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All the latest international news and verified developments in geopolitics, defense and diplomacy, organised by region.

Middle East & North Africa

Israel: Benny Gantz withdraws from the election eight days before the vote – “I will keep fighting for unity”

Former defence minister Benny Gantz has pulled out of Israel’s October 27 election, as polls kept his Blue and White…

19 Oct2 min read

Middle East & North Africa

Netanyahu to Trump: “We have a job to finish” – “You’re a warrior, Bibi,” the US president replies in a video released eight days before the election

Benjamin Netanyahu has published a video of his phone call with Donald Trump, hours after the US president publicly backed…

19 Oct2 min read

Middle East & North Africa

OCHA: 57 killed in Gaza and 244 settler attacks in the West Bank in two weeks, as the olive harvest begins and winter nears

UN humanitarian office OCHA cites Gaza health authorities for 57 deaths between 29 September and 12 October and records 244…

19 Oct3 min read

Europe

Turkey’s Fidan heads to Brussels for foreign, justice and interior talks with Belgium and meetings with NATO and EU officials

Turkey’s foreign ministry says Hakan Fidan, with the justice and interior ministers, will be in Brussels from 19 to 21…

19 Oct2 min read

Asia-Pacific

Wang Yi meets Israel’s President Herzog in Baku: China readout cites Gaza access and West Bank settlements

China’s foreign ministry says Wang Yi told Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Baku that opening channels into Gaza is the…

19 Oct2 min read

Economy & Energy

Ukraine’s prime minister claims 2,147 Russian attacks on the energy sector since 16 July, with no day without strikes

Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi told BBC Ukraine that Russia has struck the energy sector 2,147 times since the renewed government…

19 Oct3 min read

Analysis

UNCLOS explained: sea zones, islands and the Aegean dispute

UNCLOS sets how far a coastal state's waters, resources and seabed rights reach. Here is what the treaty says on…

19 Oct10 min read

Politics & Diplomacy

Zelensky on Trump: “Moves have been made to force Ukraine to capitulate” – proposes ending strikes on Russian diesel in exchange for Patriots

Volodymyr Zelensky accused Donald Trump of trying to pressure Kyiv into capitulating to Russia, and proposed that Ukraine stop striking…

19 Oct2 min read

Cyprus

Turkish daily calls Greece’s NAVTEX for EUNOMIA a “pirate NAVTEX” – “We will not allow faits accomplis” to Athens and Nicosia

The pro-government Turkish daily Türkiye Gazetesi returns to the NAVTEX dispute south of Kastellorizo, calling the Greek NAVTEX for the…

19 Oct3 min read

Middle East & North Africa

WFP cuts Gaza food aid by a third, leaving about 500,000 people without assistance as winter nears

The World Food Programme says funding shortfalls force it to reduce Gaza assistance from 1.6 million to 1.1 million people…

19 Oct2 min read

Middle East & North Africa

Lebanon: Hezbollah demands its truck with 780 kg of explosives back – the army deploys in Beirut, Salam insists on the state’s arms monopoly

Tension is running high in Beirut between the Lebanese authorities and Hezbollah after the seizure of a truck carrying about…

19 Oct2 min read

Middle East & North Africa

Netanyahu: new 10-point security doctrine “from defence to offence” – “If we have to act alone, we will act alone”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a new ten-point national security doctrine on October 18, describing a shift from defence…

19 Oct2 min read