Venezuela being ‘reborn’, Rodríguez tells UN – as it happened

We’re winding up this live coverage of day two of the UN general assembly and Xi Jinping’s arrival in the US for high-stakes talks with Donald Trump. You can read our full reports on the UN forum and the talks summit, and below is a recap of the day’s main news. Thanks for being with us.

• Donald Trump welcomed Xi Jinping to the US and took the rare step of greeting the Chinese leader on the tarmac at an air force base outside Washington DC as Xi began a three-day state visit.

• Xi said China and the US should be “partners rather than rivals” and that Chinese and US interests were “deeply intertwined”. “The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the goal of making America great again can fully go hand in hand,” he said in written comments. Trade, artificial intelligence and the Iran war are expected to be prominent in the talks.

• The US and China agreed to a two-month extension of their trade war truce to 10 January, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said as Xi arrived. The deal came after lengthy talks between Bessent and his Chinese counterpart, vice-premier He Lifeng.

• Venezuela’s interim leader told the UN her country was coming back strong after “setbacks” this year and thanked Trump for being willing to resume diplomatic relations after the US military spirited her predecessor Nicolás Maduro out of the country. “Today, Venezuela is being reborn,” Delcy Rodríguez told the general assembly in New York.

• Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian described the US as the true bully and terrorist in the Middle East while insisting Iran had always shown a commitment to the negotiating table. In a defiant speech to the UN general assembly Pezeshkian repeatedly vowed that Tehran would never bend the knee to the US. But he balanced defiance with a willingness to talk – see Patrick Wintour’s report here.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Moscow that Ukraine would strike back and make the coming winter deeply painful for Russia if the two sides ⁠could not agree a truce on energy ⁠attacks before the cold sets ​in. He urged leaders to keep choking Russia’s revenues and impede its war efforts, while singling out Vladimir Putin’s role in driving the war.

• Polish president Karol Nawrocki warned that without accountability, international law was not more than “a declaration without any real power”.

• Asian markets were mixed on Thursday as traders eyed the Trump-Xi summit. Hopes of business deals have been dimmed by there being no Chinese CEOs in Xi’s delegation, Agence France-Presse quoted two sources as saying. Oil prices cooled after jumping sharply.

• President Javier Milei condemned the UN as he warned that Argentina would take “matters into our own hands” in its dispute with Britain over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, while accusing the UN of being filled with “parasites”. See Daniel Boffey’s report here.

• Syria’s interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa harshly criticised Israel’s occupation of southern Syria and told the UN general assembly the Golan Heights was an inseparable part of his country.

• The US has invited Vladimir Putin to attend the G20 summit of world leaders being held in Miami in December, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said.

Xi and Trump’s summit this week will be the second time the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies have talked face to face this year. The last time – in Beijing in May – there was much talk of building a “strategic stability” between the two powers but little by way of concrete outcomes.

Few anticipate any major breakthroughs this week – but one area in which the two leaders may reach some consensus is on artificial intelligence safety.

Amy Hawkins and David Smith have more here:

What’s high on the agenda as Donald Trump and Xi Jinping hold their high-stakes talks?

The last time the Chinese leader was hosted in Washington – by Barack Obama in 2015 – the topics included cybercrime, technology, the climate crisis and human rights. This time Xi is meeting a US president who has overhauled the world order and recalibrated the US-China relationship. And Trump is contending with a China that is in a much stronger position than it was 10 years ago.

Amy Hawkins goes through five things to watch for at the talks.

Asian markets have been mixed on Thursday as traders eye the much-anticipated Trump-Xi summit.

The Chinese leader’s arrival in Washington coincided with US treasury Scott Bessent saying the countries had agreed to extend their trade truce by two months to 10 January. But hopes of business deals have been dimmed by there being no Chinese CEOs in Xi’s delegation, Agence France-Presse reports two sources as saying.

In contrast, top US tech bosses including the leaders of major AI companies are set to attend a state dinner for Xi Jinping on Thursday.

Pre-summit talks between Bessent and his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng included discussion of creating a communication channel for AI concerns.

Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei were in the red on Thursday, while South Korea’s tech-heavy Kospi was closed for a holiday. Japan’s Nikkei was up 1.6% as it reopened after a three-day break.

Tokyo’s gains came as the benchmark 10-year JGB yield rose to 3.055%, hitting a 30-year high, after US bond yields jumped.

Oil prices cooled after jumping sharply as world leaders at the UN general assembly offered little to suggest progress in ending the turmoil in the Middle East. Brent crude – the international benchmark – was down 1% in early Asian trade after soaring more than 3% the previous day.

Hopes for a new China commitment to buy Boeing planes are sinking ahead of Thursday’s Trump-Xi summit, Reuters is quoting two sources as saying, with negotiations still in flux.

The ​US aerospace giant is instead trying to finalise a May deal for China to buy 200 planes, rather than earlier hopes of securing new commitments for hundreds more jets, the people briefed ⁠on the matter said on condition of anonymity.

The provisional ⁠deal struck in tandem with Donald Trump’s last summit with Xi Jinping in Beijing put Boeing back into competition for Chinese jetliner orders. Boeing had been effectively shut out since 2017, while European rival Airbus had continued to expand its market share ⁠in one of the world’s biggest aviation markets.

More now on Xi Jinping saying China and the US should be “partners rather than rivals”. He also said: “The Chinese and US peoples have enjoyed long-standing friendly exchanges, and our interests are deeply intertwined.”

Xi’s written comments – published by state news agency Xinhua – came hours after he was greeting by Donald Trump on arrival in the US ahead their high-stakes talks. Trade, artificial intelligence and the Iran war – including Beijing’s support for Tehran – are expected to be prominent.

The Chinese leader said he looked forward to “in-depth exchanges” with Trump on “major issues concerning our bilateral relations and the global situation”, Xinhua reported.

The countries should “work towards each other to foster a stable relationship characterised by cooperation as the mainstay, competition within bounds, manageable differences and peaceful prospects”, Xi said.

The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the goal of making America great again can fully go hand in hand.

The two sides should “chart a correct path for two major powers” to get along, Xi was quoted as saying.

I am confident we can achieve this.

I believe that with the joint efforts of both sides, this visit will yield fruitful results, enhance the wellbeing of our two peoples and bring new hope for world peace.

Uzbekistan’s representative Saidi Mirziyoyeva has just finished speaking to the UN general assembly and that concludes the day’s addresses – it’s almost 9.30pm in New York City.

The speeches in the “general debate” continue on Thursday morning, with Zimbabwe’s president Emmerson Mnangagwa first up.

In case you missed this, Delcy Rodríguez earlier celebrated what she called a “historic” meeting with Donald Trump in New York, posing for a smiley photo with him less than nine months after he ordered the abduction of her boss, Nicolás Maduro.

The former foes met at a five-star hotel a few blocks from Trump Tower in Manhattan late on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Tom Phillips reports. The hotel is about 11km (7 miles) from the Brooklyn prison where Maduro has been held since he was snatched during a special forces raid on Caracas in January.

On the eve of Tuesday’s encounter, a reporter asked Rodríguez if she would be visiting Maduro – under whom she served as vice-president – during her stay in New York. She did not reply.

But she did find time to meet Trump at the luxury Lotte New York Palace hotel, with the get-together seen as a key part of Rodríguez’s push for international legitimacy after years of Venezuela’s diplomatic isolation under Maduro’s dictatorship.

See the full report here:

Returning to Venezuela for a moment, interim leader Delcy Rodríguez also told the UN her country would hold elections.

“I want to state this very clearly before this general assembly: there will be elections in Venezuela,” she said, while giving no timeline.

Many Venezuelans have been hopeful that the ongoing US-backed political transition talks between the interim government and parts of the opposition would lead to a democratic election, as AFP reports. But those hopes were dented early this month when Donald Trump – speaking shortly after striking a huge oil deal with Caracas – brushed off the notion of a vote in the near future.

Rodríguez echoed those comments at the time.

Rodríguez replaced president Nicolas Maduro after his ouster by US forces in January, and she has served as a pliant ally to Washington since then.

As mentioned earlier, while addressing the UN general assembly she thanked the Trump administration for its “willingness to resume the path of diplomatic relations and cooperation with Venezuela”.

Xi ​Jinping ‌said after arriving ‌that Beijing and Washington should be ​partners rather ⁠than rivals, Chinese state news agency Xinhua is reporting.

With ‌joint efforts, the US ​visit was sure ⁠to be ​fruitful, Xi said ​in ​written remarks, ​according ‌to ​Xinhua.

Separately Xi was also quoted as suggesting in his statement that the two sides “should move toward each other and work together to build a stable relationship – one where cooperation is the mainstay, competition is kept within proper limits, differences are managed and peace can be expected”.

On returning to the White House, Donald Trump said of travelling to greet Xi’s plane on arrival: “I think they appreciate it, tremendous people.”

On Xi Jinping’s arrival in the US, his plane was met with a lavish arrival ceremony that included a 30-metre-long red carpet flanked by US service members, a military flyover by two B-1 bombers and a presentation of the flags and national anthems of both countries.

US presidents typically welcome foreign leaders at the White House, but Trump and first lady Melania Trump travelled to the military base just outside Washington DC to personally greet the Chinese leader and his wife Peng Liyuan’s on touching down.

The pageantry will continue with a formal state welcome on the South Lawn of the White House, a private tea with the US president and first lady and a tour of the National Archives, among other events.

See the full report from Ariana Baio here:

Venezuela’s acting president has told the UN her country is coming back strong after “setbacks” this year and thanked Donald Trump for being willing to resume diplomatic relations after the US military spirited her predecessor out of the country.

“Today, Venezuela is being reborn,” Delcy Rodríguez said in addressing the general assembly for the first time since she came to power.

Rodríguez took over in Venezuela after the US military’s raid in January that captured Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the US to face drug trafficking charges.

This is the first trip to the US by a Venezuelan head of state since 2018, when Maduro travelled to New York to take part in the UN general assembly, the Associated Press reports. He is currently being held not far from the organisation’s headquarters as he awaits trial.

“I do not promise you an easy way forward,” Rodríguez said, saying she was addressing her people.

Rebuilding our national soul will be the priority.

More on Scott Bessent saying the US and China had agreed to a two-month extension of their trade war truce, which had been due to expire on 10 November.

The deal came after marathon talks between the US treasury secretary and his Chinese counterpart, vice-premier He Lifeng, in New York on Sunday and in Washington on Wednesday.

The announcement came just as Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in the US on Thursday evening for a high-stakes summit with Donald Trump.

“We have agreed today that we will extend what we call the Busan agreement, the economic detente between the two countries that was scheduled to end on November 10th,” Bessent told Fox News.

That is going to be extended until January 10th to give us more time to see what we can do on the economic front.

The truce, which took effect last year, came after Trump struck a deal with Xi. The agreement saw both sides agree to reduce tit-for-tat tariffs and for the US to extend certain tariff exclusions.

Washington had also agreed at the time to suspend responsive actions after an investigation into China’s shipbuilding sector, as AFP reports.

Bessent on Wednesday also flagged the possibility that both sides could reduce tariffs on $30bn of non-sensitive goods.

A selection of pictures here from the cordial greeting given to Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan from Donald and Melania Trump at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, outside Washington DC.