October 14, 2025, 4:49 PM View Comments ()

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at what comes next in the Israel-Hamas peace deal, the United States’ escalating trade war with China, and France’s latest efforts to revive its deadlocked parliament.

Maintaining the Truce

Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians in northern Gaza on Tuesday, killing at least six people. According to the Israeli military, troops targeted suspects who crossed the U.S.-negotiated “yellow line,” the boundary for Israel’s partial withdrawal from the territory.

Israeli officials said this threat violated the agreed-upon terms of an Israel-Hamas peace deal that went into effect four days ago. However, a Palestinian news agency reported on Tuesday that Israeli drones had fired on residents inspecting their homes. It is unclear whether this attack is the same one that Israel cited as a defense of the yellow line.

The incident came just one day after top mediators, including U.S. President Donald Trump, convened in Egypt to sign the Gaza cease-fire deal. During a state address to Israel’s Knesset on Monday, Trump made clear that he expects Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to adhere to the truce in Gaza. Israel unilaterally broke the war’s last cease-fire arrangement in March.

Israel and Hamas also enacted the two sides’ long-anticipated hostage exchange deal on Monday. Hamas freed all 20 living captives in Gaza and four deceased hostages, just before Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Publicly, Israel expressed outrage over Hamas’s failure to return the remains of the other 24 killed hostages, as dictated by the U.S.-brokered deal. But privately, Israeli officials appear to recognize that may take time, as some of the bodies could be under rubble or in areas that Hamas no longer controls. According to United Nations satellite imagery, more than 80 percent of Gaza’s structures have been damaged or destroyed in the conflict.

Now, negotiators in Egypt are discussing the cease-fire deal’s next steps. Three key issues remain on the agenda:

1. Hamas’s disarmament. Israel demands that the group fully demilitarizes, and local sources have accused militants of already working to retake control of Israeli-vacated areas. Some sources close to the talks have suggested that Hamas may consider partial disarmament but remains opposed to total demilitarization.

2. Gaza’s future governance. Hamas has agreed to relinquish control of Gaza to a Palestinian technocratic government, but only if it is supervised by the Palestinian Authority, which already governs parts of the occupied West Bank, and is not subject to foreign rule. This goes against Trump’s 20-point plan, which stipulates that the territory’s government would be overseen by an international transitional body.

3. Rebuilding the enclave. With more than 67,000 Palestinians killed, hundreds of thousands of people requiring humanitarian aid, and nearly all of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents displaced, revitalizing the war-torn territory is expected to be an expensive and arduous task. This may be hampered by Israel’s announcement that it will not reopen the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Wednesday. Allowing increased aid to enter the enclave is a stipulation of the peace deal.

Today’s Most Read

• Trump Takes a Victory Lap in Israel by Keith Johnson
• Rare Earths Threaten Rare Trump-Xi Summit by Christina Lu
• Can Palestinians Trust Donald Trump? by Omar H. Rahman

What We’re Following

A new U.S.-China fight. China and the United States rolled out new port fees on ocean shipping firms on Tuesday, adding fresh tensions to their escalating trade war. The additional costs are expected to hamper supply chains between the world’s two largest economies and could threaten an upcoming summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.

Trump kicked off the trade war with China in March, triggering several rounds of negotiations to bring tariff rates down from triple-figure heights. But tensions intensified last Friday, when the U.S. president threatened a fresh round of 100 percent tariffs over Beijing’s decision to expand its export controls for rare earths and related technologies; these new controls are set to take effect in November and December.

On top of these duties, Trump has levied fees on commercial ships linked to China, citing a Biden-era investigation that found that Beijing uses unfair policies to dominate global maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors.

China responded by imposing special charges on U.S.-owned, operated, built, or flagged vessels. Chinese-built vessels will be exempt from the measures. “If the U.S. chooses confrontation, China will see it through to the end,” China’s Commerce Ministry said on Tuesday. “If it chooses dialogue, China’s door remains open.”

France delays pension reform. On Tuesday, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu proposed suspending a landmark pension reform plan until after the 2027 presidential election, bowing to left-wing pressure in an effort to maintain his precarious grip on power. The move deals a damning blow to President Emmanuel Macron, who made pension reform (including an increased retirement age) a key pillar of his economic platform.

Macron enacted his pension reform in April 2023, sparking mass anti-government protests that catalyzed the start of France’s most tumultuous political cycle in the country’s modern history. In less than two years, Macron has burned through five prime ministers, with Lecornu himself resigning last week after just 26 days in office—only to be reappointed four days later.

Lawmakers from the far left and far right have demanded that Macron call snap elections and step down before his five-year term ends. But by slimming down the nation’s 2026 budget proposal, the French prime minister appears to be trying a different tactic to appease the opposition and revive a deadlocked National Assembly.

That may not be enough to save Macron’s administration, though, as Lecornu will face two votes of confidence motions expected later this week.

Claiming victory in Cameroon. Opposition candidate Issa Tchiroma has unilaterally declared victory in Cameroon’s Sunday presidential election. “The people have chosen, and this choice must be respected,” Tchiroma said in a speech posted to Facebook on Tuesday, urging 92-year-old President Paul Biya to concede defeat and end his 43 years in office.

Biya was seeking an eighth term when Tchiroma, a former government spokesperson, broke ranks to campaign on a fight against economic stagnation in the African country. At least 43 percent of Cameroon’s population lives in poverty, according to the United Nations. 

While some presidential candidates have already congratulated Tchiroma, Cameroon’s government has not yet issued an official response to Tchiroma’s claim. Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji reminded voters this week that only the country’s Constitutional Council can determine the winner; the council has until Oct. 26 to make an announcement.

In his speech, Tchiroma lauded supporters for defying voter intimidation efforts, and he called on Biya’s administration to accept the results or else risk nationwide unrest. “Either it shows greatness by accepting the truth of the ballot box, or it chooses to plunge the country into turmoil that will leave an indelible scar in the heart of our nation,” Tchiroma warned.

Odds and Ends

This year’s final Nobel Prize award is asking economists to “show me the money.” On Monday, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences went to three economists whose work found a correlation between technological advancement and sustained economic growth.

The individuals—affiliated with universities in France, Israel, the United States, and the United Kingdom—warned on Monday against policies that limit innovation, such as immigration restrictions and trade barriers, at a time when such practices are gaining popularity across the West.