Latest news for 10 October 2025

ISRAEL

Done Deal.

The Israeli cabinet has ratified the first phase of its US-backed peace deal with Hamas, and is now withdrawing its forces towards agreed positions within 24 hours. Hamas must then return all hostages within 72 hours, while Israel frees hundreds of prisoners and detainees, and aid surges into Gaza. (BBC)

Comment: We looked at how this war has shaped our world yesterday.

PERU

President out.

Lawmakers have appointed congressional leader José Jeri as Peru’s new president after finally voting to oust the deeply unpopular Dina Boluarte on their ninth such attempt, citing her inability to stem a crime wave. (Andina)

AFGHANISTAN

What was that.

Taliban authorities are investigating what caused explosions in Kabul overnight, amid reports it might’ve been Pakistani airstrikes targeting leaders of armed group TTP in town — some suggest the group’s leader (Mehsud) was killed. (Al Jazeera)

Comment: The timing was interesting, too, coming just as the Taliban’s foreign minister landed in Pakistan’s other big rival, India, to big news that India will reopen its Kabul embassy. Meanwhile, Hollywood could make a blockbuster about Pakistan’s ties with the TTP, which went from friend to foe upon the Taliban’s return to power.

EUROPEAN UNION

One of our own.

Brussels is investigating allegations that Hungary was operating an undercover spy ring to recruit EU employees as informants. (Euronews)

Comment: The juicy bit is that it allegedly happened when Olivér Várhelyi was Hungary’s ambassador to the EU — he’s now the EU’s Health Commissioner, meaning any damning findings from this EU probe could ripple across the EU’s cabinet.

AUSTRALIA

Down underwater.

Canberra and Delhi just held their first defence ministerial, signing deals on intel sharing, submarine rescue operations, and joint staff talks. (Economic Times)

Comment: This mostly formalises what’s been quietly happening for a while, as more rattled capitals pair-up amid bubbling tensions across the Indo-Pacific.

COSTA RICA

Hat in the ring.

San Jose has nominated long-time diplomat and former veep Rebeca Grynspan to be the next UN secretary-general, highlighting her role negotiating Russo-Ukraine grain deals, plus her current gig as head of a UN agency (UNCTAD). (AP)

Comment: Grynspan is now the third formally declared candidate after Bolivia’s veep (Choquehuanca) and Chile’s former president (Bachelet). Others like Argentina’s Rafael Grossi (head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog) have also voiced plans to run.

ETHIOPIA

We’re onto you.

Ethiopia has used a letter to the UN secretary-general to accuse Eritrea of waging a proxy war against it via local opposition forces, in response to landlocked Ethiopia’s efforts to (re)gain access to the Red Sea via Eritrea. Still with us? (BBC)

Comment: A lot of this stems from Eritrea’s independence from Ethiopia back in the 1990s, when the Eritreans ended up with all the coastline. Amid today’s look at the Nobel Peace Prize, it’s another example of how even a peace deal itself can often contain the seeds of some future war.