Palestinians commemorate Nakba; 40% of Sudan faces “acute hunger”; U.S. offers aid to Cuba amid U.S. blockade of Cuba

Drop Site Daily: May 15, 2026

President Donald Trump says U.S. may need to do “cleanup work” in Iran, credits Pakistan for ceasefire. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi discusses U.S., China, Russia. Saudi Arabia floats non-aggression pact with Iran. U.S. has not investigated strikes on Iranian schools and hospitals, CENTCOM chief says. UAE accelerates new oil pipeline to bypass Hormuz. Israel kills six in Lebanon, orders five more Lebanese villages to evacuate. Hezbollah kills Israeli soldier. Lebanon and Israel open direct talks in Washington as analysts warn of impasse. Palestinians mark 78th anniversary of the Nakba. Far-right mobs rampage through Jerusalem’s Old City. Israeli forces kill 15-year-old Palestinian in West Bank. Four Gaza doctors held without charge in Israeli prison. Mahmoud Abbas re-elected Fatah leader at 90. Iran war powers resolution fails in the House, with absent lawmakers producing a tie vote. Trump to drop IRS lawsuit in exchange for $1.7 billion taxpayer-funded fund for political allies. U.S. Border Patrol chief Michael Banks resigns after getting “the ship back on course.” Gov. Gavin Newsom appoints ousted CFPB chief Rohit Chopra to lead new California consumer protection agency. Corporations pay millions to shape state legislators’ education, the American Prospect reports. Federal judge orders Trump administration to return Colombian woman deported to Congo. Sudanese army escalates drone campaign against RSF-held city of Nyala. 40% of Sudan faces “acute hunger” with families “forced to eat leaves.” Trump DOJ to drop fraud charges against Indian billionaire after investment promise. Russia launches largest two-day aerial assault of the war, killing at least 27 across Ukraine. Health secretary quits UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s cabinet, says Starmer will not be the party’s future leader. Miners and rural workers clash with police in La Paz during general strike. Yemen’s factions to swap over 1,600 prisoners. Iraq’s Ali al-Zaidi sworn in as prime minister. Venezuela to restructure its $150 billion debt and bring the country “out of the shadows” of international finance. Syria pursues security agreement with Israel.

NEW from Drop Site

• Cuba conditionally open to U.S. offer of aid: Two sources with knowledge of the American offer, however, told Drop Site’s Ryan Grim that it rests on Cuba accepting shipments of millions of dollars worth of Starlink devices.

• “We will find them”: With no equipment allowed into Gaza, Palestinians are digging with their hands to retrieve the dead.

• U.S. tech and the Israeli military: Leaked documents show Cisco Systems’ deep relationship with Israeli security state.

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People march with a giant Palestinian flag during a demonstration commemorating the 78th anniversary of the Nakba in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, on May 12, 2026. Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP via Getty Images.

Iran and Ceasefire

• Trump says U.S. may need to do “cleanup work” in Iran, credits Pakistan for ceasefire: Speaking to reporters on Air Force One following his trip to China, President Donald Trump said the U.S. may have to do “a little cleanup work” in Iran. “We’ve wiped out their armed forces essentially. We may have to do a little cleanup work because we had a little monthlong ceasefire, I guess you call it,” Trump said.

• Araghchi discusses U.S., China, Russia: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday the main problem Iran has in negotiations with the U.S. is “distrust.” Speaking at a news conference in New Delhi, where he was attending the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting, Aragchi said of the U.S., “We are in doubt about their seriousness, but the moment we feel that they are serious and they are ready for a fair and balanced deal, we will certainly proceed in the course of negotiations.” Araghchi also made an overture to China, saying his ministry appreciates “any country that can help” it in its present diplomatic negotiations, particularly China.” He confirmed that he had spoken with Russian officials about Moscow’s offer to store Iran’s enriched uranium, thanking the Russians for their “intention to help.” Tehran intends to discuss its nuclear status with the U.S. during the later stages of negotiations but would consider Russia’s offer “when we come to that stage,” he said.

• Saudi Arabia floats non-aggression pact with Iran: Saudi Arabia is proposing a Middle Eastern non-aggression framework once the war between Iran, Israel, and the United States ends, the Financial Times reports. The agreement would be modeled on the 1970s Helsinki Process—the Cold War accords that eased hostilities between the West and the Soviet bloc. Several European countries and institutions within the European Union have reportedly backed the proposal as the best way of preventing future conflict in the region.

• Iranian negotiator reveals details of April talks: Mohammad Nabavian, a member of Iran’s negotiating team, recounted April’s negotiations in Pakistan to state news service ISNA on Thursday. According to Nabavian, Vice President JD Vance pushed to prioritize the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the removal of Iran’s stockpile of 60% enriched uranium during April 10 talks in Islamabad with Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, while Iran insisted any agreement must include sanctions relief and recognition of its right to enrichment. Nabavian said Vance announced Trump would reject a proposal after both sides had moved toward agreement—allegedly telling Ghalibaf the plan had originated with Pakistani Army chief Asim Munir rather than Washington. Nabavian concluded, therefore, that the U.S. “never entered negotiations with the intention of reaching an agreement.”

• U.S. has not investigated strikes on Iranian schools and hospitals, CENTCOM chief says: Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, repeatedly claimed the U.S. military had “no indication” of strikes on Iranian civilian facilities and could not explain why the Pentagon had not investigated extensive reporting documenting strikes on educational and medical facilities. Cooper, who described civilian casualty reduction as a “particular passion” of his, acknowledged under questioning that CENTCOM’s civilian harm mitigation office had been reduced from ten staff members to one.

• UAE accelerates new oil pipeline to bypass Hormuz: The United Arab Emirates will accelerate the construction of a new oil pipeline bypassing the strait of Hormuz by next year. Crown Prince Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan chaired a meeting of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s executive committee and directed the company to fast-track the previously undisclosed project. The pipeline is scheduled to operate in 2027 and will double the UAE’s export capacity through Fujairah.

• Trump admits uranium removal demand is about “public relations,” not security: Trump acknowledged in a Fox News interview Thursday that his demand to remove enriched uranium from Iranian territory is not a security necessity, saying “I don’t think it’s necessary except from a public relations standpoint” and adding that he wanted it “for the fake news.”

Lebanon

• Israel kills six in continued attacks on Lebanon:

  • Israel carried out a double-tap strike Friday on a car in Nabatieh, killing two aid workers identified as Muhammad Ahmad Abu Zeid and Jamal Nour el-Din, who were in the area to deliver food aid, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. The attack also damaged three Nabatieh Ambulance Service vehicles, destroying one.

  • A separate Israeli airstrike on a house overnight on Thursday killed at least four people in the town of Harouf, NNA reports. Airstrikes were also reported in the towns of Shehour and Majdal Selem, as well as the Hamadieh area of the Tyre district.

• Israeli military orders residents of five more Lebanese villages to evacuate: The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson issued forced displacement orders Friday morning on X for the villages of Ain Baal, al-Khrayeb, al-Zarariyeh, Arab Salim, and Arab al-Jal, warning residents to leave immediately or face death. Nearly 100 villages in Lebanon fall under Israeli forced displacement orders.

• Hezbollah continues resistance attacks, Israeli soldier killed: Hezbollah said it carried out “retaliation attacks” on Friday, targeting Israeli bulldozers and a Merkava tank. The Israeli military announced on Friday the latest Israeli soldier to be killed in southern Lebanon.

• Lebanon and Israel open direct talks in Washington as analysts warn of impasse: Lebanon and Israel began a third round of U.S. brokered direct talks in Washington on Thursday. Beirut says it is pushing for a full Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon before any other issues are addressed, while Israel has claimed that it will not cease its operations in the south until Hezbollah is disarmed; Hezbollah is not participating in the talks and has protested them, with one MP accusing the two factions of forming an “alliance” against the group.

Palestine

• Palestinians mark 78th anniversary of the Nakba: Palestinians across historic Palestine and around the world on Friday marked the 78th anniversary of the Nakba. Arabic for “catastrophe,” Nakba refers to the mass expulsion of some 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in 1948 by Zionist militias. Over 500 Palestinian villages in what became Israel were destroyed.

  • New figures released this week by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics to mark the Nakba show that the global Palestinian population has reached 15.5 million. Some 7.4 million live in historical Palestine, while 8.1 million live in the diaspora, including 6.8 million in Arab countries.

  • Palestinians have long described the Nakba not as a single event but as an ongoing and continuous process of dispossession, apartheid, and violence. In the Gaza Strip, the death toll from the Israeli genocide has topped 72,700 with thousands more missing under the rubble. Nearly the entire population of Gaza has been displaced since October 2023, many of them multiple times, and are living crammed into less than half of the enclave with Israel controlling over 60% of the territory. In the occupied West Bank, over that same time period, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced and over 1,000 killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers.

  • In Washington, Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, on Thursday re-introduced a resolution Recognizing the Ongoing Nakba and Palestinian Refugees’ Rights. “The Nakba never ended,” Tlaib said in a statement. “Today, the Israeli apartheid regime is committing genocide in Gaza, violently erasing entire communities across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, and bombing Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. It is a campaign to erase Palestinians from existence.”

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• Israeli attacks continue: An Israeli drone attack near a house in Jabaliya killed two people and wounded several others on Friday morning, WAFA reports.

  • Far-right mobs rampage through Jerusalem’s Old City: Thousands of Israeli nationalists descended on the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday for “Jerusalem Day”— the annual commemoration of Israel’s 1967 capture of East Jerusalem. Far-right mobs chanted “death to Arabs,” assaulting Palestinians, vandalizing shops and attacking journalists while Israeli police largely stood by, according to Haaretz. Palestinian shopkeepers shuttered their stores in anticipation of violence, but mobs still roamed the alleys, throwing bottles, smashing storefronts, and spitting at residents.

  • 60% of Gaza: At a celebration on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed that the Israeli military controlled most of Gaza and suggested they could seize more. “Today it is 60%, tomorrow we will see, tomorrow we will see,” he said before a cheering crowd.

• Leaked documents reveal Cisco’s expanding role as networking backbone of Israeli military: Internal documents obtained by Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain show Cisco Systems generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from contracts with the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Cisco provides the Israeli military and intelligence establishment with networking infrastructure, cybersecurity tools, and AI computing support throughout its regional wars and the genocide in Gaza. Following internal dissent over the contracts, Cisco banned discussion of its Middle East operations in company-wide meetings in 2025 and terminated employees who raised concerns. Read the latest from Drop Site here.

• Israeli forces kill 15-year-old Palestinian in West Bank: Israeli troops shot and killed 15-year-old Fahd Zidan Owais early Friday near the village of al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya south of Nablus, with the Israeli military saying he was part of a masked group throwing stones at vehicles on Highway 60. Owais’ death brings the number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces this year to 12.

• Four Gaza doctors held without charge in Israeli prison: A lawyer visiting four Gazan physicians at Israel’s Ketziot Prison found all held without charge and facing severe food deprivation, confiscated mattresses, and untreated medical conditions, according to Physicians for Human Rights Israel. One of these doctors, Dr. Murad Alkuka—the head of orthopedic surgery at Al-Shifa Hospital—has reportedly lost 35 kilograms during his 780 days of imprisonment. Two of the physicians described court hearings lasting only minutes, held without legal representation, where their detention was extended indefinitely. PHRI has petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice demanding their release.

• Mahmoud Abbas re-elected Fatah leader at 90: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, 90, was unanimously re-elected Thursday to lead Fatah at the movement’s Eighth General Conference in Ramallah, its first in 10 years. Abbas pledged reform of the party and to hold the long-delayed presidential and parliamentary elections, for which he did not provide a timeline.

  • Abbas is currently under scrutiny for elevating his son, Yasser Abbas, 64, a wealthy tobacco, construction, and real estate tycoon. The younger Abbas is expected to be elected to the Fatah party’s central committee. Abbas was elected PA president in 2005 and no elections for president or Palestinian parliament were held in the two decades since. The PA, which receives funding for its security forces from the United States, has been derided as a subcontractor for the Israeli occupation.

• Israel contracts Elbit subsidiary to develop external fuel tanks for F-35: Israel’s Defense Ministry signed a $34 million contract with Elbit Systems subsidiary Cyclone to develop external fuel tanks for its F-35 “Adir” fighter jets—reportedly the first time the stealth aircraft, flown by more than a dozen nations, will be equipped with external fuel tanks—with testing planned to assess whether the addition affects the aircraft’s stealth capabilities. The Israeli military plans to double its F-35 fleet from 50 to 100 aircraft and increase military spending by roughly $120 million over the next decade.

• New York Times defends Kristof report on Israeli sexual violence: The New York Times said Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threat to file a libel lawsuit over Nicholas Kristof’s opinion column documenting sexual abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prison is “part of a well-worn political playbook that aims to undermine independent reporting.” Spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha said any legal claim against the Times for the article “would be without merit.”

U.S. News

By Julian Andreone, with Ryan Grim. Have a tip on Capitol Hill? Email Andreone at Julian@dropsitenews.com.

• Absent lawmakers tip Iran war powers vote to a tie as House margins grow razor-thin: An Iran war powers resolution failed to advance on Thursday, after a tie vote in the House. Half a dozen members absent—including Reps. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-N.J.) and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), both of whom have been missing from the chamber for weeks. Wilson, 83, announced that she is recovering from major eye surgery and plans to return on Wednesday. Kean also reportedly “has a medical issue.” (Kean’s chief of staff ominously told the press: “There’s no cameras where Tom is.”) Neither has announced any intention to drop their current re-election bids. Notably, Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) was the lone Democrat to vote against it.

• Supreme Court temporarily preserves mail and pharmacy access to mifepristone: The Supreme Court blocked a Fifth Circuit ruling that would have required in-person doctor visits and halted mail delivery of mifepristone, preserving the status quo for access to the drug—used in nearly two-thirds of U.S. abortions—at least through next year. Louisiana has argued that the FDA’s approval of the drug prevents enforcement of the state’s near-total abortion ban.

• Trump to drop IRS lawsuit in exchange for $1.7 billion taxpayer-funded fund for political allies: President Donald Trump is expected to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for the creation of a $1.7 billion taxpayer-funded compensation fund for allies who claim they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration—including January 6 defendants—sources told ABC News. The commission would face no obligation to disclose its procedures or the identities of recipients. The settlement reportedly prohibits the fund from paying Trump directly, but does not prohibit entities associated with Trump from filing claims.

• U.S. Border Patrol chief Michael Banks resigns: U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks announced his resignation Thursday after more than 20 years with the agency, telling Fox News he felt he had gotten “the ship back on course.” His exit is the latest in a series of senior Department of Homeland Security departures, following acting ICE Director Todd Lyons’s resignation last month and Trump’s firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in March.

• U.S. to give UN $1.8 billion more for humanitarian aid, far below previous levels: The Trump administration announced $1.8 billion in additional humanitarian funding to the United Nations—bringing its total commitment to $3.8 billion. By contrast, the U.S. contributed $17 billion in fiscal year 2022. UN Ambassador Mike Waltz criticized the UN for its “ideological creep” and “bureaucratic inefficiencies,” saying that the United States pressure on the organization would “help it reach its potential.” The U.S. has nearly $4 billion in unpaid member dues as well. Secretary General António Guterres has rejected U.S. demands in exchange for payment, saying that member contributions are “non-negotiable.”

• Pentagon abruptly cancels deployment of 4,000 troops to Poland: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth canceled the deployment of 4,000 members of an Armored Brigade Combat Team to Poland without an explanation, and after some of its troops and equipment had already arrived. Hegseth also recently announced the withdrawal of 5,000 troops from Germany; an official told the New York Times that the Department’s thinking on the matter is “in flux.”

• Gavin Newsom appoints ousted CFPB chief Rohit Chopra to lead new California consumer protection agency: California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint Rohit Chopra—fired by Trump from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—as the first secretary of California’s new Business and Consumer Services Agency, which launches July 1. The agency is California’s effort to fill the void in consumer protection left by the Trump administration’s dismantling of the CFPB, Newsom said.

• Ro Khanna backs Rashida Tlaib’s resolution to force a vote on U.S. role in Lebanon war: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) announced Thursday his support for the Lebanon War Powers Resolution put forward by Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). The resolution calls for the removal of all U.S. forces from Lebanon, and insists against further U.S. military involvement without congressional authorization, including support for Israel’s air or ground campaign. Under the War Powers Act of 1973, Tlaib can compel a floor vote without House leadership approval.

• Corporations pay millions to shape state legislators’ education: Executives from Amazon, Walmart, Google, and dozens of other major corporations are paying the National Conference of State Legislatures Foundation a minimum of $10,000 annually to set conference agendas and place preferred speakers on policy panels attended by state legislators, according to researchers and former attendees who spoke to the American Prospect. Critics say the arrangement effectively turns a mainstream bipartisan body—where many legislators go to learn basic policymaking—into a pay-to-play influence operation. Whitney Curry Marsh has more at the American Prospect.

• Federal judge orders Trump administration to return Colombian woman deported to Congo: A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration likely violated the law by deporting 55-year-old Adriana Maria Quiroz Zapata to the Democratic Republic of Congo in April, even after Congolese authorities refused because it could not provide her with adequate medical care. Zapata had been granted legal protection against being deported to her home country because her former partner, whom she accuses of raping and beating her, was tied to Colombia’s national police. The judge ordered she be returned to the United States by Friday.

Other International News

• Cuba conditionally open to U.S. offer of aid, encourages the U.S. to lift embargo instead: Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Thursday that Havana would accept the Trump administration’s $100 million humanitarian aid offer if delivered in accordance with “universally recognized humanitarian practices,” but called it paradoxical given what he described as Trump’s simultaneous “systematic and ruthless” punishment of the Cuban people. The crisis could be resolved “in a much easier and more expeditious manner” by lifting the embargo, he said.

  • Starlink connection: Two sources with knowledge of the American offer, however, told Drop Site’s Ryan Grim that it rests on Cuba accepting shipments of millions of dollars worth of Starlink devices. Díaz-Canel said in a post on X that the country, which has faced rolling blackouts and severe shortages of supplies, has three “more than evident” priorities: “fuel, food, and medicines.”

  • CIA meeting in Havana: Separately, CIA Director John Ratcliffe met in Havana with senior Cuban officials, reportedly including the country’s Interior Minister Lazaro Alvarez Casas Raúl Guillermo “Raulito” Rodríguez Castro. Ratcliffe emphasized to his peers that the U.S. is prepared to engage on economic and security issues “only if Cuba makes fundamental changes,” a CIA official told Axios. Cuba’s state newspaper Granma confirmed the meeting took place at U.S. request.

  • Castro indictment?: CBS reported the U.S. government is taking steps to indict 94-year-old former Cuban President Raúl Castro (father of the Castro above) over Cuba’s 1996 shootdown of two aircraft operated by a U.S.-based humanitarian group. That group, Brothers to the Rescue, was run by Cuban-American exiles and searched for people attempting to flee the island by raft. It was also accused of dropping leaflets over Cuba, urging an uprising against the country’s government.

• Sudanese army escalates drone campaign against RSF-held Nyala: The Sudanese army continued its aerial assault on the city of Nyala, striking the RSF’s de facto capital in South Darfur for a third straight day. Army drones targeted Nyala International Airport, as well as RSF fuel depots, ammunition stores, the city’s air defense systems, and the residences of several RSF commanders in the city. The RSF responded by restricting Starlink access and arresting civilians and traders in the city’s main markets.

  • Acute hunger: The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reported Thursday that nearly 19.5 million Sudanese people, over 40% of the country’s population, face acute hunger. According to its report, the hunger is “catastrophic” in North and South Darfur, and 825,000 children in the country are expected to suffer severe acute malnutrition from food insecurity.

  • “Forced to eat leaves”: One Norwegian volunteer in Port Sudan described the extreme means that people have gone to to secure food, saying that she has seen reports of “families who’ve been forced to eat leaves, who’ve been forced to eat animal feed, even reports of families breaking into slaughterhouses that have been closed down just to get the skin of the animals to be able to eat and to survive.”

  • A joint video investigation by Sudan War Monitor, Lighthouse Reports, and Al Jazeera Fault Lines spoke to refugees from El Fasher currently in Uganda. The refugees gave accounts of systematic massacres, mass rape, the use of schools as detention sites, and, in one particularly harrowing incident, the deliberate use of a trench encircling the city to trap and kill fleeing civilians. Their full investigation is available here.

• Trump DOJ to drop fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani: The Trump Justice Department is preparing to drop criminal fraud charges against Gautam Adani, India’s richest man. Adani was indicted in November 2024 over an alleged $265 million bribery scheme to secure solar energy contracts in India, allegedly defrauding Americans who he sought as investors. The reversal came after Adani hired a legal team led by Robert Giuffra, Jr., one of Trump’s personal lawyers, who presented to prosecutors at the DOJ last month roughly 100 slides arguing that the case lacked evidence and jurisdiction. Also included was a slide that indicated Adani would invest $10 billion in the U.S. and create 15,000 jobs if charges were dropped.

• Russia launches largest two-day aerial assault of the war, killing at least 27 across Ukraine: Russia has launched 1,567 drones and dozens of missiles against Ukraine since Wednesday, Reuters reports, in its largest assault since the start of the war in 2023. The attacks have killed at least 27 civilians, including 21 in Kyiv, three of whom were children. One attack destroyed an entire section of a nine-story residential building.

• Russia moves to formalize partnership with Taliban: Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said Thursday that Moscow is building a “full-fledged partnership” with Afghanistan’s Taliban government and encouraged other countries in the region to do the same. The countries would open a “pragmatic dialogue,” he said, on security, trade, culture, and humanitarian support. Russia became the first country to formally recognize the Taliban government last year.

  • Separately, the United Nations and Afghan civil rights organizations reported on Thursday that Taliban authorities in Afghanistan had detained at least three journalists in recent days: TOLONews political editor Imran Danish, anchor Mansoor Niazi, and Paigard news agency owner Jawid Niazi. The Taliban raided the headquarters of TOLONews and of its parent company, the Moby Group, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

• Health secretary quits Starmer’s cabinet, says Starmer will not be the party’s future leader: The United Kingdom’s Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced his resignation on Thursday, accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of governing without “vision” and adding that it is “now clear” that Starmer will not lead Labour during the next general election. Streeting’s announcement did not, however, trigger a leadership contest, which requires signatures from 81 Labour MPs; allies of Starmer claimed Streeting lacked the numbers for that. Starmer’s Labour Party experienced historic defeats in local elections last week, with the far-right Reform Party and left-wing Green Party gaining at its expense.

• Miners and rural workers clash with police in La Paz during general strike: Mining groups and rural unions clashed with law enforcement Thursday in La Paz, Bolivia—with miners setting off dynamite sticks and protesters attempting to breach the presidential palace. Unions representing miners and campesino workers have declared an indefinite strike targeting the country’s center-right President Rodrigo Paz, elected in October. Bolivia’s collapse as a natural gas exporter has triggered soaring inflation, fuel lines, and shortages of oxygen and medication at the country’s hospitals. The administration has blamed former President Evo Morales for stoking the unrest, which Morales denies. “The outraged are driven by their social conscience and their fury against a government that, from day one, betrayed its constituents and the nation,” Morales posted on X.

• Yemen’s warring factions to swap over 1,600 prisoners: Yemen’s internationally recognized government and Ansarallah signed a deal on Thursday in Amman to release more than 1,600 detainees after 14 weeks of negotiations observed by UN officials and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Roughly 1,100 are affiliated with Ansarallah, while the Yemeni government will receive 580 prisoners, including seven Saudis and 20 Sudanese nationals.

• Iraq’s Ali al-Zaidi sworn in as prime minister: Ali al-Zaidi, Iraq’s youngest-ever prime minister at 40, was sworn in Thursday. Al-Zaidi—a businessman and academic with no prior government experience—was backed by Trump over former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is supportive of Iran. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian congratulated Al-Zaidi, saying Iran would “remain by Iraq’s side on the path of development and the consolidation of security.”

• Venezuela to restructure its $150 billion debt after restoring relations with World Bank and IMF: Venezuela announced it would begin restructuring its external debt—in default since 2017 and estimated to exceed $150 billion in unpaid bonds, arbitration awards, and interest—with interim Central Bank President Luis Perez telling Reuters the move brings the country “out of the shadows” of international finance. The country restored relations with the World Bank and the IMF following President Nicolas Maduro’s kidnapping by the U.S. government; Venezuela credited the United States for its “crucial” role in lifting restrictions on the state.

• Syria pursues security agreement with Israel: Damascus has entered U.S.-mediated negotiations toward a “quiet and comprehensive” security agreement with Israel—one based on mutual sovereignty and requiring an Israeli withdrawal from Syrian territories which it has occupied since 2024. That’s according to remarks in Brussels by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, who drew a firm distinction in his remarks between “peace” with Israel, which his government seeks, and normalization imposed “through military force or provocation,” which Syria rejects.

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