The Ceasefire That Never Ceased to Burn
Upcoming Free to Join NGO Events
24 October 2025 @ 3:30-4:30 p.m. (GMT-4), Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), USA
U.S.-China Relations and the Future of America’s Energy and Automotive Sectors
The event explores how tumultuous US-China relations are forging America's clean energy and mobility future. It observes effects of tariffs, export controls, and political instability on clean technologies like batteries, solar, and vehicles. Against a possible Trump–Xi meeting, speakers will examine prospects for stabilisation or fresh friction, as also how changes in investment, collaboration, and technology policy might affect global innovation and deployment of energy. For more information and registration, please see [CSIS].
24 October 2025 @ 2:30-4:00 p.m. (GMT+8), ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore
Malaysia’s Budget 2026: Consolidation, Compromise, Comfort
This webinar examines Malaysia's Budget 2026 at a critical juncture for the Madani government. It will discuss attempts at fiscal consolidation, reconciling deficit reduction with social expenditure, and structural reforms aimed at improving competitiveness and investment. It will discuss coalition compromises, such as downscaled petrol subsidy reforms, ministry budgetary rivalry, and rushed Government Procurement Act. It also discusses targeted allocations, election-motivated allocations, as well as tax compliance with AI and Malaysia's overall direction for its economic reform agenda. For more information and registration, visit [ISEAS].
27 October 2025 @ 5:00-6:10 p.m. (GMT+1), Chatham House, United Kingdom
How Singapore is surviving and thriving between China and the United States
In this session, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong examines how small states, such as Singapore, deal with the evolving international order of ascending strategic competitions, fuzzy security-economic lines, and decreasing multilateralism. With a spotlight on Indo-Pacific as a global focal point of development and competition, Lee will examine why Singapore's resilience and adaptability enable it to safeguard national interests in an era of unpredictability, with regional order implications as well as strategic policymaking for a rapidly changing world. For more information and registration, visit [Chatham House].
27 October 2025 @ 4:00-5:30 p.m. (GMT-4), Hoover Institution, USA
"Breakneck: China's Quest To Engineer The Future"
This book event will feature Dan Wang presenting Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, his upcoming history of China's sudden jump in technological power and industrial aspirations. Organized by Hoover's History Lab and moderated by Stephen Kotkin, this event will examine China's transformation of world innovation by state-led engineering and industrial policy. Wang, a foremost expert on China's technology, will analyze China's drive for technological independence and its consequences for world economic and geopolitical rivalry. For more information and registration, visit [Hoover Institution].
28 October 2025 @ 3:30-4:30 p.m. (GMT-4), Center for a New American Security (CNAS), USA
The Fourth Intelligence Revolution: The Future of Espionage and the Battle to Save America
This event at CNAS features Anthony Vinci discussing his work The Fourth Intelligence Revolution: The Future of Espionage and the Battle to Save America. Vinci examines how espionage is being rewritten by artificial intelligence as well as a new era of U.S.–China rivalry, making it more open to fields such as economic intelligence, genetic data, as well as space reconnaissance. From his experience as a former CTO of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Vinci will discuss with CNAS's Vivek Chilukuri how emerging technologies are transforming world intelligence as well as national security policy. For more information and registration, visit [CNAS].
28 October 2025 @ 10:00-11:00 a.m. (GMT-4), Stimson Center, USA
How America Failed to Disarm North Korea: Implications for the Future
Joel Wit's Fallout: The Inside Story of America's Failure to Disarm North Korea is based on nearly 300 interviews with US, South Korean, and Chinese officials to shed light on why six US presidents failed to halt Pyongyang's nuclear buildup. Wit criticizes Obama and Donald Trump most for this failure, which has left America vulnerable to North Korean missiles and launched a destabilising nuclear arms race towards a boiling point in North-east Asia. For more information and registration, visit [Stimson Center].
28 October 2025 @ 5:00-6:00 p.m. (GMT+1), Chatham House, United Kingdom
How should the world confront climate derailment risks?
This hybrid panel examines two competing climate dynamics: reinforcement—where further deterioration of climate effects fuels more action—and derailment—where crises set back effort. With a case study of the 2024 Valencia floods and increasing support for climate-denying political parties, the debate looks at how climate effects might either drive or derail effort in the 1.5°C overshoot. On the same day as a new derailment risk report and facilitation tool, the event—conducted with the Strategic Climate Risk Initiative—looks to pinpoint where derailment happens and how global climate effort might be reinforced. For more information and registration, visit [Chatham House].
Recent Book Releases
Carl Benedikt Frey, How Progress Ends: Technology, Innovation, and the Fate of Nations, Princeton University Press, 552 pages, published September 16, 2025. For a review, see [The Arts Fuse].
Tim Besley, Irene Bucelli, Andres Velasco (eds.), The London Consensus: Economic Principles for the 21st Century, LSE Press, 672 pages, published October 16. 2025. For more information, see [LSE].
Tony Abbott, Australia: A history, HarperCollins AU, 448 pages, published October 13, 2025. For a review, see [The Guardian].
Kirsten E. Schulze, Contesting Indonesia: Islamist, Separatist, and Communal Violence since 1945, Southeast Asia Program Publications, 324 pages, published October 15, 2024. For a review, see [LSE].
Kenneth P. Vogel, Devils’ Advocates: The Hidden Story of Rudy Giuliani, Hunter Biden, and the Washington Insiders on the Payrolls of Corrupt Foreign Interests, William Morrow, 400 pages, published October 14, 2025. For a review, see [The New York Times].
🌍 Top Stories of the Week 16/10 - 22/10
16 October
🇺🇦 Kyiv puts 2026 defence needs at $120 billion. Germany pledges big military aid. [Source]
Ukrainian officials says Ukraine will be able to produce up to 10 million drones if partners provide the necessary funding.
🇮🇳 🇺🇸 Trump praises PM Modi, then makes bizarre remark: 'Don’t want to destroy his political career’. Trump stated that India will stop buying Russian oil soon. [Source]
🇵🇰 🇵🇸 5 killed as Pakistani police clash with pro-Palestinian protesters. [Source]
🇺🇸 🇻🇪 Trump administration secretly authorises covert C.I.A action in Venezuela, “stepping up a campaign against Nicolás Maduro, the country’s authoritarian leader”. [Source]
17 October
🇮🇩 🇨🇳 Indonesia to buy 42 fighter jets from China marking its first non-Western aircraft purchase deal, worth over $9 billion. [Source]
🇨🇳 China outs top military official as Xi widens corruption purge. Including eight other officers like Admiral Miao Hua and General Lin Xiangyang were also removed on corruption charges. [Source]
18 October
🇷🇺 🇺🇸 Vladimir Putin will take a 5000km detour to reach Budapest for a summit with Trump. EU doesn’t allow Russian planes. [Source]
🇺🇸 🇺🇦 Trump rejects Zelensky’s request on the Tomahawk missiles in what is said to be a “tough” meeting. [Source]
👑 With the recent unrest in the market, Gold has experienced a massive increase! China, India, Switzerland and Taiwan holds more gold than United States Treasury bonds. Meanwhile Japan holds more United States Treasury bonds than gold. [Source]
🇬🇧 🇺🇸 Keir Starmer promotes a joint US-UK peace plan for Ukraine. [Source]
19 October
🇺🇸 Massive ‘No Kings’ anti-Trump protest going on in USA. [Source]
Millions are expected to show out for protests on Saturday at more than 2,500 locations across America.
Could be one of the largest protest in American history
🇳🇿 🇪🇺 New Zealand Finance Minister Nicola Willis said that the European Union was now looking to connect with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade deal between 11 member countries. Building on current bilateral relations. [Source]
🇺🇸 🇵🇸 🇮🇱 JD Vance plans Israel visit for Monday to push Gaza deal implementation. Ceasefire but no peace. Terms of the ceasefire will be revisited ensuring Israel is on the same page. [Source]
🇮🇱 Netanuyahu will run again in 2026 elections. [Source]
20 October
🇮🇱 🇵🇸 Israeli military launches fresh attacks on Gaza, ceasefire under strain. [Source]
Israel says that ceasefire and aid will resume.
Israel committed 47 violations of Gaza ceasefire since Oct. 10, says media office.
🇺🇸 🇷🇺 🇺🇦 Trump urged Zelensky to accept Putin’s peace terms, surrendering the Donbas region, or face “destruction” by Russia. [Source]
Trump is in full support of Russia. What could be the reason?
However, Zelensky denied giving up its territory.
21 October
🇮🇷 🇺🇸Iran’s Khamenei rejects Trump offer of talks, denies US destroyed Iranian nuclear capabilities. [Source]
🇫🇷 Louvre heist: The ‘cursed’ Indian diamond that remained untouched in the case. [Source]
French officials confused why the $60 million diamond was left behind? Maybe left a fake.
🇺🇸 🇷🇺 Too many disagreements are leading to meetings with Trump and Putin getting stalled. Moscow claims that the meeting has not even been scheduled yet. [Source]
🇹🇱 Timor-Leste’s application for membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is set to come to a successful conclusion. The application will be expected to be successful at the bloc’s summit at the end of October. [Source]
22 October
🇺🇸 Trump claims he ended 8 wars, 9th is apparently on the way. [Source]
🇷🇺 🇺🇸 Trump-Putin meeting canceled after Russia insists goal to conquer Ukraine ‘has not changed’. [Source]
🇩🇪 🇨🇳 Germany’s trade deficit with China just hit ~€83 billion. China has overtaken the US as Germany’s biggest trading partner. [Source]
