Top U.S. & World Headlines — October 10, 2025

Welcome to Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The Israeli government has approved the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire deal. It includes an exchange of the hostages held by Hamas in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Al Jazeera is reporting Israeli forces in Gaza have started to retreat behind the lines agreed to under the deal. Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are streaming from the southern part of the Gaza Strip to the north. On Thursday, Hamas' exiled Gaza chief Khalil al-Khaya said all Palestinian women and children will be released and issued a statement declaring an end to the war. Today we announce that we have reached an agreement to end the war and aggression against our people and to begin implementing a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of the occupation forces, the entry of aid, the opening of the Rafah crossing in both directions, and the exchange of prisoners. It comes as President Trump announced the Israeli hostages will be released from Gaza on Monday or Tuesday. Under terms of the deal, 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and another 1,700 Gazans detained by Israel during the war will be released. Meanwhile, the U.S. is sending about 200 troops to Israel to monitor the ceasefire deal. This is Palestinian civil defense member Nour al-Shugoudmi, who joined celebrations Thursday in Gaza City. Honestly, these are indescribable feelings. We can't believe it. But thank God the war has ended and we are alive. Honestly, we hope the war does not come back, and for this to be really the end. In Tel Aviv, Israelis gathered at the public plaza known as Hostages Square to celebrate news of the ceasefire. This is Udi Goran, cousin of an Israeli hostage, Tal Haimi, who was confirmed dead in Gaza and whose body is believed to be held by Hamas. Bringing back the hostages is just the first phase of this deal, and rightfully so, finally prioritizing bringing them home before anything else. But after we bring them all home, it's time to start rebuilding our future. Meanwhile, Israeli army radio is reporting 600 aid trucks will be allowed to enter Gaza daily, coordinated by the United Nations and other international aid groups. Tom Fletcher is the U.N.'s top emergency relief coordinator. So here is what we plan to deliver in the first 60 days of the ceasefire. We will aim to increase the pipeline of supplies to hundreds of trucks every day. Food, we will scale up the provision of food across Gaza to reach 2.1 million people who need food aid and around 500,000 people who need nutrition. Famine must be reverted in areas where it has taken hold and prevented in others. We'll have more on the Gaza ceasefire agreement later on the broadcast. A grand jury has criminally indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James after President Trump instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to go after his political enemies, writing on ExQuote, We can't delay any longer. It's killing our reputation and credibility, Trump said. Lindsey Halligan, who President Trump installed to serve as U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, presented the case to the grand jury. Last month, Halligan secured charges against James Comey, the former FBI director. Trump forced out his previous U.S. attorney for refusing to bring charges against both Comey and James. This is Attorney General Letitia James. This is nothing more than a continuation of the president's desperate weaponization of our justice system. He is forcing federal law to do his bidding. And so, today, I'm not fearful. I'm fearless. The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced its decision in a ceremony in Oslo earlier today. She is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. In 2023, Machado launched a campaign to challenge incumbent President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela's 2024 election. She was barred from running after the government accused her of corruption and cited her support for U.S. sanctions against Venezuela. Machado has vowed to privatize Venezuela's state oil industry. She has praised right-wing Latin American leaders, including Argentina's Javier Millet. In 2020, her opposition party, Vente Venezuela, signed a pact formalizing strategic ties with Israel's Likud party, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Machado has said that, if elected, she'll move Venezuela's embassy in Israel to Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. We'll have more on Maria Corina Machado later in the broadcast, with the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Greg Grandin. The Nobel Peace Prize being awarded at a time when the U.S. bombed four boats off the coast of Venezuela, killing 21 people. Colombia's President Gustavo Petro said Wednesday the U.S. killed Colombians in one of the boats it bombed in the Caribbean for allegedly carrying drugs. In Peru, lawmakers swore in a new president, 38-year-old head of Peru's legislature, Jose Yeri, soon after voting unanimously to remove President Dino Baluarte. Her removal comes after months of deadly protests in rural Andean and indigenous communities. Rights groups accused Baluarte's government of using lethal force to suppress the protests. She was also enmeshed in corruption scandal involving undeclared assets and watches. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant announced the U.S. has begun implementing parts of a bailout for Argentina by finalizing a $20 billion currency swap with Argentina's central bank. Argentina's far-right President Javier Millet is an ally of President Trump. On Thursday, eight Democratic senators introduced a bill that would prevent the Treasury Department from rescuing Argentina's economy. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said, quote, it's inexplicable that President Trump's propping up a foreign government while he shuts down our own, unquote. In Washington, D.C., the federal government shutdown has entered its 10th day. On Thursday, President Trump said at a Cabinet meeting he'll permanently cut programs approved by Congress during the shutdown, like billions of dollars in climate and infrastructure for Democratic-led states, adding, quote, we're only going to cut Democrat programs, unquote. The White House has suggested furloughed federal workers may not receive back pay. On Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson ruled out advancing a standalone bill to pay the salaries and benefits of military members who are due to miss paychecks on October 15th. Meanwhile, Food and Water Watch reports if the shutdown continues into next week, 5.3 million children under the age of five will lose access to SNAP food assistance and benefits, with many likely to go hungry. That's on top of more than 2 million people set to lose some or all of their SNAP benefits under the budget reconciliation bill Trump signed in July. A federal judge in Chicago has issued a temporary restraining order against President Trump's deployment of hundreds of National Guard troops to Illinois after Chicago and state officials sued to block the move. U.S. District Judge April Perry said in an oral ruling Thursday, deploying soldiers would, quote, only add fuel to the fire that defendants themselves have started, unquote. The ruling came as Illinois' Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker once again accused Trump of overstepping constitutional limits on his authority. You know, at every turn that they've tried to militarize our cities. Indeed, look at what ICE and CBP are doing. They're wearing fatigues. They're carrying long guns, automatic weapons. They're coming to downtown. Come on. Downtown Chicago, Michigan Avenue. What is the purpose of that? It's all a show. Separately, another federal judge in Chicago ruled Thursday federal agents violated the constitutional rights of peaceful demonstrators, journalists and religious leaders at recent protests against ongoing ICE raids. A lawsuit brought by victims of the ICE violence accuses federal agents of a pattern of extreme brutality, saying they tackled and slammed people to the ground and fired rubber bullets and pepper balls at peaceful protesters and working journalists. In her ruling, District Court Judge Sarah Ellis wrote, quote, Individuals are allowed to protest. They're allowed to speak. That's guaranteed by the First Amendment of our Constitution. And it's a bedrock right that upholds our democracy, she said. Judge Ellis' temporary restraining order also requires all uniformed federal agents to prominently display identification like badge numbers on their uniforms or helmets. Meanwhile, in Tennessee, National Guard troops are scheduled to begin patrolling the streets of Memphis today over the objections of city officials. They'll add to a surge of federal law enforcement officers already in Memphis. Trump claims the deployment's aimed at quelling violent crime in the majority Black city. On Thursday, Trump signaled he's prepared to send troops into even more cities. And we're restoring law and order in our country. We're restoring it here, but we're restoring it right now. We're in Memphis. We're going to Chicago. We're going to other cities. Oklahoma's Republican Governor Kevin Stitt has criticized the deployment of National Guard troops to Illinois. Stitt is the current chair of the National Governors Association. Speaking to The New York Times, he said, quote, Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration, unquote. Stitt stated that President Trump should have first federalized troops already in Illinois. A Texas court has halted the execution of Robert Roberson, whose 2003 murder conviction over the death of his 2-year-old daughter was based on the shaken baby syndrome theory, which has never been scientifically validated. On Thursday, a narrow five to four majority of Texas's Court of Criminal Appeals granted Roberson's request to stay his execution, citing a Texas law that allows for new trials in cases with flawed scientific evidence. The trial court that convicted Roberson will now consider whether he should be granted a new trial. Throughout his more than 20 years on death row, Roberson has always maintained his innocence. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks for watching Democracy Now! on YouTube. Subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications to make sure you never miss a video. And for more of our audience supported journalism, go to democracynow.org, where you can download our news app, sign up for our newsletter, subscribe to the daily podcast and so much more.