“Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed 18 people, including four children, in Gaza on Wednesday, and Israel halted the passage of patients through the Rafah border crossing, Palestinian officials said. The Israeli military said tanks had fired on Gaza and airstrikes had been launched after a gunman shot at Israeli soldiers and seriously injured a reservist. The strikes targeted Gaza City and the southern city of Khan Younis. A Gazan health official told Reuters that Israel had also halted the passage of patients through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt, two days after it had reopened, allowing a trickle of Palestinians to cross for the first time in months.” (02/04/26)
“U.S. forces shot down an Iranian drone that flew towards a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, U.S. Central Command confirmed. The military said the drone ‘aggressively’ approached the USS Abraham Lincoln as it was crossing through the Arabian Sea roughly 500 miles from the southern coast of Iran and ‘unnecessarily maneuvered’ toward the ship. … U.S. Central Command also confirmed that hours later, forces with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps harassed a U.S.-flagged and crewed oil tanker, Stena Imperative, that was moving through the Strait of Hormuz.” (02/03/26)
“President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a bill into law to reopen most of the government, officially ending a partial shutdown that began last weekend. The House of Representatives narrowly passed the bill 217-214 earlier in the day after the Senate approved it last week. Much of the government has been shuttered since Saturday morning. The bill provides funding for the departments of Defense, Treasury, State, Health and Human Services, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Education through the remainder of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. It also provides two weeks of stopgap funding for the Department of Homeland Security after the Senate stripped full-year funding for the agency in response to the [murders] of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration officers.” (02/03/26)
“Russia has used a record number of ballistic missiles to target Ukraine’s energy sector, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. The combined missile and drone strikes hit power plants and infrastructure in Kyiv and multiple locations causing ‘the most powerful blow’ so far this year, according to private energy company DTEK. The strikes were launched as temperatures dropped to -20C (-4F) and left more than 1,000 tower blocks in the capital without heating once again and damaged a power plant in the eastern city of Kharkiv beyond repair. Zelensky said Russia was “choosing terror and escalation” rather than diplomacy to end this war and called for ‘maximum pressure’ on Moscow from Ukraine’s allies.” (02/03/26)
“Republican groups seeking to add U.S. House seats in Florida by challenging the 2020 census suffered a major setback Tuesday as a federal court ruled the lawsuit was filed too late. The suit alleges that the statistical methods used to calculate the census undercounted the state’s population, costing the state two seats in Congress. The legal challenge comes as President Donald Trump has been pressuring Republican-led state legislatures to redraw their congressional districts to benefit the GOP ahead of this year’s midterm elections. A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court in Tampa threw out the suit but did give the plaintiffs a chance to amend and refile. The judges said the plaintiffs should have mounted their legal challenge within four years from the time the statistical methods were used.” (02/03/26)
“Disney has named its parks chief Josh D’Amaro to succeed Bob Iger as the entertainment giant’s top executive. D’Amaro is the Disney Experiences Chairman, spearheading efforts for the company’s theme parks, cruises and resorts. He steps into the position at a time when Disney is flush with box-office hits like ‘Zootopia 2’ and ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ and its streaming business is strong. But the company is also dealing with a decline in foreign visitors to its domestic theme parks, with tourism to the U.S. falling during an aggressive immigration crack down by the Trump administration, as well as clashes with almost all of country’s trading partners. The decision on the next chief executive at Disney comes almost four years after the company’s choice to replace Iger went badly, forcing Iger back into the job.” (02/03/26)
“Keir Starmer will draft a new law to strip Peter Mandelson of his right to sit in Britain’s House of Lords after new revelations about the former British ambassador to Washington’s links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein appeared in the Epstein files. The British prime minister has asked officials to draft legislation to remove Mandelson from the House of Lords ‘as quickly as possible,’ his spokesman told reporters Tuesday afternoon. No.10 Downing Street said the Cabinet Office has also referred material to the police after the newly released files appeared to show Mandelson sharing live government policy deliberations with the disgraced financier. The Metropolitan Police said Monday it is reviewing allegations of misconduct in a public office.” (02/03/26)
“Two workers have been arrested on suspicion of sabotaging several German warships at Hamburg harbour in 2025, German tabloid Bild reported on Tuesday. The accused, a 37-year-old Romanian and a 54-year-old Greek, reportedly tampered with the vessels by pouring steel pellets into an engine block, puncturing fresh-water lines, removing fuel tank caps, and disabling fuses in the onboard electronics, the report said. The sabotage was discovered during pre-departure checks as one of the ships, the corvette ‘Emden,’ was preparing for its inaugural journey to the port city of Kiel. According to Bild, the prosecutor general’s office stated the alleged activities could have led to significant damage if left undetected.” (02/03/26)
“Former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, will testify in a congressional investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a staffer said on Monday. The House’s Republican-led oversight committee recommended last week that the Clintons be held in contempt for refusing to testify about their relationship with Epstein, with several Democrats on the panel agreeing. The Clintons had offered to co-operate with the panel but had refused to appear in person, saying the investigation was a partisan exercise aimed at protecting Republican President Donald Trump. The House of Representatives had later this week planned to hold the two prominent Democrats in contempt, a finding that potentially could lead to criminal charges.” (02/03/26)
“Pope Leo XIV is facing his first major crisis with traditionalist Catholics, after a breakaway group attached to the traditional Latin Mass announced plans to consecrate new bishops without papal consent in a threatened revival of schism. The Swiss-based Society of St. Pius X … has been a thorn in the side of the Holy See for four decades, opposed to the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council. In 1988, the group’s founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, consecrated four bishops without papal consent, arguing that it was necessary for the survival of the church’s tradition. The Vatican promptly excommunicated Lefebvre and the four other bishops …. But in the decades since that original break with Rome, the group has continued to grow, with branches of priests, nuns and lay Catholics who are attached to the pre-Vatican II traditional Latin Mass.” (02/03/26)
