• Following the return by Hamas of all 20 surviving Israeli hostages on Monday morning as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and the terror group, Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom were imprisoned since the October 7, 2023, massacre, including 250 who were serving life sentences. Hamas was also required to turn over the bodies of all 28 deceased hostages through the Red Cross, but it returned only four, remains that were then sent to a forensics lab for identification. While Israeli public broadcasting reported that Hamas members had informed mediators that they would be unable to immediately return the bodies due to “limitations beyond our control,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz posted on X Monday that “Any delay or deliberate avoidance will be considered a gross violation of the agreement and will be responded to accordingly.” Meanwhile, Hamas has killed at least 33 peoplein the Gaza Strip since Friday, reportedly in an effort to secure the region in the event the ceasefire collapses.
• President Donald Trump delivered a triumphant speech to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem on Monday morning, after completion of the first phase of the Gaza peace treaty, saying that this moment marked not only the end of the war, but “the historic dawn of the new Middle East.” During the speech, Trump praised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said that Israel’s President Isaac Herzog should pardon Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption charges. Though Israeli parliamentarians received Trump with rapturous applause, a member of Netanyahu’s party, Amit Halevi, boycotted the speech, saying the “agreement is the opposite of victory,” and the president was briefly interrupted by two left-wing members, Ayman Odeh and Ofer Cassif, who shouted and raised a banner reading “Genocide” before being swiftly removed from the chamber.
• Later on Monday, Trump traveled to Egypt to head up a conference with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi attended by nearly three dozen global leaders to discuss plans for Gaza’s future. The leaders signed a document that, according to Trump, will “spell out a lot of rules and regulations and lots of other things.” Netanyahu was not in attendance. Meanwhile, Trump, el-Sisi, and the leaders of Qatar and Turkey—Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, respectively—signed a memo supporting the ceasefire and hostage release deal. The memo emphasized the nations’ pursuit of a “comprehensive vision of peace, security, and shared prosperity in the region, grounded in the principles of mutual respect and shared destiny.”
• The White House and Ukrainian government confirmed on Monday that Trumpwill host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Fridayto discuss potential arms and resources the U.S. could provide Ukraine, including long-range Tomahawk missiles. Trump told reporters on Sunday that he was considering giving Russian President Vladimir Putin an ultimatum: end the war, or the U.S. would give Ukraine Tomahawks, to which Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied that “the topic of Tomahawks is of extreme concern” and renders a “very dramatic moment” of high tensions between the U.S. and Russia. Meanwhile, Zelensky told the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Parliamentary Assembly that lessons from the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal could be applied to ongoing peace efforts in Ukraine. “Putin can be forced into peace—just like any other terrorist,” he said. Russia launched 96 drones on Monday night, striking central Ukraine and the city of Kharkiv, injuring an undetermined number of people.
• U.S. and Cuban government officials announced on Monday that José Daniel Ferrer, an imprisoned Cuban opposition leader and activist, was released to the U.S. after both countries reached an agreement. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement on Monday that Ferrer was “suffering years of abuse, torture, and threats to his life in Cuba” and that the administration is “glad that Ferrer is now free from the [Cuban] regime’s oppression.” Meanwhile, Alejandro García, a high-ranking official in Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, said that Ferrer was released because of “a request made by the U.S. government.” On Friday, Cuba’s Foreign Ministry denied reports from the U.S. that Cuban military service members havebeen deployed to Russia or have aided in the invasion of Ukraine, stating that the country has, since 2023, convicted 26 defendants in five separate cases of engaging in criminal mercenarism.

In the meantime, the United States is pursuing a different path. “We’re getting rid of all the so-called renewables,” proclaimed President Donald Trump to the United Nations last month. “By the way, they’re a joke. They don’t work. They’re too expensive.”

Last week, the Trump administration rescinded almost $8 billion allocated by the Department of Energy during the administration of President Joe Biden to more than 300 green energy projects, with a further $12 billion being considered for cancellation as the federal government shutdown continues. Just weeks before that, the White House announced $625 million in new subsidies to keep aging coal plants open, along with opening up to 13.1 million acres of federal land to coal mining and reducing regulations on water and air pollution.

As the world forges ahead with massive investments in clean energy, the White House is defiantly tacking away from an emerging consensus under the tagline of“Unleashing Energy Dominance,” arguing that it’s restoring capacity and balance to a power grid struggling to meet electricity demand. The Trump administration’s moves raise the question of whether it is making a costly miscalculation—or whether concerns about grid reliability and energy costs reflect realities other nations are overlooking.