Agreement on Gaza: Immediate ceasefire and hostages released on Monday
Today's headlines: Palestinian who grew up in a refugee camp in Jordan to recieve Noble Prize for Chemistry; China tightens restrictions on rare earth exports ahead of the possible Trump-Xi summit in South Korea at the end of the month; New WHO warning about adulterated syrup that has already killed 22 children in India; Former Armenian president Kocharyan, a native of Nagorno-Karabakh, announces he will challenge Pashinyan in elections.
GAZA-ISRAEL-UNITED STATES
US President Donald Trump announced overnight that Israel and Hamas have agreed on the first phase of his peace plan for Gaza. The agreement provides for the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government will meet at around 2 p.m. Jerusalem time and, if it formally approves the agreement, a ceasefire will come into effect. The United States says that all remaining Israeli hostages will be released on Monday
JORDAN-SWEDEN
A Palestinian scientist who grew up in a refugee camp in Jordan is one of three scientists who yesterday received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work in developing a new form of molecular architecture that has the potential to limit the impacts of climate change. Omar Yaghi was born and raised in a Palestinian refugee camp in Amman before moving to the United States at the age of 15. ‘There were dozens of us in one small room, which we shared with the livestock we raised,’ he recalled. "I was born into a refugee family and my parents could barely read or write. It has been quite a journey, and science allows you to do that. Science is the greatest force for equality in the world."
CHINA-UNITED STATES
China has tightened controls on rare earth exports, expanding restrictions on processing technology and explicitly stating its intention to limit exports to the defence and semiconductor sectors abroad. The announcement by the Ministry of Commerce clarifies and extends the extensive controls introduced in April, which had caused global shortages before a series of agreements with Europe and the United States helped ease the supply crisis. These controls are an important lever for China in trade negotiations with the United States, and the tightening comes just weeks before the face-to-face meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping scheduled to take place in South Korea at the end of the month.
PHILIPPINES
More than a week after the 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck Cebu, thousands of displaced residents are still in temporary shelters in the northern parts of the province. Data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) released on Wednesday 8 October show that approximately 588 families are still living in seven tent cities located in the municipalities of Daanbantayan, Medellin, San Remigio and the city of Bogo.
INDIA
The World Health Organisation has asked the Indian authorities for clarification on whether a cough syrup linked to the deaths of at least 22 children in Mahdya Pradesh has been exported to other countries. The request comes amid growing concerns about the safety and quality of Coldrif cough syrup, which has been found to contain toxic substances - diethylene glycol (DEG) and ethylene glycol (EG). This is not the first time that India, one of the leading countries in the pharmaceutical industry, has had to deal with this type of problem: in a similar case in 2022, there were dozens of victims in Africa as well.
RUSSIA
Several regions in Russia are now denying access to archives containing documentation on the victims of Soviet repression, first in Yekaterinburg in the Urals and now in St Petersburg, blocking everything related to the executions and mass burials of prisoners on the Solovki Islands. In many cases, the response is that “the archives need time to complete the processing of newly acquired documents”.
ARMENIA
The second president of independent Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, who held the highest office between 1998 and 2008 after serving as prime minister and president of Nagorno-Karabakh, where he was born, has challenged Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for next year's parliamentary elections, seeking to unite all opposition forces to demonstrate “the inconsistency of the ruling regime”, with his sights set on the presidential elections.
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