Mōrena and welcome to your Wednesday recap of international business and political news from overnight.
In developing news, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the country’s military to carry out "powerful" attacks in Gaza, the ABC reported. Israel accused Hamas of a violation of the recent ceasefire. Hamas said it would delay handing over the remains of a deceased hostage it had earlier located in a tunnel.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Government Media Office accused Israel of committing 125 violations of the ceasefire since it came into effect on October 10, including killing 94 Palestinians, Al Jazeera reported.
Elsewhere, Category 5 Hurricane Melissa has smashed into Jamaica with a catastrophic storm surge and winds, Bloomberg reported. It is the strongest storm to strike the island in more than three decades, with gusts of up to 300km/h. Hurricane Melissa is expected to cause historic devastation, with local emergency services ordering evacuations.
Restaurant owner Evrol Christian vividly described the scenes of destruction to CNN. “The sea level is coming over the wall and we’re in serious trouble. The whole coastline is gone. I’m sorry that I never took the bus yesterday to go to higher ground,” he said.
Meanwhile, authorities in the eastern Cuban province of Holguin were preparing to evacuate more than 200,000 people, Al Jazeera reported. Hurricane Melissa is expected to travel across eastern Cuba after passing through Jamaica.
US President Donald Trump.
In Japan, newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi welcomed US President Donald Trump with pageantry and praise, the BBC said. The two leaders signed a rare earth minerals deal, as well as a document heralding a new "golden age" of US-Japan relations.
“I want to just let you know anytime you have any question, any doubt, anything you want, any favours you need, anything I can do to help Japan, we will be there,” Trump said. “We are an ally at the strongest level.”
Trump was optimistic that the two countries had overcome trade disputes, Bloomberg reported. “We’re going to do tremendous trade together … more than ever before,” Trump said.
Takaichi also praised Trump’s peace efforts in the Middle East and said Japan would be nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump will leave Japan for South Korea on Wednesday local time. He is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping the following day, the BBC reported.
Meanwhile, global trade was not broken, despite widespread disruption this year from Trump’s trade tariffs, the World Trade Organisation told CNBC. Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said despite the “greatest disruption” to global trade in 80 years, there was widespread resilience around the world. “The system is battered, it’s bruised, but it’s still standing,” she said.
In business news, Amazon will cut about 14,000 corporate roles as the online retail giant increases spending on artificial intelligence and cuts costs elsewhere, the ABC and AP reported.
Amazon has about 350,000 corporate employees and a total workforce of about 1.56 million. This week’s announcement is the biggest Amazon cull since 2023, when the company cut 27,000 jobs after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Technology firm Apple has just joined an exclusive club after the listed company crossed US$4 trillion ($6.9tr) in market value, joining fellow tech giants Nvidia and Microsoft this year. Apple shares bounced higher during Tuesday trading because of stronger iPhone 17 sales, especially in China. Overall, the company’s shares are up just over 7% this year, below their 30.7% increase in 2024, and less than the 17% general market gain, CNN reported.
More broadly, Wall Street stocks hit fresh records after the latest batch of earnings results pleased investors. Earlier, the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and tech-heavy Nasdaq were all in positive territory.
PayPal’s shares rose after the company said it had partnered with OpenAI to have its digital wallet embedded into ChatGPT.
