As leaders from across the world gather for two major summits in South America in the coming days, the uncertainty brought by Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House is expected to loom large.

Many will be grappling with what Trump’s “America First” agenda will mean for the global economy and the grinding conflicts in Europe and the Middle East.

China, perhaps more than most countries, will be bracing for fractious relations ahead with the United States. But for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the upcoming gatherings provide an opportunity in the wake of Trump’s election victory to advance Beijing’s own objectives: driving a wedge between the US and its allies and presenting China as an alternative, stable leader.

How well Beijing makes its case at the APEC summit of 21 Asia-Pacific economies in Peru this week, followed by a meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) major economies in Brazil next week could be critical to China weathering the anticipated coming storm.

In his first term, Trump unleashed a trade and tech war with China and reframed the rising power as an American rival – a path largely followed by his successor Joe Biden, who further irked Beijing by bringing US allies and partners along on his China policy.

And with Trump’s second term raising the threat of further heavy tariffs and uncertainty, Xi and his delegation will be carefully calibrating their diplomacy at the two meetings.

President Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are among the leaders also expected to attend both summits, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the G20.

“It makes sense for Chinese officials to use these big events to try and shape some of the international narratives right now,” said Li Mingjiang, an associate professor of international relations at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. “Since there’s not much time before January 2025.”

Driving the wedge

Xi’s congratulatory message to Trump last week appeared to show some of Beijing’s concerns. The Chinese leader warned that the two countries “will both benefit from cooperation and lose from confrontation,” according to China’s Foreign Ministry.

Xi may look to underscore that message if he meets with Biden on the sidelines of summits in the days ahead. Beijing would use such a meeting to signal that it wants communication and stability in the relationship, observers say.

But as questions loom over how tense US-China ties could become, Beijing sees good relations with a wide range of other countries – and unrestricted access to their markets – as key to protecting its economy. That’s especially as it grapples with slowing growth, weak consumer demand and high unemployment at home.

And in Beijing’s eyes, global uncertainty about Trump creates an opening for it to chip away at what, under Biden, had been increasing coordination between the US and its allies in trade, security and other areas to counter the perceived threat from China.

Many of the leaders that worked alongside Biden will be watching warily how Trump, known for his erratic and transactional brand of diplomacy, may alter their relations when he starts his term in January.

The president-elect has threatened 10% tariffs on goods imported to the US from all countries, including close partners. He’s called on US allies in Asia to pay more to host American troops – and said he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any NATO member country that doesn’t meet spending guidelines on defense.

“China wants to signal that it’s not going to be very wise to completely side with the US – and to consider working with China as well,” said Liu Dongshu, an assistant professor of international affairs at the City University of Hong Kong.

Beijing has already taken steps to improve its relationships with America’s key allies and partners in recent months, for example opening visa-free entry to China for citizens of multiple European countries and resuming a trilateral summit with Japan and South Korea.

Xi and another close US partner, Indian leader Modi, met for their first formal bilateral meeting in five years in October, after reaching an agreement on military disengagement along their contested border – a significant step to ease tensions.

Earlier this month, Chinese Premier Li Qiang pledged to leaders and executives at a trade expo that China would open its market further to create “great global opportunities.”

A hard sell?

Xi and his delegation are likely to continue to telegraph such messages to US partners during the summit meetings in Lima and Rio de Janeiro, while also looking to project China as a leading power that’s dedicated to global stability.

“For G20 and APEC, China’s message will be ‘There is major uncertainty ahead, but China is the certainty and will remain committed to peace and development,’” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington.

Chinese leaders, however, will face an uphill struggle to win the trust of US partners across both Europe and Asia, observers say.

Regardless of any frictions with the future US president, those countries have watched with alarm as Xi has ramped up his aggression in the South China Sea and toward Taiwan, while backing Russian leader Vladimir Putin as he wages war on Ukraine.

Still, they may have no choice but to collaborate with China more, should Trump repeat decisions of his first term to retreat from organizations like the World Health Organization or international agreements like the Paris climate accord.

Such moves would also bolster Xi’s long-standing aim to reshape the international liberal order he sees as unfairly skewed toward the US – and pitch China as its alternative leader. His vision has so far found most support in the Global South, where China’s Belt and Road Initiative and other development efforts have already expanded Beijing’s clout.

“If America is withdrawing from the global system, there is a space for someone else to step in – and China is one of the very few countries who both have some capacity and some intention to fill in that gap,” said Liu in Hong Kong.

China’s capacity to do so, however, is linked to the strength of its economy – and how it copes with potential further pressure from the US, he added.

As such, Beijing may proceed with care both in its diplomacy in the days ahead and its broader international efforts, according to Sun in Washington.

“Beijing does worry about Trump’s wrath and what he could do to damage China’s interest on a bilateral level,” she said. “China will have to balance its advancement for global leadership with considerations of relations with the US, and to avoid poking Trump in the eye.”

Military police are now sweeping the area.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Irish mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor denied in a Dublin court on Wednesday that he had sexually assaulted a woman in 2018, saying a civil case brought against him and another man was “full of lies.”

The plaintiff Nikita Hand alleges that McGregor sexually assaulted her on Dec. 9, 2018, and that another man, James Lawrence, did the same, the court heard last week.

McGregor, 36, told the court that he had “fully consensual sex” with Hand and that he did not force anyone to do anything against their will. He was taking the stand for the first time on the sixth day of the trial.

“Your client is full of lies. Everything is a lie,” the former UFC champion said after being asked by Hand’s lawyer about her testimony that he put her in an arm lock.

He also denied causing bruising to the plaintiff.

Hand’s lawyer accused McGregor of pressing down so hard on her watch that there was still a mark on her skin days later.

Hand’s lawyer said last week that when she was referred to a sexual assault treatment unit the day after the alleged assault, a doctor was so concerned that he directed that photographs be taken of her injuries.

Hand said that she and a friend made contact with McGregor, who she knew, after a work Christmas party.

She said they were driven by McGregor to a party in a penthouse room of a south Dublin hotel where drugs and alcohol were consumed.

She said McGregor took her a bedroom in the penthouse and sexually assaulted her. Hand’s lawyer, John Gordon, said Hand was on antidepressants, and “full of drugs” at the time of the alleged assault.

The judge told the jury of eight women and four men that the trial is expected to last two weeks.

Israel’s military ground operation in southern Lebanon has been expanded, the country’s defense minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday.

Katz did not clarify when the decision to expand operations was taken and did not offer any details on what the expansion entails. Israel launched what it described as a “limited ground operation” to expel Hezbollah from southern Lebanon early last month.

“We have expanded the ground maneuver in southern Lebanon and we are operating against Hezbollah targets in the Dahiyeh district in Beirut and wherever necessary,” Katz told soldiers during his first visit to Israel’s Northern Command.

There were nearly 20 Israeli airstrikes against what the Israeli military described as Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The newly appointed defense minister maintained that Israel will not agree to “any ceasefires.”

“We will not take our foot off the pedal,” Katz said, adding that Israel will not “agree to any deal that does not ensure the disarmament of Hezbollah and its withdrawal across the Litani River – and especially Israel’s right to enforce … and act against any terrorist activity and organization.”

The Litani river is some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Israel’s northern border.

Despite the Israeli ground operation into southern Lebanon, Hezbollah has maintained a daily barrage of rockets against parts of northern Israel and continues to launch drones against Israeli cities. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said around 50 projectiles were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel on Wednesday.

Hezbollah on Wednesday said it had carried out at least 20 attacks against Israel and its troops in Lebanon with drones, missiles, and rockets, saying its actions were “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip … and in defense of Lebanon and its people.”

Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Naim Qassem on Wednesday praised the militant group’s fighters for their support in a handwritten letter published online. The letter comes after the group’s members expressed support over the weekend for his leadership. Qassem was named the group’s new leader in late October, a month after his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike.

Growing toll on civilians

Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon continues to exact a heavy toll on civilians. Airstrikes on several towns across Lebanon have killed at least 20 children since Sunday, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

In the town of Joun in southern Lebanon, at least eight children were killed on Tuesday, the ministry said. A separate attack on Tuesday killed at two children in Baalchmay, southeast of Beirut.

The number of children killed in Lebanon over the past 50 days now accounts for 80% of all children killed in the past year, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said Wednesday in a post on X.

“Children in Lebanon are enduring the deadliest phase of this war,” he added.

Katz’s announcement about expanding Israel’s ground operation also comes as the military confirmed the death of six Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon on Wednesday. This marks one of the deadliest days for Israeli troops in Lebanon since the start of the ground incursion on October 1. The deadliest day so far was on October 2, when eight soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon.

Those killed on Wednesday were all from the Golani brigade – regarded as an elite infantry unit – and included a platoon commander, a squad commander, a squad sergeant, and three soldiers, the IDF said.

President Sergio Mattarella told Elon Musk on Wednesday not to interfere in Italian affairs after the US billionaire said Rome judges blocking a government anti-immigration initiative should be sent packing.

The highly unusual statement from the Italian head of state came against a backdrop of growing tension between the ruling coalition and the judiciary that has attracted the attention of Musk, who is a friend of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

“These judges need to go,” Musk wrote on X on Tuesday, referring to a panel of Rome magistrates who had questioned the legality of a government initiative to detain asylum-seekers in Albania – a measure aimed at discouraging irregular immigration.

The magistrates’ move meant a small group of migrants just taken to Albania had to be brought to Italy, casting doubt on Meloni’s flagship plan to crack down on irregular arrivals.

Musk’s comment was splashed on the front pages of Italian newspapers on Wednesday and came just hours before US President-elect Donald Trump had given him a leading role aimed at creating more efficient government in the United States.

“Italy is a great democratic country and … knows how to take care of itself,” said Mattarella, who consistently tops opinion polls as the most respected leader in Italy.

“Anyone, particularly if, as announced, he is about to assume an important role of government in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot give himself the task of issuing it instructions.”

In response, Musk issued a statement via his Italian representative Andrea Stroppa, expressing “respect” for Mattarella and Italy’s constitution, but reaffirming his intention to “continue to freely express his opinions.”

Saying he conveyed the same message in a “friendly” call with Meloni, Musk also expressed hope that Italian-US relations would grow even stronger and said he looked forward to meeting Mattarella soon.

While Meloni did not comment on the US entrepreneur’s social media comments, deputy premier and hard-right party leader Matteo Salvini welcomed them. “@elonmusk is right,” he said on X on Tuesday.

EU court at center stage

The controversy revolves around an October ruling by the EU’s Court of Justice (ECJ), which said that no nation of origin could be considered safe if even just a part of it was dangerous – a position that called into question Italy’s policy of trying to repatriate visa-less migrants to their home countries.

The ECJ ruling referred to a Czech case but holds for the whole European Union and landed as Meloni’s government was building detention centers in Albania tasked with processing migrants picked up at sea as they tried to reach Italy.

The centers are meant to fast-track repatriations, but the Rome court said this should not happen before the ECJ provides further clarification.

As a result the two small groups of migrants taken to Albania in the past three weeks have been almost immediately transferred to Italy, leaving the scheme in legal limbo.

Italy’s supreme court is due to review the legality of the Rome court move in early December, but the final word is likely to remain with the ECJ, legal experts say.

An ECJ official said on Wednesday the Luxembourg-based court could take months, or at least weeks, to clarify whether Italy can legally repatriate migrants to countries that it deems safe, such as Egypt, Tunisia and Bangladesh.

Two wounded patients were killed after police officers and vigilantes attacked an ambulance in Haiti, humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders said on Wednesday.

The alleged executions in the capital Port-au-Prince are the latest reported act of heinous violence in the restive Caribbean nation, which has been plagued for years by rampant gang warfare and political turmoil.

Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said law enforcement officers stopped one of its ambulances as it was transporting three young people with gunshot wounds to an MSF hospital in the Haitian capital on Monday.

Police then diverted the vehicle to a public hospital, where officers and members of a vigilante group “surrounded the ambulance, slashed the tires, and tear-gassed MSF staff inside the vehicle to force them out,” the organization said in a statement.

The officers and vigilantes then took the three wounded patients outside the hospital grounds and at least two of them were killed, MSF said.

The third patient was not killed, Garnier said. Authorities suspected the patients of being gang members, but MSF had no information to support that claim, he added. Garnier also said the officers were wearing protective gear but it’s unclear what police unit or agency they belonged to.

MSF condemned the attack, saying its staff were threatened with death and held against their will for more than four hours before being allowed to leave.

“This act is a shocking display of violence, both for the patients and for MSF medical personnel, and it seriously calls into question MSF’s ability to continue delivering essential care to the Haitian people, which is in dire need,” Garnier said.

MSF is organizing a high-level meeting with Haitian police to address the matter, he added.

This is the latest deadly ambulance attack that MSF has reported in Haiti. In December last year, the organization said armed men stopped an MSF ambulance, dragged a patient out and killed him.

The MSF report comes just two days after three US-based planes were struck by gunfire in Port-au-Prince, forcing the suspension of flights and closure of the city’s international airport.

Haiti’s transitional presidential council blamed armed gangs for the gunfire that struck one of the flights, accusing them of aiming “to isolate our country on the international stage.” The plane shootings happened on the same day the council swore in a new prime minister, businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who pledged to restore democracy and security in the country.

Israel has overseen the forced mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza in a deliberate and systematic campaign that amounts to a war crime and a crime against humanity, according to a new Human Rights Watch report.

The 154-page report, published by the US-based advocacy group on Thursday, details more than 13 months of widespread destruction in Gaza that, according to the United Nations, has seen the displacement of about 1.9 million Palestinians – more than 90% of the territory’s population.

In a statement, Human Rights Watch (HRW) cited the illegal and “deliberate, controlled demolitions of homes and civilian infrastructure,” by Israeli forces in Gaza “where they have apparent aims of creating ‘buffer zones’ and security ‘corridors,’ from which Palestinians are likely to be permanently displaced.”

“The Israeli government cannot claim to be keeping Palestinians safe when it kills them along escape routes, bombs so-called safe zones, and cuts off food, water, and sanitation,” said Nadia Hardman, a HRW refugee and migrant rights researcher.

“Israel has blatantly violated its obligation to ensure Palestinians can return home, razing virtually everything in large areas.”

In a response to the report on Thursday, the Israeli military said it is “committed to international law and operates accordingly,” and that it issues evacuation orders to protect civilians from combat.

The Israeli military also denied there was any “doctrine that aims causing maximal damage to civilian infrastructure regardless of military necessity,” and said any “reports and complaints regarding the violation of international law” are referred to an internal review body.

Israel has been accused by multiple human rights groups – and UN investigators – of military conduct that could amount to war crimes over the past year, which it has vociferously denied. Hamas has also been accused of war crimes.

In October, a UN inquiry said Israel had a “concerted policy” of destroying the health care system in Gaza in what it said amounted to war crimes.

The Israeli foreign ministry called those accusations “outrageous” and said they were “another blatant attempt by the (commission) to delegitimize the very existence of the State of Israel and obstruct its right to protect its population while covering up the crimes of terrorist organizations.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously said that “Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population.”

On Sunday, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar said Palestinians would be able to return to their homes in northern Gaza when the war ends – but not before Israel’s objectives were achieved.

Several Israeli ministers, however, have said they would like to see Palestinians leave Gaza and reestablish Israeli settlements there.

“We must promote a solution to encourage the emigration of the residents of Gaza,” far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on January 1.

And far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a position in the Defense Ministry, has said Israel “will rule (in Gaza). And in order to rule there securely for a long time, we must have a civilian presence.”

The HRW report comes after the US State Department said Tuesday that Israel had not violated United States law following the passing of a 30-day deadline for it to take specific steps to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza – a stance in sharp contrast to the findings of aid organizations about the dire reality in the enclave.

Aid agencies have described the situation in northern Gaza as apocalyptic, with areas at imminent risk of famine as Israel wages an ongoing military offensive there.

Human Rights Watch said the Israeli campaign in northern Gaza would likely lead to the displacement of hundreds of thousands more civilians.

The group urged countries to halt arms sales to Israel and impose sanctions on the Jewish state to push it to comply with its international obligations to protect civilians. It also called on the International Criminal Court to investigate the alleged forced displacement of Palestinians as a crime against humanity.

This story has been updated with additional information.