NPR News: 05-16-2026 4AM EDT

Dale Willman· Host0:01

Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. President Trump headed home to the US Friday after three days of meetings with China's president in Beijing. The two leaders discussed trade and the war with Iran. Speaking on Fox News Friday night, Trump talked about the most significant thing he got from the trip.

Donald Trump· Soundbite0:17

I think the most important thing is, uh, relationship. It's all about relationship. I have a very good relationship with President Xi and with China, and, uh, it sounds like something that doesn't mean anything, but it's everything in deal-making and problems we've solved. The two of us have solved a lot of problems between Ch- that somebody else would've maybe done very badly with.

Dale Willman· Host0:39

The US relationship with China dominated, uh, with Taiwan rather, dominated some of the discussions. On his way home, Trump suggested to reporters he may now rethink a planned major arms deal with Taiwan that he approved in December. Workers for the nation's largest commuter railroad are on strike. As Steven Nessen of member station WNYC reports, this is the first such strike at New York's Long Island Railroad in more than 30 years.

Steven Nessen1:02

Five unions representing more than half the Long Island Railroad workers walked off the job at 12:01 AM. They've been locked in a bitter dispute with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority over their last contract. The unions want a 5% raise in the final year. The MTA says it's too much money, and if it does agree to that, they want major changes to work rules to pay for it. As a result, nearly 300,000 daily commuters will have to find a different way to get into Manhattan.