US President Donald Trump is considering new military strikes against Iran with the aim of inspiring a renewed protest movement and as a response to failed denuclearization talks, according to media reports.

Two sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters that options include targeted strikes on Iranian security forces and leaders. The goal is to create conditions for “regime change” following weeks of violent protests, Reuters reported. CNN, citing its own sources, stated that Trump is also considering strikes on nuclear sites and government institutions.

Trump has not yet made a final decision on whether to take military action.

The planning comes as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the US military posture in the region “could respond and potentially… preemptively prevent” an attack on American forces. During a Senate hearing, Rubio described Iran as “weaker than it has ever been” but acknowledged that any attempt at regime change would be “more complex” than in Venezuela, where the US abducted President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month.

A US carrier strike group, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, has recently moved into the region with Trump publicly warning Iran that “the next attack will be far worse” than the US bombing of its nuclear sites last June and urged it to “make a deal” on its nuclear program.

Iran, however, has dismissed Trump’s demands to “make a deal” and has instead declared that it is “200 percent” ready to defend itself in the cause of a new US attack.

Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi warned that any US attack would be met with an “appropriate response, not a proportionate one,” and could target US bases in the region.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations also said Tehran “stands ready for dialogue based on mutual respect and interests – but if pushed, it will defend itself and respond like never before.”

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India’s economy is projected to record steady growth in the 2026-27 financial year, powered by strong domestic demand despite the impact of US tariffs, the South Asian nation’s Finance Ministry said on Thursday.

The federal government’s Economic Survey tabled in parliament on Thursday projected GDP growth in the next financial year, which begins in April, to be between 6.8% and 7.2%, only slightly lower than the current year’s projection of 7.4%.

The survey attributed the marginal slowdown to global volatility weighing on the outlook.

“Steady growth amid global uncertainty, requiring caution, but not pessimism,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the survey.

“For India, global conditions translate into uncertainties rather than immediate macroeconomic stress,” the survey said. “Slower growth in key trading partners, tariff-induced disruptions to trade and volatility in capital flows could intermittently weigh on exports and investor sentiment.”

The survey also acknowledged that a weak currency would “cause investors to pause.” India’s rupee slid to a record low of 91.9850 against the dollar on Thursday.

New Delhi’s projection of this financial year’s growth of 7.4% is above the 6.3%-6.8% range forecasted in last year’s survey.

The upward revision in the projected figures for 2025-26 comes after US President Donald Trump imposed a 50% tariff on India in August, half of which was a punitive measure for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.

To mitigate the impact of the US tariff and boost demand, New Delhi slashed the goods and services tax in September.

The federal budget to be presented on February 1 is expected to include measures to bolster the economy and ring-fence it from tariff shocks, according to reports.

Last year India overtook Japan to become the world’s fourth largest economy behind the US, China, and Germany, according to official figures.

India is also trying to diversify its trade basket. New Delhi finalized a trade deal with the EU this week, after signing pacts with the UK, Oman, and New Zealand last year. It is in talks with nearly a dozen trade blocs and countries for similar deals.

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Washington’s closest Gulf allies – Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – have said they will not permit their territory or airspace to be used for US military action against Iran.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a phone call on Tuesday that the kingdom “will not allow its airspace or territory to be used for any military actions against Iran.”

This followed a similar announcement on Monday from the UAE, which said it would not provide logistical support or serve as a staging ground for “hostile military actions” against Tehran.

The refusals complicate US military planning, as both nations host substantial US military assets. Saudi Arabia stations more than 2,300 US troops and has long-standing security partnerships with Washington. The UAE hosts 5,000 US military personnel at Al Dhafra Air Base, just outside Abu Dhabi.

Analysts interpret the moves as an attempt to avoid being drawn into a broader war and to hedge against Iranian retaliation. Military experts cited by the WSJ noted that while the Saudi and Emirati decisions increase operational complexity and costs, they do not preclude US action.

President Donald Trump recently bolstered the US military presence in the Middle East, deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and additional fighter squadrons and missile-defense systems to the region.

Another Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, the USS Delbert D. Black, reportedly joined the force on Wednesday, bringing the number of warships in the CENTCOM area of responsibility to at least ten.

Trump has said the deployment of a “beautiful armada” is a show of force intended to pressure Iran over its nuclear program and its violent crackdown on domestic protests, while leaving the door open to diplomacy.

Earlier this week, the US initiated large-scale, multi-day military exercises across the Middle East. The operation reportedly aims to validate procedures for dispersing personnel and jets to various “contingency locations” and integrating command with unnamed “partner nations.”

Iran previously warned that any country facilitating an attack would be considered “hostile.” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi reiterated on Wednesday that Tehran is “200 percent ready to defend itself” and would deliver an “appropriate, not proportionate” response, likely aimed at US bases in the region.

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Replacing the New START Treaty between the US and Russia – which expires in just a week – would be extremely difficult and time-consuming, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned. His comments come after US President Donald Trump suggested Washington could let the agreement lapse and seek a new and “better” deal later.

The New START Treaty, which was signed in 2010 and extended in 2021, caps each side at 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads and 700 deployed launchers, and includes transparency and verification mechanisms. It remains the last legally binding arms control agreement preventing the two nuclear powers from sliding back into a Cold War-style arms race.

In early January, Trump dismissed concerns about the deal’s expiration. “If it expires, it expires,” he told the New York Times. “We’ll just do a better agreement.”

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Peskov said Moscow’s stance on the issue was “consistent,” adding: “We continue to wait, but the deadline is close. There has been no response from the United States.” 

Peskov warned that negotiating a replacement “takes a lot of time and is complicated.” Letting the treaty lapse, he said, would create a “serious deficit” in the legal framework governing nuclear arms, undermine global stability, and serve neither Russian nor US interests.

In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin floated a stopgap proposal, saying Moscow was ready to continue observing New START’s central numerical limits for one year after February 5, provided the US did the same.

While Trump has not opposed nuclear negotiations in principle, he insisted that the framework should include China. In August, he said that denuclearization talks with Russia and China were “very important,” adding that “Russia is willing to do it, and I think China is going to be willing to do it too.”

China – which is estimated to possess around 600 nuclear warheads – has rejected the push, with its Foreign Ministry calling it “neither reasonable nor realistic” and urging countries with the largest arsenals to shoulder “primary responsibility” for nuclear disarmament.

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The US dollar has reached a four-year low, having dropped 2.3% in January following a 9% decline in 2025. However, US President Donald Trump seems unfazed by the downturn, calling the level of the greenback “great” in comments on Tuesday.

But Trump’s position on the dollar has hardly been consistent – or even coherent. In July 2025, he said “I will never say I like a low currency,” adding “I’m the person that likes a strong dollar, but a weak dollar makes you a hell of a lot more money.” 

What Trump really wants is to have his cake and to eat it too. Trump often equates a strong dollar with national power and prestige and likes its status as the world’s primary currency for trade and transactions. But he would also like a weaker dollar because that makes American goods cheaper to buy abroad, which could provide a boost to his aim of bringing manufacturing back to the US, a pillar of his MAGA platform.

He has previously called an overpriced dollar “a big problem” in the context of reshoring industry and bringing jobs back. On the other hand, a weak dollar raises the cost of imports, thus putting upward pressure on inflation, and Trump is very sensitive to inflation.

A weaker dollar is also consistent with Trump’s stated goals of reducing US trade deficits. Whether reducing trade deficits is even a worthy goal is a completely separate question. But here again, Trump runs into a dilemma – in fact it’s one that has a name: the Triffin Dilemma.

The Triffin Dilemma states that a country that has the world’s reserve currency must run trade deficits because it has to supply that currency to the rest of the world. You want the world to use your currency? Make sure it’s circulating globally in abundance. So the issuing country must export more of its currency than it imports – basically it has to run permanent trade deficits. If the US were to run trade surpluses, dollars would flow back home rather than circulating abroad, thus starving the world of dollars.

China might be on its way to becoming the globe’s economic superpower, but its trade structure (and capital controls) makes it very unlikely the yuan will become the globe’s go-to currency.

So does Trump want to end trade deficits or maintain the status of the dollar? Hard to see how he could have both.

Many analysts think that given the explosion of US debt and deficits, a weaker dollar is essentially inevitable. There are three defining features to the current situation. The US has: (1) large and persistent fiscal deficits now running at around $2 trillion per year; (2) a huge stock of outstanding debt that now stands at over $38.5 trillion; (3) and it issues the global reserve currency. These three features have to somehow be made to work.

So the US is trying to keep borrowing a lot, keep owing a lot, and keep supplying dollars to the world. And it’s trying to do this without crashing the economy or spiking interest rates.

Really, the only release valve for this is a weaker dollar because here is what happens when the dollar strengthens. Dollar-denominated debt outside the US becomes harder to service (and there is a lot of this debt out there), so global borrowers scramble to get ahold of dollars. This creates a shortage of dollars globally. And this pushes the dollar even higher in what can become a negative feedback loop. So an overly strong dollar creates stress abroad as countries have to raise dollars. One way they do that is to sell US Treasuries. However, this has the effect of pushing US yields higher (the bonds lose value so the yield is higher because price and yield move in opposite directions). Higher yields raise borrowing costs for the US government, thus working directly against the goal of financing large deficits cheaply.

Also think about it like this: a strong dollar means US assets are more expensive in local-currency terms so foreign investors hesitate to allocate to dollar assets (such as US debt). So the US ends up with more debt to issue and fewer willing foreign buyers. This means higher yields if the dollar stays too strong – and higher yields are very dangerous for the US financial system as we have seen on many occasions. A strong dollar is therefore ultimately a destabilizing force.

So what Trump is really trying to do is hold these the features listed above together despite the centrifugal forces pulling them apart. How much of that does Trump really understand? Hard to say, but he’s not wrong to embrace a weaker dollar.

India’s state-backed Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) expects massive demand for Russian Sukhoi superjets as the South Asian nation boosts regional connectivity, its top official has said.

HAL entered into a joint venture with Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) to manufacture SJ-100 superjets, on the sidelines of the Wings India 2026 aero exhibition in Hyderabad on Wednesday. The SJ-100 has a capacity to seat 103 passengers.

The SJ-100 program will help Indian airlines overcome delays in aircraft deliveries from global manufacturers, HAL Chairman and Managing Director, D K Sunil, was quoted by the PTI news agency as saying on Wednesday.

“We see a good market of upwards of 200 aircraft for this size of India and you know in the local region,” he said, referring to the Indian government’s regional connectivity program.

“In three years we will do the roll-out in a semi knock-down condition. Bring all the assemblies, assemble it. That is the target in three years. So, bring in all the facilities, bring in the test equipment and get it going,” he added, according to the report.

UAC will provide technical assistance, design services, and specialist support to re-equip HAL’s facilities.

Sunil said HAL is exploring leasing aircraft before full-scale manufacturing begins at its facilities, according to the report.

“In the next year or so, year and a half, we can get in about ten aircraft. So, that is the idea that we are bringing in,” he added.

Manufacturing the SJ-100 in India is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative to boost domestic production capabilities.
UAC also signed a deal at the Hyderabad air show to supply six Ilyushin aircraft to an Indian firm. 

The Russian company will provide assistance to the Indian company to gradually increase the capabilities of aircraft assembly, modification, maintenance, repair, and overhaul, as well as infrastructure development.

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French Justice Minister Gerard Darmanin has proposed a near-total halt to legal immigration for up to three years, as he prepares to take on the right-wing National Rally in next year’s presidential election.

Speaking to French broadcaster LCI this week, Darmanin said that he supports “a suspension of immigration for two or three years, with a corresponding increase in wages so that the jobs that foreigners do at very low cost go to French citizens.” 

After the moratorium, he proposed introducing a “quota system,” and holding a referendum to decide the number of immigrants allowed into France in the future.

There are nearly 4.5 million legal immigrants in France, accounting for more than 8% of the adult population, according to figures from the country’s Interior Ministry. An additional 700,000 migrants are believed to be living in France illegally. According to an opinion poll cited by The Times, 80% of French voters support tougher immigration policies.

National Rally leader Jordan Bardella is currently leading all opinion polls for next year’s presidential election, with former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party a distant third. Bardella has labeled immigration a threat “to the very existence of France,” and has promised that his first act as president would be to hold a referendum on immigration.

Darmanin is a member of Macron’s party. He told LCI that he considers himself “presidential material,” and called on his party to hold a primary election to choose a candidate to take on the National Rally.

Darmanin drafted an ambitious immigration reform bill in 2023, which would have introduced strict quotas, ended family reunification and birthright citizenship, and barred most immigrants from accessing social benefits.

However, these provisions were stricken from the text by France’s Constitutional Council. The version signed by Macron the following year allowed illegal immigrants in certain industries to obtain work permits, while simplifying the deportation process for others.

Despite uproar from the right-wing voters he is now trying to court, Darmanin said that he would not introduce another bill on the subject.

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The price of gold has continued to rally on Wednesday, reaching above $5,300 per ounce to an all-time high. The rally has been attributed to strong safe-haven demand amid geopolitical uncertainty and a weakening US dollar.

On Wednesday, spot gold prices rose to $5,319 as of 19:50 GMT, extending the precious metal’s record-breaking streak. Prices have gained more than 20% since the start of the year, building on last year’s substantial gains.

According to analysts, the rally has been supported by a combination of global uncertainty and economic factors, including tensions in the Middle East, increased central bank buying, as well as US President Donald Trump’s military intervention in Venezuela and his push to acquire Greenland, which have boosted demand for tangible assets. The US dollar’s nosediving to a four-year low this week has reinforced gold’s appeal as a hedge against instability.

Market watchers are increasingly bullish on gold. Forecasts from the London Bullion Market Association suggest prices could reach $6,000 to $7,000 per ounce this year. Analysts at Bank of America project the $6,000 mark as early as spring.

The rally has brought Russia substantial financial gains and has in fact largely offset the roughly $300 billion in central-bank reserves frozen in the West. Unlike the funds immobilized abroad, Russia’s domestically held gold reserves can be sold or pledged as collateral, providing Moscow with greater financial flexibility.

Russia’s reported central-bank gold reserves totaled 74.8 million troy ounces (2,326.54 metric tons) at the start of 2026. The market value of that holding climbed nearly 67% in 2025, from $195.7 billion to $326.5 billion.

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A group of Russian lawmakers has submitted a bill to the State Duma that would tighten controls on individuals designated as foreign agents.

The draft law would introduce new restrictions, including bans on foreign agents registering as individual entrepreneurs and accessing remote banking services, lawmaker Vasily Piskaryov told Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Tuesday.

A bill submitted to Russia’s lower house of parliament to tighten oversight of foreign agents would require banks and the state authorities to provide information on their financial transactions and accounts electronically within three days of receiving a request from the Justice Ministry.

In an explanatory note, the lawmakers said that, amid what they described as ongoing “subversive activity” by “unfriendly countries,” the bill would “increase transparency” in the financial and economic activities of foreign agents and allow for the “swift suppression” of violations of laws governing individuals under foreign influence.

The bill is aimed at improving the efficiency of inter-agency cooperation in monitoring compliance with legislation on foreign agents, Piskaryov, one of its authors, told the outlet. The proposals would ban foreign agents from registering as individual entrepreneurs or self-employed workers, using remote banking services or electronic signatures, conducting property transactions, and accessing state services online.

The new rules would make it possible to “strengthen oversight” of the finances of foreign agents and quickly “respond to violations of the law,” State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on Max messaging channel.

He added that it is necessary to “put a stop to any illegal activity by those who have betrayed our country.”

Adopted in 2012, Russia’s foreign agent law applies to individuals or entities engaged in financial or political activities in the interests of a foreign state.

The designation imposes certain restrictions and requirements. Foreign agents must label all their content accordingly, regularly submit detailed financial reports to the Justice Ministry, and disclose their funding sources. Failure to comply is punishable by up to two years in prison.

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Greenland has clear “red lines” it will not cross in talks over its future with the US, the island’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has said.

The autonomous Danish territory has been at the center of a transatlantic rift since US President Donald Trump announced plans to annex it, citing its mineral wealth and strategic location, while refusing to rule out force and threatening tariffs on opponents of the plan. Last week, however, Trump softened his tone, announcing that he and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte had agreed on a “framework” for a deal on Greenland and Arctic security.

Denmark and Greenland later formed a high-level working group with the US to discuss the proposed deal.

Speaking at a conference at Paris’ Sciences Po University on Wednesday, Nielsen said the working group had already started meeting and signaled openness to cooperation with Washington on Arctic security but stressed that Greenland and Denmark would stand firm on key issues.

“I will not go into details about what might be included in such an agreement. But the conclusion is already written: there are red lines we cannot cross, from a Greenlandic perspective,” Nielsen said, echoing Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who, speaking alongside him, insisted the island’s sovereignty is non-negotiable.

“We will try to find a way forward with the US. We share concerns about Arctic security. But the conclusion must be on the table from the beginning… that you can never compromise on democratic values. One of the most basic is that territorial integrity must be respected,” she said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Wednesday that technical talks involving Greenland, Denmark, and the US are now underway, noting they will be held behind closed doors to avoid a “media circus.” Rubio insisted that the US does not plan to use military force against Greenland, and said the issue would now move to a “professional, straightforward” diplomatic track.

Details of the framework agreement remain undisclosed. Rutte earlier said NATO members will ramp up Arctic security as part of the deal, presumably through an expanded US military presence. Trump wrote on Truth Social that discussions will also include deployment of his multilayered Golden Dome missile defense system, promising more information as talks progress.