Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Israel’s demands for U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, a rare school shooting in Canada, and the African Union prioritizing water security.
Expand the Parameters
U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Wednesday. The Israeli leader was originally scheduled to travel to Washington on Feb. 18, but renewed U.S. nuclear negotiations with Iran last week pushed up the meeting, as Netanyahu seeks to make sure that Israel’s concerns are included in any deal.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Israel’s demands for U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, a rare school shooting in Canada, and the African Union prioritizing water security.
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Expand the Parameters
U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Wednesday. The Israeli leader was originally scheduled to travel to Washington on Feb. 18, but renewed U.S. nuclear negotiations with Iran last week pushed up the meeting, as Netanyahu seeks to make sure that Israel’s concerns are included in any deal.
Wednesday’s conversation—the two leaders’ seventh since Trump took office in January 2025—was more low-profile than usual. Netanyahu entered the White House out of view from cameras, and he met with Trump behind closed doors, with no scheduled press conference after. However, Netanyahu made clear ahead of the meeting that he intended to encourage Trump to press for limits on Tehran’s missile arsenal as well as an end to Iranian support for its proxy groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, in upcoming nuclear talks.
“I will present to the president our outlook regarding the principles of these negotiations—the essential principles which, in my opinion, are important not only to Israel, but to everyone around the world who wants peace and security in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
Trump appears to be on the same page. “It’s got to be a good deal: no nuclear weapons, no missiles,” the U.S. president told Fox Business on Tuesday. He has threatened strikes on Iran if negotiators fail to reach an agreement and said such an attack could look similar to when U.S. forces targeted three Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025. “We took out their nuclear power last time, and we’ll have to see if we take out more this time,” Trump said.
All this comes as the United States continues to build up its military presence near Iran. On Tuesday, Trump told Axios that he was considering sending a second U.S. aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East. That would be in addition to the USS Abraham Lincoln and its strike group—including fighter jets, Tomahawk missiles, and several warships—which are already in the region.
A second round of U.S.-Iran talks is set to take place next week. But Tehran remains opposed to expanding negotiations beyond its nuclear program. “The Islamic Republic’s missile capabilities are nonnegotiable,” Ali Shamkhani, an advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, said on Wednesday.
Iran, though, is only one issue on Netanyahu’s agenda for Wednesday. The Israeli prime minister was also expected to discuss stalled progress in the second phase of the U.S.-brokered Israel-Hamas cease-fire deal. Trump (and his self-proclaimed title of peacemaker-in-chief) has a lot riding on its successful implementation, especially ahead of the first meeting of his so-called Board of Peace, scheduled for next week.
But recent disagreement over Israel’s handling of the occupied West Bank may complicate matters. On Sunday, Netanyahu’s security cabinet authorized steps to make it easier for Israeli settlers in the territory to buy Palestinian land and for Israeli police to demolish homes in areas under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction. In response, Trump told Axios on Tuesday that he is “against annexation.” “We have enough things to think about now,” he said. “We don’t need to be dealing with the West Bank.”
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What We’re Following
Rare mass casualty event. A mass shooting at a secondary school in western Canada on Tuesday killed at least 10 people, including the suspected assailant, and wounded dozens of others. Six people were found dead inside Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in the town of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, and a seventh person died while en route to the hospital. Two people were also found dead at a nearby residence. The alleged shooter appears to have died by a self-inflicted injury.
This was one of the deadliest mass casualty events in recent Canadian history. “This morning, parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you. Canada stands by you,” a visibly emotional Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday, adding that flags at all federal buildings will be flown at half-staff for the next seven days.
School shootings in Canada are rare, as the country has stricter gun control laws than its southern neighbor, the United States. Following a mass shooting and arson attacks in Nova Scotia in 2020 as well as the devastating Uvalde school shooting in the U.S. state of Texas in 2022, then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced a series of restrictions on handguns and assault-style weapons. However, opposition from farmers and hunters at the time forced lawmakers to abandon efforts to ban certain types of rifles and shotguns.
Seeking water security. African Union foreign ministers kicked off two-day meetings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Wednesday, with a focus on the continent’s water security. Officials are expected to outline how investing in water sanitation drives economic growth, counters environmental crises, and improves public health.
Prioritizing water security aims to help fulfill the AU’s Agenda 2063, a plan to transform Africa into a global powerhouse by achieving 20 goals (structured under seven main pillars) by 2063. These include concrete initiatives such as establishing an African central bank as well as more aspirational ambitions such as enabling full gender equality in all spheres of life.
However, “predatory moves” from foreign powers continue to threaten the continent, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos said on Wednesday. “Unfortunately, a mentality of domination, extraction, and exploitation still colors the prism through which many external actors view our continent,” he added, in apparent reference to Africa’s history of colonization and continued status as a battleground for critical minerals.
But even as Timothewos calls for greater African unity, his own country has been at the center of a regional fight over vital water resources. In September 2025, Ethiopia opened Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam, exerting greater control over the Nile River. That has sparked fierce backlash from Egypt, which relies on the Nile and argues that the project threatens its water security.
Mia Mottley’s bright future. Pollsters are forecasting that the party of Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley will likely remain in power in the island nation’s snap general election on Wednesday. Mottley is seeking a third consecutive term against opposition leader Ralph Thorne; if she succeeds, she will be Barbados’s second leader (and first female prime minister) to serve more than two terms in a row.
However, bigger things may be in store for Mottley if her success continues. Considered one of the strongest leaders in the Caribbean, Mottley has been rumored to be a potential candidate for the United Nations’ top seat: secretary-general. Her track record advocating for stronger climate accountability measures, her experience as the rotating chair of the Caribbean Community, and her party’s focus on improving costs of living have made her a popular choice to oversee the international body.
Yet Thorne’s centrist Democratic Labour Party remains critical of Mottley’s international agenda. The opposition has accused the prime minister of focusing too much attention abroad, to the detriment of domestic security and infrastructure.
Odds and Ends
Winning an Olympic medal should be cause for celebration, but for Norwegian competitor Sturla Holm Laegreid, it was a time for introspection and remorse. The biathlete finished third in the 20-kilometer individual race on Tuesday; however, Laegreid used his postgame interview with Norwegian broadcaster NRK not to revel in glory but rather to confess that he had cheated on his then-girlfriend three months ago. “I’m not quite sure what I’m trying to say by saying this now, but sport has taken a back seat in recent days,” Laegreid said. “I wish I could share this with her.”
Laegreid’s former partner responded on Wednesday, saying it will be “hard to forgive” Laegreid for cheating on her and for turning his confession into a public spectacle. Yikes.
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