Trump arrives in Beijing for Xi summit; New hantavirus concerns in US and abroad
President Donald Trump arrived in China for a high-stakes meeting with Xi Jinping. Trade, war and global power all move to the table at once.
Plus, a possible new hantavirus case in the U.S. — not tied to the cruise. And one cruise passenger overseas is now critically ill as officials track what could still emerge.
And a Senate hearing turns into a direct clash. The FBI director and a lawmaker trade accusations, then agree to take the same alcohol test.
These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
Trump to arrive in China for high-stakes meeting with Xi
President Donald Trump landed in Beijing on Wednesday for a high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with the war in Iran expected to be the main topic.
The Trump trip was delayed by the conflict, but ahead of departure, the president made it clear he does not believe the U.S. needs China’s help in the war.
Beijing maintains close ties with Tehran, buying much of Iran’s oil and playing a role in efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“I don’t think we need any help with Iran, to be honest with you. They’re defeated militarily, and they’ll either do the right thing or we’ll finish the job,” Trump said.
This marks the first face-to-face meeting between Trump and Xi since last October.
Trump said trade will be his top priority, with plans to push for deals that would have China buy more American agricultural products and aircraft. He’ll also bring a group of top business leaders, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Hantavirus cases rise as outbreak spreads
U.S. health officials are tracking a possible new case of hantavirus in Illinois, and they said it is not connected to the cruise ship outbreak.
The patient is believed to have contracted a North American strain while cleaning a home that had rodent droppings, according to state health officials. This comes as the outbreak linked to that Dutch cruise ship continues to worsen.
A French passenger diagnosed with the virus earlier this week is now critically ill, with doctors in Paris treating a severe case impacting her lungs and heart. She is now on an artificial lung — what doctors call a final-level support system — used to take pressure off her organs and give them time to recover.
A Dutch hospital has quarantined 12 staff members after blood and urine samples from a hantavirus patient were improperly handled. They will be quarantined for six weeks, even though officials said the risk of infection is very low.
Meanwhile, with all passengers and most crew off the ship, the MV Hondius is now headed back to the Netherlands for cleaning and disinfection.
The World Health Organization said all cases so far are limited to passengers and crew, but warned that more could emerge, with an incubation period of up to six weeks.
FDA commissioner out after flavored vape products decision
The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Marty Makary, has stepped down after weeks of pressure, and after a direct clash with the White House over flavored vapes, according to reports.
Makary had opposed approving fruit-flavored e-cigarettes, citing concerns they could draw in young users. But the administration moved forward anyway, signing off on new products and expanding how they can be marketed.
That disagreement ultimately put him at odds with the White House and helped drive his exit.
The Trump administration brought in Makary as a reformer. But his tenure quickly turned contentious, clashing with industry groups, public health officials and members of the administration.
Trump would not say whether he fired Makary or asked him to resign, but confirmed Makary’s exit.
Reporter: Did you ask Marty Makary to resign, sir. Or did you fire your FDA commissioner?
Donald Trump: Well, I don’t want to say, but Marty’s a great guy. He’s a friend of mine. He’s a wonderful man, and he’s going to be off. And the assistant, the deputy, is taking over temporarily until we find somebody who wants that job. It’s a very important job.
The FDA’s top food official, Kyle Diamantas, will step in as acting commissioner while the search for a permanent replacement continues.
Senator presses Patel over allegations of heavy drinking
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel faced sharp questions on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Sen. Chris Van Hollen pressed Patel over reports about his conduct, including a story from The Atlantic that raised questions about the director’s alleged drinking and absences.
Patel has denied those claims and has filed a lawsuit against the news agency over the report.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.: So there have been no occasions during your tenure when FBI personnel were unable to promptly reach you?
Kash Patel, FBI director: Absolutely not. You can ask my entire workforce. They hear from me at every single hour of the day, as do these great gentlemen here, as do the men and women of the interagency in state and local law enforcement and the white house.
Van Hollen: And so there have been no occasions when your security detail had difficulty waking or locating you. Is that right?
Patel: Nope, it’s a total farce. I don’t even know where you get this stuff, but it doesn’t make it credible because you say so.
Van Hollen: I’m not saying it, Director Patel; it’s been written and documented.
Patel: You are literally saying it.
Van Hollen: No, I’m saying that these are reports, Director Patel. I will say, Director Patel …
Patel: No. Unlike your baseless report, the only person slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted gangbanging rapist was you.
Van Hollen: You know, the fact …
Patel: The only person who ran up a $7,000 bar tab in Washington, D.C. At the lobby bar was you.
Van Hollen: Director Patel, this suggests to me — this suggests to me that allegations are true.
What began as oversight questioning did not stay there. The exchange moved quickly into accusation and counterattack, with both men interrupting and challenging each other’s claims in front of the committee.
The exchange escalated further when Van Hollen asked Patel if he would get screened for alcohol issues.
Van Hollen: “Are you willing to take the test, that — it’s called the audit test, that members of the active duty military and others take to determine whether they have a drinking problem.
Patel: I’ll take any test you’re willing to take.
Van Hollen: I will take it, Director Patel. I’ll take it. You ready to take it?
Patel: Let’s go.
Van Hollen: Yes or no?
Patel: Let’s go side by side.
The hearing was part of a broader budget session, but this back-and-forth stood out as one of the most contentious moments of the day.
Venturella takes over ICE leadership amid scrutiny
A familiar name is stepping in to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Longtime official David Venturella will serve as interim director starting June 1, succeeding Todd Lyons, who is leaving at the end of the month.
Venturella has served under both Republican and Democratic presidents and, most recently, worked for the GEO Group, a private prison company with more than $1 billion in ICE contracts.
The leadership change comes after a year of intense scrutiny for the agency. Recent crackdowns in Minneapolis left two U.S. citizens dead — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — after federal agents shot them during street confrontations.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said he wants the department “out of the headlines.”
Border czar Tom Homan, who brought Venturella back as an advisor last year, said the agency is adopting a more targeted approach amid a record-length funding lapse.
Research links arts to slower aging, says participants showed measurable biological benefits
If you turn to the arts to relax, there’s new evidence that it’s doing more than that. Researchers said it may actually help slow the aging process.
A new University College London study of more than 3,500 adults in the U.K., published this week in the journal Innovation in Aging, found that people who regularly engage in cultural activities — like singing, dancing, painting or even visiting museums and libraries — show signs of slower biological aging.
Researchers analyzed blood samples and the body’s “epigenetic clock,” a measure of how quickly someone is aging at the cellular level.
“People who are regularly engaged in the arts have a pace of aging that’s about 4% slower each year, and they’re around a year biologically younger than people who don’t engage. And as a point of comparison, this is the same kind of effect size that we see for regular physical activity or for giving up smoking. So it’s a marked impact that it’s having on biological aging,” said Daisy Fancourt, a professor of psychobiology & epidemiology at University College London.
More from Straight Arrow:
The US is winning the AI race but China might’ve found a shortcut
For years, many researchers and experts believed that China simply couldn’t keep up with the U.S. in the race through the maze of artificial intelligence. China just didn’t have enough high-end chips, top-tier talent, or raw computational firepower that U.S. labs were pouring billions of dollars into.
The idea was that more raw compute power would lead to better AI models. For a while, the idea was correct, that was until a Chinese lab that almost nobody in the West had heard of dropped the equivalent of the Trinity Test in January 2025, when it released DeepSeek R1.
The AI chatbot matched and in some cases surpassed the best American models. But the kicker was that the company that created it did so in two months, with less than $6 million, using chips it wasn’t even supposed to have.
DeepSeek’s release was the first major crack in the West’s AI dominance, and data shows that dominance may soon fade. In 2023, China’s best models were failing about a third of the tasks American models could handle. Now, if you put both countries’ best models in front of a real user and asked them to pick the better answer, they’d be nearly indistinguishable — and China spent 23 times less money to get there.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
