Flash News

TREE NEWS update: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia and the United States plan to hold another round of talks within the coming weeks on removing “sensitive issues” in bilateral relations. Ryabkov said such talks are held on a broadly regular basis but are “advancing more slowly than expected.” In June he said the dialogue on those sensitive issues had reached a deadlock.

TREE NEWS update: Construction on Citadel’s new Miami headquarters in Brickell has been ordered stopped after equipment collapsed at the site last week, sending at least four people to hospital with minor injuries. The hedge fund, founded by billionaire Ken Griffin, is building a multi-billion-dollar tower in the district; it is affiliated with but separately operated from market maker Citadel Securities.

TREE NEWS reports: Oaktree Capital co-founder Howard Marks said the Federal Reserve should cut back on its public communication, arguing that speaking less would be more effective. The veteran investor’s remarks target the central bank’s forward-guidance practice, which markets parse closely for rate signals. Marks did not specify which communications he would trim.

TREE NEWS update: Chevron plans to increase its oil well drilling next year, the company’s vice president of exploration, McLachlan, said. The executive did not specify the number of additional wells or the regions where the drilling would take place. The plan signals the US major’s intent to expand upstream activity.

TREE NEWS update: France will not cut fuel taxes despite record-high diesel and petrol prices, Budget Minister David Amiel said in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche. Amiel said broad tax reductions would be so costly that they would inevitably force across-the-board tax increases later, adding: “We will not promise a tax cut with one hand and take the money back with the other.” The stance is fuelling public discontent.

TREE NEWS update: China Huadian Group and China Telecom Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement on September 20, establishing a strategic partnership in areas including technological innovation, smart energy and emerging industries. The two state-owned groups will jointly explore new technologies, business models and formats to support the digital-intelligent transformation and upgrading of the energy sector.

TREE NEWS update: BHP plans to invest more than $10 billion in its iron ore business over the next five years to maintain and lift capacity, develop high-grade ore bodies and upgrade port and rail infrastructure, CEO Mike Henry said in a keynote speech. The miner is targeting 305 million tonnes of annual capacity at Western Australia iron ore by fiscal 2028, and plans to expand copper output over the next decade.

TREE NEWS update: Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said on the 20th that intelligence indicates the United States, after holding a joint meeting in a European country, has decided to take hostile action against Iran again with the tacit consent of certain Middle Eastern states. The command said the US move is aimed at covering its failures and extracting gains from the war, and warned that any American strike will lead to Iranian retaliation.

TREE NEWS update: Iran’s Intelligence Ministry announced on the 20th that it had dismantled three terrorist groups linked to the United States and Israel in Alborz, Kerman and West Azerbaijan provinces, with multiple militants arrested or killed. Separately, an Iranian man accused of supplying Israel’s intelligence services with information on Iranian military bases was executed, after two alleged spies were executed in August for passing coordinates and images of Iranian military and security sites to Israeli intelligence.

TREE NEWS update: Explosions were heard in Kyiv on September 20 local time as Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The city’s air defense systems are operating, he said. Russia has not yet responded to the reports.

TREE NEWS update: Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the Russian capital came under its largest attack to date on August 20. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said later that day on X that Ukraine’s long-range strikes on the Moscow region overnight had a “very significant impact,” with an important Russian oil industry facility and a logistics facility hit.

TREE NEWS update: Yemen’s Houthi spokesperson Omar al-Bakhiti said on September 20 that the group will retaliate more forcefully if Saudi Arabia continues military escalation in Yemen. He described the approach as “escalation for escalation, blockade for blockade,” and said the actions constitute an exercise of the right to self-defense.

TREE NEWS update: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will build a mechanism to proactively identify promising small and medium-sized enterprises, Minister Li Lecheng said at the 16th SME roundtable in Beijing on Sept 20. The ministry will improve its tiered cultivation system for quality SMEs, moving from waiting for applications to actively reaching out to help firms focused on technology and products.

TREE NEWS update: Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary Mohsen Rezaei said on September 19 that Tehran has conveyed its conditions for renewed negotiations to the US through mediators Qatar and Pakistan. He said Washington has no option but to accept them if it wants to escape the predicament it created. The conditions include unfreezing Iranian assets, ending fighting on all fronts including Lebanon, non-interference in Iran’s internal affairs, and lifting the naval blockade.

TREE NEWS update: Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Ukraine launched its largest attack on Russia to date, using more than 1,600 drones. He wrote on social media that 450 of the drones downed by Russian air defenses were heading toward the capital, and described the assault as “unprecedented.”

TREE NEWS update: China’s central authorities issued guidelines on advancing classified reform of higher education institutions, the State Council General Office and the CPC Central Committee General Office announced. The document calls for building research universities via the “Double First-Class” initiative, expanding applied undergraduate programs and high-level vocational schools, strengthening industry-focused universities’ service to the real economy, and exploring new models for training top innovative talent.

TREE NEWS reports: The United States has warned allies that deliveries of some key weapons could be delayed by up to five years because its stockpiles of certain munitions are depleted. Germany has asked Washington to speed up deliveries of Tomahawk cruise missiles and Typhon missile systems, but manufacturers are unlikely to fill the orders within five years. The Congressional Budget Office said this month that US interceptor stockpiles have fallen by one-half to two-thirds since June 2025 and would take at least five years to rebuild even with higher production.

TREE NEWS update: Berlin and the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern held parliamentary elections on September 20. Polls put the far-right AfD at roughly 36% in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern against about 37% for the Social Democrats, with Chancellor Merz’s CDU at only around 6%. On September 6, the AfD won 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt to become the state’s largest party, while the CDU took 17.2%.

TREE NEWS reports: Real Vision founder Raoul Pal said bitcoin’s weekly chart against the Nasdaq 100 has broken its downtrend and he expects the cryptocurrency to outperform the index. He noted bitcoin rose from about $75,580 to above $81,000 after the Federal Reserve raised rates by 25 basis points to 3.75%-4.00%. Pal said fiscal dominance and debt refinancing needs will boost liquidity and benefit crypto assets.

TREE NEWS update: Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck the Moscow Oil Refinery in the early hours of September 20, causing a large fire in the refinery area. The AVT-6 primary refining unit and combined crude processing unit were hit, the military said. It described the refinery as one of Russia’s largest, with annual crude processing capacity of about 12 million tonnes, producing gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel and heavy oil, and said the plant supplies the Russian armed forces.