Category World News

A mutual defense agreement has been signed between Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and PNG’s James Marape, with the leaders claiming the agreement’s terms will soon be available.

The treaty was created “out of geography, history, and the enduring reality of our shared neighbourhood,” Marape told reporters in the Australian capital on Monday.

According to Marape, “It’s about one bigger fence that secures two houses with its own yard space,” Marape said.

The Papua New Guinean leader refuted the claim that the pact was drafted in response to wider geopolitical concerns, making an ostensible mention of China’s and the US’s military interests in the Pacific region.

According to Marape, “This treaty was not created for geopolitics or any other reason.”

The leader of PNG, “We keep friendships with all enemies, and we support peace wherever we go,” he continued.

The agreement “makes very explicit” that there will be “interoperability” between the two neighboring nations’ “defence assets,” according to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, adding that “our greatest asset is our people.”

According to the ABC report, this meant that Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the United States would all have the same rights as the other countries under the Five Eyes agreement, which they currently hold in Australia.

As his nation plans to increase its own defense force to 7, 000 troops, Marape’s office announced last week that the agreement will open the door for 10, 000 Papua New Guineans to join the Australian Defence Force.

In stark contrast to Australia, which has a population of about 12 million, of which about 40% live below the poverty line.

The Pukpuk Treaty was signed just days after Australia, which had seized control of its northern neighbor as a colonial power in 1902 and both nations were colonized by the UK, celebrated 50 years of independence from the country.

In August 2013, Australia and Papua New Guinea signed a memorandum of understanding, which saw thousands of migrants detained on Manus Island in offshore detention as they arrived in Australia by boat.

In 2017, hundreds of refugees were left stranded after the contentious detention facility closed.

After a previous stalled security and climate change agreement with Vanuatu last month, Australia is now looking to sign a security agreement with Fiji.

Australia and Tuvalu recently signed a landmark agreement, which would be the first to grant visas to people who have been resettled due to the climate crisis.

Many nations in the region continue to be concerned about climate change, with Australia and its Pacific neighbors submitting proposals to host the UN COP on climate change in 2026.

More than 350 people were stranded on the Tibetan side of Mount Everest as a result of blizzard-like conditions, according to Chinese state media reports on Sunday.

More than 500 people were surprised when unusually heavy snow and rain slammed against them on their way to Tibet’s Tingri region, which is known for its steepest mountain, in total.

According to CCTV, those who were saved on Sunday were transported to the Tibetan side of the peak’s small township, Qudang.

According to CCTV, some 200 trekkers who were still stranded in choppy conditions as of Sunday were scheduled to arrive in Qudang in stages under the guidance and assistance of rescuers organized by the local government.

No indications were made in the CCTV report regarding the restitution of the trekking party accompanied by local guides or support personnel. Additionally, it was not known whether trekkers in Tibet’s vicinity of Everest’s north face had been affected.

The valley’s average elevation of 4,200 meters (13,800 feet) was slushy on Friday night and continued to do so throughout Saturday.

According to notices posted on the local Tingri County Tourism Company’s official WeChat accounts, ticket sales and entry to the entire Everest Scenic Area were suspended from late Saturday.

“Hyperthermia was a real risk,” said Chen Geshuang, who made it to Qudang as part of an 18-person trekking team. It was so wet and cold in the mountains.

“This year’s weather is not typical.” The guide claimed that October was the first time he had encountered such conditions. And it occurred far too suddenly, Chen told the Reuters news agency.

As climate change causes more frequent and dramatic climate shifts in the Himalayas, which poses a threat to climbers and the Sherpa communities that live there, Sherpa communities have been adapting to more erratic conditions.

Nepal’s Tourism Board stated in a situation update that “clear skies in Kathmandu and many other parts of Nepal” were being conducted after the weather “significantly” improved.

At least 47 people have been killed in Nepal’s flash floods and landslides since Friday, according to the update.

In the eastern Ilam district, which borders India, 35 people died from landslides in separate incidents. Three people were killed when lightning struck other locations in the nation, including nine who had been swept away by floodwaters.

On Monday, October 6, 2025, this is how things are going.

Fighting

A family of four, including a 15-year-old girl, were killed in a Russian attack in the Ukrainian village of Lapaivka, according to a Facebook post from the regional prosecutor’s office.
• The regional administrator’s office wrote in a post on Telegram that the attack targeted gas infrastructure used for heating during a cold snap and injured several people in the region’s west of Ukraine, which is located far from the Russian border.
• Ivan Fedorov, regional governor of Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, reported on Telegram that 702 attacks were carried out on 18 settlements in the country’s Zaporizhia region in total, killing one person and injuring ten.
• At least 73, 000 people were without power as a result of the attacks, according to Fedorov, with the majority of those receiving service by early afternoon.
• Ukrainian military-industrial facilities and the infrastructure for gas and energy were attacked overnight, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense on Sunday.
• Russian forces targeted the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zaporizhia, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Odesa, and Kirovohrad regions overnight, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Facebook post.
• Around 40, 000 people in the Belgorod region of Russia were without power as a result of Ukrainian attacks, according to Regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov’s post on Telegram.
• According to Russian state news agency TASS, the Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod also left three people dead.
• In a 24-hour period, Russian forces destroyed 145 drones and four guided aerial bombs, according to TASS.

Politics and diplomacy

• Donald Trump, the president of the United States, responded to a question from reporters about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s request last month to voluntarily impose restrictions on the deployment of strategic nuclear weapons.
• In light of drone sightings near airports across Europe, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius urged Europe to be wary of falling into “Putin’s escalation trap.”
• The day after protesters attempted to force their way into the presidential palace, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that “specific people from abroad… expressed direct support for the … overthrow]Moldova’s] constitutional order.
• In a Sunday phone call, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz informed Trump of plans to support the Ukrainian military with frozen Russian assets.
• In a bid to stifle support for lifting the decades-long US embargo on Cuba, diplomats from the Trump administration are reportedly planning to accuse Cuba of providing up to 5, 000 fighters to support Russia’s war on Ukraine. 17 people were previously detained by Cuban authorities on suspicion of belonging to a human trafficking ring that allegedly eluded young Cuban men from joining the Ukrainian military in Ukraine.

Weapons

In a video released on Sunday by Russian state television reporter Pavel Zarubin, Putin claimed that if the US provided Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine for long-range strikes deep into Russia, it would “lead the destruction of our relations, or at least the positive trends that have emerged in these relations.”
• Zelenskyy claimed in a post on X that Russian weapons include components produced by businesses in “the United States, China, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the Netherlands.”