Latest news for 18 September 2025

SAUDI ARABIA

Mutual defence.

Saudi Arabia and nuclear-armed Pakistan have signed a mutual defence agreement, meaning an attack on one is an attack on both. (Al Jazeera)

Comment: Saudi officials say this has been in the works for a while, but it seems timed in response to last week’s Israeli airstrike on Hamas members in Qatar — ie, with Gulf allies doubting US commitment, they’re signalling a willingness to diversify.

UNITED KINGDOM

Full pomp.

US tech firms have used President Trump’s UK visit to announce $42B in new investments, including data centres, Nvidia’s biggest chip roll-out in Europe, and Britain’s largest AI supercomputer (with OpenAI and Microsoft). (The Guardian)

Comment: Starmer is under pressure to revive growth, and he’ll credit his lighter-touch approach to tech regulation (compared to the EU) for this big announcement. Interestingly, however, Nick Clegg (former deputy PM and an ex-exec at Meta) has described the deal as “sloppy seconds”, full of things Big Tech needed to do anyway.

NORTH KOREA

HackGPT.

A suspected North Korean state-backed hacker group apparently used ChatGPT to generate a fake military ID as part of a phishing attempt on a South Korean base. (Bloomberg $)

Comment: As if it were needed, it’s another reminder how AI advances can empower everyone, including Kim’s cyber-Juchists. Earlier this year, there were wild reports of them using Anthropic to help land remote work jobs with Fortune 500 companies. The answer, as ever, revolves around target resilience.

RUSSIA

Poisoning.

Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition figure leader Alexei Navalny, is saying two labs found Navalny had been poisoned, contradicting Kremlin claims that he just died naturally while in a Siberian penal colony last year. (Independent)

Comment: Few believed Moscow’s claims. But even fewer believed the West’s threats that there’d be consequences if Putin killed him. Instead, Putin and other despots continue to exploit the West’s aversion to confrontation.

VIETNAM

New top dog.

Vietnam has overtaken Thailand as the top regional destination for China’s travellers, with a 44% spike in numbers out of China helping Vietnam smash its tourism record. (Bangkok Times)Comment: Aside from Vietnam’s many pull factors, there’s also the push factor of the high-profile kidnapping of a Chinese actor by scammers in Thailand earlier this year.

ECUADOR

Diesel protests.

President Daniel Noboa has declared a state of emergency in parts of the country amid large-scale protests against his cuts to a $1B diesel subsidy. (Yahoo)

Comment: Two big tensions on display here: one is the need to respect protest rights without a return to Ecuador’s 2022 chaos; the other is the need to get Quito’s finances back on track without alienating too many key constituencies. Neither balance is easy.

EGYPT

Missing bracelet.

Authorities are mounting a large-scale search for a gold bracelet dating back to the days of Pharaoh Amenemope, with all airports, seaports and border crossings now on alert to prevent its possible smuggling abroad. It was housed at the Middle East’s oldest archaeological museum (Cairo’s Egyptian Museum). (BBC)