“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.”

“As the trade war between the United States and China kicked back into high gear after a period of tentative détente, it was clear just how vast the gulf of misunderstanding between the two superpowers had become,” the New York Times reports.

“President Trump said that he had been blindsided by China’s new controls on rare earth metals and products made from them, announced earlier in the week, amid what he had called a “very good” relationship in recent months. Chinese commentators insisted that Beijing was only responding to new attacks from the United States, and that Washington was the provocateur, because it had ramped up technological restrictions on China while professing good will.”

“Both sides also seemed convinced that they had the advantage and that the other side had overplayed its hand.”

Wall Street Journal: Four things to know about Beijing’s rare-earths bombshell.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to the people of her country and to President Trump for his “decisive support” for democracy in Venezuela, The Hill reports.

Anne Applebaum: “Machado is in hiding, deep inside a country that is failing. I spoke with her twice late last year, without knowing where she was. A few months before, the country had just held presidential elections. The opposition movement that she leads had won. Even though activists were being picked up off the streets, or simply shot and killed, they had held a primary, run a presidential campaign—Machado herself was barred, so Edmundo González was the candidate—and made sure that votes were counted accurately. Still, even after his definitive loss, Nicolás Maduro, the country’s illegitimate leader, refused to hand over power.”

“Lately, Americans have been hearing little about Venezuela other than drugs and gangs, but the country has long been the home of one of the world’s most impressive grassroots-democracy movements. At this moment, when citizens in many of the world’s most successful liberal democracies are giving up, even questioning whether popular participation in politics has any value, Venezuelans fight violence with nonviolence, and oppose corruption through bravery.”

“President Trump threatened to raise tariffs and impose export controls on China and said there was ‘no reason’ to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping after Beijing’s new restrictions on rare-earth materials marked an escalation in tensions between the countries,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“China this week announced new export restrictions on rare earth minerals, which are critical components of products from semiconductors to electric vehicles and jet fighters. China dominates processing capabilities for rare earth minerals, giving it leverage over the U.S. and other nations.”

“The Norwegian officials in charge of awarding the Nobel Peace Prize are investigating information that online bets on this year’s recipient surged overnight, suggesting a potential leak of information,” Bloomberg reports.

“Bets for Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for fighting for democracy, spiked at the Polymarket gambling site shortly after midnight Norwegian time.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced “we’re signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emeri air force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho.”

Nobel Committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes spoke to reporters:

REPORTER: Why didn’t Trump win the Nobel Peace Prize?

FRYDNES: This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates. That room is filled with both courage and integrity. We only base our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.

Bloomberg: “Now Norway waits. Trump isn’t shy about his grudges (as the United Nations learned last month about a decades-old renovation contract, of all things). As he and his people have ratcheted up ‘The Peace President’ rhetoric — emboldened no doubt by a ceasefire in Gaza — Norway has become increasingly worried about the diplomatic and economic fallout from a snub. For one, it still lacks a trade deal with the US.”

“The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who built a powerful social movement and has been living in hiding since last year, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday,” the New York Times reports.

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised ‘her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.’”

“Ms. Machado emerged from Venezuela’s political sidelines and corralled the country’s fractious opposition behind her ahead of the 2024 election. That followed years of political apathy in Venezuela, where the government of President Nicolás Maduro crushed protests and arrested dissidents, helping to spur an enormous exodus from the country.”

Jonathan Martin: “What I saw at the Conservative Party conference here this week was a party and country lagging behind its American cousins on the right — but quickly and ominously catching up. The Tories may be out of power, and in some polls sliding to a stunning fourth place, but their dismal straits offer lessons for both parties across the Atlantic as well as the mainstream parties in Europe’s two other dominant economies.”

“The Israeli military said on Friday that a cease-fire had come into effect at noon and that its soldiers were repositioning themselves within Gaza,” the New York Times reports.

“Norway is bracing for the aftermath of the Nobel Peace Prize announcement on Friday as the Nordic nation has faced increasing pressure from Donald Trump and his administration to award it to the U.S. leader,” Bloomberg reports.

“His campaign has thrust Oslo into an uncomfortable spotlight, with media and observers worrying about the diplomatic and economic fallout should the Norwegian Nobel Committee snub him. Even so, there is growing indication that pressure has been, if anything, counterproductive.”