While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, May 13, 2025
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The three-month lowering of import duties will give the countries time to negotiate a broader agreement on trade.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Trump says he may speak to Xi this week after tariffs truce
US President Donald Trump said he would likely speak to Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this week, following talks between Washington and Beijing to temporarily lower tariffs and de-escalate the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
“I’ll speak to President Xi, maybe at the end of the week,” Mr Trump said at the White House on May 12.
The tariff arrangement, agreed to after talks in Switzerland between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer with a Chinese delegation, will see the combined 145 per cent US levies on most Chinese imports reduced to 30 per cent – including the rate tied to fentanyl by May 14 – while the 125 per cent Chinese duties on US goods will drop to 10 per cent.
The three-month lowering of import duties will give the countries time to negotiate a broader agreement on trade. The tariff reductions won’t apply to sectoral duties applied to all US trading partners or to tariffs applied on China during the first Trump administration.
Marcos’ grip on power shaken as Duterte allies, opposition surge in Philippines midterm polls
AFP
Voters dealt President Ferdinand Marcos Jr a stinging blow in the Philippines’ midterm elections that weakened his grip on the Senate, while boosting Vice-President Sara Duterte’s allies just weeks before an impeachment trial against his deputy.
Early results also showed independent opposition candidates performing stronger than expected in the May 12 polls.
Some 68.43 million voters went to the polls to elect more than 18,000 officials nationwide to fill half of the 24-seat Senate, all 316 seats in the House of Representatives, and thousands of local posts – from mayors to governors and their deputies in every province, city and town.
Hamas frees Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander
PHOTO: AFP
An Israeli-American hostage crossed into Israel on May 12 after his release by Hamas as fighting paused in Gaza, the Israeli military said, but there was no deal on a wider truce or hostage release as monitors warned of famine in the devastated enclave.
Israel’s military said it had received Mr Edan Alexander after the International Committee of the Red Cross said it had facilitated his safe transfer from 19 months of captivity to Israeli authorities.
Mr Alexander was the last American held by Hamas and Israel’s Channel 12 said his condition was “low” without citing a source.
Al Jazeera television showed a photograph of him standing next to masked fighters and a Red Cross official. Unlike in previous hostage releases, he was wearing civilian clothes.
First white South Africans arrive in US as Trump claims they face discrimination
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Trump administration on May 12 welcomed 59 white South Africans it has granted refugee status in the US for being deemed victims of racial discrimination, a move that has drawn criticism from Democrats and stirred confusion in South Africa.
US President Donald Trump has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world but in February offered to resettle Afrikaners, the descendants of mostly Dutch settlers, saying they faced discrimination.
Asked on May 12 why white South Africans were being prioritised above the victims of famine and war elsewhere in Africa, Mr Trump said, without providing evidence, that Afrikaners were being killed.
Russia downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, UN aviation body rules
PHOTO: REUTERS
The UN aviation council on May 12 ruled that Russia was responsible for the downing of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine that killed all 298 passengers and crew, including 196 Dutch citizens and 38 Australian citizens or residents, the Dutch and Australian governments said in separate statements.
Both governments said the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) would in the coming weeks consider what form of reparation was in order.
Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, and was shot down over eastern Ukraine as fighting raged between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces.
