Welcome to the\u00a0Daily News Brief, CFR\u2019s flagship morning newsletter summarizing the top global news and analysis of the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Top of the Agenda<\/p>\n
The United States and Israel\u2019s war with Iran continues to spread geographically and weigh on energy markets. Turkey said NATO air defenses shot down<\/a> an Iranian ballistic missile fired toward Turkish airspace today, while U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the United States sank<\/a> an Iranian warship in international waters\u2014appearing to reference a ship that sank<\/a> near Sri Lanka earlier today. France<\/a> and the United Kingdom<\/a> (UK) announced they would each deploy<\/a> a warship to the Mediterranean. U.S. President Donald Trump announced<\/a> the United States Development Finance Corporation will offer insurance \u201cat a very reasonable price\u201d to ensure maritime trade flows in the Gulf.<\/p>\n In\u00a0Washington, Hegseth told reporters this morning the United States was \u201caccelerating, not decelerating\u201d military action and said that, alongside Israel, it aimed to gain \u201cuncontested control\u201d of Iranian air. Trump\u00a0notified<\/a>\u00a0Congress in a letter this week that the operations were meant to protect the U.S. homeland and forces in the region, advance U.S. national interests, and ensure \u201ccollective self-defense of our regional allies, including Israel.\u201d Despite U.S. officials\u2019 arguments that an Iranian threat was imminent, the UN nuclear chief\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0yesterday that Iran was not days or weeks away from having a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n The leaders of both\u00a0France<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Spain<\/a>\u00a0criticized the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran this week, which they said broke international law. After Spain barred the United States from using its bases, Trump threatened yesterday to suspend all trade with the country. A European Union (EU) trade spokesperson\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0the bloc stands \u201cin full solidarity\u201d with members and will defend their interests.<\/p>\n Inside Iran, officials reportedly were working to select<\/a> the country\u2019s next supreme leader. Israel said<\/a> the individual would be \u201ca target for elimination.\u201d Trump said<\/a> yesterday that Iran\u2019s next supreme leader could be \u201cas bad as\u201d his predecessor, which he characterized as a \u201cworst case\u201d scenario for the conflict. U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran, and Iran\u2019s retaliatory strikes across the Gulf, are ongoing. There have been no reports of a broad popular uprising, despite Trump urging Iranians to \u201ctake back\u201d their country over the weekend. CNN reported<\/a> yesterday that the CIA is discussing arming Kurdish forces in Iran in an effort to foment revolt. The CIA declined to comment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe disastrous aftermath of U.S.-led regime change in Iraq more than two decades ago could be repeated in Iran with an even wider threat of regional upheaval unless a rational plan for ending the conflict diplomatically is put in place.\u201d <\/p>\n Across the Globe<\/p>\n Merz-Trump meeting.\u00a0The EU wants to finalize its U.S. trade deal soon and will not accept worse tariff terms than those currently under consideration, Merz\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Trump in their Oval Office meeting yesterday. Brussels paused ratification of the deal after the Supreme Court struck down Trump\u2019s emergency tariffs. Merz also\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Ukraine must \u201cpreserve its territory\u201d and voiced hope for a swift end to the Iran war.<\/p>\n U.S.-Ecuador operation.\u00a0Military forces from the two countries launched joint operations yesterday against U.S.-designated terrorist groups in Ecuador, U.S. Southern Command\u00a0said<\/a>. The announcement did not provide further details about the groups targeted or the operation. Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has made cracking down on crime\u00a0a key facet<\/a>\u00a0of his agenda.<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s stance on mineral cooperation.\u00a0Canada believes its support of a critical minerals buyers\u2019 alliance is the best way to reduce global overconcentration of supplies, the country\u2019s energy and natural resources minister\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Reuters yesterday. Canada\u00a0launched<\/a>\u00a0the alliance during its G7 presidency last year, and current G7 president France supports it, the minister added. The concept differs from the critical minerals price floor\u00a0pitched<\/a>\u00a0by U.S. officials at a Washington meeting last month. Earlier this week, Canada signed deals with twelve countries totalling $9.2 billion in potential mining investments.<\/p>\n South Korea stock selloff.\u00a0One of the country\u2019s main stock indexes\u00a0fell<\/a>\u00a012 percent today, its largest one-day drop on record, amid concerns about the impact of the war in Iran on energy supplies. South Korea is the world\u2019s\u00a0eighth-largest<\/a>\u00a0energy importer. Its stock market had been one of the best performing in the world this year.<\/p>\n Forum on autonomous weapons rules.\u00a0From this week through September, 128 countries\u00a0will debate<\/a>\u00a0a non-binding document that could pave the way for future negotiations on autonomous weapons regulations. The talks fall under the umbrella of the\u00a0Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons<\/a>, which bans arms like certain land mines and blinding laser weapons. A Dutch diplomat helping direct the process told Reuters yesterday that failing to act could lead to countries being \u201covertaken by technological developments.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S.-China trade meeting.\u00a0Top trade officials from both countries will meet later this month ahead of Trump\u2019s trip to China, Bloomberg\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0citing unnamed sources. The officials will reportedly discuss potential U.S. sales of Boeing planes and soybeans to China, as well as tariffs and Taiwan. The U.S. Treasury and the Chinese Commerce Ministry did not comment.<\/p>\n British student visa restrictions.\u00a0The UK\u00a0will no longer issue<\/a>\u00a0student visas to nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan, the government announced today. It will also restrict skilled work visas for Afghans. The government said the move was intended to curtail \u201cvisa abuse\u201d and ensure the asylum system aids people \u201cgenuinely in need.\u201d<\/p>\n Afghanistan-Pakistan death toll. Clashes between the two countries have killed at least forty-two civilians in Afghanistan between February 26 and March 2, the UN mission in Afghanistan said<\/a> yesterday. It urged a halt to the ongoing violence, which it said is exacerbating Afghanistan\u2019s \u201calready grave humanitarian situation.\u201d Authorities in Pakistan reported<\/a> at least one civilian was killed there, too; at least a dozen security forces have been reported killed on each side.<\/p>\n What\u2019s Next<\/p>\n Today, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby speaks at CFR in\u00a0Washington, DC<\/a>.Today, China\u2019s top political advisory body begins its annual meeting in\u00a0Beijing<\/a>.Tomorrow,\u00a0Nepal<\/a>\u00a0holds parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to the\u00a0Daily News Brief, CFR\u2019s flagship morning newsletter summarizing the top global news and analysis of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-503463","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}