Chinese leader Xi Jinping has not spoken to US President Donald Trump on the phone recently, Beijing said Monday, reiterating that no talks are taking place between the two countries to resolve their tariff war.

The statement from a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson is an outright rejection of Trump’s claim in an interview with Time magazine last week that Xi had called him, as the world’s two largest economies remain locked in a dispute over sky-high trade levies.

“As far as I know, there has been no recent phone call between the two heads of state,” Guo Jiakun told a regular news conference. “I want to reiterate that China and the United States are not engaged in consultations or negotiations on the tariff issue.”

China has maintained its tough public stance on the trade war even as Trump softened his tone last week, saying that astronomical US tariffs on Chinese goods will “come down substantially” and promising to be “very nice” at the negotiating table as he attempts to get Xi to initiate talks.

“He’s called. And I don’t think that’s a sign of weakness on his behalf,” Trump said, referring to Xi, in the Time interview published on Friday.

According to publicly available records, the last time the two leaders spoke by phone was on January 17, days before Trump’s inauguration for his second term.

Since last week, Trump has repeatedly said that his administration is talking with Chinese officials to strike a trade deal – only to be met with flat denials from Beijing each time.

On Friday, hours before Trump’s interview with Time was published, China’s Foreign Ministry urged the US not to “mislead the public” on trade negotiations between the two sides.

Trump’s apparent willingness to deescalate the trade war has been brushed off by Beijing, which has instead demanded the US remove all tariffs on China.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has imposed levies of 145% on Chinese goods, though he exempted imports of electronics such as smartphones and computers from his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs.

China has raised tariffs on US imports to 125%, but it has also quietly rolled back the levies on some semiconductors made in the United States, according to import agencies, as Beijing tries to soften the blow of the trade war on its all-important tech industry.

China and the Philippines have each unfurled their national flags on tiny sandbars in the South China Sea, staking competing sovereignty claims in strategic waters seen as a potential flashpoint for global conflict.

The rival photo opportunities unfolded on Sandy Cay, a string of three uninhabited sandbars which lie near a Philippine military outpost in the disputed Spratly Islands.

The release of the images comes as US and Philippine forces hold their largest-ever annual joint military drills in nearby waters – and just weeks after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to enhance America’s military alliance with the Philippines to “reestablish deterrence” to counter “China’s aggression” in the region – during his first trip to Asia.

Bracketed by China and several Southeast Asian nations, parts of the vital South China Sea are claimed by multiple governments, but Beijing has asserted ownership over almost all of the waterway, in defiance of an international court ruling.

Over the past two decades, China has occupied a number of obscure reefs and atolls far from its shoreline across the South China Sea, building up military installations, including runways and ports.

The public relations wrestling match over Sandy Cay risks further stoking long-running tensions between the Philippines and China. It also poses a key test to the Trump administration on how it will respond, especially as key cabinet officials have repeatedly emphasized the need for the US to focus its attention and resources on countering China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region.

Competing claims

The latest maritime dispute surfaced last week, when China’s state-controlled media claimed that China Coast Guard “implemented maritime control” and “exercised sovereign jurisdiction” over Tiexian Reef – the Chinese name for Sandy Cay – in mid-April.

A photo aired on China’s state broadcaster Saturday showed four Chinese officers in black uniforms walking along the white sandbar as a fifth officer held an inflatable boat by the water. Another photo showed four officers holding up a Chinese flag in what the broadcaster described as “a show of sovereignty.”

“China Coast Guard officers landed on Tiexian Reef to conduct patrols and recorded video evidence of the illegal activities carried out by the Philippine side,” said the state broadcaster CCTV. It added that the officers also cleaned up leftover plastic bottles, wooden sticks and other debris on the reef.

The Philippines was quick to unleash its own publicity move in response, sending teams to multiple sandbars.

On Sunday, a spokesperson for the Philippines Coast Guard said the country’s navy, coast guard and police deployed four teams in rubber boats to Pag-asa Cay 1, Cay 2 and Cay 3 – names the Philippines uses to refer to Sandy Cay.

During the inter-agency operation, the officers “observed the illegal presence” of a nearby China Coast Guard vessel and seven Chinese maritime militia vessels.

An image posted by Philippines Coast Guard spokesperson, Jay Tarriela, on X showed five officers holding the national flag on a white sandbar.

In a statement late on Sunday night, a spokesperson for the China Coast Guard said six personnel from the Philippines had “illegally landed” on the Tiexian Reef despite “warnings and dissuasion” from the Chinese side.

“China Coast Guard law enforcement officers then boarded the reef to verify and deal with the situation in accordance with the law,” spokesperson Liu Dejun said, urging the Philippines to “immediately stop its infringement.”

At a press conference Monday, Tarriela said each team had brought with them a Philippine flag to pose for photos on the sandbars on early Sunday morning.

“The other objective of our operation is to check whether the Chinese government installed different infrastructure or monitoring devices or whatsoever,” Tarriela told reporters.

“(From) the photos and videos we have already, we can totally debunk the lie and disinformation the People’s Republic of China that they have already occupied the Pag-asa cays.”

Military alliance

Confrontations between China and the Philippines in the contested waters have become increasingly fraught in recent years, fueling fears of a global conflict that could drag in the US, a mutual defense ally of Manila.

Sandy Cay lie near Thitu Island, known as Pag-asa Island by Manila and the site of a Philippines military facility. In 2023, Manila opened a coast guard monitoring base there to counter what it called Chinese aggression in the vital waterway.

Under the Biden administration, US officials repeatedly assured the Philippine that the US would come to its defense if attacked in the South China Sea.

US President Donald Trump is a more mercurial figure who has long viewed historical US agreements through a more mercantile lens and has called for allies to pay more for protection.

But Trump’s cabinet contains vocal China hawks, notably Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who have both spoken publicly on needing to push back against China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea.

On April 21, the US and the Philippines kicked off their annual Balikatan – meaning “shoulder to shoulder” – military exercises, which are expected to run for three weeks and have grown in scale each year.

This year, the US military has deployed an anti-ship missile launcher for the first time on the northern tip of the Philippine archipelago, just across the strait from Taiwan, a self-governing democracy Beijing has vowed to take by force if necessary.

The Philippines also hosted Japanese forces as full-fledged participants for the first time as party of the multinational military drills, a sign of strengthening security cooperation between Manila and Tokyo.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Monday alleged a US airstrike hit a prison holding African migrants, killing at least 68 people and wounding 47 others. The US military had no immediate comment.

The strike in Yemen’s Saada governorate, a stronghold for the Houthis, is the latest incident in the country’s decadelong war to kill African migrants from Ethiopia and other nations who risk crossing the nation for a chance to work in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

It also likely will renew questions from activists about the American campaign, known as “Operation Rough Rider,” which has been targeting the rebels as the Trump administration negotiates with their main benefactor, Iran, over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program.

The US military’s Central Command, in a statement early Monday before news of the alleged strike broke, sought to defend its policy of offering no specific details of its extensive airstrike campaign. The strikes have drawn controversy in America over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the unclassified Signal messaging app to post sensitive details about the attacks.

“To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of our ongoing or future operations,” Central Command said. “We are very deliberate in our operational approach, but will not reveal specifics about what we’ve done or what we will do.”

It did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press about the alleged strike in Saada.

Graphic footage shows aftermath

Graphic footage aired by the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel showed what appeared to be dead bodies and others wounded at the site. The Houthi-run Interior Ministry said some 115 migrants had been detained at the site.

The rebels’ Civil Defense organization said at least 68 people had been killed and 47 others wounded in the attack.

Footage from the site analyzed by the AP suggested some kind of explosion took place there, with its cement walls seemingly peppered by debris fragments and the wounds suffered by those there.

A woman’s voice, soft in the footage, can be heard repeating the start of a prayer in Arabic: “In the name of God.” An occasional gunshot rang out as medics sought to help those wounded.

African migrants caught in middle

Ethiopians and other African migrants for years have landed in Yemen, braving the war-torn nation to try and reach Saudi Arabia for work. The Houthi rebels allegedly make tens of thousands of dollars a week smuggling migrants over the border.

Migrants from Ethiopia have found themselves detained, abused and even killed in Saudi Arabia and Yemen during the war. An Oct. 3, 2022, letter to the kingdom from the U.N. said its investigators “received concerning allegations of cross-border artillery shelling and small arms fire allegedly by Saudi security forces, causing the deaths of up to 430 and injuring 650 migrants.”

Saudi Arabia has denied killing migrants.

Monday’s alleged strike recalled a similar strike by a Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis back in 2022 on the same compound, which caused a collapse killing 66 detainees and wounding 113 others, a United Nations report later said. The Houthis shot dead 16 detainees who fled after the strike and wounded another 50, the U.N. said. The Saudi-led coalition sought to justify the strike by saying the Houthis built and launched drones there, but the U.N. said it was known to be a detention facility.

“The coalition should have avoided any attack on that facility,” the U.N. report added.

That 2022 attack was one of the deadliest single attacks in the years long war between the coalition and the Houthi rebels and came after the Houthis struck inside the UAE twice with missiles and drones, killing three in a strike near Abu Dhabi’s international airport.

US military: 800 strikes conducted so far

Meanwhile, US airstrikes overnight targeting Yemen’s capital killed at least eight people, the Houthis said. The American military acknowledged carrying out over 800 individual strikes in their monthlong campaign.

The overnight statement from Central Command also said “Operation Rough Rider” had “killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders,” including those associated with its missile and drone program. It did not identify any of those officials.

“Iran undoubtedly continues to provide support to the Houthis,” the statement said. “The Houthis can only continue to attack our forces with the backing of the Iranian regime.”

“We will continue to ratchet up the pressure until the objective is met, which remains the restoration of freedom of navigation and American deterrence in the region,” it added.

The US is targeting the Houthis because of the group’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route, and on Israel. The Houthis are also the last militant group in Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” that is capable of regularly attacking Israel.

US discusses deadly port strike

The US is conducting strikes on Yemen from its two aircraft carriers in the region — the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea and the USS Carl Vinson in the Arabian Sea.

On April 18, an American strike on the Ras Isa fuel port killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others in the deadliest-known attack of the American campaign. Central Command on Monday offered an explanation for why it hit the port.

“US strikes destroyed the ability of Ras Isa Port to accept fuel, which will begin to impact Houthi ability to not only conduct operations, but also to generate millions of dollars in revenue for their terror activities,” it said.

Meanwhile, the Houthis have increasingly sought to control the flow of information from the territory they hold to the outside world. It issued a notice Sunday that all those holding Starlink satellite internet receivers should “quickly hand over” the devices to authorities.

“A field campaign will be implemented in coordination with the security authorities to arrest anyone who sells, trades, uses, operates, installs or possesses these prohibited terminals,” the Houthis warned.

Starlink terminals have been crucial for Ukraine in fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion and receivers also have been smuggled into Iran amid unrest there.

Ceding large swathes of Ukrainian land to Russia under a peace proposal suggested by US President Donald Trump would be “a capitulation,” Germany’s defense minister warned on Sunday, as North Korea acknowledged for the first time it had deployed troops to fight for Moscow.

Ukraine knew that it may have to cede some territory to reach a lasting ceasefire deal “but they will certainly not go as far — or should not go as far — as the latest proposal by the American president,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told German public broadcaster ARD.

“Ukraine on its own could have got a year ago already what was included in that (Trump proposal), practically through a capitulation,” he said. “I cannot discern any added value.”

Trump has been frustrated that his efforts to broker a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv after three years of war have so far fallen short, and the White House has since mounted an increasingly urgent push to strike a deal.

A US peace plan includes American recognition of Russia’s control over Crimea – the southern Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow illegally annexed more than a decade ago – and would grant Russia additional Ukrainian territory occupied since its full-scale invasion began in 2022, according to officials familiar with the plan.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday conceded that Ukraine lacks the military might needed to retake Crimea by force but has long made it clear that making territorial concessions is a red line. Recognizing Crimea as Russian would also be illegal under Ukraine’s constitution.

“This [territory] is not my property. This is the property of the Ukrainian people,” he said at a Friday briefing.

Following Trump and Zelensky’s remarkable face-to-face meeting at the Vatican before Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday, the US president said they briefly discussed the issue of Crimea and that he believes Zelensky “wants to make a deal.”

Trump also criticized President Vladimir Putin in some of his strongest comments against the Russian leader to date.

“I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal,” Trump said Sunday as he returned to Washington to begin what aides say will be a critical week in determining the future of US-led efforts to broker an end to the war. “We have the confines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it and be done with it and just go back to life.”

In a post on his Truth Social platform sent as he returned from Rome, Trump raised the prospect of applying new sanctions on Russia after its deadly assault on Kyiv last week, and questioned whether Putin is interested in peace, saying, “it makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along.”

The next week will be “very critical” in determining whether the US can continue attempting to broker peace in Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday, telling NBC that “we’re close” to a deal “but not close enough.”

North Korean troops in Kursk

On Monday, North Korea publicly acknowledged for the first time that it deployed troops to fight for Russia in its war with Ukraine, touting its combat sub-units’ contributions to “precious victory” in the invaded Russian region of Kursk.

“The operations for liberating the Kursk area to repel the adventurous invasion of the Russian Federation by the Ukrainian authorities were victoriously concluded,” North Korea’s Central Military Commission said, according to state-run news agency KCNA.

Putin on Saturday claimed his country’s forces have recaptured Kursk, the border region where Ukraine launched a surprise offensive last year, though Kyiv insists its troops are fiercely battling to preserve their foothold in the territory.

“Our Korean friends acted out of a sense of solidarity, justice and genuine comradeship,” Putin said in a statement Monday.

“We pay tribute to the heroism, high level of special training and self-sacrifice of the Korean soldiers who, shoulder to shoulder with Russian fighters, defended our homeland as their own,” he added.

North Korean soldiers have been supporting Russia’s battle to oust Ukraine’s forces from its borders, while Kyiv had poured precious resources into holding onto its territory there, with the view of using it as a key bargaining chip in any peace talks. The operation was also launched to relieve pressure from the embattled eastern front line.

Ukrainian officials and Western intelligence reports found that about 12,000 North Korean soldiers had been sent to fight in Russia, but Pyongyang had never confirmed their presence.

In March, South Korea’s military said 3,000 more North Korean soldiers had been sent to Russia, replacing the roughly 4,000 troops who were killed or injured in combat.

North Korea’s Central Military Commission said leader Kim Jong Un ordered the deployments based on a strategic partnership treaty with Russia, KCNA reported.

Putin and Kim signed a landmark defense pact in Pyongyang last year, as the two autocratic nations ramped up ties to a “new level,” and pledged to provide immediate military assistance in the event the other is attacked.

“They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honor of the motherland,” Kim reportedly said, adding that a monument would be erected to commemorate his troops’ actions.

Russia acknowledged the involvement of North Korean soldiers in its operations for the first time on Saturday. In a post on Telegram, Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, thanked the North Korean soldiers, praising their “high professionalism, steadfastness, courage and heroism in battle.”

As well as troops, South Korea’s military said in March that North Korea has sent a “significant amount” of short-range ballistic missiles and hundreds of pieces of 170-millimeter self-propelled howitzers and 240-millimeter multiple rocket launchers.

The US Department of State said it was concerned by North Korea’s direct involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine

North Korea’s “military deployment to Russia and any support provided by the Russian Federation to (North Korea) in return must end,” a State Department spokesperson told Reuters.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that North Korea had “effectively admitted to its criminal actions” by finally officially announcing the deployment.

“North Korea’s involvement in the war in Ukraine is a violation of UN resolutions and an illegal act that threatens world peace. This must be condemned by the international community,” the ministry added.

North Korea’s confirmation that its troops were fighting in Russia, months after they were deployed, mirrors Putin’s long-standing denials that Russian troops had been deployed to Crimea in 2014.

The crisis there started shortly after 2014 mass protests in Ukraine that toppled the country’s Russian-backed regime of Viktor Yanukovych. Russian soldiers dressed as civilians or in uniform without identifying insignia – at the time referred to as “little green men” – started popping up outside government buildings and military bases across Crimea.

While Moscow denied any involvement in the appearance of the little green men in Crimea, the territory held a sham referendum on joining Russia just weeks after the covert operation. Putin would later acknowledge he had deployed Russian troops there.