• U.S.-Ukraine economic deal: Ukraine and the U.S. have reached agreement on a framework for a broad economic deal that would include access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals, three senior Ukrainian officials said Tuesday. One said it could be signed as early as Friday. Kyiv hopes that signing will ensure the continued flow of U.S. military support, according to an official.
• Federal employees quit DOGE: Twenty-one people who worked for the original U.S. Digital Service office – now Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency – have resigned, saying they’re refusing to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.”
  • Related Monitor content: Trump and Musk cite fraud, but what does a government audit really look like?
• Supreme Court halts execution: The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 25 threw out the murder conviction and death penalty for Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma man who was found guilty in the killing of a motel owner but has steadfastly maintained his innocence.
  • Related Monitor coverage: The Supreme Court doesn’t take many death penalty cases. Why it took the case of Richard Glossip.
• U.S. confidence in economy drops: Consumer confidence plummeted in February, the biggest monthly decline in more than four years, a business research group said.
• Apple pushes back against DEI scrub: Apple shareholders rebuffed an attempt to pressure the technology trendsetter into joining President Donald Trump’s push to get rid of corporate programs designed to diversify the workforce.

You’ve probably seen quite a bit by now about the use of soft power. It’s been a trademark of American influence in the world, achieved as much through the support of democratic values and humanitarian assistance as through the hard power of, say, military support. Today, we report on Chinese rights groups that are packing up as U.S. financial aid is withdrawn – and on a Beijing that is moving quickly to reshape the world order with a message that it, unlike Washington, is stable and benevolent.

Here’s a question that’s been rolling around about Syria’s new rulers: How would an Islamist group with a jihadist past treat religious freedom in a diverse country? As Taylor Luck discovered during his recent travels in Syria, religious minorities there have found encouragement as they probe for answers. What’s really needed to ensure progress and avoid intercommunal violence is robust and comprehensive security in the country.

As the Trump administration intensifies doubts about American commitments to the European continent’s defense, pressure is mounting on Europeans to pay for their own defense. It is difficult to judge what the exact price will be. Some studies have indicated ongoing, large funding gaps, even as countries bolster their expenditures. Troop shortages are another challenge. One point of agreement: The transition to greater self-sufficiency is likely to be expensive, complicated, and slow.

In New York City, an active mayoral primary race is getting underway. In recent days, Mayor Eric Adams has escaped a possible ouster by the governor over federal bribery and corruption charges. But in a true-blue city where the consensus is that Mayor Adams has cozied up to the Republican president in exchange for freedom from prosecution, New York appears to be fast preparing to move on without him.

The combative tactics of the new Department of Government Efficiency raise questions about where the effort derives its power and how it fits into the U.S. governing apparatus. In this story, we look at the constitutional questions around DOGE and the persisting lack of clarity about whether it is subject to certain transparency requirements.

Ice and snow sculptors from around the world turn out every year in Harbin, China, to carve their creations in the cold. The sculptures are visual treats beyond imagination.

One measure of the rapid changes taking place in Syria since the collapse of the Assad regime in December is a robust public conversation over how to promote both justice and reconciliation. The country’s new leaders appear to be listening. 

On Tuesday, for example, the former rebel leader, now the transitional-president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, announced the formation of a transitional justice committee. “I urge all Syrians to stand united and hand in hand to heal the wounds and wash away the pains after decades of dictatorship,” he said in opening remarks at a national dialogue to chart Syria’s political future. 

That move followed earlier gestures that just months ago Syrians would have found unimaginable. On Feb. 1, Mr. Sharaa met with family members of people who were killed by the Assad regime or taken into custody and never returned. A week before that, the interim government’s deputy justice minister held a dialogue with civil society groups and families on building rule of law through archiving, memorializing, truth-telling, and showing models of accountability that include mercy. 

“For the first time, these families – who have long been silenced and ignored – were given a direct platform to speak to the government, demand answers, and seek justice,” said Nousha Kabawat, head of the Syria program at the New York-based International Center for Transitional Justice.

Postconflict renewal based on reconciliation, or transitional justice, involves enabling victims and perpetrators to rediscover a shared humanity through contrition and forgiveness. Such work is often done through truth commissions that trade full disclosure of past wrongs for amnesty from punishment.

Yet even with such formal processes, Syrians are already engaging public officials – and each other – in novel ways. In the city of Homs, for example, an activist named Alaa Ibrahim is helping local faith communities liaise with officials from the rebel militia that toppled Bashar al-Assad. “I believe the fear will disappear immediately if security forces open the door for participation by local communities,” he told the Monitor. Such cooperation between civil society and security forces would have been unthinkable under the former regime.

Religious leaders may be key. Mr. Sharaa has met with Christian clergy, who represent small communities. Prominent Sunni clerics have returned from years in exile to promote reconciliation. Their work may rest on what Mohamed ’Arafa, a law professor at Egypt’s Alexandria University, sees as an Islamic basis for transitional justice. The Quran, he has noted, states that “If a person forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is due from Allah [God].” 

For the first time in more than half a century, a people governed by fear and violence are learning, as Volker Türk, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said during a trip to Damascus in January, “the pursuit of healing, trust building and social cohesion.”