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The Republican president-elect has threatened to relaunch a trade war with Europe, withdraw US support for Ukraine, and roll back America’s transatlantic security commitment.

Even as European leaders scrambled to congratulate Donald Trump and offered to work with him, some of their underlings were on the brink of despair.

“It is a disaster for us, there is no good to come from this,” said an EU diplomat, whose weary eyes betrayed an all-nighter watching the election results roll in.

Officials in the Belgian capital have spent months discussing how to “Trump-proof” the EU and Nato.

On Monday, its incoming trade chief Maros Sefcovic said that regardless of who won, the bloc would “put forward an offer of cooperation” but would “be ready to stand up for our interest if faced with a disruptive scenario”.

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Israel

“Congratulations on history’s greatest comeback! Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America. This is a huge victory! In true friendship,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on social media platform X.

Iran

The livelihoods of Iranians will not be affected by the US election, government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Tehran.

“The US elections are not really our business. Our policies are steady and don’t change based on individuals. We made the necessary predictions before and there will not be change in people’s livelihoods,” she said.

Hamas

Trump’s victory puts to test his earlier statements that he can stop the war in Gaza within hours, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told the Reuters news agency. The Democratic party’s loss is the natural price for its leadership’s “criminal stance” towards Gaza, Abu Zuhri said, adding that “we urge Trump to learn from [US President Joe] Biden’s mistakes.”

China

“Our policy towards the US is consistent,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a news briefing.
“We will continue to view and handle China-US relations in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation,” she added.

Ukraine

“I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs. This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X.

United Kingdom

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, “Congratulations President-elect Trump on your historic election victory. I look forward to working with you in the years ahead. As the closest of allies, we stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of our shared values of freedom, democracy and enterprise.”

NATO

Secretary-General Mark Rutte: “I just congratulated Donald Trump on his election as President of the United States. His leadership will again be key to keeping our Alliance strong. I look forward to working with him again to advance peace through strength through NATO.”

European Union

“The EU and the US are more than just allies. We are bound by a true partnership between our people, uniting 800 million citizens,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “So let’s work together on a strong transatlantic agenda that keeps delivering for them.”

India

Congratulating Trump on a “historic election victory”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X that “as you build on the successes of your previous term, I look forward to renewing our collaboration to further strengthen the India-US Comprehensive Global and Strategic Partnership.”

Russia

“Trump has one useful quality for us: as a businessman to the core, he mortally dislikes spending money on various hangers-on and stupid hanger-on allies, on bad charity projects and on voracious international organisations,” former President Dmitry Medvedev posted on the Telegram messaging app.

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A top Republican lawmaker has accused the Biden administration of not doing enough to prevent China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) from strengthening the country’s chipmaking industry and military-industrial complex.

Michael McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urged US Commerce Department agents to visit SMIC’s facilities and check whether the company is illegally producing chips for Huawei Technologies, the sanctioned telecommunications equipment company seen as a national champion within China’s chip industry.

In a November 4 letter seen by Reuters, McCaul described what he called “growing bipartisan frustration” that the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) had not acted on reports of Huawei’s efforts to evade US export controls.

McCaul said SMIC’s breakthroughs – including its advanced chip in a Huawei smartphone, and expected production of over a million artificial intelligence (AI) processors for Huawei – are a “smoking gun” for a violation and could help China surpass the US in AI.

The Commerce Department said it had received McCaul’s letter and would respond through “appropriate channels”. Last week, in response to similar criticism, it said that no Commerce Department had been tougher on China.

SMIC did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did Huawei.

The Chinese embassy in Washington said in a statement that “certain US politicians” were “overstretching the concept of national security” and politicising “science and technology and economic and trade issues”.

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Deal signed between Chinese firm and Russian aviation engineering institution comes as Beijing and Moscow step up military cooperation.

A Chinese security company and a Russian university have had “extensive interactions” over importing Russian aviation technology, including low-altitude counter-drone technology, according to Chinese state media.

A Chinese company specialising in emergency technology and security services – Guangxi Xinhang Shengjie Emergency Industrial Park Management Company signed a deal on Monday with Russia’s Ufa State Aviation Technical University, a leading centre for aviation engineering, to bring in low-altitude drone defence technology, China News Service reported on Tuesday.

“China and Russia held extensive interactions on topics such as bringing in Russian aviation technology and low-altitude drone defence technology,” the report said. The signing took place in Wuzhou in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in southern China.

Under the deal, the Russian university will send experts to China to provide long-term support in areas such as technology, talent training and teaching, according to the report.

The Chinese side also planned to boost its low-altitude equipment manufacturing operations by adapting Russian heavy-lift helicopters and drone technology, it said.

It comes as China and Russia have stepped up military cooperation in recent years amid pressure from the United States and its allies.

Last month, Washington announced sanctions against two Chinese companies accused of cooperating with Russia to design and build long-range attack drones.

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It also includes a ratification bonus, as well as improved retirement and health care benefits, and overtime rules.

After seven weeks on strike, Boeing workers voted Monday to ratify a new contract that includes a 43.65% wage increase over four years — a significant improvement over the 25% increase that the aerospace giant offered in September.

Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Districts 751 and W24 approved the contract in a 59%-41% vote around two weeks after rejecting a tentative deal that called for a 35% pay increase over a four-year period.

The contract approved by workers also includes a $12,000 ratification bonus, improvements to retirement and healthcare benefits, and improved overtime rules.

“Strikes work,” labor journalist Kim Kelly wrote in response to the contract vote.

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Three suspects are accused of involvement in the murder of scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and spying for Israel.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed when his car was ambushed on a highway outside the capital in November 2020.

“The preliminary legal proceedings took place in Urmia, where these individuals were sentenced to execution; the case is currently in the appeals process,” Asghar Jahangir, spokesman of the Iranian judiciary, told a news conference in Tehran on Tuesday.

“After some investigations, three people out of eight arrested in West Azarbaijan province, were accused of committing espionage for the occupying regime of Israel,” Jahangir said.

He added that the three are also “accused of transporting equipment into Iran for the assassination of martyr Fakhrizadeh under the guise of smuggling alcoholic beverages”.

Fakhrizadeh was widely seen by Western intelligence as the mastermind of clandestine Iranian efforts in the early 2000s to develop nuclear weapons behind the facade of a declared civilian uranium enrichment programme – a claim rejected by Iran.

Iranian officials say the killing took place when a weapon using an advanced camera and controlled by a satellite zoomed in on the scientist while he was driving outside the Iranian capital. Tehran blamed the assassination on Israel, which has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.

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Taiwan’s laboured energy transition is straining its industry, with sudden electricity price jumps and growing outage risks affecting companies including Asia’s biggest — the semiconductor giant TSMC.

Following a series of price increases, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company now expects to pay more for power in its home country than anywhere else. The world’s largest chipmaker operates plants in the US and Japan and is building one in Germany.

“Basically, the price has doubled in the past few years. So next year, we think that [the] electricity price for us in Taiwan will be the highest in all the regions that we operate,” Wendell Huang, chief financial officer, told investors last month.

Although the pace of Taiwan’s power price increases since 2022 is still slower than in some other energy import-dependent advanced economies such as France and South Korea, government researchers expect industrial electricity cost to exceed that in Japan and South Korea, Taiwan’s closest competitors in export markets.

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The blockade costs Cuba an estimated USD 5 billion annually and seriously restricts the country’s ability to purchase vital items such as fuel, food, medicine and medical equipment, spare parts for machines, and other goods necessary for the maintenance of daily life and production.

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A Russian rocket carrying a payload of satellites into orbit – including two from Iran – blasted off successfully, Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said, in a move seen as reflecting the growing cooperation between Moscow and Tehran.

The Soyuz-2.1 spacecraft lifted off as scheduled from the Vostochny Cosmodrome launchpad in far eastern Russia and put its payload into a designated orbit nine minutes after the launch on Tuesday.

Among the 53 small satellites, the two Iranian satellites were identified as the Kowsar, a high-resolution imaging satellite, and Hodhod, a small communications satellite. A Russian-Chinese student satellite, Druzhba ATURK, was also placed into orbit.

The Iranian satellites are the first launched on behalf of the country’s private sector, with the Kowsar manufactured by the Omidfaza company, which began designing the satellite in 2019, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.

The latest satellite launch comes as Russia and Iran expand ties in various spheres, and amid mounting criticism from Ukraine and the West that Tehran has provided Moscow with drones for use in attacks on Ukrainian targets.

Moscow and Tehran are also planning to further bolster their ties with a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, set to be signed during Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s planned visit to Russia, the date for which has yet to be confirmed.

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Premier Li Qiang has called for better vocational education and cultivation of craftsmanship talent, as the world’s second-largest economy is building up a skilled industrial workforce amid an intensifying tech rivalry with the United States.

China needs to cultivate more sophisticated skilled talents to help the nation achieve “high-level scientific and technological self-reliance”, Li said on Sunday during an inspection tour in Shanghai.

The call follows a plan unveiled by the central government last month to enlarge its highly skilled talent pool as China pushes for independent technological innovation while the US continues with efforts to curb the former’s hi-tech access.

Calling it an adjustment to a changing landscape, Li emphasised “the spirit of model workers, labour and craftsmanship” during his visit to a vocational school in the city, state news agency Xinhua reported.

With a goal of strengthening the nation’s technological self-reliance, he underscored the urgency of developing expertise in fields critical to emerging technology and advanced industries amid a global industrial transformation.

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