October 15, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Israeli officials said yesterday that only half of daily humanitarian aid scheduled to enter Gaza would be allowed into the Palestinian enclave due to the delayed release of the remains of deceased Israeli hostages by Hamas. [more]
• Of the four bodies returned to Israel yesterday by Hamas, one was not that of a deceased Israeli hostage, according to Israeli military officials, who cited examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine as providing the evidence. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1,329 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here is your update:

• Amidst reports that Western military to Ukraine fell significantly in July and August compared to the first half of the year, NATO members Finland and Sweden announced today that they will join European efforts to purchase weapons from the United States to give to Ukraine. [more]

U.S. DRUG TRAFFICKING | President Donald Trump said yesterday that U.S. forces struck another small boat off the coast of Venezuela yesterday, killing six people the administration said were "unlawful combatants" involved in trafficking narcotics to the United States. Yesterday's strike was the fifth such action by U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea in recent weeks. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said yesterday that a slowdown in hiring poses a growing risk to the U.S. economy – a statement analysts say solidifies expectations for further Fed interest rate cuts this year. [more]

NEW YORK | State health authorities confirmed yesterday that a person living in New York's Nassau County on Long Island has tested positive for chikungunya virus in what is believed to be the first locally acquired case of the infection in the United State since 2019. [more]

MISSISSIPPI | Police say five people have been arrested in connection with a Friday shooting in Leland, Mississippi, in which six people were killed, and more than a dozen others were injured, during a homecoming weekend celebration. [more]

U.S. SOCIAL MEDIA AND IMMIGRATION | Social media platform Facebook has reportedly removed, at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, a page used to track the presence of federal immigration agents. The removal follows similar moves by Apple and Google earlier this month in which phone apps used to flag sightings of U.S. immigration agents were removed from app stores. [more]

CHARLIE KIRK | President Donald Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to late conservative activist and podcaster Charlie Kirk yesterday. In related action, the State Department revoked the visas of six foreigners yesterday who were deemed by the Department to have made derisive comments about Kirk's assassination last month while speaking at a Utah college. [more]

U.S. HEALTH CARE STRIKE | An estimated 31,000 Kaiser Permanente registered nurses and other front-line health care workers began a five-day strike yesterday at some 500 medical centers and offices in California, Hawaii, and Oregon over pay and staffing issues. [more]

ALASKA | Two villages have been significantly damaged, and some 1,500 people have been forced to evacuate, as strong winds and heavy rains associated with remnants of Typhoon Halong continue to affect Alaska's southwestern coast. [more]

AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN | Reports say more than a dozen Afghan civilians were killed, and more than 100 others were wounded, in renewed clashes today along the shared border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistani officials also claim to have killed 30 Afghan Taliban fighters and destroyed a training facility in overnight fighting. [more]

PACIFIC SECURITY | New Zealand Defense Minister Judith Collins said today that competition among major powers for rare minerals and fishing grounds in the South Pacific is growing and that more action is needed from regional neighbors to help in preserving island nations’ sovereignty and security. [more]

RUSSIA | Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a prominent Kremlin critic and once the richest man in Russia, was accused this week, along with 22 other exiled politicians, activists and businessmen, of planning a coup to overthrow Vladimir Putin's government. Khodorkovsky, who currently resides in London, has denied the charges, saying they are part of Kremlin attempts to intimidate its opponents. [more]

PAKISTAN | International Monetary Fund and Pakistan have reportedly reached a staff-level agreement to release $1.2 billion of the $7 billion IMF bailout approved for Pakistan last year. [more]

BANGLADESH | Local authorities say at least 16 people were killed yesterday in a massive fire at a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Reports say a chemical warehouse located next to the factory continues to burn and that the cause of the blaze remains under investigation. [more]

SYRIA | Reuters cites investigation results as showing that the government of former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad carried out a clandestine operation from 2019 to 2021 to move thousands of bodies from one of Syria’s largest known mass graves to remote locations in the desert as part of efforts to hide evidence of atrocities. [more]

KENYA | A seven-day period of mourning has been declared in Kenya following the death of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who Kenyan President William Ruto, after receiving news of Odinga's death, described today as a "beacon of courage" and "father of our democracy." [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1959, a final conference on the Antarctic Treaty convened in Washington, D.C. The treaty was signed by 12 countries after six weeks of negotiations, thereby preserving Antarctica – the only continent on Earth without a native human population – for free scientific study. [more history]