February 4, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump today in Washington, DC, with Middle East security and Israel’s ongoing, but tenuous, cease-fire with Hamas expected to be among the main topics of discussion. [more]
• Reports say at least six Israeli soldiers were wounded early today when a gunman opened fire on a military checkpoint in the village of Tayasir in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Officials say the attacker was killed in the incident. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1076 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here is your update:

• U.S. President Donald Trump suggested yesterday that future U.S. support to Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion could be dependent on Ukraine supplying the U.S. with rare earths and other critical minerals, large deposits of which are known to exist in Ukraine. [more]

U.S. TARIFFS | President Donald Trump says he has agreed to defer imposing 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico for 30 days following talks with the two countries’ leaders yesterday. Reports say both Canada and Mexico have agreed to increase border security measures to fight illegal migration and drug trafficking, while the U.S. has agreed to work to limit illegal cross-border gun trafficking. Trump, however, has gone ahead with a new 10% tariff on goods from China, which has announced retaliatory tariffs on selected U.S. goods, including coal, liquefied natural gas products, crude oil, agricultural machinery, and large-engine cars. [more]

U.S. IMMIGRATION | Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced yesterday that the U.S. will not extend a policy that granted Temporary Protected Status to some 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants, protecting them from deportation. The protections are scheduled to expire in April. [more]

U.S. EDUCATION | Reports cite government sources as saying that the Trump administration is actively considering the specifics of plans to significantly reduce programs and staff at the U.S. Department of Education, including a potential executive action to do away with programs not explicitly protected by law and calling on Congress to close the department entirely. [more]

MARYLAND | In the aftermath of a 2023 report that documented decades of child sexual abuse committed by Baltimore clergy, the Maryland Supreme Court yesterday upheld the constitutionality of a state law that ended the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse lawsuits. [more]

U.S. FEDERAL FUNDING | A federal judge yesterday extended a temporary block of the Trump administration’s plan to freeze federal funding of grants, loans, and other programs. The Trump administration has said that the funding pause is necessary to align federal spending with the president’s agenda. [more]

U.S. SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUND | President Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday to begin the development of a U.S. sovereign wealth fund – a government-owned program to invest in and hold assets such as stocks, bonds, and real estate. Reports note that such a fund could be used to hold a partial ownership of social media platform TikTok as part of a plan to prevent the platform being banned in the United States. [full executive order] [White House fact sheet] [more]

U.S. AND EL SALVADOR | U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday that El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has offered to accept deportees from the U.S. of any nationality, including violent American criminals now imprisoned in the United States. In a social media post, Bukele confirmed the offer, saying that it is an opportunity for the U.S. to “outsource part of its prison system.” [more]

SWEDEN | Authorities in central Sweden say at least five people have been shot at a school in the city of Örebro today. Police say the incident is ongoing and have warned the public to stay away from the area. [more]

CONGO | Rwandan-backed M23 rebels who seized the eastern Congolese city of Goma last week declared a unilateral cease-fire in the region yesterday, citing humanitarian reasons, including the need for a safe evacuation corridor, as the reason for the move. [more]

MOLDOVA | Amidst an ongoing standoff with Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom, Moldova and the European Union agreed today to an energy security deal under which the former Soviet republic will receive E.U. financial aid to help it end dependence on Russian energy supplies and integrate into the E.U. energy network. [more]

HAITI | The mayor of Kenscoff, Haiti – a Port-au-Prince-area neighborhood well known for housing the country’s elite – says at least 40 people in Kenscoff have been killed in a series of attacks by heavily armed gangs since January 27. Mayor Jean Massillon has blamed the attack on the Viv Ansanm gang coalition. [more]

SYRIA AND TURKEY | Reuters cites unnamed sources as saying that Syria's transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan are expected to discuss a potential joint defense pact in a meeting in Ankara today. The report notes that the agreement may include the establishment of Turkish airbases in central Syria and the formation of joint training programs for Syria's new military. [more]

GERMANY | Ahead of this month’s national elections in which immigration is a major issue, newly released government data shows that Germany registered 213,499 asylum applications in 2024 – down 34% from 2023 – and that illegal arrivals in the country also fell by almost a third in the same period. [more]

CLIMATE AND BUTTERFLIES | In its annual study of monarch butterflies in the western United States, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation counted just 9,119 monarchs – down 96% from the more than 233,000 counted in 2023 and the second-lowest level since the survey began in 1997. Researchers cite pesticides, diminishing habitat, and climate change as major factors in declining butterfly populations. [press release] [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1945, during the final stages of World War II, the Yalta Conference opened with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin meeting to plan the final defeat and occupation of Nazi Germany. [more history]