Trump leaves Beijing with few wins

Plus, UAE to accelerate oil pipeline project to help bypass Hormuz.

Go beyond the headlines with Reuters on the stories shaping the day. Subscribe for $1/week. Subscribe now. Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Hello. Trump leaves Beijing with few wins but warm words for Xi, and America's most powerful CEOs don't have much to show from their China trip. Elsewhere, the UK's Starmer faces a survival battle as potential rivals circle, and Zelenskiy condemns Russia after a strike on a Kyiv apartment block kills 24. Plus, our top photos of the week. Today's Top News   Trump walks with China’s President Xi Jinping at the Zhongnanhai leadership compound, Friday, May 15, 2026, in Beijing. Mark Schiefelbein/Pool via REUTERS US President Donald Trump left China with no major breakthroughs on trade or tangible help from Beijing to end his Iran war, despite two days spent heaping praise on his host, Xi Jinping. Trump said his patience with Iran was running out and that he had agreed in talks with the Chinese president that Tehran could not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and must reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The United States plans to indict Cuba's Raul Castro, a US Department of Justice official said. The timing of the potential indictment, ‌which would need to be approved by a grand jury, was not immediately clear. Police in Florida are investigating vandalism at a historic, predominantly African American cemetery where 17 gravesites were damaged, with headstones knocked down and "Trump" and "DeSantis" spray-painted ‌in red letters on tombs. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was struggling to hold on to power after his main rival in the government resigned and others positioned themselves for potential challenges. Alistair Smout tells the Reuters World News podcast why the uncertainty may be Starmer's best shot at survival. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called for Moscow to be punished after ‌laying red roses at the rubble of a Kyiv apartment building where a Russian missile strike killed 24 people, including three children. A top decision-making body of South Africa's African National Congress backed President Cyril Ramaphosa over the scandal dubbed "Farmgate" ‌by local media, a senior party official said. Business & Markets   With red-carpet treatment, selfies and culinary diplomacy, America's richest and most powerful executives sought to rekindle business ties with China this week at a leadership summit in Beijing. But as ‌Trump flew out of Beijing, there was little clarity on what the summit delivered for the business delegation that was traveling with the president. Britain's borrowing costs surged after Andy Burnham, a regional mayor on the left of the governing Labour Party, secured a possible path to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer, alarming investors and deepening a leadership crisis. The United Arab Emirates will accelerate construction of a new oil pipeline to double its export capacity through Fujairah by 2027, the government's Abu Dhabi Media Office said, vastly expanding its ability to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. India's state-run fuel retailers have raised petrol and diesel prices for the first time in four years by 3 rupees per litre, or more than 3%, ‌according to dealers, to recoup some of the losses incurred due to higher global crude oil prices. A looming 18-day strike at South Korean chip giant Samsung that has triggered worries within the government, rattled foreign investors and threatened global supply chains rests on one crucial question: who should share in the spoils of the AI boom? As Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's term draws to a close it is becoming apparent that what ⁠may have set him apart from his predecessors, and indeed proved perhaps his most important skill as a central banker was his behind-the-scenes effort to rebuild the Fed's relationships with elected officials on Capitol Hill. The Week Ahead Early next week, the finance ministers and central bankers of the G7 will gather in Paris.  Japan's first-quarter growth data due on Tuesday could offer an early read on how the surge in energy prices has weighed on an economy heavily reliant on oil imports.  Also on Tuesday, a raft of US primary elections with Kentucky, Georgia and four other states holding congressional party primaries. On Wednesday Britain's inflation figures may show another jump as markets are increasingly worried about a leadership challenge to Prime Minister Keir Starmer following disastrous local elections this month.  Here's all you need to know about the week ahead in financial markets. Hantavirus outbreak tests post-COVID health communications playbook   The cruise ship MV Hondius, affected by a hantavirus outbreak, leaves the port of Granadilla de Abona, in Tenerife, Spain, May 11, 2026. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo A rodent-borne virus with a scary name. A mid-ocean cruise ship in quarantine. Several people dead and more falling sick. It is no wonder that an outbreak of the Andes strain of hantavirus on a luxury liner in the Atlantic has revived some COVID-era trauma and panic online. That has presented a dilemma to health officials: how to communicate quickly and clearly about a virus which is not new and unlikely to cause a pandemic but where knowledge gaps remain - without inadvertently fomenting fear. Read more And Finally... Essyla, representing Belgium, performs "Dancing on the Ice" during the first semi-final of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, in Vienna, Austria. REUTERS/Lisa Leutner A selection of our top news photography from around the world this week. View gallery   Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters' website   Reuters Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here. Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. 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