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
Israel launched heavy attacks on Beirut\u2019s suburbs today, forcing thousands to flee as Lebanon\u2019s prime minister appealed<\/a> for international help to stop the military offensive. Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah after the group launched rockets at Israel in support of Iran. Ahead of the offensive, Israel\u00a0issued<\/a>\u00a0an evacuation order yesterday for a swath of Beirut home to more than half a million people. Lebanon\u2019s government has been working to disarm Hezbollah for months. French President Emmanuel Macron\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0yesterday France would provide armed vehicles and humanitarian aid to Lebanon and appealed to Israel and Hezbollah to stand down. Across the Middle East, at least 230,000 people have been displaced in relation to the ongoing war, including more than 100,000 inside Lebanon, according to the\u00a0United<\/a>\u00a0Nations<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The pace of air war. Iran\u2019s daily missile launches\u00a0have dropped<\/a>\u00a0overall since earlier this week, with U.S. and Israeli forces saying they struck and degraded many of the country\u2019s launch sites. However, Iran\u2019s continued strikes are still aimed at expansive geographic targets, and its military is increasingly relying on drones. Stateside, U.S. defense contractors are due to meet with administration officials at the White House today to discuss ramping up weapons production,\u00a0Reuters<\/a>\u00a0reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n The regime change question. Trump yesterday affirmed his ambition to shape Iran\u2019s political destiny,\u00a0telling<\/a>\u00a0Axios that he would like to play a role in picking the country\u2019s next supreme leader. Yet the Iranian regime has not splintered after strikes killed former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Saturday, the\u00a0Washington Post reported<\/a>, citing European and Arab officials. Trump\u00a0has spoken<\/a>\u00a0in recent days to Kurdish leaders who could attempt an opposition push against the regime. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0NBC News in an interview that aired yesterday that Tehran is prepared to defend itself against a potential U.S. ground invasion.<\/p>\n Warnings of spillovers. Qatar\u2019s energy minister issued a stark warning about the war\u2019s impact on energy prices today,\u00a0telling<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0Financial Times that continued war could force Gulf energy exporters to shut down production within days and drive oil prices to $150 per barrel. Meanwhile, the head of Europe\u2019s police body\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0yesterday the war could have \u201cimmediate repercussions\u201d in regard to terrorism, violent extremism, and cyberattacks. Trump,\u00a0asked<\/a>\u00a0Wednesday whether Americans should worry about attacks at home, replied, \u201cI guess.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe United States is in an unprecedented dangerous situation when the Iranian regime\u2019s desire to retaliate for the war and the killing of Khamenei could surface now or at any time in the future. For the regime, revenge has always been a dish best served cold\u2026But these past months, DHS\u2019s budget and attention have been focused on immigration and not necessarily counterterrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n Across the Globe<\/p>\n Trump swaps DHS chief.\u00a0Trump\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0on a social media yesterday that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was leaving her post and being assigned a new role at a to-be-announced security initiative. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) will replace Noem, Trump said. He did not give a reason for the change, though Noem\u00a0has been<\/a>\u00a0one of the most visible faces of Trump\u2019s\u00a0immigration enforcement<\/a>\u00a0crackdown.<\/p>\n U.S. sanctions waiver for Russian oil.\u00a0The United States issued a thirty-day\u00a0waiver<\/a>\u00a0yesterday that allows India to buy Russian oil already at sea amid market shocks caused by the Iran war. The United States had previously\u00a0sanctioned<\/a>\u00a0Russian oil sales to the country in order to restrict Moscow\u2019s resources for waging war in Ukraine. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0on social media that India is an \u201cessential\u201d U.S. partner and that the waiver would counter \u201cIran\u2019s attempt to take global energy hostage.\u201d<\/p>\n UK counter-terrorism probe.\u00a0United Kingdom (UK) authorities\u00a0arrested<\/a>\u00a0four men today suspected of assisting Iran\u2019s intelligence service by spying on sites and people linked to London\u2019s Jewish community, UK police\u00a0said<\/a>. One man is Iranian and three are Iranian-British nationals. The head of London\u2019s counterterrorism policing asked the public to \u201cremain vigilant\u201d and report any concerning behavior.<\/p>\n Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap.\u00a0The two countries exchanged\u00a0five hundred<\/a>\u00a0prisoners each in a two-day swap that concluded today. Some of the Ukrainian men had been in Russian detention since 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0on social media. Though the two sides have been holding indirect peace talks for months, Zelenskyy\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Wednesday that upcoming negotiations would be postponed due to war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n China\u2019s climate target.\u00a0China, the world\u2019s largest greenhouse gas emitter,\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0a cautious new climate target yesterday. Premier Li Qiang said China aims to reduce its carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 17 percent by 2030. China had an 18 percent reduction target for that same indicator between 2020 and 2025, but only achieved an estimated\u00a012 percent<\/a>\u00a0reduction.\u00a0<\/p>\n NATO stance on Iran war.\u00a0NATO has increased its missile defense readiness following the Turkish interception of an incoming missile targeting the country Wednesday, an alliance spokesperson\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0yesterday. Turkey accused Iran of firing the missile, while Iran\u2019s air force denied doing so in a statement in Iranian media yesterday. NATO does not plan to trigger its Article 5 defense clause over the incident, Secretary-General Mark Rutte\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0Reuters yesterday.\u00a0<\/p>\n U.S.-Venezuela diplomatic ties.\u00a0The United States and Venezuela\u2019s interim government are re-establishing diplomatic and consular relations, the U.S. State Department\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0yesterday. Washington had previously cut off relations in 2019 during the first Trump administration. The restoration comes two months after the U.S. ouster of former President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. The State Department said the restoration would help \u201cpromote stability, support economic recovery, and advance political reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n Indonesia\u2019s social media limit. Indonesia\u2019s government announced<\/a> a new social media ban for children under sixteen, barring them from having accounts on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and X. The country\u2019s communication and digital affairs minister said the platforms expose children to threats, including pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud, and addiction. Implementation will begin in phases starting March 28.<\/p>\n What\u2019s Next<\/p>\n Today, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney begins a visit to\u00a0Japan<\/a>.Today, the Winter Paralympics begin in Milan and Cortina,\u00a0Italy<\/a>.Tomorrow, Trump and Noem meet with several Latin American leaders regarding the Shield of the Americas security initiative in\u00a0Florida<\/a>.<\/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":507526,"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-507525","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\/507525","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=507525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}