While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Oct 11, 2025.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A cargo ship full of shipping containers is seen at the port of Oakland, California .
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
US will impose additional 100 per cent tariff on Chinese imports from November, Trump says
US President Donald Trump on Oct 10 said he was lifting tariffs on Chinese exports to the US to 100 per cent and imposing export controls on “any and all critical software” in a reprisal to recently announced export limits by China on rare earth minerals critical to tech and other manufacturing.
“Based on the fact that China has taken this unprecedented position, and speaking only for the USA, and not other Nations who were similarly threatened, starting November 1st, 2025 (or sooner, depending on any further actions or changes taken by China), the United States of America will impose a Tariff of 100 per cent on China, over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “Also on November 1st, we will impose Export Controls on any and all critical software.”
The announcement followed an earlier post issued on Oct 10 that signaled new levies against Chinese goods were in the offing while also threatening to cancel a meeting with President Xi Jinping, a broadside against Beijing on Oct 10 that sent markets and relations between the world’s largest economies into a spiral.
White House budget chief says US government job cuts have begun
US President Donald Trump’s administration has begun laying off federal workers on Oct 10 during the government shutdown, with a White House budget office spokesperson characterising the layoffs as “substantial” in number.
The US health agency confirmed that some of its workers have received layoff notices.
“The RIFs have begun,” White House budget director Russell Vought wrote on social media, referring to so-called reductions in force. He offered no other details.
With flattery and warnings, Russia tries to revive ‘spirit of Alaska’ with US
PHOTO: REUTERS
Two months after a smiling Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin shook hands at a military base in Alaska in what looked like the start of a US-Russia rapprochement, a top Russian diplomat has raised doubts that the “spirit of Alaska” is still alive.
For Russia, the Anchorage summit on August 15 had two primary goals: to persuade President Trump to lean on Ukraine and Europe to agree to a peace settlement favourable to Moscow, and to encourage a rapprochement in US-Russia ties.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said this week there had been scant progress on either front and “powerful momentum” had been lost. Moscow had signalled it was ready to rebuild ties but Washington had not reciprocated, he said.
Melania Trump says some children caught in Ukraine war returned to families after talks with Putin
REUTERS
US first lady Melania Trump said she had secured an open line of communication with Russian President Vladimir Putin about repatriating children caught up in the Ukrainian war, and that some have been returned to their families with more to be reunited soon.
“This remains an ongoing effort,” she told reporters at the White House on Oct 10. She said Mr Putin had responded to her letter earlier this year and that they remained in touch.
“President Putin and I have had an open channel of communication about the welfare of these children,” she said. “For the past few months, both sides have participated in several back channel meetings and calls.”
Blast at Tennessee explosives plant leaves multiple dead, others missing
Getty Images via AFP
Multiple people are dead and several others are unaccounted for after a blast on Oct 10 morning in Tennessee at a military explosives plant, according to law enforcement.
The explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems about 50 miles (80 km) west of Nashville occurred at 7:45 a.m. local time (1245 GMT), Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis told a press conference.
“We do have several people at this time that’s unaccounted for,” he said, without providing precise figures. “We do have some that are deceased.”
