The evacuation of the Shajaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City is underway. This holds special importance as it expands the buffer zone from the Gaza border from one kilometer to two kilometers.

U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) sent a sharply worded letter to Lebanon on Wednesday urging the  Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to accelerate the implementation of the US-brokered ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel or face a possible “reasssment” of US military aid. “We are at a critical moment in Lebanon. The Lebanese people have an opportunity to break Iran’s stranglehold on Beirut,” they wrote. The lawmakers expressed frustration over the LAF’s “too slow” implementation of the fulfillment of the ceasefire conditions. “The US should be prepared to expand assistance to the LAF to support expeditious fulfillment of the ceasefire obligations.

Wall Street shuddered, and a level of shock unseen since COVID’s outbreak tore through financial markets worldwide Thursday on worries about the damage President Donald Trump’s newest set of tariffs could do to economies across continents, including his own. The S&P 500 sank 4.8%, more than in major markets across Asia and Europe, for its worst day since the pandemic crashed the economy in 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,679 points, or 4%, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 6%. Little was spared in financial markets as fear flared about the potentially toxic mix of weakening economic growth and higher inflation that tariffs can create. Everything from crude oil to Big Tech stocks to the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies fell.

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