• United States

July 31, 2025, 5:46 PM View Comments ()

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at U.S. policy toward Israel, last-minute White House trade measures, and the resignation of Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas.

Where Does Trump Stand?

The United States is Israel’s No. 1 ally, and U.S. President Donald Trump appears determined to maintain that image. But as Gaza’s humanitarian crisis escalates to famine-level warnings, foreign powers announce their intention to recognize a Palestinian state, and U.S. Republicans break rank to criticize the Israeli military, Trump is struggling to balance preserving the close U.S.-Israel relationship with mounting public pressure to end the Israel-Hamas war.

“The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday, reiterating his administration’s past position. His post came shortly after White House envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Israel to push Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to salvage cease-fire talks.

Witkoff and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee intend to travel to Gaza on Friday to inspect aid distribution sites and “secure a plan” to deliver more food to Palestinians. Netanyahu maintains that warnings of starvation in Gaza are overstated, but even Trump has publicly refuted this claim. The U.S. president is expected to approve a new Gaza humanitarian plan on Friday to combat the hunger crisis, though it is unclear what that plan would entail.

This week, dozens of ministers convened at the United Nations to revive the long-touted goal of a two-state solution. Namely, they drafted the New York Declaration, which states that Hamas “must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority,” which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. However, the conference’s efficacy was undermined by two key absences: Israel and the United States.

While much of the world appears inclined to allow the Palestinian Authority (PA) to eventually govern Gaza, Washington remains reluctant. On Thursday, the U.S. State Department announced sanctions against the PA and the PLO, accusing them of “continuing to support terrorism” and undermining current peace efforts. It is unclear if the sanctions would bar Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas or other senior PA officials from traveling to the U.N. General Assembly in September, when France, the United Kingdom, and now Canada have said they intend to recognize an independent Palestine.

“Canada condemns the fact that the Israeli government has allowed a catastrophe to unfold in Gaza,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday, becoming the latest Western leader to announce the diplomatic move. Ottawa said it based its decision in part on repeated assurances from the PA that it would hold general elections in 2026 that Hamas could “play no part” in.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned these countries’ announcements, calling them a “reward for Hamas.” And on Thursday, Trump denounced Canada’s decision, warning that recognizing Palestine will make it more difficult for Washington and Ottawa to secure a new trade agreement to reduce a planned 35 percent tariff, to go into effect on Aug. 1. “Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them,” the U.S. president wrote on Truth Social.

Whether Trump will continue to have the backing of the U.S. Congress, though, is still to be seen. On Monday, far-right Trump loyalist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene became the first Republican in Congress to describe the situation in Gaza as a “genocide.” “It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza,” she wrote on X.

And on Wednesday, two resolutions to block the sale of U.S. arms to Israel failed in the Senate with narrower margins than ever before, highlighting a growing number of senators opposed to Washington’s continued support of Israel. The resolutions, led by independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, would have stopped the sale of $675 million in bombs as well as shipments of 20,000 automatic assault rifles.

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What We’re Following

It’s tariff season. With just one day before Trump’s Aug. 1 trade deadline, the White House has issued a blitz of tariff measures that has countries scrambling to reevaluate their relationships with Washington.

The latest announcements include:

• Extending the deadline on Thursday for a tariff deal with Mexico by another 90 days
• Concluding a trade deal with Pakistan on Thursday that will lower U.S. tariffs and help develop the South Asian country’s oil reserves
• Securing a trade deal with South Korea on Wednesday that includes a 15 percent U.S. tariff (less than the previously threatened 25 percent duty) on South Korean goods as well as a pledge by Seoul to invest $350 billion in the U.S. economy and purchase $100 billion worth of U.S. liquefied natural gas
• Issuing a 50 percent tariff on most Brazilian goods on Wednesday (an increase by 40 percentage points) due to the ongoing trial against Trump ally and former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro
• Imposing a 25 percent tariff on India on Wednesday as well as threatening an additional unspecified penalty for continuing to buy Russian oil and military equipment
• Declaring a 50 percent tariff on copper on Wednesday, to go into effect on Friday
• Suspending a “de minimis” exemption on Wednesday, to begin Aug. 29, that allows low-value commercial shipments to be sent to the United States without facing tariffs

Trump officials vowed in April to negotiate “90 deals in 90 days.” Although the U.S. president hasn’t hit that target, his administration has secured several trade frameworks in the past several months—including deals with the European Union, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom—and has agreed to continue dialogue with China.

Business scandals. Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas resigned on Thursday following investigations into his business dealings that sparked mass anti-government protests. “Seeing how the scandals are hindering the work of the government, I believe that I cannot allow our ruling coalition and the Cabinet to become hostages to these scandals,” Paluckas wrote in a letter to members of his Social Democratic Party.

Local media published several investigations this month into Paluckas’s alleged financial mishandlings. Among their discoveries, the media reported that a company Paluckas co-owned sold electric batteries to one owned by his sister-in-law in a deal financed by a government agency. They also found that Paluckas never paid a significant portion of a roughly $19,000 fine that he received after being convicted in 2012 for mishandling the bidding process for Vilnius’s rat extermination services while serving as the city’s municipal administration director.

Paluckas denies any wrongdoing, calling these investigations a “coordinated attack” by the opposition.

The prime minister’s entire cabinet is also expected to resign over the scandal, which could leave the Baltic nation without an effective government just weeks before Russia holds joint military exercises with Belarus.

Legislative U-turn. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky approved a law on Thursday restoring the independence of state anti-corruption agencies. The legislation passed by a comfortable majority in the parliament earlier that day, marking a stunning about-face for many of the same lawmakers who voted to strip the organizations of their independence just a few days ago.

Last Tuesday, parliamentarians signed a bill that placed the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office under Kyiv’s prosecutor general, a politically appointed position. The move sparked nationwide protests—Ukraine’s largest demonstrations since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022—as well as pressure from the European Union, which warned Kyiv that curbing the agencies’ independence would hurt its membership bid.

Both organizations have since praised Zelensky’s decision to maintain their independence, and EU foreign-policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote on X that the new law’s passage shows Ukraine’s “resolve to quickly get back on course when European democratic values are at stake.”

Odds and Ends

Not all destination weddings are at beachside resorts or Mediterranean villas. In the past year, thousands of foreign couples have chosen the “Las Vegas of Europe”—otherwise known as Copenhagen City Hall—for their special day. Authorities suspect that this is due to Denmark’s relatively relaxed marriage laws; however, such an uptick in “I dos” has posed challenges for locals hoping to reserve the building for their own vows. Therefore, beginning in October, about 40 percent of wedding slots will be reserved for Copenhagen residents, officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday.