Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the next steps in the Israel-Hamas peace process, the ouster of Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, and parliamentary upsets in Japan and France.
The Next 72 Hours
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians began returning to northern Gaza on Friday as the Israel-Hamas cease-fire took effect. The official truce is just the first phase of U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace proposal, but it marks the start of what many hope will become a lasting peace in Gaza and a potential pathway to independent Palestinian statehood. As celebrations erupted across the region on Friday, officials are now turning to negotiations on the second phase, which includes Israel’s complete withdrawal from the enclave, Hamas’s total demilitarization, and a new governing structure for Gaza.
Here is what to expect out of the next 72 hours:
As of Friday, Israeli forces began their slow, partial withdrawal from parts of Gaza, including most urban centers. The Israeli military will continue to operate defensively from the roughly 50 percent of the territory that it will continue to control. And the United States will send around 200 troops to Israel to help monitor the cease-fire, working alongside a team that includes other nations, nongovernmental organizations, and private sector partners; some U.S. troops have reportedly already arrived in Israel.
Israeli forces also gave the United Nations the green light on Friday to begin delivering large quantities of aid into Gaza. These deliveries are expected to begin on Sunday and will include 170,000 metric tons of assistance already positioned in neighboring nations, such as Egypt and Jordan. Israeli restrictions on the flow of aid entering Gaza have triggered a devastating humanitarian crisis that has reached famine levels in several areas.
Israel and Hamas are slated to exchange 48 Hamas-held hostages (of whom around 20 are believed to still be alive) for more than 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. The deadline for both sides to do so is 12 p.m. local time on Monday, though the deal leaves open the possibility that some remains of deceased hostages will not be returned immediatelyas Hamas has warned that it may take longer to retrieve all of the bodies; the group has requested unimpeded access across Gaza to conduct the transfers.
In exchange, Israel will release 250 Palestinians serving life sentences and around 1,700 others—including all women and children—who have been detained from Gaza since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Of the 250 life-sentence prisoners being freed, 159 are from the Fatah political party, 63 are Hamas members, 16 belong to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and 12 are with the communist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine or other groups.
On Monday, Trump will travel to Israel to address the Knesset on the cease-fire deal as well as to meet freed hostages. He will then fly to Egypt, where he will take part in a signing ceremony with the leaders of Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey.
Later that week, Trump is slated to convene world leaders for a summit in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh (where the latest round of negotiations were held) to discuss next steps in the peace process. The leaders of France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom are expected to attend, though as of Friday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Presidential ouster. Peru’s unicameral Congress voted unanimously on Friday to remove President Dina Boluarte from office over her government’s inability to curb the nation’s crime rates. Lawmakers established a debate and impeachment trial late Thursday and asked Boluarte to attend. When the president didn’t show, Congress went through with her ouster and chose 38-year-old José Jerí, the legislative body’s leader, to be the interim president.
Boluarte has faced eight attempts to remove her from power since taking office in December 2022, with investigations looking into alleged bribery and deadly government crackdowns on protesters. But crime remains one of Lima’s biggest concerns. More than 6,000 people were killed in Peru between January and mid-August, the highest number during the same period since 2017. On Wednesday, Boluarte partially blamed immigrants (without providing evidence) for the rise in crime, the same day that members of the popular cumbia music group Agua Marina were injured in a shooting during a concert.
A normal Peruvian presidential term is five years, but Boluarte was Lima’s sixth leader in less than a decade. Boluarte took power after her predecessor, Pedro Castillo, was removed from office for attempting to dissolve Congress. Elections to choose a new president are slated for next April.
Fracturing parliaments. Japan was on track this month to welcome its first woman to serve as prime minister: veteran conservative lawmaker Sanae Takaichi. However, a rare split in the governing coalition appears to have thrown that possibility into contention. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) junior partner, Komeito, left the coalition on Friday to ally with opposition groups that are seeking an alternative candidate.
According to Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito, the two parties’ 26-year partnership ended over the LDP’s failure to address a political funding scandal that emerged in 2023. Komeito party members have also criticized Takaichi’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and repeated visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, including convicted World War II war criminals. To add fuel to the fire, Komeito has hinted that it may back Yuichiro Tamaki, the head of the populist Democratic Party for the People, for the premiership. Such a move could disrupt the LDP’s nearly uninterrupted rule since its inception in 1955.
As Japan’s Diet reckons with new fractures, another nation’s parliament is also struggling to reach a consensus. French President Emmanuel Macron summoned mainstream party heads to Élysée Palace on Friday to try to win support for a new prime minister, who would be France’s sixth in less than two years. The meeting did not include the far-right National Rally or far-left France Unbowed parties, which have been instead calling for snap elections and Macron’s resignation.
However, in a move likely to anger both the left and right, Macron on Friday reappointed Sébastien Lecornu to be prime minister. Lecornu resigned from the premiership on Oct. 6 after less than a month in office following anger over his pick of defense minister and continued frustration with his administration’s efforts to pass a controversial budget.
T-Dome security. Taiwan is preparing to build a new multilayered air defense system to counter increasing military and political pressure from neighboring China, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te announced on Friday. The system, to be named Taiwan Dome (or T-Dome), reflects Taipei’s efforts to modernize its armed forces against new Chinese stealth fighters, aircraft carriers, and missiles.
As part of the T-Dome proposal, Lai vowed to introduce a special budget by the end of this year that would increase defense spending to more than 3 percent of island’s GDP; the goal would be to reach 5 percent by 2030. Although the details of how T-Dome would work remain unclear, one senior presidential office official told Reuters that Taiwanese leaders “are hoping to build a more thorough air defense net with a higher interception rate,” with another source likening it to Israel’s Iron Dome.
Beijing denounced Lai’s actions as a recipe for further antagonization. “This once again exposes his stubborn nature as a troublemaker, creator of danger, and a war-maker,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said. He accused Taiwan of “seeking independence by force.” Beijing does not recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty.
What in the World?
Youth protesters in Madagascar on Wednesday rejected the government’s offer to join a “national dialogue,” accusing it of doing what amid weeks of demonstrations?
A. Attempting to bribe different protest factions
B. Forcefully repressing the protests
C. Lying about its efforts to resolve protesters’ concerns
D. Appealing to Mozambique for police reinforcements
Odds and Ends
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her work toward establishing a democratic transition in Caracas. Machado, long in hiding within Venezuela, has campaigned against President Nicolás Maduro’s government while pushing for free and fair elections. Last year, Machado was disqualified from running against Maduro as part of a government campaign targeting political dissidents.
“Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions,” Norwegian Nobel committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said. “When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist.”
Maduro’s humble response to receiving the recognition: “I hope you understand this is a movement, this is an achievement of a whole society. I am just, you know, one person. I certainly do not deserve this.”
And the Answer Is…
B. Forcefully repressing the protests
Youth-led protests in Madagascar and Morocco could spur more Generation Z-led demonstrations in other African countries suffering from high costs of living and unemployment, FP’s Nosmot Gbadamosi writes in Africa Brief.
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