MIDDLE EAST - Donald Trump’s plans for the US to assume control of Gaza have been met with anger across the Arab world, and raised fears of reigniting conflict in the region. Saudi Arabia, considered Trump’s closest ally in the oil-rich Gulf region, was quick to denounce the US president’s plans after he announced on Tuesday evening that Washington should “take over” the devastated Gaza Strip and that its 2.2 million-strong Palestinian population should be resettled. Other US allies in the Middle East and Europe also rejected the plan for Gaza, swaths of which are in ruins after more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas, while Palestinian leaders said they would defy any attempts to remove them from their land. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the country would “not establish diplomatic relations with Israel” without an independent Palestinian state, adding that its position was “non-negotiable and not subject to compromises”.

USA - Demonstrators gathered in cities across the US on Wednesday to protest the Trump administration’s early actions, decrying everything from the president’s immigration crackdown to his rollback of transgender rights and a proposal to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Protesters in Philadelphia and at state capitols in California, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and beyond waved signs denouncing President Donald Trump; billionaire Elon Musk, the leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency; and Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society. Trump has signed a series of executive orders in the first couple of weeks of his new term on everything from trade and immigration to climate change. As Democrats begin to raise their voice in opposition to Trump’s agenda, protests have multiplied.

USA - Thanks to DOGE, we have been learning that our government has been doing lots of very bad things. The entire world is watching in horror as the crimes of the United States government under the Biden administration are being revealed by DOGE for all the world to see. Election interference, overthrowing governments, ruthless censorship of ideas, funding terrorism, funding abortion, targeting politicians for harrassment and promoting the exploitation of children are just some of the crimes against humanity that our government has been committing. As I have dug into all this, I have been absolutely amazed by the scale of the corruption that has been going on.

USA - The CIA has offered so-called buyouts to its agents as part of US President Donald Trump’s effort to downsize the federal government, CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The idea behind the proposal is reportedly to hone the agency into a “more aggressive” tool better suited to exerting influence on the country’s immediate neighbors. According to both outlets, the buyout program – officially called ‘Deferred Retirement’ – will allow employees to resign with about eight months of pay and benefits. The overall initiative, which could potentially be applicable to 2.4 million federal employees, is designed to streamline government operations, promote efficiency, and save tens of billions of dollars in public spending.

GERMANY - The German government could pledge troops to a proposed NATO mission in Greenland, according to sources cited by Der Spiegel on Tuesday. The reported initiative by European members of the military bloc would aim to mitigate tensions created by President Donald Trump’s push for US sovereignty over the Danish island. Trump has framed his bid for Greenland as a national security issue, claiming that the US could utilize the island to bolster its influence in the Arctic amid rising competition with Russia and China. Greenland is also rich in raw minerals, which could become more accessible due to climate change. Trump has not ruled out using military force and economic coercion against NATO ally Denmark.

USA - The current fracas around USAid has been a long time in the making. Much of the media is discussing Elon Musk’s attacks on the agency as being part of his general programme to clean out the federal government and slim it down. Musk will no doubt find his fair share of white elephants amid the USAid receipts, but this is not the core issue at stake in this row.

USA - The writing is on the wall for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and former Congressman Ron Paul isn’t holding back. As President Trump’s administration begins an unprecedented federal overhaul, USAID has found itself in the crosshairs — exposed as a slush fund for globalist interventionism rather than a true humanitarian organization. And leading the charge? None other than Elon Musk, whose newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has begun systematically dismantling wasteful spending.

SYRIA - As the designated terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) establishes its proto-government in Idlib, notoriously corrupt NGOs are stepping in to fill the gaps in public services, with some even defecting to work alongside the group. The United States, which spent two decades and $5.4 trillion overthrowing governments hostile to al-Qaeda, now finds itself in a paradoxical position. Modern al-Qaeda has carved out its own quasi-state in Syria, yet remains on the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. To characterize this as a foreign policy misstep would be reductive; the US has actively facilitated HTS’s conquest of parts of Syria while maintaining its official terrorist designation.

USA - US President Donald Trump on Tuesday suggested permanently displacing Palestinians from Gaza, saying people there had no alternative but to leave the Palestinian enclave devastated by Israel's military assault. Why it's important: Trump, who was to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, first floated the suggestion of displacing Palestinians from Gaza on January 25 by urging Egypt and Jordan take in more people. When asked back then if he was suggesting a long-term or short-term solution, he said: "Could be either." He has since reiterated that plan at least four times, including on Tuesday when he said Palestinians in Gaza could go to other countries beyond Jordan and Egypt as well. Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations, as well as Palestinian leaders, have publicly rejected the idea that critics say would amount to ethnic cleansing.

USA - Our founders intended for us to have a very small, very limited federal government. Instead, we have the largest and most bloated government in the entire history of the world. So we should all be glad that someone is finally attempting to get it under control. For far too long, ultra-powerful government agencies have been running around doing whatever they want and making our lives miserable in the process. Congress has been able to exercise very little control over these monstrosities, and their leaders had little fear of ever being held accountable for their actions. But thanks to Donald Trump and Elon Musk, a day of reckoning has arrived. During the months ahead, we are going to be seeing mass layoffs all over the nation.

UK - The US humanitarian relief agency being shut down by Elon Musk and Donald Trump has been funding the BBC’s charity to the tune of $3 million of American taxpayers’ money each year, MailOnline can reveal today. The complete closure of USAID, which President Trump has said is ‘run by radical lunatics’, would blow a giant hole in BBC Media Action’s annual budget. BBC Media Action is the BBC’s international development charity and it trains journalists and produces programmes that are broadcast in some of the world’s poorest regions. It funds a range of projects in 30 countries and 50 languages across the world, from advising with the United Nations on media disinformation to mentoring journalists in Africa on climate change and ‘changing perceptions’ about the Covid-19 vaccination.

USA - The Georgia-based Waffle House has added a 50-cent surcharge per egg to all its menu items due to the rising egg prices stemming from bird flu. “The continuing egg shortage caused by HPAI (bird flu) has caused a dramatic increase in egg prices,” Waffle House said in a statement on Monday. “Customers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions.” The company added that it will adjust the egg prices based on market conditions going forward. Since December, the average price of a dozen eggs has climbed to $4.15 with the Agriculture Department predicting a 20 percent price increase this year, according to WCSC. “Bird flu is forcing farmers to slaughter millions of chickens a month, pushing US egg prices to more than double their cost in the summer of 2023. And it appears there may be no relief in sight, given the surge in demand as Easter approaches,” the AP reported.

GREECE - Thousands of people have fled the island of Santorini as hundreds of quakes continued to course through the famous Greek tourist destination. More than 6,000 residents have left the island in recent days, according to Greek public broadcaster ERT. Early Tuesday morning, hundreds of people carrying their belongings were seen waiting at a port on the island, waiting for a ferry to take them to Athens. A tremor with a magnitude of 4.8 was recorded early Tuesday, just shy of a 4.9 quake recorded over the weekend – the strongest so far. Over the past three days, some 550 tremors with a magnitude of 3.0 have been recorded in the Aegean Sea, between Santorini and the nearby islands of Amorgos and Ios. Sitting near the boundary of the massive African and Eurasian tectonic plates, Santorini is no stranger to tremors, although near-constant seismic events like this are rare. Santorini’s most recent large quake – with a 7.5 magnitude – struck in 1956, killing at least 53 people and injuring more than 100 others.

USA - It is so important to know when you are holding a losing hand. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau initially insisted that he would never back down, but Donald Trump had most of the leverage in this situation. Canada’s economy is very heavily dependent on foreign trade, and the US is Canada’s number one trading partner. If Trudeau ultimately decided to dig in for a fight, Canada’s economy would have collapsed. Thankfully, he has agreed to negotiate a deal with Trump. To the south, we must give Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum a lot of credit for realizing that she simply was not going to win this particular battle. So she has agreed to send 10,000 Mexican troops to help secure the border, and Trump has agreed to pause the tariffs on Mexico for a month as negotiations continue…

PANAMA - In a significant diplomatic shift, Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino announced on Sunday that the nation would not renew its agreement with China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This decision comes after a visit from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, amid concerns from President Donald Trump regarding Chinese influence over the Panama Canal. During his meeting with Rubio, Mulino emphasized that Panama’s sovereignty over the 51-mile waterway, which links the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, would remain intact. However, he indicated a pivot towards closer cooperation with the United States, stating, “I think this visit opens the door to build new relations … and try to increase as much as possible US investments in Panama.”