Houthi strategy shift. Yemen’s Houthi rebels suggested in a letter posted online that they will pause their attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea following the truce in Gaza, though they stopped short of declaring a formal end to the campaign. The bombing campaign, which they declared in solidarity with Gaza, upended global shipping routes and prompted retaliatory strikes from both the Biden and Trump administrations.
Next steps in Gaza. Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, held talks in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the Gaza truce. They discussed an impasse over Hamas fighters sheltering in tunnels beneath Rafah, for whom Hamas is demanding safe passage and whom Israel and the United States seek to disarm. Separately, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas visited France yesterday, where President Emmanuel Macron said Paris would help draft a future constitution for a Palestinian state.
Intel-sharing suspension. Colombia vowed to suspend all intelligence-sharing with the United States over Trump’s boat strikes near South America, while CNN and the Guardian reported the UK would also suspend some intelligence-sharing over the same concerns. Amid Trump’s militarized anti-drug campaign, the Navy said yesterday that the United States’ largest aircraft carrier strike group had arrived in the region. The UK controls several intelligence assets in the Caribbean. Unnamed sources told CNN that British officials believe the Trump administration’s strikes violate international law.
Ukraine minister suspended. Ukraine suspended its justice minister as a probe advances into a corruption scheme tied to the country’s nuclear power company, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced today. He was not immediately charged, and agreed to the suspension. Two Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies said they were probing a scheme linked to the same nuclear company that may have laundered up to $100 million.
U.S. vote on shutdown. U.S. House members are returning to Washington today for an expected vote to end the longest government shutdown in history. The Senate-backed bill would fund the government for two months, though the spending package fails to meet a Democratic demand to preserve expiring healthcare subsidies. If passed, the measure goes to Trump’s desk to be signed, with the president having already signaled his support. The shutdown has left roughly 1.4 million federal workers without pay for weeks and resulted in the suspension of food aid and thousands of cancelled flights.
China-UK science scale-down. The two countries restricted their bilateral science cooperation to areas like health and climate, the UK science and technology minister said yesterday. A 2017 agreement pledged joint work on satellites and remote sensing technology. However, bilateral relations soured in recent weeks after China protested the UK’s handling of an espionage case involving British citizens accused of spying for China.
Newsom at COP30. Visiting the UN climate conference in Brazil yesterday, California Governor Gavin Newsom said his state will continue to prioritize climate action and compete in the green energy space despite Trump’s stated position that climate change is a hoax. California is the world’s fourth largest economy and Newsom is widely believed to be eyeing a 2028 presidential run.
Oil demand forecast. The International Energy Agency (IEA) released new forecasts for global oil demand yesterday comparing scenarios in which countries followed stated climate policies versus continuing with their current behavior. The former would see global oil demand peak by the end of this decade, while the latter would see demand rise through 2050.
