While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Oct 14, 2025
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US President Donald Trump gestures as he stands before a family picture at the Gaza Peace Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh on Oct 13.
PHOTO: AFP
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Trump hails ‘tremendous day for Middle East’ as leaders sign Gaza declaration
US President Donald Trump hailed a “tremendous day for the Middle East” as he and regional leaders signed a declaration on Oct 13 meant to cement a ceasefire in Gaza, hours after Israel and Hamas exchanged hostages and prisoners.
Mr Trump made a lightning visit to Israel, where he lauded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an address to Parliament, before flying to Egypt for a Gaza summit where he and the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey signed the declaration as guarantors to the Gaza deal.
“This is a tremendous day for the world, it’s a tremendous day for the Middle East,” Trump said as more than two dozen world leaders sat down to talk in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
He later declared that the assembled leaders had “achieved what everybody said was impossible”.
‘New birth’: Palestinians freed from Israeli jails return to loved ones
PHOTO: AFP
Thousands of Palestinians erupted with joy in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Oct 13, as Red Cross buses brought back nearly 1,700 former prisoners.
Some climbed the sides of the slowly-moving buses as they weaved their way through the dense crowds gathered at Nasser Hospital, to hug or kiss a loved one they recognised.
“The greatest joy is seeing my whole family gathered to welcome me,” Yusef Afana, a 25-year-old released prisoner from north Gaza, told AFP.
UK’s MI5 warns politicians they are targets of Russia and Chinese spying
PHOTO: REUTERS
Britain's domestic spy agency MI5 issued a rare public warning to members of parliament on Oct 13 that they are being targeted by spies from China, Russia and Iran in an attempt to undermine the country's democracy.
The warning comes a week after prosecutors said they had to abandon the trial of two British men charged with spying on Members of Parliament for China because the British government had not provided evidence showing China was a threat to its national security.
MI5 warned politicians and their staff to look out for spies seeking to elicit information from them by blackmail or phishing attacks, cultivating long-term and deep relationships with them, or making donations to influence their decisions.
California enacts first US law requiring AI chatbot safety measures
California governor Gavin Newsom on Oct 13 signed into law a first-of-its-kind law regulating artificial intelligence chatbots, defying a push from the White House to leave such technology unchecked.
The landmark law requires chatbot operators to implement “critical” safeguards regarding interactions with AI chatbots and provides an avenue for people to file lawsuits if failures to do so lead to tragedies, according to state senator Steve Padilla, a Democrat who sponsored the Bill.
The law comes after revelations of suicides involving teens who used chatbots prior to taking their lives.
Venezuela announces closure of embassies in Norway and Australia
PHOTO: REUTERS
Venezuela’s government said on Oct 13 it will close its embassies in Norway and Australia and open new ones in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe as part of a restructuring of its foreign service, after weeks of growing tensions with the US.
The closures are part of the "strategic re-assignation of resources," President Nicolas Maduro's government said in a statement, adding that consular services to Venezuelans in Norway and Australia would be provided by diplomatic missions, with details to be shared in coming days.
The announcement occurred just days after the Nobel Committee in Oslo announced that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado had won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for fighting for democracy in the South American country.
