Before the meeting, Mr. Trump said that talks with China were “going very well” and that the two countries were headed toward an agreement that might be “the biggest deal ever made.” But there was no announcement, as had been hinted, of a meeting with President Xi Jinping.

U.S. backdrop: President Trump has been trying to push forward on his agenda items, asserting that the special counsel’s report fully exonerated him. But our reporters have found that some of Robert Mueller’s investigators see their report as more damaging for Mr. Trump than Attorney General William Barr indicated.

Ethiopian officials say pilots followed procedures

The crew of the Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 that crashed last month repeatedly followed the emergency procedures recommended by Boeing, the plane’s manufacturer, Ethiopia’s transportation minister said. He was explaining investigators’ initial findings about the accident.

The minister, Dagmawit Moges, said the plane had experienced “repetitive, uncommanded aircraft nose-down conditions,” similar to those involving another Max 8 in a crash in Indonesia last year.