Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a victory lap last week as President Donald Trump’s sham Board of Peace took hold in Gaza and said Tel Aviv will now “maintain security control over the entire area from the Jordan River to the [Mediterranean] Sea.”
President Trump announced that U.S. military strikes had "completely and totally obliterated" key nuclear facilities in Iran.
The European Union (EU) announced last week that it now considers Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terror organization in response to the country’s crackdown on protesters, with Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s top diplomat, stating, “Repression cannot go unanswered.”
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s top diplomat, said last week that Tehran will not negotiate with the U.S. while the Trump administration tries to threaten it into submission, stating that he has not interacted with Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy, nor has Iran “requested talks.”
Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, has taken steps to prepare his country for another war with the U.S., and President Donald Trump says Tehran must agree to his terms, or face the might of American forces steaming into the region.
Israel and the United States are working out a new 10-year security deal as Tel Aviv’s current “memorandum of understanding,” which provides Israel with $3.8 billion a year, nears its end in 2028.
Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, laid out plans last month for a futuristic Gaza with hotels lining its beaches and skyscrapers, and he told an audience in Davos that there is no “Plan B” and he was banking on “catastrophic success,” which would include the complete disarmament of Hamas.
Rising operating costs continue to fuel a wave of closures across the retail, restaurant, and manufacturing sectors. In the United Kingdom, Poundland has closed 149 locations, while Toys “R” Us Canada has announced the closure of 19 stores.
Mounting economic pressures, industry shifts, and rapid technological disruption continue to drive job losses across multiple sectors.
China’s Zijin Gold International, among the world’s largest gold miners, is pocketing Canadian counterpart Allied Gold for C$5.5 billion in cash, or about U.S.$4 billion.