Trending Now
We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
Australia & Pacific
Hard Numbers: Pope and king pray together, Gazans bury unidentified dead, Cast of crabs begin Christmas Island migration, & More
King Charles III says goodbye to Pope Leo XIV in the San Damaso Courtyard, in St Peter's Square, after attending the ecumenical service in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, during the state visit to the Holy See, on October 23, 2025.
491: In a moment of religious and historical significance, King Charles III prayed alongside Pope Leo XIV today, becoming the first head of the Church of England to do so since this church split from the Vatican 491 years ago. The two leaders also exchanged gifts: Charles gave Leo a silver photograph of St. Edward the Confessor, and in return, the pontiff handed the king a scale version of the “Christ Pantocrator” mosaic.
54: Gazans buried the unidentified remains of 54 Palestinians on Wednesday that Israeli authorities had returned to the strip. The mass burial has prompted questions in Gaza about who the dead were, and what had happened to them. Israeli authorities said they had been combatants in Gaza.
36,734: The number of people crossing the Channel from France to the United Kingdom has already hit 36,734 so far this year, but that amount may be set to increase further – and the French political crisis is partly to blame. Paris appears to be backing away from recent commitments to clamp down on this form of migration, in part due to the recent exit of Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who had instigated an aggressive approach.
50 million: A cast of roughly 50 million crabs have begun their annual migration across Christmas Island off the coast of Australia, as they will move from their homes to the beaches to lay their eggs. Authorities on the island have built special bridges to help the crabs navigate obstacles like roads.
677: Nearly 700 foreigners fled Myanmar into Thailand after the military seized KK Park, a notorious Chinese-backed cybercrime compound known for cyber scams run by criminal gangs.. Thai authorities detained 677 people, mostly from China and India, and say all actions follow legal and humanitarian principles.
What We’re Watching: Trump signs security guarantee with Qatar, Papua New Guinea and Australia make defense deal, and Israel intercepts Gaza aid flotilla
U.S. President Donald Trump talks with Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha, Qatar, May 15, 2025.
Trump signs security guarantee with Qatar
Yesterday, it was made public that Donald Trump signed a NATO-style security pledge with Qatar on Monday, the same day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House. The order upgrades the US’s security obligation to Qatar in the event of a future attack, and is a “compensation” for Israel’s strike last month on Hamas leaders in Doha. While the executive order’s legal weight is questionable, the move is as much about countering Saudi Arabia’s new defense pact with Pakistan as it is about the Israeli strike, underscoring pressure on the US to prove it remains a reliable security guarantor for its Gulf state allies.
Papua New Guinea and Australia to seal defense pact
The cabinet of Papua New Guinea has approved a defense pact with Australia. The move, expected to be approved by both countries’ lawmakers, comes as China broadens its push for influence in the South Pacific. The Solomon Islands, located just east of Papua New Guinea, have been a major focus of Chinese investment and security activity in recent years. (For more see our recent explainer here.) Under the PNG-Australia agreement, the two countries are obligated to come to each other’s defense, but can also maintain alliances with third-parties.
Israel intercepts Gaza aid flotilla
Israeli forces have intercepted 39 boats that were sailing towards the Gaza Strip as part of a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid. Celebrity activist Greta Thunberg was among those arrested, along with several European politicians. Israeli officials indicated one of the boats may still be on its way to Gaza, and would also be stopped if it approaches the war zone.
Hard Numbers: Earthquake rocks the Philippines, UN expands Haiti mission, Moscow cuts military budget, & More
A drone view of rescue workers conducting a rescue operation at a collapsed building in the aftermath of a 6.9-magnitude earthquake in Bogo, Cebu, Philippines, on October 1, 2025.
69: A 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck off Cebu, Philippines, late Tuesday night, killing at least 69 and injuring hundreds. The quake caused landslides, building collapses, and power outages in a region still recovering from recent storms.
5,500: The UN has approved expanding its Haiti security mission into a 5,500-strong force to combat rampant gang violence. Backed by the US and Panama, the decision will add to the current 1,000 officers, mostly from Kenya, already deployed to support Haitian police.
$156 billion: Russia’s military budget next year is set to be $156 billion, down from the $163 billion this year, marking the first drop since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Still, the military budget remains high – it’s nearly four times larger than in 2021. To help fund the war effort, the government is also set to increase the value-added tax from 20% to 22%.
15: South African opposition leader Julius Malema – who heads the far-left, black nationalist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) – was found guilty of publicly discharging a firearm, an offense that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. Malema fired 14 to 15 rounds in front of 20,000 supporters during an EFF celebration in the Eastern Cape in 2018.
Hard Numbers: Indonesian school collapses, Americans sour on Israel, YouTube pays Trump, Brothers rock in Italian election
Search and rescue officers search for victims amidst the rubble of a crumbled building after a hall collapsed while students were praying at the Al-Khoziny Islamic boarding school in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, on September 29, 2025.
3: A school in East Java, Indonesia, collapsed on Monday, killing three people and injuring many more. At least 38 others – many of them teenage boys – remain trapped. The rescue mission was halted on Tuesday over concerns that the building would collapse further. This disaster comes atop a growing list of challenges that President Prabowo Subianto now faces.
35%: A new poll shows 35% of Americans sympathize more with Palestinians than with Israel (34%). It’s the first time in the history of the New York Times/Siena poll, which dates back to 1998, that this has happened. Right after the October 7th, 2023, attacks, support for Israel was at 47%, against just 20% for Palestinians. The new results come after two years of Israel’s assault on Gaza, which some international organizations and watchdogs have said meets the criteria for war crimes, including genocide.
$24.5 million: YouTube agreed to pay $24.5 million to US President Donald Trump and others on Monday in order to settle a lawsuit over the platform’s decision to suspend them from the site in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The vast majority of the settlement payout – $22 million – will go to Trump, who directed the money to the Trust for the National Mall and to the construction of a new White House ballroom. Trump’s lawyers had argued that the suspension was an act of censorship.
52.5%: In a big win for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, her rightwing Brothers of Italy party was re-elected to run the region of Marche, beating the opposition by nearly ten points with 52.5% of the vote. The ballot in Marche, a light manufacturing industry northeast of Rome which has historically leaned left, is seen as a bellwether for national elections due in 2027.What We’re Watching: More Western nations recognize Palestinian state, Southeast Asian unrest spreads to the Philippines, Putin wants to de-facto extend nuclear arms deal
The Palestinian flag is raised as the Palestinian mission to the United Kingdom holds a ceremony after the UK government announced on Sunday the country's formal recognition of a Palestinian state, at the mission's headquarters in London, United Kingdom, on September 22, 2025.
Troupe of Western nations recognize Palestinian state ahead of UN meeting
Australia, Canada, Portugal, and the United Kingdom all followed through with pledges to recognize a Palestinian state on Sunday, just in time for the start of the United Nations General Assembly’s main meetings. France is set to formally follow suit today. The move is an effort to pressure Israel to end its war in Gaza, but it seems to have had the opposite effect: citing the news, several Israeli ministers urged the military to annex the West Bank. Not every major Western nation was on board with the plan: Germany said recognition should come at the end of the peace process, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said recognizing Palestinian statehood now would be “counter-productive.”
Philippine protests turn violent
The Philippines became the latest country in Southeast Asia to face disorder, as 33,000 people gathered in Manila on Sunday to decry the government’s reported misuse of funds allocated for flood relief efforts. The protests also took a violent turn, as police arrested dozens of people suspected of hurling various makeshift weapons at officers stationed near the presidential palace. The unrest began earlier this month when a wealthy couple that leads many flood-control projects showed off their luxury cars during media interviews – this was especially painful for Philippine citizens, since the country is regularly hit with storms and many live in poverty.
Russia tacks another year onto key nuclear arms treaty
Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia will observe the last remaining US-Russia nuclear arms pact for one more year. The so-called “New START” Treaty of 2010, which limits the number of warheads and bombers each side can hold and deploy, is set to expire in February. Bilateral inspections collapsed several years ago due to the Ukraine war and no new treaty has been negotiated; at least theoretically, New START remains in effect. Putin’s decision is welcome, but it merely punts two key questions: will the US and Russia reach a new pact to limit the world’s most destructive weapons, and how will any new arms control system take into account the growing nuclear arsenal of China?
Hard Numbers: Trump’s warning for TV broadcasters, Nigerian prez ends local emergency rule, China’s threat delays PNG-Australia deal, & More
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on his return from a state visit in Britain, September 18, 2025.
97%: While riding on Air Force One Thursday night, US President Donald Trump claimed that some TV networks are “97% against me” and suggested their licences should be revoked. It’s the latest White House threat to television media this week, amid a growing conservative backlash to Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue over the background of Charlie Kirk’s killer.
6: Six months after imposing it, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu lifted emergency rule in oil-rich Rivers State, declaring that it had resolved the constitutional crisis there. Tinubu implemented the rule as tensions between the governor and state legislature there had put the state government in limbo.
8: Eight Democratic senators signed onto a resolution that would recognize a Palestinian state. With Republicans controlling the Senate and Trump in the White House, the measure has little-to-no chance of passing, but it indicates a growing level of support for Palestinians in a country that has been Israel’s greatest defender.
13: Shankar, a 29-year-old African elephant and long-time resident of Delhi’s zoo who spent 13 years in solitary confinement, died after refusing food and collapsing on Wednesday. Gifted to India in 1998, he isolated himself for most of his life after his companion died in 2001. The cause of death remains under investigation.
2: China warned Papua New Guinea against signing a proposed security treaty with Australia, saying it could limit PNG’s sovereignty. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese left PNG’s capital, Port Moresby, with only a communiqué after failing to finalize the pact. It marks his second Pacific setback this month following a stalled Vanuatu deal, underscoring intensifying China-Australia rivalry in the region.Police officers disperse protesters during riots in front of the House of Representatives building in Jakarta, Indonesia, on August 30, 2025.
Across South and Southeast Asia, something unusual is brewing.
Massive economic protests in Indonesia were inflamed in late August when a police car rammed into a taxi and killed the young driver. “Gen Z” demonstrators in Nepal earlier this month burned the parliament and forced the prime minister to resign. And this week in Timor-Leste, protestors – including many students – set cars ablaze in objection to a government plan to buy vehicles for politicians.
A common thread among widely different contexts? Young people are fed up with corruption by entrenched leaders. The Indonesian unrest was touched off when young people struggling with high living costs learned all 580 members of the House of Representatives were receiving a housing benefit – President Prabowo Subianto has replaced certain high-level ministers in a desperate bid to quell the unrest.
Protestors in Timor-Leste – including many students – fumed about a similar proposal in their country, where lawmakers already make 10 times the country’s median income. Nepal’s young people have suffered from a stagnant economy, and when the government banned most social media as part of a broader crackdown on speech, it tipped them over the edge, beginning what has been dubbed the “Gen Z revolt.”
These upheavals have only added to the pile of political crises in the region. Three weeks ago a court removed Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office over a deferential phone call with a leading Cambodian politician during a border dispute. Myanmar is in perpetual crisis as a military junta fights a grinding civil war against multiple armed groups. In the Philippines, the House speaker has just resigned over a corruption scandal amid a broader battle between two ruling families.
Though young people are at the heart of the latest protests in Indonesia, Nepal, and Timor Leste, it’s not an issue that’s specific to Southeast Asia, according to Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“I don’t think it has to do with the region,” Kurlantzick told GZERO. “You can see that in tons of other places around the world, young people are completely fed up with politics… The center is falling apart in all of these places.”
Though the domestic ramifications of each of these revolts are unclear – Prabowo remains in charge in Indonesia, while Nepal is still trying to determine its next leader – one thing is certain: the region’s collective foreign policy is now under strain, lacking any coherent vision at a time when the rivalry between United States and China is white hot.
“It definitely has an effect on regional politics and leadership,” said Kurlantzick. “You don’t have the region’s most-powerful countries being devoted to foreign or regional policy. That is a huge problem.”
This has major economic ramifications, as the countries are dealing with Washington and China on a one-to-one basis, weakening their bargaining position against these two superpowers.
“In the past, the 10 Southeast Asia states negotiated trade agreements with other powerful countries, like Japan and China.” Kurlantzick added. “They could have all worked together and rejected the Trump administration’s transshipment tariffs, and you have a billion people and huge exporters in this region, but they couldn’t.”