal judges require Trump administration to use emergency funds to partially cover food stamp benefits Devan Cole, Tami Luhby, CNNNovember 1, 2025 at 1:25 AM 1 Two federal judges said Friday that the Trump administration must tap into billions of dollars in emergency funds to at least partial...

- - Two federal judges require Trump administration to use emergency funds to partially cover food stamp benefits

Devan Cole, Tami Luhby, CNNNovember 1, 2025 at 1:25 AM

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Two federal judges said Friday that the Trump administration must tap into billions of dollars in emergency funds to at least partially cover food stamp benefits for tens of millions of Americans in November.

The rulings from judges in Massachusetts and Rhode Island reject a controversial US Department of Agriculture claim that it could not use a contingency fund, which the agency says has $5.3 billion remaining in it, to help cover the benefits amid the month-long government shutdown.

Hours later, President Donald Trump said he has instructed the administration's lawyers to ask the courts how it can legally fund the benefits as quickly as possible because the attorneys "do not think we have the legal authority to pay SNAP with certain monies we have available."

"Even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while States get the money out," Trump posted on Truth Social Friday evening. "If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding, just like I did with Military and Law Enforcement Pay."

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, costs between $8 billion and $9 billion a month, so the judges' orders will not cover all of the needed payments for November.

"There is no doubt that the … contingency funds are appropriated funds that are without a doubt necessary to carry out the program's operation." US District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island said. "The shutdown of the government through funding doesn't do away with SNAP, it just does away with the funding of it."

During proceedings Friday, McConnell said he was ordering the government to use the contingency fund to ensure some benefits could be distributed starting November 1.

McConnell's ruling during a hastily scheduled hearing came minutes after US District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston made a similar order. Both judges, appointees of President Barack Obama, also said that USDA is allowed to tap into another bucket of money of nearly $17 billion to pay November SNAP benefits in full, but that decision is currently up to the administration.

Though Talwani stopped short on Friday of requiring the administration to tap into the contingency fund, she said the USDA was required to use money in that rainy-day fund to partially cover November benefits and gave it until Monday to decide whether it would use only those funds or also dip into a separate pot of money.

"This court has now clarified that Defendants are required to use those Contingency Funds as necessary for the SNAP program. And while these contingency funds reportedly are insufficient to cover the entire cost of SNAP for November, Defendants also may supplement the Contingency Funds by authorizing a transfer of additional funds … to avoid any reductions," Talwani said in a 15-page order.

The Trump administration opposes tapping into those other funds, arguing in court it will hurt the child nutrition programs that the revenue supports.

Even with Trump's directive and the judge's rulings, millions of recipients will still face delays in getting their benefits, which were scheduled to start being distributed on November 1. It will take time for the Department of Agriculture and states to get the money flowing again.

In the program's decades-long history, a government shutdown has never prevented it from distributing SNAP funds to states, which administer the benefits, though the program was at risk during the 2018-2019 impasse.

The Boston lawsuit was filed earlier this week by a group of Democratic attorneys general and governors from 25 states and Washington, DC, while the case in Rhode Island was brought Thursday by a coalition of cities, non-profits, unions and small businesses.

As the government shutdown nears its one-month mark, courts are increasingly being asked to intervene to stave off a series of dramatic developments. Earlier this week, a federal judge in California indefinitely blocked the administration from laying off thousands of federal workers, saying the government was unlawfully using the shutdown as legal justification for the layoffs.

The administration could seek appeals. Asked earlier Friday by CNN what the department would do if courts required USDA to tap into the contingency fund, Secretary Brooke Rollins said, "We're looking at all the options."

Delayed payments

States stopped the process of issuing benefits for November after the USDA sent them a letter on October 10 ordering them to do so. States send SNAP enrollees' information to vendors every month so they can load funds onto recipients' benefit cards.

Each state has a specific date by which they must send the information ahead of the new month in order for benefits to go out on time, according to the lawsuit. Payments are made on a staggered basis throughout the month.

Talwani acknowledged the likely delay in benefits during a hearing Thursday, and also asked about the process of providing partial payments to recipients next month since the contingency fund alone won't cover the full amount.

"We're dealing with the reality that … the benefits aren't going to be there on November 1," she said.

This story has been with additional developments.

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Two federal judges require Trump administration to use emergency funds to partially cover food stamp benefits

Two federal judges require Trump administration to use emergency funds to partially cover food stamp benefits Devan Co...

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