“Iran’s leaders want to reach a nuclear deal with the U.S., but they are also rushing to prepare for war in case talks between the countries fail,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Tehran is deploying its forces, dispersing decision-making authority, fortifying its nuclear sites and expanding its crackdown on domestic dissent. The moves reflect its leaders’ belief that the survival of the regime itself is at stake.”

“Domestically, the Islamic Republic is more vulnerable than it has been in decades. Its leaders are facing widespread popular discontent over the worsening economic picture and the mass killing of protesters last month. Meanwhile, the U.S. has deployed two aircraft carriers and a host of other warships and jet fighters to the region in preparation for a possible attack.”

“The U.S. presented new seismic data Tuesday to buttress its recent allegation that China has secretly carried out low-yield nuclear tests, challenging Beijing’s insistence that it has scrupulously observed an international accord banning all nuclear detonations,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Germany’s population is projected to shrink by nearly 5 percent within 25 years — a significantly steeper decline than previously forecast,” the Financial Times reports.

“Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been holding secret talks with the grandson and caretaker of Cuba’s aging de facto dictator, Raul Castro, as the U.S. puts unprecedented pressure on Havana’s regime,” Axios reports.

“The talks between Rubio and Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro are bypassing official Cuban government channels. They show that the Trump administration sees the 94-year-old revolutionary as the communist island’s true decision-maker.”

CNN: Under U.S. pressure, life in Cuba grinds to a halt.

“The Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize. It could begin very soon,” Axios reports.

“A U.S. military operation in Iran would likely be a massive, weeks-long campaign that would look more like full-fledged war than last month’s pinpoint operation in Venezuela.”

“Over the past year, the Trump administration has engaged in unconventional diplomacy, gunboat diplomacy and, in the most sensitive crises, diplomacy without diplomats,” the New York Times reports.

“On Tuesday, the administration tried all three tactics at once. In Geneva, President Trump’s most trusted envoys — his real estate friend Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner — engaged the Iranians in the morning, then the Russians and the Ukrainians in the afternoon.”

“It was a stark example of Mr. Trump’s conviction that the State Department and the National Security Council, the two institutions that have coordinated negotiations over global crises for nearly 80 years, are best left on the sidelines.”

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky told Axios that his people would reject a peace deal that involves Ukraine unilaterally withdrawing from the eastern Donbas region and turning it over to Russia.

President Trump said that U.S. government officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, are in discussions with Cuba’s Communist regime as the island nation faces worsening economic conditions, Bloomberg reports.

Reuters: “Garbage has begun to pile up on street corners in the Cuban capital of Havana, attracting hordes of flies and reeking of rotten food, in one of the most visible impacts of the U.S. bid to prevent oil from reaching the Caribbean’s largest island.”

The Economist: “As Russia’s war against Ukraine enters its fifth year, the economy that sustains it has been transformed in ways that will be difficult—perhaps impossible—to reverse without another crisis. Westerners keep waiting for the Russian economy to collapse. It won’t.”

“But nor will it recover. It has entered what mountaineers call the death zone: the altitude above 8,000 metres at which the human body consumes itself faster than it can be repaired.”

“Iran’s economic meltdown, which around the new year triggered protests that threatened the regime’s grasp on power, is getting worse,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“A harsh crackdown on the demonstrations and the threat of U.S. military intervention have dragged the country’s currency lower, crippling daily life for millions.”

Rachel Bade: “Now, about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s much-hyped trip to the Munich Security Conference this weekend. Let’s just say, it didn’t go as planned…”

“Days after her appearance, the New York Democrats’ flubs are still making the rounds on unforgiving social media. It’s a reminder of the high stakes for potential 2028 hopefuls, as Republicans circle like sharks, eager to seize on any misstep to take the opposition down.”

“AOC faceplanted on a question about a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Known for her self-assured swagger and being quick on her feed, she stuttered, visibly squirmed and barfed out a word salad of a response.”

Wall Street Journal: “More than 40 countries have been targeted or involved in North Korea’s cyber work, according to a U.S.-led consortium of 11 nations documenting Pyongyang’s sanctions violations. The cyber agents are largely based in China and Russia, where the internet connection is stronger and won’t trace back to North Korea. They generated up to $800 million for the Kim regime in 2024, the group said.”

“American companies sit atop the list of targets because of the high pay and intelligence-gathering value. But the North Koreans don’t just work alone.”

“They seek to appear more credible to employers by paying Americans to host so-called ‘laptop farms,’ where company-issued computers can be shipped and then used remotely by the North Koreans to appear online as if they were U.S.-based personnel.”

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Nobel Institute leader Kristian Berg Harpviken explained to The Atlantic why Trump’s threats, cajoling and fury over not winning the Nobel Peace Prize won’t be successful.

Said Harpviken: “A candidate who is aggressively campaigning for him or herself will neither be penalized nor privileged.”

“President Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting at Mar-a-Lago in December that the president would support Israeli strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program if a deal between Washington and Tehran could not be reached,” CBS News reports.

“Two months later, CBS News has learned that internal discussions between senior figures in the U.S. military and intelligence community have started to contemplate the possibility of supporting a fresh round of Israeli strikes on Iran. American deliberations have focused less on whether Israel could act than on how the United States might assist, including the provision of aerial refueling for Israeli aircraft and the delicate matter of securing overflight permission from countries along the potential route.”

New York Times: “These are among several secretive nuclear-related sites in Sichuan Province that have expanded and undergone upgrades in recent years.”

“China’s buildup complicates efforts to revive global arms controls after the expiration of the final remaining nuclear arms treaty between the United States and Russia. Washington argues that any successor agreements must also bind China, but Beijing has shown no interest.”

Wall Street Journal: “Some sleuths have resorted to studying body language as they try to pierce the veil of secrecy. They pointed to footage showing Zhang facing away from Xi as the leader walked past after a legislative session last year, to speculate about souring ties between the men.”

“Xi’s motives for ejecting Zhang may never be definitively known. But that hasn’t stopped foreign academics, officials and business executives from trying to find out—and some are turning to arcane tea leaf-reading techniques dating back to the era of Mao Zedong.”

“Aleksei Navalny was most likely poisoned by a toxin found in a South American frog, five European countries said on Saturday, making the most concrete Western accusation yet that Russia’s leading opposition figure was murdered by his government in an Arctic prison two years ago,” the New York Times reports.