Daily flyovers
Latest news for 18 November 2025
Quick hits of consequential news from all corners of the world.
- 01
UNITED NATIONS
Gaza plan approved.
The UN Security Council has approved the US-led resolution to establish an international stabilisation force (ISF) in Gaza for at least two years, granting a broad mandate for Gaza’s demilitarisation and reconstruction. There were 13 votes in favour, two abstentions (China and Russia), and none opposed. (BBC)
Comment: It’s not just a big win for a gridlocked UN, but also a big win for the US, which has managed to clear Israeli, Palestinian, Beijing, and Moscow hurdles, all while getting key Arab and Muslim players onboard. The US now wants the ISF deployed (with troops from Indonesia, Azerbaijan, and others TBC) as soon as January, though Hamas has again rejected disarmament — but this UN resolution means confronting the latest Hamas challenge might now fall to the ISF rather than Israel’s IDF.
- 02
UNITED STATES
Epstein files released?
Congress is today (Tuesday) set to approve a bill calling for authorities to release all Epstein files, after President Trump abruptly reversed course on months of trying to block such a vote. He now says he has nothing to hide. (Reuters)
Comment: After the House, the bill goes to the Senate then the White House, before the justice department redacts victim details pre release. Meanwhile, former treasury secretary and Harvard boss Larry Summers is now “stepping back from public commitments” after Epstein files revealed not only his own ties with the disgraced predator, but also his attempts to pursue an affair with a mentee whose father was China’s vice-minister of finance (and now heads China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank). Add this to the geopolitics of Epstein, which we explored here.
- 03
BANGLADESH
Former PM sentenced to death.
A top court has sentenced former leader Sheikh Hasina to hang for her role in a deadly crackdown on the protests that ousted her last year. (Guardian)
Comment: This now becomes more of a headache for India, where she’s been in exile since fleeing in a helicopter last year. It might also play into February’s elections, given Sheikh still has local supporters yet her party is banned from participating.
- 04
LITHUANIA
Crypto crash.
Analytics platform DappRadar, popular among those navigating the crypto space, has announced it’s shutting down after seven years, citing “current conditions”. It comes amid a broader slump that’s wiped a trillion off the $3.2T crypto market since its peak last month. (Yahoo Finance)
Comment: This slump seems to be cleaning out weaker players. But as prices drop (Bitcoin is now below $90k for the first time in seven months), the risk of contagion into traditional sectors starts to rise.
- 05
POLAND
Railway blast.
The security services minister has blamed a “foreign state” (wink wink Russia) for an explosion that damaged a Polish railway which ships aid to Ukraine. (Independent)
Comment: It looks to us like an answer to Ukraine’s remarkable hit on a critical section of Russia’s Trans-Siberian Railway just last week, 6,000km behind the frontlines. It’s also a reminder that while amateurs talk tactics, generals talk logistics.
- 06
UZBEKISTAN
Community.
Uzbek leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev is proposing Central Asian countries form a new regional bloc. (Eurasianet)
Comment: This proposed ‘Community of Central Asia’ is yet another sign that the region wants to move beyond its ‘post-Soviet’ label and shape its own destiny.
- 07
MEXICO
Protests.
Anti-government protests rocked Mexico City’s central square and National Palace over the weekend, as widespread anger lingers over the assassination of a prominent anti-crime mayor earlier this month. (NBC)
Comment: There are echoes here of the 2011 march across Mexico led by Father Alejandro Solalinde amid shock over extreme cartel violence against migrants. That movement reflected national outrage and captured international attention, but (notwithstanding some reforms) didn’t significantly change the reality on the ground.