Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at spillover in the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, Nepal’s crucial parliamentary elections, and low GDP growth targets in China.
Iran War Spillover
Less than a week into the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, strikes have now hit more than a dozen countries, killed hundreds of people, and threatened to pull several other nations into the fray.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at spillover in the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, Nepal’s crucial parliamentary elections, and low GDP growth targets in China.
Iran War Spillover
Less than a week into the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, strikes have now hit more than a dozen countries, killed hundreds of people, and threatened to pull several other nations into the fray.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry accused Tehran on Thursday of launching four drones into Nakhichevan, an Azerbaijani exclave bordering Iran, that injured four people. “We will not tolerate this unprovoked act of terror and aggression against Azerbaijan,” President Ilham Aliyev told the United Nations Security Council. “Our armed forces have been instructed to prepare and implement appropriate retaliatory measures.” It is unclear what those measures might be.
Iran denied firing the drones, instead placing the blame on Israel, which has not responded to the allegation. Iran has similarly denied Turkey’s claim that it launched a missile on Wednesday toward Turkish airspace that NATO air defense systems were forced to intercept.
“Iran is exporting the war, trying to expand it to as many countries as they can to sow chaos,” European Union foreign-policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Iranian officials have denounced a U.S. submarine attack on Wednesday that torpedoed an Iranian warship in international waters off Sri Lanka’s southern coast, killing at least 87 people, with roughly 60 others still unaccounted for. Washington will “bitterly regret” this assault, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X on Thursday. The Iranian warship was heading back home after participating in an international naval exercise hosted by India, and the attack has put pressure on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, particularly as Abbas noted that the ship had been “a guest of India’s Navy.” Opposition Indian lawmakers have called on Modi to make a statement. But Modi’s party argued on Thursday that New Delhi should not be held accountable since the attack occurred far from India’s maritime territory.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath called for “diplomatic dialogue to restore regional peace” even as the island allowed a second Iranian ship to dock at one of its ports on Thursday.
Yet such a diplomatic solution to the war remains out of reach. Araghchi told NBC News on Thursday that Tehran is ready for a potential U.S. ground invasion, though there is no sign that the United States is currently planning such an operation. According to Araghchi, Iran has not asked for a cease-fire deal and refuses to negotiate with Washington. “The fact is that we don’t have any positive experience of negotiating with the United States, you know, especially with this administration,” Araghchi said. “We negotiated twice last year and this year, and then in the middle of negotiations, they attacked us.”
The United States and Israel have stressed that they are prepared to continue fighting for the foreseeable future, even as the White House makes sweeping claims about Operation Epic Fury’s success. “They have no navy. They have no air force. They have no detection of air,” U.S. President Donald Trump said of Iran. “It’s all wiped out. Their radar is all wiped out. Their military is decimated. All they have is guts.”
At the same time, though, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on Thursday that the United States and Israel have sought Kyiv’s expertise on countering Iran’s Shahed drones.
Also on Thursday, Trump told Axios that he should be personally involved in choosing Iran’s next supreme leader, suggesting that U.S. involvement in Iran will not be limited to military action despite Trump officials’ claims that the war is not about regime change.
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What We’re Following
Who will lead Nepal? Nepal held parliamentary elections on Thursday, nearly six months after youth-led mass protests forced then-Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to resign. Initial results are expected on Friday, though the country’s Election Commission said complete results could take a week. However, all eyes are on rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, whose push for generational change has appealed to the same young voters who ignited Nepal’s political reckoning.
Anti-government protests first erupted last September, when Kathmandu banned 26 social media platforms for reportedly failing to register and submit to government oversight. Young people took to the streets in response, arguing that the ban was a state-sponsored censorship tool aimed at punishing political dissidents. Demonstrations quickly spiraled out of control after 77 people were killed in the ensuing government crackdown, and, ultimately, Oli was forced to rescind the social media ban and leave office.
Now, Shah and his Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) are expected to take the premiership. However, RSP is not without competition. Sixty-five political parties and nearly 160 Gen Z candidates (among roughly half of whom are listed as independents) took part in Thursday’s election. Sensing the changing tide, one of Nepal’s biggest political parties—the center left Nepali Congress—also ousted its septuagenarian president earlier this year for a 49-year-old successor.
Beijing’s economic outlook. China set its GDP growth target for 2026 at 4.5 percent to 5 percent on Thursday, marking its weakest recorded projection in decades apart from in 2020, when Beijing chose not to make a goal due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Such a modest target signals growing concern over low domestic demand, high deflationary pressures, and the fallout of trade tensions with the United States.
“Rarely in many years have we encountered such a grave and complex landscape, where external shocks and challenges were intertwined with domestic difficulties and tough policy choices,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang said during Thursday’s annual assembly of the National People’s Congress.
With domestic consumption low, the world’s second-largest economy is banking on technology development to stay competitive. On Thursday, Beijing outlined a five-year plan to bolster the country’s scientific prowess. This will include investments in quantum computing, bio-manufacturing, fusion energy, and 6G mobile networks, among others. “In the midst of fierce international competition, we must win the strategic initiative,” the roadmap states, mentioning artificial intelligence alone more than 50 times.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to host Trump in early April to discuss extending a trade truce. Analysts expect the White House to use the visit to push China to constrain its tech ambitions. But Beijing is unlikely to cave to Washington’s demands, especially as China has begun to fill the vacuum left by the United States’ tariff war.
Curbing EU emissions. European Union nations overcame months of political resistance on Thursday to greenlight an ambitious climate target. Under the new policy, European industries will be required to slash greenhouse gas emissions at least 85 percent compared to 1990 levels by 2040. For an additional 5 percent reduction, the EU will pay developing countries to cut emissions on the bloc’s behalf.
Although the cumulative 90 percent target is more aggressive than most major economies’ commitments, including those of China and the United States, it is still weaker than Brussels’ original proposal. As part of the agreement, the EU can consider expanding its use of carbon credits to cover from 5 percent to 10 percent of its required emissions cuts, softening the necessity of internal reforms. But it still falls short of recommendations by EU climate science advisors, who have said that internal emissions reductions should be 90 percent.
Meanwhile, the European Council is expected to convene on Friday to discuss lowering energy prices. “Homegrown clean energy is the only viable solution for lowering energy prices by the end of the decade,” the commission said in a document seen by Bloomberg on Thursday. This comes amid concerns that Europe is still dependent on fossil fuel imports at a time when the war against Iran is raising oil and gas prices.
Odds and Ends
The works in Michaelangelo’s verified oeuvre number in the hundreds, from Florence’s towering “David” statue to the painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. But Renaissance scholars worry that new unverified claims of the artist’s work could be wrongly attributed. Just two days before the 551st anniversary of Michaelangelo’s birth on Friday, an independent researcher asserted that a marble bust of Jesus (located in a Roman church) is by the famous artist. Many leading art historians, however, have chosen not to comment on the “rediscovery,” fearing it could inaccurately sway the sculpture’s value; just last month, a sketch attributed to Michelangelo, but believed by some to be a copy, sold for $27.2 million.
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