🚨 second book claxon 🚨 *The Perimeter: America’s Struggle for Primacy in the Pacific* is now done, out in January, and available for pre-order 🤓 📖 🥳. Re the cover, let me know what you think of the whole blue / yellow carrier theme, although obviously only if you don't hate it. Did i mention pre-order? 🇺🇸 In the US via @wwnorton wwnorton.com/books/978132411… 🇬🇧 In the UK, via @AtlanticBooks atlantic-books.co.uk/book/th…

Comment from @ZackCooper 👇

What we got from the EU's plans to invest a whole 10 billion euros in AI:

This is a riot.

How many Limes are there? @jimwaterson: 38k working Lime e-bikes and scooters in 2025. 676k people used a Lime once a month, up by 1/3 previous year. These are UK-wide figures, the overwhelming majority of Lime’s British customers are in London. Tiny compared to 3m cars. But big compared to "Boris bikes") at about 12k or black cabs at about 14k.

Haven't played squash in nearly two decades, but the chance to play with China Talk guru @jordanschneider in an absurd gilded age mansion was too good to pass up. I lost 2-1, but only just.....

The US / China meeting was a strange affair. The world’s two most powerful countries came together with fanfare and tried to achieve… nothing very much? I’ve been puzzling for a while why Trump gives autocrats such lavish respect and yet so often treats allies with contempt. Below a basic mafia boss theory of Trump / Xi meetings, by way of Goodfellas, The Sopranos, and Wolf Hall. jamescrabtree.substack.com/p…

It’s too kind to say the Xi-Trump summit was big on pageantry and light on substance. Given the urgent problems that can’t be tackled without China and America, to squander the meeting was a selfish dereliction of duty. My take economist.com/international/… from The Economist

Post summit, I see President Trump’s China policy as far too weak—on Taiwan, Iran, Russia, human rights. Over the top pageantry. Not enough strength. nytimes.com/2026/09/25/busin… via @NYTimes

Clearly a case of an editor giving instructions over the phone: "we want a piece on the guerrillas infiltrating Lahore......"

Bridge Colby today on AUKUS: “We’re full speed ahead on AUKUS. We all have our marching orders. It’s ambitious and demanding. We’re all going to have to spend enough. We’re having conversations about roles and missions. But everyone’s got a plan, and now it’s down to business.”

Three whole months. a triumph.

My new book - out on October 22nd.

The scene in downtown DC in the era with Xi at the core…..

“Rubio is more hawkish on China than he appears. He continues to push for export controls and making sure we’re working behind closed doors with our allies and partners to counter Chinese aggression,” said a former US official. “But he is careful in public to give Trump the space he wants to maintain his good relationship with Xi.” strong piece from @AsiaLens

Donald Trump’s deference to Xi Jinping this week underscores how, after months of tariffs on China followed by a truce, he has dented the ambition of the hawks in his administration who sought a renewed effort to pin back America's biggest geopolitical foe ft.trib.al/hPvo7Jr

Fun story in @neilthomas123 Trump / Xi curtain-raiser. "According to former Belarusian diplomat Pavel Slunkin, during Xi’s 2015 visit to Belarus, then-protocol chief Qin Gang requested a 2:00 a.m. inspection of a museum Xi would tour later that day. His team wanted to know exactly which step of a staircase Xi would reach when some music began playing. No wonder Chinese officials are rattled at the relative lack of preparation for this summit. Such meticulous planning sits uneasily with Trump’s improvisation......" chinafile.com/conversation/w…

In DC for @LondonDefConf Washington Forum. Excellent to see @USWPColby just announced as keynote. Important time to hear about US priorities both re Europe and Pacific.