On October 21, Sanae Takaichi completes her first year as Japan's prime minister. Takaichi's first year reached 2 percent of GDP on defense two years early, ended the ban on lethal arms exports and said out loud that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could pull Japan into war. China answered with sanctions. Washington got the ally it wanted.
France blames Musk. At the OECD in Paris, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot listed the MAGA community beside Russia, China and Iran as sources of hostile narratives. Meanwhile, 24 French schools have been burned or ransacked, 715 police officers injured and more than 6,100 people arrested. So who is really destabilizing France?
Peruvian senator Mirtha Vásquez will fly to China on the Chinese Embassy's dime, right when senators should be meeting their voters. Beijing courts Peru with free trips, a megaport and more than 30,000 million dollars in investment, while a 2023 paid junket went unpunished and a president lost his office over a dinner with a Chinese businessman. Nobody flies you to Beijing for nothing.
Flávio Bolsonaro finished first in the Brazil elections, 47 percent to Lula's 45, after every major poll had Lula ahead. The runoff is October 25. Behind the numbers: a father serving 27 years, a judge who shut down X, a Congress that moved right, and a candidate offering Washington rare earths and a seat in the Shield of the Americas.
The Buy European initiative favors weapons made in Europe, and Washington is pushing back hard. Ambassador Puzder warned Brussels that "only our enemies benefit," the Pentagon threatened the Buy American waivers, and France and Britain were left out of a NATO meeting. But America's missile stocks run low, and buyers wait.
The Ethiopia civil war is back. Tigray rebels seized three airports and marched toward the road from Djibouti that feeds the capital, while the UN issued a statement. Who fights whom, why Egypt and Eritrea are accused of backing the rebels, and why Washington's signals favor the government. A guide for readers who never had to look.
Colombia's president sent his vice president to the UN with a definition of globalism that names the problem: nations treated as obstacles to a uniformity decided above them. Milei, Fujimori and Kast spoke in the same key, Trump told the ICC's members to resign, and Petro's old speeches show what changed. UN and globalism, on trial.
Trump met Delcy Rodríguez for fifteen minutes in New York and told her elections must come "at the end of the day." Rubio explained the order: debt restructuring, institutions and a durable republic before the vote. Lula calls it lost sovereignty. Chomcho.com looks at the Venezuela transition, the diaspora, Colombia, oil and China.
In his Trump UN speech, the president narrowed his Iran choices to two: a deal that lets Iran rebuild, or annihilation. He predicted a deal after the midterms. While he spoke, his envoys met the Iranian delegation for three hours. Oil fell below 100 dollars, and Pickaxe Mountain became the test of any agreement with Tehran.
Trump says he is in deciding mode on Iran, weighing three options: obliterate it, let it rot economically, or reach a deal. This Iran war update covers the UN week ahead, Tehran's seven demands, the war premium in oil prices, China's shrinking oil buffer, and why America's allies are now being asked to pay their own share of defense.
Washington is preparing to move most of its MQ-9 Reaper drones from Africa to South America for counter-drug work. It is the Donroe Doctrine in hardware: a coalition of fourteen governments, joint operations with Ecuador, a new hard line in Bogotá, and a Secretary of State who found willing allies instead of creating them.
Drones shut Saudi Arabia's main pipeline, and Washington says oil will flow again in days while analysts read the satellite images and say weeks. The global fuel crisis has already reached the streets of Syria, Guatemala, Portugal, and Bangladesh, and the Federal Reserve has raised rates for the first time in three years.
