Gaza, 90 dead in overnight Israeli raids

Today's headlines: Nepal, two new interim ministers including Gen Z leader Bablu Gupta; Guilty plea on first day of trial for Shinzo Abe's assassination; Sheikh Hasina announces boycott of 2026 Bangladesh elections over Awami League exclusion; Floods in central Vietnam submerge 103,000 homes.

ISRAEL - GAZA

The truce in Gaza is faltering. With a series of Israeli air strikes in response to a deadly attack on IDF troops in Rafah - in which a reservist died, but Hamas denies involvement - and the failure to return the 13 bodies of hostages still in the Strip. Netanyahu has ordered the IDF to “carry out immediate and powerful strikes on Gaza”. Israel has accused Hamas of multiple violations of the agreement and of staging false discoveries of bodies. According to medical sources, Israeli attacks on Gaza killed at least 90 people overnight, including at least 24 children, in violation of the US-brokered ceasefire.

NEPAL

Nepal's interim Prime Minister Sushila Karki, who will remain in office until the 5 March elections, has expanded her cabinet to 10 members for the third time since taking office in September. Sudha Sharma Gautam, Minister of Health and Population, was sworn in, with her first decision being to provide psychological assistance to those injured during the Gen Z protest. Bablu Gupta, Minister of Youth and Sports, leader of the Gen Z movement, was also sworn in.

JAPAN

A man accused of murdering former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Nara in 2022 pleaded guilty on the first day of his trial. Tetsuya Yamagami, 45, told the court in the capital Tokyo that ‘everything is true’. He had used a homemade gun to shoot Abe during an election campaign event. Abe was the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history. He died in hospital on the day of the assassination.

BANGLADESH

Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, 78, told Reuters that millions of supporters of Bangladesh's Awami League will boycott next February's national elections after the party was barred from participating in the polls. Hasina intends to remain in India, where she fled in August 2024 following a bloody student uprising. The interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has ruled Bangladesh since the ouster; it had banned all party activities, citing threats to national security and investigations into war crimes.

VIETNAM

Flooding from unprecedented torrential rains has left at least nine people dead and five missing in central Vietnam. Six of the victims were in Danang, home to one of the country's most famous beaches, and in the ancient city of Hoi An, the government said. The floods also submerged more than 103,000 homes, mainly in the country's main tourist resorts, Hue and Hoi An, according to the government disaster agency.

RUSSIA - GERMANY

A network of so-called “low-level agents” from Russia has been discovered in Germany. These are ordinary people recruited by the FSB for little money to carry out acts of sabotage, espionage and minor crimes to spread panic and concern, a strategy described by opposition figure Garry Kasparov as 'the desire not to conquer, but to infect hostile countries with mutual distrust, suspicion and anxiety, as if the enemy were already among us'.

AZERBAIJAN

The Conference of European Rabbis, which was to be held from 3 to 6 November in Baku, Azerbaijan, has been cancelled for security reasons. Six hundred rabbis and other religious and political leaders from Europe, Israel, the United States and other countries, at the initiative of the Azerbaijani government, a country with close ties to Israel, to discuss ‘the problems and prospects of Jewish life in the contemporary world’.