The briefing for Sunday, February 15.

The Trump administration reached a trade agreement with Taiwan on Thursday establishing a 15% tariff rate on most Taiwanese exports to the US and committing Taiwan to $250 billion in investments in American chip production. The agreement, signed by Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick alongside Taiwanese Vice Premier Li-chiun Cheng, aims to address a trade imbalance of nearly $127 billion during the first 11 months of 2025, according to the Census Bureau.

Under the deal, Taiwan agreed to remove or reduce 99% of its tariff barriers, with the 15% rate matching those levied on other Asia-Pacific partners like Japan and South Korea. Taiwan will invest $250 billion in US industries including computer chips, AI applications, and energy, with an additional $250 billion in credit guarantees for smaller businesses. The Taiwanese government said the agreement eliminates disadvantages from lacking a free trade agreement with the US and allows its companies to compete on equal footing with Japan, South Korea, and the EU.

The deal comes ahead of President Trump's planned visit to China in April and reflects deepening economic ties between Washington and Taipei despite China's claims over Taiwan. The agreement would ease US sales of autos, pharmaceutical drugs, and food products in Taiwan while potentially helping reduce the trade imbalance through chip manufacturing investments. Taiwan's government will submit the reciprocal trade deal and investment plans to its legislature for approval, with President Lai Ching-te noting that tariffs on 93 items will remain unchanged to protect key agriculture and industrial sectors like rice farming.

Iran and the United States will hold a second round of nuclear talks on Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland announced Saturday, following initial indirect discussions in Oman on February 6. The talks come as President Trump has warned Tehran that failure to reach an agreement would be "very traumatic" and deployed the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier to the Middle East to join other military assets in the region.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi told the BBC that Iran is ready to discuss compromises, including diluting its 60%-enriched uranium stockpile, if the US addresses sanctions relief. He indicated the "issue of zero enrichment is not on the table anymore," suggesting movement from the Trump administration's initial demand for no uranium enrichment. The first round of talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff were described as proceeding "more or less in a positive direction" by Iran, though both sides caution it's too early to judge success.

The talks face significant obstacles, including Iran's refusal to discuss its ballistic missile program or support for proxy groups like Hamas and Hezbollah—demands emphasized by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his Washington visit this week. Iran has been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short technical step from weapons-grade levels, and the UN's nuclear watchdog has been unable to inspect Iran's nuclear stockpile for months. Similar negotiations broke down last June when Israel launched a 12-day war on Iran that included US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites.

The Trump administration reversed the 2009 endangerment finding on Thursday, eliminating the scientific ruling that underpinned much of US greenhouse gas regulation under the Clean Air Act. The Environmental Protection Agency determination had identified six greenhouse gases, including carbon monoxide and methane, as endangering current and future generations following a 2007 Supreme Court decision requiring the EPA to regulate such emissions as air pollutants.

The reversal removes legal restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from major industries, particularly vehicle manufacturers. The White House claims the change will reduce automobile costs by approximately $2,400 per car, though the Environmental Defense Fund estimates the policy could add 7.5 to 18 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases—three times current annual US emissions—by 2055. Ford welcomed the move as addressing "the imbalance between current emissions standards and customer choice," while the Alliance for Automotive Innovation said it would help correct "unachievable emissions regulations."

Climate law experts warn the decision puts US automakers at a competitive disadvantage internationally, as other markets maintain strict climate targets. Columbia University's Michael Gerrard noted that "nobody else is going to want to buy American cars" built to relaxed standards. The reversal also reopens the door to "public nuisance" climate lawsuits in courts, after a 2011 Supreme Court ruling had placed regulatory power solely with the EPA. The decision is expected to face legal challenges from environmental groups.

Five European countries announced Saturday that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with epibatidine, a rare neurotoxin found in poison dart frogs, marking the second anniversary of his death in an Arctic penal colony. The foreign ministries of the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands said laboratory analysis of samples from Navalny's body "conclusively confirmed" the presence of the toxin, which is not found naturally in Russia and can be manufactured in labs.

The joint statement declared that "Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison" and reported Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for breaching the Chemical Weapons Convention. Epibatidine works similarly to nerve agents, causing shortness of breath, convulsions, seizures, slowed heart rate, and ultimately death. Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya, who had been "certain from the first day" of poisoning, called Putin "a murderer" who "must be held accountable."

Navalny died on February 16, 2024, while serving a 19-year sentence he believed was politically motivated. Russian authorities claimed he became ill after a walk and died from natural causes, vehemently denying involvement. This was the second poisoning attack on Navalny—he survived a 2020 nerve agent attack that he blamed on the Kremlin, receiving treatment in Germany before returning to Russia, where he was immediately arrested. The UK has previously accused Russia of using chemical weapons in the 2018 Salisbury attack on former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal with Novichok nerve agent.

More than 6,000 people were killed over three days when Sudan's Rapid Support Forces unleashed "a wave of intense violence … shocking in its scale and brutality" during their assault on el-Fasher in late October, according to a UN Human Rights Office report released Friday. The paramilitaries and their allied Arab Janjaweed militias overran el-Fasher, the Sudanese army's only remaining stronghold in Darfur, on October 26 after more than 18 months of siege.

The 29-page UN report documented at least 4,400 people killed inside el-Fasher between October 25-27, with more than 1,600 others killed while fleeing. The findings, drawn from interviews with 140 victims and witnesses and corroborated by satellite imagery and video footage, detail atrocities ranging from mass killings and summary executions to sexual violence, torture, and ethnic targeting. In one incident, RSF fighters opened fire on 1,000 people sheltering in a university dormitory, killing around 500 people, with one witness describing bodies thrown into the air "like a scene out of a horror movie."

The actual death toll is "undoubtedly significantly higher," the report warned, noting it does not include at least 460 people killed when RSF stormed the Saudi Maternity hospital on October 28 or 300 killed in attacks on a displaced persons camp. The atrocities amount to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. The RSF offensive mirrors patterns from Sudan's civil war that began in April 2023, which has created the world's largest humanitarian crisis with parts of the country facing famine. The Biden administration accused the RSF of carrying out genocide in the ongoing conflict.