“An Israeli court on Thursday indicted a brother of the chief of Israel’s security service for smuggling tens of thousands of dollars worth of cigarettes into war-ravaged Gaza Strip at a time when getting aid into the territory was difficult and many Palestinians were going hungry. The indictment of Bezalel Zini is the latest in a burgeoning scandal implicating more than a dozen people, many of them Israeli reserve soldiers, of personally profiting from the Israel-Hamas war and delivering goods into Gaza that could potentially benefit the militant group. His brother, Shin Bet chief David Zini, has not been implicated in the scandal.” (02/05/26)
“A federal judge in Missouri on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit by the Republican-led state accusing Starbucks of using its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion as a pretext to systematically discriminate based on race, gender and sexual orientation. U.S. District Judge John Ross in St. Louis said the state’s case failed to prove that Starbucks actually discriminated against ‘even a single Missouri resident’ who worked at Starbucks or applied for a job there. Ross was appointed by then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat. The office of Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, a Republican, alleged that Starbucks had unlawfully tied executive pay to the company’s achieving racial and gender-based hiring quotas. The lawsuit was filed by Hanaway’s predecessor, Andrew Bailey, before he joined the Trump administration as co-deputy director of the FBI.” (02/05/26)
“Brandon Scott, the Democratic mayor of Baltimore, is facing questions about the taxpayer funds he uses for his transportation as well as social media pushback over a press conference where he suggested racism was a factor. Scott, a progressive who has served as mayor since 2020, is facing pressure over a Fox Baltimore report showing his primary vehicle, a 2025 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, is the most expensive government-issued vehicle operated by any mayor, governor, county executive or county commissioner in the state, costing taxpayers $163,495. Scott has responded to the report, which claims his SUV costs nearly twice as much as the next most expensive taxpayer vehicle in the state, by pointing to the cost of President Donald Trump’s ‘Beast’ vehicle, arguing that inflation is not being factored in and suggesting politics are at play.” (02/05/25)
“The Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has begun a hunger strike in an Iranian prison in protest of what she said was her unlawful detention, according to a statement from her family released on Wednesday. Ms. Mohammadi, a prominent Iranian rights and democracy activist, has been arrested and imprisoned repeatedly on charges of threatening national security. She was on a hunger strike most recently in 2023, when her family said she was being denied medical care while in detention. Ms. Mohammadi, 53, was allowed to temporarily leave prison for treatment in 2024 but was arrested again last December.” (02/05/26)
“Florida voters have filed a petition challenging Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) push for mid-decade redistricting in the Sunshine State. A Thursday filing before the Florida Supreme Court argues that DeSantis does not have the authority to order the state Legislature to draw new maps. DeSantis last month issued a proclamation calling a spring special legislative session focused on congressional redistricting, pushing Florida further into the nationwide battle over district lines ahead of November’s high-stakes midterms.” (02/05/26)
“Power was restored Thursday to eastern Cuba after an electricity grid failure plunged three provinces and part of a fourth into darkness the previous evening, authorities said. In the early hours of Thursday, the provinces of Holguin, Granma, Santiago de Cuba, and Guantanamo ‘were synchronized to the national power grid,’ said Felix Estrada of the ministry of energy and mines said on state television. He added that scheduled power cuts however remain in place in the four provinces despite the reconnection, due to the country’s ‘capacity deficit’ beyond the latest outage, which left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity.” (02/05/26)
“The European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged Thursday as the economy in the 21 countries that use the euro chugs past the disruption from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs with growth modest, yet resilient. The bank left its benchmark deposit rate at 2%, where it has been since June. after a series of cuts from the peak of 4% starting in mid-2024. The reduced rate has been low enough to re-start mortgage lending for home sales and new construction due to reduced credit costs, boosting growth. Low unemployment is also contributing to demand for goods by consumers and helping keep the economy resilient without the stimulus of further rate cuts. As a result, the chief monetary authority for the eurozone may leave its rates unchanged into 2027, analysts say. The eurozone grew a stronger than expected 0.3% in the last three months of 2025, and may reach growth of 1.3% for all of this year, according to forecasts by Berenberg bank.” (02/05/25)
“The digital publishing platform Substack has told some of its users that their data was stolen in a security breach. The affected account holders had their email addresses and phone numbers scraped in a hack that occurred in October 2025. In an email posted on Bluesky, Substack CEO, Christ Best, said the company became aware of the breach on February 3, which involved an ‘unauthorized third party to access limited user data without permission.’ While internal metadata was also shared in the hack, Best said that credit card numbers and other financial details were not. No passwords were obtained either.” (02/05/26)
“Prosecutors in Paris opened an investigation Wednesday into allegations that Chinese citizens had sought to capture sensitive French government and military data using Starlink. … The prosecutor’s office said police had been notified last week that the arrested pair were suspected of conducting satellite interception operations from an AirBnB they had rented in the Gironde region, near the city of Bordeaux, after neighbors noticed that ‘a satellite dish approximately two meters in diameter’ had been installed and local residents were experiencing internet outages. ‘The device installed was used to illegally intercept satellite downlinks, including exchanges between military entities of vital importance,’ the statement added.” (02/04/26)
