World roundup: October 21 2025
Stories from Israel-Palestine, Japan, Russia, and elsewhere
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TODAY IN HISTORY
October 21, 1600: Tokugawa Ieyasu’s army defeats the “Western Army” of Ishida Mitsunari at the Battle of Sekigahara. The victory left Ieyasu in virtually uncontested control of Japan and is generally marked as the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate, even though Ieyasu wasn’t officially appointed shōgun until 1603.

October 21, 1805: Though outnumbered, a British Royal Navy fleet under Horatio Nelson (who was killed in action) decisively defeats a combined Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, near Cape Trafalgar in southern Spain. Britain had established naval supremacy over France years earlier through engagements like the 1798 Battle of the Nile. Trafalgar confirmed that naval supremacy and was the last major naval engagement of the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon’s plan to build a great new navy that would finally defeat Britain’s was derailed by his defeat on land years later.
MIDDLE EAST
SYRIA
In what the organization termed a “gesture of goodwill,” the Syrian Democratic Forces group released several prisoners to a government delegation on Monday evening. These were members of the government’s security forces taken captive during clashes with the SDF in Aleppo province earlier this month. The government delegation and SDF officials met on Monday to discuss the aftermath of those clashes, particularly in light of SDF leader Mazloum Abdi’s announcement last week of a possible breakthrough in negotiations on normalizing the SDF’s relationship with Damascus. The prisoner release presumably means those talks went well.
Elsewhere, The New Arab is claiming that a US and Syrian special forces raid killed an alleged Islamic State operative in Damascus on Friday. Except it turns out that the “alleged IS operative” was actually a Syrian intelligence agent, having worked in a similar capacity for the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadist group during the Syrian Civil War. The claim that he was working for IS came from the US-backed “Syrian Free Army,” members of which apparently had some sort of vendetta against the target. There are apparently concerns that this killing could impact US-Syrian cooperation overall, and specifically on anti-IS matters.
ISRAEL-PALESTINE
There are several items of note:
US Vice President JD Vance arrived in Israel on Tuesday, joining Trump administration envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in an attempt to shore up the ceasefire. Vance painted a very optimistic picture of the state of the ceasefire, given recent events, while restating Donald Trump’s threats against Hamas. I think the administration may be playing a game here in publicly threatening Hamas while privately working overtime to contain Benjamin Netanyahu, who is probably the greater threat to upend things. My suggestion is that they threaten to send Vance back to Israel anytime Netanyahu violates the ceasefire. That would definitely keep me on the straight and narrow.
Speaking of Trump’s threats, he took to social media on Tuesday to declare that Washington’s “GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East…have explicitly and strongly, with great enthusiasm, informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and ‘straighten our Hamas’ if Hamas continues to act badly, in violation of their agreement with us.” This is interesting inasmuch as those same GREAT ALLIES are reportedly balking at the idea of sending soldiers to participate in the international security force that Trump’s ceasefire framework envisions establishing in Gaza—sorry, “GAZA.” Mainly, potential contributors to that force want more specificity about its mission and explicit assurances that it would not be expected to fight Hamas. Something here isn’t adding up then. The US has set up a ceasefire monitoring operation in Israel but without an independent security force in Gaza the work of monitoring the ceasefire is going to be difficult to say the least.
The United Nations World Food Program says that food shipments into Gaza have hit 750 metric tons per day since the ceasefire came into effect earlier this month, which is a marked improvement but well shy of the 2000 metric tons per day it says is required to feed Gaza’s population. The deficit seems mostly attributable to the fact that the Israeli government has only opened two checkpoints into Gaza. Israeli officials are refusing to open the Rafah checkpoint into Egypt until Hamas returns the remaining bodies of deceased Gaza captives (it repatriated two more bodies, the 14th and 15th of 28, on Tuesday), but there are still several other checkpoints in Israel that could be opened to facilitate a higher volume of aid.
You may have noticed that mainstream news outlets and even Israeli officials are responding to an attack by Israeli settlers on the West Bank town of Turmus Aya over the weekend, with particular focus on a video in which a settler is seen beating an elderly Palestinian woman into unconsciousness. I think the coverage is important but I also think it’s important to understand that this sort of violence occurs regularly across the West Bank, including in Turmus Aya, with the tacit approval if not overt collaboration of Israeli security forces and with no attention from Western media. The reason this particular incident is garnering attention is because it was caught on video and then broadcast over social media by US journalist Jasper Nathaniel, and so it’s been impossible for media and Israeli officials to simply ignore it. It is by no means an isolated incident.
YEMEN
A military unit affiliated with Yemen’s internationally recognized government is claiming that it came under attack by al-Qaeda fighters in Abyan province on Tuesday morning. The attack was apparently unsuccessful but did leave four soldiers dead along with five attackers (all suicide bombers).
ASIA
NORTH KOREA
The South Korean military reported another North Korean weapons launch on Wednesday morning (local time). The projectile appears to have been a ballistic missile and all the South Koreans could say beyond that was that it had been fired “eastward.” I hesitate to even mention it but this is the first North Korean weapons demonstration in several months so it seems noteworthy. Most likely Pyongyang is sending a signal ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference, which the South Korean government is hosting next week.
JAPAN
As expected, the Japanese House of Representatives elected Liberal Democratic Party leader Takaichi Sanae as the country’s new prime minister on Tuesday, making her the first woman to hold that position. She replaces former LDP leader Ishiba Shigeru. Described as “ultraconservative” and a “protege” of former Japanese PM Abe Shinzō, Takaichi will be hoping to parlay those attributes into a successful first encounter with Donald Trump, whom she’s hosting next week in one of her first major acts as PM. She’s likely to try to advance Abe’s pet project, expanding the Japanese military, though she’ll be somewhat compromised by the fact that she’s leading a coalition government (alongside the Japan Innovation Party) and a minority one at that—the parties are collectively two votes shy of an HoR majority.
AFRICA
SUDAN
Multiple drone strikes hit Omdurman and Khartoum on Tuesday, presumably courtesy of the Rapid Support Forces militant group though it has yet to claim responsibility. There’s no information as to casualties or damage, but there is a good deal of concern as to the status of Khartoum’s international airport, which is supposed to resume flights on Wednesday for the first time in over two years and was heavily targeted in the drone barrage. It is unclear whether the strikes will affect those plans.
MOROCCO
In a new policy brief, the International Crisis Group criticizes the Trump administration’s recent inertia on the Western Sahara conflict, after it signaled earlier this year that it was interested in resuming a peace process. Its failure to take any action has, according to the ICG, allowed positions on both sides of the conflict to harden:
Signs that the Trump administration wants to revive talks over Western Sahara have raised hopes of ending the conflict there. For decades, Morocco has been pressing a claim to the territory in the teeth of resistance by the pro-independence Polisario Front. Dialogue has long been stalled. In April, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed support for resuming it under the rubric of a Moroccan plan to grant the area autonomy. The UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy, Staffan de Mistura, promptly proposed a new round of talks, outlining the principles that should guide them. Yet when the U.S. took no action, hardliners in Rabat and Washington began calling for the UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara to be dismantled and for the Polisario to be designated as a terrorist group. Fighting remains at low intensity, but young Sahrawi refugees are growing frustrated and calling more loudly for stepping up the armed struggle. The U.S. should launch a diplomatic effort aligned with the UN envoy’s plans, while urging Morocco and the Polisario to make concessions. European powers should unify their positions to reinforce the UN process.
IVORY COAST
AFP reports on the difficulty that Ivorian security forces are facing in keeping jihadist violence at bay:
Since 2020, when suspected jihadists attacked the Kafolo military camp in northeastern Ivory Coast, the army has maintained a powerful presence in the region — and now fresh threats are looming, residents warn.
A detailed AFP tour of the region revealed that the military has succeeded in limiting incursions by militant fighters operating from Burkina Faso, across the long border.
But officers fear the lull could be temporary, due to what they say are large numbers of jihadists still active just across the frontier.
And now locals have an additional threat to contend with: cross-border attacks by Burkina Faso’s civilian militia.
The presence of the Ivorian army in the remote and long-neglected northeast, hundreds of kilometres from the economic capital Abidjan, has succeeded in assuaging locals’ concerns — to an extent.
Northern Ivory Coast’s Fulani population has been especially pressed. They are suspected by domestic security forces (as Fulani are across West Africa) of harboring jihadist sympathies, while those Burkinabè “Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland” militia fighters seem to cross the border at will and are known to attack Fulani communities.
EUROPE
RUSSIA
The once-forthcoming Trump-Putin summit is off, apparently, or will at least be delayed from its two week or so timetable. The White House told CNN on Tuesday that there are “no plans” for the two leaders to meet “in the immediate future” and Trump later told reporters that he was concerned the summit would be “a waste of time.” This abrupt turnaround comes after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke by phone on Monday. Although the White House described their conversation as “productive,” CNN reported that Rubio came away from it convinced that Moscow is still not ready to make any compromises toward ending the war in Ukraine.
Lavrov on Tuesday rejected Trump’s call for the two sides to “stop where they are” along the current front line, which may have been the final nail in the proverbial coffin for the summit plans. Reuters also reported that the Russian government had sent a “non-paper” to the Trump administration over the weekend reiterating that it rejects a ceasefire and is still demanding major territorial concessions from Ukraine beyond cessation of the territory the Russian military has already seized. It’s unclear what would be left for Trump and Putin to discuss if the latter isn’t budging.
NETHERLANDS
Beijing’s response to the Dutch government’s seizure of the Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia has reportedly panicked European carmakers, and now Dutch officials may be looking for a way to back down without embarrassing themselves:
The Dutch economy minister spoke to his Chinese counterpart on Tuesday but failed to find a solution to an impasse over chipmaker Nexperia BV, as Germany’s car industry warned it faces possible production shortages if the situation is not resolved quickly.
The Dutch government seized control of Nexperia last month, citing fears the company’s technology would be taken by its Chinese owner, Shanghai-listed Wingtech. China, where most of Nexperia’s chips are packaged, responded by blocking exports of the company’s finished products, alarming European carmakers that rely on them.
Dutch Economy Minister Vincent Karremans said the pair had discussed “further steps toward reaching a solution,” that would be acceptable to all sides. However, his Chinese counterpart Commerce Minister Wang Wentao sounded less conciliatory.
In a statement, the Chinese commerce ministry said the pair had spoken at Karremans’ request and that Wang had said China is opposed to overstretching the concept of “national security.”
AMERICAS
UNITED STATES
Finally, TomDispatch’s Nick Turse looks at Donald Trump’s “military occupation of America”:
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump threatened to unleash the armed forces on more American cities during a rambling address to top military brass. He told the hundreds of generals and admirals gathered to hear him that some of them would be called upon to take a primary role at a time when his administration has launched occupations of American cities, deployed tens of thousands of troops across the United States, created a framework for targeting domestic enemies, cast his political rivals as subhuman, and asserted his right to wage secret war and summarily execute those he deems terrorists.
Trump used that bizarre speech to take aim at cities he claimed “are run by the radical left Democrats,” including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. “We’re going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room,” he said. “That’s a war too. It’s a war from within.” He then added: “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”
Trump has, of course, already deployed the armed forces inside the United States in an unprecedented fashion during the first year of his second term in office. As September began, a federal judge found that his decision to occupy Los Angeles with members of California’s National Guard — under so-called Title 10 or federalized status — against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom was illegal. But just weeks later, Trump followed up by ordering the military occupation of Portland, Oregon, over Governor Tina Kotek’s objections.
“I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists,” Trump wrote on Truth Social late last month. And he “authoriz[ed] Full Force, if necessary.”
When a different federal judge blocked him from deploying Oregon National Guardsmen to the city, he ordered in Guard members from California and Texas. That judge then promptly blocked his effort to circumvent her order, citing the lack of a legal basis for sending troops into Portland. In response, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act — an 1807 law that grants the president emergency powers to deploy troops on U.S. soil — to “get around” the court rulings blocking his military occupation efforts. “I think that’s all insurrection, really criminal insurrection,” he claimed, in confused remarks from the Oval Office.
Experts say that his increasing use of the armed forces within the United States represents an extraordinary violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. That bedrock nineteenth-century law banning the use of federal troops to execute domestic law enforcement has long been seen as fundamental to America’s democratic tradition. However, the president’s deployments continue to nudge this country ever closer to becoming a genuine police state. They come amid a raft of other Trump administration authoritarian measures designed to undermine the Constitution and weaken democracy. Those include attacks on birthright citizenship and free speech, as well as the exercise of expansive unilateral powers like deporting people without due process and rolling back energy regulations, citing wartime and emergency powers.