Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to travel to Israel next week to update Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, two Trump administration officials said.

Rubio is expected to meet with Netanyahu on Feb. 28, according to the officials, who spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity to detail travel plans that have not yet been announced.

President Donald Trump will gather Thursday with representatives from more than two dozen countries that have joined his Board of Peace — and several that have opted not to — for an inaugural meeting that will focus on reconstruction and building an international stabilization force for a war-battered Gaza, where a shaky ceasefire deal persists.

Trump announced ahead of the meeting that board members have pledged $5 billion for reconstruction, a fraction of the estimated $70 billion needed to rebuild the Palestinian territory decimated after two years of war. Members are expected to unveil commitments of thousands of personnel to international stabilization and police forces for the territory.

Iran and the United States leaned into gunboat diplomacy Thursday as nuclear talks between the nations hung in the balance, with Tehran holding drills with Russia and the Americans bringing another aircraft carrier closer to the Mideast.

The Iranian drill and the arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier near the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea underscore the tensions between the nations. Iran earlier this week also launched a drill that involved live-fire in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow opening of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world's traded oil passes.

Palestinians in Gaza are preparing to welcome the Muslim holy month of Ramadan under a fragile ceasefire deal, but many say the challenges of their daily lives and the losses of the Israel-Hamas war are dampening the typically festive spirit.

"There is no joy after we lost our family and loved ones," said Gaza City resident Fedaa Ayyad. "Even if we try to cope with the situation, we can't truly feel it in our hearts. … I am one of those who cannot feel the atmosphere of Ramadan."

Iran says it temporarily closed parts of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf. The move came as semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported live fire exercises in the vital waterway, through which 20% of the world's oil passes.

The move is a rare, perhaps unprecedented shutdown of the strait, a signal from Iran of the potential fallout to the world economy if the United States goes through with threats to attack it as tensions mount between the two countries.

Indonesia is tightening state control over the world's largest nickel supply after years of betting the metal would anchor a homegrown electric-vehicle industry, and just as global demand begins shifting away from heavy reliance on nickel.

The move could still ripple through global EV supply chains as the United States and China compete for critical minerals. Indonesia sits at the center of the nickel market: its share of global supply jumped to about 60% in 2024 from 31.5% in 2020, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, after former President Joko Widodo banned raw ore exports, drawing a surge of Chinese-backed investment into refining.

Japan's exports surged nearly 17% in January from a year earlier, lifted by seasonal factors and strong demand in China and other Asian markets.

Imports slipped 2.5% from the same month a year earlier to 10.3 trillion yen ($67 billion), while exports climbed 16.8% to 9.19 trillion yen ($59.8 billion), the Finance Ministry reported Wednesday.

Long known for its olives and seaside charm, the southern Greek city of Kalamata has found itself in the spotlight thanks to a towering mural that reimagines legendary soprano Maria Callas as an allegory for the city itself.

The massive artwork on the side of a prominent building in the city center has been named 2025's "Best Mural of the World" by Street Art Cities, a global platform celebrating street art.

Samba and literature rarely share the same stage, but at this year's Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, two samba schools used their parades to tell the stories of Black Brazilian female authors. It's an unusual recognition of writers who have been historically marginalized due to their race and gender.

On Saturday, 79-year-old Conceição Evaristo, a writer from Minas Gerais known for her powerful works centering on Black women's experiences, sat majestically atop a float designed by samba school Imperio Serrano at Rio's famed Sambodrome. Two days later, the samba school Unidos da Tijuca dedicated its parade to the late Carolina Maria de Jesus, a favela-based diarist who died nearly five decades ago, and also featured Evaristo.

An explosion at a fireworks' shop in China's Hubei province on Wednesday killed 12 people, state media reported, the second such explosion as the country celebrates the Lunar New Year.

Emergency responders put out the blaze at the fireworks shop in the town of Xiangyang, in central Hubei province, on Wednesday afternoon, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Investigators are now looking into the cause of the explosion, the report said without giving further details.