China announced a barrage of measures meant to counter the blow to its economy from U.S. President Donald Trump ’s trade war, as the two sides prepared for talks later this week. Beijing’s central bank governor and other top financial officials outlined plans Wednesday to cut interest rates and reduce bank reserve requirements to help free up more funding for lending. They also said the government would increase the amount of money available for factory upgrades and other innovation and for elder care and other service businesses. Trump’s tariffs, set as high as 145% on imports from China, have begun to take a toll on its export-dependent economy at a time when it’s already under pressure from a prolonged downturn in the property sector.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu scheduled an urgent meeting on Tuesday evening with Chareidi political leaders, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz, and Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, who serves as the chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which has been holding discussions on drafting a Chareidi draft law in recent months. The meeting follows the announcement by Chareidi parties earlier this week that they will no longer vote with the coalition due to the lack of progress on the legislation of a Chareid draft law. In the wake of the decision, coalition members were forced to withdraw bills slated for a vote in the Knesset on Wednesday.

Police arrested about 30 pro-Hamas rioters who illegally occupied a University of Washington engineering building and damaged property and set fires. Students from the group Super UW, which lauded the October 7 massacre, seized the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building in Seattle on Monday evening. “We are taking this building amidst the current and renewed wave of the student Intifada, following the uprising of student action for Palestine after the heroic victory of Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7th, which shattered the illusion of zionist-imperialist domination and brought Palestine to the forefront for all justice-loving people of the world,” Super UW wrote in a manifesto published earlier in the day.

An F/A-18 fighter jet landing on the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea went overboard, forcing its two pilots to eject, a defense official told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The incident Tuesday marks the latest mishap to mar the deployment of the Truman, which has been essential in the airstrike campaign by the United States against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump and Oman’s foreign minister both said a ceasefire had been reached with the Houthis, who would no longer target ships in the Red Sea corridor — something not immediately acknowledged by the rebels.

The IDF on Wednesday eliminated a senior Hamas commander in the Sidon area of Lebanon via a drone strike. “The IDF carried out airstrikes in the Sideon area and eliminated the terrorist Khalid Ahmed Al-Ahmed, who served as the operations commander of Hamas’ western brigade and advanced terror attacks against Israel,” the IDF spokesperson said. “During the course of the war, Ahmed oversaw numerous terror plots against Israel, IDF soldiers, and Israeli civilians. In recent weeks, he has been involved in smuggling weapons and planning additional attacks against Israel.” “His activities posed a danger to Israel and its citizens.

Iran was behind US President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement on Tuesday that the US military is halting its military operations against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen after the terror group indicated it will end its attacks against US ships. According to two Iranian officials quoted by The New York Times, Iran pressured the Houthis to halt their attacks as part of the Islamic Republic’s current efforts to reach a nuclear deal with the US. Following Trump’s announcement, Oman, which is mediating the US-Iranian talks, said that it mediated the ceasefire deal between the Houthis and the US. The Houthis’ attacks on Israel were not addressed in the deal, and the terror group said that it will continue its attacks on “Israeli” ships.

The Houthi-controlled Sanaa International Airport in Yemen has suspended all flights until further notice, its director announced, after suffering “extensive damage” from Israel’s attack on Tuesday. According to reports, Israel’s attack destroyed the passenger hall, terminals, a supply facility, and six aircraft, including three belonging to Yemen’s national airline, which is now left with only one plane, which is currently in Oman.

New federal statistics show a steep decrease in the number of times the FBI searched a vast foreign intelligence repository for information about Americans and others in the United States last year. The number of “U.S. person queries” plunged from 57,094 in 2023 to 5,518 in 2024, according to the report published Monday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The report details the use of a surveillance program, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, that allows the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of targeted foreigners located in other countries — including when they are in contact with Americans or other people inside the U.S.

Dr. Vinay Prasad, a prominent critic of the pharmaceutical industry and the Food and Drug Administration, has been named to oversee the agency’s program for vaccines and biotech drugs. FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary announced the appointment Tuesday in a message to agency staff, praising Prasad’s “long and distinguished history in medicine.” Prasad is the latest in a series of medical contrarians and critics of COVID-19 measures to join the federal government under President Donald Trump. Unlike political roles such as FDA commissioner, the job Prasad is stepping into has traditionally been held by an FDA career scientist. His appointment raises new questions about whether vaccines and other new therapies will face unnecessary scrutiny from regulators. Prasad replaces Dr.

Released hostage Omer Shem Tov, who returned to Israel almost three months ago, spoke to Channel 12 in a recent interview about his horrific ordeal in captivity. One thing he said in the extensive interview, which will be published at the end of the week, is that the terrorists ordered him to carry out an attack against IDF soldiers. “They put booby traps in the house that was above the tunnel, and then they said to me: ‘Omer, when soldiers arrive at this house – you blow it up. Like this.'” “I told them: ‘No.’ And then they told me: ‘You won’t do it – we’ll shoot you in the head.’ I told them: ‘Then shoot me in the head.'” Omer’s mother, Shelly, told the Knesset’s Education Committee about two months ago about the difficult conditions in which Omer was held.