By JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A meeting between U.S. and Chinese officials went well and a deal was reached regarding “a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save,” President Donald Trump posted on his social media site on Monday.

Trump’s comment suggests that the company is TikTok, the social media company associated with China that U.S. law requires to be sold or else cease operations.

The Republican president has repeatedly extended the deadline on TikTok’s fate and was noncommittal on an agreement when asked by reporters on Sunday evening. Trump also said that he would be speaking on Friday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

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The Chinese government has yet to confirm Trump’s statements.

The basis of Trump’s post stemmed from a meeting in Spain that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had with Chinese officials, including Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, in which TikTok was to be a subject, according to a statement by the Treasury Department.

During Joe Biden’s Democratic presidency, Congress and the White House used national security grounds to approve a U.S. ban on TikTok unless its parent company, ByteDance, sold its controlling stake.

But Trump has kept delaying the possible reckoning for the social media app. He has extended the deadline three times during his second term — with the next one coming up on Sept. 17.

TikTok is one of more than 100 apps developed in the past decade by ByteDance, a technology firm founded in 2012 by Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Yiming and headquartered in Beijing’s northwestern Haidian district.

In 2016, ByteDance launched a short-form video platform called Douyin in China and followed up with an international version called TikTok. It then bought Musical.ly, a lip-syncing platform popular with teens in the U.S. and Europe, and combined it with TikTok while keeping the app separate from Douyin.

Soon after, the app boomed in popularity in the U.S. and many other countries, becoming the first Chinese platform to make serious inroads in the West. Unlike other social media platforms that focused on cultivating connections among users, TikTok tailored content to people’s interests.

The often silly videos and music clips content creators posted gave TikTok an image as a sunny corner of the internet where users could find fun and a sense of authenticity. Finding an audience on the platform helped launch the careers of music artists like Lil Nas X.

TikTok gained more traction during the shutdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, when short dances that went viral became a mainstay of the app. To better compete, Instagram and YouTube eventually came out with their own tools for making short-form videos, respectively known as Reels and Shorts. By that point, TikTok was a bona fide hit.

Challenges came in tandem with TikTok’s success. U.S. officials expressed concerns about the company’s roots and ownership, pointing to laws in China that require Chinese companies to hand over data requested by the government. Another concern became the proprietary algorithm that populates what users see on the app.

By MATTHEW LEE and SAMY MAGDY, Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday that Hamas must be eliminated and all hostages released for there to be peace in Gaza, setting aside calls for an interim ceasefire in favor of an immediate end to the conflict.

Rubio had come to Israel seeking answers from Netanyahu about how Israel intended to proceed in Gaza and assess interest in Qatar retaining a mediating role after Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha. The two said after their talks that the only way to peace is the complete destruction of Hamas and the return of all hostages living and dead.

“As long as they’re around, there will be no peace in this region because they are not agents of peace. They are agents of barbarism,” Rubio said of Hamas.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not pictured) at the Prime Minister’s Office, during his visit, in Jerusalem, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (Nathan Howard/Pool Photo via AP)

The comments came as Israel on Monday continued attacks on Gaza City, which it aims to take over saying it’s Hamas’ last stronghold. Israel ordered the evacuation of another high-rise building, one of the tallest in Gaza City. In recent days the Israel military destroyed multiple high-rises, accusing Hamas of putting surveillance equipment in them.

Airstrikes overnight killed at least 12 people, including children, said health officials at Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were brought.

Rubio’s visit proceeded despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s anger at Netanyahu over the Israeli strike in Doha, which he said the United States wasn’t notified of beforehand. The Doha attack, which killed at least six people, also appears to have ended attempts to secure an Israel-Hamas ceasefire and the release of hostages.

Despite comments by Trump that he wasn’t “thrilled” after Israel’s strike, there appeared to be little daylight between the U.S. and Israel after Rubio and Netanyahu met. “Your presence here in Israel today is a clear message that America stands with Israel. You stand with us in the face of terror,” said Netanyahu.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (not shown) hold a joint press conference at the Prime Minister’s Office, during Rubio’s visit, in Jerusalem, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. (Nathan Howard/Pool Photo via AP)

When asked by a reporter about how the U.S. will handle Israel’s attack in Doha, Rubio didn’t directly answer, saying the U.S. was focused on what happens next and that it will continue to encourage Qatar to play a role in the talks.

Rubio downplayed U.S. concerns about Israel’s latest operations in Gaza City, repeating several times that Trump is determined to see the conflict come to an end and that requires the destruction of Hamas.

And Netanyahu gave no indication that Israel would back down from its strikes on high-rise and other buildings in Gaza City where it says Hamas fighters are hiding.

Concerns over a recognition of a Palestinian state

One of Rubio’s reasons for visiting Jerusalem now was to show support for Israel as it expects to face growing international condemnation of the war at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly session, at which a number of European countries and Canada have said they intend to recognize a Palestinian state over fervent U.S. and Israeli objections.

Rubio said the statehood recognition is actually counterproductive to peace efforts and suggested that such proclamations are self-serving.

“They have really no impact whatsoever in bringing about bringing us any closer to a Palestinian state. The only impact they actually have is it makes Hamas feel more emboldened,” he said. “It’s actually served as an impediment to peace.”

Netanyahu also strongly opposes the recognition of a Palestinian state.

Israel presses ahead with offensive in Gaza City

One of the overnight strikes hit a tent with a family in western Gaza City, killing seven people, said hospital staff. A separate strike hit two neighboring houses.

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“It was another night of horror. … The situation is tragic and getting worse day by day,” said Mohammed Saber, a resident in Gaza City.

Israel has been urging Palestinians in Gaza City to head south. But there is little space for people to shelter in what Israel called a humanitarian zone, and many families don’t have money to leave.

Still many people have moved. On Monday, images showed a steady stream of Palestinians walking and driving along the narrow road by the sea that Israel designated a safe corridor.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. There are still 48 hostages remaining in Gaza, of whom Israel believes that 20 are still alive.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,871 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t say how many were civilians or combatants.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN, Associated Press Business Writer

Tesla’s stock is climbing before the market open Monday as CEO Elon Musk disclosed the purchase of more than 2.5 million shares worth approximately $1 billion.

Shares of the electric vehicle maker rose more than 7% in premarket trading.

Musk purchased various amounts of shares at different prices on Friday, according to a regulatory filing. The move may be viewed by the markets as the billionaire remaining confident in the company’s future.

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Earlier this month Tesla released a proposed pay package for Musk that would possibly make him the world’s first trillionaire if he hits a series of extremely aggressive targets for the company over the next decade.

Tesla said in a regulatory filing that it will hand Musk shares worth as much as 12% of the company in a dozen separate packages if the company meets certain performance targets, including massive increases in car production, share price and operating profit. If approved by shareholders, the new pay package could make Musk the world’s first trillion dollar executive, and would mark a new level of outsized pay in a country already known for extreme compensation. But the payoff is in shares, not cash, and the goals are extreme as well.

To get his first package of shares equivalent to 1% of the company, Musk would have to convince investors in the stock market that Tesla is worth $2 trillion in total, double what they value it today, and also hit several other milestones. To receive all the shares offered and make him the world’s first trillion-dollar man would require that market value to then rise to $8.5 trillion, double that of the world’s most valuable company now, chipmaker Nvidia.

Tesla has seen a plunge in sales this year, largely due to blowback over Musk’s affiliation with President Donald Trump. Tesla also faces intensifying competition from the big Detroit automakers and particularly from China.

Investors have grown increasingly worried about the trajectory of the company after Musk had spent so much time in Washington this year, becoming one of the most prominent officials in the Trump administration in its bid to slash the size of the U.S. government.

Tesla is set to hold its annual shareholders meeting on Nov. 6, where investors will vote on the new pay package.

By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Windsor Castle staff are setting the 164-feet-long mahogany table. Grooms are buffing the hooves of the horses that will pull the royal carriages. And the military honor guard is drilling to ensure every step lands with precision.

Throughout the halls and grounds of the almost 1,000-year-old castle west of London, hundreds of people are working to make sure King Charles III puts on the best show possible when he welcomes U.S. President Donald Trump for his historic second state visit this week.

The visit, featuring glittering tiaras, brass bands and a sumptuous banquet served on 200-year-old silver, is a display of the pomp and ceremony that Britain does like no one else. But it’s a spectacle with a purpose: to bolster ties with one of the world’s most powerful men at a time when his America First policies are roiling longstanding trade and security relationships.

FILE – U.S. President Donald Trump and Britain’s Prince Charles toast, during the Return Dinner in Winfield House, the residence of the Ambassador of the United States of America to the UK, in Regent’s Park, part of the president’s state visit to the UK, in London, Tuesday, June 4, 2019. (Chris Jackson/Pool Photo via AP, File)

“We’re buttering up to him,” said Robert Lacey, a royal historian and consultant on the Netflix series “The Crown.”

“He wouldn’t come to Britain if he wouldn’t have the chance to stay at Windsor Castle, probably pay homage to the (late) queen he admires so much, and to meet the king.”

Soft power in action

Three centuries after Britain’s kings and queens gave up political power and settled for the role of ceremonial head of state, the royals remain a robust instrument of “soft power,” which the elected government uses to reward friends and wring concessions out of reluctant allies.

State visits are the monarchy’s ultimate tool, with world leaders vying to get the full royal treatment.

During seven decades on the throne, the late Queen Elizabeth II hosted everyone from Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu to South African President Nelson Mandela.

The royals have also hosted the last four U.S. presidents, though not all were full-scale state visits.

Hospitality with purpose

While the impact of soft power is hard to quantify, it contributes to a feeling of friendship that “may incline another party to be more open to your entreaties,” said Martin Farr, an expert in modern British history at Newcastle University.

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Six years ago, Britain sought Trump’s support as it prepared to leave the European Union. This time the U.K. is lobbying for favorable trade terms and help in combating Russian aggression in Ukraine.

“A new Trump presidency, a new prime minister, a different government, but the same sense of panic and the same feeling that the biggest lever we can pull with this president is to flatter him and to try and connect him with something he seems genuinely to be impressed by, which is monarchy, and the fact that his mother of course was born” in Scotland, Farr said.

So Prime Minister Keir Starmer hurried to Washington in February, just five weeks after Trump began his second term, and handed him the king’s invitation for a state visit.

It was the first time any world leader received the honor of a second state visit, and the first time the invitation was delivered in a personal letter from the king, which Trump proudly displayed for TV cameras.

“It’s a great, great honor, and that says at Windsor,” Trump said as he praised the king. “That’s really something.”

Pomp and circumstance

There will be plenty of glitz for a president who has gilded the Oval Office and plans to build a White House ballroom for 650 guests.

While the president and first lady Melania Trump will arrive in the U.K. late Tuesday, the meat of the visit begins the next day.

After welcoming the Trumps, Charles and Queen Camilla will accompany them on a carriage ride through the Windsor estate, then back to the castle along a path lined by members of the armed forces.

Inside the crenellated walls of the castle, which William the Conqueror started building in 1070, a military band will play the national anthems of both countries before Charles and Trump review the guard of honor in scarlet tunics and tall bearskin hats.

Hundreds of military personnel will take part in the ceremonies — mounted troops, foot guards and musicians — after months of rehearsals.

When rifles are shouldered, it will come with a single thwack. When boots hit the ground, they will do so in unison. “God Save the King” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” will be note-perfect.

Highlighting history

After the welcoming ceremonies, the Trumps will view an exhibit of documents and artwork put together to highlight the shared history of Britain and the U.S. The palace hasn’t said what will be included, but the options are myriad for two countries with common legal and democratic traditions that stretch back to Magna Carta, the historic charter of rights signed in 1215 at Runnymede, just a few miles from Windsor.

But the centerpiece of the visit will be Wednesday night’s state banquet, where the men will don white ties and tail coats and the women will wear designer gowns and jewels that will sparkle in the flickering light from antique candelabra.

“The tiaras will be out in force,’’ said Hugo Vickers, a royal historian and author of “Alice,” a biography of the late Prince Philip’s mother. “It will all look very splendid.”

Dinner for many

The king and queen will join their guests around the massive Waterloo Table, which is about half the length of a football field and has space for 160 guests. It takes five full days to set the table, which will be laid with the Grand Service, a silver-gilt dining service that includes more than 4,000 pieces ranging from serving dishes to dinner plates and egg cups.

Vickers said the silver and ceremonies pave the way for conciliation, which Elizabeth believed was the way to solve even intractable problems.

“Keir Starmer has, cleverly in a way, used the king to lure President Trump over here, to give him a very good time,” he said. “And (it’s) a wonderful opportunity, with all the goodwill that will be engaged at this point, to talk to him … and if there’s any hope of sorting out Ukraine, etc. This is all a step in the right direction.”

Those discussions take place Thursday, when Trump and Starmer meet at Chequers, the country estate of British prime ministers.