Whipsawed markets found another worldwide rally. U.S. stocks rose Wednesday after President Donald Trump appeared to back off his criticism of the Federal Reserve and to temper his talk on trade. Treasury yields also eased in the U.S. bond market after Mr. Trump said he has no intention to fire the Fed’s chair and that his tariffs could come down on Chinese imports. – The Associated Press

Russia struck Ukraine’s capital Thursday. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he is cutting short his official trip to South Africa and returning home after a strike on Kyiv killed at least nine people and injured more than 70. Mr. Zelenskyy said that Ukraine had agreed to a U.S. ceasefire proposal 44 days ago, as a first step to a negotiated peace, but that Russia’s attacks had continued. – AP

An Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter killed 23 people in Gaza City. Among them was a child, local health officials say. The Wednesday strike – amid a collapsed ceasefire and struggling Israel-Hamas talks – came as humanitarian safe zones, strips of territory Israel pledges not to strike, have disappeared from Israeli military maps, Israeli media outlets confirm. Prior to January, Israel designated a coastal safe zone and urged tens of thousands of Gaza Palestinians to evacuate there. – Staff

Elon Musk said he will step back from DOGE. The Tesla chief executive says he’ll be spending less time in Washington. His electric vehicle company reported a 71% drop in profits and a 9% decline in revenue for the first three months of the year. It faced angry protests over Mr. Musk’s leadership of the budget-cutting Department of Government Efficiency. Tesla is aiming to launch a paid driverless robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, in June. – AP

Jordan banned its largest opposition group. The Wednesday action against the Muslim Brotherhood was taken based on claims that a militant cell was linked to the Islamist movement. The ban, issued one week after Jordanian authorities uncovered an illicit missile factory in Amman run by Brotherhood members, came amid heightened tensions over the Jordanian Brotherhood’s links to Hamas. With Jordan’s crackdown, the Muslim Brotherhood – 14 years ago an ascending conservative political movement across the Arab world – can now operate only in the Gaza Strip. – Staff

A congressional delegation visited detainees. This week, Democratic lawmakers visited Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk, held in Louisiana, to protest their detention. The government accuses the foreigners of spreading antisemitism and supporting Hamas; their supporters claim due-process and free-speech violations. The lawmakers said they heard complaints of lack of medical care and religious accommodations. This is about “what kind of country we want to be,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, of Massachusetts, after the trip. Another Democrat, Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, recently visited wrongfully deported Kilmar Ábrego García in El Salvador. – Staff

A veteran news executive quit over independence. Bill Owens, executive producer for CBS News’ “60 Minutes” and a 37-year veteran at the network, resigned Tuesday from the flagship show, citing loss of editorial control linked to the network’s legal and financial problems. President Trump is suing CBS for $20 billion over how it edited a Kamala Harris interview, and has demanded an apology and editorial concessions. The incident comes as media outlets strive to regain credibility and find themselves under attack – including from the White House. – Staff

The European Union is the world’s largest single market. Yet it’s not seeing close to the economic growth that the United States is, especially in technology. Why isn’t the EU competitive? The announcement of 20% U.S. tariffs on European imports, now on a 90-day hold, adds urgency to the question. As EU policymakers prepare to negotiate or retaliate, they must also equip their own economies to compete in an era of economic nationalism. At stake: security, and global influence rooted in the values it champions, from social welfare and climate action at home to democracy and human rights abroad.

Drug gangs running the coca trade in the Peruvian Amazon have in recent years expanded into illegal mining, especially for gold. So the U.S. Agency for International Development has shifted resources to buttress organizations promoting environmental and sustainable-development initiatives in order to push back on cartels. But with the U.S. administration eliminating USAID and folding assistance budgets into a State Department that’s also facing cuts, some Peruvians worry that progress will be reversed. Less attention to illegal mining is likely to mean smoother sailing for other trafficking operations as well. 

The rape crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo – rape as a weapon of war – was once a major world headline. Attention has turned elsewhere, but local activists refuse to give up. “I adapt to her,” says Jeanne Nacatche Banyere, who runs a women’s shelter here. She is speaking of any woman who needs her help. “I wipe her tears. I show her love and affection,” says Ms. Banyere. “She feels broken, as if she no longer matters, so I must help restore her sense of worth.” Our writer spoke both to healers and to survivors.

Can eminent domain be used to halt development in the name of public good? A Rhode Island case that also touches the hot-button issue of affordable housing could set legal precedent in governments’ power over private development. It pits a mayor who sees more single-family homes as his community’s future against a pair of developers – one of whom grew up not far from public housing – who see their plan for multifamily units as a kind of giveback. It also offers contrasting visions of immigrants’ American trajectories.  

During times of uncertainty and tribulation, the arts can offer solace and hope. Here, five writers offer a bouquet of poetry to welcome spring, a season of light and promise, and of new beginnings. 

Nations prone to split over ethnic or religious divides often find ways to bond by embracing a higher civic identity. Ethiopia just set a small example of that. Two top leaders – from different ethnic groups – found a way to avert a renewal of a vicious war that ended two years ago.

Peace prevails for now in Ethiopia’s restive state of Tigray, as does a desire for unity around national ideals.

Less than a month ago, most observers of East African politics widely expected that simmering tensions in Tigray would boil over into conflict again. Their concerns were heightened when disgruntled members of Tigray’s security forces seized key government buildings in an intra-Tigrayan dispute over jobs. Three officers had been suspended by the state’s interim administration.

The then-head of Tigray called for direct federal intervention after he fled in March to the nation’s capital. But rather than act on that request, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed wisely appointed Lt. Gen. Tadesse Werede, a Tigrayan and a former battlefield foe in the war, to lead the interim administration. The state’s temporary government was set up as part of a negotiated peace deal in 2022.

The appointment is “not merely a change in leadership,” wrote a commentator in the Addis Standard, but shifts “the calculus from confrontation to reconstruction.”

In accepting the appointment, Mr. Tadesse, whose military reputation provides him legitimacy in his new role, affirmed “full implementation” of the peace deal. He stressed, “We must work together by moving away from the idea of winners and losers.”

The prime minister also took the high road in a posting on the platform X: “It is my hope that [Mr. Tadesse] will seize this historic opportunity to help the people of Tigray realize their aspirations for peace and development – just like their fellow citizens across the country.”

Much still needs to be done to avoid other ethnic flare-ups. Amhara state, for example, still holds a part of Tigray. That standoff hampers the return of more than 1 million displaced Tigrayans to their homes.

In Africa’s second-most populous country, different groups are still battling over rights, resources, and borders. Yet a different message from two top leaders is showing a more collaborative, and less combative, approach.