Axios

At an informal EU summit in Salzburg, Austria, British Prime Minister Theresa May said her Chequers plan for Brexit is "the only serious and credible proposal" that has been brought to the table, while European Council President Donald Tusk said the plan "will not work," reports BBC News.

The big picture: Negotiators for the U.K. and the EU cannot get past the question of what to do about the Irish border. Tusk has said that, if needed, there will be a special EU summit on Nov. 17 and 18. But May's persistence that Chequers is the only possible way forward — despite today's forceful rejection by EU leaders — offers little reason to be optimistic that a compromise will be reached.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in told reporters Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would like a second summit with President Trump "at the earliest convenience in order to speed up the denuclearization process," reports the Washington Post.

The big picture: Moon just returned from a three-day summit with Kim in North Korea, during which they announced several agreements, including a pledge by Kim to allow international verifiers into the country and dismantle a key nuclear site if the U.S. takes "corresponding steps." Kim also requested that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visit North Korea and called for an official end to the Korean War by the end of the year.

Even as the U.S.–China trade war escalates, the two powers are fighting a greater battle at the frontiers of technology. With its “Made in China 2025” strategy — targeting sectors like aviation, high-speed rail, electric vehicles and agricultural machinery — China aspires to build firms that will not only replace foreign technology and products domestically but supplant them internationally.

Why it matters: In 2018 U.S.–China relations have entered a period of profound strategic drift, a pivotal moment in the transition from cooperation to competition. It’s an open question whether this split will spawn a cold war or even a military confrontation — prospects some policymakers are now considering for the first time — but there’s no doubt that a wider economic war is now upon us, to be waged over ownership of the technological innovations that will drive the 21st century.

Following the announcement that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to "permanently dismantle" his main nuclear complex, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. "is prepared to engage immediately in negotiations to transform U.S.-DPRK relations," and has invited North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho to meet him in New York City next week.

Why it matters: This comes after President Trump had directed Pompeo to cancel his August trip to North Korea, saying the country was not "making sufficient progress with respect to denuclearization." But yesterday, Kim promised South Korean President Moon Jae-in that he would close his country's main nuclear site, adding that he'd only do so if the U.S. takes "corresponding measures." Pompeo's response shows that the Trump administration is willing to resume working with North Korea toward denuclearization.

Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma says his company no longer plans to help the US economy add one million jobs, which is something he had promised President Trump during a meeting in early 2017.

• Ma never claimed Alibaba would hire a million Americans. Instead, he wanted to help increase trade with Asia, thus enabling US small businesses to hire more people.

The bottom line: Ma tells Xinhua News Agency that the Chinese Internet giant's commitment was based on friendly U.S.-Chinese relations, but that subsequent trade tensions "destroyed the original premise."

South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s long-anticipated visit to Pyongyang on Monday bolstered hopes that the deadlock in U.S.–North Korea denuclearization talks could be broken. The two Koreas agreed to resume cooperation on the economic and cultural fronts, to launch a new age of inter-Korean relations and, most importantly, to begin an era of peace. Kim also promised to visit Seoul in the near future, probably by the end of this year, which would be a first for any North Korean leader.

The big picture: The Pyongyang summit was a hopeful development in the recent flurry of diplomacy with North Korea, but was not in itself a game changer. It laid more groundwork for peace on the peninsula, but ended with minimal progress on the nuclear front. The U.S. has yet to be convinced that the Kim regime is willing and ready to make concrete steps towards denuclearization.

Following a meeting with the North Korean leader, South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced Kim Jong-un has agreed to "permanently dismantle his main nuclear complex at Nyongbyon if the United States takes corresponding measures," the AP reports.

“We have agreed to make the Korean Peninsula a land of peace that is free from nuclear weapons and nuclear threat.”

The details: President Moon declared at a joint news conference with Kim that "the era of no war has started," per CNN, "[t]oday the North and South decided to remove all threats from the entire Korean Peninsula." North Korea reportedly agreed to permanently close the Dongchang-ri engine testing and missile launching site, and destroy the Yongbyon nuclear site. The two countries also said they would seek to file a bid to jointly host the 2032 Summer Olympics.