Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, warned that the country’s army would “return to intense fighting” in Gaza unless Hamas released hostages by midday on Saturday. On Monday the militant group said it would delay the release of three Israeli captives, whom it had agreed to release under its ceasefire deal with Israel. Hamas accused Israel of stopping displaced Palestinians from returning to Gaza.
America’s vice-president criticised the EU’s “excessive” policing of artificial intelligence at a conference in Paris. J.D. Vance called for “regulatory regimes that foster creation”. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, warned that more rules were needed to avoid disputes between countries. America and Britain did not sign the summit’s declaration.
Jerome Powell said that the Federal Reserve is in “no hurry” to lower interest rates. The chairman of America’s central bank, which held its main rate in a range of 4.25-4.5% in January, told a Senate committee that cutting rates too quickly “could hinder progress on inflation”. Donald Trump has repeatedly urged the Fed to lower rates faster to boost the economy.
The Kremlin released Marc Fogel, an American teacher who had been imprisoned by Russia since 2021 after being charged with carrying medical marijuana. Mike Waltz, America’s national security adviser, negotiated the exchange, and said it was a sign “we are moving in the right direction” to end the war in Ukraine. America did not say what it promised Russia in return.
Italian police issued arrest warrants for over 180 members of the Sicilian mafia, with 1,200 officers participating in a series of raids targeting the Cosa Nostra. Crackdowns in the 1990s and early 2000s weakened the organised-crime group, but some bosses have recently been released from prison. Palermo’s top prosecutor said it was “trying to recreate the army of the past”.
Disney and Goldman Sachs joined other companies in rolling back corporate diversity measures. Disney’s changes include replacing its “diversity and inclusion” metric on executive salary reviews with “talent strategy”. Goldman Sachs dropped its pledge to only work on IPOs with companies that had at least two “diverse” board members. Meta and McDonald’s are among those to have recently scrapped DEI policies.
$CAR, a memecoin launched by the Central African Republic on Sunday, fell in value by 95% after its market capitalisation briefly touched $350m. Faustin-Archange Touadéra, the country’s president, said that the token was “an experiment” intended to “unite people” and “support national development”. The government has said that roughly a third of funds raised by the token will support CAR’s development.
Figure of the day: 140%, the increase in the average price of a dozen eggs in America from one year ago. Read the full story.
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