Crypto News: Expectations on Xi

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After peace talks between the US and Iran floundered last weekend, leaders from all corners of the globe rushed to speak to one man: Xi Jinping.

China’s president had his busiest week in nearly two years, excluding major summits, as he welcomed at least five high-profile officials.

Xi Jinping meets with Pedro Sanchez in Beijing on April 14. Photographer: Haruna Furuhashi/Pool/Getty Images — Xi Jinping meets with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in Beijing on April 14.

In some of his first public comments on the war, Xi lamented the “crumbling” world order in a meeting with Spain’s prime minister, proposed a four-point peace plan for the Middle East with Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, and vowed to deepen ties with Moscow in a meeting with Russia’s foreign minister.

The rush of diplomatic traffic to Beijing underscores a quiet but growing expectation among international players that Xi should play a more active role in calming a world edging deeper into conflict.

His potential as a stabilizing force was thrown into sharp relief by President Donald Trump, who spent the week berating one-time allies in the UK and Italy, not to mention the American pope.

But Xi’s diplomatic efforts have so far fallen short of the more concrete initiatives pressing ahead elsewhere. France and the UK are convening talks on opening up the Strait of Hormuz to shipping, while Japan is offering a $10 billion financial package to help Southeast Asian nations hit by soaring oil prices.

China’s position is more complex.

Beijing wants to be seen as a credible force for peace — building on past wins like brokering a détente between Saudi Arabia and Iran in 2023 — yet remains reluctant to fully step into volatile conflicts.

Tellingly, state media pushed back against claims that China nudged Tehran to the negotiating table.

As Trump talks up a deal to end the Iran war, the question for China isn’t just whether it can convene power — but whether it’s willing to use it. — Rebecca Choong Wilkins

People visit the Forbidden City in Beijing. Photographer: Jade Gao/AFP/Getty Images — The Forbidden City in Beijing.

Global Must Reads

Trump struck an optimistic tone for prospects that the US and Iran could clinch a permanent ceasefire as the two sides discuss an extended truce ahead of its expiration next week and as a halt in fighting in Lebanon started. As Pakistan continued its mediation efforts, some Gulf Arab and European leaders believe a peace deal will take about six months to be agreed, and that the sides should accept a truce to cover that timeframe, sources say.

Trump says Israel and Lebanon agreed to a 10-day ceasefire.

Watch now — Trump says Israel and Lebanon agreed to a 10-day ceasefire.

The US wants Venezuela’s political transition to end in a vote overseen by a new electoral board, echoing demands from the country’s main opposition coalition. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has consolidated power since the capture of Nicolás Maduro by US forces in early January, but the country remains in legal limbo around its leadership. The Trump administration hasn’t set a date for new elections.

New details about UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US are rekindling doubts about his grip on power. Starmer was forced to acknowledge yesterday that the Foreign Office granted Jeffrey Epstein-linked Mandelson security clearance last year over the objections of vetting officials, prompting calls for him to resign.

Left-wing lawmaker Roberto Sánchez is clinging to a razor-thin advantage over former Lima Mayor Rafael López Aliaga in the race to take on Keiko Fujimori in Peru’s presidential runoff, although hundreds of thousands of contested ballots are likely to put off a final result for weeks. The outcome could determine whether the copper-exporting country can finally break a years-long cycle of political instability.

Roberto Sanchez, presidential candidate for the Together for Peru party, center, during a news conference at the party's headquarters in Lima, Peru, on Sunday, April 12, 2026. The lack of a clear opponent against the Popular Force party's Keiko Fujimori means it’s still uncertain whether Peru’s runoff will feature two candidates from the right or become a more ideological battle with a leftist rival. Photographer: Marco Garro/Bloomberg — Sánchez in Lima on Sunday.

Péter Magyar has already done what many considered unthinkable by ousting Viktor Orban from power in Hungary after 16 years, and now faces the even bigger challenge of tearing down his illiberal system that’s a model for Trump and nationalists around Europe. Armed with a supermajority after the landslide election victory for his upstart Tisza party, Magyar has a chance to erase Orbanism itself.

Presidential candidate Paloma Valencia said Colombia should put oil and gas back at the center of its energy policy, and called for hydraulic fracturing to address a widening natural-gas deficit.

Trump assailed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, warning that his push to ramp up taxes on the wealthy would be destructive to the nation’s largest city.

Former Myanmar President Win Myint, detained since the 2021 military coup in the Southeast Asian nation, was pardoned and freed on Friday as part of a mass amnesty to mark the traditional new year.

A cut in production at one of Australia’s two refineries has dealt a fresh blow to government efforts to contain a fuel crisis triggered by the Iranian war, just as previous measures were beginning to ease shortages and bring down gasoline prices.

Smoke rises at Viva Energy’s Geelong refinery in southeastern Australia. Source: Benny Young — Smoke rises at Viva Energy’s Geelong refinery in southeastern Australia.

Don’t miss from Bloomberg Weekend: Mishal Husain speaks to actor Riz Ahmed about his latest projects, Greg Stohr reviews a new biography of US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, and we look at how millions of low-income Mumbai residents contend with redevelopment deals that will determine whether they can stay amid pressure on housing. Subscribe to the newsletter here.

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Israel’s compensation fund, a tax-agency department providing financial relief to civilians and businesses for property damage inflicted during wars, has deployed dozens of teams across the nation to assess damage at sites impacted by missiles and rockets fired from Iran and by Hezbollah, its Lebanon-based proxy. Since the Hamas attacks in October 2023, the fund says it has handled about 1 million claims and made roughly 30 billion shekels ($10 billion) in payments — equal to about 1.5% of Israel’s GDP.

And Finally

Tankers and cargo ships are facing 3 1/2-day waits to enter the Panama Canal as the Iran war sparks a surge in traffic, prompting one vessel to plunk down an extra $4 million to jump to the front of the line. The queue at the 50-mile (80-kilometer) waterway — the longest since a historic 2023-2024 drought that slashed vessel passages — has grown as the near-shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz strangled oil, natural gas, fertilizer and chemical shipments from Persian Gulf nations.

An aerial view of the Bridge of the Americas at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, located next to the port of Balboa in Panama City, on Jan. 30, 2026. Photographer: Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images — The Bridge of the Americas at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal in January.

Pop Quiz (no cheating!). The head of which church challenged the Trump administration’s argument that God is on the US’ side in the war on Iran? Send your answers to balancepower@bloomberg.net