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My top 10 things to watch Monday, Oct. 20 1. Wall Street was poised to add to Friday’s rally on a continued easing of credit concerns and China trade tensions. In fact, the S & P 500 rose 1.7% last week. Earnings season ramps up this week, with five Club names reporting quarterly results, including AI power play GE Vernova . 2. The government shutdown has entered week four. However, White House Economic Advisor Kevin Hassett said this morning the shutdown could end this week . If it doesn’t end, the Trump administration may have to use “stronger measures” to…

China imported no soybeans from the United States in September, but total imports remained at high levels amid a recent escalation in the US-China trade war, the latest Chinese customs data showed.Last month, the world’s largest food buyer purchased 12.8 million tonnes of soybeans – a crop heavily reliant on imports for its livestock industry – with a notable surge from Argentina during a brief suspension of export taxes, according to the detailed customs data released on Monday.The absence of soybeans from the US – historically a leading, if not the top, supplier of soybeans to China – came amid…

Capping his six-day visit to the country last week, Cook said at an event in Shanghai on Saturday that AI was “making a difference in people’s lives” and that Apple was “working on getting [Apple Intelligence] into China right now”. No timeline was provided.Apple Intelligence – a built-in AI feature of the company’s iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia operating systems – was announced in June last year. Chinese regulatory restrictions have made this feature unavailable on Apple devices used on the mainland and in Hong Kong.In Saturday’s onstage discussion with Bai Chong-en, dean of the School of Economics…

Taiwan has for the first time formally outlined the circumstances under which its troops can shoot down incoming drones.The new procedures, disclosed in the recently released National Defence Report 2025, set out a four-step standard operating procedure – identification and monitoring, alert and notification, safety confirmation and defensive firing.The report said the guidelines aimed to improve troops’ readiness in the face of the increasingly frequent presence of mainland drones flying over or close to Taiwan island.Taipei has also reported regular drone activity near its outlying islets – including Quemoy, also known as Kinmen, and Matsu – which lie just a…

Unitree Robotics has teased a new humanoid model in a short video on its social media channels, its most humanlike model to date.In the video, the H2 model performed a series of dexterous dance moves – including perfectly executed pirouettes and arabesques – and sported a strikingly human face modelled in silver with well-defined eyes, lips and nose.Standing at 180cm – the tallest humanoid robot the company has yet developed – and weighing 70kg, the H2 featured the tagline: “Destiny Awakening – born to serve everyone safely and (in a) friendly (manner).”After showcasing its advanced joint flexibility with some kickboxing…

Nicolas Sarkozy will become the first former French president in living memory to be imprisoned when he is expected to begin a five-year sentence Tuesday in Paris’ La Santé prison.Convicted of criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya, Sarkozy maintains his innocence. Regardless, he will be admitted to serve his time in a prison that has held some of the most high-profile inmates since the 19th century. They include Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, wrongly convicted of treason because he was Jewish, and the Venezuelan militant known as Carlos the Jackal, who carried out…

The Japanese yen fell in Asian trading on Monday against a basket of major and minor currencies, extending its losses for the second consecutive day against the US dollar and retreating from its two-week high amid ongoing profit-taking and market correction. The decline also follows key political developments in Japan that bring Sanae Takaichi significantly closer to becoming the country’s next prime minister.   Takaichi, known for her support of fiscal and monetary stimulus, has now become the near-certain frontrunner for Japan’s top political post after reportedly securing crucial political backing.   According to Kyodo News, the ruling Liberal Democratic…

China and Australia exchanged accusations on Monday after an encounter over the disputed South China Sea, with the PLA’s Southern Theatre Command Air Force saying that it drove away a P-8A military aircraft that illegally intruded into Chinese airspace.“The People’s Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command organised naval and air forces to track and monitor the intruder in accordance with regulations, implement effective countermeasures, and issue warnings to drive it away,” Senior Colonel Li Jianjian, a spokesperson for the command, said in a statement.Li said the incident happened in airspace over the Paracel Islands, which are known as the Xisha Islands…

Pakistan’s current account (C/A) posted a significant surplus of $110 million in September, a sharp contrast against $52 million deficit recorded in the same month last fiscal, data released on Monday by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed. The surplus came on the back of a significant increase in remittance inflows during the month, which clocked in at $3.18 billion, reflecting an increase of 11% on a yearly basis. In September 2025, the country’s total export of goods and services amounted to $3.43 billion, up nearly 5% as compared to $3.28 billion in the same month of the previous…

Since nearly three decades of civil war ended in 2002, Angola has been relying heavily on China – its key financier of post-war infrastructure – to help the southern African country’s government deliver on its promise of a million new homes.When the West was unwilling to finance its projects, Luanda secured loans from Chinese state banks under the so-called Angolan model, using its oil as collateral.Angola became the largest recipient of Chinese financing in Africa, attracting 270 loans worth US$46 billion between 2000 and 2023 – a quarter of all loans advanced to African countries during that period.China also funded…