Oct 21, 2026
5 min read
In today's Bilig Daily Brief, US envoy Steve Witkoff flew to St Petersburg for talks with Vladimir Putin after talks with Ukraine's president in Oslo. British inflation rose more than expected, a draft prospectus showed Anthropic lost more than $80 billion in six months, and Iran set conditions for any new talks with Washington.
Witkoff takes Oslo peace ideas to Putin
US special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in St Petersburg on Wednesday to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, a day after talks in Oslo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European officials. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the meeting would take place at the Constantine Palace. "I don't know if any agreement will be reached today," he said. Zelenskiy said after the Oslo talks: "We have some clear ideas on how to get to peace." Finnish President Alexander Stubb, a co-host, cited "genuine progress".
Musk ordered Ukraine Starlink slowdown, WSJ reports
Elon Musk ordered a slowdown last week of a military-grade Starlink service that Ukraine uses for battlefield communications and drone operations, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The newspaper said Musk and President Donald Trump discussed the decision before and after it was made. Reuters could not immediately verify the report, and SpaceX and the White House did not respond to requests for comment. Musk has said such limits are decided by the US military or the president. In Oslo, Zelenskiy said the service "needs to be restored".
Iran sets conditions as Pakistan's army chief visits
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, in Tehran on Tuesday that "pressures, threats, and sanctions must first be removed" before any negotiations with Washington. It was Munir's fifth visit since the April ceasefire, Al Jazeera reported. Security chief Mohsen Rezaei said all enriched nuclear material would stay in Iran. Separately, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its mines had halted three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. The claim has not been independently verified.
UK inflation rises to 3.5% in September
British consumer price inflation rose to 3.5% in September from 3.1% in August, the highest since October 2025, official data showed on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected 3.4%. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said higher petrol and diesel prices drove the increase. Core inflation rose to 2.8% and services inflation to 3.7%. Investors expect the Bank of England to raise interest rates to 4% on 5 November, which would be its first increase in more than three years, Reuters reported.
Anthropic lost over $80 billion, prospectus shows
Anthropic recorded a net loss of more than $80 billion in the first half of 2026, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing a draft prospectus for the AI company's planned share listing. About $72 billion came from accounting charges linked to convertible notes and other financing instruments. Revenue rose to $16.3 billion from $1.1 billion a year earlier. Anthropic indicated it could spend up to $750 billion on computing capacity in coming years.
Asian shares rebound after Dow gains 1%
South Korea's Kospi index rose 3.4% to 5,733.82 by midday on Wednesday and Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 1.3% to 64,915.59, the Associated Press reported, as chip and AI stocks recovered. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1% to about 52,500 and the S&P 500 gained 0.3% to about 7,713, while the Nasdaq Composite ended slightly lower. The 10-year US Treasury yield stood at about 5.12%. Brent crude rose 1.5% to $110.37 a barrel early on Wednesday.
SpaceX swings to profit as Netflix cuts jobs
SpaceX reported third-quarter revenue of $14.6 billion and adjusted earnings of 35 cents a share, beating analyst forecasts, after the market closed on Tuesday. Its shares rose about 8% in after-hours trading. Super Micro Computer jumped after forecasting quarterly sales of $18.5 billion to $19.5 billion on demand for AI servers. Netflix shares fell about 5% overnight after it forecast fourth-quarter revenue below estimates and said it would cut about 6% of its workforce, roughly 1,000 jobs.
France keeps curfews to curb protest violence
Paris police said on Tuesday that curfews around Place de la République and the Les Halles district had restored calm and would stay "for as long as necessary". Lyon renewed a city-centre curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., and Marseille imposed a curfew on unaccompanied minors. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the curfews "helped keep last night calm" and promised a "massive" police deployment on Saturday. At least 2,400 people have been arrested since weekend clashes, officials said.
Yemen training camp death toll rises to 73
The death toll from Monday's Houthi missile strike on a government military training camp in Yemen's Shabwa province rose to 73, local authorities said on Tuesday. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile aimed at Riyadh and, early on Wednesday, four drones. Britain said Royal Air Force Typhoon jets would fly "defensive" patrols over Saudi Arabia. The UN World Food Programme said 800,000 people, mostly in Taiz, have been cut off from aid.
Investors pledge 230 billion euros to Germany
Investors pledged about 230 billion euros at the first Invest in Germany summit in Berlin, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Tuesday. "Germany is a good place to invest," Merz told a closing news conference, according to the German news agency dpa. Amazon said it would invest 16 billion euros in Germany next year in data centres, cloud and AI infrastructure. Nvidia, Microsoft, Blackstone, RWE and the Schwarz Group, owner of Lidl, were among the companies announcing new investments, dpa reported.
Trump says India trade deal "pretty close"
Trump said on Tuesday that a trade agreement with India was close. "They want to make a deal. We're going to make a deal. Pretty close, yeah," he told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that it would be "a much different kind of deal". Secretary of State Marco Rubio, visiting India, said the two sides were "about as close as you can be without having an executed agreement". India and the United States agreed a framework for the first phase of a trade pact in February.
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