Daily Buzz: 10 November 2025

Russian Attacks on Ukraine Continue, Eastern City May Fall

Russian military forces are poised to seize the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, a target the Kremlin has been pursuing for 21 months. The fall of the city would be more a symbolic than a strategic victory, CNN said. Elsewhere in Ukraine, a barrage of Russian missiles and drones this weekend hit 15 sites, including energy infrastructure and residential areas. Ukraine said substations that power two nuclear power plants were among the targets. Parts of the capital Kiev suffered blackouts.

The US has slapped sanctions on Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil to try to force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, and has threatened sanctions on countries that buy oil or gas from them. However, President Donald Trump on Friday granted Hungary a one-year exemption after meeting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the White House. Orban is the most right-wing leader in the EU and an ally of Trump's.

US Senate Advances Plan to End Government Shutdown

The Senate has cobbled together a plan that may end the record-breaking, 40-day US government shutdown, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced. He said thinks there are enough centrist Democratic votes to pass it, ending a political stalemate that has curtailed air travel, cut food program benefits and withheld pay for federal workers. Democrats scheduled a caucus on Sunday evening, Washington time, to discuss the plan, which would reportedly provide federal funding through late January. If the resolution passes the Senate, it would go back to the House of Representatives for final approval.

Taiwan in Potential Path of Super Typhoon

Super typhoon Fung-wong bore down on the Philippines barely a week after another strong typhoon left 200 dead, 100 missing and a trail of destruction across the islands. Fung-wong had sustained winds of 185 kilometers an hour and a circulation span of 1,800 kilometers when it barreled into the main island of Luzon. Its preliminary track shows Taiwan possibly in its path later this week. The western Pacific is no stranger to typhoons, but the tropical cyclones this season have been stronger than usual.

UN Climate Change Conference Opens to Familiar Refrains

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva opened the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference in the Amazon rainforest city of Belem with a warning that the fight to preserve the climate will be lost without a more rapid transition to cleaner energy. COP summits are no strangers to similar warnings, but the question of global resolve hangs over the meeting. The US, one of the world's biggest polluters, is absent from the conference, amid President Donald Trump's claim that climate science is a "con job." The contentious issue of richer, polluting nations subsidizing poorer nations that suffer from climate change but contribute little to global warming, remains unresolved. France, Spain and Kenya proposed a new global tax on luxury air travel, which would be levied on use of private jet and on first- and business-class air tickets.

Top Business

China Suspends Export Ban on 3 Elements

China suspended a ban on export approvals for so-called "dual-use items" related to gallium, germanium, antimony – three elements used in semiconductors, among other industrial uses – and super-hard materials to the US, the commerce ministry announced on Sunday. The suspension will be in effect for a year, Beijing said. No further details were given. "Dual-use" items refer to technology that can be used for both civilian and military purposes. Gallium, germanium and antimony are not scientifically classed as rare earths.

Chinese customs said on Friday it is restoring soybean import licenses for three US firms. The announcements in recent days relate to the trade agreement reached by Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump at a summit late last month in South Korea.

At the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, Mark Wilson, chairman of the US Grains and BioProducts Council, said the agricultural group has had good trade relations with China for 43 years and won't be leaving the mainland market, no matter how US-China relations evolve. "We're here to stay," he said, noting that a shipment of US sorghum is currently en route to China.

Ant Group Deploys Massive Domestic AI Cluster

Alibaba's Ant Group revealed for the first time that it has deployed a large-scale domestic computing cluster with tens of thousands of graphics cards, fully supporting homegrown and major open-source models for training and inference in security and risk control. Speaking at the 2025 World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Luo Ji, president of Ant's platform technology business, said the cluster achieves training stability above 98 percent and performance on par with global counterparts. Ant owns Alipay, the world's largest digital payments platform.

China Presses Dutch to End Nexperia Dispute

China has granted exemptions to export controls on Nexperia chips for civilian applications, the Ministry of Commerce said on Sunday, but it's now up to the Dutch to take action to resolve a semiconductor dispute that has threatened vital supplies to carmakers. Nexperia is based in the Netherlands but owned by China's Wingtech. China banned chip exports from Nexperia's mainland factories after Dutch regulators seized control of the company's Dutch headquarters at the end of September, citing national security concerns. China wants that control to end. A ministry spokesperson noted recent positive remarks by the Dutch economics minister but said Beijing has yet to see action following his words. China has agreed to host talks to resolve the matter, the spokesperson said, blaming the root cause of supply chain disruptions on the Dutch.

DeepSeek Lauds AI but Warns of Job Losses

Chen Deli, a senior researcher at AI startup DeepSeek, told a panel discussion at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen that artificial intelligence is an unstoppable force and the company is optimistic about its future. But he warned that AI development could lead to massive job losses as systems become digitally automated. He said AI companies should be warning the public which jobs are most likely to become obsolete first to reduce the social impact. DeepSeek became a high flier in AI after introducing an open-source, ChatGPT-style language model last January at a much cheaper price that existing global models.

Economy & Markets

China Consumer Prices Rise on Higher Demand

China consumer prices in October rose 0.2 percent from a year earlier and from a month earlier, the strongest growth this year, the Bureau of Statistics reported on Sunday. Food prices in the month fell 2.9 percent, but factory-gate prices narrowed from a year earlier to a decline of 2.1 percent, a welcome sign amid concerns about deflation in the economy. The core consumer price index, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 1.2 percent on the year, its sixth consecutive month of faster growth. "In October, policies aimed at expanding domestic demand continued to take effect, coupled with the boost from the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays," Dong Lijuan, chief statistician at the urban division of the bureau, said in a statement.

Korean Car Brands Fade in China Market

South Korean carmaker Hyundai and its Kia subsidiary, once popular for their fuel efficient, affordable cars, are rapidly losing ground in China, with their market share plunging from 8.8 percent in 2013 to just 1 percent in 2024. Combined sales of 320,000 units last year were barely equivalent to the monthly sales of Chinese domestic carmaker BYD. Hyundai has whittled down its sales and services sites in China, and mainland production has shrunk to a single factory. Analysts say the sales decline reflects management missteps, weak production localization and sluggish model updates as Chinese brands steal a march on foreign automakers with rapid new model rollouts and advanced smart car features.

Corporate

Porsche Opens R&D Center in Shanghai

German luxury carmaker Porsche opened its first overseas research and development center in China in an effort to lift its profile in the mainland car market, where it has experienced a two-year sales slowdown. The center in Shanghai's Jiading district will have independent decision-making authority to shorten development times from years to months, Porsche said.

Pfizer Buys Obesity Drug Firm After Novo Drops Bid

US drug giant Pfizer closed a US$10 billion cash deal for obesity drug developer Metsera, after Danish rival Novo Nordisk dropped out of a fierce bidding war. It's a victory for Pfizer's aims to develop a strong foothold in the lucrative market for obesity therapies. Pfizer has agreed to pay US$86.25 per share, a 3.7 percent premium to Metsera's closing price on Friday.

JD to Open World 'First' Unmanned Delivery Site

E-commerce giant JD.com said it will open a fully unmanned delivery station by next April, calling it the first of its kind in the world. The station will integrate drones, autonomous delivery vehicles and robotic arms, Chairman Richard Liu told the ongoing World Internet Conference in Wuzhen.