“The Iran war is ripping across the US economy at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars in lost output, as soaring fuel prices, rising borrowing costs and supply chain snags erode Americans’ prosperity,” the Financial Times reports.

“While early estimates by the Trump administration have put the direct price tag to US taxpayers at $29 billion, economists foresee a far larger toll once the full military bill and higher financing costs are considered.”

“Hamas militants and their allies raped, assaulted and sexually tortured their victims during and after the October 7, 2023 terror attack on southern Israel ‘to maximize pain and suffering,’ a landmark new report has concluded,” CNN reports.

“The report presents the most comprehensive body of evidence yet of sexual and gender-based violence against women, men and children, which it describes as ‘systematic, widespread, and integral to’ the assault.”

New York Times: “China increasingly casts itself not as a fading civilization trying to catch up to the West but as a superpower poised to surpass it. Chinese nationalists and state-linked commentators say they have Mr. Trump to thank. America under his rule, they say, validates Mr. Xi’s worldview centered on ‘the rise of the East and decline of the West.’”

“For decades, many Chinese viewed the United States with a mix of admiration, envy and resentment. America represented wealth, technological sophistication and institutional confidence. Even critics of Washington who reviled the American system often assumed that it worked.”

“Mr. Trump’s ascent and his volatile second term shattered that image.”

New York Times: “The Senate of the Philippines was thrown into chaos Wednesday as what appeared to be gunshots were fired inside the chamber after a top ally of the country’s former leader said police were coming to arrest him.”

“At about 7:30 p.m. while the Senate was in session, a live broadcast from the capital, Manila, aired the sound of explosions and gunshots. It was not clear who fired the shots.”