Latest news for 27 October 2025

CHINA

He said, Xi said.

US and Chinese officials are saying they’re close to a trade deal, with Presidents Trump and Xi potentially finalising it in South Korea later this week. Treasury Secretary Bessent says the deal includes Beijing both a) resuming its US soybean purchases, and b) delaying its rare earth export controls for a year. (BBC)

Comment: We wrote about China’s rare earths chokehold last week. Anyway, if this is where the US-China deal lands for now, it’s basically what we foreshadowed months ago: some big transactional headlines, but nothing that fundamentally re-balances China’s economy with the rest of the world. Interestingly, Secretary of State Rubio has also said the deal won’t include the US abandoning its long-standing support for democratic Taiwan, but the fact this even needs saying is wild.

UNITED STATES

Not so fast.

Responding to last week’s claims that a recent record 5,700 aspiring diplomats just applied to join the US State Department, the nonpartisan American Foreign Service Association has pointed out that there were more applicants as recently as 2021. (AFSA)

RUSSIA

New missile, who dis?

Putin tested his new nuclear-propelled Burevestnik cruise missile over the weekend, with claims it flew a distance of 14,000km (8,700mi) for 15 hours. (CNN)

Comment: Tell us you’re desperate without telling us you’re desperate, Vlad. His test comes days after the US and UK imposed big new sanctions on Russian oil companies.

GERMANY

Fine, I didn’t even want to go.

Foreign Minister Wadephul has delayed his trip to China after Beijing reportedly only approved one meeting. Interestingly, he’s using the time to instead do pretty much the opposite of visiting China: meeting NATO boss Mark Rutte and rival India’s trade lead Piyush Goyal in Brussels today (Monday). (The Straits Times)

Comment: German outlets were quick to run with the headline that “no one wants to meet Wadephul”, but it looks more to us like China’s classic diplomatic deep freeze when you’ve done something Beijing dislikes — since taking the job in May, Wadephul has criticised China’s support for Russia, and its aggression in the South China Sea.

TIMOR-LESTE

You’re in.

Southeast Asia’s ASEAN bloc has formally admitted its first new member since the 1990s, more than a decade after Timor-Leste first lodged its application. Dili now gets much-needed access to ASEAN’s $3.8T economy. (AP)

Comment: It’s a procedural thing, but has still been the main news out of ASEAN’s Malaysia summit so far (it wraps Tuesday), other than President Trump witnessing the Thailand-Cambodia peace accords. This is the first time a US president has attended ASEAN since 2022, and research out of Singapore suggests it’s timely: most nations in the region now seem to be leaning more towards China.

BRAZIL

Anotha’ one

President Lula da Silva (who turns 80 today) has announced he’ll seek re-election to his fourth term next year. Brazilian leaders don’t have a term limit, but can’t serve for more than two consecutive terms at a time. (Folha)

Comment: His popularity is well below the 80% he hit during his first stint, but he’s still one of the region’s most popular presidents, and polls are struggling to find any rivals capable of beating him (particularly with Bolsonaro now in jail).

NIGERIA

Shuffle.

President Tinubu has appointed new service chiefs in a sweeping military overhaul amid Islamist insurgencies in the northeast and separatism in the southeast. (Arise News)

Comment: The shuffle also comes a week after local outlets reported on a foiled coup plot — officials are denying it ever happened, though the military did arrest 16 officers on vague “indiscipline” charges earlier this month.