International Glance
On December 17, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a $35 billion deal to sell natural gas to Egypt in what officials describe as the largest energy export agreement in Israel’s history. The natural gas will be produced from Leviathan, a massive field west of Haifa. “On this day,” Netanyahu wrote in a statement that day, the third day of Hanukkah, “we’ve brought another jug of oil to the nation of Israel. But this time, the flame will burn not just for eight days, but for decades to come.”
The gas export permit for Egypt came after months of delays and behind-the-scenes disputes between Tel Aviv, Cairo, and Washington. The decision is expected to reinforce the Camp David peace framework between Egypt and Israel—an arrangement strained by the Gaza genocide—while cementing Israel’s emergence as a major natural gas supplier in the eastern Mediterranean and beyond.
The deal has been more than a decade in the making—and one unlikely individual played a small, but essential role in laying its groundwork: Jeffrey Epstein. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak consulted extensively with Epstein on financial deals around Leviathan for years, as Barak searched for international backers for Leviathan’s development.
Epstein and Leviathan: How the Financier Opened Doors to Netanyahu and Ehud Barak Amid Israel's Offshore Gas Fight
Russia again appears to throw cold water on hopes for a Ukrainian peace deal
The Kremlin vowed Monday to ramp up hostilities on Ukraine in response to what it alleged was a “terroristic attack” on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s property — just a day after President Donald Trump said he was close to producing a deal that would bring peace to the region.
Trump, after a Sunday meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Mar-a-Lago, sounded optimistic about getting closer to a peace agreement. But it was clear Monday that very little has changed as the war — both on the battlefield and in the information space — raged on.
Yuri Ushakov, a top Putin aide, said Monday that an alleged Ukrainian drone strike on the Russian president would trigger “the most serious response.” He also said Putin informed Trump of the attack by phone Monday morning.
The White House, when asked for comment, only pointed to a social media statement from press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying “President Trump has concluded a positive call with President Putin concerning Ukraine.”
5 takeaways on Trump-Netanyahu meeting at Mar-a-Lago
President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were in lockstep on Monday during a press conference following their lunch meeting at Mar-a-Lago, ramping up pressure on Hamas to disarm and threatening to renew attacks on Iran if it seeks to build up its ballistic missile program.
Trump said Israel had lived up to its commitments in the Gaza ceasefire plan “100 percent,” despite the U.S. reportedly scolding Netanyahu for killing a top Hamas military leader in Gaza earlier this month.
And the president sought to ramp up pressure on Israel’s adversaries, telling Hamas to disarm quickly or be “wiped out,” and even suggesting that Arab countries might intervene militarily if Hamas refuses to abide by the contours of a peace deal signed in September.
Trump said it was unclear if Iran was seeking to “build up again,” apparently referring to reports of ballistic missile testing, but he warned the U.S. could deploy its B-2 bombers if necessary, as it did to launch strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June.
Trump also discussed the latest developments in his push for peace in Ukraine, ongoing efforts to bring stability to Syria and China’s military drills around Taiwan.
Here are five key takeaways from the meeting:
Trump says US hit facility in Venezuela ‘very hard’
Asked about Venezuela during a Friday appearance on the “Cats & Cosby” show on New York’s WABC radio, Trump lauded the U.S. military’s attacks against purported drug-smuggling vessels in the region and added that U.S. forces hit a facility two days earlier.More...
“We just knocked out — I don’t know if you read or you saw — they have a big plant or big facility where they send the, you know, where the ships come from,” the president told hosts John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby. “Two nights ago, we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard.”
It is unclear where the facility is located, how the attack was carried out, what damage was done or whether there were any casualties.
On Monday, Trump shed some more light on the attack, saying the U.S. personnel hit an “implementation” area.
Airstrikes, shootings, hypothermia: The harsh reality of life in Gaza under US-backed ceasefire
Babies are still being buried in Gaza.
A five-month-old infant was wrapped in a small shroud of white cloth after an Israeli strike on a school shelter in a so-called safe zone beyond IDF control.
A 29-day-old baby was declared dead on the cold stainless steel of a table in a morgue after suffering hypothermia in his family's tent.
Children as young as 8 years old are called "suspects" by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and killed for venturing close to the shifting yellow line demarcating their control.
These are the scenes of devastation and despair during what is called a ceasefire in Gaza.
International journalists have been barred from independently reporting from the strip for more than two years. The drone footage of vast areas of ashen rubble is still shocking through a screen.
"It is one of the most devastated places on earth to date," says Alessandro Mrakic, the head of the United Nations Development Programme's Gaza office.
"85% of the buildings have been, either partially or totally damaged, with almost 2 million people being currently displaced."
Israel does not permit the entry of reconstruction material and heavy machinery required to rebuild homes in the current phase of the US-led peace plan.
Iran at war with the West and Israel, says Iran's president
Iran is at war with the United States, Israel and Europe, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Saturday, months after President Donald Trump ordered strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities.
“In my opinion, we are in a full-fledged war with America, Israel, and Europe; they do not want our country to stand on its feet,” he said Saturday in an interview on the website of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.
Pezeshkian’s statement came with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu readying a visit to the United States this weekend for a confab with Trump on Iran.
Trump’s strikes in June marked an inflection point in a nearly two-week-long armed conflict between Iran and Israel, now dubbed the 12 Day War, which the president helped end with a ceasefire in late June.
But with the White House resuming its policy of crippling sanctions against Tehran upon Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January, the strife is far from over, Pezeshkian said.
“Here, they are besieging us from every aspect, they are putting us in difficulty and constraint, creating problems — in terms of livelihood, culturally, politically, and security-wise — while raising society’s expectations,” he said. “On one side, they block our sales, our exchanges, our trade, and on the other side, expectations in society have risen. Consequently, we must all help with all our might to fix the country.”
Azerbaijan ‘Bewildered’ by Russian Move to Ditch Probe into Downed Passenger Plane
Authorities in Azerbaijan say they have been left “bewildered” after Russian officials told them that a criminal probe into the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet has been terminated.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Azeri Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, had sent a letter stating that the investigation into the incident, as well as criminal cases, had been closed.
Initial investigations suggested the aircraft was struck by Russian air defense systems amid a Ukrainian drone attack in Russ
“The letter claimed that the criminal case had been closed, which naturally raised serious questions,” Bayramov said, adding that Azerbaijan had sent an official response making clear the matter was far from resolved.
“Our expectation is that the process will be completed in accordance with the statements and apology of the Russian President in Dushanbe,” Bayramov said, referring to a meeting between Vladimir Putin and his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev in October 2025.
ia’s skies.
“The letter claimed that the criminal case had been closed, which naturally raised serious questions,” Bayramov said, adding that Azerbaijan had sent an official response making clear the matter was far from resolved.
“Our expectation is that the process will be completed in accordance with the statements and apology of the Russian President in Dushanbe,” Bayramov said, referring to a meeting between Vladimir Putin and his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev in October 2025.
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