Overview

• Trump said Israel and Hamas agreed to start the first phase of his Gaza plan—hostage releases in exchange for an Israeli troop pullback and prisoner releases—as UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned against attempts to obstruct implementation.
• Egypt, Qatar and Turkey are facilitating indirect Israel–Hamas talks in Cairo, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scheduled a cabinet session to consider the agreement.
• Vladimir Putin praised Trump’s work on resolving long-running crises and said the U.S. leader is sincere about settling Ukraine, while briefing CIS counterparts on the Alaska talks that both sides have kept partly undisclosed.
• Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said Russia made concessions at the Anchorage summit and that those accords remain the only working basis for a Ukraine settlement, whose potential he stressed is not exhausted.
• The U.S. ambassador to NATO said Trump is working very hard to end the war and is building leverage—including sanctions, energy measures and possible advanced arms options—while Trump ruled out reducing U.S. troop numbers in Europe, cooled on a meeting with Xi, Melania Trump cited an open channel with Putin on Ukrainian children, and the New York Times reported Washington rejected a Venezuelan resource offer.