Egyik 19

.

Trump-Orbán csúcstalálkozó előtt.

Interjú Washingtonban, Szijjártó, magyar külgazdasági és külügyminiszterrel

- video -

(Forrás: Youtube - Egyesült Államok / Mandiner - Magyarország)

30 332 megtekintés

Trump, amerikai elnökkel folytatott megbeszélést követően

Orbán Viktor miniszterelnök és Szijjártó, külgazdasági és külügyminiszter közös sajtótájékoztatója Washingtonban

- video -

(Forrás: Youtube - Egyesült Államok / Mandiner - Magyarország)

49 038 megtekintés

Kulcsszavak:

Adria kőolajvezeték    Atlanti-óceán    Ausztrália    Barátság kőolajvezeték    Egyesült Államok    Európa    Európai Unió    Franciaország    Horvátország    Lengyelország    Lukoil    Magyarország    Magyar Villamosművek Zrt    Németország    Oroszország    Parlament    Shell    Szerbia    Szlovákia    Török Áramlat    Ukrajna    űr    video

.

.

Europe

Hungary
07.11.2025  Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said today Hungary and the US are entering what he called a “golden age” of bilateral relations under President Trump. Addressing Trump directly, he said: "You restored the old level of the relationship. You improved the bilateral relations. You repaired what was done badly by the previous administration. So now, we are in quite a good position to open up a new chapter, let's say a golden age, between United States and Hungary." Orbán said he would discuss with Trump "how we can contribute to help you in your peace effort" to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Orbán said the US and Hungary had a different approach to the war than other European nations and the EU. "The only pro-peace governments are the United States government and small Hungary in Europe. Anyway, all the other governments prefer to continue the war, because many of them think that Ukraine can win on the front line, which is a misunderstanding of the situation," Orbán said. Trump asked Orbán: "So, you would say that Ukraine cannot win that war?" "You know, miracle can happen," Orbán replied. Trump continued, ’grinning’: "Yeah, that's right." Orbán said another focus of negotiations would relate to the "consequences for the Hungarian people and for the Hungarian economy not to get oil and gas from Russia.’ "We are supplied by pipelines. Pipelines are not an ideological political issue. It's a physical reality, because we don't have ports, exactly as the president explained to you. So we will negotiate on that point. It's vital for us," Orbán said. The prime minister said 90% of Hungarian households use gas-based heating. "We have only one pipeline delivering gas to Hungary, which is the main pipeline, the Turkish one," he added. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

07/11/2025 - 17:58  How are the US sanctions impacting Hungary? Hungary is hoping to seek a waiver on US sanctions on Russian oil as its Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is meeting US President Trump. „Being his only supporter in Europe", Orbán is hoping he will be able to appeal to Trump. (Source: France 24)

Greece
06.11.2025  Greece starts offshore drilling in Ionian Sea with participation of ExxonMobil, which will own 60% of the consortium, followed by London-based Greek-owned energy company Energean at 30% and Greece’s HelleniQ Energy at 10%. The consortium will focus on the Block 2 offshore area in the Ionian Sea west of Corfu, which has been managed by Energean and HelleniQ Energy since 2020. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Romania
November 7, 2025  Today Romania has urged the United States to reconsider its plan to withdraw hundreds of troops stationed in the country, warning that such a move could undermine NATO’s unity and play into Russia’s hands. The Pentagon last week confirmed it would redeploy an infantry brigade of around 800 U.S. soldiers from Romania back to the United States. Deputy Defense Minister Moldovan told that the decision announced by the Pentagon risks sending the wrong signal. The move is part of Washington’s broader effort to shift military focus toward domestic priorities, including border security and the Indo-Pacific region. Moldovan expressed concern that this repositioning could damage the strong bilateral relationship between Bucharest and Washington, calling for deeper consultations with the U.S. to ensure that the regional security situation 'is fully understood'. Publicly, both European and NATO officials have sought to minimize the significance of the U.S. move. „Operationally, nothing has changed, but politically, this decision sends a strange message', Moldovan said. As Washington focuses more on Asia, the Romanian official also argued that Russia’s war in Ukraine is increasingly supported by other U.S. adversaries. North Korea has sent soldiers to Ukraine. Iran provides assistance with its capabilities. We must see the full picture, Moldovan stated. Our security is built on trust in our allies, and we rely heavily on U.S. support on the eastern flank, NATO is only strong when all allies stand together, Moldovan said. On November 5, NATO Secretary General Rutte and Romanian President (’Iohannis’) emphasized that the withdrawal would not create any security gaps in Romania’s defense. Britain and Norway also voiced confidence in the Alliance’s readiness, rejecting claims that the U.S. was retreating from its NATO obligations. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)

European Commission
Nov 7, 2025 9:39 pm KST  The European Union has announced stricter visa rules for Russian citizens starting today. It would deny Russians multi-entry visas. ’Under the newly adopted provisions, all visa applications submitted by nationals of the Russian Federation will be subject to enhanced verification procedures and elevated levels of scrutiny,’ EU internal affairs commissioner Brunner said. The EU in 2022 suspended its visa facilitation agreement with Russia and has told member states to ’deprioritize’ visas for Russians. Tourist hotspots France, Spain and Italy are among the countries that issue the most visas. ’Brussels says the number of visas issued to Russians fell from more than four million before the war to some 500,000 in 2023’. The Kremlin's opponent Navalnaya have urged the bloc in September not to cut them off from Europe. "For the purpose of achieving peace in Europe it is counterproductive to assist Russian authorities in isolating Russian society," Navalnaya wrote in a letter to EU foreign policy chief Kallas, 4. The bloc already tightened controls on travel by Russian diplomats stationed in the EU's 27 countries last month. Hawkish EU countries have long pushed for tougher visa limits on ordinary Russians, arguing they should not be able to travel freely for tourism while the war rages in Ukraine. Proponents of tougher measures insist ordinary Russians should feel more impact from the war. Starting a war and expecting to move freely in Europe is hard to justify, Kallas wrote on X. (Source: Korea Times - South Korea / AFP - France)

Russia
Friday 07 November 2025 16:39 GMT  Lavrov spoke by phone to US Secretary of State Rubio on 20 October to discuss the possible summit, days after it was announced by Trump following a phone call with Putin. The Financial Times cited a source as suggesting that Lavrov's conversation with Rubio had put Washington off. Lavrov subsequently repeated about the need to address the root causes of the conflict, before Trump sanctioned Russia’s two largest oil companies. The Kremlin today dismissed speculation that Lavrov had fallen out of favour with Putin after the efforts to organise the summit were put on ice. Kremlin spokesman Peskov dismissed the idea. „There is nothing true in these reports,' Peskov told reporters. "Lavrov is working as foreign minister, of course," Peskov added. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova suggested today that the FT article had been published to stoke speculation that was unhelpful to Moscow and part of what she called a hybrid war against Russia. Putin has made it clear that, aside from the Ukraine issue, he believes that a rapprochement between Moscow and Washington is in Russia's national interest and important for global security, as the two countries possess vast nuclear arsenals. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

12:26, 07/11/2025, Friday  Major powers navigate relationships with African nations and former Soviet states. Russia has called on the United States to comply with international legal standards amid reports of potential American military intervention in Nigeria. The US expands both military planning in Africa and diplomatic initiatives in Central Asia through the Abraham Accords framework. When questioned about Kazakhstan's intention to become the first Central Asian nation to join the Abraham Accords, Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman maintained a position of diplomatic reserve which indicates Moscow's cautious approach to the expanding normalization agreements between Arab states and Israel, particularly when involving countries within Russia's traditional sphere of influence. (Source: TRT World - Turkey)

November 6, 2025  Russian deputy foreign minister Grushko accused NATO of preparing to blockade Russia through the Baltic Sea. 'During the alliance’s exercises, scenarios such as blocking the Kaliningrad region are being practiced. The [Baltic] region is undergoing active militarization, with an influx of coalition forces and resources,’ the senior Russian official stated. The Kaliningrad enclave offers Moscow a second gate to the Baltic Sea. The other point of access is to the north at St. Petersburg. Naryshkin, the head of SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service, also accused NATO of preparing for military operations against Russia. He said that NATO is rapidly mobilizing military resources and shaping public opinion to justify conflict, NATO and the European Union have embarked on a multiple-fold increase in the production of military equipment, and are also conducting active mobilization training. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)

Africa

Mali
November 6, 2025  Suspected jihadists have killed 14 civilians in Lere, central Mali, in recent days. The Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has blockaded Lere and other towns for the past two weeks and, since September, has stopped fuel tankers entering Mali from neighbouring countries, in a bid to put pressure on the ruling military junta by stifling the economy. (Source: Channels TV - Nigeria)

North America

United States
November 7, 2025 2:02pm EST  President Trump said today that European leaders should respect Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán "very strongly because he's been right on immigration." "Look what's happened to Europe with the immigration. They have people flooding Europe all over the place. And it's hurting it. Crime rates are way up. A lot of bad things are happening. His crime rates are very low. They're the same as they always were, which is very little crime. Because he's kept it the way it should be," Trump said as he hosted Orbán at the White House. "He was right on immigration. They were wrong. They are flooding Europe with people from all over the world. And Europe is becoming a different place. And I tell the leaders all the time „you better stop or you're not going to have Europe anymore.’’ It's a very dangerous thing they're doing,’ Trump added. "So on migration issue, just for clarification, in Hungary, the number of illegal migration is like that - zero, zero because we have a crystal-clear system. If somebody would like to come to Hungary first, he should ask for that," Orbán said. "If he gives the permission, they can step in. Nobody can step on the territory of Hungary without having permission from the Hungarian authorities. This is the regulation. Simple, while working." "What is the consequence of that? If we are under sanctions, financial sanctions of European Union, because we don't let the illegal migration to come to Hungary and to the European Union as well. So we have to pay just to inform you, we have to pay every day €1 million as a punishment... this is the absurd world we are living now in Europe,’ Orbán added. In June 2024, the European Union’s top court ordered Hungary to pay a $223 million fine for depriving migrants of their right to apply for asylum and an additional fine of 1 million euros per day for failing to comply."Viktor's had a very hard stance on more than anything else, immigration or even illegal immigration. He literally has accepted no one over the years. Think of how much greater these countries would be if they didn't have the tremendous crime that has come in with the immigration, people just flowing into Europe. They've got to stop it and not only stop it, they have to reverse it. They have to get them out," Trump continued. "We've done that here. We have zero people coming in now. The borders are closed. We take people, but we take them legally. But we've done it very strongly and we're moving, hundreds of thousands, millions of people out," Trump also said. (Source: Fox News - U.S.)

.5 11 7 11:50

.

Asia

China
Friday, November 7, 2025  Wednesday China has commissioned at a naval base on southern China’s Hainan island the Fujian, its latest aircraft carrier after extensive sea trials. The ceremony was attended by top leader Xi. It is China’s third carrier and the first that it both designed and built itself. China’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was Soviet made and its second, the Shandong, was built in China but based on the Soviet model. Both use older-style ski-jump type systems to help planes take flight. The Fujian skips past the steam catapult technology used on most American carriers to employ an electromagnetic launch system found only on the latest U.S. Navy Ford-class carriers. It gives China the ability to launch heavier aircraft, with full fuel loads, like the KJ-600 early warning and control plane, which it successfully tested during its sea trials. Its latest J-35 stealth fighter and J-15T heavy fighter were also launched from the Fujian. For China’s navy, one goal is to dominate the near waters of the South China Sea, East China Sea and Yellow Sea around the so-called First Island Chain, which runs south through Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. Deeper into the Pacific, it also wants to be able to contest control of the Second Island Chain, where the U.S. has important military facilities on Guam and elsewhere, Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said. A carrier is key to that contest, if you want one, with the Americans in the wider Indo-Pacific, Poling said. If China had the ability to position an aircraft carrier group or groups around the Second Island Chain - between Taiwan and the U.S. Pacific Fleet headquarters in Hawaii - that could delay possible American military assistance in the event of a Chinese attack. The Pentagon in its latest report to Congress continued to call China the only competitor to the United States with the intent and, increasingly, the capacity to reshape the international order. At the same time, it is Beijing’s right to transform its navy into a blue-water strategic navy commensurate with China’s national strength, said Song a Hong Kong-based military affairs expert. China is a great power and our overseas interests span the globe; we need to be globally present, Song said. We believe that China’s military intends to advance its operational capability at distant sea and air by strengthening sea power, Minoru, a former defense minister and now chief cabinet secretary in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s new government told, emphasizing that Japan was watching China’s military activity and would calmly but decisively respond if necessary. One of the important things that an aircraft carrier can do is extend the range of China’s domain awareness to keep an eye on activities in the air, on the sea, and below the sea, said Hart, deputy director of CSIS’s China Power Project. Numerically China only has three carriers compared to the U.S. Navy’s 11, and while China’s carriers are all conventionally powered, the U.S.’s are all nuclear powered which means they can operate almost indefinitely without being refueled - dramatically increasing their range. China also lags behind the U.S. in guided missile cruisers and destroyers, which are critical in providing air and submarine defense and support for larger naval groups, as well as nuclear-powered submarines, Hart said. Beyond just equipment, China lacks the network of overseas bases that the U.S. has, which are critical for resupplying carriers and also providing alternative runways should aircraft not be able to return safely to the carrier. They’re fielding and building more aircraft carriers, they’re fielding more nuclear-powered subs, they are fielding more, larger destroyers and other vessels that carry a larger number of missiles. So they’re really catching up, Hart said. China hasn’t fought a war since 1979. It is possible that China’s capabilities are overstated, as real-world operational readiness lags behind its showcased arsenal, Singapore-based analyst Tang told. A World War II Victory Day parade at the start of September signaled China’s broader strategic intent, which is to deter major powers, pressure regional actors, expand its global influence, and reinforce its domestic legitimacy, he said. (Source: The Washington Times / Associated Press = U.S.)

Iran
November 7, 2025 7:28 AM  President Trump has said Iran has asked whether U.S. sanctions could be lifted, calling the current measures very heavy. Speaking at the White House late yesterday, Mr. Trump offered no timeline or conditions for engagement but signalled a potential opening for dialogue: "I’m open to hearing that, and we’ll see what happens, but I would be open to it," he noted. Any easing of U.S. sanctions would mark a significant shift in American foreign policy toward Tehran. Any change in policy could influence the balance of power in the Middle East, affect global oil markets, and reshape relations with U.S. allies in the region. The maximum pressure strategy, reinstated early in Trump’s second term, was designed to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions and limit its regional influence. Trump also addressed the recent conflict between Israel and Iran, providing new details on U.S. involvement. "Israel attacked first. That attack was very, very powerful. I was very much in charge of that," he said. "When Israel attacked Iran first, that was a great day for Israel because that attack did more damage than the rest of them put together." Iran responded with hundreds of missile strikes against Israel, after which the U.S. joined the conflict by bombing Iran's three major nuclear facilities. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei speaking in Tehran on Monday ruled out cooperation with Washington as long as the U.S. maintains military forces in the region and supports Israel. ’Only if the United States completely cuts its backing for the Zionist regime, removes its military bases from the region, and ceases interfering in its affairs, their request for cooperation with Iran, not in the near future but much later, could be examined’, he said. Iran has also resisted international demands to limit uranium enrichment, a key sticking point that has derailed past nuclear negotiations. Any movement toward easing sanctions would likely require verifiable guarantees from Tehran-a condition it has so far refused to meet. While Trump's remarks open the door for dialogue, progress will depend on Tehran providing concrete assurances about its nuclear program. (Source: Miami Herald / Newsweek = U.S.)

Saudi Arabia
Nov. 7, 2025  Facing an influx of amphetamines, executions near a record high, the kingdom has put hundreds of people to death, many of them foreigners from countries including Egypt, Ethiopia and Somalia, convicted of low-level smuggling, who ferry hashish and amphetamine pills into the kingdom. The Saudi government has disclosed at least 320 executions so far this year - more than 90 executions have been for charges solely related to hashish. Saudi officials have argued that drug smugglers deserve harsh punishment because the crime is akin to a violent attack on their conservative Islamic society. Some drug crimes are “on a par with murder,' the Saudi government wrote in January, responding to a letter from United Nations special rapporteurs about the planned executions of 29 foreign citizens. Saudi Arabia has no written penal code, lending considerable opacity to criminal proceedings. The death penalty is typically applied for crimes including murder, terrorism and treason. But the kingdom’s narcotics law also calls for a death sentence to be applied at a judge’s discretion for any defendant convicted of drug smuggling, receiving drugs from a smuggler or manufacturing drugs. Among the most commonly used substances is captagon, an illegal amphetamine that was Syria’s biggest export during its nearly 14-year civil war. Executions no longer occur in public. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)

United Arab Emirates
November 7, 2025  Rivalries may be deepening between the world's biggest economic powers. Fast-growing Middle Eastern financial center, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, aims to seal its place as a hub for them and the rest of the world. Abu Dhabi now aims to be one of the top five global financial centers in the next 10 years-alongside such places as New York, London, Singapore and Hong Kong. It got a later start on becoming a financial hub than the country's biggest city, Dubai. "We are starting to see the world is more multipolar. People are looking for new hubs. We believe Abu Dhabi is that," Ramamurthy, Abu Dhabi Global Market's (ADGM) international financial center and its free economic zone chief market development officer, told in Abu Dhabi. „Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been to China three times. I’ve been to India twice, but actually going to India again. I was in New York two weeks ago. I was in London a week ago…. I’ve been in Japan…. We cover all these markets, and we see the UAE and Abu Dhabi and ADGM being that gateway for those capital flows.’ Since starting as a financial hub in 2015, Abu Dhabi now has more than 300 financial firms, which manage a combined $28.6 trillion in assets - not far short of the value of America's entire annual gross domestic product. From 2015 through the end of 2024, it said it had an average annual growth in assets under management of 123 percent. Abu Dhabi's push to become a major financial hub is driven in part by a need to diversify away from the oil revenues that have been the bedrock of its wealth. Now, it is also becoming a leading player in artificial intelligence. Abu Dhabi has been ranked the world's safest city for nine years in a row. It is home to three of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds. Ramamurthy also said that where GMT had been the world's central time zone when the United Kingdom was key to the global economy, ’that was now shifting in the direction of Abu Dhabi’. ’The zero of the future,’ Ramamurthy said. The closeness of the UAE to President Trump has underscored its pivotal position in the Middle East and beyond. The U.S. administration seeks to reshape the region with agreements between Arab countries and Israel. The UAE was in the vanguard of the Abraham Accords with Israel in the first Trump presidency. "The UAE is a critical strategic partner in advancing America's economic security and technology leadership," Under Secretary of State Helberg wrote on social media this month during a visit. (Source: Miami Herald / Newsweek = U.S.)

Globalization

(7.11.2025)  Dozens of ministers and several heads of state and government, including those of Spain, Germany, and Namibia, are meeting in Belem, Brazil for a second day of meetings today, before COP30, the United Nations' annual two-week conference starts on Monday. UN chief Guterres and a series of national leaders said yesterday that the world will fail to keep global warming below 1.5C, the Paris Agreement's primary target set a decade ago, but said they have not yet given up on its fallback goal of 2C. World's biggest polluters are absent at Brazil climate summit. (Source: TRT World - Turkey)

.5 11 7 19:30

.

Europe

European Commission
7 November 2025  Belgium, home to Euroclear - an international central securities depository that holds most of the frozen Russian assets - is demanding firm guarantees before allowing that money to be used to fund a loan for Ukraine. The European Commission has sent experts to Brussels to help resolve the stand-off and reassure the Belgian Government. The European Central Bank (ECB) shares concerns, warning that any misstep could weaken confidence in the euro’s reliability as a reserve currency and drive investors away. With Germany, France and others backing the plan, pressure is mounting on Brussels to approve it at the December summit. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

Norway
07/11/2025  Norway has grown vastly richer after overtaking Russia as Europe's main gas supplier following the invasion of Ukraine. Will 'war profiteer' Norway come to Ukraine's financial rescue? Norway made an extra 109 billion euros from soaring gas prices after Russia's invasion, thanks to its AAA credit rating and its sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest, valued at around $2.1 trillion. At a time when many EU member states have strained public finances, the European Commission plans to use part of the frozen Russian assets to give Ukraine a 140-billion-euro loan, interest free, to finance its budgetary and military support over the next two years. Belgium, home to the international deposit organisation Euroclear, which holds the bulk of the frozen assets, has demanded strict guarantees from other EU countries in order to share the risks. 'Some heavily indebted countries, such as France, would have a hard time agreeing to such a demand”. ’Norway has the financial means to guarantee a loan that would enable Ukraine to better defend itself against Russia, and I think we should do it,’ the head of Norway's small opposition Liberal Party, Melby, told. The idea resonated with some European political leaders. ’That would be great,’ said Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen during an EU summit in Copenhagen last month. Norway's government has already earmarked civil and military aid of more than 275 billion kroner ($27.4 billion) to Kyiv ’over the 2023-2030 period’. According to AFP's sources, Norway is in talks with Brussels but has no current plans to provide a single-handed safety net to Kyiv. (Source: France 24 / AFP = France)

North America

United States
07/11/2025 - 19:27  US President Trump told Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán today that he would consider exempting this close ally from sanctions on Russian oil purchases. He hosted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the White House, citing his country's reliance on energy from the region. "We are looking at it because it is very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas. As you know they don't have the advantage of having sea," Trump told reporters as he met Orbán. Orbán said that Russian energy was vital for his country and he would explain to Trump what would be the consequences for the Hungarian people and for the Hungarian economy not to get oil and gas from Russia. "Because we are supplied by pipelines. Pipeline is not an ideological or political issue. It's a physical reality because we don't have port(s)," Orbán said. (Source: France 24 ”with AFP” = France)

(6 November 2025)  75% of Tesla shareholders have approved a pay package for boss Musk that could be worth nearly $1tn. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

Global

November 6, 2025  The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) kicked off its two-day leaders’ summit in Brazil today - with one notable absence. For the first time since the summit began 30 years ago, the United States did not send any top government officials to represent Washington’s interests. Such a snub represents the Trump administration’s broader disregard for green technology, clean energy, and the threats from climate change. The United States is the second-largest carbon emitter in the world after China, accounting for more than 10 percent of total global emissions, according to 2023 data. Yet under Trump, the White House has abandoned climate pledges and instead teamed up with other oil-producing nations to oppose key green legislation, such as a global plastics treaty and a worldwide fee on carbon pollution. In his U.N. General Assembly speech in September, Trump called climate change the world’s “greatest con job' and 'trumpeted' the use of fossil fuels. Experts are unsure whether COP30 can run effectively. The European Union, which has one of the world’s most ambitious emissions reduction policies, has tried to portray itself as a leader in climate talks. But recent infighting and the weakening of the bloc’s own reduction target have undermined its influence and put European leaders on shaky ground to start the conference. (Source: Foreign Policy - U.S.)

.5 11 7 10:23

.

China
Nov 4, 2025  China's President Xi met Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing at the Great Hall of the People, a day after Chinese Premier Li Qiang held a meeting with Mishustin in Hangzhou, where Li said China wanted to strengthen co-operation with Russia and defend shared security interests. Safeguarding, consolidating and developing China-Russia relations is a strategic choice for both sides, Xi said. He highlighted industries such as energy, agriculture, aerospace, digital economy and green development where the two countries could advance co-operation and foster new engines of growth. Mishustin said it was important for both sides to continue creating favourable conditions for attracting mutual investment and supporting joint projects. Bilateral commerce has declined in recent months as China faces mounting US pressure over trade and technology. In a joint communique published on the Russian government website today, both countries agreed to strengthen co-operation in all spheres and respond appropriately to external challenges. Russia also reaffirmed its adherence to the one-China principle and opposition to Taiwan independence. (Source: AsiaOne - Singapore)

Nov 03, 2025  "Overall, the Busan summit not only helped stabilize China-U.S. relations at a critical juncture but also marked the beginning of a new phase characterized by cooperation as the leading principle, with managed risks and competitive boundaries. This is not a conventional warming of ties, but rather a demonstration of strategic maturity and restraint between major powers in an era of intensified rivalry". To ensure that the recalibration takes root, China and the United States must deliver tangible outcomes in practical areas of cooperation. Cooperation on artificial intelligence has clearly emerged as a direction of strategic significance for the future. With the rapid development of AI technologies, all countries see major opportunities but face potential risks. "As the world’s two leading economies and technology centers, China and the United States share a responsibility - and have the capacity - to shape the global framework for AI governance, the two sides can begin structured dialogue on issues including risk assessment standards, the security boundaries of military AI, model transparency and data governance. Such discussions will help lay the groundwork for a cooperative framework covering technology, security, ethics and governance'. "At the same time, the two countries should strengthen law enforcement coordination to prevent the misuse of AI in areas such as cybercrime, financial fraud and transnational scams. Such efforts will also help address public concerns in both societies. (Source: ChinaUS Focus - based in Hong Kong)
by Sun, Fellow, Center for International Security and Strategy of Tsinghua University; Munich Young Leader 2025; Wu, Research Assistant, China University of Political Science and Law

Oct 31, 2025  Air Force One took off from South Korea’s Busan airport after US-China talks on Oct 30. Chinese leader Xi Hongqi N701 limousine whisked him off to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit some 80km away. US President Trump heads home after a 24-hour visit. China’s leader settles in for a festival of multilateral diplomacy that America now sees as an afterthought. This encapsulates a change in the contest for influence across the Asia-Pacific. Washington embraces barriers and bilateral deal-making. Beijing positions itself as the predictable champion of free and open trade, a role the US has dominated for decades. US Treasury Secretary Bessent stood in for Mr Trump. “We must practise true multilateralism, and enhance the authority and effectiveness of the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core,” Mr Xi told the leaders gathered for the opening of Apec. However, many Asian nations are wary of China’s stated support, given its muscular defence posture in the region, dominance in manufacturing, and its own willingness to use export controls and other tools in trade disputes. Mr Xi called on the gathering of leaders to “update international economic and trade rules to reflect the changing times, so as to better protect the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries”. Hours after returning to Washington from his Asia tour, Mr Trump hosted the White House’s annual Halloween party, along with first lady Melania. Mr Trump’s decision to skip the Apec summit marks a dramatic reversal in Washington's engagement with an institution the US helped create with Australia in 1989 as part of America's post-Cold War vision of binding the region's economies through trade. China has sought to exploit the uncertainity brought by Trump policies through diplomacy and by making inroads into markets at a time of Western accusations that it has fuelled global overcapacity through cheap exports. During a trip to Malaysia, Mr Trump’s six-hour blitz of meetings at the Asean forum achieved four trade deals – but none of them reduced US trade barriers and some included further threats. They stipulated that if a country deepens relations with another that ’jeopardises essential US interests’ it would face more levies, in what experts say is a reference to China. Last week, Chinese Premier Li attended the Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur and signed an upgraded China-Asean free trade deal, which only reinforces China’s dominant posture in terms of regional economic engagement. The contrast with the US was palpable. Mr Xi’s presence at Apec summit, along with Mr Li's at Asean, sends a powerful message about China investing in relationship-building with regional countries, say analysts. But countries in the region are also wary of China's economic dominance, its own willingness to use trade barriers as a weapon, and its export-led model flooding other countries with cheap goods that creates fears of deindustrialisation. China in October said it would dramatically ratchet up its restrictions on rare earths exports, including outside of China's borders, sending shockwaves through already brittle global supply chains. „They try to utilise their own resources in order to impose their positions on politics to others. So we don't think that they are champions of the free trade system,’ said Japanese foreign ministry spokesperson Toshihiro on the sidelines of the Asean meeting. Mr Xi will hold meetings with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi today and both meetings are likely to be difficult, given Ms Takaichi’s hardline conservative bent and China's ongoing trade dispute with Canada. China's strategy was “through expanded trade, infrastructure development, and supply chain logistics to bind this region to the Chinese economy to the point where it eventually becomes totally unfeasible for countries to extricate themselves from their reliance on Chinese economic engagement”, Mr Olander of the China Global South Project added. Compared to China’s consistent presence, US appears selective and conditional. (Source: The Staraits Times - Singapore / Reuters - United Kingdom)

31.10.2025  Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the South Korean coastal city of Gyeongju today, Chinese President Xi called on APEC member economies for collective efforts to safeguard the multilateral trading system and promote inclusive globalization. He added that China has attracted more than US$700 billion in foreign investment in total, and its outbound investment has been increasing by over five percent on an annual average. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Gaza
31 October 2025 12:28pm GMT  Only Muslim soldiers will serve as peacekeepers in Gaza. Indonesian, Emirati and Egyptian troops are expected to be deployed under ‘international stabilisation force’. (Source: The Guardian - United Kingdom)

India
November 3, 2025  The government in the northeastern state of Assam in India has announced plans to enact legislation dubbed an anti-love jihad measure. The proposed law promises life imprisonment for coerced religious conversions through marriage and allows for the arrest of the accused man’s parents. The announcement, made on October 22, bundles the “love jihad' bill with others, targeting polygamy and land rights for tea tribes. Analysts say the legislation is designed to vilify Muslim men as predators and fracture the fragile communal harmony in a state already scarred by ethnic strife. Women are co-opted as active agents in propagating the feeling of nationalism, where the divine feminine should be protected by male members of society from being threatened by the “others'. (Source: TRT World - Turkey)

Nov 3, 2025  US President Trump has said that Pakistan and China, apart from Russia and North Korea, are testing nuclear weapons. Trump made the revelation justifying his order to US forces to test nuclear weapons. This is of concern for India as it faces two nuclear-armed rivals on two fronts. India's nuclear arsenal, estimated at 180 warheads as of 2025, lags behind China's burgeoning stockpile of 600 (projected to hit 1,000 by 2030) and mirrors Pakistan's 170. India hasn’t conducted any nuclear tests since 1998. 'Now, Trump's move of US testing nuclear weapons, and his claims of China and Pakistan also covertly doing so, have seemingly opened a window for India to conduct Pokhran-III, which would validate India's hydrogen bomb efficacy and miniaturising yields for Agni-VI Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), or K-5 submarine-launched missiles'. (Source: India Today)

31.10.2025  US Defense Secretary and Indian Defense Minister signed the 10-year "Framework for the US-India Major Defence Partnership" agreement. Hegseth and Singh are in Malaysia attending the two-day ASEAN Defense Ministers’ meeting. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Kazakhstan
Thursday, November 6, 2025  President Trump said today that Kazakhstan is joining the Abraham Accords, marking the first country during his second term to join his first-term prized foreign policy achievement - an agreement that normalized relations between Israel and other countries in the Gulf region, in 2020. The announcement came as Mr. Treump was hosting a summit at the White House with the leaders of five Central Asian nations, including Kazakhstan. Secretary of State Rubio had a working breakfast with Mr. Tokayev today. The department said in a statement that the two “discussed expanding opportunities for commercial trade and investment as well as increased cooperation with Kazakhstan in energy, technology, and infrastructure.” Kazakhstan is about two-thirds Muslim. The former Soviet republic has had normal diplomatic relations with Israel since 1992. “This is a major step forward in building bridges across the World.” “Today, more Nations are lining up to embrace Peace and Prosperity through my Abraham Accords,” Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post. “We will soon announce a Signing Ceremony to make it official, and there are many more Countries trying to join this club of strength. So much more to come in uniting Countries for Stability and Growth - Real progress, real results. Blessed are the peacemakers!” (Source: The Washington Times - U.S.)

Syria
November 6, 2025 7:18 PM GMT+1  The United States is preparing to establish a military presence at an airbase in the Syrian capital Damascus to help enable a security pact that Washington is brokering between Syria and Israel, to use the base to help monitor the potential Israel-Syria agreement. The U.S. plans would be a sign of Syria's strategic realignment with the U.S. following the fall last year of leader Assad, an ally of Iran. The base sits at the gateway to parts of southern Syria that are expected to make up a demilitarised zone as part of a non-aggression pact between Israel and Syria. That deal is being mediated by U.S. President Trump's administration. After publication, a Syrian foreign ministry source denied the Reuters report, saying it was false, state news agency SANA reported late yesterday. The U.S. has been working for months to reach a security pact between Israel and Syria. It had hoped to announce a deal at the United Nations General Assembly in September but talks hit a last-minute snag. A Syrian source familiar with the talks told that Washington was exerting pressure on Syria to reach a deal before the end of the year, and possibly before Sharaa's trip to Washington. A U.S. administration official said the U.S. was "constantly evaluating our necessary posture in Syria to effectively combat isis” (islamic state). The U.S. already has troops stationed in northeastern Syria, as part of a decade-long effort to help a Kurdish-led force there combat islamic state. In April, the Pentagon said it would halve the number of troops there to 1,000. Syria is set to imminently join „the U.S.-led global anti-isis coalition”, U.S. and Syrian officials say. The new U.S. plans appear to mirror two other new U.S. military presences in the region monitoring cessation of hostilities agreements: one in Lebanon, which closely watches last year's ceasefire between Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and Israel, and one in Israel that monitors the Trump-era truce between Palestinian military group Hamas and Israel. A Western military official said the Pentagon had accelerated its plans over the last two months with several reconnaissance missions to the base. Those missions concluded the base's long runway was ready for immediate use. Two Syrian military sources said the technical talks have been focused on the use of the base for logistics, surveillance, refueling and humanitarian operations, while Syria would retain full sovereignty over the facility. A Syrian defence official said the U.S. had flown to the base in military C-130 transport aircraft to make sure the runway was usable. During a trip by Admiral Cooper, commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) to Damascus on September 12, Cooper and Barrack, U.S. envoy to Syria, had met Sharaa and thanked him for contributing to the fight against islamic state in Syria, which it said could help accomplish Trump's "vision of a prosperous Middle East and a stable Syria at peace with itself and its neighbors." Trump will meet Syrian President Sharaa at the White House on Monday, the first such visit by a Syrian head of state. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

Nov 1, 2025 2:16 pm KST  Wrapping up the two-day APEC Leaders' meeting, 21 member economies have adopted the Gyeongju Declaration, today, reaffirming their commitment to a multilateral and cooperative framework. The final declaration affirms that all 21 members view strong trade and investment ties as essential to the Asia-Pacific’s growth and prosperity, and highlights the need for an inclusive trade and investment environment. (Source: The Korea Times - South Korea)

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Nov 1, 2025 2:16 pm KST  The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) brought together defense leaders of the 11-member association and its eight dialogue partners who gathered to discuss joint efforts to promote peace during an annual forum in Kuala Lumpur, yesterday, amid concerns about China's growing assertiveness in the South China Sea, its military activities around Taiwan, North Korea's military threats and other challenges. Participants included South Korean Defense Minister Ahn, U.S. Defense Secretary Hegseth and Japanese Defense Minister Koizumi. (Source: The Korea Times - South Korea)

North America

United States
November 6, 2025  U.S. President Trump seeks to counter Russia, China in their own backyard. Signing rare-earth deals with Central Asian nations would bolster U.S. influence in the mineral-rich region. Trump prepared to host the leaders of five Central Asian nations - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan - at the White House today as part of Washington’s ongoing bid to bolster its sway in the mineral-rich region. Today’s meeting will address bilateral cooperation across a host of sectors, including energy logistics, infrastructure investments, technology transfers, educational exchanges, and water-resource management. China’s restrictions on rare-earth exports, as well as Beijing’s overwhelming monopoly on processing the vital minerals have driven Washington to seek alternative places to both procure the raw materials and process them. The process can be challenging, in part because of the high-polluting environmental impact of minerals processing. ’If you’re the United States and you want to compete, you need to find other countries without strict environmental regulations that are willing to host,’ former U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan Courtney told RFE/RL. During the first six months of Trump’s second term, the White House signed trade deals with Central Asia worth a collective $12.4 billion. This week, U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick reportedly brokered talks between U.S. company Cove Kaz Capital Group and Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund to develop two massive deposits in the Central Asian nation, which has access to one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of tungsten, which is key to manufacturing weapons and ammunition. This comes on top of a slew of critical minerals deals in recent weeks that the United States signed with Australia, Japan, Malaysia, and Thailand. Competition over Central Asia remains fierce. Even the European Union has tried to get in on the action by inking a strategic partnership during a summit in Uzbekistan in April that included an investment program worth as much as $13.8 billion. (Source: Foreign Policy - U.S.)

Global

11.05.2025  Yet even as world leaders gather each year under the banner of the COP *, the outcomes remain devastatingly unchanged. Indigenous leaders are invited to perform welcome rituals, young activists are photographed for glossy campaigns, and small-island states deliver pleas that vanish once the cameras turn away. After 29 COPs, what has truly shifted? What will be so different in this upcoming COP? Emissions continue to rise, fossil fuel subsidies persist, and the same corporations that profit from the destruction of the planet sponsor the negotiations meant to solve it. The theatre of inclusion masks a structure designed to preserve the status quo. Hurricane Melissa should serve as an alarm for those preparing to gather at COP30. Jamaica now faces the impossible task of rebuilding - its millions without power, homes and livelihoods erased in a single night, and the emotional wreckage of lives upended once again. Yet even as delegates board their flights to negotiate “ambitious” targets, what Melissa exposes is the terrifying 'normality of catastrophe in the Global South'. These storms are no longer rare; they are the predictable outcome of a world still addicted to fossil fuels, overconsumption, and denial. If COP30 means anything, it must begin by reckoning with this reality: that every delay, every watered-down commitment, every empty declaration will translate into more flooded towns, more unlivable coasts, more grieving communities. (Source: Africa is a country - news outlet, from ?)
by Adebisi Odofin, a PhD researcher at the University of Ghent Belgium. She researches extraction politics and Black Ecologies in the Niger Delta.
* COP: United Nations Climate Change Conference

.5 11 3 22:49

.

Europe

Balkans

China
4 November 2025   How to read China’s playbook in the Western Balkans? More than two decades since the EU granted candidate status to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Western Balkan countries are increasingly exploring a wider range of partnerships, most notably with China. It’s influence in the Western Balkans grows. The topic of China remains largely absent from accession talks. The EU lacks a clear China conditionality in its enlargement policy with Western Balkan countries. New member states could act as promoters of Chinese interests and veto actions against Beijing in the EU. Beijing’s footprint in the region is evolving from infrastructure projects and loans to investments and acquisitions. The risks China’s behaviour poses are apparent: debt and opaque deals. But also poses a lack of accountability and transparency, a disregard for data privacy, and an undermining of EU laws. When the EU began its policy of enlargement almost 40 years ago, Europe’s eastern and the south-eastern 'peripheries’ were perceived solely as vectors of Westernisation. Today, ’Europe’s peripheries’ are arenas where multiple global powers compete for influence. This policy brief maps China’s presence in Western Balkan countries and decodes its tactics. It also examines the EU’s evolving China policy, including its related legal instruments, expectations and de facto approach. Finally, it looks at how and to what extent China conditionality is reflected in the accession negotiation process. EU actions in practice lean towards confrontation.    Geopolitical games:   Albania and Kosovo persist in their scepticism and distance from China.   In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dodik, the former leader of Republika Srpska, uses his ties with Russia and China to ensure political survival and deflect international pressure.   Montenegro’s government shows similar tendencies, signing public procurement deals across various sectors with non-EU countries. In 2021 Montenegro was heading towards financial collapse after a huge loan from China’s Exim Bank for a highway project swelled into a debt mountain - at one point topping a third of the country’s annual budget. Public wariness towards China has proven quite short-lived.   The current government of North Macedonia, led by Hristijan Mickoski of the ’nationalist’ VMRO, prioritises party identity and electoral positioning over accession. Previous VMRO-led governments also pursed a multi-vector foreign policy, courting projects and partners outside the EU, such as China.   Serbia has engaged the most with China, even if President Vucic has found it ever more delicate in recent years to do so as ’EU policies pull Belgrade closer to Brussels, such as through energy connectivity projects’.    The European Parliament, monitoring progress towards EU accession, recently issued a resolution underlining the importance of countering foreign interference in Albania, Bosnia and North Macedonia, offering specific recommendations for each country.   Albania was noted for growing cooperation with Chinese media including its national public radio and TV broadcaster.   The resolution also noted that Bosnia is being targeted by malign foreign actors like Russia and China, despite its formal alignment with the EU’s foreign and security policy.   Foreign interference and disinformation campaigns originating from Russia and China are even targeting Kosovo, according to the report.   For North Macedonia, the resolution noted that China has made efforts to expand its influence through information control, investment diplomacy and coercive clauses in infrastructure loan agreements. MEPs have urged Skopje to address risks, such as strategic corruption, opaque financial flows, risk of dependency on Beijing.    The new Chinese playbook: China is expanding its toolkit to achieve long-term goals - political positioning in future EU member states, building networks of friendly local actors, and gaining influence in key policy and economic sectors. The Western Balkans is gaining strategic importance as a key segment of the middle corridor connecting Asia and Europe. The Eurasian land bridge has diminished in significance due to Russia’s war on Ukraine. Tensions between Israel and Iran also complicate transport and infrastructure connectivity in the Middle East and hamper the development of the China-Pakistan corridor. At the same time, the once-prominent “17+1”, the format including 17 countries in CEE plus China, established in 2012, began to break apart a decade later, amid China’s limited economic engagement and its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine.    A wider-society approach: Chinese policymakers’ approach is evolving into an all-of-society model that complements Beijing’s earlier methods on working with local elites. China has shifted towards a multi-actor approach across several sectors, engaging with cultural, academic, business and educational organisations and using projects and institutional agreements to embed and consolidate cooperation. Internationalisation strategies now are clearly visible in the Western Balkans. China has identified pillar countries, such as Hungary and Serbia, and has intensified cooperation with them. These countries serve as hubs to reach the wider Western Balkans region.    Free-trade agreements: Beijing is actively seeking market-opening agreements.   In July 2024, its free trade agreement (FTA) with Belgrade entered into force, eliminating tariffs on 90% of traded goods.   China has concluded similar agreements with Belarus, Georgia, Iceland and Switzerland.   In June, it granted duty-free access to its market for all African countries with the exception of Eswatini, which recognises Taiwan.   It is currently negotiating deals with Norway and Moldova.    Infrastructure: The European Parliament in particular flagged multiple vulnerabilities and urged corrective measures in the entire Western Balkan region.   ArcelorMittal, one of the world’s largest steelmakers, recently sold its steel mill and iron ore mine in Bosnia to Pavgord Group - a local company linked to Dodik, who has close ties with both Beijing and Moscow.   Bosnia’s investment promotion agency signed a memorandum of understanding in February 2025 with the China-Europe Association for Technical and Economic Cooperation with the stated goal of identifying new investment opportunities.   In August 2023, Montenegrin authorities awarded a €54m contract for a Budva-Tivat motorway section to two Chinese contractors, Shandong Foreign Economic and Technical Cooperation and Shandong Luqiao Group. Podgorica recently shortlisted three Chinese companies (Shandong Hi-Speed Group, Power Construction Corporation of China and China Communications) and the Azeri firm Azvirt for the construction of a 23km stretch of the Bar-Boljare highway. The European Commission and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development are funding about a third of the €605m project. They requested Montenegro cancel the pre-qualification tender, because only firms from China, Turkey and Azerbaijan were shortlisted, according to local media. Montenegro has signed bilateral agreements in infrastructure and other areas with Hungary and the UAE that contain exemptions from open public procurement procedures, inviting problems such as lack of transparency and unsustainable financial commitments.    Telecommunications: Despite US efforts to contain its expansion, Huawei remains entrenched in the Western Balkans. Recently, it signed a network capacity upgrade agreement with BH Telekom, Bosnia’s main telecom provider. New operators are installing Huawei-made core hardware. Over the last few years, both Huawei and ZTE have intensified their internationalisation strategies and efforts to penetrate various markets.   This is the case with the Hungarian firm 4iG, which signed an wide-range agreement for strategic development with Huawei in May 2024, covering research and development, AI and other areas.   The firm is present in Montenegro and Albania, following a series of acquisitions in 2021 and 2023 and it entered North Macedonia in 2024.   4iG is providing not simply telecom services, but also IT services, data and cloud management, and software. It recently entered the defence market in cooperation with the Hungarian government.   Considering China’s “AI Plus” policy, which seeks to introduce and integrate AI capabilities across all of its industries and processes, the inclusion of AI is noteworthy. From this perspective, firms such as Huawei no longer focus only on hardware or control of data flows, but also supplying the entire ecosystem of telecommunications.    Diversified financial cooperation:   Hungary obtained loans worth €1bn euros from Chinese lenders (the Exim Bank and the Hungarian branch of the Bank of China).    China is also ’promoting yuan clearing in the region’. As a leading actor in yuan internationalisation, the Bank of China 'is likely to promote' wider yuan settlement across the Western Balkans.   The North Macedonian government sought to secure loans from Beijing and obtained €500m from the Hungarian state-owned Export-Import Bank, which appears to have acted as an intermediary.   In 2024, the Bank of China in Serbia launched yuan-clearing services and completed its first cross border remittance linked to a Chinese owned steel plant. At the same time, China is expanding financing increased venture capital support for AI and IT firms. Now, financial cooperation happens increasingly through Chinese banks and corporate lending.    Defence: China has supported in particular the emergence and strengthening of a domestic drone sector in the Western Balkans, now aggressively pursuing international markets.   Serbia is a primary focal point of China’s defence engagement. In 2020, Belgrade received shipments of CH-92 and CH-95 military drones, bundled with eight laser-guided missiles. The cooperation  include an air-defence system, the FK-3, which is now operational within the Serbian air forces.   Turkey is also making significant strides in penetrating the drone market in the Western Balkans, with sales in countries such as Bosnia, Kosovo and Albania.    Media and more:   Recent data in Kosovo   and North Macedonia indicate an increase in media activity driven by China. It has been attempting to create new international institutions to circumvent what it sees as Western-dominated structures. A few months ago, it launched the International Organisation for Mediation as a new platform for dispute settlement made up of 33 founding states, including Serbia.
(Source: The European Council on Foreign Relations – Headqarters in Berlin)
by Shopov, a visiting fellow with the Asia programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, with 20 years of experience.

(To be continued)

Danube Region

05.11.2025.  The EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) is a macro-regional strategy adopted by the European Commission in December 2010 and endorsed by the European Council in 2011. The participant countries are Austria, BiH, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine. In 2025, the Danube region still faces growing security risks, demographic pressures, and complex development disparities, states the Sarajevo Declaration, adopted at the Fourteenth Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, which takes place from 4 to 6 November in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Konaković, Foreign Minister of BiH, underlined that the Danube region faces challenges that remind us that only through cooperation we can build a resilient region. “We strive for the cooperation, stability and prosperity… These are the essential tools to bridge the gaps in the region, and freedom and democracy are the values that must guide our actions”, Konaković stressed. (Source: European Western Balkans - headquarters in Belgrade, Serbia)

Russia
November 5, 2025 5:41 PM GMT+1  Russia's military says it now controls more than 19% of Ukraine, or some 116,000 square km. Open-source battlefield maps show that Russian forces are a few kilometres away from fully encircling Pokrovsk, known by Russia as Krasnoarmeysk. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Wednesday 05 November 2025 13:47 GMT  Two 'Ukrainian long-range drones' have reportedly struck a Petrochemical Plant deep inside Russia, in Sterlitamak, located in Bashkortostan region approximately 1,300 kilometres from the border. Explosions were also heard at an industrial area of the Nizhny Novgorod region, some 800 kilometers from Ukraine, where an oil refinery and a petrochemical plant are located. Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday that Ukrainian drones were shot down, claiming that 85 were intercepted overnight. Russia fired seven missiles of various types and 130 strike and decoy drones at Ukraine during the night, Ukraine’s air force said. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

Sunday 02 November 2025 20:00 GMT  Two foreign vessels had been damaged in an Ukrainian drone strike on Tuapse, one of the biggest oil terminals on the Black Sea, setting ablaze an oil tanker. There were no casualties among the crews of the ships. 'The buildings and infrastructure of the terminal' had sustained damage. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

09:49, 2 Nov 2025  Russia has unveiled a new nuclear submarine at the Sevmash shipyard in the northern city of Severodvindk, Russia – five years behind schedule after unexplained delays. Khabarovsk is designed to carry Poseidon nuclear drones, the infamous torpedoes capable of wiping out entire coastal nations. Russian state outlets brag that the Poseidon can create radioactive tidal waves capable of drowning Britain. The 10,000-ton Khabarovsk was built as part of Project 09851 and is estimated to carry up to a dozen Poseidons, which are giant torpedoes each driven by their own miniature nuclear reactor. The submarine is powered by a nuclear engine and can dive to depths of around 500 meters, remaining at sea for months. Defence Minister Belousov said the submarine will now begin sea trials before joining the nuclear deterrent fleet. The launch took place just days after test of the Poseidon torpedo in the Arctic’s Kara Sea. Its construction cost is believed to exceed £1 billion. A second submarine of the same class, the Ulyanovsk, is already under construction and expected to join the Pacific Fleet. Together, they would give Moscow a dual-ocean capability to deploy the Poseidon system, in a move designed to project fear on both sides of the globe. (Source: The US Sun)

Africa

Nigeria
02/11/2025  Nigeria is almost evenly divided between a Muslim-majority north and a largely Christian south. Its northeastern region is at the epicenter of a Boko Haram jihadist insurgency, which has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced more than two million since 2009, according to the United Nations. In central Nigeria, majority-Muslim herders have repeatedly clashed with majority-Christian farmers. 'If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump said yesterday. “I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians,” he added, warning the Nigerian government that they “BETTER MOVE FAST!” Pentagon chief Hegseth, shared Trump’s post and wrote on social media: “Yes sir.” “The Department of War is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Hegseth said. In March, US congressman Smith called for Nigeria to be listed by the State Department as a 'Country of Particular Concern' (CPC) - a move announced by Trump on Friday over what he called an 'existential threat' to the African nation’s Christian population. In early October, US Senator Cruz and House Republican Moore accused the Nigerian government of turning a blind eye to the 'mass murder' of Christians. (Source: France 24 'with AFP" = France)

.5 11 6 14:52

.

(Continuation)

Balkans

The EU’s China policy: no clear policy. The EU has framed its China strategy around three coexisting tracks: partnership, competition and rivalry, pulled the strategy in different directions in recent years, weakening the original compromise and producing fragmented policy. Rhetoric remains strong in the cooperation track, particularly on climate change, green industries and AI. Practical cooperation is limited and has now become mostly ritualistic, centred on ceremonial summitry statements of little consequence. China’s dominance in rare earth minerals, and its willingness to use that dominance to achieve its geopolitical goals, has foreclosed substantive cooperation, pushing Europe to seek out other partnerships in this field. In relation to AI, the EU and China have exchanged views, but they have not undertaken any substantive discussions on AI governance. This space is becoming an arena for competition with China, as the EU launches initiatives such as InvestAI (€200bn) and its AI Gigafactory Fund (€20bn). Competition is ranging from electric vehicles, specialised machinery, advanced manufacturing, electrical equipment, chemicals, renewable energy technologies, high-tech products and more. China has shown little appetite to change its industrial model - subsidies, export support, overcapacity and restricted market access for foreign firms reinforcing the competitive dynamics of the past few years. The EU and China are increasingly facing each other off in third markets across the globe, particularly in South-East Asia and Latin America. During the second Trump administration both the EU and China seek to diversify away from a protectionist America. Beijing’s intransigent refusal to address EU concerns over unfair trade practices is also producing systemic effects, even if the EU hesitates to define them in this manner, as tensions with US president Trump are so heightened. For similar reasons, Britain has refrained from including China in the top tier of its covert foreign influence register.    Drifting towards decoupling, a total disentanglement across all sectors. In practice, however, competition is accelerating, undermining the possibility of a deliberate policy choice. As the EU tries to reverse asymmetries with China (like unequal market access) that is facing strong Chinese resistance. In this context, not only is the EU itself likely to continue to clash with China, but some member states such as France are even keen to go further and apply much wider, generalised tariffs in order to protect French and EU industries from China.    Trade with China has become increasingly complicated. A patchwork of measures against Beijing: The EU’s recent actions make the direction clear: it is moving towards decoupling. The EU has rolled out a suite of legal instruments aimed at boosting its economic security and strategic autonomy: The Anti-Coercion Instrument (2023) - the EU has considered using it amid trade tensions with China and the US; The Foreign Subsidies Regulation (2023) -  targets distortions which have granted unfair advantages to non-EU firms, especially Chinese ones, in acquisitions and public procurement contracts; The EU’s International Procurement Instrument (2022) - used for the first time in June 2025, it ensures reciprocity in access to international procurement markets, addressing the difficulties EU companies have faced in China when competing in its expanding procurement market. It was partially restricting Chinese medical device manufacturers’ access to the EU’s €150bn market in response to barriers faced by EU firms in China.    The European Commission has initiated several proceedings against major Chinese online retailers. These include the Chinese marketplace AliExpress not doing enough to prevent the sale of counterfeit goods and unsafe products. Whether to impose sanctions is still pending. The commission has also initiated an investigation into Chinese retailer Shein for potentially violating EU consumer protection linked to sale of illegal goods. In October 2024, it opened formal proceedings against Temu, Chinese retail platform, for potential violations of the Digital Services Act, examining whether Temu has sold non-compliant products, as well as its recommendation algorithm and the allegedly addictive design of the platform.    At the member-state level, Italy and Germany have attempted to block the transfer of private data of EU citizens by DeepSeek, the Chinese AI-powered chatbot. This practice of individual EU member states could expand in the future.    The development of a China conditionality defining and implementing conditions for the Western Balkan candidates to engage with China remains a work in progress. Historically conditions focused on political, economic and legal reforms were monitored during the accession process to ensure alignment, their implementation by the prospective EU member state is deemed essential for integration into the EU.     Accession in the region is at markedly different stages.   Kosovo lacks a clear path forward.   Montenegro deep into the process which is advancing while any possible China conditionality is still in development. That gap stems mostly from the absence of a stable, EU-wide consensus on China.    Steps towards the China conditionality continue to resemble a loose collection of principles rather than a well-defined and coherent structure of conditions, laws and practices expected from the Western Balkan countries. ’Ideally’, what should be in question is a wider Western conditionality that incorporates shared US and EU interests, albeit in a political rather than institutional context. This could cover areas such as export controls, investment screening and data security. So far no structured dialogue has taken place between the EU and US to arrive at a common understanding on a China-related conditionality beyond some ad hoc considerations, for instance in the area of security. Washington and the respective capitals in the Western Balkans remain focused on regional stability and increased economic engagement. As things stand, the EU and the US are more likely to pursue the fulfilment of their conditions separately. With the EU, the US administration is grappling with an unclear and evolving China policy - for example export restrictions on chip manufacturing software. Likewise, export controls on Nvidia’s powerful H20 chip, vital for AI development, have been inconsistent. The US has also all but ceded green energy as an area of rivalry, given its dismissive approach to the sector. The current US administration does not have a structured China containment policy.    Including the China element in accession negotiations: Recent updates on membership talks with Serbia show very few chapters in which China is discussed - for instance, Chapter 30 (external relations); chapter 31 (foreign, security and defence policy) are even listed in some detail, but not as a point of conditionality. Chapter 5 (public procurement) does not set out corrective measures.    Accession chapters, which  could address China-related issues: Chapter 5 (public procurement), barely mentioned in the Montenegro process; Chapter 10 (digital transformation and media), which could incorporate China’s penetration in 5G networks in the Western Balkans and the role of Chinese actors in the media; Chapter 19 (social policy and employment), which could address frequent violations of labour law by Chinese companies in Serbia; Chapter 31 (foreign, security and defence policy), which could tackle the growth of Western Balkan defence and security ties with Beijing.    Instances of non-compliance with EU law are already emerging. In the area of public procurement, Montenegro has signed and prepared numerous bilateral agreements which contain non-competitive clauses in relation to public tenders in different sectors. The case of the Bar-Boljare motorway, for example, simply appointed the China Road and Bridge Corporation as the executer of the project, bypassing competitive tender. Such clauses exist in agreements with the UAE (in tourism and real estate) and Hungary (in road and rail transport and infrastructure).    Integration and political promiscuity: More than two decades since the prospect of EU membership was presented to the Western Balkan states, progress has stalled. The geopolitical context shifts. Today, the practice of interacting with many actors in order to obtain concessions from all of them, is the norm in the region. China’s central feature is a society-based approach to engagement. It is now increasingly engaging directly with societal groups across numerous areas, such as trade, defence, culture, academia, media and more. China’s influence is also driven by acquisitions of local companies, assets and infrastructure. Financial lending now goes beyond the Belt and Road Initiative and other state-led frameworks, with Chinese firms and banks deploying finance and direct investments in various sectors. The EU’s longstanding three-element formula of cooperation, competition and rivalry no longer reflects the real dynamics of the EU-China relationship. The dominant theme is competition and there remains a lack of consensus among member states on how to define and approach relations with Beijing. In recent years, the use of instruments resemble a patchwork. ’But they all point to increasing confrontation’ in numerous domains. The European Parliament monitoring and adopting resolutions on Chinese actions in south-eastern Europe, is often more critical than the European Commission. The China conditionality is defined in a broader context with the participation of the US, both between Brussels and Washington and between the US and the countries of the Western Balkans. This process is presently complicated by the absence of clear American policy towards China, and the transactional tendency of the US administration ’which has sidelined security considerations’. Elites in the region increasingly face a dilemma between political integration and promiscuity, with multiplying evidence pointing to a preference for the latter.    Recommendations:   Be more decisive about enlargement and about China: The EU continues to follow its three-element policy formula towards China, which has little operability in the enlargement context. Create a balance between requirements and incentives. The EU enlargement process has morphed into an endless game of defining and communicating requirements and conditions without a clear time horizon. A better balance between requirements and incentives would go some way towards countering this imbalance.   Define a firm timeline for accession: Generations of citizens, thousands have emigrated from the region in pursuit of their individual European dreams, while many continue to plan this journey. Companies and various institutions also define and implement strategies on the basis of no realistic timeline of EU membership. Embedding these strategies in a European framework would be much easier with a firm time horizon of EU accession. The EU needs to engage wider society and citizens, the ultimate beneficiaries. Integration is about creating and embedding linkages between citizens, companies, civil society, local and regional authorities, and cultural and academic structures. (Source: The European Council on Foreign Relations – Headquarters in Berlin)
by Shopov, a visiting fellow with the Asia programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, with 20 years of experience. He is a graduate in political science and comparative politics from Sofia University St. Kliment of Ohrid and the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has also studied in Oxford University, London University (Queen Mary College), New School for Social Research, California State University, Peking University and King’s College London. He was adviser on EU affairs to the minister of home affairs (1997-1998), counsellor at the Bulgarian mission to the EU in Brussels (1998-2001), EU adviser at the British embassy in Sofia (2002-2003) and adviser to the minister of foreign affairs (2014-2017). He has worked with numerous companies from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Sweden, UK, US and others. Shopov has also worked with the European Parliament, MEPs, the European Commission, the British Council „and many other European and Asian policy and research centres”.

Note:
About 'conditionalities'... from the Balkans, near the aging Italy, Turkey, without mentioning Greece, Bulgaria... far from the European Union's interests led (astray) by Germany... What is so amazing about the Balkans being an area of infiltration for larger powers, Hungary being almost the only one within the Union that continuously represents cooperation and advocates for the accession and inclusion of the countries of the region in the EU ?

.

.

Europe

Belgium
04.11.2025  An investigation by several European media outlets revealed today that hundreds of millions of location data points from mobile phones in Belgium, including those belonging to employees of EU institutions, NATO headquarters, and military bases, are being sold. More than 1,000 phones were located within NATO sites, according to the report. Investigators said they were able to identify several senior European officials, including three holding high-level positions in EU institutions, whose movements matched their home and workplace locations. Data brokers reportedly offer access to location datasets for Belgium for prices ranging from $24,000 to $60,000 per year, covering up to 700,000 tracked phones per day. Experts warned that, despite being marketed as "anonymous," location data can easily be de-anonymized. Research shows that knowing only two points of reference, such as a person's home and workplace, can be enough to identify them with 95% accuracy. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

November 3, 2025  Belgium’s defense minister Francken said a series of unidentified drones flying over the Kleine-Brogel Air Base in northern Belgium that is reported to house U.S. nuclear weapons could be part of a spying operation. Multiple drones were spotted above over the weekend. Nuclear watchdogs have reported the base as home to U.S. nuclear bombs under NATO weapons sharing agreements. 'They [the drones] come to spy, to see where the F-16s are, where the munitions are, and other highly strategic items,' Francken told. 'A drone jammer was used, but without success... A helicopter and police vehicles pursued the drone, but lost it after several kilometers,' he said. (Source: Fox News - U.S.)

The Netherlands
30 October 2025  The Liberal Democrats (D66) party has claimed a narrow but decisive win in the Netherlands’ snap general election, eclipsing Wilders’ 'hard-right' Party for Freedom (PVV). With almost 100 per cent of votes counted, D66 is on course for 26 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, equal to the PVV’s projected 26. On that result, a left-wing government with D66, VVD, Labour-GreenLeft alliance (PvdA-Groenlinks) and the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party, would appear the most obvious, although a more right-leaning one, with JA21 and without Socialists and Greens of PvdA-Groenlinks, is also a theoretic possibility. The outgoing cabinet, the most Conservative in decades, faltered on ambitious pledges for border controls and affordable housing, exacerbating a crisis with a shortfall of 400,000 homes and rents spiralling. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

European Commission
November 4, 2025  The European Commission said today that the EU could welcome new members as early as 2030. It praised Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova. The Commission criticised Serbia. It accused Georgia. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Asia

Japan
Oct 31, 2025  A day after US President Trump said he has granted South Korea approval to build a nuclear-powered submarine in a Philadelphia shipyard, which would allow Seoul to join six nations with such vessels, Japanese Defence Minister Koizumi reiterated today that all options are on the table to strengthen Japan’s defence capabilities, including the use of nuclear power to propel Japanese submarines. Mr Koizumi took the ministerial post in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Cabinet on Oct 21. South Korea is an important neighbour and partner we should cooperate with when dealing with various issues facing the international community, Mr Koizumi said. He stressed the importance of Japan-South Korea security cooperation and trilateral cooperation involving the United States, citing North Korea’s recent test-firing of missiles. Opponents of nuclear propulsion argue that developing nuclear-powered submarines would contradict Japan’s constitutional limits of self-defence. (Source: The Straits Times - Singapore / Kyodo News - Japan)

Philippines
02.11.2025  Canada today became the fifth country to sign a visiting forces defense agreement with the Philippines, allowing the two nations to deploy military personnel in each other’s territory and expand defense collaboration. The signing came after the recent Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity (MMCA) in the West Philippine Sea involving the Philippines, the US, Australia, and, for the first time, New Zealand. This agreement is following the signing of such agreements with the US in 1998, Australia in 2007, Japan in 2024, and New Zealand in April 2025. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Caribbean

Haiti
October 31, 2025  Hurricane Melissa death toll nears 50, mostly in Jamaica and Haiti, as it hurries through Cuba toward Bermuda. (Source: CBS News / AP = U.S.)

North America

United States
Nov. 3, 2025  In February, the State Department designated six Mexican drug cartels, as well as MS-13 and the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations, giving U.S. spy agencies and military units sweeping legal authorities to conduct espionage and covert operations targeting the criminal networks. In April the Trump administration was considering launching drone strikes on drug cartels in Mexico. President Sheinbaum already has allowed the CIA to expand surveillance flights. Under her leadership, Mexico has deployed 10,000 troops to the U.S. border, increased fentanyl seizures and extradited 55 senior cartel figures to the U.S. “I have great respect for the president, a woman that I think is a tremendous woman,” Trump said last month. “She’s a very brave woman, but Mexico is run by the cartels.' The Trump administration has begun detailed planning for a new mission to send American troops and intelligence officers into Mexico to target drug cartels. Under the new mission being planned, U.S. troops in Mexico would mainly use drone strikes to hit drug labs and cartel members and leaders. (Source: NBC News - U.S.)

03.11.25  New tests of the US nuclear weapons system ordered up by President Trump will not include nuclear explosions, Energy Secretary Wright, Wwhose agency is responsible for testing, has said. “I think the tests we're talking about right now are system tests,” Wright said in an interview on Fox News. “These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call noncritical explosions.” The US military regularly tests its missiles that are capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, but it has not detonated the weapons since 1992. (Source: The Telegraph - India)

Nov 03, 2025  The first in-person meeting between Presidents Trump and Xi in six years focused almost exclusively on trade and technology, resulting in a temporary rollback of tariffs and export restrictions but producing no new agreements or progress on broader security or geopolitical issues. The meeting largely served to stabilize U.S.-China relations and decrease tensions, with both leaders agreeing to reciprocal visits in 2026 for further discussions. (Source: ChinaUS Focus - based in Hong Kong, China)
by Shambaugh, Gaston Sigur Professor and Director of China Policy Program at George Washington University, Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Hoover Institution of Stanford University 

October 31, 2025  US President Trump set the refugee admissions ceiling at 7,500 for fiscal year 2026. 100,000 refugees entered under former president Biden in fiscal 2024. Trump said in an annual refugee determination dated September 30 admissions would be focused largely on South Africans from the country’s white Afrikaner ethnic minority. The White House said it would move oversight of refugee support programmes from the state department to the department of health and human services. (Source: TimesLive - South Africa)

South America

Ecuador
01.11.2025  President Noboa rules out US base on Galapagos Islands, citing environmental concerns. The proposal to host a foreign military base, raised by Noboa, a close of US President Trump, had targeted Baltra Island in the Galapagos. Ecuador’s Constitution has prohibited foreign military bases since 2008. The future of foreign military presence in Ecuador will be decided by voters in a Nov. 16 referendum. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Peru
November 4, 2025, Tuesday  Peru has officially severed diplomatic relations with Mexico following the decision of Mexican authorities to grant asylum to former Peruvian Prime Minister Betssy Chávez, who is facing charges for her alleged involvement in the failed coup attempt led by former President Castillo in 2022. She is reportedly staying at the residence of the Mexican Embassy in Lima. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)

Venezuela
5 Nov 2025  The US government has linked the Sinaloa Cartel to the Cartel of the Suns, the name given to the state-embedded drug trafficking system that operates in Venezuela, putting connections between any state elements and the Mexican group under a magnifying glass. At the same time, the US military has escalated anti-narcotics operations targeting trafficking from Venezuela to new levels, launching airstrikes against at least nine vessels allegedly carrying drugs in the southern Caribbean that it said left from the Venezuelan coast. Under these conditions, the Sinaloa Cartel and other trafficking networks will likely be turning their attention to safer routes. Zulia in northwest Venezuela is a key corridor for Colombian cocaine destined for international markets. The town of San Felipe was once so awash with brokers from Mexico’s most famous crime group - the Sinaloa Cartel - that it gained the nickname Sinaloa. Mexican traffickers have been retreating from Zulia as the regime of President Maduro has consolidated control over the country’s organized crime landscape. The government appears to be favoring local criminal actors. Zulia’s proximity to the coca-rich region of Catatumbo in Colombia means a significant portion of cocaine produced on the other side of the border makes its way to Zulia. Systematic corruption on the Venezuelan side ensures that drugs can pass freely through the country and be dispatched to the Caribbean and Central America as long as security force officials get their cut. Sinaloa Cartel representatives can sometimes leave a trafficking territory after having solidified relationships with local criminals who work with them. In the end, the Sinaloa Cartel becomes nothing more than a buyer. Since operations of the armed forces in April 2021, Venezuela’s criminal landscape has been more clearly divided into groups that are either allies or enemies of the government. Maduro and other high-ranking officials often favor local criminal actors who they can more easily influence or impact, some of whom even provide an extra layer of protection against potential dissent or function as tools of oppression against political opponents. Drug trafficking in Venezuela is dependent on corruption, with trafficking networks paying off security forces and political actors to be able to operate. As such, it is also possible that in Zulia, the Sinaloa Cartel-linked emissaries failed to pay the right officials, or that officials demanded so much protection money that the Mexicans decided it was no longer an economically viable route. There were also reports of the disappearance of Mexican brokers from Catatumbo, Colombia between 2021 and 2023. Intermediaries representing Mexican drug trafficking organizations began returning in late 2023. (Source: InSight Crime - Colombia)

Tue, November 4, 2025  Zhuravlyov, Russia’s parliamentary defense committee’s deputy chairman, told Russian website Gazeta.Ru, that he sees no obstacles in providing Oreshnik or Kalibr missiles to Venezuela. President Trump has accused Venezuelan President Maduro of being the head of alleged smuggling operation, carrying drugs from Venezuela to the United States that U.S. forces are targeting. Maduro reportedly reached out to Russian President Putin for assistance amid the strikes in the Caribbean. Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, condemned the strikes on Saturday, calling them excessive military force. According to president Trump, he has not made a final decision on expanding the strikes on Venezuelan land. According to the Kremlin, the Oreshnik missile can carry nuclear warheads. (Source: Yahoo / Mediaite = U.S.)

November 4, 2025  Reports over the past week indicate that the United States is expanding its military presence in the Caribbean - a buildup that has fueled speculation about possible strikes against targets inside Venezuela. The Miami Herald and the Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump’s administration has identified Venezuelan military installations allegedly tied to drug trafficking networks as potential bombing targets. China today defended its growing cooperation with Venezuela, saying that its engagement with leader Maduro’s government constitutes normal cooperation between sovereign states and is not directed against any third party. China backs Venezuela. The comments, made by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao, followed a Washington Post report that Maduro had sought military assistance from Russia. According to the Post article, Maduro is urgently seeking to strengthen Venezuela’s failing armed forces through military assistance from Russia, China and Iran. The outreach involves soliciting defensive radars, aircraft repairs, drone technology and potentially missiles. In Caracas, Maduro confirmed on Monday that Venezuela and Russia are advancing in what he described as serene and very productive military cooperation. The Venezuelan leader said he maintains daily and permanent communication with Russian President Putin. The Kremlin on Sunday acknowledged contacts with Venezuela, though spokesman Peskov did not confirm The Washington Post’s report that Maduro had formally requested military aid. The two nations are bound by contractual obligations, Peskov told. While Russia is taking the lead - Maduro directly appealed to Moscow - China is part of the same effort. China supports strengthened international cooperation to combat transnational crime and opposes the use or threat of force in international relations, Mao told. She added that China opposes any attempt to undermine peace and stability in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as unilateral coercive actions against foreign vessels that exceed reasonable and necessary limits. Beijing also urged Washington to carry out regular judicial and law enforcement cooperation through bilateral and multilateral legal frameworks. It is not known what type of aid China has provided or pledged in response to Maduro’s request. Bejing has a significant history of supporting the Maduro regime with billions in loans, surveillance technology and medical aid. The U.S. military has sharply increased its presence off Venezuela’s coast as part of an operation the White House says is aimed at disrupting drug trafficking and criminal networks tied to the Caracas regime. The U.S. military will soon have 13 vessels in the region - including eight warships, three amphibious vessels, and a submarine - marking Washington’s largest military deployment in Latin America since the Gulf War. The newly arrived USS Gettysburg and USS Lake Erie cruisers have joined other U.S. vessels already stationed near Venezuelan waters, and the USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s largest and most sophisticated aircraft carrier, is expected to arrive in days. In August, the mission has included maritime patrols by P-8 reconnaissance aircraft and long-range surveillance flights to map trafficking routes. In September, the deployment was reinforced with 10 F-35B fighters based at Ceiba Air Base in Puerto Rico and armed MQ-9 Reaper drones at Rafael Hernández Airport on the island. U.S. officials say those aircraft can conduct precision strikes against laboratories, clandestine airstrips, vehicles or vessels linked to drug operations. On Oct. 24, Defense Secretary Hegseth ordered the Gerald R. Ford and its strike group - including the cruiser USS Normandy and destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney, and USS Roosevelt - into the Caribbean. The carrier strike group, with more than 4,000 personnel and roughly 90 combat aircraft, is described by retired Venezuelan officers who spoke to the Herald as the centerpiece of a final phase intended to neutralize leaders of the Cartel of the Suns and Tren de Aragua, and to strike fixed and mobile targets inside Venezuela. (Source: Miami Herald - U.S.; "This story was complemented with reporting from El Nuevo Herald’s wire services”).

.5 11 3 22:25

.

Europe

Bulgaria
October 31, 2025  Bulgaria is home to the sprawling Lukoil-owned Burgas refinery, which provides up to 80 percent of the country’s fuel. Bulgaria is exploring requesting an exemption to new U.S. sanctions against Russia’s largest private oil company, as it fears the measures will cause severe fuel shortages and a populist backlash across the country. Now, the government has asked Washington how it should go about requesting an extension to the sanctions beyond their start date of Nov. 21. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

France
November 1, 2025  ’ France is one of two NATO nations, alongside the United Kingdom, to operate its own nuclear arsenal separate from the American nuclear umbrella. The French military currently has an estimated 290 nuclear warheads - the fourth-largest arsenal in the world, behind Russia’s 5,580 warheads, America’s 5,044, and China’s approximately 500. The French nuclear arsenal is completely homegrown. France took its first step in developing nuclear weapons in 1954. It wanted to maintain its independence from other powers, including the United States and the United Kingdom. Spats with NATO in the 1950s and 1960s strengthened Paris’s desire for an independent nuclear arsenal. The French military tested its first nuclear weapon in 1960 and its first thermonuclear munition in 1968. The French Navy has a new nuclear missile, the M51.3 submarine-launched nuclear ballistic missile. It is equipped with new oceanic nuclear warheads (TNO-2) that have a longer range, better precision, and deeper penetration capabilities than France’s existing arsenal. This is the third version of the M51 submarine-launched nuclear warhead. The specific operational range of the new version of the M51 is estimated to be between 5,000 and 6,200 miles. The new nuclear weapon will equip the French Navy’s four Le Triomphant class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. Each submarine can carry up to 16 ballistic missiles, each equipped with an M51.3 nuclear warhead. ’ (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)

Greece
October 31, 2025, Friday  Greece will begin voluntary military service for women in 2026. The initiative, announced by Defense Minister Dendias, will involve the creation of a special unit composed of 100 to 150 female volunteers. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)

Russia
01/11/2025 - 6:00 GMT+1  International companies still operating in Russia paid at least $20 billion (€17.2bn) in taxes to the Russian state in 2024 alone. German companies are among them. Since early 2022, the total amount has reached more than $60 billion (€51.8bn). In 2024, US-based businesses paid $1.2 billion (€1bn) in profit taxes to the Kremlin, while German firms spent $594 million (€513.5m). The German government and people have so far provided Ukraine with €44 billion in military, humanitarian and financial aid. Leaving Russia has become increasingly costly. In 2024, the tax on the value of a business sale rose from 15% to 35%. The required discount companies must offer on their asset sales has also increased, from 50% to 60%. For transactions exceeding 50 billion rubles (around 526 million U.S. dollars), companies now need the approval of Russian President Putin. But companies in Russia also make profits. The total turnover of German companies in Russia in 2024 amounted to around $21.7 billion. As of early July, only 503 international companies, or 12%, had fully withdrawn from Russia by selling or liquidating their operations. Nearly one-third (33.2%, or 1,387 companies) had suspended operations or announced plans to withdraw. Meanwhile, 2,287 companies (54.8%) remain active in the Russian market. For German companies, 55% of those active before the invasion are still operating in Russia. (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France)

(Thursday, 30 October 2025)  President Putin on Tuesday backed the creation of volunteer units to guard strategic facilities inside the country. Authorities in Russia’s republic of Karelia say they are forming volunteer militias to help defend the country’s border with Finland following Helsinki’s announcement of large-scale military exercises near Russian territory. Local volunteers will assist border guards and help monitor the area. Finland’s military announced this week that it will hold major exercises from November to December involving around 15,000 troops in several regions, including areas along the Nordic country’s 1,340-kilometer border with Russia. The Finnish Army said the drills aim to train conscripts, reservists and active-duty personnel for wartime duties, with forces from allied nations also taking part. (Source: The Moscow Times - Its headquarters were relocated to Amsterdam in the Netherlands in 2022)

Ukraine
November 1, 2025  Why have collapsed the air defenses in Ukraine? Since September, the effectiveness of Ukraine’s Western-provided air defenses have precipitously declined from 34 percent to around 6 percent - or even lower. The Ukrainians will be unable to keep up with the Russian offensives. The US-supplied MIM-104 Patriot air defense systems are increasingly struggling to intercept the Russian 9K720 Iskander-M (and similar Russian systems) in Ukraine. A number of new innovations in Russia’s Iskander missiles have stymied Ukrainian air defenses plunging interception rates to 6 percent - or even lower. Russia has employed trajectory changes to their Iskander missiles when launching them against targets in Ukraine. The Patriot missile system, like most US missile defense systems - including national missile defense networks, like the Ground-Based Interceptors (GBIs) at Fort Greeley in Alaska - work on predicting the incoming target’s path and intercepting it based on that prediction. Russian engineers have equipped their Iskander-Ms with radar-decoy devices that can be ejected by the system on its final approach to the target, further confusing the radar and target-track of American and Western missile defense interceptors. Beyond the technical matters, there’s the issue of numbers. The Russians engage in swarming tactics, saturation attacks. In this context, Kyiv is demanding access to large numbers of American Tomahawk cruise missiles. Zelenskyy will attempt to further threaten Russian territories with increasingly advanced strike weapons from the United States, such as the Tomahawk. That, too, will not work - because the Russians have fundamentally overmatched the Ukrainian Armed Forces as well as their Western backers, draining Ukraine and the West of personnel, arms, and money that will be far too difficult to replace in a meaningful timeline. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Weichert. His newest book: A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine.

Thursday 30 October 2025 11:53 GMT  A British national accused of spying for Russia in Ukraine and preparing to carry out terrorist attacks has been arrested yesterday. Ukrainian officials said he initially travelled to Ukraine in 2024 to work as a military instructor, but then posted on pro-Russia forums online saying he was willing to sell information. He was then allegedly contacted by Russia’s secret police, the FSB. The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said the British national stopped working as an instructor in September 2024 and moved to port city of Odesa. This is the first such case of a British national being accused of spying charges on Ukrainian soil. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

Africa

Mali
31 October 2025  Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate’s militants have blocked fuel entry to cities. Essentially everything from transport of food to equipment to generators, the current blockade has limited all mobility and operations. In the middle of rice and millet harvest season, some agricultural machinery has been rendered inoperable without fuel. JNIM forces now seem intent on isolating the capital, Bamako. The blockade brought the landlocked Sahel nation’s economy to a halt. Recent military coups has driven out UN peacekeepers, French forces, and over 1,000 US troops. JNIM and other terror groups have filled the power vacuum by offering protection and basic services while forcing communities to accept their rule and strict Islamic laws. Their expansion also brings income, as they tax traffic on roads they control. Mali’s crisis began in 2012 when Tuareg separatists and Islamist militants seized the country’s northern half. French forces intervened in 2013. Ghali, a former Tuareg rebel leader helped create JNIM in 2017 by merging several al-Qaeda affiliates. The new terror group immediately pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda’s global leadership. Ghali joined Gaddafi’s Islamic Legion in Libya before returning to lead the 1990 Tuareg uprising in Mali. In the late 1990s, he embraced Salafism after meeting Pakistani missionaries in Kidal. He later maintained ties with then-Malian president Touré, who appointed him envoy to Saudi Arabia. Ghali is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He now operates in border areas, particularly near Algeria, where the desert terrain is familiar to him. Now, the JNIM group could consolidate routes across the Sahel in-country and across neighbouring states. It has consolidated control across much of Mali and Burkina Faso and it threatens coastal states such as Benin, Togo and Ghana. Experts estimate JNIM has about 6,000 fighters – a small force in a nation of 25 million. Russia and Turkey are emerging as key supporters of the Malian armed forces. After the Wagner group’s founder Prigozhin died in 2023, control shifted to the Africa Corps, a force under Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU. Photos recently showed helicopters protecting fuel trucks, detailing how Russian assets are now integrated into Mali’s operations. JNIM has openly said it is waiting for government forces to collapse from within rather than launching frontal assaults. The jihadists also view the December seizure of Damascus by a former al-Qaeda affiliate as a blueprint for their strategy. Frustrated by the government’s inability to counter the militants, Mali’s military overthrew the civilian administration in 2020, then sacked its own commander in 2021. Similar coups followed in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Now the United States and several European nations have urged their citizens to leave immediately as the security situation deteriorates. (Source: The Telegraph - United Kingdom)

Nigeria
(1 November 2025)  "Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,' Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social yesterday. He said he was putting Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer and most populous country, on a "Countries of Particular Concern' list of nations the US finds have engaged in religious freedom violations. (Source: TRT World - Turkey)

Sudan
31 Oct  2025  El-Fasher, the besieged city was the last army stronghold in the sprawling region of Darfur, until it fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on October 26. In the first three days after capturing el-Fasher, the RSF killed at least 1,500 people, according to the local monitor Sudan’s Doctors’ Network. The figure includes the killings of 460 patients and their companions from the local al-Saud hospital, which has also been verified by the World Health Organization. Survivors say the killing in el-Fasher appears to be a systematic attempt to ethnically cleanse the non-Arab population. (Source: Al Jazeera - Qatar)

Tanzania
(1 November 2025)  President Hassan has claimed a sweeping election victory, winning more than 95% of the vote in every constituency. State media said she would be sworn in later today. Authorities have blocked the internet, imposed a nationwide curfew, and restricted journalists, key rivals were jailed or barred from a vote. Army chief Mkunda on Thursday described protesters as criminals and pledged support for the president. Opposition party Chadema said that about 700 people had been killed by security forces since protests erupted on election day Wednesday. Chadema was barred from running, and its leader remains on trial for treason. (Source: TRT World - Turkey)

Africa
1 Nov 2025  Why Africa has become a hotspot for war? (Source: Al Jazeera - Qatar)
/Video/

.5 10 31 00:01

.

Asia

China
Oct 30, 2025  Trump and Xi spoke today morning in Busan. Trump was accompanied by Secretary of State Rubio, Trade Representative Greer, Treasury Secretary Bessent, Commerce Secretary Lutnick, Chief of Staff Wiles, and U.S. Ambassador to China Perdue. Chief of Staff Cai, Foreign Minister Wang, Vice Foreign Minister Ma, Vice Premier He, Commerce Minister Wang, and Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission Zheng accompanied Xi. The deal formalizes a framework agreement between American and Chinese negotiators reached earlier this week. Xi also announced that the U.S. and China reached a consensus, according to Chinese state media. The deal scraps Trump’s threat of a 100% tariff increase, immediately reduces the total tariff rate on Chinese goods, and resolves, at least for now, several of the more contentious trade issues between the U.S. and China. China accounts for around 70% of the world’s supply of critical minerals, which are crucial to the U.S.’s military, semiconductor and auto sectors. China will suspend its rare earths licensing measures for at least a year. China will also resume its purchases of American soybeans, Trump said. Trump also said the Chinese feel very strongly about increasing investments in the U.S. China may also be allowed to buy advanced computer chips from the U.S. Trump said Beijing will speak with Nvidia’s CEO Huang with the U.S. acting as a sort of arbitrator or the referee but that discussions would not involve the most advanced Blackwell chip. The U.S. agreed to suspend Trump’s 24% reciprocal tariff on China for another year, China’s Commerce Ministry said in its statement about the framework agreement. Greer told reporters on Air Force One that the U.S. will also postpone its Section 301 probe into Chinese shipbuilding which would have involved higher port fees on Chinese ships and prompted retaliatory port fees from China on American ships. China will also suspend its countermeasures for one year. Trump said the U.S.’s 20% fentanyl-linked tariff on Chinese goods would be halved, effective immediately and Xi agreed China would take “very strong measures” to reduce the flow into the U.S. of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl. Trump said Xi also agreed to work together with the U.S. to end the war in Ukraine. “We’re both going to work together,” Trump said. 'We agree that the sides are locked in fighting and sometimes you have to let them fight I guess. Crazy. But he’s going to help us and we’re going to work together on Ukraine.” He said talks with Xi did not center on Russian oil, but focused on cooperation to end the war. The security of Taiwan was not discussed, Trump said. U.S. leaders did not say whether a deal for the purchase of TikTok’s U.S. operations, which was part of the framework agreement, was part of the deal reached today. “Both sides should consider the bigger picture and focus on the long-term benefits of cooperation, rather than falling into a vicious cycle of mutual retaliation,” China’s foreign ministry said in a readout after the meeting. (Source: Time - U.S.)

October 30, 2025  The leaders met in a small gray building with a blue roof on a military base adjacent to Busan’s international airport. Busan is a port city in South Korea, about 76 kilometers south from Gyeongju, the main venue for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. When the two were seated at the start of the meeting, Xi read prepared remarks that stressed a willingness to work together despite differences. "Given our different national conditions, we do not always see eye to eye with each other,” he said through a translator. “It is normal for the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then.” After a 100-minute meeting with Xi in South Korea, President Trump described his face-to-face with Chinese leader Xi today as a ’roaring success”, saying he would cut tariffs on China, while Beijing had agreed to allow the export of rare earth elements and start buying American soybeans. The U.S. would lower tariffs implemented earlier this year as punishment on China for its selling of chemicals used to make fentanyl from 20% to 10%. That brings the total combined tariff rate on China down from 57% to 47%. The president said they also discussed the export of more advanced computer chips to China, saying that Nvidia would be in talks with Chinese officials. Trump said that he would go to China in April and Xi would come to the U.S. “some time after that.” It continues to be the potential for major tensions between the world’s two largest economies - both nations are seeking dominant places in manufacturing, developing emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, and shaping world affairs like Russia’s war in Ukraine. The U.S. and China have each shown they believe they have levers to pressure the other. The past year has demonstrated that tentative steps forward can be short-lived. For Trump, that pressure comes from tariffs. China is the top producer and processor of the rare earth minerals. There is a mutual recognition that neither side wants to risk blowing up the world economy in ways that could jeopardize their own country’s fortunes. The U.S. stock market has climbed on the hopes of a trade framework coming out of the meeting. After their talks, Trump plans to return to Washington. Xi plans to stay on in South Korea to meet with regional leaders during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which officially begins tomorrow and sees an opportunity to position China as a reliable partner. (Source: The Asahí Shímbun - Japan / The Associated Press - U.S.)

29 October 2025  China’s $143 billion push to dominate the global electric-vehicle industry. After years of investing in Europe, Chinese EV and battery firms are turning to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In the second quarter of this year, 75% of Chinese investment in raw materials went to Africa for the first time, diversifying beyond Asia and Latin America. China is methodically rewiring the global EV supply chain around its industrial and geopolitical interests. Companies like BYD and CATL have expanded operations across the globe for operational and geopolitical reasons. Chinese players are investing in Morocco and Nigeria for critical minerals, expanding their Southeast Asia battery push, and setting up regional production hubs in Mexico and Brazil. Lower costs may be an added benefit. Indonesia and Hungary have been the biggest recipients of Chinese EV funding between 2014 and 2025. Indonesia pulled in $22 billion, Hungary attracted $18 billion, Rhodium data shows. Indonesia started attracting Chinese investment after banning the export of unprocessed ores in 2014. The country is now the world’s largest supplier of nickel, a crucial battery mineral, providing more than two-thirds of the global supply in 2024. Chinese companies control roughly three-quarters of domestic refining capacity in Indonesia. Indonesia is also a massive auto market going green. The government has set ambitious targets to deploy 2 million electric cars and 12 million electric two-wheelers by 2030. Chinese players are not just bringing products but also helping build the domestic supply chain. Because Japan is lagging in EVs, there is an opportunity for the Chinese. Earlier this year, CATL and its partners set up a $6 billion battery plant in Indonesia to create a full supply chain, from nickel mining to battery manufacturing and recycling. In West Java, Indonesia, BYD is building a $1 billion factory expected to be operational in January 2026. Hungary has been strengthening ties with China throughout Viktor Orbán’s 15 years as prime minister, offering tax breaks and infrastructural support. Four of the 10 biggest Chinese investments in Europe last year went to Hungary, and the landlocked nation is on track to become the second-largest battery producer outside of China. Unlike the EU and the U.S., Hungary has no plans to decouple from China. Since 2019, CATL has built plants in Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, and Spain. By next year, the company aims to start mass production at its 100-GWh battery plant in Hungary, announced in mid-2022. BYD’s passenger vehicle factory in Hungary is currently under construction - the first of its kind by a Chinese automaker in Europe. (Source: Rest of World - U.S.)

October 29, 2025  U.S. and Chinese economic officials met over the weekend in Malaysia to build the framework of a trade deal. President Trump today predicted striking a deal with China's leader in a bilateral meeting. "That's better than fighting and going through all sorts of problems," he added ahead of the tomorrow meeting with President Xi. "No reason for it." Trump said that he could reduce tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for a commitment from Beijing to curb exports of chemicals used to make fentanyl. The U.S. currently imposes a 20% tariff on Chinese imports, in addition to other tariffs. In response, Beijing imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. soybeans. The deal would also include China delaying the imposition of export restrictions on rare earths, while the U.S. would hold off on raising tariffs by 100%. The U.S. has raised tariffs so high that it's brought globalization to the verge of breakdown, says Zhu, dean of the School of International Studies at Nanjing University in China. He notes that besides tariffs, the U.S. has raised port fees this month on Chinese-owned or operated ships docking at U.S. ports. And it has proposed barring Chinese air carriers headed to and from the U.S. from flying through Russian airspace. China's airlines have a cost advantage, because Russia allows Chinese carriers to transit their airspace, but not U.S. ones. China's retaliation is to show China and the world that the U.S. can't just keep us cornered, Zhu adds. Trump has also mentioned that he wants to discuss nuclear arms control with Xi, and possibly include China in U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control negotiations. (Source: NPR - U.S.)

(Tuesday), October 28, 2025  U.S. President Trump is scheduled to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi on Thursday in Busan, South Korea, for dialogue. The summit-Trump's first with Xi since beginning his second term in January - is set to take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Three high-stakes issues: Trade; Tik-Tok; Taiwan. (Source: Miami Herald / Newsweek = U.S.)

Malaysia
Sunday 26 October 2025  US president Trump has hailed a “historic' ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand after both nations today signed an expansion of the peace deal to end their border conflict. Mr Trump, who is in Malaysia, had used the threat of higher tariffs against both countries to force them to agree to end the fighting that resulted in dozens of deaths and the displacement of hundreds of thousands. The US president announced that the peace deal will save millions of lives. A truce, brokered by Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, was reached on 28 July after Mr Trump said he had spoken to the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia. Both Southeast Asian neighbours in July fought their worst border clashes in a decade that killed nearly 40 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. The clashes saw both sides trade artillery fire and airstrikes along contested stretches of their 817km border. The two countries have competing territorial claims. Earlier this month, Cambodia accused Thailand of broadcasting high-pitched 'ghost sounds' along the disputed border, the country’s human rights commission what it described as psychological warfare. The deal was signed shortly after Mr Trump landed in Malaysia – his first stop on his whirlwind five-day Asia tour. He watched as Cambodian prime minister Hun Manet and Thai prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul signed the expanded ceasefire at the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which both nations are members. Meanwhile, Mr Trump also signed separate economic deals with Cambodia and Thailand today. A White House official said Mr Trump would also sign a critical minerals agreement with Malaysia during the Asean summit. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

Pakistan
October 29, 2025 10:50 AM  Pakistan's defence minister threatened today to obliterate the ruling Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. The October clashes began after Pakistani air strikes this month on Kabul, the Afghan capital, among other locations, targeting the head of the Pakistani Taliban. The Taliban responded with attacks on Pakistani military posts along the length of the 2,600-km border, which remains closed. Both nations agreed to a ceasefire brokered in Doha on Oct 19, but could not find common ground in a second round of talks mediated by Turkey and Qatar in Istanbul. 'Pakistan does not require to employ even a fraction of its full arsenal to completely obliterate the Taliban regime and push them back to the caves for hiding,' Defence Minister Asif said in a post on X. (Source: AsiaOne - Singapore)

South Korea
28 October 2025  Issues expected to top the agenda of South Korean President Lee who will meet U.S. President Trump tomorrow, ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, which Mr Trump will not attend: Trade; Defence and nuclear energy; North Korea; US visas for South Korean workers. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

Turkey
(29 October 2025)  Nationwide festivities mark Türkiye’s 102nd Republic Day. (Source: TRTWorld - Turkey)
/Photo/

October 28, 2025  Turkey has signed a deal to buy 20 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft worth $11 billion from Britain. (Source: Daily Ausaf - Pakistan)

28.10.25, 01:59 PM  Earthquake of magnitude 6.1 hit western Turkey, centred in the town of Sindirgi in Balikesir province, at 10.48 pm local time at a depth of 5.99 km. Tremors were felt in Istanbul and nearby provinces. (Source: The Telegraph - India)

South America

Brazil
26/10/2025, Sunday  Brazilian President Lula da Silva sharply criticized the United Nations Security Council during his visit to Malaysia, stating the global body has stopped working and failed to prevent major wars, including the war in Gaza. Lula's comments came during his three-day visit to Malaysia as a guest of honor at the ASEAN summit. (Source: Yeni Şafak - Turkey)

Global

26 Oct 2025  Week in Pictures: From elections in Ivory Coast to Russian strike in Kyiv and "Peace March" in Budapest, Hungary. (Source: Al Jazeera - Qatar)
/Photo/

.5 10 28 19:22

.

Europe

Belgium
October 29, 2025  This past summer, Belgian officials announced that the country would increase its F-35 acquisition from 34 to 45 aircraft, with the initial fleet to be operational by 2031. The Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighter jets will replace the Belgian Air Force’s aging fleet of F-16s, with Brussels pledging to supply 30 of its 45 Fighting Falcons to Ukraine beginning next year. Earlier this month, NATO member Belgium welcomed its first four Lightning IIs, which will equip the Belgian Air Force’s 1st Squadron at Florennes Air Base in Wallonia. Belgium is just 30,843 square kilometers in total area, including water, and measures only around 300 kilometers from end to end. Given the aircraft’s tremendous speed, training effectively while remaining within the country’s tiny airspace simply isn’t possible. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)

October 27, 2025  The massive Port of Antwerp acts as a gateway for illegal narcotics to enter Belgium - and Europe more widely. Drug-trafficking is turning Belgium into a narco-state and the rule of law is under threat, an Antwerp judge wrote in an anonymous letter published today asking the federal government for urgent help. 'Extensive mafia-like structures have taken root, becoming a parallel power that challenges not only the police but also the judiciary'. The judge notes that money-laundering networks drive up real-estate costs, the corruption penetrates state institutions and kidnappings can be ordered on Snapchat. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

European Commission
(Wednesday), 29/10/2025  Ukraine is the third largest import partner for the European Union after Brazil and the UK. The EU’s new import agreement with Ukraine 'designed to further liberalise trade' between the EU and Kyiv comes into effect today. Adopted on 13 October, 'it will replace the deal in place since 2016, by expanding tariff-free access for Ukrainian goods and services'. However the new agreement has become a political headache for the European Commission. Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are not lifting bans on Ukrainian agricultural imports - a move that underscores the challenges of integrating Ukraine’s vast farming sector into the European Union. 'Although Brussels wants to give farmers’ money to Ukraine, we are protecting the resources, the livelihoods of Hungarian producers and our market,” Hungarian Agriculture Minister Nagy wrote on Facebook on Monday, as he and his EU peers met in Brussels. How Ukraine’s enormous agricultural capacity - 42 million hectares of cultivated land, the largest in Europe - would affect the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which distributes funds based on farm size? Romanian President Dan, whose country also borders Ukraine, have spoken openly about the issue. According to him, the risks of imbalances for the EU are significant, especially since Ukraine 'does not currently meet the standards that we impose on the agricultural sector in the EU." (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France)

28/10/2025  Nordic leaders have ruled out the idea of issuing common debt at the European Union level to provide a €140 billion reparations loan to Ukraine, insisting the money should come from immobilised Russian assets rather than national budgets - project, known as a 'reparations loan', which was blocked last week by Belgium, which holds the bulk of the frozen assets from the Russian Central Bank. Member states, and Belgium in particular, are waiting for the Commission to present its options paper, which might lay out 'alternatives, such as loans and grants for Ukraine backed by the EU budget, national contributions or a mix of both'. (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France)

October 27, 2025  Commission chief der Leyen eyes final signing of Mercosur deal on Dec. 20. She would jet into Brazil to ink the accord as long as EU capitals give the green light. EU leaders plan to hold their final summit of 2025 on Dec. 18-19. Initially, the expectation was for the partnership agreement to require unanimous support - as is usually required when deals touch on areas of national competence, such as investment and political cooperation. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

Russia
October 29, 2025, 11:26 AM  As of 2025, energy is as much a vulnerability as it is an asset. The U.S. government appears to have coordinated with the EU and United Kingdom. Among the factors making this obvious are Ukrainian strikes against Russian infrastructure, ’the EU’s phaseout of Russian oil and gas purchases’, and U.S. sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil. Last week, the EU adopted the 19th sanctions package against Russia. On Oct. 15, the U.K. unveiled sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, as well, alongside sanctions on India’s Nayara refinery, four oil terminals in China, and 44 shadow fleet vessels. The new sanctions will complicate doing business with the Russian majors as financing, insurance, and shipping costs go up. China and India appear to have reduced or even suspended oil purchases. Yet they can resume imports, should the Trump administration shift its focus away from Russia. Furthermore, both Rosneft and Lukoil hold assets across Europe and elsewhere in the world. If they somehow win exemptions, the sanctions’ impact will be mitigated. The privately-owned Lukoil announced it would be selling its international assets. In the aftermath of its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian exports of crude stayed at a stable 5 million barrels per day. Refined product found its way to the European market. Russia’s annual energy revenues averaged around $190 billion, or around 9 percent of its nominal GDP, in 2024. Oil is even more important to the Russian economy than gas, and Rosneft and Lukoil account for around 50 percent of Russia’s upstream production of it. The state-owned Rosneft alone contributes about 17 percent of the Russian Federation’s budget revenues. Since August, Ukrainian drones ’have hit 21 of Russia’s 38 large refineries’ which have a combined capacity of around 123 million tons per year or 45 percent of Russia’s total output. Combined with strikes against storage and pipeline capacity, the total damage is estimated at about $706.5 million. These strikes have also forced Russia to shift its exports from refined product to crude oil, which reduces profits. The price cap currently stands at $47.6 per barrel. Gasoline shortages are starting to affect ordinary Russians as several regions have reported empty filling stations and lines of motorists. In 2021, Russia accounted for 45 percent of the EU’s gas imports. Now, that share is down to 11 percent. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) from global suppliers, including the United States, replaces Russian imports. ’This week, EU energy ministers approved legislation that requires companies to phase out long-term contracts - whether pipeline gas or LNG - by the end of 2027’. The deadline for most short-term contracts is next January. As a result, even countries such as Hungary and Slovakia ’will have to find other suppliers’. Some of Russia’s gas might still end up in Europe via intermediaries such as Turkey and Azerbaijan. But while this might result in limited profits for Russia, it won’t come with geopolitical influence to build cozy relationships with governments and national champions throughout Europe. Moscow discovered that consumers wield as much power as producers. Russia was able to switch some of the gas flows from the EU to China, where sales jumped from 16.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2021 to a record 31 bcm in 2024. During Putin’s visit to Beijing in September, China and Russia signed a deal on the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, which could add another 50 bcm. Even after the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, which will connect Urengoy in northern Russia to China’s gas grid via Mongolia, comes online, its volume would be far below the 155 bcm that the EU imported in 2021. Beijing is driving a hard bargain on the price and other commercial conditions around the contracts with Russia. Russia will probably take a Chinese loan to finance the pipeline’s construction, and it will be receiving payments in yuan, tying it even closer to China. Domestic prices have risen by roughly 30 percent since the start of the war, adding to Russia’s problem with inflation. Russia is still a major player on the world’s energy market. It accounts for around 10 percent of global oil production and 15 percent of global natural gas production. The Russian economy has proven resilient, with the likes of China and India helping Moscow fend off Western sanctions. But military Keynesianism - pumping money generated by the sale of commodities abroad to boost the defense industries, salaries in the state sector, and welfare spending - is running its course. With growth falling from 4.3 percent of GDP to a projected 1-1.3 percent in 2025 and 2026, new Western energy sanctions are adding to chronic stagnation. The international oil market has remained surprisingly stable, as OPEC+ announced plans to raise output. To maintain stability, the government must dip deeper into the state budget. (Source: Foreign Policy - U.S.)
by Bechev, director of the Dahrendorf Programme at St. Antony’s College’s European Studies Centre, the author of Rival Power: Russia in Southeast Europe and Turkey Under Erdogan.

North America

United States
October 30, 2025, Thursday  Are the world’s major powers once again on the brink of an arms race unseen since the Cold War? US President Trump has announced that the United States will resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time in three decades. ’Because of other countries' testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately,’ the President posted on Truth Social. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed by President Clinton in 1996 but never ratified by the US Senate, has prohibited all nuclear explosions worldwide. In 2023, Russia withdrew its ratification of the treaty, claiming the move was necessary to maintain parity with Washington. Moscow stated it would only resume nuclear tests if the United States did so first. Trump’s new order effectively meets that condition. The announcement came just a day after Russian President Putin confirmed Moscow had successfully tested the Poseidon nuclear-powered underwater drone. Poseidon is a massive, unmanned underwater vehicle reportedly measuring around 20 meters in length and weighing about 100 tons. Russian media claim it can travel at speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour, dive deeper than 1,000 meters, and strike coastal regions with devastating radioactive waves. The recent test of the Poseidon followed Moscow’s successful launch of a Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile on October 21, and subsequent nuclear launch drills the following day. Putin also recently signed a law terminating a long-defunct plutonium disposal agreement with the United States, which had been intended to limit the production of weapons-grade plutonium. The original deal, signed in 2000, required both nations to dispose of 34 tons of such material no longer needed for military use. Resuming tests would be seen by both Russia and China as a direct assertion of American strategic dominance. The move underscores a growing tension between Washington, Moscow, and Beijing over nuclear modernization. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)

(30 October 2025)  Between 1945 — with the first ever atomic bomb test in New Mexico on July 16 - and 1992, the United States has conducted 1,054 nuclear tests and carried out two nuclear attacks on Japan during World War II. The last US nuclear test explosion was in September 1992, with a 20-kilotonne underground detonation at the Nevada Nuclear Security Site. In October 1992, then-President Bush imposed a moratorium on further tests, which was continued by successive administrations. Nuclear testing was replaced by non-nuclear and subcritical experiments using advanced computer simulations. (Source: TRTWorld - Turkey)

Caribbean

Jamaica
Oct 28, 2025, 05:42 AM EDT  Hurricane Melissa, the devastating Category 5 storm with 295 kph winds, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history since recordkeeping began 174 years ago, makes landfall in Jamaica. Jamaica’s highest mountains could see gusts of up to 322 kph. A life-threatening storm surge of up to 4 meters is expected across southern Jamaica. 'There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5," Prime Minister Andrew Holness said. "The question now is the speed of recovery." The storm is expected slice diagonally across the island and head for Cuba. (Source: Huff Post - U.S.)

Trinidad and Tobago
Oct 28, 2025  Trinidad has a population of about 1.4 million people. It is sometimes used by smugglers to store and sort drugs before shipping them to Europe and North America. Trinidad is now hosting one of the U.S. warships involved in a campaign to destroy Venezuelan speedboats allegedly carrying drugs to the United States. Venezuelan President Maduro said that he was left with no choice but to pull out of treaties signed with Trinidad ten years ago. A 2015 agreement enables neighboring countries to carry out joint natural gas exploration projects in the waters between both nations. Trinidad and Venezuela are separated by a small bay that is just 11 kilometers wide at its narrowest point. (Source: The Korea Times - South Korea / AP - U.S.)

.5 10 28 22:56

.

France
(Sunday), 26 October 2025  Two suspects have been arrested yesterday evening over the theft of precious crown jewels from Paris's Louvre museum. One of the suspects was preparing to travel to Algeria, while it's understood the other was going to Mali. The suspects arrived with a vehicle-mounted mechanical lift to gain access to the Galerie d'Apollon via a balcony close to the River Seine. The only camera monitoring the exterior wall of the Louvre where they broke in was pointing away from the first-floor balcony that led to Gallery of Apollo. A ladder was leading up to a first-floor window. Two of the thieves entered by cutting through the window with power tools. They cut through the glass of two display cases containing jewels. One in three rooms in the area of the museum raided had no CCTV cameras. French police say the thieves were inside for four minutes and made their escape on two scooters waiting outside at 09:38. Items worth €88m ($102m) were taken from the world's most-visited museum last Sunday. (Source: Daily Mirror - Sri Lanka / BBC - United Kingdom)

October 23, 2025  Amid ongoing negotiations on the country’s 2026 budget, French lawmakers have voted in favor of a fivefold increase on the taxation of tech giants. The amendment would raise the digital services tax on tech giants from 3 percent to 15 percent. It would also lift the global revenue threshold from €750 million to €2 billion - shielding smaller national players from the scope of the tax. The proposal was put forward by Cazeneuve, a member of President Macron’s party. This measure clearly shows that we don’t have to wait for Europe, said Coquerel, a left-wing MP who heads up the finance committee. I urge France to work cooperatively to address U.S. concerns rather than doubling down on these discriminatory taxes, Republican U.S. representative Smith, who is chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, wrote in a post on X. The 2026 budget will go to a plenary vote in the National Assembly on Nov. 4. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

Germany
23 October 2025  During a summit in London, German Chancellor Merz bows to pressure over immigrants: ‘They’re indispensable.’ Merz’ comments came after some casual remarks of his on migration on October 14 had caused an uproar on the German Left. Many of these also shape the public image of our cities. That is why so many people in Germany and other EU countries  – and not just Germany – are now simply afraid to move around in public spaces, Merz said. He added: 'This applies to railway stations, subway trains and certain parks. This issue dominates certain areas of our cities which is also causing great problems for our police.' In a survey by pollster INSA for newspaper Bild, 43 per cent of respondents said the urban landscape of their hometowns had taken a turn for the worse since 2015. The areas that cause Germans to feel most unsafe are railway stations (51 per cent), parks (35 per cent) and city centres (30 per cent). (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

21 October 2025  Three armed men stopped a bus on a motorway in Bavaria yesterday at 3:30am, robbing passengers at gunpoint. (Source: Brussels Signal – Belgium)

Lithuania
October 29, 2025  Dozens of balloons carrying illegally transported cigarettes sparked fears for civil aviation and drew rebuke from Vilnius, which described the incursions as a hybrid war tactic 'against the West'. In a statement issued yesterday by the bloc’s top diplomat, Kallas, on behalf of member countries, the EU said it strongly condemns Belarus' 'persistent and provocative actions' after the airborne objects forced Lithuania to close its airports and shut its border with the neighboring nation this week. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

October 21, 2025  Yesterday, prime minister Ruginienė stripped the defense minister Šakalienė of responsibility for the defense industry, after the PM lost trust in her over the defense budget. Ruginienė last week criticized fellow Social Democrat Šakalienė for lobbying on the budget behind the government’s back. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

Poland
23 October 2025  In a heated exchange with his Hungarian counterpart Szijjártó on social media yesterday, Polish foreign minister Sikorski has said he hopes that Ukrainian forces succeed in destroying an oil pipeline that supplies Hungary with Russian oil. Orbán, chief political adviser to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (no relation), reacted by accusing Sikorski of war hysteria and of harming Polish-Hungarian relations. The exchange between Sikorski and Szijjártó had started with Sikorski stating he was proud of the court decision earlier in October to set free a Ukrainian who had been detained on an arrest warrant issued by Germany. He was held for his alleged role in destroying the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. 'I am proud of an independent court’s decision that decided that acts of sabotage against an invader are not a crime,' argued Sikorski. Sikorski and Hungary have also been at odds this month over the postponed Budapest summit on the Ukraine war between the Russian President Putin and US President Trump. Poland’s foreign minister warned the Russians that he could not guarantee Putin’s safe passage through Poland’s airspace. Szijjártó reacted to that by criticising the decision. PM Orbán is arguing for peace initiatives and the Poles are backing Ukraine. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

21.10.2025  Poland, Sweden signed defense pact to boost arms cooperation. Officials from both countries met in Warsaw for the Polish-Swedish Defense Industry Forum. Memorandum aims to enhance cooperation in defense sectors, expand joint initiatives in arms production and military training. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Sweden
22/10/2025  Ukrainian and Swedish leaders signed a cooperation deal, which would see Sweden buy fighter jets from its domestic company Saad before exporting them to Ukraine. They eye export deal for up to 150 fighter jets. (Source: France 24)

Russia
October 29, 2025 11:13am EDT  Russian president Putin hails successful test of nuclear-powered underwater torpedo as a major step in the country’s strategic weapons program. ’For the first time, we managed not only to launch it with a launch engine from a carrier submarine, but also to launch the nuclear power unit on which this device passed a certain amount of time,’ Putin said. The Poseidon’s power significantly exceeds the power of even our most promising Sarmat intercontinental-range missile, he said, referring to Russia's SATAN II model. The Poseidon, first unveiled in 2018, is designed to travel across oceans at high speeds using nuclear propulsion and carry a massive warhead. Putin also cited progress on other strategic systems, including the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, which Moscow says can fly indefinitely and evade missile defenses. Russian officials reported a successful test flight of the Burevestnik earlier in the week as part of a broader demonstration of nuclear readiness. The successful Burevestnik test traveled over 8,700 miles, Russia said. U.S. and NATO officials have not independently confirmed the Poseidon test. The Pentagon declined to comment. (Source: Fox News - U.S. / „Reuters (United Kingdom) and The Associated Press (U.S.) contributed”)

October 29, 2025 2:18 PM GMT  Ukraine targeted Russian energy infrastructure with drones and sent several drones towards Moscow for the third straight night. Its forces had struck Russia's Mariysky refinery in the Mari El region, another in the village of Novospasskoye in the Ulyanovsk region, and a gas plant in the town of Budyonnovsk in the southern Stavropol region, Ukraine's General Staff said. In the Budyonnovsk zone Kyiv attacked the Stavrolen chemical plant, a part of Russia's Lukoil group. Stavrolen is one of Russia's main producers of polyethylene and polypropylene. Russian air defence units destroyed a total of 100 Ukrainian drones overnight, including six over the Moscow region, and the rest over 11 regions and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, the Russian defence ministry said. Three of Moscow's four airports, and several others around the country, were closed at some point in the night for safety reasons. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

(October 27, 2025) / Oct. 23-26, 2025  Based on open sources, Mediazona ['independent' Russian media outlet] and BBC News Russian, together with volunteers, have verified the names of 140,101 Russian fighters killed in Ukraine, including 15,562 mobilized soldiers. The typical growth rate is 2,000-2,500 new names every two weeks. (Source: Conflict Intelligence Team - headquarters: Tbilisi, Georgia, since 2022)

(October 27, 2025) / Oct. 23-26, 2025  ' An elderly resident of the city of Krasnoyarsk, K., was abducted on the street and forced under threat of violence to sign a contract with the MoD as part of a unit composed of convicts. K. said that on March 18, 2025, he was stopped by unidentified men who offered him to enlist voluntarily. After he refused, they forced him into a car and took him to a draft office, where he was coerced into signing a contract. He was then taken to a Civil Registry Office, where he was forcibly married to an unknown woman so that she could receive his military payments. His bank card was also confiscated. After that, K. was sent to serve attached to the 15th Motorized Rifle Brigade, which is fighting near the town of Pokrovsk and is among the units with the highest casualty rates '. (Source: Conflict Intelligence Team - headquarters: Tbilisi, Georgia, since 2022)

(October 27, 2025) / Oct. 23-26, 2025      Russia’s financial monitoring agency Rosfinmonitoring is adding between 250 and 350 new names each month to its registry of terrorists and extremists. The list now includes 18,771 people. Over the past two years, the share of minors has risen sharply: since July 2025, one in ten new entries has been under 18. The number of Ukrainians has also increased, including prisoners of war and civilians convicted in Russia under 'terrorism'-related charges. As of July 2025, roughly one in five new additions is Ukrainian.     The Southern District Military Court sentenced Ukrainian serviceman Bezkorovainyi of the Azov Brigade to 17 years in a maximum security penal colony. He was convicted of involvement in a terrorist community and undergoing training for terrorism. Prosecutors claimed that Bezkorovainyi joined the Azov Brigade in the fall of 2020 and, for the next two years, served as a tank gunner who 'participated in armed attacks on settlements and shelling of the civilian population.' Bezkorovainyi defended the Azovstal Steel Factory in Mariupol after the start of the full-scale invasion and was taken prisoner in May 2022. (Source: Conflict Intelligence Team - headquarters Tbilisi, Georgia, since 2022)

26 Oct 2025 at 14:51  Russian President Putin hailed the test of a new nuclear-powered cruise missile. The Burevestnik was tested on Oct 21. His military said it flew for about 15 hours, capable of travelling for at least 14,000 kilometres. (Source: Bangkok Post - Thailand)

26 October 2025 6:00am GMT  This month, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) accused Khodorkovsky, who now lives in exile in London, and 22 members of Russia’s Anti-War Committee of plotting a coup. According to the FSB, the committee, which was created to oppose Russia’s war in Ukraine, is vying for the violent seizure of power and overthrow of the constitutional order in the Russian Federation. (Source: The Telegraph - United Kingdom)

23.10.2025  AI race: You can maneuver, you can join. (Source: Valdai Discussion Club - Russia)
by Bazlutskaya

October 23, 2025  To Russia, via Cyprus. According to the records reviewed by the reporting team - Russian Secrets, an investigation led by German media outlets NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung in collaboration with nine media partners - between 2013 and 2024, companies including Norwegian defense giant Kongsberg, Japanese tech conglomerate NEC and U.S. sonar manufacturer EdgeTech traded with a firm called Mostrello Commercial Ltd. For about a decade, numerous defense companies and maritime suppliers sold sonars, underwater robots, fibre optic cables as well as research vessels and other sophisticated technology worth more than $50 million to the Cypriot entity secretly linked to a Russian defense contractor. The Limassol-based entity was controlled by Strelchenko, a businessman whose Moscow-based companies own vessels and lay under-water cables for the Russian defense department. (All the companies have denied wrongdoing). The equipment was intended for a Russian surveillance system code-named “Harmony,” which relies on a constellation of seabed sensors to detect enemy submarines approaching Russian nuclear weapons located in the Barents Sea, off Russia’s north coast. (Source: International Consortium of Investigative Journalists - based in Washington, D.C., U.S.)

23.10.2025  Russia's position on the Ukrainian conflict remains unchanged, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said, including ensuring reliable neutrality, non-alignment, and Ukraine’s nuclear-free status, its demilitarization and “denazification,” developing solid guarantees for rights and freedoms for the Russian-speaking population, as well as unhindered activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. "This serves as a starting point in our dialogue with the United States and other interested countries seeking to make constructive contributions to the cause of settlement," she stressed. Zakharova said the Russian side does not see any significant obstacles to continuing the process initiated by the Russian and US presidents aimed at aligning political frameworks for resolving the Ukrainian crisis and filling them with concrete results. "Yes, this is difficult and painstaking work, but it must be done through diplomatic efforts and instruments rather than leaks or provocations," she said. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Wednesday 22 October 2025 13:16 BST  Russian President Putin today directed drills of the country’s strategic nuclear forces that featured practice missile launches. The Kremlin said that as part of the maneuvers involving all parts of Moscow's nuclear triad, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from the Plesetsk launch facility in northwestern Russia, and a Sineva ICBM was launched by a submarine in the Barents Sea. The drills also involved Tu-95 strategic bombers firing long-range cruise missiles. Putin emphasized that the maneuvers had been planned in advance. /Source: The Independent - United Kingdom; "Via AP (U.S.) news wire"/

21.10.2025  Trump’s Gaza Peace Deal and Israel’s prospects. (Source: Valdai Discussion Club - Russia)
by Bordachev

October 21, 2025 7:39 PM GMT+2  Russia reiterated its previous terms for reaching a peace deal with Ukraine in a private communique sent to the U.S. over the weekend known as a "non paper" - diplomatic speak for an informal document meant to communicate one party's position to another. The communique reiterated Russia's demand that it take control of all of Ukraine's Donbas region. Russia also reiterated its previous stance in the non paper that no NATO troops be deployed to Ukraine as part of any peace agreement. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

October 21, 2025 1:30 PM GMT+2  Russia said today its conditions for peace in Ukraine remained unchanged since the August summit between U.S. President Trump and Russian President Putin, and that it was unclear when their next meeting would take place. Lavrov told reporters he was surprised by an unscrupulous CNN report which said that the anticipated Rubio-Lavrov meeting had been put on hold for the time being and that unidentified U.S. officials felt that Russia still had a maximalist stance. "I want to officially confirm: Russia has not changed its position compared to the understandings that were reached during the Alaska summit," Lavrov told reporters, adding that he had told Rubio precisely that. Putin's foreign minister of more than 21 years dismissed European demands to simply halt the war without any deeper understanding of how to address the root causes. One of Putin's most important conditions for ending the war is a demand that Western leaders pledge in writing to stop enlarging NATO eastwards. The Kremlin's conditions for long-lasting peace included that Ukraine would remain non-nuclear and non-aligned - not joining the U.S.-led NATO alliance - as well as protections for Russian-speakers in Ukraine. Putin has repeatedly said he is ready to talk about peace. Ukraine and its European allies have long insisted on an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine at current battle lines before peace talks. Moscow has said it wants Ukraine to cede more territory as one of several conditions it has raised for a ceasefire. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Ukraine
October 26, 2025 at 09:17 am  Kyiv and its surrounding region were under air raid alerts for about 1-1/2 hours before the air force called them off at about 0030 GMT. 14 people were injured in Russia’s overnight air attack on Kyiv. (Source: TimesLIVE - South Africa / Reuters - United Kingdom)

October 25, 2025  Ukraine deludes itself and Saab about its prospects. On the surface, Kyiv’s agreement with Saab to build domestic air defense systems inside Ukraine will help it in its war against Russia. In reality, it will make no difference. (Source: The National Interest – U.S.)
By Weichert

Vatican
(Thursday), 23/10/2025  Today, Pope Leo XIV prayed publicly with Britain's King Charles III at the Vatican in a service broadcast live on Vatican media. It was the first joint prayer meeting between the heads of the English and Roman Catholic Churches since English monarch Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1534. The 76-year-old monarch holds the title of supreme governor of the mother church of Anglicanism. It was Charles's first meeting with Pope Leo, who took over as head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics in May. The king and queen joined an ecumenical service at midday (1000 GMT) in the Sistine Chapel led by Leo and the Archbishop of York, Cottrell, currently the senior cleric of the Church of England. The service, held beneath Michelangelo's spectacular ceiling frescoes, brought together Catholic and Anglican traditions, with the choir from the Sistine Chapel joined by that of Saint George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. In 1961, the late Queen Elizabeth II, Charles's mother, became the first British monarch to visit the Holy See since the split. Charles has visited the Vatican several times and met privately with Pope Francis on April 9, just days before the pontiff's death. The king sent his son and heir William to the funeral and his brother Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh, to Leo's inauguration mass. The religious break between London and Rome remains. The law was changed in 2013 so that marrying a Catholic would no longer disqualify someone from becoming monarch – although they still have to be a Protestant themselves. Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England – the mother church of the world's 85-million-strong Anglican community – ordains women and allows priests to marry. Mullally was recently named the first female archbishop of Canterbury, the Church's top cleric, although she has yet to officially take up her post. Charles and Queen Camilla are also set to take part in a service at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, one of four major papal basilicas, which has historic links with the English crown. The king will be made a "Royal Confrater" of the basilica and presented with a specially designed seat for use by him and future British monarchs. (Source: France 24 with AFP)

NATO

(October 29, 2025)  The US still has more troops deployed in Europe than it did before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. It is withdrawing some troops from Romania, on NATO’s eastern flank. The US is sending home the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division back to Kentucky and will not be replacing the unit after its scheduled rotation out of Eastern Europe. The Army said the reduction in troops is part of Secretary of Defense Hegseth’s “deliberate process to ensure a balanced U.S. military force posture.” “This is not an American withdrawal from Europe or a signal of lessened commitment to NATO and Article 5,” the Army press release said. “Rather this is a positive sign of increased European capability and responsibility. Our NATO allies are meeting President Trump’s call to take primary responsibility for the conventional defense of Europe. This force posture adjustment will not change the security environment in Europe.” The Pentagon works to shift its focus away from Europe and toward homeland defense and Latin America. Approximately one thousand American soldiers will remain deployed on our national territory, Romania’s Ministry of Defense said. The US troops will be pulled from Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base on the Black Sea, just across from Crimea which remains under de facto Russian control. NATO defense planners are watching closely to see whether the US moves to further downsize its presence there, since that would likely require that NATO reconsider how allied troops are deployed across the continent. (Source: CNN - U.S.)

.5 10 27 10:28

.

Europe

Ireland
October 25, 2025  Ireland elected a lawmaker president, the left-wing, socialist  Connolly in anti-government landslide. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

European Commission
27 Oct (2025)  Europe’s Ukraine loan is a bad bet. France, hovering on the verge of a debt crisis, spends almost nothing on Ukraine. The UK and Germany are the biggest contributors, but even together they can’t begin to fill the gap left by Trump’s decision to cut America’s support for Ukraine to the minimum. Trump will supply weapons only for as long as the cash-strapped Europeans pay for it. But as the latest statistics from the Kiel Institute Ukraine Support Tracker attest, there has been a sharp fall in Western military support for Ukraine from an average monthly spend of just under €4 billion in the first half of the year to a little over €2 billion in July and August. This is entirely due to lower spending by Europe. To keep the war going, the Europeans' €150 billion loan to Ukraine should keep the show on the road for another year. But the Europeans still have no strategy for ending the war, yet Putin has good reason to believe he can achieve his military goal of occupying the entirety of the Donbas region. He outspends the West, he has a lot more troops, and he has made some progress recently. The odds are in his favour. If, then, Putin prevails, the peace talks will not only be about the land and the post-war security arrangements. The Russians will want their confiscated assets back. Putin will get his money. And the European taxpayer, who never approved these loans in the first place, will have to pay out, with voters being forced to eat Brussels’ toxic seafood stew. (Source: UnHerd - United Kingdom)

25.10.202  Europe is striving for independence from Chinese critical raw materials, European Commission chief der Leyen says. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Norway
October 25, 2025  Russia is reinforcing its presence at a base in the Arctic Circle, including nuclear weapons pointed towards the United States, according to Norwegian Defense Minister Sandvik. He discussed Russia's military situation - referring to a region of Russia inside the Arctic Circle, near Finland - in an interview with British newspaper The Daily Telegraph that was published yesterday. Russia is building up on the Kola Peninsula…where one of the largest arsenals of nuclear warheads in the world is located. They [the nuclear weapons] are not only pointed towards Norway, but towards the UK and over the pole towards Canada and the US, Sandvik said. He continued: ’We are the eyes and ears of NATO in this area, and we see that they're testing new weapons, for example hypersonic missiles, and they are testing nuclear-driven torpedoes and nuclear warheads.’ Russia bases nuclear weapons on the Kola Peninsula along with its Northern Fleet which was established in 1733. Sandvik argued that ’in the event of war’ with NATO Russia would likely target the Bear Gap, which separates the island of Svalbard from mainland Norway, along with the GIUK Gap between the UK, Iceland and Greenland. Putin needs to control the Bear Gap to make sure that he can use his submarines and the Northern Fleet. And he wants to deny [NATO] allies access to the GIUK Gap, he said. ’They have a new frigate and a new multi-role submarine, developed just in the last two years. The most threatening thing about Russia right now is its submarines. Even though Russia is not able to win in Ukraine, the threat of nuclear warheads and second strike capacity from up here [Kola Peninsula] makes them a superpower still,’ during the interview Sandvik commented. (Source: Miami Herald = Newsweek = U.S.)

Asia

Japan
Oct 27, 2025  During his stay from Oct 27 to Oct 29 in Japan, US President Trump will meet Emperor Naruhito, hold talks with new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and make a speech on the USS George Washington aircraft carrier. The US President will also sign deals on critical minerals and shipbuilding. Tokyo is Washington’s closest regional ally. A security treaty obliges the United States to defend Japan if it is attacked and allows US troops to be stationed there - around 60,000 US military personnel currently in Japan. Mr Trump has said he wants Tokyo to pay more to host. If the US were attacked, Japan “doesn’t have to help us at all” and is free to “watch it on a Sony television”, Mr Trump said in his first term. Multiple sexual assaults by American troops in Japan have angered many Japanese over the years. Long-pacifist Japan is adopting a more muscular military stance as relations with China worsen. Ms Takaichi – who only became Prime Minister last week – said on Oct 24 that Japan’s target of spending two per cent of its gross domestic product on defence would be achieved this fiscal year, two years earlier than planned. ’US officials want Japan to spend even more, potentially matching the five per cent of GDP’ pledged by Nato members – except Spain – in June. Japan has moved to acquire ’counter-strike’ capabilities including Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US. It plans to deploy domestically developed, longer-range Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles to military bases. Under the terms of their July trade deal, Japan is expected to invest US$550 billion in the US, according to the White House. Japan has said though that only one per cent to two per cent of what Mr Trump calls a signing bonus will be actual investment, with the rest covered by loans and loan guarantees. Most Japanese imports into the US are subject to tariffs of 15 per cent. Japan’s US-bound car exports slumped 24 per cent in September in value terms year-on-year, a blow for an automotive sector that accounts for around eight per cent of jobs in the Asian nation. Washington also wants Japan to stop buying Russian energy, to import US gas and to invest in a long-stalled pipeline project in Alaska. Mr Trump wants Japan to import more American products, including rice and cars, particularly “very beautiful’ Ford F-150 pickup trucks. Japan might buy 100 of them for road and dam inspections, and display some outside the state guesthouse when Mr Trump visits, local media said. (Source: The Straits Times - Singapore / AFP – France)

Australia

October 25, 2025  President  Trump inks a deal with Australia on critical minerals. (Source: Fox News - U.S.)
Video

North America

Canada
26.10.25 US  President Trump said yesterday he was increasing tariffs on Canada by an additional 10 per cent "above what they're paying now," as he reacted again to an ad by Canada's Ontario province. Trump announced the higher tariffs in a Truth Social post, referencing the ad, which features a video of former President Reagan, a Republican icon, saying that tariffs cause trade wars and economic disaster, job losses and trade wars. The ad does not mention that Reagan was using the address to explain that tariffs imposed on Japan by his administration should be seen as a sadly unavoidable exception to his basic belief in free trade as the key to prosperity. (Source: The Telegraph - India)

United States
Sunday, October 26, 2025  A fighter jet and a helicopter based off the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz both crashed into the South China Sea within 30 minutes of each other today afternoon, the Navy’s Pacific Fleet said. Another aircraft carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman, suffered a series of mishaps in recent months while deployed to the Middle East. In December, the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg mistakenly shot down an F/A-18 jet from the Truman. Then, in April, another F/A-18 fighter jet slipped off the Truman’s hangar deck and fell into the Red Sea. And in May, an F/A fighter jet landing on the carrier in the Red Sea went overboard after apparently failing to catch the steel cables used to stop landing planes and forcing its two pilots to eject. No sailors were killed in any of those mishaps. (Source: The Washington Times / Associated Press = U.S.)

Oct 24, 2025  President Trump confirmed last week that he had authorized the CIA to engage in covert operations against the Venezuelan government. He said on Wednesday that his administration was moving to target drug cartels on land. The U.S. Navy’s supercarrier USS Gerald R. Ford - currently on a scheduled deployment in the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea on a scheduled deployment - and at least a portion of the rest of its strike group have been ordered to Caribbean waters. American forces are now regularly striking small boats alleged to be involved in drug smuggling. Just earlier today, Secretary of War Hegseth announced the ninth such strike known to have occured since the start of September. To date, seven of the strikes have targeted boats in the Caribbean, while two more have occured in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The impending arrival of the Ford Carrier Strike Group signals U.S. operations in the Western Hemisphere are entering a new phase. Strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats have now become routine, and the possibility that the campaign could extend to targets on land, particularly in Venezuela, continues to grow. There are already multiple Arleigh Burke class destroyers, as well as a Ticonderoga class cruiser, in the region that could also join with Ford and its escorts, including to help provide protection for the carrier. Ford, the Navy’s newest carrier, currently has a full air wing embarked, which includes F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighters, EA-18G Growler electronic warfare jets, E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning and control planes, C-2A Greyhound Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) aircraft, and MH-60R/S Seahawk helicopters. The rest of its strike group includes four Arleigh Burke class destroyers – USS Winston S. Churchill, USS Bainbridge, USS Mahan, and USS Forrest Sherman – and likely at least one attack submarine. It is likely to take Ford at least a week to get back across the Mediterranean and then the Atlantic Ocean. (Source: TWZ - U.S.)

South America

Argentina
(Monday), 27/10/2025  Libertarian president Milei scored sweeping victories in yesterday’s midterm elections, winning key districts - including parts of Buenos Aires for the first time - and securing a strong mandate to advance his free-market agenda, now bolstered by billions in support from the Trump administration. (Source: France 24)

Colombia
October 24, 2025  The U.S. last month added Colombia, the top recipient of American assistance in the region, to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years. President Petro has pushed back against the strikes that have killed at least 37 people since they started last month, with the latest two targeting vessels in the eastern Pacific, where Colombia has a coastline. This week, the Trump administration expanded its crackdown to the eastern Pacific Ocean, where much of the cocaine from the world's largest producers, including Colombia, is smuggled. Trump was referring to Petro on social media in recent days as an illegal drug leader. After Trump accused him of having ties to drug trafficking, Petro on Wednesday said he would resort to the U.S. court system to defend himself. A day earlier, Petro's anti-drug policy was the subject of a meeting between him and the U.S. chargé d'affaires in Colombia, McNamara. McNamara also met with Foreign Minister Villavicencio Mapy yesterday. Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity, Treasury Secretary Bessent said in a statement. The Trump administration imposed sanctions today on Colombian President Petro, his family and a member of his government, Colombian Interior Minister Benedetti, over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade. The leftist leader is one of the closest U.S. allies in South America. Petro has repeatedly defended his policy, which moves away from a repressive approach and prioritizes reaching agreements with growers of coca leaf to encourage them to switch to other crops, pursuing major drug lords and combating money laundering. He has said his government has achieved record cocaine seizures and questioned U.N. figures showing record coca leaf cultivation and cocaine production. The amount of land dedicated to cultivating coca, has almost tripled in the past decade to a record 253,000 hectares in 2023, according to the latest report available from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, the Pentagon announced today. (Source: NPR / The Associated Press = U.S.)

Globalization

October 27, 2025, Monday  The World Justice Project is an international NGO focused on promoting the rule of law worldwide. In the 2025 report - Rule of Law Index - Denmark continues to lead the EU in rule of law performance. Ireland is showing notable progress. Poland 'have registered the largest improvements compared to previous years'. The report highlights that over two-thirds of EU member states have experienced a decline in rule of law standards, with Slovakia and Hungary recording 'the most significant setbacks'. "Bulgaria and Hungary rank lowest' among European Union countries in the index. (Source: Novinite - Bulgaria)

 5 10 28 10:10

.

China
October 23, 2025 8:57 PM GMT+2 Updated October 24, 2025  Chinese state oil majors have suspended purchases of seaborne Russian oil after the United States imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, Moscow's two biggest oil companies. Chinese national oil companies PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC and Zhenhua Oil will refrain from dealing in seaborne Russian oil at least in the short-term. Unipec, the trading arm of Sinopec stopped Russian oil buying last week after Britain designated Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as shadow fleet ships and Chinese entities including a major Chinese refiner. China also imports approximately 900,000 bpd of Russian oil by pipeline, all of it going to PetroChina, which was likely to be little affected by sanctions. Rosneft and Lukoil sell most of their oil to China through intermediaries instead of directly dealing with buyers. The move comes as refiners in India, the largest buyer of seaborne Russian oil, are set to sharply cut their crude imports from Moscow, to comply with the U.S. sanctions. While China imports roughly 1.4 million barrels of Russian oil per day by sea, most of that is bought by independent refiners, including small operators known as teapots, although estimates of purchases by state refiners vary widely. A sharp drop in oil demand from Russia’s two largest customers will force the world’s top importers to seek alternative supplies and pushing up global prices for non-sanctioned oil from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Oct 23, 2025  China said today it opposes recent sanctions slapped by the United States on the two largest Russian oil companies over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, saying they had “no basis in international law”. At the same press conference, Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman, Mr Guo criticised sanctions on Russia agreed on Oct 22 by the European Union whose targets included Chinese companies, saying Beijing was “strongly dissatisfied'. “The European side is in no position to make irresponsible remarks about the normal exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and Russian enterprises.” (Source: The Straits Times - Singapore)

Gaza
October 22, 2025  Egypt wants the Gaza stabilisation force envisaged in US President Trump's peace plan to be led by US forces and include Turkey, as part of its conditions for participating. Cairo seeks up to 10-year ceasefire to allow Hamas and other armed factions to transform into political groups. US Vice President Vance, US special envoy Witkoff and Mr Trump's son-in-law Kushner were in the Middle East this week to cement the ceasefire and discuss the next phases of the plan. Egypt's chief of intelligence, Rashad, visited Israel yesterday to discuss the plan with US and Israeli officials. He was due to hold talks with Sheikh, Vice President of the Palestinian Authority, and Farag, the Palestinian Authority's intelligence chief, in Cairo later today. After his talks with Mr Vance, the Israeli leader said decisions on the stabilisation force would be made in discussion with the US. However, he appeared to reject any role for Turkey in the force. (Source: The National - United Arab Emirates)

19.10.2025  1 German brigadier general, 2 military staff officers from the Operational Command of the Bundeswehr join US-led Civil Military Coordination Center next week to help monitor ceasefire, coordinate security measures, oversee aid delivery. They will serve uniformed but unarmed at the CMCC in southern Israel. The announcement follows German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's earlier commitment to provide strong political, financial, and technical support for the Gaza ceasefire plan while stopping short of committing troops to the planned International Stabilization Force. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

India
Friday 17 October 2025  US president Trump has claimed that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has agreed to halt the import of Russian oil during a conversation on Wednesday. That’s a big step. Now I’ve got to get China to do the same thing, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House, referring to Mr Modi. New Delhi has clarified that the discussions on the topic are ongoing. The US has directed its anger towards India for taking advantage of the discounted prices offered by Moscow. The Trump administration imposed secondary sanctions on India with a 50 per cent tariff on goods from the country as a punishment for India’s reliance on Russian energy. “India is a significant importer of oil and gas. It has been our consistent priority to safeguard the interests of the Indian consumer in a volatile energy scenario. Our import policies are guided entirely by this objective,” Jaiswal, a spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said in Thursday’s statement. “Ensuring stable energy prices and secured supplies have been the twin goals of our energy policy. This includes broad-basing our energy sourcing and diversifying as appropriate to meet market conditions,” the statement added. “Where the US is concerned, we have for many years sought to expand our energy procurement. This has steadily progressed in the last decade. The current Administration has shown interest in deepening energy cooperation with India. Discussions are ongoing,” it said. India, which is the world’s largest importer of oil, has become a major importer of Russian crude since the start of the war in 2022, from buying almost nothing before the invasion. India imported 1.62 million barrels per day in September, roughly one-third of the country's oil imports. However, China remains the largest buyer of Russian energy through both seaborne and pipeline imports. India has accused Washington of singling out New Delhi as Mr Trump has largely avoided placing similar pressure on China. The US is now ramping up pressure on Japan to stop importing Russian energy. Japan continues to buy Sakhalin Blend crude – a byproduct of liquefied natural gas (LNG) production from the Sakhalin-2 project in Russia’s Far East. The energy source remains crucial for Japan, providing about 9 per cent of its total LNG imports. “Japan will do what it can based on the basic principle of coordinating with G7 countries to achieve peace in Ukraine in a fair manner,” Japanese finance minister Kato told reporters when asked whether Japan was urged by the US treasury secretary Bessent to stop importing Russian energy. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

(October 16, 2025)  India and Brazil today agreed to significantly expand their existing trade agreement between India and the MERCOSUR bloc, deepening the existing Preferential Trade Agreement signed on 17 June 2003. (Source: DD News - India)

Iran
19/10/2025, Sunday  Iran, Russia and China have jointly notified the United Nations - through an official communication sent yesterday to the United Nations secretary-general and the Security Council - that the nuclear agreement with Tehran has been formally terminated, ending the Security Council's consideration of Iran's nuclear program. This development follows the E3's August 28 announcement activating the snapback mechanism, which itself came after the United States' unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear agreement. The three powers criticized the collectively known as the E3 European powers – the United Kingdom, France and Germany - for their handling of the agreement's final stages, for what they described as a legally flawed attempt to reimpose UN sanctions against Iran through the snapback mechanism. The letter argued that these European parties lack the standing to invoke its provisions having themselves ceased to fulfill their commitments under both the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and UN Security Council Resolution 2231. According to the communication, all provisions of Resolution 2231 reached their predetermined conclusion on October 18, 2025, in accordance with the resolution's operative paragraph 8. The Iranian Foreign Ministry separately confirmed that the 10-year period defined by the resolution, originally adopted on July 20, 2015, had officially expired, terminating all restrictions and mechanisms related to Iran's nuclear program as of that date. The three countries called for refraining from unilateral sanctions, threats of force, or any actions that could escalate regional tensions. They urged all parties to maintain commitment to finding a political settlement through diplomatic engagement and dialogue based on mutual respect. (Source: Yeni Şafak - Turkey)

Israel
Thursday 23/10/2025  Israeli Knesset approves West Bank annexation bills in test to US and challenge to peace efforts. US Secretary of State Rubio said the steps taken by parliament and settler violence threatened the Gaza peace deal. (Source: The Arab Weekly - publication put out in London, United Kingdom)

Kazakhstan
October 20, 2025 4:08 PM GMT+2  A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Orenburg gas plant has forced neighbouring Kazakhstan to reduce production at its Karachaganak oil and gas condensate field by 25% to 30%. One of the world's largest gas processing plants, Orenburg was forced to suspend its intake of gas from Kazakhstan after the attack, Kazakhstan's energy ministry said today. Karachaganak produced around 263,000 bpd of oil in 2024. It is exported by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium via a Russian Black Sea terminal, as well as through Russia's Druzhba pipeline to Germany. The field is operated by a consortium which includes U.S. major Chevron (18%) and European energy firms Shell (29.25%) and Eni (29.25%). Russia's Lukoil (13.5%) and local firm KazMunayGaz (10%) also hold stakes. Orenburg is controlled by gas producer Gazprom. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Palestine
16 Oct 2025 - 07:36 pm  Palestinian Prime Minister Mustafa said Gaza's recovery will cost an estimated USD 67 billion, covering infrastructure, governance, and public services. He urged global support for a Palestinian-led, Arab-backed Gaza reconstruction. Mustafa spoke at a Ramallah meeting with 100 international and diplomatic representatives, presenting a recovery plan for Gaza with 56 sub-programs across 18 sectors. Mustafa said Gaza's recovery will be led by Palestinian institutions with global support, unfolding in three phases: USD 3.5 billion for early recovery over six months, USD 30 billion for sectoral rebuilding over three years, and long-term comprehensive reconstruction. (Source: The Peninsula - Qatar)

South Korea
October 20, 2025  South Korean President Lee said today the country will devote a larger-than-expected budget in defence and aerospace research until 2030 as it seeks to build the world's fourth-largest defence industry. Arms have become one of South Korea's fastest-growing exports, especially since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, inking multibillion-dollar deals selling everything from howitzers and ammunition to missiles and warships around the world. South Korea ranked 10th in arms sales as of 2023, according to data from 'Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's (SIPRI)' top 100 arms companies data. We will establish technological sovereignty by focusing investment on the development of technologies, parts, and materials that must be secured independently, such as special semiconductors in the defence sector, Lee said. He was speaking at South Korea's largest-ever arms fair, the Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (ADEX) 2025. (Source: AsiaOne - Singapore / Reuters - United Kingdom)

Syria
October 21 2025  "Syria's reconstruction costs are estimated at $216 billion after more than thirteen years of conflict," the World Bank said in its latest report, which it said assessed "infrastructure and building assets, covering the period from 2011 to 2024” "with a conservative best estimate". (Source: Hurriyet Daily News - Turkey)

. 5 10 19 19:15

.

Europe

European Commission
20/10/2025  Energy ministers meeting in Luxembourg approved a plan by the European Commission to phase out both pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Russia by the end of next year. Under the proposal approved today, ’which is expected to win the support of the European Parliament’, Russian gas imports under new contracts will be banned as of January 1, 2026. Several European countries have increased their purchases of Russian LNG transported by sea. Existing contracts will benefit from a transition period, with inflows under short-term contracts allowed until June 17 next year and those under long-term contracts until January 1, 2028. While sanctions need unanimous approval from the EU’s 27 member states, trade restrictions only require the backing of a weighted majority of 15 countries. Russia currently accounts for 12 percent of EU gas imports, down from 45 percent before its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with Hungary, France and Belgium among the countries still receiving Russian gas. Hungary and Slovakia opposed the move. ’The real impact of this regulation is that our safe supply of energy in Hungary is going to be killed,’ Budapest’s top diplomat, Szijjártó, told. His government says the landlocked country needs to import gas from Russia due to geographical constraints. /Source: France 24 'and AFP (France); Reuters (United Kingdom)'/

European Council
23/10/2025  The European Union today agreed the 19th sanctions package targeting Russia’s ’shadow fleet’ of oil tankers and banning imports of Russian liquefied natural gas. It adds 117 vessels to the list of ships banned from European ports for helping Russia move oil outside price caps and other restrictions. The so-called “shadow fleet” now stands at 558 tankers. New contracts for Russian liquefied natural gas will be banned from 1 January 2026. Short-term contracts already in place may continue until 17 June 2026. Long-term supply deals can run until 1 January 2028 under a transition phase. The Danish EU presidency confirmed the measures. It said they are designed to cut Russian energy income. The announcement follows new sanctions announced yesterday by the United States. It targeted Russia’s two largest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft. ’EU officials said the coordination between Brussels and Washington increases the impact of both countries’ measures’. The sanctions also include new limits on the movement of Russian diplomats inside the 27-nation bloc. ’EU leaders’ push forward plans to use billions of euro in frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine’s ’defence and reconstruction’. Countries closest to Ukraine insist that continuing military and economic support is essential. The biggest tranche of frozen assets – some €194 billion worth – are held in Belgium but the government says it does not want to use the money without firm guarantees from its European partners. Earlier this week, members of a 33-nation support group known as the Coalition of the Willing said they opposed any suggestion that Kyiv should give up territory in exchange for peace. That idea has recently been floated by US President Trump. As Britain prepares to host a meeting of the coalition on Friday, ’EU leaders’ say Europe must be ready to deter any future threat from Russia. (Source: rfi - France)

Balkans
22.10.2025.  The Berlin Process was established in 2014 as a platform for high-level cooperation between the governments of the Western Balkans Six. The UK Government, led by Keir Starmer, hosted a summit of the Berlin Process today in London. (Source: European Western Balcans - Serbia)

Ukraine
13:02, 21 Oct 2025  Former defence intelligence expert Ingram details how Ukraine‘s military have managed to hold out in the gruelling conflict. He takes a look inside Ukraine’s wartime tactics. The front lines suggest Ukraine has found a way ’not just to hold the line, but to decisively counterattack’. Ingram identifies four of Ukraine’s winning tactics. ’The first is tactical retreat or trading space for time’, which allows them to actively avoid direct combat on the ground. They have been known to temporarily withdraw from a new tree line or desert sections of buildings that Russia has expended massive resources to occupy. The troops allow the Russians to overextend themselves and use up gear for little gain. The moment Russian troops consolidate their new position, they’re immediately hit by saturation of attack drones, specifically cheap, ubiquitous first person view drones acting as flying precision guided munitions or flying snipers. This constant, relentless process denies Russia any chance to dig in or to get any rest, or to establish solid logistics. ’Another key tactic is the regular rotation of their troops’. ’Ukraine is rotating its frontline soldiers more regularly than the Russians to keep the units fresh and prevent crucial errors’. This plays into the tactic which is military discipline. When Ukrainian troops are deployed on the front t’hey’re used carefully with pre-determined routes’, time checkpoints and reconnaissance drones overseeing their every move. (Source: The U.S. Sun)

October 20, 2025, Monday // 10:26  US President Trump has rejected reports that he pressured Zelensky to agree to the transfer of all of Donbas to Russia.     According to Reuters, the October 17 meeting between Trump and Zelensky at the White House took place in a strained atmosphere. Trump appeared to push for an arrangement to “freeze the war” along the current front lines. On Air Force One two days later, Trump told reporters that both sides “should stop at the lines where they are,” denying that he had suggested Ukraine hand over all of Donbas to Russia. “Let it be cut the way it is. It’s cut up right now. I think 78 percent of the land is already taken by Russia,” he said, adding that future negotiations could settle unresolved issues. Zelensky had hoped to secure approval for long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, but Trump reportedly avoided committing to the request. According to US Vice President Vance, a decision on the missiles has not yet been made. People familiar with the discussion described it as heated, with one source saying it was pretty bad and that Trump warned Zelensky his country would freeze and be destroyed if he refused to reach a deal. Another source disputed the exact wording but confirmed that Trump used harsh language and profanity during the meeting.    Officials quoted by the Financial Times said Trump’s stance may have been shaped by his recent conversation with Putin. During that call, the Russian leader allegedly proposed a territorial exchange that would give Moscow full control over Donetsk and Luhansk regions in return for small parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Trump reportedly relayed Putin’s warning that Ukraine risked being destroyed if it rejected the plan. Ukrainian officials told Reuters that surrendering these territories would leave the rest of the country dangerously exposed and amount to suicide. Among Trump’s team, Special Envoy to the Middle East Witkoff was said to have been the most insistent that Kyiv accept Moscow’s offer, arguing that much of the population in Donetsk and Luhansk is Russian-speaking.     American media outlets, including Axios and The Washington Post, have corroborated that Trump urged Zelensky to “stop where they are” and that Putin demanded full control of Donetsk Oblast to end the war, while hinting at limited concessions in other regions. Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out giving up any additional territory still under Ukrainian control.     In a Fox News interview aired on October 19,Trump said Russia “has a lot of property” after two years of war in Ukraine and implied that territorial losses were inevitable in any peace settlement. He did not reference Ukraine’s sovereignty or international law, instead comparing the situation to past US military operations. “We’re the only nation that goes in, wins a war, and then leaves, Trump said, criticizing past American interventions. Following his meeting with Zelensky, Trump echoed similar sentiments on social media, urging both sides to make a peace deal “with property lines being defined by war and guts.” Reports suggest Putin’s current offer marks a slight shift from his earlier demand for full control of Crimea and four occupied regions, though it still requires Ukraine to forfeit land Moscow has failed to capture militarily.    Sources told the Kyiv Independent that Ukraine had spent months preparing a diplomatic strategy to engage with Trump before Putin’s phone call upended those efforts. The US and Ukrainian presidents had spoken twice in the days leading up to their Washington meeting, raising Kyiv’s hopes for concrete progress. After the Putin call, Trump reportedly softened his stance toward Moscow.     Zelensky described his meeting with Trump as tense but constructive, saying Trump’s call for both sides to “stop where they are” could be viewed positively if everyone understands what that means, noting that if Moscow reaches the administrative borders of Donetsk Oblast, Putin would claim victory in the war. He told journalists that Trump “doesn’t want an escalation with the Russians until he meets with them.” A source in Zelensky’s circle summed up the situation bluntly: “Trump wants to end the war, but it seems cheaper for them to end it at the expense of Ukraine.’ Trump has since announced plans for another summit with Putin in Budapest, hosted by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Zelensky said he would be open to attending if formally invited. /Source: Novinite - Bulgaria: „Sources: Reuters (United Kingdom); The Kyiv Independent; Ukrainska Pravda; RBC (Ukraine)/'

October 20, 2025 12:19 IST  Trump had a tense meeting with Zelenskyy in Washington, where the American president constantly swore and even threw the battle maps off the table. He warned Ukraine would be destroyed if Zelensky did not agree to surrender the Donbas region. Trump also repeated Putin’s claim that the conflict was a special operation, not even a war. Not just Trump, even his special envoy Witkoff is forcing Ukraine to hand over Donetsk Oblast to Russia because it is “mostly Russian-speaking.” US President Trump’s ’screaming match’ with his counterpart, Zelenskyy, last Friday, wherein he berated the latter and urged him to surrender the Donbas to Russia, suggests that Trump now echoes Russia’s talking points. Trump’s stance during the meeting has also triggered concern that the relations between Zelenskyy and him could once again take a turn for the worse. He had gone to the White House hoping to convince Trump to agree to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles for its fight against the Russian invasion. Not only did he fail to get Trump to release the weapons, but he also saw the US return to discussing Kyiv giving up territory to Russia. “Then [U.S. special envoy Witkoff entered the conversation, and said that the Russians aim to take the entire Donbas … And there was a feeling in the room that the Americans were testing the Ukrainians and what they [would] agree on", a person who attended the meeting told. The upcoming meeting between Trump and Russian President in Budapest could present an extremely unpleasant surprise to Kyiv's regime leader Zelenskyy. ’His stance may also cost Zelenskyy his post as the Ukrainian President, according to analysts’. Without a change of leadership in Kyiv, the prospect of a peaceful resolution to the armed conflict in Ukraine does not seem feasible. (Source: The Week – India)

United Kingdom
October 21, 2025  Some 35 allies of Ukraine will meet on Friday in London for a summit among countries willing to provide long-term support to Kyiv. ’Europe’, Ukraine prepare new proposal to end Russia's war, diplomats say. ’European leaders’ called on Washington today to hold firm in demanding an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, with present battle lines to serve as the basis for any future talks. Bloomberg News first reported news of the work on a new proposal today. The Russian government has long demanded that Ukraine agree to cede more territory before any ceasefire. There is also a possibility that Trump will meet Russian President Putin in the coming weeks. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

North America

United States
October 23, 2025  Trump sanctions Russian oil majors, prompting oil price rise. India jitters. The sanctions, unveiled by the U.S. Treasury, target oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil. 'We cancelled the meeting with President Putin - it just didn’t feel right to me,' Trump told reporters at the White House. “It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I cancelled it, but we’ll do it in the future.” Oil and gas revenue, which is currently down by 21% year-on-year, accounts for around one quarter of Russia's budget. However, Moscow's main revenue source comes from taxing output, not exports. Oil prices jumped more than 3% today amid worries that the sanctions would disrupt global supply. If global oil prices rise, they are supporting the state's finances and the rouble. Indian oil industry sources told Reuters that Indian refiners were poised to sharply curtail imports of Russian oil to ensure they were in compliance with U.S. sanctions. The U.S. Treasury has given companies until November 21 to wind down their transactions with the Russian oil producers. Moscow's forces are steadily edging forward on the battlefield. Russia has said it opposes a ceasefire because it believes it would only be a temporary pause before fighting resumes, giving Ukraine time and space to re-arm at a time when Moscow says it has the initiative on the battlefield. Russia argues that negotiating a full peace settlement that paves the way for what it calls a "long-lasting peace" is therefore a better option. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

October 22, 2025 11:06 PM GMT+2  Trump says US has not approved Ukraine's use of long-range missiles. Trump said on Truth Social that the Journal story on 'the U.S.A.'s approval of Ukraine being allowed to use long range missiles deep into Russia' was false. "The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!," Trump added. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

10/22/2025, 03:10 PM  The Trump administration has lifted a key restriction on Ukraine’s use of certain long-range missiles supplied by Western allies, allowing Kyiv to conduct strikes deeper into Russian territory, U.S. officials said today, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The policy change was made without public announcement and follows a shift in authority for approving such strikes. The responsibility has moved from Defense Secretary Hegseth to Gen. Grynkewich, the top U.S. general in Europe who also serves as NATO commander. (Source: Investing.com - based in Israel, owned by a Hong Kong–based investment firm)

22.10.2025  US Senate Foreign Relations Committee passes bills targeting Russia, China for Ukraine war. The first bill 'would declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism because of their kidnapping of Ukrainian children'. The second 'would allow using repossessed assets from Russia to support Ukraine in this war'. The third bill targets China to stop their support for the war. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

(21 October 2025)  Electricity demand grows for the first time in decades. The growth of data centres used to train and run artificial intelligence models will cause power demand to more than double by 2035. Billions have been poured into the development of small modular reactors. SMRs, which could provide up to 300 megawatts of power, typically require high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel, known as Haleu - the production of which is controlled by Russia. In 2024 Biden’s administration banned US imports of uranium products from Russia. The US produces less than a ton of uranium annually. Trump in May issued four executive orders aimed at boosting the nuclear industry, two of which directed the energy department to identify and make surplus fuel available to reactor developers. The Department of Energy today published an application that nuclear energy groups can use to seek up to 19 megatonnes of the government’s weapons-grade plutonium from cold war-era warheads, that they can convert into fuel for advanced reactors in an attempt to break Russia’s stranglehold over uranium supply chains. At least two companies, Oklo, which is backed by OpenAI’s Altman, and France’s Newcleo, are expected to apply to access the government’s plutonium stockpile. French company Newcleo last week agreed to invest as much as $2bn in the US as part of a joint agreement with Oklo, with the funds going towards developing advanced fuel fabrication and manufacturing infrastructure. Buono, Newcleo’s founder and chief executive, said they would be very happy to use the plutonium. “With the 92,000 tons of spent fuel that the US has, they could have 100 years of energy independence,” he said. It’s going to increase vulnerability to theft, said Lyman, a physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. (Source: Financial Times - United Kingdom)

October 21, 2025  During the Biden administration, Mexico accepted up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela the U.S. returned after they had crossed the southwest border. Although Cuba accepts deportation flights from the U.S., its longtime practice has been to reject deportees who have been convicted of certain crimes. The Trump administration is quietly sending hundreds of Cubans and other immigrants with significant criminal records in buses across the border to Mexico, in an expansion of third-country deportations. The U.S. has also sent Cubans and other immigrants to other countries, including South Sudan. “If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, you could end up in CECOT, Eswatini, Ghana, South Sudan, or another third country,” Assistant Secretary McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. “President Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem are not going to allow criminal illegal aliens to remain indefinitely in the U.S.” CECOT is a maximum security prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration sent 238 Venezuelans they accused of being gang members earlier this year. (Source: Miami Herald - U.S.)

10/21/2025  Trump issued an executive order on his inauguration day in January instructing the attorney general to work with other federal agencies “to identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the federal government related to the weaponization of law enforcement and the weaponization of the Intelligence Community.” Trump and his allies use the term weaponization to refer to their unproven claims that officials from previous administrations abused federal power to target him during his two impeachments, his criminal prosecutions, and the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The Interagency Weaponization Working Group, which has been meeting since at least May, has drawn officials from the White House, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Justice and Defense Departments, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Communications Commission, among other agencies. (Source: MSN - U.S. / Reuters - United Kingdom)

October 21, 2025  The House Judiciary Committee referred former CIA Director Brennan to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution today over allegations that he knowingly made false statements to Congress about his role in the Russia collusion hoax. The referral highlights numerous instances in which Brennan allegedly issued untrue remarks when testifying before the Judiciary Committee in May 2023. Among them are comments the former CIA director made when discussing his agency’s role in helping craft the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that advanced the false narrative that Russia developed a clear preference for Trump and aspired to help him win the 2016 election. (The Federalist - U.S.)

(21 October 2025)  A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov was due to be held this week - but the White House said the two had had a productive call and that a meeting was no longer necessary. Yesterday, Trump embraced a ceasefire proposal backed by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the conflict on the current front line. Russia has repeatedly pushed back against freezing the current line of contact. Kremlin spokesperson Peskov said the idea had been put to the Russians repeatedly but that the consistency of Russia's position doesn't change – referring to Moscow's insistence on the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the embattled eastern regions. Moscow was only interested in long-term, sustainable peace, Lavrov said today, implying that freezing the front line would only amount to a temporary ceasefire. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

(Tuesday), 21/10/2025  In Thursday’s phone call with Trump, Putin again demanded that Ukraine surrender all of the Donetsk region, including territory not occupied by Russia, according to senior U.S. officials. There are no plans for President Trump and Russian President Putin to meet in the immediate future, 'said a White House officia today, 'who was not authorized to speak to the media'. The statement came hours after Russia’s top diplomat Lavrov said Trump’s demand for “an immediate ceasefire, which has suddenly become a topic of discussion again,' was contrary to what was agreed at the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska in August, when Trump abandoned his pressure on Putin to end the fighting ahead of negotiations. Trump’s position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict has changed several times over the past year. At the Alaska summit, Trump accepted Putin’s rejection of a ceasefire, writing on Truth Social that it had been decided that the best way to end the war was to “go directly to a peace agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere ceasefire agreement, which often times do not hold up.” “You see, if we just stop, it means forgetting the root causes of this conflict, which the American administration clearly understood,” Lavrov said. “I am referring to ensuring Ukraine’s nonaligned, nonnuclear status, which implies refraining from any attempts to draw it into NATO.” He added that freezing the fighting now 'would mean only one thing: a large part of Ukraine would remain under Nazi rule.' Lavrov insisted today that any peace deal be based on Moscow’s demands that Ukraine surrender more territory, permanently disavow joining NATO, accept tight restrictions on the size of its military and get no future Western military assistance. Russia has also demanded a veto over Ukrainian security guarantees. (Source: MSN / The Washington Post = U.S.)

.5 10 26 23:55

.

Europe

Hungary
20 October 2025  The euro is a ‘decaying currency’, Orbán is smart to stay out. Indeed, the euro has been a catastrophe for weaker, more exposed economies; in the case of Hungary, it would take away all the tools of independent, central bank-led economic recovery, increase asymmetries, and leave the nation at the mercy of policy decisions made in Frankfurt and Brussels with little to no regard for the specific context and needs of smaller member-states. Yet Germany’s fiscal needs are not and will never be Portugal’s, Spain’s or, indeed, Hungary’s. The euro is a one-size-fits-all left-over of the hegemonically globalist mindset of the 1990s. To the majority of its members, the single currency has served as an economic straitjacket, limiting growth and obliterating national competitiveness. When small economies join monetary unions dominated by powers of greater stature, they surrender control over managing shocks independently. For those unwise enough to join the euro, the currency has meant becoming a hostage to the bigger economies around them. Empirical evidence increasingly confirms that the euro has been good for Germany, gaining about €1.9 trillion between 1999 and 2017, but bad for almost everyone else. That’s about €23,000 per German citizen. For France, the euro has caused a €3.6 trillion fall in prosperity (or €56,000 per Frenchman); Italy losing €4.3 trillion, or as much as €74,000 per capita; Portugal, a country of a scale similar to Hungary (both nations have similarly sized economies and populations), has seen its wealth shrink at a rate of €40,604 per capita. Hungarians should understand that, in monetary policy as in everything else, no one will ever care as much about your interests as yourself. For the sake of liberty as well as prosperity, the forint should remain Hungary’s currency. (Source: Brussels Signal - Belgium)

(Friday), 17.10.25  The US President said on Thursday he may meet his Russian counterpart in Budapest within two weeks. It was there that, in 1994, the United States, Britain and Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum, providing Ukraine with security assurances in exchange for Kyiv giving up its nuclear weapons. The signatories of that memorandum pledged to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity. Putin is wanted under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court 'on charges of illegally deporting children' from Ukraine, but few observers expect this to be a problem for him in Budapest. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced in April during a visit by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who has an ICC warrant for his arrest on charges of war crimes in Gaza, that Hungary would withdraw from the court. Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó said today that Hungary will ensure Putin can enter the country for the summit and return home afterwards. Putin will be holding talks on the Ukraine war in an EU country without EU leaders attending. The meeting would exclude Zelenskiy for a second time after the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska. Ukraine's relationship with Hungary has grown increasingly tense. Zelenskiy said Hungarian drones had crossed into Ukraine last month, prompting Orbán to retort that Ukraine was not a sovereign state. Orbán is one of the most high-profile international backers of Trump's MAGA movement, lauded by MAGA devotees for his uncompromising approach to immigration and LGBTQ+ rights, and focus on conservative Christian values. Trump said on Tuesday that Orbán was "fantastic" and "a great leader", despite his failure to heed U.S. calls to stop buying Russian oil. If there is an agreement, that will legitimise his narrative about peace retrospectively. (Source: The Telegraph - India / Reuters - United Kingdom)

Friday, October 17, 2025  Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke with Trump yesterday and talked to Putin today, saying preparations “are going full steam ahead”. Orbán, speaking earlier on state radio, said the meeting “will be about peace” and if there is a peace deal, that would lead to a new phase of economic development in Hungary and Europe. Europe should open its own diplomatic channels towards Russia. He again accused the EU of taking what he called a 'pro-war stance' over Ukraine. Hungary will ensure that Russian President Putin can enter the country for a summit with U.S. President Trump planned in Budapest and return home afterwards, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said today. “There is no need for any kind of consultation with anyone, we are a sovereign country here. We will receive (Putin) with respect, host him, and provide the conditions for him to negotiate with the American president.” (Source: DD News - India / Reuters - United Kingdom)

October 16, 2025  Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán celebrated the announcement that Trump and Putin will meet in Budapest to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. “The planned meeting between the American and Russian presidents is great news for the peace-loving people of the world,” Orbán said in a post on X on today. “We are ready!” “Preparations for the USA-Russia peace summit are underway,” Orbán wrote in a subsequent post. Putin is in favor of a meeting, Russian presidential aide Ushakov said, according to state-controlled news agency Interfax. “President Trump was the first to mention Budapest, and our president immediately supported the idea of holding a possible summit in this European capital,” Ushakov said. Trump’s post on TruthSocial conveyed warmth toward Putin, who, the president said, had congratulated him for achieving a preliminary ceasefire in Gaza and thanked First Lady Melania “for her involvement with children.” The post made no mention of any additional repercussions toward Russia. The call with Putin came ahead of Trump’s scheduled White House meeting tomorrow with Zelenskyy, who  has said he hopes to convince Washington to provide Tomahawk missiles and other weapons systems that would enable Ukraine to attack deeper into Russia’. (Source: Politico - U.S.)

France
(Monday) October 20, 2025 1:13 AM GMT+2  Earlier this year, officials at the Louvre requested urgent help from the French government to restore and renovate the museum's ageing exhibition halls and better protect its countless works of art. Thieves in balaclavas broke into Paris' Louvre museum on Sunday, using a crane, mounted on the back of a small truck, to smash an upstairs window, then stealing objects from an area that houses the French crown jewels before escaping on motorbikes. The thieves struck at about 9.30 a.m. (0730 GMT) when the museum had already opened its doors to the public, and entered the Galerie d'Apollon building. The robbery took between six to seven minutes and was carried out by four people who were unarmed. A total of nine objects were targeted by the criminals, and eight were actually stolen. The thieves lost the ninth one, the crown of Napoleon III's wife, Empress Eugenie, during their escape. "It's worth several tens of millions of euros - just this crown. And it's not, in my opinion, the most important item," Drouot auction house President Giquello told. Paris Prosecutor Beccuau said on BFM TV it was a mystery why the thieves did not steal the Regent diamond, which is housed in the Galerie d'Apollon and is estimated to be worth more than $60 million by Sotheby's. She said foreign interference was not among the main hypotheses. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

17/10/2025  'Zalmayev, Director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative, calls the US decision to potentially provide Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine a welcome escalation'. (Source: France 24)

Germany
October 20, 2025  Germany plans to buy 15 more F-35 fighter jets estimated to cost €2.5 billion ($2.9 billion) amid defence buildup. The move could strain relations with France as Berlin doubles down on US aircraft over the delayed joint European jet project, the Franco-German Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project - Europe’s own next-generation fighter initiative. (Source: TRT World - Turkey)

Poland
20.10.2025  Polish premier Donald Tusk says no one should pressure Ukraine to give up territory to Russia in pursuit of a peace agreement. Tusk wrote on the US social media company X late today. Trump and Putin are expected to meet soon in Budapest to discuss prospects for ending the war. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Oct 17, 2025  The Warsaw District Court blocks extradition to Germany and frees Ukrainian Zhuravlov, 46, suspected in Nord Stream pipeline blasts, arrested near Warsaw Sept. 30 on a German warrant. Judge Lubowski said as he announced his ruling that the attack on the pipelines should be understood as a military action in a 'just war,' and therefore not subject to criminal responsibility on the part of an individual. He also questioned German jurisdiction, including the fact that the explosions occurred in international waters. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said it would not be in Poland’s interest to hand over the suspect. Tusk said earlier this month that 'the problem of Europe, the problem of Ukraine, the problem of Lithuania and Poland is not that Nord Stream 2 was blown up, but that it was built.' He noted in a post on X today that 'the case is closed.' (Source: PBS - U.S.)

European Union
20/10/2025  As they gathered today for a meeting in Luxembourg, EU foreign ministers continue to grapple with the idea of a potential summit between US President Trump and Russian President Putin in Budapest. Monday's gathering of foreign affairs ministers comes just a few days after Trump spoke with Putin by phone and hosted Zelenskyy at the White House. Washington's ever-shifting diplomacy has once again stoked fears that Europe's security architecture risks being decided 'without Europeans' in the room. However, unlike the Alaska meeting in August, this time there will be 'at least one' European leader present: Viktor Orbán. At the end of the day, nobody can decide over the head of Europe what is in the decision-making power of Europe, Finland's Valtonen said. Denmark's Rasmussen 'tried to assuage anxiety', saying Budapest will serve just as a venue for the meeting, without agenda-setting powers. 'Brussels is working on an initiative to use the cash balances of Russia's frozen assets to issue a €140 billion loan to Ukraine' to cover financial and military needs in the long term. In parallel, the 19th package of sanctions against the Kremlin is almost ready to go, with Slovakia as the last holdout over unrelated matters. 'We stand with Ukraine and we support the American president's proposal of a ceasefire at the contact line. Nothing more than that', Rasmussen told reporters. 'And if the (Budapest summit) is about that, it's absolutely okay.' It's not nice to see that a person with an arrest warrant (issued) by the ICC is coming to a European country, admitted High Representative Kallas. (Source: Euronews - based in Lyon, France / Reuters - United Kingdom)

Russia
20.10.2025  Capabilities refer to the territory, population, natural resources, and technology employed by states as “like-units” in their quest for survival. The states that concentrate the most capabilities are the “poles”, referred to here as polar states. The distribution of capabilities occurs in multipolar way, when three or more states concentrate capabilities. Realists assume that there would be a natural reaction to a single pole, giving rise to bipolarity or multipolarity. Therefore, unipolarity, if it exists, would be nothing more than a moment. Given the difference in capabilities between the polar state and its allies, its actions toward them are flexible, and the risk of an overreaction that would involve it in conflict with the other pole is low. In this structure, because there are only two main states, there is clarity about the adversary’s interests and the means at its disposal to achieve them, which reduces the risk of miscalculations. Therefore, bipolarity would be more stable. In multipolarity, because there are a greater number of polar states and a more balanced distribution of capabilities among them, the dominant strategy is external balancing. Given the number of poles, the possibility of diverse alliances is greater. Such flexibility, however, hides the rigidity of this strategy: as each state is more dependent on the others, the commitment to allies is greater. But the increase in the number of relevant units leads to the risk of miscalculation. That is why multipolar structures are more unstable. There are good reasons to fear that international politics has never gone through a phase with such great potential for disaster. How can we tame these emerging polarities? Previously misunderstood phenomena, such as the BRICS, begin to make sense and even become exemplary elements for understanding the new order. The BRICS are a grouping, among others, that emerged as a response to the duplicity of Western normative standards exposed over these 30 years of “rules-based order”. Perhaps such groups might play a relevant role in trying to tame the emerging polarities. (Source: Valdai Discussion Club - Russia)
by Mielniczuk

17.10.2025  Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán conveyed to Russian President Putin his readiness to provide proper conditions for a proposed Moscow-Washington summit in the capital Budapest, the Kremlin said today. A statement after a phone call between the two leaders said that Putin outlined the main content of his yesterday phone conversation with US President Trump. Putin said that during contacts with US officials, he conveyed plans to discuss an “algorithm for further actions” in the context of Ukraine peace talks, with a view to hold a summit between Russia and the US in the Hungarian capital. Yesterday, the Russian and US presidents held what Kremlin aide Ushakov described as a “very substantive, yet also extremely frank and confidential” phone conversation that lasted for nearly 2 1/2 hours. Ushakov said Putin and Trump discussed the possibility of holding another face-to-face meeting, and agreed that representatives from both sides will immediately begin preparing for a summit, with Budapest as a potential venue. The two leaders last met in the US state of Alaska on Aug. 15. Calling the phone conversation "very productive," Trump said that he and Putin could meet in Hungary within two weeks, after high-level delegations meet next week. “It could indeed take place within two weeks or a little later. There's a general understanding that there's no need to put anything off,” Kremlin spokesman Peskov told journalists in a briefing earlier today. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Friday, October 17, 2025  Trump and Putin agreed yesterday to hold a second summit on the war in Ukraine, provisionally in Budapest, following an August 15 meeting in Alaska. The surprise announcement came on the eve of a meeting between Trump and Zelenskiy. The Kremlin said today that a summit between presidents Putin and Trump could take place within two weeks, or a little later, there’s a general understanding that nothing should be put off, but that there was a great deal to be worked out before a date could be set. Kremlin spokesman Peskov told reporters that Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Rubio would need to call each other and set up a meeting to sort out many pre-summit issues. Peskov said Russia remained open to a settlement to end the war in Ukraine peacefully. The Kremlin said separately that Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had spoken by phone today to discuss the upcoming summit and that Orbán had said Hungary was ready to host the event. (Source: DD News - India / Reuters - United Kingdom)

17.10.2025  Speaking at the plenary session of the 8th Russian Energy Week international forum in Moscow, Russian President Putin yesterday expressed Russia’s perspective on challenges facing the global and Russian fuel and energy sectors. Putin described it to be a natural and objective process in many ways amid the emergence of new centers of economic growth and an increase in energy consumption in those centers. At the same time, he accused the aggressive and assertive actions of ‘certain Western elites’ of artificially disrupting global energy system. Putin said many European countries have refused to purchase Russian energy supplies under political pressure, the repercussions of which, he argued, are evident within the EU, including through a decline in industrial output, rising prices due to more expensive imported oil and gas, and a reduction in the competitiveness of both European goods and the broader economy. The Russian president said energy supply chains are increasingly shifting toward the Global South, namely in the direction of countries in the Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America regions. Putin also said Moscow accounts for about 10% of global oil production, Russia maintains its position as a leading oil producer despite the mechanisms of unfair competition used against it. He said experts believe nuclear energy will become a key pillar of the future global energy balance, and that the world's nuclear power capacity will almost double by 2050. “Russia is the only country in the world with competencies across the entire chain of nuclear generation,” Putin said, noting that it is involved in the construction of nuclear power plants in Bangladesh, Egypt and Türkiye. „We intend to further develop our cooperation in the nuclear industry with Global South countries and within BRICS”, he said. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Ukraine
Saturday 18 October 2025 13:44 BST  “I do remember one officer saying:’ Don’t worry. We’ll justify what we were doing’.’ ’Ukraine cannot win its war with Russia, and should negotiate peace terms with the Kremlin, Britain’s most senior army officer, Field Marshal Lord Richards tells. In his first long-form podcast interview, Lord Richards, the only British officer to have commanded massed US troops at war since 1945, said the outlook for Ukraine was not good. Lord Richards, who was promoted to the UK military’s most senior “five-star” rank earlier this year and led Nato forces during their troop surge in Afghanistan, said Ukraine’s allies have failed Kyiv. 'What we have done in the case of Ukraine is encourage Ukraine to fight, but not given them the means to win,” the former chief of the defence staff told. Reflecting on Ukraine’s chances of success against Russia, he said: “My view is that they would not win.” „They haven’t got the manpower,” the former commando said. “Unless we were to go in with them – which we won’t do because Ukraine is not an existential issue for us. It clearly is for the Russians, by the way,” he said. Ukraine has been given false hope by its Western allies and Kyiv will not be able to drive Putin’s soldiers out of Ukraine without the help of Nato forces – who won’t get involved on the ground. “We’ve decided because it’s not an existential issue, we will not go to war. We are, you can argue – and I absolutely accept it – in some sort of hybrid war with Russia. But that’s not the same as a shooting war in which our soldiers are dying in large numbers. Lord Richards, who led Britain’s interventions in Sierra Leone and East Timor as a brigadier and later argued against the UK’s part in the American-led invasion of Iraq, backed the former US General Milley, who suggested back in November 2022 that Ukraine should negotiate with Russia. 'Despite our attraction for all they’ve achieved and our genuine affections for so many Ukrainians, I’m just still in this school that says this is not in our vital national interests". “My instinct is that the best Ukraine can do, and you already see President Zelensky, who’s an inspirational leader … the best they can do is a sort of a score draw.” The field marshal’s intervention came after Zelensky flew to Washington DC to meet Trump to try to persuade him to give Ukraine Tomahawk cruise missiles. At a packed press conference, Trump appeared reluctant to give up American weapons. The US president stressed his own country’s needs to maintain stockpiles. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

October 16, 2025 6:09 PM GMT+2  Ukraine's state grid operator, Ukrenergo, has introduced emergency power cuts in every region of the country following Russian attacks on the energy system. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

North America

United States
Oct. 19 2025  At another explosive White House meeting between President Trump and Zelensky on Friday, Trump was pressuring his counterpart to accept Russia’s terms for a ceasefire, according to the Financial Times, reportedly telling Zelensky that Russia would destroy Ukraine if he didn’t agree. This time, Trump demanded that Zelensky surrender the entire Donbas region to Russian President Putin, sources said. Trump repeated many of Putin’s talking points verbatim during the meeting, telling Zelensky he was losing the war and that “If [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you.” (Source: The Daily Beast - U.S.)

Space

October 20, 2025  European aerospace groups Leonardo, Airbus and Thales have reached a framework deal on a proposed merger of their satellite businesses. The deal will combine loss-making satellite activities of Airbus with those of Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio - two ventures currently controlled by France's Thales and Italian aerospace group Leonardo. Paris-based consultancy Novaspace says more than 43,000 satellites will launch over the next decade, representing a $665 billion market in manufacturing and launch services. The key remaining hurdle, analysts say, will be getting past a competition review by the European Commission. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

.5 10 19 19:37

.

Africa

Liberia
Saturday, October 18, 2025  The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Her Excellency Madam Beysolow Nyanti, met with the United States Secretary of State and Acting National Security Advisor, Mr. Rubio, on October 16, at the US White House, to reaffirm Liberia’s commitment to strengthening bilateral relations and advancing shared priorities in economic development, migration reform, and strategic investment. (Source: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Liberia)

Madagascar
17 October 2025  Capsat military unit commander Colonel Randrianirina seized power in a military coup and was sworn in as Madagascar’s new leader president. The takeover led to Madagascar being suspended from the African Union. Colonel Randrianirina has said Madagascar will be run by a military council with him as president for between 18 months and two years before any new elections. The country’s failing economy has left around 75 per cent in deep poverty. (Source: Morning Star - United Kingdom)

Australia

17 Oct 2025  China has used critical minerals (especially rare earths) as a foreign policy instrument for more than a decade, cutting off supplies to Japan in 2010. Now, China responds to American trade measures by threatening further limitations on rare earth exports. Trump wants our rare earths minerals, but we should keep selling to China too. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese needs gifts to give substance to his meeting with President Trump. Australia has almost “the entire periodic table”, so has something to offer. Australia has been digging up minerals for nearly two centuries and is home to the world’s two largest miners (BHP and Rio Tinto). These large miners have world-beating technology and sophistication in exploration, assessment, efficient extraction and transportation at huge scale. Australia not only has the minerals, it also has experience, expertise, technology, legal frameworks, and environmental safeguards. Foreign ownership dominates the minerals sector (estimated at more than 80%) - often Chinese, interested is shipping ore to be processed under lax Chinese environmental laws, often funded with risk-tolerant state capital. Lynas, Australia’s sole processor, currently does this in Malaysia, with its more lenient environmental requirements. A Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve is under discussion. What have we got to offer that would appeal to President Trump? The CSIS assesses that Australia is second only to the United States in potential for processing and equal to Canada in key investment criteria. We should avoid any sort of preferential deal just with America, with China excluded. Our longer-term interests are best served by remaining open to all investors, including China. Australia should avoid joining the arm-wrestle with embargoes and restraints to trade. We are a middle-sized economy heavily dependent on international trade in general, and trade with China in particular. Free trade is our lifeblood. The most useful thing we could do is to push as hard as we can for a return to unrestricted international trade, which means we should seek an effective modus vivendi with China. Our longer-term interests are best served by remaining open to all investors, including China. Australia might require firms using Australian-sourced ore to undertake to sell the final product on the open market, without embargo or discrimination between buyers. If Australia offers consistent conditions to all investors, it will be in their individual interests to play by the rules. (Source: The Interpreter - a blog launched by the Lowy Institute - Australia)
by Grenville

Caribbean

Trinidad and Tobago
Sunday, October 19, 2025  Americans should avoid visiting all U.S. government facilities through the holiday weekend referring to Diwali, a Hindu festival of lights in Trinidad and Tobago due to a heightened state of alert on the twin-island nation, amid rapidly rising tensions between U.S. and Venezuela, according to a warning from the U.S. Embassy there. The two islands that make up Trinidad and Tobago are off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. Over the past two months, American forces have carried out at least six strikes on boats allegedly carrying narcotics from Venezuela to the U.S. After the most recent operation last week, the U.S. took into custody two individuals who survived the strike. President Trump said over the weekend that they will be returned to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia. In addition to stopping the flow of drugs to U.S. shores, the strikes are designed to put pressure on Venezuelan President Maduro, who Mr. Trump has accused of facilitating drug trafficking throughout the hemisphere. Mr. Trump said he’s weighing possible ground missions inside the country. Such missions could target drug cartels operating in the country but also could extend to the Maduro government itself in what could become a U.S.-led regime change operation. Navy Adm. Holsey, the commander of U.S. Southern Command, announced his retirement last week. U.S. Southern Command oversees American military activity in the region. (Source: The Washington Times - U.S.)

North America

United States
Sunday 19 October 2025  Among the new rules laid out in Defense Secretary Hegseth’s 21-page policy, which he gave credentialed journalists until Tuesday evening to acknowledge, was a ban on reporters soliciting any information – classified or otherwise – from government employees without prior authorization from the Pentagon. Dozens of print and broadcast journalists walked out of the Pentagon Wednesday in the wake of nearly every American news organization – including Trump-friendly networks Fox News and Newsmax – refusing to follow Hegseth’s media restrictions. “Our members did nothing to create this disturbing situation. It arises from an entirely one-sided move by Pentagon officials apparently intent upon cutting the American public off from information they do not control and pre-approve,” the Pentagon Press Association, which represents members from 57 domestic and international news outlets, said this week. The group, which represents around 100 journalists, tore into the 'unprecedented message of intimidation' delivered by the policy, urging the department to reverse course over its assault on press freedom. Not all credentialed journalists at the Pentagon are represented by the association. The only journalists left with credentials to enter the Pentagon were a mix of freelancers, foreign media members and staffers from MAGA-boosting outlets. By Thursday only 15 reporters out of hundreds of credentialed reporters agreed, had signed the new press pledge. Two are from the pro-Trump cable channel, One America News; one is from right-wing website The Federalist; and another is from ultra-conservative newspaper The Epoch Times. The remaining 11 reporters include freelancers for foreign-based organizations and a couple of little-known independent sites that appear to publish their work solely on social media. A reporter for the Turkish newspaper Akşam, three individuals from the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency and two Turkish freelancers signed the agreement. Other signers included a reporter for The Australian; an Afghan freelancer; and three lesser-known operations, AWPS News, the India Globe and a blog called USA Journal Korea. Additionally, two members of the Jordanian TV network Al Taghier signed an older version of the policy. The “self-righteous media chose to self-deport from the Pentagon. They will not be missed,” Pentagon spokesperson Parnell tweeted. “The Department of War will make an announcement soon regarding the next generation of the Pentagon press corps,” he wrote. “Stay tuned. The best is yet to come!” (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)

(Saturday), October 18, 2025  Protesting the direction of the country under President Trump, people gathered today in the nation’s capital and communities big and small across the U.S. for No Kings demonstrations that the president’s Republican Party disparaged as Hate America rallies. Let’s see who shows up for that, House Speaker .Johnson of Louisiana said, listing groups including antifa types, people who hate capitalism and Marxists in full display. Later Friday a Trump campaign social media account mocked the protests by posting a computer-generated video of the president clothed like a monarch, wearing a crown and waving from a balcony. With signs such as Nothing is more patriotic than protesting or Resist Fascism, in many places the No Kings’ protests against Trump looked more like a street party vibe to cities nationwide. There were marching bands, a huge banner with the U.S. Constitution’s We The People preamble that people could sign, and demonstrators wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance in Portland, Oregon. More than 2,600 rallies were ’planned’ on the day, organizers said. The national march against Trump and Musk this spring had 1,300 registered locations, while the first No Kings day in June registered 2,100. Republicans sought to portray protesters as far outside the mainstream and a prime reason for the government shutdown, now in its 18th day. From the White House to Capitol Hill, GOP leaders called them communists and Marxists. They said Democratic leaders including Schumer are beholden to the far-left flank and willing to keep the government shut to appease those liberal forces. (Source: AP - United States)

(18 October 2025)  Rise of ‘shadow banking’ brings new financial risks, experts say. 'Shadow banking,' is an example of larger, regulated banks offering loans to private companies that in many cases have a higher credit risk and little or no repayment history. A pair of regional banks this week disclosed lawsuits involving allegedly fraudulent business loans, while the failure of two companies in the automotive sector dinged some Wall Street titans, including JPMorgan. All four cases reflect the growth of major banks’ lending to so-called non-depository financial institutions. A spate of recent fraud cases and bankruptcies has raised new concerns about a growing class of largely unregulated loans, with a sell-off in U.S. banking stocks bleeding into global markets this week. (Source: The Washington Post - U.S.)

(18 October 2025)  It was as Zelensky's flight was in the air that news of the two-and-a-half-hour Trump-Putin phone call began to emerge and, before its wheels were even on the Washington tarmac, we had the announcement that another summit between the two was in the offing. The Ukrainians descended the steps, to be met with a low-key American greeting, and with their optimism, like a piece of waylaid luggage, lost somewhere en route. "I think he wants to make a deal," Trump said, and then proceeded to repeat some of his old talking points, framing the conflict as, in essence, a personal gripe between two leaders. "There's a lot of bad blood,' he said. Zelensky has learned from bitter experience that there are great risks in being seen to challenge Trump inside the walls of the White House. Trump ended the day insisting that the war should simply be frozen on the existing battle lines and both sides should simply "go home to their families". (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)

(Friday), 17.10.2025  „President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this inglorious war, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end,'” US president Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform yesterday. Trump said that he and Putin agreed to send their respective teams. The US will be led by Secretary of State Rubio, who is also serving as the president's national security advisor. An exact location for next week's sit-down has yet to be decided. 'President Zelenskyy and I will be meeting tomorrow, in the Oval Office, where we will discuss my conversation with President Putin, and much more. I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation," he added. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

17/10/2025  President Trump cast doubt yesterday on giving Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv a day before he meets with Zelensky, saying the United States could not deplete its own stock. (Source: France 24)

17.10.2025  Ex-Trump adviser Bolton surrenders to court after being indicted on 8 counts of transmitting national security information, 10 counts of retention of national defense information. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)

Oct. 16, 2025  Head of the U.S. Military’s Southern Command which oversees all operations in Central and South America, is stepping down. Adm. Holsey, overseeing the Pentagon’s escalating attacks against boats in the Caribbean Sea is leaving less than a year into his tenure into what is typically a three-year job in the midst of the biggest operation in his 37-year career. His abrupt end to leading one of the military’s highly coveted regional war-fighting commands comes after a Navy career that started with his commissioning through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, or NROTC, at Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1988. The admiral worked his way up, from commanding helicopter squadrons to leading one of the Navy’s prestigious aircraft carrier strike groups. He served first as the Southern Command’s military deputy before taking command in November 2024. Admiral Holsey just this week visited the island countries Antigua and Barbuda, and Grenada. News of the admiral’s departure comes a day after a report that the Trump administration had secretly authorized the C.I.A. to conduct covert action in Venezuela. Since early September, U.S. Special Operations forces have struck at least five boats off the Venezuelan coast that the White House says were transporting drugs, killing 27 people. American officials have privately made it clear that the main goal is to drive Maduro, Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, from power. The U.S. military is planning its own possible escalation, drawing up options for Mr. Trump to consider, including strikes inside Venezuela. While Admiral Holsey has been the highest-ranking military officer overseeing the air strikes, the decision to carry them out has been driven by the White House, and the strikes themselves have been conducted by Special Operations forces, with Admiral Holsey largely cut out of the decision-making. Admiral Holsey, who is Black, becomes the latest in a line of more than a dozen military leaders, many of them people of color and women, who have left their jobs this year. Most have been fired by Mr. Hegseth or pushed out. Mr. Hegseth fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Brown Jr., who is Black; the first woman to command the Navy, Adm. Franchetti; and the U.S. military’s representative to the NATO military committee, Vice Adm. Chatfield. He also pushed out Lt. Gen. Kruse, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. In August, the Air Force’s top uniformed officer, Gen. Allvin, announced that he would retire early - two years into a four-year term. About two weeks ago, Mr. Hegseth summoned hundreds of generals and admirals from around the world to a meeting at Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Northern Virginia. It was a gathering without precedent in recent memory. The secretary told the senior officers that he was tightening standards for fitness and grooming, cracking down even more rigorously ’on woke garbage’ and rejecting the notion of toxic leadership. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)

South America

Argentina
Saturday, October 18, 2025  Exactly 20 years ago next month, Argentina hosted the fourth Summit of the Americas in the seaside city of Mar del Plata. There, a troika of Kirchner,  Lula da Silva and Chávez resisted a push from then-US president Bush to introduce a free-trade area in the Americas, known as the FTAA or ALCA in its Spanish acronym. In defeat, Washington silently retreated from the region. Now it’s coming back, in full swing. This revived Monroe Doctrine of the 21st century has one main target: China. Since the FTAA failure two decades ago, Beijing has occupied much of the vacant space. Nuclear, military, maritime or space issues - those are exactly the sectors where the Chinese have been advancing their interests in Argentina in recent years. In 2018, China opened a space observation facility in Neuquén, the home of Vaca Muerta. In 2022, the two countries agreed to jointly build Argentina’s fourth nuclear energy facility. China was also eyeing major investments in ports near the strategic Strait of Magellan in southern Argentina. Trump said Tuesday he would be very upset if he hears such things are happening in Argentina – and Milei does not want to upset Trump. (Source: Buenos Aires Times - Argentina)

Colombia
Oct 19 (2025)  Aboard Air Force One, U.S. President Trump said on Sunday night he would raise tariffs on Colombia and stop all payments to the South American nation. Earlier in the day, Trump called Colombian President Petro an ’illegal drug leader,’ while Defense Secretary Hegseth said U.S. forces had attacked a vessel associated with a Colombian rebel group. He wrote on X that the Pentagon had destroyed a vessel and killed three people on Friday in the USSOUTHCOM area of responsibility, which includes the Caribbean. Hegseth said the ship was affiliated with the leftist rebel group National Liberation Army and was involved in illicit narcotics smuggling. Petro said the boat belonged to a humble family, not a rebel group. His government called Trump's remarks offensive. They don't have a fight against drugs - they make drugs, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. I'm stopping all payments to Colombia, he said. It was not clear what funding support Trump was referring to. Colombia was once among the largest recipients of U.S. aid in the Western Hemisphere, but the flow of money was suddenly curtailed this year by the shuttering of USAID. Colombia's foreign ministry vowed to seek international support in defense of Petro and the country's autonomy. Last month, the United States revoked Petro's visa after he joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey Trump's orders. Colombia is fighting its own longstanding drug problems. Last year, Petro pledged to tame coca-growing regions in the country with massive social and military intervention, but the strategy has brought little success. In September, Trump designated countries such as Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia and Venezuela among those the United States believes to have failed demonstrably in upholding counternarcotics agreements during the past year. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

Peru
October 17, 2025  Demonstrations against corruption and rising crime against President Jeri, 38, a day after he presented his cabinet and assumed power just days ago. At least one person was killed and dozens of police officers injured in widespread protests overnight in Peru Jeri's nascent presidency ends next July due to scheduled elections. Everyone must go! protesters chanted in Lima when they reached Congress and tried to tear down metal barriers protecting the building, leading to clashes. The Congress - which was headed by Jeri before he became president - is unpopular with a single-digit approval rating. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)

16 Oct 2025  Rioters clash with cops and demand overthrow of president. Yesterday’s protests were called by a youth-led collective, artists’ groups and labour unions. At least one protestor has been shot dead by police. Rioters are attempting to topple President Jeri’s government – just days after he was sworn in as interim leader. Authorities report at least 102 people have been injured – including 24 civilians and 78 cops. The latest escalation comes after lawmakers impeached the last president Boluarte under corruption accusations. Her impeachment last week followed protests by bus companies, merchants and students over shakedowns by criminal gangs and attacks on those who refuse to pay protection money. Extortion and contract killings have been a feature of daily life across Peru. ’The youth-led demonstrations’ brought thousands of Peruvians, also frustrated by the authorities’ failure to resolve a worsening crime crisis, onto the streets in the capital and several other cities. Gangs such as Los Pulpos and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, which operates across Latin America, hold people from all walks of life for ransom. Rioters are demanding Peru’s political class be torn down. (Source: The U.S. Sun)

.5 10 19 18:33