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Welcome to the Daily News Brief, CFR’s flagship morning newsletter summarizing the top global news and analysis of the day.
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Trump begins the first state visit of his second term in Saudi Arabia today before traveling on to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Investment deals are due to be at the forefront of the trip. Leaders are also expected to discuss ongoing nuclear talks with Iran, Syria’s reconstruction, and the Israel-Hamas war. Trump’s trip comes a day after Hamas released Israeli American hostage Edan Alexander, a move which Trump called a goodwill gesture to negotiators trying to end the war.
Trump’s Gulf agenda.
- Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to give more details about a January pledge of $600 billion in trade and investment with the United States over the next four years.
- Trump said ahead of the trip that he plans to accept a luxury plane from Qatar to serve as Air Force One, which he described as a “gift” and Qatar described as a transfer for “temporary use.” The prospect has drawn scrutiny for potential ethics violations, including of the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
- Trump said yesterday he might fly over to Istanbul for potential talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday.
- Leaders from the region are expected to encourage Trump to lift sanctions on Syria, which he said yesterday he was considering
Hamas’s hostage release.
- Hamas said after releasing Edan Alexander that it was ready to enter into immediate talks on ending the war and releasing further hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a delegation to travel to Doha for talks.
- The U.S. talks with Hamas about Alexander bypassed Israeli officials. U.S. hostage envoy Adam Boehler and U.S. envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told the families of remaining hostages that they were committed to bringing back all fifty-eight of those still in Gaza, a forum for hostage families said.
“It seems that the Trump administration sees America’s partners in the Gulf as their trusted interlocutors, not treaty allies in Europe or other partners. And it’s a different look for American foreign policy to go to these Gulf states as mediators on issues, both within the region and beyond.”
—CFR expert Steven A. Cook at a Media Briefing
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Across the Globe
Ruling on downed Malaysian plane. Russia is responsible for shooting down a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane over Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 people, the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) ruled. The plane came under fire during combat between pro-Russian separatists and Ukraine’s armed forces. Australia and the Netherlands—whose citizens were on the flight—want Russia to enter talks on reparations, the Dutch foreign minister said. Moscow does not recognize the ICAO’s authority and has called the allegations “fake.”
Colombia’s BRI ambitions. Colombia plans to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), President Gustavo Petro said yesterday during a visit to the country. More than twelve Latin American countries have joined, but Colombia had until now held out; it has been one of the biggest recipients of U.S. aid in the region. Now, Bogotá seeks to “expand our options to other parts of the world,” its foreign minister said.
The climate adaptation economy. Companies that respond to the physical risks associated with climate change made more than $1 trillion in combined revenue last year, the London Stock Exchange Group said in a study. Its sustainable investment research director said that the green economy “is now so big… it’s not going to implode just like that,” regardless of potential policy choices by national governments.
U.S.-China trade climbdown. Following yesterday’s announcement of broad bilateral tariff relief, Trump also ordered the reduction of tariffs on low-value parcels shipped from China. Those duties had targeted Chinese e-commerce companies. Meanwhile, China removed a ban on airlines accepting deliveries of Boeing planes, unnamed sources told Bloomberg. Boeing and China’s aviation authority did not immediately comment.
India-Pakistan talks. Top military officials from both countries spoke yesterday and agreed to continue talks on shoring up Saturday’s ceasefire. Both sides agreed to gradually reduce troop deployments from their border areas. Pakistan said its airspace was open yesterday, while India said civilian flights at more than thirty airports in the country’s north were also functioning.
Rama’s victory in Albania. Albanian leftist Prime Minister Edi Rama is on track for a fourth term, according to the preliminary results of Sunday’s election. Rama campaigned on moving forward with reforms that would bring Albania closer to European Union membership. His party was estimated to have won eighty-two legislative seats, well above the majority needed to govern alone.
Afrikaners arrive in U.S. as refugees. Fifty-nine white South Africans arrived in the United States under a new U.S. policy that grants them refugee status. Trump falsely said they were victims of “genocide,” while South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said they “did not fit the definition of a refugee.” Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International, called the policy “a racialized immigration program masquerading as refugee resettlement.” The Trump administration has suspended other refugee resettlements.
Uranium harvesting. A team of Chinese scientists developed an electrochemical method to extract 100 percent of the uranium from seawater, they wrote in a paper in Nature Sustainability. Some existing physical methods of extraction absorb less than 10 percent of the uranium found in water. A chemical expert at the University of North Texas told New Scientist that the method is “a significant step forward,” although there was “a long way to go” before its large-scale use