New U.S. counterterrorism strategy. The Trump administration released a counterterrorism strategy yesterday focused on countering narcoterrorism, Islamist terrorism, and violent left-wing extremism. It lists drug groups in the Western hemisphere as its first priority. It also pledges to neutralize violent political groups with “anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist” ideology but says the administration will not use counterterrorism powers to target people “who simply disagree with us.” The strategy dropped the Biden administration’s pledge to counter threats of right-wing extremist and white supremacist domestic terrorism.
Record for U.S. fuel exports. The United States exported an all-time high of 8.2 million barrels per day of refined fuel last week, government data showed yesterday. The White House has ruled out an export ban in order to ensure fuel reaches European and Asian allies squeezed by the Iran war, though analysts told the Financial Times that rising U.S. gas prices could pressure Trump to reverse course.
Repatriations from ship with virus. A cruise ship on which three passengers have died from the rodent-borne hantavirus will dock in Spain’s Canary Islands to repatriate its remaining passengers, Spain’s government announced yesterday after reaching a deal with the World Health Organization. Eight cases of the virus have been confirmed on the ship, but World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday that “for now, the risk to the rest of the world is low.”
Israeli strikes in Gaza. Israel wounded the son of a Hamas negotiator and killed at least five people in strikes across Gaza yesterday, medics and Hamas sources told Reuters. Hamas and other Palestinian groups are still indirectly negotiating the terms of a peace plan with Israel; they held talks in Cairo this week with an envoy from Trump’s Board of Peace.
India-Vietnam ties. The two countries upgraded their bilateral relations to an “enhanced comprehensive strategic partnership” during Vietnamese President To Lam’s visit to New Delhi yesterday. They set a goal of increasing bilateral trade from around $16 billion currently to $25 billion by 2030, agreed to open their markets to certain agricultural goods, and pledged to deepen rare earth cooperation.
G7 talks critical minerals. Critical minerals coordination will be a focus of the Group of Seven (G7) summit next month, France, the bloc’s rotating president, said at a G7 trade ministers’ meeting yesterday. The group is discussing establishing a permanent secretariat at either the International Energy Agency or the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to increase the global supply of the minerals, five unnamed sources told Reuters. European countries are reportedly wary of Washington leading the project due to concerns it could restrict mineral access in crisis situations.
Hungary’s new anti-graft probe. The country’s police announced late Tuesday they are probing an ally of outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for alleged money laundering. The defendant said he would cooperate with police. Prime Minister-elect Péter Magyar, who takes office Saturday, has pledged anti-corruption measures will lead his agenda.
Ivory Coast scraps election authority. The government announced yesterday it had disbanded the country’s election commission in a bid to restore public trust in elections and will replace it with a new body. The move follows widespread public criticism of the commission. President Alassane Ouattara won almost 90 percent of votes in last October’s election after multiple opponents were banned from the contest.
