10 Things Weekly Roundup - 24th October 2025
Pressure Points: A World Edges Toward Confrontation
The week unfolded as incremental increases in pressure mounted across multiple fronts.
Early on, Washington abandoned plans for a Budapest summit with Moscow, signalling the collapse of a fragile diplomatic channel. Days later, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Russia’s leading oil companies, prompting a sharp response from the Kremlin.
In Europe, leaders combined a new sanctions package with a decision to defer the contested plan to fund Ukraine through frozen Russian assets, underscoring both unity of purpose and anxiety over legal exposure.
At the same time, U.S. and Chinese negotiators will meet in Kuala Lumpur to steady trade relations before next week’s Trump–Xi encounter, and south of the US border Washington’s rhetoric toward Venezuela grew harsher.
It was a week that showed a firming of resolve against Russia across multiple fronts, steps both forward & back on the trade front and an increasing likelihood of armed conflict in South America.
The week began with President Trump urging President Zelensky to accept a ceasefire along existing front lines and drop claims to the Donbas, while withholding long-range Tomahawk missiles for the time being. Plans for a Trump–Putin summit in Budapest were then cancelled. Washington followed with sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil firms, Rosneft and Lukoil, signalling a deliberate escalation of pressure.
Moscow replied with defiance. Vladimir Putin called the measures an “unfriendly act” and vowed not to “bow to pressure.” Former president Dmitry Medvedev labelled them an “act of war,” and the Foreign Ministry warned they could endanger global economic stability.
What began as an attempt to push Ukraine toward compromise has ended in renewed confrontation — a reminder of how swiftly transactional diplomacy can revert to hard power.
In Brussels, the EU finally adopted its nineteenth sanctions package against Russia, extending restrictions on energy, banking and digital services and moving toward a 2027 ban on Russian LNG. Simultaneously, leaders postponed a decision on using frozen Russian assets for a €140 billion “reparations loan” to Ukraine after Belgium raised legal issues over Euroclear but the issue is still alive and will be revisited in December.
European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde endorsed the principle of the loan, arguing that Europe must sustain Ukraine’s financial stability. Kyiv lobbied intensely for immediate approval
Despite the deferral, the EU reaffirmed its two-year funding commitment — proof that unity on purpose endures even as legal caution slows execution. The combination of sanctions and long-term financing keeps Europe aligned with Washington’s pressure strategy while revealing its internal fault lines. broad discretion over how the funds could be spent.
Beijing’s sweeping military purge underscored Xi Jinping’s determination to reassert control. Nine senior generals were dismissed and anti-corruption chief Zhang Shengmin elevated to the Central Military Commission’s vice-chairmanship.
The move, framed as a disciplinary clean-up, also demonstrated the party’s intolerance for autonomy within the armed forces.
The scale of removals — the largest in Xi’s tenure — and the low attendance at the Central Committee meeting suggested unease within the ranks. For foreign observers, the message was continuity: institutional uncertainty balanced by ever tighter political discipline. In Xi’s China, direct intervention remains the primary instrument of stability.
Senior U.S. and Chinese officials prepared for talks in Kuala Lumpur to avert a collapse of their fragile trade truce. The agenda is dominated by Trump’s threat of 100 per cent tariffs and Beijing’s new export controls on rare-earth materials.
Both sides are manoeuvring for tactical advantage rather than compromise, hoping to shape the ground ahead of the planned Trump–Xi meeting in Seoul.
Meanwhile, Trump abruptly terminated negotiations with Canada, denouncing an Ontario advertisement that used Ronald Reagan’s 1987 remarks against tariffs. Ottawa learned of the decision only minutes before his post.
The incident illustrates how trade diplomacy now functions as political performance theatre— where domestic optics outweigh the slow work of rebuilding trust.
In Latin America, Trump’s declaration that U.S. anti-drug operations would move from sea to land inflamed regional tensions. Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro deployed troops and distributed Russian-made surface-to-air missiles, warning citizens to prepare for resistance if attacked.
Neighbouring governments reacted sharply. Colombia condemned the strikes as “extrajudicial executions,” while Mexico accused Washington of violating international law.
What began as a campaign against narcotics is evolving into a wider test of sovereignty. The episode reflects a familiar pattern: security defined through unilateral action and legitimacy contested by those living within its reach.
The week’s diplomacy ended where it began — with confrontation managed rather than eased. Washington and Brussels moved in parallel to raise costs for Moscow, even as some cracks appeared over how to fund Ukraine. Beijing and Washington tried to keep their own dispute from spilling into crisis, but their talks underscored how little common ground remains. In Latin America, the rhetoric of deterrence edged ever closer to open confrontation.
What linked these fronts was not a single crisis but a steady tightening of pressure, as major powers tested how far coercion can substitute for cooperation in a still-fragile global order.