war

The probe comes as the US government seeks additional leverage against Beijing amid escalating trade tensions.

The United States has launched an investigation into whether China is out of compliance with a 2020 trade deal they struck together, as trade tensions ratchet up between the world’s two largest economies.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced the investigation on Friday, as President Donald Trump travels to Asia to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. China denies that it has failed to abide by the deal.

“China has scrupulously fulfilled its obligations in the Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement,” a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said in a social media post.

The probe into unfair trade practices could grant President Trump greater authority to impose more tariffs on China, which he has hit with massive trade duties during his second term in office.

“The administration seems to be looking for new sources of leverage to use against Beijing, while adding another pressure point to get China to buy more US soybeans as well as other goods,” Wendy Cutler, a former US trade negotiator who is now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told The Associated Press news agency.

The “Phase One” deal came at the end of Trump’s first term in office in 2020, when the US imposed a series of tariffs on China in the name of bringing greater “balance” to their commercial exchange.

In that agreement, Beijing agreed to buy more US agricultural and manufacturing goods.

A Federal Register notice (PDF) from the Office of the US Trade Representative alleges that China has not followed up on that promise or others related to intellectual property protections, forced technology transfers or financial services.

September, for instance, marked the first month since 2018 that China imported no soya beans from US farmers.

“The initiation of this investigation underscores the Trump Administration’s resolve to hold China to its Phase One Agreement commitments, protect American farmers, ranchers, workers, and innovators, and establish a more reciprocal trade relationship with China for the benefit of the American people,” Greer said in a statement.

A new round of US-China trade talks is set to take place on Saturday, and discussions will focus on China’s restrictions on the export of rare earth metals, essential for many US tech products.

VICTORIA Beckham has lost a trademark war against a beauty brand — because she is not famous enough in Norway.

Posh Spice argued that Norwegian firm Vendela Beauty’s VB logo would be confused with her global brand.

She claimed both the designs were dominated by the ­letters VB, the layout was almost identical, and both businesses sell similar products.

The fashion designer, 51, provided Instagram followers, international magazine features and sales figures to prove she had a big presence in the country.

But Norway’s patent body decided that there was not enough evidence her brand was well-known enough in the Nordic state — and ruled they were ­different enough to avoid confusion.

Ex-swimwear model Vendela Kirsebom had filed a trademark application in September 2021 for her beauty brand, which sells a range of skincare, makeup, hair care and ­fragrance products.

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It was registered in December 2023, before Victoria ­formally opposed it.

But the Norwegian Industrial Property Office ruled against her.

Senior legal adviser Tord Hestenes wrote in the judgment that while Victoria is well known in the industry, it “does not mean that her initials or the combined mark can be considered well-known for this reason alone”.

He said her evidence had limited value because her follower count did not actually show how many were in Norway.

He added that it had not been successfully proved how many Norwegians read the international magazines cited, and the sales figures provided covered the entire Nordic region — not just Norway.

Mr Hestenes ruled there was “no risk of confusion” over the brands.

He added: “Documentation in the case does not provide grounds for assuming that the ­opponent’s mark will be linked to the name ­Victoria Beckham.”

Victoria’s representatives have been approached for comment on the verdict.

Canadian PM Mark Carney says Ottawa “can’t control” US trade policy but will “stand ready” to resume talks “when the Americans are ready.” His remarks came after President Donald Trump halted negotiations and accused Canada of “cheating” over ads opposing US tariffs.

The Trump administration says it has ‘terminated’ all trade talks with Canada over a commercial published by the Ontario government that features comments on tariffs by the late US President Ronald Reagan, which his foundation says are misleading.

Incursion follows series of drone incidents and airspace violations that have prompted fears that Russia is testing NATO.

Two Russian military aircraft have briefly entered Lithuania’s airspace in what appeared to be a new provocation from Moscow as European Union leaders discussed how to strengthen their defences amid deepening concerns the war in Ukraine could spill over into their nations.

Lithuania’s armed forces said in a statement that the two aircraft – an Su-30 fighter and an Il-78 refuelling tanker – may have been conducting refuelling exercises in the neighbouring Russian exclave of Kaliningrad when they flew 700 metres (0.43 miles) into the country at 6pm local time (15:00 GMT) on Thursday.

“This is a blatant breach of international law and territorial integrity of Lithuania,” said President Gitanas Nauseda on X, adding that his country would summon Russian embassy representatives to protest against reckless and dangerous behaviour.

Two Spanish Eurofighter Typhoon jets from the NATO Baltic Air Police were scrambled in response and were patrolling the area, the Lithuanian military said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry denied the incursion had taken place, saying the flights were conducted “in strict compliance” with rules and “did not deviate from their route and did not violate the borders of other states”.

The incident occurred after Nauseda and his fellow EU leaders attended a Brussels summit on Thursday, endorsing a plan dubbed Readiness 2030 to ensure that Europe can defend itself against an outside attack by the end of the decade.

It follows a series of mysterious drone incidents and airspace violations by Russian warplanes in recent weeks that have heightened anxiety that Russian President Vladimir Putin might be testing NATO’s defensive reflexes.

Three Russian military jets violated Estonia’s airspace for 12 minutes on September 19 in what was described by Tallinn as an “unprecedented and brazen intrusion”.

Nine days before, NATO jets had shot down 20 Russian drones that entered Polish airspace, marking the first time an alliance member had engaged directly with Russia since the start of the Ukraine war.

Fellow Baltic state leaders Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal and Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze both expressed full solidarity with Lithuania.

Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said the incident showed that “Russia is in no way calming down or retreating” and that continued vigilance is required.

Thursday’s EU summit also saw the bloc greenlight a major package of sanctions against Russia for its war on Ukraine.

It stopped short of endorsing the use of Russian frozen assets to give Kyiv a large loan. Russia had threatened a “painful response” if its assets were seized.

EU leaders had hoped to agree on a plan to fund a loan of 140 billion euros to bolster Ukraine.

Leaders across the European Union have agreed to help Ukraine fund its fight against Russia’s invasion, but stopped short of approving a plan that would draw from frozen Russian assets to do so, after Belgium raised objections.

EU leaders met in Brussels on Thursday to discuss Ukraine’s “pressing financial needs” for the next two years. Many leaders had hoped the talks would clear the way for a so-called “reparation loan”, which would use frozen Russian assets held by the Belgian financial institution Euroclear to fund a loan of 140 billion euros ($163.3bn) for Ukraine.

The EU froze about 200 billion euros ($232.4bn) of Russian central bank assets after the country launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In order to use the assets to fund Ukraine’s war effort, the European Commission, the EU’s executive, has floated a complex financial manoeuvre that involves the EU borrowing matured funds from Euroclear.

That money would then, in turn, be loaned to Ukraine, on the understanding that Kyiv would only repay the loan if Russia pays reparations.

The scheme would be “fully guaranteed” by the EU’s 27 member states – who would have to ensure repayment themselves to Euroclear if they eventually decided Russia could reclaim the assets without paying reparations. Belgium, the home of Euroclear, objected to this plan on Thursday, with Prime Minister Bart De Wever calling its legality into question.

Russia has described the idea as an illegal seizure of property and warned of retaliation.

Following Thursday’s political wrangling, a text approved by all the leaders – except Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban – was watered down from previous drafts to call for “options for financial support based on an assessment of Ukraine’s financing needs.” Those options will be presented to European leaders at their next summit in December.

“Russia’s assets should remain immobilised until Russia ceases its war of aggression against Ukraine and compensates it for the damage caused by its war,” the declaration added.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a guest at the summit, had urged a quick passage of the plan for the loan.

“Anyone who delays the decision on the full use of frozen Russian assets is not only limiting our defence, but also slowing down the EU’s own progress,” he told the EU leaders, saying Kyiv would use a significant part of the funds to buy European weapons.

Earlier, the EU adopted a new round of sweeping sanctions against Russian energy exports on Thursday, as well, banning liquefied natural gas imports.

The move followed United States President Donald Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that Russia’s two biggest oil companies would face US sanctions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday struck a defiant tone over the sanctions, saying they were an “unfriendly act”, and that Russia would not bend under pressure.

United States President Donald Trump sanctions Russia’s two biggest oil companies – after scrapping a summit with President Vladimir Putin on the Ukraine war.

The European Union has also announced new measures targeting Russian oil and assets.

Will they bring an end to the war any closer?

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:

Anatol Lieven – Director of the Eurasia programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

Steven Erlanger – Chief Diplomatic Correspondent for Europe at The New York Times

Chris Weafer – CEO of Macro-Advisory, a strategic consultancy focused on Russia and Eurasia

Russia, the second largest oil exporter globally, is considering its response to U. S. sanctions targeting major oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil, amid the possibility of reduced sales to India, its largest buyer. President Vladimir Putin has been in talks with U. S. President Donald Trump for months about finding a resolution to the ongoing war in Ukraine, but no progress has been made yet.

On October 22, the U. S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Rosneft, Lukoil, and their subsidiaries, urging Russia to agree to a ceasefire. Together, these two companies represent about half of Russia’s oil production and over 5% of the global oil supply. Earlier in January, sanctions were enacted against other Russian energy firms, but these did not severely disrupt Russian oil exports. The U. S. has also targeted the vessels and companies involved in transporting Russian oil, with some lawmakers calling for stricter measures.

Indian refiners, such as Reliance Industries, are reportedly looking to reduce or stop importing Russian oil due to increasing U. S. pressure. India purchased 1.9 million barrels per day in the first nine months of 2025, making up 40% of Russia’s total oil exports. Stricter sanctions may force Russia to offer larger discounts to maintain export levels, as oil and gas revenues are crucial for its budget and military efforts in Ukraine.

While halting crude exports is an option for Russia, it could also harm its allies, including China. Other choices include cutting exports of enriched uranium or rare metals, although these would also negatively impact Russia’s economy. Strengthening ties with China for rare-earth cooperation could counter U. S. pressures, given Russia’s substantial reserves.

Russia is a key member of OPEC+, which manages about half of global oil production, and any disruption to its exports could affect the organization’s market strategies. China, another significant buyer of Russian crude, reaffirmed its opposition to unilateral sanctions following the recent U. S. restrictions against Rosneft and Lukoil.

with information from Reuters

A Russian drone has killed two Ukrainian journalists and wounded another in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, according to their outlet and the regional governor of the Donetsk region.

Freedom Media, a state-funded news organisation, said on Thursday that Olena Gramova, 43, and Yevgen Karmazin, 33, had been killed by a Russian Lancet drone while in their car at a petrol station in the industrial city. Another reporter, Alexander Kolychev, was hospitalised after the attack.

The Donetsk regional governor earlier announced details of the strike and posted images showing the charred remains of the journalists’ car, according to the AFP news agency.

Freedom Media said that Gramova, a native of Yenakiieve in the Donetsk region, had originally trained as a “finance specialist”, but turned to journalism in 2014, the year when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, and started arming a separatist movement in Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbas.

Karmazin was born in Kramatorsk, also in Donetsk. The outlet said he “joined Ukraine’s international broadcasting channels as a cameraman in 2021”.

“From day one, they were there, covering evacuations, war crimes, soldier stories,” said the Kyiv Post in a post on X.

A Russian Lancet drone tore through Kramatorsk, killing Ukrainian journalist Olena Hubanova and cameraman Yevhen Karmazin as they documented the war from the front lines.

From day one, they were there — covering evacuations, war crimes, soldier stories.

Now they’re gone. pic.twitter.com/TNTN8H7nFd

— KyivPost (@KyivPost) October 23, 2025

Kramatorsk, which had a pre-war population of about 150,000 people, is one of the few remaining civilian hubs in the Donetsk region still under Ukrainian control.

Russian forces are approximately 16 kilometres (10 miles) from the city, where officials earlier this month announced the mandatory evacuation of children from some parts of the town and outlying villages.

Record numbers of journalists killed in conflict

The proliferation of cheap but deadly drones used both by Russian and Ukrainian forces has made reporting from the front-line regions of Ukraine increasingly dangerous.

Earlier in October, French photojournalist Antoni Lallican was killed by a drone near the eastern city of Druzhkivka, located in the Donetsk region.

Lallican had been killed by a “targeted strike” from a first-person-view drone, which allows operators to see their target before striking, according to Ukrainian forces cited by the European Federation of Journalists.

Precise tolls of journalists killed since the war started in 2022 vary. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists says that 17 journalists – Ukrainian and international – have been killed so far. The deaths of Gramova and Karmazin would bring that total to 19.

UNESCO said earlier this month that at least 23 media workers have been killed on both sides of the front line, including three Russian state media journalists in March. In mid-October, Russian war correspondent Ivan Zuyev was killed by a Ukrainian drone strike in the southern Zaporizhia region, according to state news agency RIA.

Recent years have seen record numbers of journalists killed in conflicts, the toll disproportionately accelerated by deaths in Gaza, where Israeli forces have deliberately targeted media workers like Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif and Mohammad Salama, Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri, and Mariam Abu Daqqa, a freelance journalist working for AP.

Again, reports on deaths since the start of the two-year Gaza war differ. The United Nations said that 242 journalists had been killed by August this year. A tally by Shireen.ps, a monitoring website named after murdered Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, said Israeli forces had killed more than 270 journalists and media workers over the same period.

​​Either way, more journalists have been killed in Gaza than in the United States Civil War, both World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined, according to Brown University’s Costs of War project.

Here are the key events from day 1,337 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Thursday, October 23, 2025:

Fighting

• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces captured the village of Pavlivka in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhia region, as well as Ivanivka village in the Dnipropetrovsk region. The ministry also said it struck Ukrainian energy infrastructure in what it claimed was a response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian targets.
• Russian attacks throughout Ukraine on Wednesday killed six people, including two children, and forced nationwide power outages, Ukrainian officials said.
• Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 405 drones and 28 missiles at Ukraine in an overnight attack targeting energy infrastructure. Ukraine downed 16 Russian missiles and 333 drones, while other missiles eluded defences and directly hit targets, the air force said.
• Ukrainian Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said Russia is implementing a methodical campaign to destroy Ukraine’s energy system and is targeting repair teams working at energy facilities with secondary attacks after initial strikes.
• Russian drones attacked Kyiv for a second night on Wednesday, injuring four people, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city’s military administration, said early on Thursday. Tkachenko said drones damaged several dwellings and other buildings, including a kindergarten.
• Ukraine’s military said it struck a weapons and ammunition plant in the Russian region of Mordovia and an oil refinery in Dagestan in overnight attacks.
• Russian Vice Admiral Vladimir Tsimlyansky said Russia’s army would seek to use reservists to defend civilian infrastructure such as oil refineries after a sharp rise in Ukrainian drone attacks deep into the country over recent months.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw a test of Russia’s nuclear forces on land, sea and air to rehearse their readiness and command structure, according to reports. The test included the launch of a land-based Yars intercontinental ballistic missile, the launch of a Sineva ballistic missile from a nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, and the launch of nuclear-capable cruise missiles from strategic bombers.

Sanctions

• United States President Donald Trump imposed Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia for the first time in his second term, targeting oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft as his frustration grows with President Putin over the failure to implement a ceasefire.
• The US Department of the Treasury said it was prepared to take further action and called on Moscow to agree immediately to a ceasefire in its war in Ukraine.
• “Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions.”
• Trump also said he expected to reach a trade agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping, adding that he would raise concerns about China’s purchases of Russian oil during their meeting in South Korea next week.
• European Union countries also approved a 19th package of sanctions on Moscow that includes a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports.
• The LNG ban will take effect in two stages: Short-term contracts will end after six months, and long-term contracts from January 1, 2027.
• Britain has issued a special licence allowing businesses to work with two German subsidiaries of the sanctioned Russian oil giant Rosneft, as they are under German state control. Last week, Britain announced new sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two largest oil firms, accusing them of helping fund the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
• Ukraine is urging European countries not to limit its use of a proposed $163bn loan based on frozen Russian state assets, arguing that it needs to be able to buy non-European arms, repair war damage from Russian attacks and compensate victims. Some EU states have suggested the funds be spent mainly on European-made weapons to boost their defence industries.
• Russia has no plans to seize any European assets, including companies and banks, but will consider its position if the EU confiscates frozen Russian sovereign assets, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev said.

Ceasefire talks

• President Trump said he cancelled a planned summit with President Putin due to a lack of progress in diplomatic efforts to reach peace in Ukraine and a sense that the timing was off.
• “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,” Trump said.
• Trump also expressed frustration with the stalled negotiations, saying, “Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere”.
• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Trump’s call for Ukraine and Russia to freeze the war at its current front lines was “a good compromise”, but he doubted that Putin would support it.

Military and financial aid

• Trump said a news report on the US giving approval for Ukraine to use long-range missiles deep into Russia was false, adding the US “has nothing to do with those missiles”.
• Sweden has signed a letter of intent that could see it supply up to 150 of its domestically produced Gripen fighter jets to Ukraine, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said after meeting President Zelenskyy.
• Zelenskyy said Ukraine aims to receive and start using Swedish Gripen jets next year. “For our army, Gripens are a priority. It is about money, about manoeuvres,” he said.
• Norway is donating another 1.5 billion Norwegian crowns ($149.4m) to Ukraine for the purchase of natural gas to secure electricity and heating, the Norwegian government said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy checked out the cockpit of a Gripen fighter jet in Sweden on a visit to buy 150 of the aircraft. Ukraine’s military hopes to start using some already manufactured jets next year.

Thousands of Palestinians have been freed under a fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel – but many more remain in Israeli prisons. As arrests continue and families wait for answers, what does “freedom” really mean under occupation? And how does detention shape daily life, resistance, and hope in Palestine?

Here are the key events from day 1,336 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Wednesday, October 22, 2025:

Fighting

• A “massive” Russian attack killed four people and injured seven in the town of Novhorod-Siverskyi, in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region, Governor Viacheslav Chaus wrote in a post on Telegram.
• Chaus said that Russian forces launched about 20 Shahed drones in the attack and that there was “a lot of destruction in the city”.
• Russian attacks killed two people and injured one person in the city of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the head of the Kostiantynivka City Military Administration, Serhii Horbunov, wrote in a post on Facebook.
• A Russian drone attack injured nine people in Ukraine’s Sumy region, Governor Oleh Hryhorov said.
• A Ukrainian attack killed one person and injured five in settlements in a Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, the Russian-installed governor, Vladimir Saldo, said.
• A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person in the village of Novostroyevka-Pervaya in Russia’s Belgorod Region, Russia’s state TASS news agency reported, citing regional authorities.
• Russian attacks on energy facilities left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without electricity in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region, the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine said on Tuesday.
• More than 1,000 people were left without electricity due to a Ukrainian attack on the Kamianka-Dniprovska area of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian Zaporizhia region, TASS reported, citing local officials.
• Ukrainian forces struck the Bryansk chemical plant in Russia, Ukraine’s General Staff said in a post on Facebook, adding that the “outcome of the strike is being assessed”.

Politics and diplomacy

• A senior White House official told Al Jazeera that “there are no plans for [US President Donald] President Trump to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the immediate future”, days after Trump suggested a meeting could take place in Hungary “within two weeks or so”.
• Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said of developments: “I don’t want to have a wasted meeting… I don’t want to have a waste of time, so I’ll see what happens.”
• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also implied that any potential meeting could take time, saying “preparation is needed, serious preparation”.

• However, Putin’s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, said on X late on Tuesday that the “media is twisting comment about the ‘immediate future’ to undercut the upcoming Summit”, adding that “preparations continue” for the meeting between Trump and Putin.

Media is twisting comment about the “immediate future” to undercut the upcoming Summit. Preparations continue. 🕊️🇷🇺🤝🇺🇸

👇https://t.co/lb81a3Tdxo https://t.co/RYrJI6yONs

— Kirill Dmitriev (@kadmitriev) October 21, 2025

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that Moscow’s dwindling interest in the presidential meeting came after the US appeared to back away from considering supplying long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
• “As soon as the issue of long-range mobility became a little further away for us – for Ukraine – Russia almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said.

Regional Security

• A man who shot and wounded Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico last year has been found guilty of terrorism charges and handed a 21-year jail sentence. The shooter said he opposed the approach taken towards Ukraine by Fico, who ended state military assistance to Ukraine and sought closer ties with Moscow.

Relations between the United States and China are tense, once again, with experts saying that the administration of US President Donald Trump “doesn’t quite know how to deal with China”.

The latest flare-up took place when Beijing, on October 9, expanded its restrictions on the export of rare-earth metals, increasing the number of elements on the list.

China has the largest reserves and the majority of processing facilities of rare-earth metals that are used in a range of daily and critical industries like electric vehicles, smartphones, laptops and defence equipment.

In a first, it also required countries to have a licence to export rare-earth magnets and certain semiconductor materials that contain even trace amounts of minerals sourced from China or produced using Chinese technology.

China’s actions on rare-earths also came after the US expanded its Entity List, a trade restriction list that consists of certain foreign persons, entities or government, further limiting China’s access to the most advanced semiconductor chips, and added levies on China-linked ships both to boost the US shipbuilding industry and loosen China’s hold on the global shipping trade. China retaliated by applying its own charges on US-owned, operated, built or flagged vessels.

“For the US, its actions on chip exports and shipping industry fees were not related to the trade deal with China,” said Vina Nadjibulla, vice president for research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

Since then, the two countries have also been in an “information war”, said Nadjibulla, each blaming the other for holding the world hostage with its policies.

But beyond the rhetoric, the world is seeing China really up its game.

“For the first time, China is doing this extra-terrestrial action that applies to other countries as well [with its amped up export restrictions on rare-earths]. They are prepared to match every US escalation, and have the US back down,” Nadjibulla said. “This is a very different kind of a trade war than we were experiencing even three months ago.”

This was a “power play” by China in the run-up to a planned meeting later this month between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea because “China has decided that the leverage is on their side,” said Dexter Tiff Roberts, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council Global China Hub, pointing out that after some initial noise with Trump saying there was no reason to meet Xi any longer, the meeting is back on.

“If you look at the approach of the Trump administration right now, they are all over the place,” said Roberts.

Roberts was referring not only to the multiple tariff threats that the US has issued both on China and on specific industries and the carve-outs that were soon announced on those, but also in its statements on the Trump-Xi meeting, with Trump saying it was not happening, only to reverse that two days later.

“The Trump administration doesn’t quite know how to deal with China,” said Roberts. “They don’t understand that China is willing to accept a lot of pain,” and will not be easily cowed by US threats.

Beijing, on the other hand, has realised that Trump is determined to get his big deal with China and wants his state visit to seal that, maybe because “he feels that is important to his credentials as a big deal maker,” added Roberts, but that he cannot get there without giving more to China.

“China saw that they could push harder in the lead-up to the meeting.”

Wei Liang, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies who specialises in international trade and Chinese economic foreign policy, agrees.

“Trump has a track record of TACO,” she said, referring to a term coined by a Financial Times columnist in May, which stands for “Trump always chickens out” in reference to his announcing tariffs and then carving out exemptions and pushing out implementation dates.

“He cares more than any other US president [about] stock market reactions, so definitely will be more flexible to making concessions. This is the inconsistency that has been captured by his negotiation partners,” Liang said.

China’s defiant stance also comes at a time of its own political concerns, Liang added.

While the domestic economy is “a black box” with no reliable data available on growth, employment and other criteria, the consensus among China experts is that the country has been hit by the tariffs, economic growth has slowed, and unemployment has ramped up.

As China started its four-day fourth plenary session on Monday where it plans to approve the draft of its next five-year national economic and social development plan, Xi can use the moment to tell his domestic audience that the country’s problems are stemming from Trump’s policies and the whole world is suffering because of those tariffs and it’s not related to Chinese policies, Liang said.

A possible decoupling

All of this also signals that Beijing seems to be prepared to “decouple” from the US more than ever, a significant change in mentality, as, in the past, the standard response to the idea was that it would be a “lose-lose” situation for both countries, Liang told Al Jazeera.

But in the last few years, China has diversified its exports to other countries, especially those in its Belt and Road Initiative, the ambitious infrastructure project that it launched in 2013 to link East Asia through Europe and has since expanded to Africa, Oceania and Latin America.

Even when it comes to things that it needs from the US – soya beans, aeroplanes and high-tech chip equipment – it can find other suppliers or has learned to work around that need, as is the case for the chip equipment, Liang pointed out.

In the meantime, especially in the years since the US-China trade war started under Trump as president in his first term, China has brought in a set of national security laws – including its version of the US Entity List, through which it is setting limits on those exports, Nadjibulla said.

“Everybody should have been preparing the way the Chinese have been preparing. We breathed a sigh of relief when there was a change in government [in the US after the first Trump administration], but China kept preparing,” she said.

“This should be a wake-up call for all countries to find other sources for its needs. Everyone should be redoubling their efforts to diversify, because we have now seen the Chinese playbook.”

Here are the key events from day 1,335 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Tuesday, October 21, 2025:

Fighting

• Russian forces launched several attacks on Ukraine’s Kherson region, killing one person and injuring three others, the Kherson Regional State Administration wrote in a post on Telegram.

• A Russian attack on the Ukrainian border region of Chernihiv cut off power to parts of northern Ukraine, including the main town outside the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power station, officials said, according to the Reuters news agency.

• The 7th Corps of Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces reported in a post on Facebook that a Russian assault group killed several Ukrainians during an attack on the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk in recent days, without providing further details of the number of people killed or when the attack occurred.
• Russian forces launched an attack on a coal enrichment plan in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, private Ukrainian energy company DTEK wrote in a post on Telegram.
• In the Russian border region of Belgorod, two people were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on the village of Yasnye Zori, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote in a post on Telegram.

Politics and diplomacy

• Speaking at the White House on Monday, United States President Donald Trump said of Ukrainians’ prospects in the war: “They could still win it”, but added, “I don’t think they will”.
• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, and discussed “advancing a durable resolution to the Russia-Ukraine war, in line with Trump’s vision,” according a summary of the call released by the US State Department.
• Russian lawmakers have drafted a law mandating life imprisonment for anyone involving minors in sabotage and lowering the threshold for criminal responsibility for such crimes to 14 years old, citing rising threats from Ukraine and NATO countries.

Budapest talks

• French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters in Slovenia that Ukraine and European countries should be included in upcoming talks between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary.
• “From the moment they discuss the fate of Ukraine, the Ukrainians should be at the table. From the moment they discuss what impacts the security of Europeans, the Europeans should be at the table,” Macron said.
• Macron also said that Ukraine’s allies, known as “the coalition of the willing”, are planning their own meeting in London on Friday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy present.
• Speaking to reporters on Monday, Zelenskyy said he is hoping to be invited to Budapest, whether the invitation is “in a format where we meet as three or, as it’s called, shuttle diplomacy”.

Weapons

• Zelenskyy said that his country is still “working with the United States” to secure “the necessary number of Patriot systems”, saying that he spoke with weapons companies on a recent visit to Washington, DC, and that support is needed at the “political level in Washington”.

The French bank will pay more than $20m to three plaintiffs amid allegations of human rights abuses.

BNP Paribas shares have tumbled as much as 10 percent after a United States jury found the French bank helped Sudan’s government commit genocide by providing banking services that violated American sanctions, raising questions about whether the lender will be exposed to further legal claims.

The bank’s shares were down on Monday morning in New York.

The federal jury in Manhattan on Friday ordered BNP Paribas to pay a combined $20.5m to three Sudanese plaintiffs who testified about human rights abuses perpetrated under former President Omar al-Bashir’s rule.

The Paris, France-based bank said it will appeal the verdict.

“This result is clearly wrong and ignores important evidence the bank was not permitted to introduce,” the company said in a statement on Monday.

Uncertainty about whether BNP Paribas could face further claims or penalties weighed on the bank’s shares on Monday, and would likely continue to do so, traders and analysts said.

The shares dropped as much as 10 percent at one point, and were last down 8.7 percent – set for their biggest daily fall since March 2023.

Lawyers for the three plaintiffs, who now reside in the US, said the verdict opens the door for more than 20,000 Sudanese refugees in the US to seek billions of dollars in damages from the French bank.

BNP said, “this verdict is specific to these three plaintiffs and should not have broader application. Any attempt to extrapolate is necessarily wrong as is any speculation regarding a potential settlement.”

Nonetheless, analysts say the news will likely drag on the bank’s shares in the coming months.

“A combination of a lack of visibility on the potential financial impact and next legal steps, a reminder of 2014 share price performance as well as a capital path that leaves relatively little room for error, is likely to hang over the shares until more visibility is provided,” analysts at RBC Capital Markets said in a note.

BNP Paribas in 2014 agreed to plead guilty and pay an $8.97bn penalty to settle US charges that it transferred billions of dollars for Sudanese, Iranian and Cuban entities subject to economic sanctions.

RBC said the bank’s shares underperformed the sector by 10 percent from the first litigation provision booked in early 2014 to the settlement in June 2014.

A draft regulation approved by European Union energy ministers would phase out Russian import contracts by January 2028.

European Union states have agreed to halt Russian oil and gas imports by 2028, severing an energy link they fear helps fuel Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Almost all EU energy ministers voted in favour of the draft regulation, which applies to both pipeline oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG), during a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.

It would require EU members to phase out new Russian gas import contracts from January 2026, existing short-term contracts from June 2026 and long-term contracts in January 2028.

The proposal must now be approved by the European Parliament, where it is expected to pass.

The plan is part of a broader EU strategy to curb Russian energy dependence amid the war in Ukraine – and follows persistent calls by United States President Donald Trump for European states to stop “funding the war against themselves”.

‘Not there yet’

Lars Aagaard, Denmark’s energy minister, called the proposal a “crucial” step to make Europe energy independent.

“Although we have worked hard and pushed to get Russian gas and oil out of Europe in recent years, we are not there yet,” Aagaard said. His country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

The EU has already brought down Russian oil imports to just 3 percent of its overall share, but Russian gas still makes up 13 percent of gas imports, accounting for more than 15 billion euros ($17.5bn) annually, according to the European Council.

Nevertheless, these purchases make up a relatively small portion of Russia’s overall fossil fuel exports, which mostly go to China, India and Turkiye, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

The EU countries importing the most Russian energy are Hungary and Slovakia, followed by France, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Hungary and Slovakia – which are diplomatically closer to Moscow – both opposed the latest EU initiative, but it only needed a weighted majority of 15 states to pass, meaning they could not block it.

“The real impact of this regulation is that our safe supply of energy in Hungary is going to be killed,” Budapest’s top diplomat, Peter Szijjarto, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

The text approved on Monday allowed specific flexibilities for landlocked member states, which include Hungary and Slovakia.

In addition to the trade restrictions, the EU is negotiating a new package of sanctions against Russia that would ban LNG imports one year earlier, from January 2027.

The EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, Kaja Kallas, said earlier on Monday the new sanctions package could be approved as early as this week.

In recent months, a new baseline idea has taken hold in European and United States debates on Ukraine: “Article 5‑like” guarantees. In March, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was the first to suggest a mechanism inspired by Article 5 of the NATO Charter, which provides for collective action in the event of an attack on a member. US President Donald Trump’s team then promoted a US “Article 5‑type” guarantee outside NATO in August. In September, French President Emmanuel Macron capped this shift by gathering 26 European partners in Paris to pledge a post-war “reassurance force”.

These proposals may sound reassuring, but they should not. In a world where we face nightly drone raids, blurred lines at sea, and constant pressure on critical infrastructure, replicating NATO’s words without NATO’s machinery would leave Ukraine exposed and Europe no safer.

Russia’s activity inside NATO territory has moved from rare to routine. On September 10, two dozen Russian-made drones crossed into Polish airspace during a wider strike on Ukraine; NATO jets shot down those that posed a threat, and Poland activated Article 4 of the NATO Charter, which allows for consultations in the event of a threat.

In the following weeks, Denmark temporarily shut down several airports after repeated drone sightings. Days later, French sailors boarded a tanker suspected of being part of a Russia-linked “shadow fleet” and of taking part in the drone disruptions.

Germany also reported coordinated drone flights over a refinery, a shipyard, a university hospital, and the Kiel Canal. Meanwhile, across the Baltic Sea, months of damage to undersea cables and energy links have deepened concern.

Each of these episodes is serious. Yet, none of them clearly crossed the legal threshold that would have triggered collective defence under Article 5.

That is the core problem with “NATO‑style” guarantees. Article 5 is powerful because it establishes that an attack on one is an attack on all, but it still needs a political process that begins with consultations and leaves each ally free to decide how to respond. It was written for visible aggression: Columns of troops on a border; ships firing across a line; fighter jets attacking territory.

Today’s reality is different. Drones launched from outside Ukrainian territory, one-night incursions over allied infrastructure, or cable cuts by vessels are meant to sit just under formal thresholds. A copy of Article 5 outside NATO’s integrated command, without a standing allied presence or pre-agreed rules for Ukraine, would be even slower and weaker than the original.

When mulling a security mechanism for Kyiv, allies need to recognise that it is no longer a security consumer; it is a security contributor. After Poland’s incident, allies began asking for Ukrainian counter-drone know-how. Ukrainian specialists have deployed to Denmark to share tactics for fusing sensors, jamming, and using low‑cost interceptors.

NATO leaders now say openly that Europe must learn how to defeat cheap drones without firing missiles that cost hundreds of thousands of euros. This is a notable shift: Ukraine is not just receiving protection; it is helping to build it.

Ukraine’s allies also need to remember what happened in 1994. Under the Budapest Memorandum, Kyiv gave up the world’s third‑largest nuclear arsenal in exchange for political “security assurances” from several countries, including Russia and the US. Those assurances were not legally binding.

In 2014, Russia seized Crimea and fuelled war in Donbas while denying its troops were there, using soldiers without insignia to keep the situation ambiguous. Even if Ukraine had been in NATO then, that ambiguity would have raised doubts about whether Article 5 applied. In 2022, Russia invaded openly.

Clearly, non-enforceable promises and debates over thresholds do not stop a determined aggressor. This is why we need guarantees that trigger action automatically, not statements that can be argued over in the moment.

What would work is a package that is tougher than Article 5 on the issues that matter against a sub‑threshold attacker: Time, automaticity, presence, intelligence, and production.

First, there needs to be automatic triggers. A legally ratified “if‑then” mechanism should activate within hours when clear markers are met: State‑origin drones or missiles entering Ukrainian airspace from outside; mass drone incursions into border regions; destructive cyberattacks or sabotage against defined critical infrastructure. The initial package would include both military steps and heavy sanctions. Consultations would adjust the response, not decide whether there will be one.

Second, there needs to be a joint aerial and maritime shield that treats Ukrainian skies and nearby seas as one operating picture. Allies need to keep persistent airborne radar and maritime patrol coverage; fuse sensors from low to high altitude; delegate rules for downing drones along agreed corridors; combine electronic warfare, directed‑energy and radio‑frequency tools, and low‑cost interceptors with classic surface‑to‑air missiles. The test is economic: Europe must make Russian drone raids expensive for Moscow, not for itself.

Third, there must be visible presence and ready logistics. Before a ceasefire is concluded, allies need to build forward logistics: ammunition, spare parts, and maintenance hubs in Poland and Romania with a standing air bridge into Ukraine. Following an agreed ceasefire, they can rotate multinational detachments, air defence crews, maritime patrol teams, and engineers through Ukrainian ports and airfields. The aim would be not to establish permanent bases, but to ensure any renewed attack instantly draws in several capitals.

Fourth, there needs to be an intelligence compact. Allies need to move from ad hoc sharing to an institutional arrangement with Ukraine that integrates satellite, signals, open‑source, and battlefield sensors into common, near‑real‑time products. Fast attribution is central: The right to defend yourself relies on what you can prove, and deterrence relies on an adversary knowing you can prove it quickly.

Fifth, there needs to be a production deal. Multi‑year funding should anchor co‑production in Ukraine of drones, air‑defence components, and artillery rounds, alongside European and US plants making the high‑end systems Ukraine and Europe still lack. Allies should commit to buy Ukrainian systems at scale and tie guarantees to contracted output, not to communiques. Empty magazines make empty promises.

These measures would not copy the letter of Article 5. They would meet a different threat with tools that can counter it. Europe’s recent experience, in Poland’s skies, at German shipyards, at Danish airports, and in the Baltic Sea shows how an adversary can apply steady pressure without triggering classic definitions of “armed attack”.

If Ukraine receives only “NATO‑style” language, it will inherit those same gaps outside the alliance. If instead Ukraine and its partners lock in automatic responses, a shared air picture, visible presence, real‑time intelligence, and an industrial base that keeps pace, they will build something stronger: A guarantee that works in the world as it is, not the world at it was.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Ukraine attacks Russian gas processing plant as Zelenskyy calls for more international pressure on Putin.

Here is how things stand on Monday, October 20, 2025:

Fighting

• The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in a post on Facebook that it struck a gas processing plant in Russia’s Orenburg region, causing explosions and “a large-scale fire”.
• Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy said that the Orenburg gas processing plant, the largest facility of its kind in the world, had been forced to suspend its intake of gas from Kazakhstan following the Ukrainian drone attack.
• Orenburg Governor Yevgeny Solntsev had said earlier on Sunday that the plant, which is run by state-owned gas giant Gazprom, had been partially damaged, and that the drone attack caused a fire at a workshop at the facility. The blaze was later put out, Russian media outlet Kommersant reported, citing the operator.
• Ukraine’s General Staff also said that its forces hit the Novokuybyshevsk oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region.
• Russian forces launched a “massive” attack on a coal mine in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, private Ukrainian energy company DTEK wrote in a post on Telegram, adding that 192 mineworkers, who were underground during the incident, were being evacuated.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it shot down 323 Ukrainian drones, two guided bombs, and three rocket launchers in a 24-hour period, according to Russia’s state TASS news agency.
• Russia launched more than 3,270 attack drones, 1,370 guided aerial bombs, and nearly 50 missiles against Ukraine in the past week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a post on Facebook.

Politics and diplomacy

• United States President Donald Trump pressed Zelenskyy to give up territory to Russia during a White House meeting on Friday that left the Ukrainian delegation disappointed, Reuters reported, citing two unidentified officials.
• The Financial Times also reported that the meeting was tense, saying that Trump told Zelenskyy that Russian President Vladimir Putin would “destroy” Ukraine if Kyiv did not accept Moscow’s terms for ending the war.
• Polish President Donald Tusk wrote on X on Sunday that “none of us should put pressure on Zelenskyy when it comes to territorial concessions”.
• Zelenskyy told NBC that more pressure is needed on Putin, since the Russian leader is “more strong than Hamas”.
• The Ukrainian president also said that he should be included in upcoming talks between Putin and Trump in Hungary.
• In an interview on Fox News on Sunday morning, Trump again indicated that he was not willing to send more arms to Ukraine, saying: “We have to remember one thing. We need them for ourselves too. You know, we can’t give all of our weapons to Ukraine.”
• Germany’s Federal Foreign Office announced that it was temporarily recalling its envoy to Georgia, saying in a post on X that the country’s “leadership has for months been agitating against the EU, Germany and the German ambassador personally”.

Oct. 19 (UPI) — On this date in history:

In 1781, Britain’s Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered with more than 7,000 troops to Gen. George Washington at Yorktown, Va., effectively ending the American War of Independence and guaranteeing the colonialists freedom from the crown.

In 1789, John Jay, one of the founding fathers and president of the Continental Congress, was sworn in as first chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

In 1812, Napoleon’s beaten French army began its long, disastrous retreat from Moscow.

In 1964, under the leadership of new Communist Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev, the Kremlin moved toward patching up its grievances with Red China.

File Photo by Frank Cancellare/UPI

In 1973, the Israeli military was pitched in a two-front battle against Arab forces, in the south against Egypt, and in the north against the armies of Syria, Iraq and Jordan. Subsequently, Saudi Arabia threatened a total cutoff of oil shipments to the United States unless they halted all military aid to Israel. This standoff would lead to the 1973 oil crisis.

In 1982, carmaker John DeLorean was arrested in Los Angeles and charged in a $24 million cocaine scheme aimed at salvaging his bankrupt sports car company. He was tried and acquitted.

File Photo by Phil McCarten/UPI

In 1987, U.S. Navy ships bombarded an Iranian oil platform in retaliation for a missile attack on a U.S.-flagged ship and Iran threatened a “crushing response,” warning the United States “has got itself into a full-fledged war.”

In 1994, a terrorist bombing killed more than 20 people on a bus in Tel Aviv, Israel.

In 2003, Pope John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa before hundreds of thousands of pilgrims packed into St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. This was the last formal step before her sainthood in 2015.

In 2009, the U.S. government announced it would no longer prosecute people who use or sell marijuana for medicinal purposes if they are complying with state laws.

In 2013, a violin played by the musical conductor of the Titanic as the ship sank after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic in 1912 sold for more than $1.7 million at an auction in London.

In 2024, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted Cher, Mary J. Blige, Ozzy Osbourne, the Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, Peter Frampton, Kool & the Gang and A Tribe Called Quest.

File Photo by Rocco Spaziani/UPI