Malaysia rejects U.S. trade deal. Malaysia considers the trade deal it reached last year with the United States “null and void” given the Supreme Court’s repudiation of Trump’s emergency tariffs, the country’s trade minister confirmed to reporters yesterday. As part of that deal, Malaysia had agreed to accept a U.S. tariff rate of 19 percent for most of its exports. The U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur did not comment.
Venezuela swaps defense chief. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez yesterday removed Gen. Vladimir Padrino López, the country’s defense minister since 2014, from his post. He was a longtime loyalist of former President Nicolás Maduro. Rodriguez named Gen. Gustavo González López as his replacement. González López has a background in military intelligence and was previously sanctioned by the United States for suppressing demonstrations.
Afghanistan-Pakistan pause in fighting. The two countries announced a ceasefire for the holiday of Eid al-Fitr following mediation by neighboring countries. The ceasefire will run through early next week. The pause comes as Afghanistan reels from the fallout of a strike on a drug rehabilitation hospital that Taliban officials said killed more than four hundred people.
Beijing’s reunification pitch. Taiwan’s government today rejected China’s latest reunification overture. It came after a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said yesterday that “peaceful reunification” would ensure Taiwan’s energy security. A senior Taiwanese official told lawmakers today that the proposition was “impossible” and that Taiwan had its own means of withstanding global energy strains, including energy reserves.
Computing award. American physicist Charles Bennett and Canadian computer scientist Gilles Brassard won this year’s Turing Award for work on quantum cryptography. The prize is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of computer science. The pair’s encryption technology uses the physical properties of tiny particles to encrypt data so strongly that a quantum computer cannot decode it. Experts believe quantum computing will soon be able to crack conventional encryption processes.
Australia-EU trade talks. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced yesterday she will travel to Canberra early next week as Australia and the European Union (EU) finalize a trade deal. The two sides revived negotiations on the agreement following Trump’s inauguration last year, after talks previously collapsed in 2023.
Executions in Iran. Iranian authorities executed a Swedish man yesterday, Sweden’s foreign minister said. She added that the man was arrested last June and alleged he did not get a fair trial. Sweden summoned Iran’s ambassador to protest. Iran’s Mizan state news agency reported the man had been accused of spying for Israel. Separately, Iran executed three men convicted of attacking police officers during January’s anti-government protests, the agency reported today. They were the first known executions tied to the demonstrations.
Proposal for stranded sailors. Bahrain, Japan, Panama, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates submitted a proposal to the UN shipping agency yesterday to create framework for safely evacuating around twenty thousand sailors on ships stuck in the Gulf due to the Iran war. This could include establishing a “safe maritime corridor,” per the proposal, which has the support of the United States. At least seven commercial sailors have been killed due to the conflict, the head of the UN agency said.
