Latest news for 21 November 2025

SOUTH AFRICA

Missing guests.

World leaders are landing in South Africa ahead of the weekend’s G20 summit, though there’ll be several high-profile absences like President Trump, Argentina’s Milei, China’s Xi, and Russia’s Putin (still dodging his ICC arrest warrant). (ABC)

Comment: With the G20 now divided among its biggest members, and still lacking the kind of core purpose that first really thrust it onto centre stage amid the 2008 financial crisis, attendance is rarely 100%. For the US host year in 2026, the big question will be whether China’s Xi makes a cameo.

CHINA

Ferry to Taiwan?

A Reuters investigation appears to have confirmed reports that China mobilised a fleet of civilian vessels to run major landing drills over the summer, in a seeming rehearsal for a potential invasion of Taiwan. (Reuters)

PAKISTAN

Let there be land.

Pakistan is reclaiming land to build an artificial island 30km (19mi) out to sea, as an all-weather platform to ramp up its oil and gas exploration. (Dawn)

Comment: Among other drivers, this oil and gas boom is an attempt to cut Pakistan’s import costs, stabilise its forex shortages, and boost its leverage with major powers. It might also explain why PM Sharif has ended up skipping Brazil’s COP climate talks, though his niece has appeared in her capacity as head of Punjab state.

EUROPEAN UNION

Grilling season.

US tech giant Amazon is hoping its offer to Zoom a senior exec in for a parliamentary grilling might soothe the EU’s legislature, which has lately restricted Amazon’s lobby access amid frustration the firm keeps sending junior Brussels benchwarmers to answer questions about employee conditions. (Euractiv)

Comment: It might seem a bit odd for a firm to repeatedly diss the lawmakers representing its second-largest market. But our sense is the world’s 5th-largest company has calculated that sending senior execs for an in-person hearing involves real reputational risks (think of the viral soundbites) with minimal upside, so playing cat-and-mouse with a committee is the least-worst option.

TONGA

Who’s in charge?

Tonga’s king is due to land in China today, as voters back home await the outcome of yesterday’s elections. (China’s government)

Comment: Tonga’s royal family has recently moved to retake some of the powers it surrendered from 2010, with the crown prince emerging as both foreign and defence minister in January. That might all explain the low voter turnout. As for this China trip? Tonga still owes Beijing ~$120M (a quarter of its GDP!) in loans that helped it rebuild after 2006 riots left most of Chinatown in ruins.

BRAZIL

That’s NOT in the show run.

An unexplained fire has hit Brazil’s COP climate venue, barely a week after the UN wrote local authorities a stern letter voicing concerns about safety hazards. (AP)

Comment: The resulting evacuation halted climate talks for most of Thursday, with negotiations still not even close to finishing by the nominal end date today (Friday). Fun fact, but the last COP to finish on time was Italy’s Milan summit in 2003.

ZAMBIA

On wheels.

China’s premier (Li) has pledged $1.4B to modernise a railway that’ll transport copper from resource-rich nations in Africa’s south to Indian Ocean ports for export. (CGSP)

Comment: Why? China is the world’s largest copper consumer and wants to secure its supplies. The US and EU are financing a similar project to revive a railway headed west across Africa to Angola’s Atlantic coast.