Taiwan faces ‘unprecedented challenges’ as US welcomes president despite China’s warnings
Taiwan’s peace and democracy are facing “unprecedented challenges”, its president has said, on a visit to the US which will anger China.
Tsai Ing-wen has held talks with both Democrat and Republican congressional leaders at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, against a backdrop of rising tensions with Beijing, which claims the island nation as its own.
Standing alongside President Tsai at a news conference, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, said: “I believe our bond is stronger now than at any time or point in my lifetime. And of course, President Tsai is a great champion of that bond.”
As House Speaker, he is the third most powerful US politician behind President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
How could a China-Taiwan war hurt the economy?
Republican Mr McCarthy is also the most senior US figure to meet a Taiwanese leader on American soil since 1979 – and the talks came despite threats of retaliation from Beijing.
China sees any interaction between US and Taiwanese officials as a challenge to its claim to the island, and has reacted to previous meetings with shows of force and by cutting back on dialogue with America.
President Tsai said on Wednesday the “unwavering support” from the US reassures “the people of Taiwan that we are not isolated, and we are not alone”.
But she also cautioned: “The peace we have maintained and the democracy which we have worked hard to build are facing unprecedented challenges.
“We find ourselves in a world where democracy is under threat.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Fighter jet radios reveal tension
She said she reiterated to US congressional leaders her country’s commitment to “defending the peaceful status quo”.
She also said that to “preserve peace we must be strong, and we are stronger together”, adding: “Taiwan was grateful to have the US by its side.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy shakes hands with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. Pic: AP
Read more:
Honduras abandons Taiwan in favour of China
‘Reckless’ US risks conflict – Chinese foreign minister
Chinese invasion of Taiwan would ‘hit high-tech supply chain’
The two politicians stood in an atrium in front of a plane that Ronald Reagan flew on as president in the 1980s.
Mr McCarthy said: “The friendship between the people of Taiwan and America is a matter of profound importance to the free world. And it is critical to maintain economic freedom, peace and regional stability.”
He said: “We will honour our obligations and reiterate our commitment to our shared values behind which all Americans are united.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
China ‘likely’ to invade Taiwan
Angry Chinese officials have pledged a sharp but unspecified response to the meeting with Mr McCarthy.
But the White House has said there is nothing new or provocative about Ms Tsai’s visit.
“There’s no reason for the Chinese to overreact in any way,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
The Chinese responded to a visit by then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August by carrying out its biggest live-fire drills in decades, including firing a missile over the island.
Donald Trump has said he wants to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again.
Speaking at the White House as he held talks with the new South Korean president Lee Jae Myung, Mr Trump told reporters: “I’d like to meet him this year… I look forward to meeting with Kim Jong Un in the appropriate future.”
“I’d like to have a meeting. I got along great with him,” President Trump said, adding they “became very friendly” during his first term in office.
“We think we can do something in that regard,” he said, adding that he would like to help the relationship between the two Koreas.
Trump and Kim at the demilitarized zone in June 2019. Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump and Mr Kim held three meetings between 2018 and 2019 during Mr Trump’s first term and exchanged a number of, what the president called, “beautiful” letters.
In June 2019, Mr Trump briefly stepped into North Korea from the demilitarized zone (DMZ) with South Korea.
The US president on Monday responded to a question about whether he would return to the DMZ by fondly recalling the last time he did so.
“Remember when I walked across the line and everyone went crazy?” especially the Secret Service, Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
But “I loved it”, Mr Trump said. He added he felt safe because he had a good relationship with Mr Kim.
Mr Trump met South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung at the Oval Office on Monday. Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump became the first sitting American president to set foot on North Korean soil six years ago.
However, little progress was made in curbing North Korea’s nuclear programme, and Mr Trump acknowledged in March this year that Pyongyang is a “nuclear power”.
Read more from Sky News:
Temperature records broken in Wales and Northern Ireland
Ex-champion expecting ‘big fine’ after outburst at US Open
Since Mr Trump’s first-term meetings with Mr Kim ended, North Korea has shown no interest in returning to talks.
The White House said in June that Mr Trump would welcome communications with Mr Kim.
The attempts at rapprochement come after the election in South Korea of Mr Lee, who has pledged to reopen dialogue with North Korea.
As a gesture of engagement in June, Mr Lee suspended South Korean loudspeakers blasting music and messages into the North at the DMZ along their shared border.
Analysts say, however, that engaging North Korea will likely be more difficult for both Mr Lee and Mr Trump than it was in the president’s first term.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Since then, North Korea has significantly expanded its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.
And it has developed close ties with Russia through direct support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, with Pyongyang providing both troops and weaponry.
Mr Kim told Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country will always stand with Moscow, state media reported in June.
US rapper Lil Nas X has pleaded not guilty after being charged with assaulting a police officer while walking in downtown Los Angeles in his underwear.
The musician, real name Montero Lamar Hill, was taken to hospital and arrested after police responded to reports of a naked man shortly before 6am on Thursday.
The district attorney’s office said on Monday that Lil Nas X faces three counts of battery with injury on a police officer and one count of resisting an executive officer.
He was being held on a $75,000 (£55,457) bail, conditional on attending drug treatment. It is not immediately clear whether he had posted it and been released yet.
He is set to return to court on 15 September for his next pre-trial hearing.
Pic: AP
During the hearing on Monday, Hill’s lawyer Christy O’Connor told the judge he had led a “remarkable” life, adding: “Assuming the allegations here are true, this is an absolute aberration in this person’s life.
“Nothing like this has ever happened to him.”
A law enforcement source told Sky’s US partner network, NBC News, on Thursday that the Old Town Road and Industry Baby hitmaker punched an officer twice in the face during the encounter.
The source added officers were unsure whether he was on any substances or in mental distress.
Read more from Sky News:
Black cab rapist under investigation
National Guard to begin carrying firearms in DC
Trump says he wants to meet Kim Jong Un again
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
NBC News cited TMZ footage where Hill was seen walking down the middle of Ventura Boulevard at 4am on Thursday in a pair of white briefs and cowboy boots.
In the videos, Hill tells a driver to “come to the party” in one clip and in another tells the person: “Didn’t I tell you to put the phone down?”
“Uh oh, someone’s going to have to pay for that,” Hill says as he continues to walk away.
In some clips, Hill struts as if he’s on a catwalk, posing for onlookers, and at one point he places an orange traffic cone on his head.
A man who was wrongly deported from the US to El Salvador has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) again.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 30-year-old originally from El Salvador, handed himself into the ICE field office in Baltimore, Maryland, for a check-in on Monday.
The visit was a mandatory condition of his release from federal custody earlier this weekend. However, in a court filing on Saturday, his lawyers said they expected Garcia would be detained again upon attending.
Garcia is charged in an indictment, filed in federal court in Tennessee, with conspiring to transport illegal immigrants into the US.
An emotional Kilmar Abrego Garcia appears outside the ICE Baltimore field office on 25 August 2025. Pic: Reuters
According to a court filing by his lawyers, immigration officials made an offer to Garcia to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for pleading guilty to the charges.
Otherwise, they would seek to deport him to Uganda.
Pics: Reuters
Speaking at a news conference outside the ICE office on Monday morning, Garcia said via a translator: “This administration has hit us hard, but I want to tell you guys something: God is with us, and God will never leave us.
“God will bring justice to all the injustice we are suffering.”
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Garcia’s lawyers, also said: “There was no need to take him into ICE detention… the only reason they took him into detention was to punish him.”
A judge later ruled Garcia could not be deported after he filed a challenge asking to be allowed due process to fight any removal attempt.
Judge Paula Xinis ruled the 30-year-old must remain detained in the US until she can hold an evidentiary hearing – set for Wednesday.
She added there appeared to be “several grounds” for her to have jurisdiction to exercise relief, including that Uganda has not agreed to offer Garcia protections, such as being able to walk freely, being given refugee status, and not being re-deported to El Salvador.
After initially being detained in Maryland – where he lived with his American wife and children – by ICE in March, Garcia was sent to El Salvador, where he was then imprisoned in the country’s maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).
This was despite an immigration judge’s 2019 order granting him protection from deportation after finding he was likely to be persecuted by local gangs if he was returned to his native country.
Garcia was first detained by ICE in March. Pic: CASA/AP
The Trump administration admitted deporting Garcia was an “administrative error”, but said at the time they could not bring him back as they do not have jurisdiction over El Salvador.
After eventually returning him to the US in June, the Trump administration detained Garcia on criminal charges that were filed in May.
The criminal indictment alleges Garcia worked with at least five co-conspirators to bring immigrants to the US illegally and transport them from the border to other destinations in the country.
Minutes after his release on Friday, officials notified Garcia they intended to deport him to Uganda.
Read more from Sky News:
National Guard will carry firearms in Washington DC, official says
Deadly flesh-eating parasite found in person in US for first time
Black cab rapist investigated over alleged rape 25 years ago
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, US President Donald Trump, vice president JD Vance and other officials claim Garcia was a member of MS-13 – an international criminal gang formed by immigrants who had fled El Salvador‘s civil war to protect Salvadoran immigrants from rival gangs.
Garcia’s lawyers strongly deny the claims.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment11 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024