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U.S. and Chinese officials began a second day of talks in Stockholm on Tuesday to resolve longstanding economic disputes and step back from an escalating trade war between the world's two biggest economies, Reuters reported.

The meetings may not yield immediate large breakthroughs but the two sides could agree to another 90-day extension of a tariff truce struck in mid-May. It may also pave the way for a potential meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later in the year, though Trump on Tuesday denied going out of his way to seek one.

The delegations met for more than five hours on Monday at Rosenbad, the Swedish prime minister's office in central Stockholm.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was seen arriving at Rosenbad on Tuesday morning after a separate meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. China's Vice Premier He Lifeng also arrived at the venue, according to Reuters.

At least 30 people have lost their lives in Beijing as relentless rainfall triggers severe flooding across northern China, BBC reported.

Authorities have evacuated around 80,000 residents from high-risk areas, with rain expected to continue through today.

President Xi Jinping has ordered urgent search and rescue operations to minimize further casualties.

Beijing is prone to extreme summer weather, with the worst flooding in recent years recorded in July 2012, when 79 people died, according to BBC.

A landslide caused by intense rainfall has killed four people and left eight missing near Chengde in Hebei province, Xinhua reported.

In Beijing’s Miyun district, over 4,400 people were evacuated as floods and landslides hit villages, cutting power to more than 10,000 residents.

Flood alerts have been issued in at least 11 provinces, including Beijing and Shanxi, with more heavy rain expected in the coming days.

Authorities have sent emergency teams to Hebei and allocated 50m yuan ($7m) for recovery. Scientists link the surge in extreme weather to climate change and the intensifying East Asian monsoon, according to Xinhua.

EU-China relations have reached an "inflection point", European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at a one-day summit in Beijing, BBC reported.

"As our co-operation has deepened, so have imbalances," von der Leyen said, referring to the European Union's huge trade deficit with China. She also warned China's ties with Russia were now the "determining factor" in its relations with the EU. 

Xi urged EU leaders to "properly manage differences", saying "the current challenges facing Europe do not come from China".

Earlier in the year there were suggestions a Trump presidency could help the EU and China find common cause but instead ties have grown more fraught, according to BBC.

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned top European Union officials on Thursday to "make correct strategic choices", state media said, during a key summit in Beijing set to be dominated by thorny issues ranging from trade frictions to the Ukraine war, Reuters reported.

Expectations were low for the summit marking 50 years of diplomatic ties after weeks of escalating tension and wrangling over its format, with the duration abruptly halved to a single day at Beijing's request.

Issues of trade imbalance, market access and rare earths are on the agenda as Xi and Premier Li Qiang meet visitors Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union Commission, and Antonio Costa, the European Council president.

"The more severe and complex the international situation, the more China and the EU must strengthen communication, enhance mutual trust and deepen cooperation," Xi told von der Leyen and Costa, state broadcaster CCTV said, according to Reuters.

A summit between China and the European Union (EU) has kicked off in Beijing on Thursday, with leaders set to discuss issues ranging from trade conflict to the war in Ukraine, BBC reported.

Expectations have been tempered however by uncertainty over global trade, politics and the attendance of Chinese President Xi Jinping, after he had earlier reportedly declined a visit to Brussels, where the summit was originally to be held. 

China confirmed this week that Xi would meet European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Antonio Costa in Beijing.

Optimism had surrounded EU-China relations at the start of the year, with hopes that a Donald Trump presidency in the US would bring the two economic powerhouses closer, according to BBC.

Chinese vice Premier He Lifeng will visit Sweden from July 27 to 30 for economic and trade talks with the United States, China’s commerce ministry announced Wednesday.

The discussions follow a recent presidential call and aim to address key bilateral trade issues through the established consultation mechanism, emphasizing mutual respect and cooperation, according to Xinhua.

India will resume issuing tourist visas to Chinese nationals from July 24, marking the first such move since the 2020 Galwan clashes. The announcement, made by the Indian Embassy in Beijing, signals a cautious thaw in bilateral ties, Firstpost reported.

The decision follows Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s recent visit to Beijing, where he and Chinese vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong discussed ways to improve relations. Both sides agreed on people-centric initiatives, including cooperation on trans-border rivers and resuming hydrological data sharing.

China’s Ministry of Commerce welcomed a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling that found it had not violated intellectual property rules in a dispute with the European Union. However, it criticized the panel’s view that WTO members must avoid affecting patent rights in other countries, calling it an overreach, Xinhua reported.

The ministry reaffirmed support for the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA), a temporary appeals system under the WTO, and pledged to uphold a fair, rules-based multilateral trading system.

US government employee has been barred from leaving China while visiting for personal reasons, the State Department confirmed. The staffer, from the US Patent and Trademark Office, is under an “exit ban,” and Washington is working with Chinese authorities to resolve the case.

Media reports say the Chinese-American employee was detained in Chengdu in April over alleged threats to national security. Beijing has not provided further details, according to Firstpost.

The incident follows a similar case involving a US banking executive also blocked from leaving China, amid ongoing tensions between the two countries over national security and espionage concerns.

European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit China on July 24, according to China’s foreign ministry.

During the visit, the two EU leaders will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Chinese Premier Li Qiang will also join them to co-chair the 25th China-EU Summit, marking continued efforts to strengthen bilateral ties, Xinhua reported.

China has started construction of the world’s largest hydropower dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, raising concerns in India and Bangladesh.

The $167bn Motuo Hydropower Station is expected to surpass the Three Gorges Dam in capacity. Beijing says the project will support clean energy and local development, BBC reported.

However, India and Bangladesh fear it could disrupt downstream water flow, impact livelihoods, and pose environmental risks. Critics also warn of threats to Tibet’s biodiversity and local communities.

A Bangladesh Air Force training jet crashed into the campus of Milestone School and College in Dhaka’s Uttara area on Monday afternoon, killing one person and injuring 13 others.

The F-7 BGI aircraft, purchased from China in 2022, went down around 1:06 PM local time, according to fire official Lima Khanam. Students were present on the premises at the time, contributing to the number of casualties, Firstpost reported.

Emergency responders from the military and fire department quickly reached the scene. Footage circulating online showed thick smoke and flames rising from the crash site. Authorities have not yet released further details about the victim.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has called on India, China, and Brazil to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin towards peace, warning that continued economic ties with Moscow could “slam back” on them.

His remarks come as India faces criticism for ramping up imports of discounted Russian oil since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. However, European and NATO countries remain major buyers of Russian energy, Firstpost reported.

The EU leads in liquefied and pipeline gas imports, while NATO member Turkey is the top importer of Russian oil products—highlighting a double standard in Western criticism.

The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the United States that include Chinese technology or equipment, Reuters reported.

"We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China," FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. "We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats."

The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has broad data security concerns about the network of more than 400 subsea cables that handle 99% of international internet traffic, according to Reuters.

Since 2020, U.S. regulators have been instrumental in the cancellation of four cables whose backers had wanted to link the United States with Hong Kong.

Over the past 15 years, China has established itself as a global leader in the clean energy technologies and now leads energy transition progress across the Asia, according to World Economic Forum (WEF). 

WEF in June this year released a new report titled Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2025 report which states that China showed high levels of readiness for the energy transition, backed by leading clean energy and industrial infrastructure, human capital, innovation and investment. The economy accounted for nearly 40% of the world’s clean energy investment in 2024.

China showed strong progress due to expanding renewable capacity and clean-energy technology production and diffusion. For the first time, the country’s CO2 emissions declined 1.6% y-o-y in the first quarter of 2025, 36 despite increasing energy demand, the report said.  China has made significant progress in its domestic energy transition and is now the world’s largest investor in clean energy, said Gum Huay, Managaing Director at the World Economic Forum. 

 China has emerged as a central driver of global energy transition in view of its significant strides in renewable energy and its broader commitment to transforming its energy system, according to Nicholas Wagner, an energy expert with the World Economic Forum (WEF). 

In a recent written interview with Xinhua, Wagner, manager of Energy and Industry Transition Intelligence at the WEF's Center for Energy and Materials, said China's recent progress in energy transition underscores both the scale of its commitment and its visionary long-term planning and investments.

China now leads the world in renewable energy capacity additions and is projected to account for about 60 percent of all new global capacity through 2030, said Wagner, citing the International Energy Agency (IEA). The Energy Transition Index, part of the Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2025 report released by the WEF, showed that China climbed five spots from the previous year to rank 12th out of 118 countries in 2025. It also placed fifth in transition readiness.

According to the white paper issued by China’s State Council, China has the world’s largest charging facility network, providing the most complete types of services covering the broadest areas.

By the end of 2023, there were 8,596,000 electric vehicle charging facilities across the country, of which 2,726,000 were public and 5,870,000 were private; the overall vehicle-charger ratio arrived at 2.37:1, the report says. 

According to the report, China has explored innovative ways to use solar PV power and launched a number of “PV plus” models that integrate PV power generation with activities including agriculture, transport, and desertification control and prevention. These models broaden the potential uses of solar PV power and contribute to green development throughout society.

The large power station in Tunli Town, Linfen City, Shanxi Province, has an installed capacity of 30 MW. The station adopts a “PV plus agriculture” model and utilizes agrivoltaic farming, growing oil-yielding peonies in greenhouses fitted with power-generating solar panels to increase land use efficiency, the report further says.  

Similarly, China has integrated traditional and new energy.  PetroChina Jilin Oilfield has built a 150 MW wind and PV power project on the site of abandoned well stations and the surrounding vacant land, the report said. 

Designed to supply electricity to the oilfield, this project is connected to the oilfield’s power grid nearby. In its first year of operation, it has generated a cumulative output of 380 GWh, meeting 22 percent of the oilfield’s electricity needs, according to the report.