Flash News

TREE NEWS update: China’s independently developed Lijian-2 Y2 carrier rocket was transferred to its dedicated launch pad at the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Zone on the 26th, entering the final pre-launch preparation phase. The rocket will be launched in the near future at an opportune time.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Southern Regional Power Market now has more than 270,000 registered market participants, about a quarter of the national total, the National Development and Reform Commission’s institutional reform department said. Market-based trading accounts for 67.5% of electricity transactions, roughly 4 percentage points above the national average. Since continuous settlement trials began, over-plan west-to-east power transfers have exceeded 20 billion kWh, and 2025 transfer volume hit a record 261.6 billion kWh.

TREE NEWS reports: Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.80% lower at 62,189.65 points, while South Korea’s KOSPI ended down 1.45% at 5,469.59 points. The declines in the two major Asian equity benchmarks were reported in the same session.

TREE NEWS update: The 2026 Diamond Industry Conference and the 30th Superhard Materials Technology Development Forum will be held in Shanghai from Nov. 12 to 15, organizers said. The event will cover diamond thermal management devices, lab-grown diamond industry development and consumer markets, diamond semiconductor devices, diamond tool processing for metals and hard-brittle materials, and diamond drilling tools for extreme environments. A review meeting for the superhard materials industry’s 15th Five-Year Plan will be held alongside the conference.

TREE NEWS update: A drone attack on Russia’s Voronezh region killed two people and injured 17 on October 26, regional governor Alexander Gusev said. Gusev announced the casualties the same day as the strike, without giving further details on the targets or the origin of the drones.

TREE NEWS update: Singapore will raise its statutory retirement age from 64 to 65 on Jan 1, 2029, a year earlier than planned, after accepting recommendations from a tripartite workgroup on older workers. The re-employment age will also rise, allowing employees to keep working until 70. The government will reduce taxes for seniors who continue working past the retirement and re-employment ages, raising their take-home pay, and will increase the minimum and maximum payouts of the employment assistance scheme.

TREE NEWS reports: Meituan is seeking to raise $1 billion through a bond offering. The Chinese food-delivery and local-services group is tapping the debt market for the financing. Further terms of the offering, including pricing and maturity, were not disclosed.

TREE NEWS update: China Consumer Association, together with the China Market Supervision and Administration Society and the China Article Numbering Center, issued a consumer advisory ahead of the Double 11 shopping season, warning that opaque pricing, complicated promotion rules and misleading advertising remain the main areas where shoppers’ rights are harmed. The bodies urged consumers to put “seeing clearly” before “buying fast” and “actually needing it” before “looking cheap”.

TREE NEWS update: A field team from the China Earthquake Administration on the 25th discovered the surface rupture zone of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Baqing, Tibet for the first time, about 15 kilometers east of the epicenter and 20 kilometers from Maru Township. The rupture zone was identified during follow-up surveys after the quake struck the region.

TREE NEWS update: Chinese authorities have begun drafting a mandatory standard requiring vehicles to be equipped with C-V2X cellular vehicle-to-everything technology. A working group has been formed and dozens of organizations are already participating, the person said. No timeline or publication date for the standard was disclosed.

TREE NEWS update: The UK and Canadian finance ministries said in a joint statement that the UK-backed Multilateral Defence Mechanism and Canada-led Defence, Security and Resilience Bank will operate as two separate but complementary partners, with the UK opting to go it alone despite earlier plans to merge. UK Prime Minister Burnham had discussed joining the defence bank with Canadian Prime Minister Carney, but later talks exposed differences. UK Chancellor John Healey intends to increase funding for the Multilateral Defence Mechanism to help fill the UK’s defence budget gap.

TREE NEWS reports: PetroChina shares climbed nearly 4%, reaching their highest level since 2008. The move extends a strong run for the Chinese state oil major, with the stock now trading at levels not seen in more than a decade and a half.

TREE NEWS reports: Japan’s leading economic index for August was confirmed at 118 in the final reading, matching the preliminary figure of 118. The final number was unchanged from the initial estimate, indicating no revision to the gauge of future economic activity. The coincident index and other details were not disclosed in the material.

TREE NEWS reports: Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has died, Japanese media reported on Monday. Fukuda served as prime minister from 2007 to 2008. No further details were immediately available.

TREE NEWS update: A team at the Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, working with domestic and international collaborators, has confirmed the fastest-spinning near-Earth asteroid known to date, the institute said. The results, published in the Astronomical Journal, mark a breakthrough in observing and characterizing ultra-fast-rotating near-Earth asteroids. The work is also described as improving early-warning capability for such objects.

TREE NEWS update: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won a record fourth term in an upset second-round election victory, prompting Jair Bolsonaro to refuse to concede and seek a court ruling to annul the vote. The result upends the so-called “Bolsonaro trade,” with Brazilian markets facing a sharp selloff. Separately, China’s 20th Central Committee opened its fifth plenary session in Beijing on the morning of the 26th.

TREE NEWS reports: Profit at commodity markets directly monitored by China’s Ministry of Commerce rose 5.8% year on year in the first nine months of 2026, with the industrial consumer goods segment up 8.5%, the ministry’s circulation development department said. Retail sales at convenience stores and supermarkets above the designated size grew 5.2% and 4.1% respectively, while warehouse membership stores and unattended stores both expanded more than 25%.

TREE NEWS update: Bulgaria’s presidential election will go to a second round after exit polls showed incumbent President Yotova leading with more than 35% of the valid vote but falling short of a majority, state television reported on Oct. 25. Former caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gurov placed second with about 32%. Turnout was approximately 22%.

TREE NEWS update: The Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China began in Beijing on the morning of the 26th. General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered a work report to the plenum on behalf of the Political Bureau and explained a draft decision on persisting in advancing full and rigorous Party self-governance. The session’s agenda centers on that draft resolution.

TREE NEWS reports: Senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, the three signatories of the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, will meet Iranian officials in Tehran later on the 26th to discuss regional coordination. Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman and Pakistani Army Chief Syed Asim Munir will attend, while Turkey will send its intelligence chief. The meeting follows a report citing two sources.