While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Oct 28, 2025
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Asean leaders meeting at the fifth Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership summit in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 27.
ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
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Asean leaders push for stronger trade ties
The world’s largest trade pact has stressed its commitment to an open, fair and rules-based multilateral trading system, amid an increasingly unsettled geopolitical climate.
At the 47th Asean Summit and related meetings in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 27, Asean leaders met their partners under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which is made up of 10 Asean states as well as Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.
“We are the world’s largest trading bloc, representing a third of global GDP (gross domestic product) and a third of the world’s population. When we move together, we can achieve scale and impact,” said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at the RCEP leaders’ summit, the first to be held since 2020.
In a joint statement, the RCEP said it “reaffirmed our commitment to the World Trade Organisation rules and principles as the foundations of an open, transparent, fair and rules-based multilateral trading system that ensures predictability and non-discrimination for all trading partners”.
China’s foreign minister speaks with US’ Rubio
PHOTOS: REUTERS
China hopes the United States can meet it halfway to “prepare for high-level interactions” between the two countries, foreign minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a phone call on Oct 27, China’s foreign ministry said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump have “long-standing exchanges and respect each other”, Mr Wang said, calling Mr Xi and Mr Trump’s relationship “the most valuable strategic asset in China-US relations,” according to the ministry.
The call came ahead of an expected meeting between Mr Xi and Mr Trump in South Korea on Oct 30 on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit.
UK seals $13b jets deal with Turkey in Nato sign to Putin
PHOTO: EPA
The UK signed an £8 billion (S$13.8 billion) deal to sell 20 Typhoon fighter jets to Turkey, an order which Prime Minister Keir Starmer portrayed as a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin about Nato’s long-term unity.
The agreement reached by Mr Starmer and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Oct 27 is the first new order for BAE Systems-made Typhoons since 2017.
It is Britain’s biggest fighter-jet deal for almost two decades, and Turkey’s first purchase of combat aircraft from a country other than the US.
Russian drones hunt down civilians in Ukraine
PHOTO: REUTERS
Russia has been chasing civilians who live near the front line in Ukraine with drones, hounding them out of their homes and hunting them down, forcing thousands to flee whole areas in what amounts to a crime against humanity, a UN inquiry found.
The report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine described civilians who were chased over long distances by drones with mounted cameras, and sometimes then attacked with firebombs or explosives while seeking shelter.
“These attacks were committed as part of a coordinated policy to drive out civilians from those territories and amount to the crime against humanity of forcible transfer of population,” said the 17-page report to be presented to the United Nations General Assembly this week.
Amazon targets as many as 30,000 corporate job cuts
PHOTO: REUTERS
Amazon is planning to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs beginning on Oct 28, as the company works to pare expenses and compensate for overhiring during the peak demand of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The figure represents a small percentage of Amazon’s 1.55 million total employees, but nearly 10 per cent of the company’s roughly 350,000 corporate employees.
This would represent the largest job cut at Amazon since around 27,000 jobs were eliminated starting in late 2022.
