Daily Buzz: 8 December 2025

US Envoy Touts Ukraine Peace Progress, Moscow Balks

Three days of talks between US and Ukrainian negotiators over a proposed peace deal with Russia ended in Miami over the weekend with more confusion than clarity. Keith Kellogg, outgoing special US envoy to Ukraine, said a deal to end the war is "really close," but Moscow says radical changes to US proposals are still needed, Reuters reported. Kellogg said the two major outstanding issues are territory and the future of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, which is now under Russian control. He said Russia and Ukraine have suffered more than 2 million casualties since the war began nearly four years ago, and Russia now occupies 19 percent of Ukraine, including Crimea annexed in 2014. Meanwhile, the fighting continues. Ukraine said Russian barrages of drones and missiles hit its cities over the weekend, and Moscow said it had shot down 77 Ukrainian drones.

Chernobyl Radiation Shield Needs Repairs

The International Atomic Energy Agency said an examination of the protective shield at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine – site of the world's worst nuclear accident -- can no longer perform its main function of blocking radiation since it was struck by a drone earlier this year. The attack blew a hole in the US$1.8 billion shield. The 1986 Chernobyl explosion, which occurred when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union, spread radiation across Europe. IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi an inspection mission last week found no permanent damage to the reactor's load-bearing structures or monitoring systems, but he said urgent repairs to the shield are essential.

Moscow Praises US Global Strategy Vision

The Kremlin was fulsome in its praise of US President Donald Trump's new national security declaration, which positions Latin America in the US sphere of influence, marginalizes Europe and seeks to re-establish stable relations with Russia. "The adjustments that we see correspond in many ways to our vision," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state television.

Pakistan-Afghan Border Clashes Threaten Ceasefire

Clashes along the Pakistani-Afghan border broke out over the weekend, despite a fragile ceasefire, with each side accusing the other of provocation. Five people were reported killed in an exchange of gunfire that came after a new round of peace talks hosted by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar ended inconclusively. Dozens were killed in border violence in October.

Top Business

Robot Rental Prices Collapse

Robot rental prices in China have fallen sharply this year as market demand cools and supply surges, according to reporting from the China STAR Market Daily. The daily rental fees for basic humanoid robots have dropped to about 2,000 yuan (US$283) from highs of over 10,000 yuan at the start of the year, while four-legged robots can now be hired for as low as 500 yuan a day. Demand spiked after a humanoid robot created by Unitree performed on the annual Chinese New Year TV holiday extravaganza in January, triggering a rush of bookings for corporate and entertainment events. The robotics industry, which generated 11.2 billion yuan in revenue last year, is expected to grow 6.1 percent annually through 2031, led by companies such as Unitree, AgiBot and UBTech.

CATL Sees Future in Electric Ocean Vessels

China's Contemporary Amperex Technologies (CATL), the world's largest maker of batteries for electric cars, said it wants to expand its electric vessels that operate on rivers and lakes to ocean-going ships within three years. Su Yiyi, general manager of CATL's marine business, told reporters at a trade fair that electric vessels are still in a formative stage, with relatively low application to date, but that sector is part of the company's growth strategy. The potential is there, he said, to make green shipping as "easy, safe and efficient as driving an electric car." The company's strategy comes as global shipping companies are trying to reduce carbon emissions.

Economy & Markets

China to Ease Rules for Top Brokers

China is targeting policy support for leading brokerage firms in a campaign to encourage higher-quality development in the industry, China Securities Regulatory Commission Chairman Wu Qing told the annual meeting of the Securities Association of China. He said supervision will "support the strong while curbing the weak." For top-performing firms, regulators plan to loosen certain constraints to improve more efficient use of capital. The remarks mark the first time regulators have explicitly outlined tools for "unlocking" capacity at top brokers. Wu urged the industry to provide longer-duration and more value-oriented products to help investors better participate in capital-market growth.

China Forex Reserves Nudge Up

China's foreign currency reserves at the end of November rose 0.1 percent from a month earlier to US$3.35 trillion, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange reported on Sunday. The agency cited factors that include a decline in the US index and mixed prices for global asset like gold. China's holds the world's largest forex reserves.

Global Shipbuilding Orders Seen Declining

Global shipbuilding orders this year will likely end with a decline from 2024, Yicai Global reported, citing the chairman of the Shanghai Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. Xing Wenhua told a conference that while overall volume is dropping, ship prices remain at a "relatively high level." China, along with South Korea and Japan, dominates global shipbuilding.

World trade tensions this year have created idled shipbuilding capacity, Xing said. Still, orders this year are forecast to top 120 million deadweight tons, remaining at a historically high levels.

Corporate

Reckitt Pins China Sales Growth on E-Commerce

UK-based consumer goods multinational Reckitt said e-commerce now accounts for 80 percent of its China sales, an increase from 30 percent pre-pandemic. The company said it used influencers, AI avatars and its own staff to promote merchandise on e-tailing platforms like Douyin to acquire 40 million new Chinese customers this year. Vivien Huang, Reckitt marketing director in Beijing, told the Guardian, "What takes weeks and months in many markets happens here in hours and days," noting that the company can react quickly to user feedback it gets online. Reckitt's brands include antiseptic Dettol, analgesic Disprin, toilet cleaner Harpic and hair remover Veet.

Chinese Robotic Dog a Sensation at Tokyo Exhibition

A four-legged robot was a big hit at Tokyo's International Robot Exhibition this weekend, with the one-meter-high "dog" lowering itself down steps before lifting its right "foreleg" as if to greet people. The robotic dog, called the D5, is the creation of Chinese robot maker Pudu Robotics, the South China Morning Post reported. The company has accelerated development using embodied AI technologies from Chinese firms Unitree Robotics and Deep Robotics. Robotic dogs are used mostly in industrial settings to perform tasks that are too difficult or dangerous for humans.

Shein Hits Back at French Suspension in Court

Chinese discount e-commerce platform Shein accused France in court of singling it out for retribution amid a scandal over child-like sex dolls and weapons that Paris found for sale on its marketplace. The government has asked the court to suspend the operations of Shein until the company shows evidence of sufficient oversight of products on its platform. The crackdown came just days weeks after Shein opened its first brick-and-mortar shop in a Paris mall.

Kelun-Biotech Licenses Cancer Drug Candidate to US Firm

China's Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical said it signed an agreement to license an experimental cancer therapy to US drugmaker Crescent Biopharma. Under the deal, Kelun-Biotech, based in Sichuan Province, receives an $80 million upfront payment, rising to a possible US$1.25 billion in royalties and milestone payments. Clinical trials on the drug candidate SKB105, which aims at solid tumors, are scheduled to begin early next year. Kelun-Biotech said it will also license the experimental cancer treatment CR-001 from Crescent.