Get ready for one of the most jam-packed episodes yet — RH 10.27.25 | China: Tariff Truce, AI Warbots, and Xi’s Power Play. In this edition of The Restricted Handling Podcast, we dive headfirst into a wild 24 hours inside the world’s most strategically ambitious superpower. From Beijing’s backroom deals to battlefield AI, this one’s loaded with energy, intrigue, and a touch of chaos.

We start with the week’s headline: the U.S. and China have hit “pause” on their economic slugfest. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng hammered out a framework deal that puts Trump’s threatened 100% tariffs on ice. That alone would be huge — but toss in a deferral on China’s rare earth export curbs and the long-awaited TikTok divestment deal, and suddenly the chessboard looks different. Trump’s already claiming victory mid-flight to South Korea, while Xi’s keeping his poker face. The markets? Loving it. Currencies up, dollar down, global sigh of relief… for now.

But here’s where it gets spicy. Behind the diplomatic smiles, Xi Jinping’s been stockpiling like it’s the apocalypse. Oil, gas, soybeans, metals — you name it, China’s hoarding it. Its crude reserves have tripled in size since February, and the Dongjiakou facility alone now holds 24 million barrels. They’re buying sanctioned oil from Russia and Iran, snapping up copper mines in Chile, nickel plants in Indonesia, and grain from Brazil. Beijing’s not just preparing for trade turbulence — it’s building a war-proof economy.

Then we zoom into the power plays inside China’s elite. Xi’s purged nine generals this month in what one exiled journalist calls a “wartime reorganization.” Think of it as a military loyalty reboot. Commanders from the Rocket Force and Navy are out, replaced by political loyalists who’ll follow Xi’s orders without question. It’s not corruption cleanup — it’s obedience conditioning. The kind of purge that screams “readiness,” not reform.

And that’s before we even touch on DeepSeek — the AI platform now powering China’s military. We’re talking robot dogs, AI-guided drone swarms, autonomous command systems — all running on Huawei chips. DeepSeek’s reportedly analyzing 10,000 battle scenarios in under a minute. It’s not sci-fi; it’s military-industrial reality. Pair that with predictive policing and full-spectrum surveillance, and you get a glimpse of China’s “intelligentized warfare” strategy — an algorithmic army built for the next era of conflict.

We also hit the global side hustle: Beijing just wrapped Blue Sword-4, a joint naval exercise with Saudi Arabia in Jubail. Combat drills, mine clearance, counter-drone ops — all part of China’s growing military footprint in the Gulf. Meanwhile, Trump’s making his own moves in Southeast Asia, locking down trade deals in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam to counter Beijing’s grip. And just when tensions seemed to cool, China offered humanitarian help after two U.S. Navy aircraft crashed in the South China Sea — a rare soft touch in an otherwise hard-nosed week.

This episode has it all — diplomacy, deception, digital warfare, and a dash of drama. Tune in to RH 10.27.25 | China and get the unfiltered rundown on how Beijing’s playing the long game — one barrel, one algorithm, and one purge at a time.

Strap in — this episode of The Restricted Handling Podcast is one you’re going to want to hear. It’s October 27th, 2025, and Russia just decided to remind the world that it’s still trying to cosplay the Soviet Union. We’re breaking down Putin’s latest nuclear stunt, Trump’s sanctions bombshell, Ukraine’s drone warfare revolution, and how all of it ties together into what’s fast becoming the most dangerous geopolitical winter in years.

In this episode, we dig into Vladimir Putin’s chest-thumping debut of the Burevestnik, a nuclear-powered cruise missile that’s part science fiction and part safety hazard. Putin claims it can fly forever and strike anywhere — experts call it a “flying Chernobyl.” We get into the bizarre optics of Putin donning a military uniform, bragging about his “nuclear shield,” and warning of “overwhelming retaliation,” all while Russia’s economy quietly sputters under sanctions and its defense industry runs out of gas (literally).

Meanwhile in Washington, President Trump drops the hammer on Russia’s two biggest oil giants — Rosneft and Lukoil — in what analysts say is the most consequential sanctions move of his second term. Oil prices spike six percent, India and China pause purchases, and the Kremlin starts sweating. But in true Cold War déjà vu fashion, China steps up with a backdoor energy route, helping Russia move liquefied gas through Beihai like nothing happened. It’s sanctions chess at its finest, and Beijing’s playing for both sides.

Then there’s Ukraine — the underdog that just won’t quit. The country’s drone war has evolved from garage-built prototypes to billion-dollar mass production. We tell the wild story of Fire Point, the drone company that started as a film casting agency and now manufactures long-range, low-cost kamikaze drones taking out Russian oil refineries. Think less “startup pitch” and more “Skynet with a GoFundMe.”

But Russia’s hitting back hard. Massive drone swarms are pounding Ukraine’s grid, aiming to freeze the country into submission. We’ll unpack how these attacks threaten to plunge Ukraine into a “dark winter,” with rolling blackouts and targeted strikes on heating infrastructure.

We also cover the quiet moves that don’t make headlines — like Russia turning an old Baltic ferry wreck into an underwater spy base, sabotage fires spreading across its own cities, and North Korea’s foreign minister arriving in Moscow for a mysterious visit just as Trump heads to South Korea. It’s all part of a global chessboard that’s getting tighter and meaner by the day.

If you want an unfiltered, high-energy breakdown of how nukes, sanctions, drones, and old-school espionage are shaping the next phase of this war, this episode is it.