Daily News Brief

August 8, 2025

Welcome to CFR’s Daily News Brief. Today we’re covering Israel’s plan for an offensive in Gaza City, as well as...

• Haiti’s new interim leader
• Trump’s pressure on Intel’s CEO
• A Paris-sized wildfire in France

Top of the Agenda

Israel’s cabinet approved a plan today to take over Gaza City, the territory’s capital and its largest population center before the war displaced many of its residents. The announcement runs counter to U.S. and other international calls to negotiate an end to the almost two-year war and prompted criticism from some foreign governments; Germany said today it would halt exports to Israel of arms that could be used in Gaza. It also spurred fears that Israeli hostages and Palestinian civilians would be put at risk in an unpopular war expansion.

The details. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that the military would “take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the population outside the combat zones.”

• Netanyahu had said yesterday that Israel intended to take complete control of Gaza. The country’s military leadership, meanwhile, would prefer a truce instead of expanding the conflict, three unnamed officials told the New York Times.
• The cabinet approved five principles for ending the war: Hamas’s disarmament, the return of all living and dead hostages, Gaza’s demilitarization, Israeli security control over the territory, and a civilian government in Gaza that is not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.
• Two recent polls found that around 70 percent of Israelis want the war to end and hostages to be brought home. 

The reactions. 

• Hamas said the plan would cost Israel “dearly;” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called it a “full-fledged crime.”
• Countries including China, Finland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom (UK) spoke out against the plan, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying it “will only bring more bloodshed.”
• Families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza called the decision effectively “a death sentence for the living hostages.”
• The UN Secretary-General, too, condemned the plan for the offensive. Yesterday the UN’s World Health Organization said that nearly twelve thousand children in the territory were experiencing acute malnutrition.

“If the Israeli government chose to manage the conflict through targeted military action against its enemies, a willingness to contemplate alternative Palestinian governance structures in Gaza, engagement in regional diplomacy, and deterrence of Hamas and others, it would realize several benefits for both Israelis and Palestinians. Notably, there would be fewer hungry Palestinians, an unwinnable war would end, and Israeli hostages would return home. It might also help loosen Hamas’s grip on the Gaza Strip.”

—CFR Senior Fellow Steven A. Cook in an Expert Brief

How Trump Could Test Putin’s Ukraine Strategy

Alexander Ermochenko/TPX/Reuters

Anything that suggests the United States and its European allies are committed to supporting Ukraine for the long haul changes the calculations inside Russia, CFR expert Thomas Graham says in this YouTube Short.

Potential Trump-Putin meeting. The Kremlin said yesterday that U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin plan to meet “in the coming days,” but that Putin said he was “far away” from meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The comments came after Putin met in Moscow with Trump’s envoy earlier this week. Trump has threatened new sanctions on Russia if Putin does not agree to a deal to end the war by today.

Haiti’s new leader. Businessman Laurent Saint-Cyr took over the rotating presidency of Haiti’s transitional government yesterday, even as gangs threatened to overthrow it. Insecurity has risen in the country as the leadership gap following the 2021 assassination of the president continues. Saint-Cyr called on international partners to increase their military support to Haiti’s police.

U.S.-India chill. India and Russia affirmed their strategic partnership in Moscow yesterday, one day after Trump said he would raise tariffs on India for buying Russian oil. Unnamed Indian officials told Reuters that New Delhi has paused plans to buy new U.S. weapons and canceled its defense minister’s planned visit to Washington. India’s defense ministry and the Pentagon did not immediately comment.

Pressure on Intel CEO. Trump wrote on social media yesterday that Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan should resign, alleging conflicts of interest. While Trump did not provide more details or evidence, a Republican senator asked Intel to answer questions this week about Tan’s investments in China. Intel said that Tan and the company’s leadership were “deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security interests.”

Trump’s Fed nominee. Trump will nominate economic advisor Stephen Miran to temporarily fill a seat on the Federal Reserve board after Adriana Kugler’s unexpected departure. Miran said yesterday that Trump’s policies reduce the need for high interest rates. He has been a vocal critic of the Fed, including the economic stimulus the bank deployed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Miran still faces Senate confirmation for the position.

Rwanda’s probe of genocide. Norway repatriated a Rwandan man arrested in the country in 2022 for alleged crimes during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. He was accused of killing a child and recruiting others to participate in the violence. An international tribunal for Rwanda closed in 2015 after convicting 61 people, but Rwanda’s own justice system continues to handle cases.

U.S. arms sales to Europe. Spain shelved a potential plan to buy U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets following Trump’s critiques of the country’s level of military spending, the Financial Times reported. After Trump hiked tariffs on Switzerland, some lawmakers there are calling for the country to cancel its existing F-35 contracts. Switzerland’s government has defended the deal.

Wildfire in France. France’s largest wildfire in seventy-five years was contained after burning through an area bigger than the size of Paris, French authorities said today. It spread through the country’s south, killed one person, and injured thirteen. France’s environment minister cited conditions related to climate change.

The Importance of Fed Independence

Kent Nishimura/Reuters

Today, the Federal Reserve’s independence remains central to the strength of the U.S. economy and the global standing of the U.S. dollar, CFR Distinguished Fellow Roger W. Ferguson Jr. and CFR’s Maximilian Hippold write in this Expert Brief.

• Today, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan visit the White House.

• Today, the World Robot Congress begins in Beijing.

• Tomorrow, Japan marks the eightieth anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Nagasaki following a remembrance in Hiroshima earlier this week.

Why a U.S.-India Trade Deal Makes Sense

Kevin Lamarque/File Photo/Reuters

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears to have the political capital to withstand any domestic criticism that inevitably comes with reaching a trade agreement and requires some difficult concessions, Distinguished Fellow Kenneth I. Juster writes for India’s World. 

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