India vs China in the talent race: Lessons from Beijing’s strategic education model

Jayant Shilanjan Mundhra

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The world’s gaze on China’s rise is fixated on the familiar emblems of power: trade balances, sprawling infrastructure, and military parades. Yet, the most profound shift, the one forging the contours of the 21st century, is unfolding quietly in its classrooms and laboratories.

To grasp the magnitude of this change, consider this: in 1949, 80% of China’s population was illiterate. Today, the nation produces nearly 50 lakh STEM graduates every single year, according to analysis by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. For perspective, India, with its own impressive talent pool, produces around 26 lakh graduates, while the United States produces roughly 6 lakh.

Taiwan Wants A FTA With India – OpEd

Veeramalla Anjaiah

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To get more Taiwanese investment, India should ease labour laws and streamline work visas, Kristy Hsu, director of the Taiwan-ASEAN Studies Center, has said in an interview to Moneycontrol news website.

A free trade agreement (FTA) between Taiwan and India would be mutually beneficial, which would not only boost ties but also create economic opportunities for both sides, Kristy Hsu, who is from the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, has said.

India will play a bigger role in global trade, especially in labour-intensive sectors, as it builds its supply chains, she said, adding that Taiwanese companies and their customers want to delink from China.

“Taiwan did an FTA feasibility study with India 10 years back. It wants an FTA with India. If India wants to export agriculture products to Taiwan, we will reduce our tariffs through FTA,” Hsu, who also advises the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce in India (TCCI), said in an interview to Moneycontrol.

If India were to reduce tariffs on imports of components needed by Taiwanese companies manufacturing in India, it would give a fillip to trade, she said. To attract more Taiwanese investment, India should ease labour laws and streamline work visas, she said.

Taiwanese companies have stepped up investment in India, particularly in sectors such as electronics manufacturing, semiconductors and electric vehicles (EVs).

Major Taiwanese companies such as Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron largely import electronic integrated circuits, semiconductors, EV components, and machinery from Taiwan.

In FY25, bilateral trade between India and Taiwan stood at $11.8 billion, 17 percent higher than the previous year.

Over the past decade, Taiwanese companies’ interest in investing in India has surged, she said. In 2015, TCCI had around 80 member companies, which has grown close to 200 now.

At least 24 killed as army paraglider bombs Myanmar Buddhist festival

Koh Ewe and Jonathan Head

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At least 24 people were killed and 47 wounded while protesting against Myanmar's military government after an army motorised paraglider dropped two bombs on the crowd, a spokesperson for the government-in-exile told BBC Burmese.

The military attacked on Monday evening as around 100 people gathered in Chaung U township in central Myanmar for a national holiday.

Thousands have died and millions have been displaced since a military coup in 2021, which triggered a civil war with armed resistance groups and ethnic militias.

After losing control of more than half the country, the army is making significant gains again, through an especially bloody campaign of airstrikes and heavy bombardment.

Monday's attack is just one of hundreds of similar air strikes that have been carried out this year by Myanmar's armed forces.

The military government has in recent months augmented its air force with new drones acquired from China - which is now fully supporting the junta - as well as technical assistance from Russia.

That, coupled with the fact that Beijing has been putting pressure on rebels along its border with Myanmar to stop supplying weapons to opposition groups, means the military tables have turned and insurgents are having to give up many of the territorial gains they made over the past two years.

The attack on Monday targeted a township in the Sagaing region, where people had gathered on Thadingyut, a full moon festival, to hold a candlelight vigil.

It had been organised as a peaceful protest against the junta's military conscription and an upcoming national election. It also called for the release of political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically-elected leader who was deposed in the coup and jailed.

Satellite Pictures Show China’s Growing Invasion Fleet

Micah McCartney

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Satellite imagery appears to show a rare assembly of Chinese amphibious assault ships in the Yangtze River Estuary, suggesting a high state of readiness among forces that would likely play a central role in any invasion of Taiwan.

Why It Matters

China continues to expand the capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), now the world’s largest by hull count, with more than 370 warships and submarines.

Among them are landing dock ships, helicopter carriers, and specialized landing barges that analysts say would spearhead a cross-strait assault.

Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to pursue unification—by force if necessary. Chinese forces have intensified pressure on the island through large-scale military drills and near-daily air sorties across the Taiwan Strait’s median line, moves Taipei and Washington call destabilizing.

Imagery captured by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 satellites on October 6, 2025, annotated by Newsweek, shows the locations of China's amphib...Read More | X/MT Anderson

Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry by email with a request for comment outside of office hours.

What To Know

Satellite photos taken on October 6, 2025, show multiple amphibious vessels moored in Shanghai’s Yangtze River Estuary, a key maritime logistics hub.

Open-source defense analyst MT Anderson identified a Type 071 Yuzhao-class landing platform dock (LPD)—a 25,000-ton transport ship capable of carrying landing craft, armored vehicles, and several hundred troops to a contested beachhead during an amphibious assault.

Why Drones Are Center of Potential US–China Warfare

Sean Tseng

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On today’s battlefields, inexpensive flying robots are capable of locating, jamming, and eliminating targets faster than any human can react. China is determined to flood the skies with them.

In response, the United States is working on building its own swarms, refining smarter software, and tightening curbs on Chinese technology, while Ukraine’s front lines serve as a testing ground for evaluating effective and ineffective technologies.

The contest is not about a single “best drone,” an analyst told The Epoch Times. Instead, it’s a race between China’s ability to mobilize a huge civilian drone industry for war and America’s effort to turn clever prototypes into mass production, then bind them together with software and allied networks.

To prevail, the analyst said, Washington must move faster on approvals and testing, buy in large quantities, and adopt strategies proven effective on Ukraine’s battlefield on a larger scale, such as embracing open systems, facilitating quick upgrades, and shipping technology in the thousands.

Any future clash, especially over Taiwan, will be decided by scale, speed, and the lessons that endure from Ukraine, according to the analyst.

China’s Civil‑Military FusionChina’s consumer drone machine is enormous.

China delivered more than 3.17 million civilian drones in 2023, with more than 2,300 companies and at least 1,000 models in mass production, the vice minister of industry and information technology told a press conference in April 2024.

That ecosystem—anchored by Chinese company DJI, the world’s largest drone maker—feeds a low-cost parts chain of motors, optics, radios, and flight controllers that can pivot to military use almost overnight.

This illustrates the civil-military fusion strategy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP): a state-guided process that transforms consumer dominance into wartime readiness.

Taiwan’s Plan for Peace Through Strength

Lin Fei-fan

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In July 2025, Taiwan conducted one of its most extensive military exercises in decades. This time, however, the training did not occur in isolated training grounds but in the heart of Taiwan’s cities. Tanks moved through urban streets, more than 20,000 reservists were mobilized, soldiers transported weapons via underground metro systems, and simulated strikes targeted critical infrastructure, including the river crossings that link Taipei’s urban core. As part of the exercise, planners tested civilian agencies under extreme contingency scenarios while air-raid alerts emptied the streets. Underground parking lots and metro stations served as bomb shelters, and schools and civic centers became relief shelters and emergency medical hubs. The exercise also mobilized nongovernmental organizations and fire and police agencies to support material distribution logistics and community protection efforts. The government even released updated civil defense instructions, providing the public with air-raid sheltering and safety guidelines.

The exercise, in other words, extended far beyond the armed forces and reflected Taiwan’s deepening belief that effective deterrence against China relies not only on military modernization but also on societal resilience—the ability of Taiwan’s people to withstand the most extreme scenarios or to resist an invasion. Although it was the first time the Taiwanese people witnessed such a large-scale exercise in their own neighborhoods, the public did not panic but instead expressed strong support for these realistic training and preparedness efforts.

Since 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping has made no secret of his ambitions to annex Taiwan, by force if necessary, and to seek Indo-Pacific dominance. The Chinese Communist Party has framed these objectives as essential to the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” and has targeted Taiwan with escalating military pressure and hybrid operations across multiple domains. From near-daily incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone to large-scale kinetic drills, cyberattacks, and disinformation operations, Beijing has pursued a campaign designed not simply to intimidate but to erode Taiwan’s confidence and capacity to resist.

Why Azerbaijan Is the Next Front of US-China Competition

Kamran Bokhari

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The Trump administration can build on its peace-deal momentum and push out Chinese influence in the Caucasus.

From the US geopolitical perspective, Azerbaijan represents a pivotal strategic partner in Eurasia. Having played a key role in mediating a historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia, the Trump administration must now recalibrate its broader foreign policy toward the Turkic nation to strengthen its ties with America.

Azerbaijan, the only state bordering both Russia and Iran, has emerged as a focal point of China’s deepening strategic and economic engagement. For the United States, Azerbaijan’s geoeconomic significance stems from its position as a critical energy supplier and transit hub that diversifies global routes while anchoring US access to Central Asia.

In recent months, a series of consequential developments has unfolded involving Azerbaijan and the United States’ three chief adversaries.

A day after Presidents Donald Trump and Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed the agreement establishing the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) through southern Armenia, Iranian Supreme Leader’s foreign affairs advisor Ali Akbar Velayati warned that Tehran would block any US-backed corridor in the Caucasus, deriding the TRIPP as a “graveyard for Trump’s mercenaries.”

In an August 27 interview with Al-Arabiya TV, Aliyev noted that following the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, the Azerbaijanis established the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, which lasted until April 1920, when the Soviet Union absorbed it. Over the past six months, Aliyev has visited China twice, meeting Xi Jinping on April 23 in Beijing to elevate bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership, and again on August 31 on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Tianjin.

Together, these developments reveal both promise and peril for US interests in the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

When it comes to Iran, Azerbaijan is a natural strategic partner for Washington. As a secular, Shia-majority state on Iran’s northwestern frontier, it has long opposed the Islamic Republic, though regional constraints have historically limited its effectiveness as a counterbalance.

China’s New H-20 Stealth Bomber Can Be Explained in 2 Words

Harry Kazianis

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U.S. Airmen from the 393d Bomber Generation Squadron inspect and secure protective covering on the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., July 25, 2024. Crew chiefs directly support the B-2 by inspecting and maintaining it daily to ensure its mission ready at a moment's notice. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Bryce Moore)

Key Points and Summary – China’s long-rumored H-20 stealth bomber is meant to give Beijing true intercontinental strike reach and complete a nuclear triad.

-Hints from Chinese commanders and U.S. assessments suggest a flying-wing design with global range when refueled, substantial payload, and roles spanning nuclear deterrence to conventional standoff strike.

-But unveiling a prototype is not the same as fielding a trained force.

-Stealth bombers demand exacting engines, low-observable materials, mission-system integration, tankers, specialized maintenance, and years of pilot and crew seasoning.

-That learning curve buys time.

-While the H-20 will matter, the United States and allies can harden bases, disperse forces, and refine defenses before it truly matures.

China’s H-20 Bomber Is Real—Here’s Why It Won’t Be Ready Soon

If Beijing gets the H-20 right, it will transform China’s airpower. A stealthy, long-range, flying-wing bomber would give the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) a true intercontinental punch and a more credible air-leg for nuclear deterrence. That is the strategic intent.

Senior Chinese officers have teased public reveal timelines, and U.S. defense reporting has steadily shifted from “concept” to “development program with global-reach ambitions.” The emerging picture: a B-2/B-21-style profile optimized for deep strike with internal bays, low observability, and the ability to sling modern standoff munitions at theater-critical targets.

China Is Making a Big Bet on New Bomber Aircraft

Harrison Kass

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Together, the two bombers offer China a layered bomber corps, with long-range stealth for global posturing and a fast, survivable strike option for near-term coercion.

As China’s revisionist ambitions grow, so too does its need for military modernization. Central to that modernization effort is a revamp of the bomber corps—which for decades has been a relic of the Cold War, consisting mostly of Soviet Tu-16 clones known as the H-6. Incapable of meaningful power projection, the H-6 is ill-suited to the Xi regime’s intention to be a global actor.

Accordingly, China is pursuing two converging bomber programs, each offering insights into the country’s strategic direction. First, China is operating the H-20, a stealth intercontinental bomber. And second, it is reportedly developing the new “JH-XX,” a medium-range stealth strike aircraft. Together, the two bombers embody China’s attempt to rewrite the military geography of the Pacific and alter the balance of power.

The H-20: China’s Flying Wing Stealth Bomber

Developed by Xi’an Aircraft Corporation, the H-20 is a strategic game changer. While little is known of the program, which has been shrouded in secrecy, satellite imagery has revealed some basic parameters: the H-20 appears to be a flying-wing stealth bomber comparable to the Northrop B-2 Spirit and the forthcoming B-21 Raider.

The H-20 is believed to have a combat radius of up to 5,000 kilometers, which would pull Guam, Australia, and possibly even Hawaii into range for H-20s stationed on the Chinese mainland. The H-20 will presumably carry both nuclear and conventional payloads internally, with the ability to operate with low observability and high survivability.

If true, the H-20 will give China its first ever strategic bomber. It would also complete China’s nuclear triad with an air-based nuclear option—a watershed moment in the country’s military capabilities, sure to shift the entire deterrence landscape.

We Still Don’t Know Much About the JH-XX Bomber

Civilian Tech Is Powering China’s Military

Cole McFaul

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China is a dominant player in emerging technologies. It is a renewable energy superpower, controls the global commercial drone market, and has installed more industrial robots than the rest of the world combined. At the same time, it is pouring resources into outcompeting the United States in artificial intelligence.

But Beijing is not only interested in mastering civilian technologies. It also seeks to develop the world’s premier military capabilities by integrating its civilian commercial ecosystem and defense industrial base. This strategy, known as military-civil fusion, draws inspiration from Washington’s ability to leverage commercial innovation for battlefield advantage, in areas such as satellite imagery, microelectronics, and, more recently, AI-enabled decision support systems.

US Congress urged to preserve stability in Indo-Pacific and curb China’s Taiwan game plan

Mark Magnier

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China is systematically exploiting US weaknesses and inconsistencies to expand its reach in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, but it also faces its own energy, diplomatic and economic vulnerabilities that Washington needs to better exploit, witnesses testified before Congress on Tuesday.

The hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy saw unusual bipartisan unanimity in a deeply divided Washington on the need to better support East Asian allies and partners.

“We need to be much more strategic,” said Craig Singleton, senior fellow with the non-partisan Foundation for Defence of Democracies. “It doesn’t mean regime change. It doesn’t mean we’re going to take actions that undermine the livelihood of the Chinese people. But there are very clear things we can do to push back.”

China is exposed politically, diplomatically, in the information space, with trade finance and economics, he added.

Chinese ships collide during clash with Philippine coastguard in contested South China Sea

“Beijing interprets vulnerabilities, not only in Taiwan’s defences, but also in US and allied responses, as validation of its approach to date – sustained coercion below the threshold of war,” added Singleton, a former US diplomat.

Witnesses testified that Beijing has effectively employed a stealth grey zone strategy over decades to wear down its neighbours, grab territory when opportunities arise – as seen in nearly 90 per cent of the South China Sea that China now claims – and keep provocations below levels that would elicit a US military response.

“Ultimately, Communist China would rather act as a python, solely squeezing countries that resist, rather than acting as a cobra and striking quickly,” said committee chairman Pete Ricketts, a Republican from Nebraska.

The limits of Taiwan’s ‘silicon shield’

Denny Roy

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US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick brought new attention to Taiwan’s “silicon shield” in a September 28 interview, during which he said Taiwan should move half of its world-leading semiconductor manufacturing capability to the United States.

Taiwan produces 60% of the world’s semiconductors and 90 of the most advanced chips – not to mention that the industry accounts for 15%of Taiwan’s GDP.

Taiwan Vice-Premier Cheng Li-chiun, who led Taiwan’s trade talks with Washington, on October 1 dismissed Lutnick’s idea, saying, “Our negotiating team has never made any commitment to a 50-50 split on chips … nor would we agree to such conditions.”

Cheng’s response reflects the belief of Taiwan’s people that global reliance on Taiwan-made chips helps protect the island from a Chinese military assault. That notion has some merit, but it also has limits.

The term “silicon shield” is attributed to a 2000 article by Journalist Craig Addison, who argued that the US would militarily defend Taiwan to “protect its supply of information technology products from Chinese aggression,” just as the US military intervened to expel invading Iraqi forces from controlling oil supplies in Kuwait in 1991.

The updated version of the theory is that China won’t attack Taiwan because this would interrupt the supply of semiconductors upon which China’s economy depends. China gets about one-third of its semiconductors from Taiwan.

Furthermore, as Addison argued, the reliance of other countries on semiconductors from Taiwan increases the likelihood they would oppose (in the US case, militarily intervene against) China’s attack.

Accordingly, moving chip production out of Taiwan would make Taiwan less secure by weakening China’s disincentive to attack.

The full story, however, raises doubts about the efficacy of the shield.

China halts US soybean imports to hit Trump’s MAGA supporters

Jeff Pao

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China has halted its purchases of soybeans from the United States in recent months, a move seen as a calculated effort to pressure the Trump administration amid intensifying trade tensions.

Beijing’s suspension marks a sharp decline in the US-China agricultural trade relationships and has rattled the heart of America’s farming community. The freeze comes as both sides prepare for a potential meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month. As of now, the Trump-Xi meeting plans have not been finalized.

“The soybean farmers of our country are being hurt because China is, for ‘negotiating’ reasons only, not buying,” Trump said in a social media post on October 1. “We’ve made so much money on tariffs that we are going to take a small portion of that and help our farmers.”

For decades, the soybean trade has been a cornerstone of Sino-US agricultural cooperation. As part of its 2001 accession to the World Trade Organization, China removed import quotas and imposed a uniform 3% tariff, resulting in a surge in US soybean imports.

In 2017, China imported 32.58 million tons of US soybeans, but the volume fell to 16.64 million tons in 2018 due to the Trump administration’s trade war, according to China Customs. Imports later stabilized at around 20 million tons per year until the 2022 pandemic disrupted supplies and pushed China to diversify its sourcing to Brazil and Argentina.

Last year, the US shipped 985 million bushels of soybeans to China, accounting for 51% of the country’s total soybean exports. By contrast, from January to August 2025, exports of US soybeans to China fell to just 218 million bushels with no deliveries recorded in June, July and August.

Brazil, the world’s largest producer, is expected to harvest 169 million metric tons in the 2024/25 crop year, accounting for approximately 40% of global output. The US crop of 119 million tonnes accounts for 28%, meaning the two countries together supply 68% of the world’s soybeans.

A columnist writing under the pseudonym “Old Farmer” for Guancha.cn offered a stark critique of the trade standoff.

How the US funded Israel’s wars on Gaza, Lebanon, Iran

Justin Salhani

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Israel would not have been able to sustain its wars across the Middle East without the United States’s significant financial backing of more than $21bn since October 2023, according to a pair of new reports.

The reports, which were released by the Costs of War Project at Brown University, found that: without US weapons and money, Israel wouldn’t have been able to sustain its genocidal war on Gaza, start a war with Iran, or repeatedly bomb Yemen.

The report’s findings are also backed up by analysts who said Israel’s wars in Gaza and in the wider region could not have continued without US financial and diplomatic support.

“US support for Israel at all levels is indispensable to the prosecution of Israel’s war both in Gaza and across the region,” Omar H Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told Al Jazeera.

Israel’s war on Gaza alone has killed at least 67,160 people and wounded another 169,679 since October 2023.

Thousands are still believed to be under the Gaza Strip’s ruins, while Israel has killed dozens in strikes on Yemen and killed more than 1,000 people when it attacked Iran in June.

Israel needs US financing for war

Two years ago, 1,139 people died during a Hamas-led attack on Israel, and more than 200 were taken captive.

Israel’s response was to devastate Gaza and to wage a wider war against any group it considered hostile in the region.

It increased raids in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem; killed over 4,000 people in Lebanon while eviscerating swaths of villages; invaded and occupied Lebanese and Syrian land; bombed Iran’s consulate in Damascus and started a 12-day war with Iran; and traded attacks with Yemen’s Houthis.

But Israel couldn’t have maintained these wars without constant US support, researchers found.

The EU’s worst nightmare has never looked so real

Marion Solletty and Tim Ross

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PARIS — Don’t freak out just yet, but maybe start packing emergency supplies.

Brussels’ fear of a founding member of the European Union swinging to the far right was abruptly reactivated this week as France’s snowballing political crisis gathered more momentum, leading one of French President Emmanuel Macron’s historic allies to join the chorus of opponents calling on him to step down.

The French president is under extraordinary pressure after his prime minister’s latest attempt at forming a functioning government collapsed in just 14 hours and with new elections in the coming months, if not weeks, looking more and more likely.

At both the presidential and parliamentary levels, victory for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is now distinctly possible, meaning a Euroskeptic, far-right figure might soon speak for France in the EU’s core institutions, adding to a growing chorus of populist, right-wing voices.

“We have a continent that has experienced war, lockdown, a kind of light dictatorship in Budapest, we are used to continuing to function with a lot of shocks” said a European Commission official, who like others quoted in this story was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

But “Le Pen is different,” he reckoned, referring to a widely shared assessment in Brussels that a radical change in French leadership would have far-reaching consequences for the EU.

While the far right has been urging Macron to call new parliamentary elections, this week’s events also raise the prospect of earlier presidential elections if Macron is at some point forced to step down — something he has always strongly ruled out, vowing to stick around until the end of his term in 2027.

If the National Rally accessed executive power in France it would significantly add to the EU’s headaches, already personified around the Council table by Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Slovakia’s Robert Fico, and likely soon to be joined by Andrej Babiš after his recent electoral triumph in the Czech Republic.

The Looming International Shipping Crisis

Brett D. Schaefer

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The UN’s net-zero push is coming to a head with the Trump administration efforts to revamp US shipping.

A fight is brewing ahead of the upcoming meeting of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) over new rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the shipping industry. Formal approval at the October 14-17 meeting was assumed until the United States announced its opposition to the regulations in August and called on other governments to reject the proposal or face retaliation.

The IMO is an unlikely place for this confrontation. As a United Nations specialized agency focusing on setting universal standards for maritime safety and security, the IMO is rarely controversial. In fact, the IMO is one of only a handful of UN organizations identified in the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget request as deserving of US funding. Specifically, it was highlighted for its standards setting, efforts to reduce pollution and prevent maritime disasters, and enhancing US security by helping “secure shipping lanes against terrorism and related threats.”

Nonetheless, the IMO finds itself in the crosshairs of the Trump administration.

The dispute centers on draft amendments to the existing International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), which the United States ratified in 1980 to address pollution of the marine environment by ships. The new rules, if approved in October, would be added to Annex VI of MARPOL and would apply to all parties to the agreement and annex 16 months after adoption through a process called “tacit acceptance.” The United States is a party to both MARPOL and Annex VI of the convention.

These regulations seek to implement the IMO “Net-Zero Framework” through mandatory fuel standards for ships over 5,000 gross tonnage and financial penalties for those failing to comply. Military and domestic shipping vessels are exempted. Overall, however, covered ships account for about 85 percent of global emissions from the shipping industry.

Donald Trump's drive for peace: The 240 hours that changed the Middle East - analysis

SETH J. FRANTZMAN

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“This means that all of the hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their troops to an agreed-upon line,” he posted overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, adding that these were the first steps toward a strong, durable, and everlasting peace.

Trump thanked Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey for their role as mediators. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” he wrote.

Trump’s push for peace and devotion to securing the release of the hostages have been key foundation stones of his second term. He has shown a deep emotional attachment to the hostages, inviting them and their families to the White House. This stems from his drive to bring American hostages home from abroad.

The Trump administration made it a priority to free Edan Alexander, the last living US hostage in Gaza. He also freed Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli with Russian citizenship, who was held in Iraq. As the peace deal came into view, Trump hosted Alexander and the family of hostage Omer Neutra at the White House.

Trump believes he has a unique role to play as a historic peacemaker in the Middle East. He has sought to do this via the Abraham Accords – and now the peace deal. He has been able to achieve this through his unique blend of personal diplomacy and his sense of history.

A critical 10 days for peaceTrump rolled out his peace plan on September 29. Days later, on Friday, October 3, he said Hamas had accepted the deal, and that Israel should stop bombing Gaza so that both sides could work out the details.

Over the following days, teams from Israel, the US, Qatar, Turkey, and Hamas arrived in Egypt for talks. The pressure was on to get an agreement, and rumors swirled that Trump could come to the region if a deal was signed.

By Wednesday evening a deal was done. It had all happened in around 240 hours between the time of Trump welcoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on September 29 to the sides agreeing to the deal overnight on October 8-9.

The Russian Military’s New Goal: Win an ‘Industrial War’ Against NATO

Andrew Latham

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Key Points and Summary – Russia is reorganizing for industrial war: fewer prestige projects, more factories, rotations, and repair cycles.

-The future force will be heavier, cheaper, and software-driven—favoring standoff fires, layered air defense, and drone-EW mass over classic air or maneuver dominance.

-The Black Sea Fleet’s dispersal, mass glide-bomb use, and iterative missile updates preview a doctrine of survivable coercion, not shock-and-awe.

-This makes Russia a regional power with global strike tools—dangerous but containable.

-NATO’s answer is production and resilience: stable magazines, rapid air-defense software refresh, hardened C2/EMS, and SHORAD/EW down to small units.

-Do the math now, and Moscow’s rebuilt military becomes manageable—not a strategic surprise.

Russia vs. NATO: How Moscow Sees the Future

Industrial wars rarely end with banners and brass; they end with a military that staggers out of the furnace, uglier than before but better suited to the fight it just survived.

After Ukraine, Moscow is likely to field a force that is heavier, cheaper, more automated, and optimized for grinding campaigns along its rim—not ten feet tall, but dangerous enough to coerce neighbors, complicate NATO planning, and secure Great Power standing through usable, sustainable force.

From Prestige to Production

The most consequential change has been organizational. Reconstituted military districts, revamped command arrangements, and a technocratic defense chief signal a system built to convert rubles into munitions, rotations, and repair cycles at scale.

Gold Rally Points to Eroding Faith in Central Banks Worldwide Story

Greg Ip

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On Saturday, Japan got a new prime minister. On Tuesday, gold topped $4,000 for the first time.

It wasn’t a coincidence.

Sanae Takaichi, the surprise nominee to lead Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, is a fiscal and monetary dove. She wants more economic stimulus, and the Bank of Japan to help by not raising rates too much. News of her selection sent the yen down and Japanese stocks and bond yields up.

The news also added to gold’s epic run this year, with a further 2.6% jump Monday and Tuesday. It turns out the U.S. isn’t the only country where massive debts and populist politics threaten the value of “fiat” currencies like the dollar—i.e., those backed by nothing tangible—and the central banks that issue them.

Last month, Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Reform UK party, now ahead in polls in Britain, criticized the Bank of England for selling bonds, because the resulting losses and upward pressure on interest rates were costing taxpayers.

The European Central Bank, designed with near total independence from politicians, looks secure for now. But pressure on it could build, too. France just lost its fourth prime minister in a little over a year amid an impasse over taming its debt. In both France and Germany, populists who in the past advocated abandoning the euro are leading the polls.

From Phishing to Malware: AI Becomes Russia's New Cyber Weapon in War on Ukraine

Ravie Lakshmanan

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Russian hackers' adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in cyber attacks against Ukraine has reached a new level in the first half of 2025 (H1 2025), the country's State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection (SSSCIP) said.

"Hackers now employ it not only to generate phishing messages, but some of the malware samples we have analyzed show clear signs of being generated with AI – and attackers are certainly not going to stop there," the agency said in a report published Wednesday.

SSSCIP said 3,018 cyber incidents were recorded during the time period, up from 2,575 in the second half of 2024 (H2 2024). Local authorities and military entities witnessed an increase in attacks compared to H2 2024, while those targeting government and energy sectors declined.

One notable attack observed involved UAC-0219's use of malware called WRECKSTEEL in attacks aimed at state administration bodies and critical infrastructure facilities in the country. There is evidence to suggest that the PowerShell data-stealing malware was developed using AI tools.

Some of the other campaigns registered against Ukraine are listed below -Phishing campaigns orchestrated by UAC-0218 targeting defense forces to deliver HOMESTEEL using booby-trapped RAR archives

Phishing campaigns orchestrated by UAC-0226 targeting organizations involved in the development of innovations in the defense industrial sector, local government bodies, military units, and law enforcement agencies to distribute a stealer called GIFTEDCROOK

Phishing campaigns orchestrated by UAC-0227 targeting local authorities, critical infrastructure facilities, and Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centers (TRCs and SSCs) that leverage ClickFix-style tactics or SVG file attachments to distribute stealers like Amatera Stealer and Strela Stealer

Phishing campaigns orchestrated by UAC-0125, a sub-cluster with ties to Sandworm, that sent email messages containing links to a website masquerading as ESET to deliver a C#-based backdoor named Kalambur (aka SUMBUR) under the guise of a threat removal program

Ukraine’s Long Range FPVs Leave No Safe Space For Russia

David Hambling,

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Ukrainian soldier with DARTS fixed-wing attack FPVCome Back Alive Foundation

Multicopter FPV drones look like the kings of the jungle in Ukraine, hitting tanks, trucks, artillery and infantry with lethal results. But fixed wing FPVs resembling small aircraft are starting to have an increasing impact at longer distances.

“Range, speed and payload capacity, “ ‘Michael,’ Commander of the Typhoon drone unit of the National Guard of Ukraine told me. “These are the fundamental advantages that make fixed-wing FPVs strategically valuable despite their operational complexity.”

Recent videos have shown fixed-wing FPVs hitting air defense systems, parked helicopters and other targets which the Russians probably thought were safely out of range. Except that there may no longer be any such thing.

Essential Aerodynamics: Wings v Rotors

In commercial aviation jet aircraft are the norm, with only a handful of helicopters. On the drone battlefield these numbers are reversed, with rotorcraft outnumbering everything else.

The reasons for both are down to aerodynamics. Rotorcraft get lift from spinning rotor blades, and expend a lot of energy just saying in the air. Fuel economy is poor and aerodynamics are not favorable for high-speed flight.

Fixed wings are more efficient. Aircraft are held up by air flowing under the wind, and can glide without engine power. Fuel efficiency is better, leading to longer ranges, and airliners cruise at about three times the speed of helicopters.

So in commercial aviation wings rule. On the miniature scale of drones the aerodynamics are similar, but quadcopters are easy to fly, as the autopilot does most of the hard work. Hitting the target is also easier: multicopters are maneuverable, and can approach targets from any angle. The operator can slow down to walking speed to go through narrow openings or between trees.

The Russia–Ukraine war has entered a new phase

Nigel Gould-Davies

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Recent policy choices by America, Europe and China, and domestic economic strains, are reshaping Russia’s calculus. Since time may no longer be on its side, it is challenging Western resolve in more risky and aggressive ways. This is certain to escalate unless Europe responds.

Western officials are reportedly puzzled by the sudden wave of Russian drone and fighter incursions into their airspace. They should not be. Russia’s actions are the logical result of four wider developments that are reshaping its calculus. The first three are policy choices of America, Europe and China. The fourth is Russia’s own deteriorating domestic condition. Russia’s response has ushered in a new and more dangerous phase of its war in Ukraine.

Deteriorating conditions, growing disquiet

Firstly, United States President Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025 initially raised Kremlin hopes that his stated goal of ending the war quickly could be used to engineer a decisive shift in favour of Russia and a split in transatlantic relations. Despite intensive diplomatic efforts, culminating in the Alaska summit in August 2025, Russia has failed to achieve this. Although America made unilateral concessions – abandoning demands for an immediate ceasefire and dropping threats of new sanctions – it has not decisively broken with Ukraine or Europe. Trump has uttered harsh words about Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time and continues to provide weapons – now sold, not given – to Ukraine. Nine months of turbulent diplomacy have realised neither Russia’s greatest hopes nor Europe’s deepest fears.

Secondly, Europe is stepping up. At the June 2025 NATO summit, member states agreed to spend 5% of GDP on defence by 2035. Since Europe’s total GDP is ten times larger than Russia’s, this represents a huge increase in military capability. The EU is also intensifying pressure on Russia’s economy. So far this year, it has adopted four new sanctions packages – the fastest rate since 2022 – and is close to agreeing a fifth. This will be the 19th such package since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Most significantly, the EU is now working on an ambitious plan to provide a €140 billion reparation loan to Ukraine using frozen Russian Central Bank assets. If agreed, this will keep Ukraine afloat and enable it to fight for the next two to three years, while alleviating the burden of support on European taxpayers.

Drone dilemma: How Russia’s ‘hybrid war’ is using fear to destabilise Europe

Katherine Butler 

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When Munich airport had to close on 2 October after a suspected drone incursion, dozens of flights were cancelled and thousands of passengers left stranded on the eve of a German national holiday and the famous Oktoberfest.

A week earlier, Copenhagen and Aalborg airports were closed following sightings of “unmanned aerial systems” in Danish airspace. In the month since a swarm of Russian drones violated Polish airspace – three were shot down – a rash of similar incidents has been reported across Germany, the Baltic and Nordic countries, often over power plants and military bases.

Russia’s alleged “hybrid war” has suddenly begun to feel a bit close for comfort for many Europeans: potentially reaching into cities a long way from the frontline, comfortably untroubled – until now – by the fallout from the war raging in Ukraine.

Public anxiety is mounting, particularly at Nato’s borders, reported Daniel Boffey and Miranda Bryant earlier this week – the strange red lights that people on the west coast of Norway keep seeing are a new source of collective stress. Their feature found echoes in history of what is now happening: Soviet “ghost planes” caused panic in the 1930s and UFO sightings were common in subsequent decades.

Suspicion that the Kremlin is orchestrating a shadow war of sabotage and subterfuge on Europe is not new, although Moscow denies it. Fiona Hill, the former White House Russia adviser, warned in June that Russia was “already at war with Europe”. But the latest drone episodes suggest a gear change; that Russia is accelerating the hybrid campaign in daring new ways. Moscow may be using oil tankers from its illicit “shadow fleet”, for example, as a launchpad for drones, including those that forced Denmark to close its airports.

Challenges in defending the grey zone

Four steps for successful generative AI governance

Mark Mitchell,

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With the federal government clearly embracing the potential benefits of generative AI and a skyrocketing number of deployments across agencies, we can expect more debate between those who want to jump into the AI pool quickly and with both feet to reap the benefits and those more concerned about the security and privacy implications and want to take a more cautious approach.

Both sides of the argument have their merits. Ultimately, agencies should proceed with their AI plans while taking steps to address the very real security concerns.

On one hand, it would appear the faction that wants to jump in quickly has the advantage. We recently saw the release of a White House AI Action Plan and some accompanying executive orders that may effectively lift the guardrails previously put in place by those advocating caution. Even more to the point, the Government Accountability Office recently reported a ninefold increase in generative AI use cases across federal agencies from 2023 to 2024, and the General Services Administration has awarded multiple deeply discounted contracts for generative AI solutions to OpenAI, Anthropic and others – indicating that this train has pretty much already left the station.

Still, legitimate security and privacy concerns abound. Many in government raised concerns about how these AI tools are capturing federal government data and where that data is going, both internally and externally. Other issues revolve around the cost of storing all of the data that platforms are generating on the back end and dealing with the information overload resulting from AI deployments.

It is clear that the federal leadership is betting big on AI. While security and privacy concerns are always relevant, it’s important to reiterate that security is a business-enabling service line that maintains compliance and drives down risk to the mission to an acceptable level.

To do this, agencies should consider four steps to address security and privacy concerns when deploying new AI use cases.

Governments are spending billions on their own ‘sovereign’ AI technologies – is it a big waste of money?

Aisha Down

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In Singapore, a government-funded artificial intelligence model can converse in 11 languages, from Bahasa Indonesia to Lao. In Malaysia, ILMUchat, built by a local construction conglomerate, boasts that it “knows which Georgetown you’re referring to” – that is, the capital of Penang and not the private university in the US. Meanwhile, Switzerland’s Apertus, unveiled in September, understands when to use the Swiss German “ss” and not the German-language character “ß”.

Around the world, language models like these are part of an AI arms race worth hundreds of billions of dollars mostly driven by a few powerful companies in the US and China. As giants such as OpenAI, Meta and Alibaba plough vast sums into developing increasingly powerful models, middle powers and developing countries are watching the landscape carefully, and sometimes placing their own, expensive bets.

Those bets are all part of a trend loosely called “sovereign AI”, in which governments around the world, from the UK to India to Canada, are developing their own AI technologies and attempting to define their place in the emerging ecosystem.

But with hundreds of billions of dollars in play globally, can smaller investments secure meaningful gains?

“While US-based companies and the US government and China are able to essentially blitzkrieg their way into AI dominance, it’s harder for smaller powers, middle powers,” says Trisha Ray, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, a US strategy thinktank.

“Unless you’re a rich government or a big company, it’s quite a burden to build an LLM from scratch.”

Defence concerns

But many countries are unwilling to rely on foreign AI to supply their needs.