Flagship

Israel withdraws from key Gaza corridor

Israel’s military withdrew from a key Gaza corridor that splits the enclave in half, as the territory’s future appears increasingly uncertain. Israel’s pullback from the Netzarim Corridor followed Hamas’ release of another three Israeli hostages, a sign that the temporary ceasefire is holding for now. The six-week truce agreement is at its halfway point, with negotiations over a second phase overshadowed by US President Donald Trump’s suggestion — made alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — that Palestinians should all leave the enclave and the US take over. Regional powers widely condemned the idea: Egypt’s foreign minister flew to Washington Sunday, while Cairo said it would call an emergency meeting of Arab nations to discuss the situation facing Palestinians.

Trump’s Super Bowl strategy

US President Donald Trump’s planned attendance Sunday at the Super Bowl reflects his longtime strategy of making himself “all but impossible to avoid,” analysts said. The first weeks of Trump’s term have been marked by a blitz of executive orders, news conferences, and policy-shaping speeches. Trump, the first sitting president to attend the championship game, “seems to welcome every opportunity to show off his stamina,” CNN’s Brian Stelter wrote: The Super Bowl is consistently the most watched television spectacle in the US every year. In the hours before the game, Trump told Fox News that he would instruct Elon Musk to probe the Education and Defense departments for possible budget cuts, and later teased 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports.

US courts slow Trump action

Scores of lawsuits from US states, unions, and nonprofits are slowing down President Donald Trump and his allies’ efforts to reshape federal policy and governance. Judges have paused attempts to freeze government spending and end birthright citizenship, and blocked Elon Musk’s team from accessing sensitive Treasury Department data. At least some of these fights are likely to end up in front of the country’s conservative-majority Supreme Court, an eventuality Trump may be banking on as he seeks to expand presidential power, legal experts told The New York Times. Until then, the challenges are at least challenging Trump’s projection of his administration “as an unstoppable, invincible force,” Politico argued.

China tariffs on US take effect Monday

China’s tariffs on $14 billion-worth of US exports were set to take effect Monday, as analysts warned of the consequences of an escalating trade war. Beijing announced the retaliatory duties moments after US President Donald Trump’s 10% tariff hike on all Chinese goods went into effect. Despite speculation that President Xi Jinping would talk to Trump to avert the tariffs, that hasn’t happened: The short timeline Trump gave for negotiations — possibly aimed at forcing Beijing to make quick concessions — may have backfired, some Chinese analysts told the Financial Times. Beijing’s duties on US manufacturing and energy sectors, meanwhile, could have a greater impact on Republican states, a Brookings Institution analysis found, showing how “local communities can suffer collateral damage from international faceoffs.”

Praise for Japan PM’s Trump meeting

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Sunday that US Steel would remain “an American company,” echoing US President Donald Trump’s assertion that Tokyo-based Nippon Steel would invest in the firm, rather than take it over. The comments make a merger even more unlikely, after former President Joe Biden blocked Nippon’s $14.9 billion acquisition attempt last year. Ishiba discussed the deal with Trump in Washington last week, a trip that is broadly being seen as a success for Ishiba as he tries to stave off potential tariffs on Japanese imports: The prime minister appeared to forge a warm relationship with Trump, praising the president and focusing on how Japan could bolster his “America First” agenda, Bloomberg reported.

Modi’s party wins in Delhi

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party decisively won Delhi’s state elections, regaining power in the capital after 27 years. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party used “hope and handouts” to successfully oust the incumbent anti-corruption party, which faced graft allegations, political commentator Neerja Chowdhury argued. The win marks a rebound for Modi after the BJP failed to secure an outright majority in national elections last year, and signals that voters have become “much more transactional and pragmatic, aspirational and demanding,” Chowdhury wrote. It also comes ahead of Modi’s meeting with US President Donald Trump next week, and indicates to the international community “that they will have to deal with a stronger rather than a weaker PM” in India.

China philanthropy declines

The amount of money donated to charities in China dropped significantly last year, mirroring the country’s broad economic struggles. One foundation estimated that charitable giving in China totaled around $17 billion in 2024 — down 14% from 2022. Corporate philanthropy also declined, falling to a low not seen for a decade. The decline raises questions about a key tenet of the Chinese Communist Party’s social agenda, which highlights charity as an important tool for tackling income inequality, The Diplomat reported. China’s real estate crisis played a role in the decline, experts said, because some of the industry’s biggest names were once huge donors.

Blood, organ proxies spark hope

Researchers are making progress in developing artificial blood and genetically modified pig organs, raising hopes that shortages of both could become a thing of the past. Trials in the UK (on humans) and US (on rabbits) of lab-produced blood are going ahead. Both the US and UK strive to keep a week’s supply of blood on hand, but one doctor told The New Yorker that the UK runs short by as much as 100,000 units at any time. In the US, where tens of thousands of people await kidney donations, regulators approved a trial transplanting pig kidneys into humans, paving the way for wider use. Five people have received the transplants, of whom one — who received hers in November — is still alive.

School phone rules have muted effect

Restricting pupils’ phone use in school didn’t lead to better grades or mental well-being, a UK study found. Researchers followed 1,227 students in 30 high schools with different phone policies: They found that students in restrictive schools used their phones a little less during the school day, but the rules didn’t impact their overall use, or their sleep time, anxiety, depression, or wellbeing. One author said the results suggested policymakers should “do more than focus on schools alone,” but another psychologist argued that “reducing phone/social media time is probably not helpful” and that perceived links between more phone use and poorer wellbeing in young people are likely just a correlation.

Rare form of pasta inspires chefs

The art of making a rare form of pasta — a knowledge once confined to women on the island of Sardinia — is having somewhat of an international renaissance. Su filindeu, or “threads of God,” has been made on Sardinia for 300 years as part of a traditional meal for religious pilgrims. It involves making pasta threads barely thicker than human hair and weaving them into a lattice. The secret used to be passed from mother to daughter, until one woman decided to start teaching other people outside her family. Now, chefs as far flung as Singapore can make the pasta. While the number of makers is still “minuscule,” Atlas Obscura reported, “for the first time in generations, it’s growing.”

Feb. 10:

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi co-chairs the AI Action Summit in Paris alongside President Emmanuel Macron.
• Chinese electric vehicle company BYD holds a showcase of its autonomous driving technology.
• The Church of England’s ruling body meets for the first time since the Archbishop of Canterbury resigned amid an abuse scandal.

A German Expressionist painter whose career has been long overshadowed by that of her lover is getting her moment in the spotlight. Gabriele Münter was one of the most consequential artists of the early 20th century, but her work was eclipsed by her 12-year affair with the celebrated Russian abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky, Artnet reported. Now, an exhibition at Madrid’s Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum and a forthcoming show at the Guggenheim in New York celebrate Münter’s work on its own terms. “When I begin to paint, it’s like leaping suddenly into deep waters, and I never know beforehand whether I will be able to swim,” Münter said in a 1958 interview.

The Trump administration’s freeze on foreign aid funding poses an urgent threat to Ukraine’s energy security and will harm efforts toward reaching a peace deal with Russia, senior congressional Democrats told Semafor’s Tim McDonnell.

The US Agency for International Development has played a critical role in supporting Kyiv to rebuild its grid. That work is now in jeopardy after Donald Trump abruptly froze aid payments, put thousands of USAID employees globally on leave, and is considering shutting the agency altogether.