“The Chinese government has come out swinging in response to President Donald Trump’s threat Friday of 100 percent tariffs on China’s imports in response to Beijing’s new export curbs on rare earths,” Politico reports.

“In its first official reaction to that warning, Beijing on Sunday signaled that it will retaliate against any new levies that the Trump administration may impose on Chinese imports.”

“Beijing dismissed Trump’s concerns about the restrictions it announced last week — which will block exports that contain even trace amounts of Chinese rare earths essential to U.S. manufacturers — as a ‘classic case of ‘double standards.’ And said the export ban is a justified response to what it described as ‘discriminatory’ Trump administration trade curbs on items including high-end semiconductors.”

“President Trump was scheduled to travel to Israel on Sunday in anticipation of the return of hostages who have been held in the Gaza Strip for more than two years,” the New York Times reports.

“The hostages were expected to be released Sunday or Monday as part of the cease-fire deal with Hamas to end the fighting that began with the militant group’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.”

“The war in Gaza may finally be ending, after two years of bloodshed and destruction. But among the damage that has been done is a series of devastating blows to Israel’s relationship with the citizens of its most important and most stalwart ally, the United States,” the New York Times reports.

“Israel’s reputation in the United States is in tatters, and not only on college campuses or among progressives. For the first time since it began asking Americans about their sympathies in 1998, a New York Times poll last month found that slightly more voters sided with the Palestinians than with Israelis.”

“Hamas has told Israel it has 20 living Israeli hostages in hand and is ready to begin releasing them as early as Sunday,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Even as key Arab states condemned the war in the Gaza Strip, they quietly expanded security cooperation with the Israeli military,“ the Washington Post reports.

“Those military ties were thrown into crisis after Israel’s September airstrike in Qatar, but could now play a key role in overseeing the nascent ceasefire in Gaza.”

“Over the past three years, facilitated by the United States, senior military officials from Israel and six Arab countries came together for a series of planning meetings in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar.”