Listen to this issue.

0:00

/7:11

1×

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional tensions:

• Citing information collected from November 2024 to October 2025, a new report from the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights suggests that Israel's efforts to "consolidate annexation" of the West Bank and Gaza involve a system to "maintain oppression and domination of Palestinians" and "raise concerns over ethnic cleansing." [press release] [full report] [more]
• Palestinian health officials say 19-year-old Palestinian American Nasrallah Abu Siyam was killed, and several other people were injured, by Israeli settlers who attacked a village near Ramallah yesterday in the occupied West Bank. [more]
• At the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-led Board of Peace yesterday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that nine board members have pledged $7 billion for Gaza relief and reconstruction and that five countries have agreed to deploy troops to the Palestinian enclave as part of an international stabilization force. Trump also said the U.S. would contribute $10 billion to the efforts, but reports note that such funding would require authorization from Congress. [more]

U.S. GOVERNORS | The National Governors Association says it has removed today's bipartisan meeting at the White House from its annual summit program after President Donald Trump again refused to include Democratic Governors Jared Polis of Colorado and Wes Moore of Maryland in the meeting. [more]

U.S. IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT | In a ruling issued late Wednesday in a case concerning the eligibility of detained immigrants for bond and access to consult with attorneys, California-based U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes said the failure to provide immigrants with due process “harms their families, communities, and the fabric of this very nation" and accused the federal government of "terror against noncitizens" and of having "extended its violence on its own citizens." [more]

U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT | In a move analysts say suggests an erosion of the department's traditional independence from White House control, a large banner featuring an image of President Donald Trump was hung on the exterior of the Justice Department building in Washington, DC, yesterday. [more]

U.S. TRADE | According to Commerce Department data released yesterday, the overall U.S. trade deficit for goods and services fell to $901 billion in 2025, down from $904 billion in 2024. Excluding services, the 2025 trade deficit for only goods rose 2.1% in 2025 to a record $1.24 trillion. [full report] [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | A Commerce Department advance estimate of fourth-quarter gross domestic product released today shows that the U.S. economy, as measured by gross domestic product, grew at a 1.4% annualized rate in the last three months of 2025 – down from a 4.4% rate in the previous quarter and lower than the 3% rate economists had predicted. On an annual basis, GDP increased 2.2% in 2025 – down from 2.8% in 2024. [full report] [more]

WHITE HOUSE | The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts – a panel consisting of seven people appointed by President Donald Trump – voted yesterday to grant final approval to Trump's plan to build a ballroom larger than the White House itself where the complex's East Wing once stood. Reports note that the National Capital Planning Commission, which has jurisdiction over construction and major renovation to government buildings in the DC region, is still reviewing the project. [more]

ARIZONA | Citing a lack of compliance with a 2002 verdict that mandated an overhaul of health care operations in Arizona's prisons, a federal judge ordered yesterday that an independent authority be appointed to "implement the systemic changes necessary to ensure that medical and mental health care meets constitutional standards" in the state's prisons. [more]

KENTUCKY | Striking down a measure passed by the state's legislature over a veto by Governor Andy Beshear, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled yesterday that establishing public funding for charter schools violates the state's constitution and affirmed that state education funds are for common public schools only. [more]

U.S. AND SAUDI ARABIA | Reports cite U.S. congressional documents as suggesting that, under a proposed nuclear deal with the U.S., Saudi Arabia could have some form of domestic uranium enrichment, raising concerns over the potential for the kingdom to initiate a nuclear weapons program. [more]

U.S. AND INDONESIA | Under a trade agreement announced yesterday, Indonesia will eliminate import tariffs on 99% of U.S. goods and remove restrictions on exports to the U.S. for critical minerals in exchange for the U.S. maintaining a 19% tariff rate on most Indonesian goods. [more]

POLAND | Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski announced today that Poland is withdrawing from the 1997 Ottawa Convention anti-personnel mine ban treaty amidst growing concern of threats from Russia. Zalewski noted that Poland intends to produce anti-personnel mines domestically but that it intends to deploy them only "when there is a realistic threat of Russian aggression." [more]

VENEZUELA | Acting President Delcy Rodríguez signed an amnesty bill into law yesterday that she suggested will open "new avenues for politics in Venezuela" by granting general and full amnesty to some people convicted of crimes or offenses committed during specific periods marked by politically-driven conflicts since 1999. [more]

NIGERIA | Authorities say at least 33 people were killed Wednesday in simultaneous attacks carried out by the Islamic State-associated Lakurawa insurgent group on villages in Nigeria's northwestern Kebbi state. [more]

TURKEY | In a move free-press advocates have condemned as an attack on media independence and democratic norms, police in Turkey arrested investigative journalist Alican Uludag, who works for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle’s Turkish service, today on suspicion of  "insulting" President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and “disseminating misleading information" in social media posts. [more]

NORTH KOREA | At the opening of North Korea's Workers’ Party congress yesterday, leader Kim Jong Un said his country has made significant economic and regional status progress since 2021. [more]

PHILIPPINES | Disaster response officials say at least seven people have died, and some 3,000 have been displaced, due to landslides and flooding caused by torrential rains this week in the Philippines' southeastern Davao Oriental province. [more]

OLYMPICS | As of publication time, Norway leads the overall medal count on Day 14 of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games with 36, followed by the United States, Italy, Japan, and Germany. [medal tracker] [competition schedule] [more]

U.S. OLYMPICS | 20-year-old Californian Alysa Liu won the Olympic gold medal in women's figure skating yesterday – the first U.S. women’s figure skating medal in 20 years. In other action on the ice yesterday, the U.S. women's hockey team beat Canada, 2-1, in overtime to win the gold medal. [more on Liu] [more on hockey]

R.I.P. | Actor Eric Dane, best known for his television roles in "Grey's Anatomy" and "Euphoria," died yesterday at the age of 53. Reports note that Dane died of complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease – a condition for which he had become an advocate following his diagnosis. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, circling the globe three times aboard Project Mercury’s Friendship 7 spacecraft. [more history]