10 Things Global News - 21st October 2025
Interesting and important news from around the world
Takaichi Becomes Japan’s First Female Prime Minister
Trump Backs AUKUS, Signs $8.5bn Minerals Pact
Appeals Court Backs Trump on Oregon Guard Authority
Budapest Picked For Trump–Putin Summit, EU Pushback
Europe Prepares Peace Force If Ukraine Ceasefire Reached
Bolivia Elects Rodrigo Paz, Ends 20-Year Rule
Brazil Clears Amazon Offshore Test Drilling
Netanyahu Vows To Disarm Hamas As Ceasefire Strains
Ecuador Frees Survivor Of US Drug-Boat Strike
AWS Outage Resolved After Global Disruptions
On this day …..
On this day in 1945, French women voted in a national election for the first time, participating in the Constituent Assembly ballot that followed the country’s liberation from Nazi occupation.
Their enfranchisement, granted the previous year by Charles de Gaulle’s provisional government, was part of a wider reshaping of European democracy and citizenship. It transformed political culture and expanded the electorate in ways that reverberated far beyond France.
Decades later, with gender gaps in leadership and representation persisting worldwide, it’s worth asking: how far have we truly travelled from that milestone — and how far is left to go?
Japan has appointed Sanae Takaichi as its first female prime minister, a landmark in a country long criticised for its lack of female political representation. Takaichi secured 237 votes in the lower house — four above the majority — after forming a new coalition with the Japan Innovation Party following the withdrawal of long-term partner Komeito. The coalition remains two seats short of a majority, raising questions about how she will pass budgets and legislation.
The leadership change marks a shift to the right in Japanese politics. Takaichi, a staunch conservative, champions traditional family roles and opposes reforms such as allowing women to retain their surnames after marriage or ascend the imperial throne.
While her rise is historic, critics question whether it will advance gender equality, given her emphasis on long work hours and resistance to workplace reforms. Her immediate priorities include tackling inflation, forming a cabinet and navigating a challenging parliamentary landscape.
Sources: ABC News, Bloomberg
Donald Trump publicly committed the United States to proceed “full steam ahead” with AUKUS during his first in-person meeting with Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, at the White House. The Pentagon is reviewing the pact to “clarify some ambiguities,” although Trump characterised those as minor and said Canberra would receive the promised nuclear-powered submarines. He praised the alliance, saying the US has no better friend than Australia.
Alongside the defence assurances, the two leaders signed a critical-minerals agreement worth $8.5bn. A framework released by Australia says the deal will coordinate public and private investment, set market mechanisms such as price floors, and tighten national-security reviews of asset sales.
Each country will offer at least $1bn to projects in both nations. Albanese called it a step to “the next level” of the relationship. Trump downplayed any prospect of tariff relief for Australian goods.
Sources: The Guardian, ABC News
A 2–1 panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a lower-court order that had blocked President Donald Trump from taking command of 200 Oregon National Guard troops.
The majority — Judges Ryan Nelson and Bridget Bade — said the president was likely to succeed on his claim of authority to federalise the Guard. U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut’s separate order still bars any deployment, so no troops can be sent to Portland for now.
Following the ruling, the Justice Department asked Immergut to dissolve that second restraining order. Oregon’s attorney general said he will seek reconsideration by a broader panel, while Judge Susan Graber dissented, urging colleagues to vacate the majority’s order and warning it erodes core constitutional principles.
Local officials criticised the move and said timing on any deployment hinges on pending court actions.
Sources: Oregon Capital Chronicle, Associated Press
The Kremlin said Budapest was chosen for an upcoming summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump because Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has warm ties with both leaders. Dmitry Peskov added the choice followed a recent Trump–Putin call and that preparations were only beginning, with aims including advancing talks on the Ukraine conflict and developing U.S.–Russia relations. Trump has said he will meet Putin in Budapest soon.
European reactions were critical. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called a possible Putin visit to an EU state “not nice,” while some governments said hosting him would be inappropriate.
Kallas said efforts to bring peace were welcome but stressed the importance of Volodymyr Zelensky meeting Putin. She also expected a 19th EU sanctions package against Russia to be adopted this week, although not on Monday.
Sources: Reuters, Straits Times
European troops are being readied for deployment to Ukraine if Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agree a ceasefire in upcoming talks, UK Defence Secretary John Healey said. A 30-nation multinational force, led initially by a French general, would secure Ukrainian airspace, support Black Sea maritime operations and provide logistics and training support on the ground. Healey confirmed that “well over £100m” had already been allocated to ensure rapid deployment.
The plans follow a call between Trump and Putin ahead of a planned summit in Budapest, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has not been invited.
Healey said Ukrainians must decide the terms of any deal, while European leaders warned against pressure to cede territory. Reports suggest Trump has urged Kyiv to give up parts of Donetsk, while scepticism remains over Russia’s willingness to end the war.
Sources: BBC, The Guardian
Rodrigo Paz won Bolivia’s presidency with 54.5% of votes against Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga’s 45.4% with 97% counted, ending two decades of socialist rule. The 58-year-old, who campaigned on “capitalism for all,” has promised decentralisation, lower taxes and fiscal discipline while maintaining social programmes. He inherits an economy in its worst crisis in decades, marked by fuel shortages, scarce dollars and annual inflation above 20%.
Paz will govern without a congressional majority and has pledged a consensus style to pass legislation. His running mate, Edman(d) Lara, called for “unity and reconciliation” and listed priorities including securing diesel and gasoline, stabilising basic food prices and tackling corruption.
Paz has proposed cutting the universal fuel subsidy while keeping support for public transport. Supporters celebrated in La Paz as preliminary results pointed to a new direction; critics warned of difficult trade-offs ahead.
Sources: Le Monde, El Pais
Brazil’s environment agency Ibama has authorised Petrobras to drill exploratory wells in the Foz do Amazonas, with the company saying work will start immediately and run for about five months without producing oil. The deep-water area off Amapá is viewed by Petrobras as a promising new frontier sharing geology with nearby Guyana. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva backs expanding exploration, arguing oil revenues can help fund Brazil’s climate transition.
The approval arrives ahead of COP30 in Belém and has drawn criticism from environmental groups, which plan court challenges and say the move undercuts Brazil’s climate leadership. Ibama said the green light followed a rigorous licensing process; Petrobras said it has met the agency’s requirements.
Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira said exploration would proceed with environmental responsibility and called the licence an achievement for Brazil, while NGOs warned the decision was “disastrous”.
Sources: RFI, Reuters
Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset he is committed to disarming Hamas and demilitarising Gaza, saying the current deal envisages the return of all Israeli hostages, Israeli military control over most of the Strip, and an internationally backed consensus that Hamas will be disarmed. He also said he expected additional regional peace agreements with support from the United States.
His remarks followed talks with Jared Kushner and ahead of a visit by US vice-president JD Vance to discuss the ceasefire’s implementation. The 10-day truce was shaken by an attack that killed two Israeli soldiers and subsequent Israeli airstrikes that killed 44 Palestinians; Hamas denied involvement.
Aid crossings into Gaza remained open on Monday, though Rafah stayed closed, and agencies said supplies were still far below needs. Palestinian officials travelled to Cairo to discuss a technocratic administration for Gaza, while Hamas objected to foreign oversight and disarmament demands.
Sources: The Guardian, Al Jazeera
Ecuador’s prosecutor’s office said it would not detain an Ecuadorean rescued after a U.S. military strike on a suspected drug-trafficking semi-submersible in the Caribbean, citing no evidence of a crime in Ecuador. The man was repatriated at the weekend and released.
The U.S. strike killed two crew and rescued two survivors — one Ecuadorean and one Colombian. President Donald Trump said intelligence indicated the vessel carried “mostly fentanyl and other illegal narcotics,” and that survivors would be repatriated for detention and prosecution.
Regional repercussions followed. Colombia said its survivor, who is hospitalised, will be prosecuted, and later recalled its ambassador to Washington amid tensions with the U.S. over the strikes.
The Caribbean raids are at least the sixth since September, with a seventh reported, bringing deaths to at least 32. Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa told Trump his country remains firm against drug trafficking, while Trump justified the actions as part of an “armed conflict” against cartels.
Sources: Reuters, Politico
Amazon Web Services said it had resolved a major outage late Monday after problems at the heart of its U.S. operations knocked more than 1,000 apps and websites offline, including Snapchat and banks such as Lloyds and Halifax. Issues began around 07:00 BST, with Downdetector reporting more than 11 million problem reports at the peak as platforms from Fortnite to Duolingo struggled to recover.
Amazon later said all services had returned to normal operations around 23:00 BST, although some had backlogs to clear. Initial status updates linked the incident to DNS resolution for the DynamoDB API in US-EAST-1; AWS also cited an underlying subsystem monitoring its network load balancers within the EC2 internal network.
Experts said the event underscored the internet’s dependence on a small number of cloud providers and the risks of limited redundancy, noting that small errors can cause cascading failures across widely used services.