The fifth plenum ratified a record 33 expulsions and told the army to obey. The China military purge has reached 87 percent of three-star generals since 2022 and left Xi Jinping with one general beside him. Corruption is real, but loyalty is the true driver, and the price is a ruler who hears no truth. Taiwan and Shenzhen are the test.
The Russia Africa Summit 2026 brought 48 countries and 22 heads of state to Moscow, Putin's biggest African crowd yet. Chomcho looks at what he wanted, what Africa wanted, the trade numbers that shrink Russia beside Europe, China and America, the African recruits nobody mentioned, and the market Washington keeps missing.
The 2026 Brazil election ended with Lula reelected, Brazil's stocks down 14 percent in a day, and the runner-up's passports seized within hours. Chomcho examines the two-hour extension ordered by Lula's former lawyer after the polls closed, the 19 percent vote jump nobody explains, and what Washington should learn from it.
One objection from Croatia erased Montenegro's EU deadline at the October summit, only days after Brussels unveiled a plan to weaken the EU veto. Chomcho explains why the EU veto protects small nations from the big capitals and an unelected Commission, who still defends it, and why Washington should want Europe to keep it.
On October 21, Sanae Takaichi completes her first year as Japan's prime minister. Takaichi's first year reached 2 percent of GDP on defense two years early, ended the ban on lethal arms exports and said out loud that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could pull Japan into war. China answered with sanctions. Washington got the ally it wanted.
France blames Musk. At the OECD in Paris, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot listed the MAGA community beside Russia, China and Iran as sources of hostile narratives. Meanwhile, 24 French schools have been burned or ransacked, 715 police officers injured and more than 6,100 people arrested. So who is really destabilizing France?
The US-Canada trade war is stuck. Trump says he is "in no rush," and Washington will hold its position until Canada wants to "get to yes." Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney courts Europe, China and India, even though about 72 percent of Canada's goods exports still go to the United States, and two provinces question Canada itself.
Peruvian senator Mirtha Vásquez will fly to China on the Chinese Embassy's dime, right when senators should be meeting their voters. Beijing courts Peru with free trips, a megaport and more than 30,000 million dollars in investment, while a 2023 paid junket went unpunished and a president lost his office over a dinner with a Chinese businessman. Nobody flies you to Beijing for nothing.
Flávio Bolsonaro finished first in the Brazil elections, 47 percent to Lula's 45, after every major poll had Lula ahead. The runoff is October 25. Behind the numbers: a father serving 27 years, a judge who shut down X, a Congress that moved right, and a candidate offering Washington rare earths and a seat in the Shield of the Americas.
The Buy European initiative favors weapons made in Europe, and Washington is pushing back hard. Ambassador Puzder warned Brussels that "only our enemies benefit," the Pentagon threatened the Buy American waivers, and France and Britain were left out of a NATO meeting. But America's missile stocks run low, and buyers wait.
The Ethiopia civil war is back. Tigray rebels seized three airports and marched toward the road from Djibouti that feeds the capital, while the UN issued a statement. Who fights whom, why Egypt and Eritrea are accused of backing the rebels, and why Washington's signals favor the government. A guide for readers who never had to look.
Colombia's president sent his vice president to the UN with a definition of globalism that names the problem: nations treated as obstacles to a uniformity decided above them. Milei, Fujimori and Kast spoke in the same key, Trump told the ICC's members to resign, and Petro's old speeches show what changed. UN and globalism, on trial.
