World, US, Culture, Market, and Sci-Tech News Aggregation from MSM and Independent News
President Donald Trump revealed during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae on Monday that he has “always had a great love of Japan,” adding that he also has “great respect” for Japan.
“I have always had a great love of Japan and a great respect of Japan, and I will say that this will be a relationship that will be stronger than ever before, and I look forward to working with you,” Trump said. “On behalf of our country, I want to just let you know, anytime you have any question, any doubt, anything you want, any favors you need, anything I can do to help Japan, we will be there. We are an ally at the strongest level.”
Trump’s visit to Japan comes after Takaichi, who is Japan’s first female prime minister, won a “historic vote.”
Breitbart News’s Simon Kent reported that Takaichi, a conservative, who is “also the first woman to lead the dominant Liberal Democratic Party,” also “opposes same-sex marriage and allowing separate surnames for married couples”:
Ukraine’s long-range strikes on refineries inside Russia have reduced Moscow’s oil refining capacity by 20%, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, citing intelligence from Western governments.
Over 90% of those deep strikes on Russian soil were carried out by long-range weapons made in Ukraine, according to Zelenskyy.
He said Ukraine needs additional foreign financial help to produce more of them.
“We just need to work on this every day,” he said in comments to the media on Monday that were embargoed until Tuesday.
Oil exports play a key role in funding Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and new sanctions from the European Union and the United States are aiming to cut into Moscow’s oil and gas export earnings.
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump warns Putin ‘we have a nuclear submarine off your shore’ after cruise missile test The Independent
from news.google.com
Passenger car registrations in the EU increased by 10.0% Y/T to 888,672 units in September 2025, marking a robust recovery in the region’s automotive market for the month.
The surge in sales was driven by the introduction of new, more affordable
from seekingalpha.com
Already deadly as a tropical storm, Melissa rapidly intensified into a Category 3 hurricane late Saturday night, officially upgrading the system to major status to ratchet up forecasts for Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, with each nation potentially suffering life-threatening impacts. according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Over the next few days, Melissa is forecasted to continue rapid intensification into a massive Category 5 hurricane, per the NHC.
Pope Leo XIV meets with Viktor Orbán at the Vatican Catholic News Agency
from news.google.com
China urges joint efforts with Japan, South Korea, ASEAN in science and tech The Straits Times
from news.google.com
Lobbying in Washington is booming to record-high levels, and companies are rushing to hire Trump-allied firms in their efforts to influence the policy pronouncements spilling out of the White House. Overall, federal lobbying spending is up by 21% compared with last year, according to the Washington Post’s tally of expenditures through the third quarter of 2025. In the surge, the firm of Trump campaign fundraiser Brian Ballard has become the highest-paid lobbying shop, and other Trump-aligned firms are seeing an influx of clients as trade and tariff policies churn.
The pharmaceutical industry has juiced its lobbying spending: heavyweight PhRMA is certain to blow past its record high in lobbying spending set last year. The nearly $29.7 million the drugmakers’ group has spent through Q3 approaches the amount that it spent in all of 2024. Health industry lobbyists are weighing in on moves by the Trump administration and the GOP-led Congress to cut Medicaid funding and fire staffers in the overhaul of the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-led Department of Health and Human Services.
Fourth Plenum Signals Xi Jinping’s Weakened Grip as Military and Party Reassert Control Vision Times
from news.google.com
Xi Jinping’s latest purge: paranoid or purposeful? The Economist
from news.google.com
U.S. states are warning food aid recipients their benefits may not be distributed beginning Saturday if the federal government shutdown stretches into its fourth week.
Warnings issued on at least two dozen state websites flag the potential for an unprecedented benefit gap in November for Americans who get aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, and the nearly seven million who receive aid from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).
The shutdown, which began Oct. 1, is now the second-longest on record.
Trump Trade War: How China’s Growth Model and Gold Strategy Challenge Dollar Dominance FXEmpire
from news.google.com
Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping while the pair are at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum later this week in South Korea.
The meeting will come seven months after then-foreign affairs minister Melanie Joly confirmed in March that four Canadians holding dual Chinese citizenship were given the death penalty in China.
At the time, Joly said the federal government “strongly condemns” the actions by China over what they called “drug-related crimes.”
Carney said he and Xi will discuss “a broad range of issues, both in terms of the commercial relationship as well as the evolution of the global system.”
The planned meeting comes on the heels of Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s visit to Beijing, where she met with her counterpart, Wang Yi.
The Chinese Military’s New Third in Command The Diplomat – Asia-Pacific Current Affairs Magazine
from news.google.com
PLA mouthpiece puts focus on ‘political rectification’ after generals purged South China Morning Post
from news.google.com
Former senior Chinese legislator expelled from CPC, public office China Daily
from news.google.com
Sudan denies targeting South Sudanese in massive deportation drive Sudans Post
from news.google.com
Trump Administration Highlights: U.S. and China Reach Trade ‘Framework’ Ahead of Trump-Xi Meeting The New York Times
from news.google.com
China Designates Taiwan Liberation Day, Sparking Cross-Strait Tensions 조선일보
from news.google.com
Chinese legislators hear reports at NPC standing committee session Xinhua
from news.google.com
Chinese legislators urged to study, implement guiding principles of CPC plenum China Daily
from news.google.com
How did a 34-year-old nobody climb to the edge of running America’s biggest city? These things don’t just happen, they are made to happen.
Zohran Mamdani is funded by a $2.9 million dollar network of George Soros and Islamic activists donors.
George Soros’ foundation funneled $37 million to left-wing groups that backed Zohran Mamdani’s run for New York City mayor. The Working Families Party and nine other progressive organizations that supported Mamdani all received substantial support from Soros-aligned nonprofits. While Mamdani campaigns against wealth and billionaires, critics say he is benefiting from the very system he denounces.
In 2014, the plan was to run Zohran Mamdani as NYC Mayor.
In 2018, Zohran Mamdani became a U.S. citizen.
He is heavily funded by foreigners like George Soros and Islamists.
There’s a plot to destroy America and it’s being carried out in front of our eyes. pic.twitter.com/KLFXHbHl0x
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) October 28, 2025
For years, Christians have been systemically persecuted in Nigeria, with Muslim terrorist groups and militias periodically raiding, raping, murdering, and enslaving Christian civilians in the northern part of the country.
According to a recent article in Catholic Vote, “[F]rom 2019 to 2023, a total of 55,910 people were killed,” and “21,621 people were abducted.” During this four-year timespan, Nigeria “saw an average of eight attacks per day involving killings and/or abductions.” This has continued to this day, with “more than 7,000 Christians killed in Nigeria during the first 220 days of 2025.”
Yet Christian leaders continue to bury their heads in the sand about this crisis. In a recent speech, Pope Leo XIV carried on the unimpressive legacy of his predecessor by directing his righteous ire on Western nations being too inhospitable to immigrants: “With the abuse of vulnerable migrants, we are witnessing, not the legitimate exercise of national sovereignty, but rather grave crimes committed or tolerated by the state.”
According to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. military assets carried out three strikes on four vessels in the Pacific Ocean Monday, marking at least 13 strikes on 14 vessels since early September.
At least one person survived the latest attacks, he said.
“The four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics,” according to Hegseth.
Eight men were killed in the first strike, another four men were killed in a second strike, and three more men were killed in a third strike, he said.
Twenty-three people have been arrested and two police officers injured during a second night of disorder outside a Dublin hotel housing asylum seekers.
Peaceful protests started near the the CityWest Hotel in Saggart, west Dublin, earlier this week over an alleged sexual assault of a young girl in the area, but by Tuesday they had turned violent.
Rioters threw bottles and bricks, and discharged fireworks at officers on Wednesday evening, according to the police.
Two officers were taken to hospital for treatment, with one struck on the head by a bottle and the other sustaining an injury to their arm and shoulder.
“The public disorder was predominantly carried out by young adult males and teenagers,” the police said in a statement.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, warned Israel on Wednesday against annexing the West Bank, saying steps taken by parliament and settler violence threatened a Gaza deal.
Israeli lawmakers voted on Wednesday to advance two bills on annexing the occupied West Bank, barely a week after President Donald Trump pushed through a deal aimed at ending a two-year Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that was retaliation for a Hamas attack.
“I think the president’s made clear that’s not something we can be supportive of right now,” Rubio said of annexation as he boarded his plane for a visit to Israel. Annexation moves are “threatening for the peace deal,” he told reporters.
SINGAPORE: Chinese state oil majors have suspended purchases of seaborne Russian oil after the United States imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, Moscow’s two biggest oil companies, multiple trade sources said on Thursday (Oct 23).
The move comes as refiners in India, the largest buyer of seaborne Russian oil, are set to sharply cut their crude imports from Moscow to comply with the US sanctions imposed over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
A sharp drop in oil demand from Russia’s two largest customers will put a strain on Moscow’s oil revenues and force the world’s top importers to seek alternative supplies and push up global prices.
Iran not to resume talks unless US abandons ‘excessive demands’: FM lokmattimes.com
from news.google.com