| Middle East → President Trump arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to kick off his four-day Middle East visit, which is expected to focus on economic deals with key regional allies including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. Saudi Arabia has reportedly already committed to a $600 billion investment in the US, though Trump has pushed for more. Likewise, Qatar reportedly plans to announce $200-300 billion in investments in the US. Further deals may focus on expanding energy cooperation, arms sales, and artificial intelligence. While the Trump team does not seem to be highlighting the conflict in Israel on this trip, it remains a key source of tension in the region. Within Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu gave Hamas a deadline of May 15 (the end of Trump’s trip) to agree to a ceasefire deal — likely to closely resemble Steve Witkoff’s proposal from earlier this year — or they would escalate military operations in Gaza. President Trump’s team, over the last month or so, side stepped Netanyahu’s ultimatum and secured the release of the last living American hostage, Edan Alexander, on Monday. The move may indicate that Trump is losing patience with Netanyahu’s seeming resistance to ending the war. Trump also reportedly hopes to restart talks on Saudi-Israeli normalization this week, though KSA has made clear that a prerequisite for normalization is a concrete, irreversible step toward Palestinian statehood. With the war poised to escalate, normalization seems far off for now. → Qatar reportedly offered a free Boeing 747 to President Trump to serve as Air Force One, drawing severe criticism from US lawmakers. If accepted, the plane would amount to an approximately $400 million gift. The specifics of the offer sparked criticism from government ethics experts, who raise concerns that it is a violation of the Foreign Entanglements Clause of the Constitution. |
| International Affairs → As of Tuesday, the Kremlin still has not announced whether a representative will attend direct peace talks in Turkey, despite having initiated the proposal. President Zelenskyy has already confirmed he would attend if Putin does. Should both sides agree to convene in Istanbul, President Trump is expected to travel to Turkey at the end of his Middle East trip to participate in the negotiations. → On Monday, Kurdish PKK militant group announced that it would disarm and disband. The announcement comes days after the PKK convened a party congress, which determined that the historical aim of the PKK — to challenge policies that suppress Kurdish rights — had been democratically achieved. The decision, if fully executed, would end four decades of conflict between the PKK and the Turkish government. → On Saturday, Pakistan and India launched air strikes across the border, largely targeting air bases and other related facilities. However, hostilities were quickly deescalated by a US-brokered ceasefire. The ceasefire, now on its third day, remains fragile. They two countries are expected to hold low-level peace talks later this week. Cyber → The North Korea-linked Konni APT is reportedly connected to a phishing campaign against government entities in Ukraine, with the intention of collecting intelligence on behalf of Russia. Konni APT, a cyber-espionage group, has previously targeted entities in South Korea, the US, and Russia, most often using phishing emails to upload malware onto the recipient’s device. |
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