Israel is moving forward with a controversial plan to build thousands of new housing units on the occupied West Bank and divide the territory into two.

The E1 Reconciliation Project has frozen for decades due to vocal international opposition, linking Jerusalem to the settlement of Male Admim, making East Jerusalem’s future Palestinian capital virtually impossible. It also split the West Bank in half, preventing the establishment of an adjacent Palestinian state.

Smotrich announced pending approvals for 3,401 new housing units on Thursday at a press conference held on the planned construction site.

“They talk about Palestinian dreams and we will continue to build Jewish reality,” Smotrich said. “This reality is a permanent burial of the ideas of the Palestinian state.

Final approval of the plan is expected next week. Sumotrich has repeatedly lobbyed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the occupied West Bank and apply Israeli sovereignty to the entire territory.

In a statement, the presidency of the Palestinian National Council denounced the new reconciliation plan as “a systematic plan to steal land, Jewish it, and impose biblical and Talmud facts on conflict.”

Rawhi Fattouh said the West Bank “colonial plans are in a creep-wide annexation policy” that involves settler violence against Palestinians.

Israeli settlements on the West Bank are considered illegal under international law. However, during the first Trump administration, the State Department overturned long-standing US policies, deeming settlement “inconsistent” with international law. The Biden administration has implemented this new policy.

Smotrich announced progress in the plan at a press conference on Thursday, presenting it as Israel’s response to recent countries that announced their intention to recognize the Palestinian state.

Israel’s Reconciliation Watchdog “Peace Now” denounced progress in the E1 program, viewing it as “for the future of Israel and the opportunity to achieve a peaceful two-state solution.”

In a statement, “We stand on the edge of Deep by, and the government is pushing us forward at full speed. There is a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the horrific war in Gaza, the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Westport, Ireland
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In ancient Celtic folklore, tyrunag is the land of eternal youth, time is still and people do not age.

Today, in western Ireland, they are approaching bottling it.

Westport, a small coastal town in Mayo, the picturesque county, is an unlikely nerve center for the world’s Botox supply. The facility, run by Chicago-based pharmaceutical company Abbvie, employs at least 1,300 locals and around 500 additional contractors. This is the economic backbone of a town of just 7,000 people.

Treatment Botox – used for conditions such as muscle spasticity, migraine, overactive bladder, certain eye conditions, and excessive sweating – brought Abbvie $3.3 billion last year, often used to smooth out wrinkles on the face and produce $27.2 billion.

However, last week, US President Donald Trump took a step towards his goal of bringing that multi-billion dollar industry into his home, announcing a 15% tariff on all pharmaceutical exports from the European Union.

From the opening of Allagan in 1977 to the acquisition and expansion by Abbeby in 2020, the move is that it could destroy towns like Westport, transformed by plants.

Within the vast 61 acre campus, industry estimates that it is a sophisticated industry presence under Krogue Patrick, one of the nation’s most renowned pilgrimage sites, before exporting to around 70 countries.

According to the company’s 2023 submission, the US tops its list, accounting for 70% of total sales at its Westport plant.

Uncertainty about how tariffs affect it has created anxiety in some Westport, a community that cannot overstate the long-term benefits of the plant’s presence. It’s embedded in the community and runs everything from infrastructure to sports teams and local charities.

At Abbvie United Park, the home ground of the Westport United Soccer Club, many of the company’s workers and their families gathered to train or cheer from bystanders, saying tariffs could have a major impact.

Abbvie employees will not talk about records on CNN. But Ann Marie, the owner of a daycare center who chose not to give a last name for privacy reasons, said she had heard of many parents who work in plants and that she would keep their children in care.

“They are worried about their work. They just don’t know how it will go. Will that affect them? Are they going to work this time next year? Will the company continue?” she said.

“And that’s going to have a knock-on effect for me, you know,” she said: “If they don’t have a job, I don’t have a job.”

Brian Cusack, the Football Club Development Committee, has generally been brighter about the future, but believes that “many changes will happen, and probably won’t change for good.”

“Westport doesn’t know what it would be like without a place for American drug treatments, and we don’t want to know what it would look like without it,” said Cusack, who also works in the factory.

Last month, after weeks of uncertainty, the US-EU trade agreement was finally agreed. While Ireland and some of the wider blocs welcomed the agreement, other European leaders considered it a damage limiting exercise. The calm after the announcement was to be short-lived.

Singling Out Ireland – The world’s third largest pharmaceutical exporter and home to Pharma Giants’ Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer – Trump said last Tuesday that upcoming tariffs on imported drugs could reach 250% in the next 18 months. This threat arises as the United States is currently conducting a Section 232 investigation into whether foreign drugs pose a threat to national security. This is a process in which the outcome may invalidate current US trade transactions.

“We want medicines made in our country,” he said.

However, tariffs alone are unlikely to cause massive movements. The idea of bringing medicines back to the US resonates with Trump’s base, but putting it into practice is full of challenges.

Experts say that while some drug production could move to existing US facilities, a full-scale re-administration is unlikely due to high costs, regulatory hurdles, supply chain challenges and long timelines for building or relocating high-tech plants.

Anne Marie suggested that the US president’s move could be purely political, but said they still harbor widespread concerns.

Still, she pointed to the resilience of the town and Ireland, expressing her belief that Westport’s industry would last his administration.

“When he comes to power, it all will change again – like last time,” she said.

That’s the attitude that can be felt around town.

Mayo Rep. Peter Flynn told CNN when he rioted the area that tariffs created a “real headache” but the people there are “working on life.”

Flynn, who worked with allergans for nearly 30 years, said Trump’s driving force to bring production quickly to the US is unrealistic.

“This kind of ‘lift and shift’ approach that Donald Trump is talking about – that’s pointless,” he said. He argues that because of the serious logistical challenges it presents, it is extremely difficult to bring skilled workers, even within the country, not to mention the skilled workers it requires, he says he is leaving “at speed.”

He added: “Anyone considering a place to move to India and some of these other places where many graduates have come has taken the US off the map.”

Refusing to speak to CNN for this story, Abbvie has not shown plans to move Botox’s production hub.

Tackling tariffs in a recent public revenue call, President Abbabee Robert A. Michael said the company is “in constructive discussions with the administration on departmental tariffs,” and “evidently continues to invest in the US.” On Tuesday, the company announced a $195 million investment in its Chicago manufacturing plant. He said this is part of a broad commitment to investing more than $10 billion in US projects over the next decade.

Other major drugmakers have also announced that they will expand their investment in the US in response to new tariffs.

It is unclear what these investments mean for Ireland.

But that’s probably not great news. Last year, drugs accounted for Ireland’s total of €72.6 billion ($84.5 billion) to the US, totaling €440 billion ($51.2 billion).

Prior to the customs contract, Ireland appeared to be aggressively and prompt exports. Official trade data shows that over the first two months of this year, 20 billion euros ($23 billion) worth of pharmaceutical products have been shipped to the US.

And while the trade war appears to have been avoided for now, American consumers could be on the receivers of rising drug costs.

ING analyst Diederik Stadig told CNN that the 15% tariff could boost U.S. drug prices by 7% to 10%, increasing medical costs by up to $13 billion a year. Consumers may bear the burden over time due to higher health insurance premiums and rising drug prices at pharmacies.

For products like Cosmetic Botox, which are not covered by US health insurance, the cost of procedures is also already considered luxury. Analysts say it’s rising when it puts more strain on the wallet.

This is a concern for Westport hotelier Michael Lennon. Michael Lennon’s US customers are key to the tourism industry.

Lennon picked up an American guest who was on a beach near Crew Bay where he said he runs an equestrian trekking outfit.

“There’s innovative thinking in everything about our business…and I think we’ll adapt,” Lennon said as his jeep rattled along the wild Atlantic roads, a scenic route along the country’s rugged coast.

“My concern is that (increasing tariffs) can disrupt the US economy and all these Americans need to come to Ireland.”

He then recalled a conversation with a guest supporting Trump. He told him, “What’s good for America is good for Ireland.”

Lennon said he hoped it was true.

“But I don’t know, and she won’t,” he said.

Kyiv
–

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met Friday for a summit in Alaska aimed at a shattering war that followed Russia’s full contract in 2022.

Last Friday, Trump suggested that the ceasefire agreement could include “territorial exchanges,” but it is not yet clear what areas he refers to, and Ukraine firmly rejected the transfer portion of the land. Russia also rejected the idea.

On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump was “very clear” about his call with European leaders, and that Washington hopes to obtain a ceasefire and that Ukraine’s territorial issues cannot be negotiated without President Voldimer Zelensky.

This is what the map tells you what is at stake.

One proposal reportedly was presented to Moscow’s special envoy, Steve Witkov, who in exchange for a ceasefire, will give up the rest of the eastern Donetsk region and Luhansk, known as Donbass.

However, this week the situation in Donetsk has rapidly deteriorated, with Russian forces making important progress in the northeast of Dubropyria, changing control of the Witkov region and discussing with the Kremlin. Kiev dismissed progress as infiltration by small groups of Russian military forces, but sent reinforcements. Other Ukrainian sources in the region paint more disastrous pictures. In this picture, months of sustained Russian pressure culminated in weak places to exploit.

It is politically toxic for Ukraine Zelensky to voluntarily order tens of thousands of civilians and troops to leave the Donetsk region. Many people were able to refuse. It is impossible to evacuate tens of thousands of civilians in days or weeks to fit the schedule of a peace agreement that hatched during the Russian summer attacks, when Moscow’s troops have acquired status.

There are few obvious options for Moscow to return it. They hold slivers of land on the north border near Sammy and Kalkiv. Both are called “buffer zones” by the Kremlin heads and are the result of less intrusions designed to emit Ukrainian talent. But they are small and, as Ukrainian officials have pointed out, they are also part of Ukraine, not Russia. So they are not even equal to the obvious “swap”.

Some of the confusion over Witkov’s Kremlin meetings was whether Putin retreated from his biggest war goals and granted a potential ceasefire in exchange for purely Donetsk. Putin has always wanted more, and in fact, the Russian constitution perpetuates the false narrative that Ukraine is historically Russia, adding all four partially occupied regions of Ukraine to its territory.

Moscow holds most Almost everything about Donetsk and Luhansk. However, it controls about two-thirds of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, respectively, with the former partially freed from the Russian troops in the second half of 2022.

Will Putin agree to put the parts of Ukraine’s Herson and Zapolizia under Kiev’s control? That remains unknown. However, Ukraine, who gives this territory, is another non-star, demanding that they pass away or become Russians to Moscow, and in fact the whole bustling city of Zaporia. Zelensky also warns that the territory recognized by Russia will simply be used as a springboard for further invasion, as happened in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014 and used as a launchpad for full-scale wars in 2022.

Statements from Ukraine’s European allies suggest that the current line of contact is the starting point for negotiations. It’s not a concession at all, it’s a significant change in tone. For years, Europe and Kiev have declared together with the Biden administration that they will never recognize or accept Russian rule over Ukrainian occupied territories. But since Trump returned to the White House, they have softened their position and quietly entertained the idea that the frontline may be frozen.

In fact, it would be a good result for Kiev now. Russia’s advances over the past few days have not been critical near Dubropylia, but across the frontline, they have turned the months’ incremental progress into more strategic benefits. Putin has clearly played for time in the past few months in Alaska, where he has reconfigured a summit aimed at an immediate peace deal to avoid intense sanctions on soft “listening exercises.”

For Kiev, the best outcome is that Trump argues that, in the “first two minutes” of the meeting, it is clear that he will impose secondary sanctions on India and China, the big energy customers in Moscow who he promised to implement last Friday, as he suggests.

However, Trump and Putin’s relationship is based on opaque connections that often nullify the long-term security interests of the US, so the outcome of the Alaska meeting in Alaska could certainly be a high-stakes dice roll, not a favor from Ukraine.

Anchorage, Alaska
–

Alaska is unlikely to take part in many people’s bingo cards as the venue for a major summit between US leaders and Russia.

But the largest and largest state in America is where President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are currently set to meet one of their president’s most potentially consequential encounters.

That’s certainly a view from Moscow, and Prokremlin propagandists have already been washed away in anticipation of the benefits this much-anticipated in-person meeting offers.

Or, more specifically, it will be delivered to Putin.

First, the fact that there is absolutely no summit meeting with the US president is a big victory for the Kremlin.

“No one is talking about Russia’s international isolation or our strategic defeat.” Alexander Cott, a prominent Pro Kremlin Army blogger who is well known for his popular social media channels, writes. He added that the Alaska conference “had a chance to be historic.”

He may be right. The presidential summit will allow Putin to return to the top table of international diplomacy, but he will protect his nose, offering his respect for him and wanting to avoid him if he is not arrested on suspicion of war crimes in Ukraine.

And the summits all over the US Alaska are red meat of a resurrected Russian nationalist who still tells them that the territory is justly theirs.

From the Chukotka region of the Russian Far East, across the Bering Strait, Alaska was once remotely owned by the Russian Empire, and was sold to the United States in 1867, and still, for a measly sum of $7.2 million, for about two cents.

The idea that Moscow still leaves behind a live deal and visits to “Our Alaska”, one of the television hosts in Russia’s prominent states evokes it and bolsters Putin’s nationalist credentials. A video clip of Trump at a White House press conference before the summit has been headed to Russian social media with the caption that the US president has finally “confirmed it is ours” saying he is going to “Russia” to meet Putin.

But for other parts of the world, the sole focus of this Presidential Summit will be on the war in Ukraine, whether Russia is ready to make concessions to end it. The White House said it hopes Trump will focus head-on on ending the war in Ukraine, leaving behind other issues that Moscow said are going up for discussion at another time.

On Wednesday, Trump promised “very harsh consequences” if Putin doesn’t agree to end the war.

But so far there have been few signs of a real compromise from the Kremlin. The Kremlin considers itself to have an advantage on the shattered battlefield of Ugolaina. In a call with Trump, as last month, Putin reportedly repeated that Russia would “continue to pursue its goals to address the underlying causes of the Ukraine conflict.” These “root causes” include the longstanding Russian dissatisfaction, including its former existence as a sovereign state in Ukraine, and the expansion of NATO to the east since the end of the Cold War. On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said the country’s position on Ukraine “will not change.”

Perhaps Putin has become something else.

Before the Alaska summit was rushed to be arranged, details of the Russian offer of peace, reportedly made to the US president’s envoy, Steve Witkov, have been revealed. Essentially, the proposal includes the Kiev surrender area in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in exchange for a ceasefire, an idea firmly excluded by Ukrainian leaders.

“I have no right to do so, so I am not going to surrender my country,” Zelensky said before the summit where he was not invited. “Today, if we leave the Donbass, the fortress, the terrain, the heights we control, we will clearly open the bridgehead in preparation for the Russian attack.”

But Trump, who is expected to discuss ideas with Alaska President Putin, appears to like the sound of land contracts on land, even something very uncomfortable for Ukraine and its European partners.

That clear difference in opinion represents the opportunity for Putin to portray Ukrainians and Europeans rather than Russia as real obstacles to peace, which could undermine Trump’s already unstable support for Ukrainian war efforts. Trump has lost his patience with Zelensky before, the Kremlin would have pointed out, and may again do so. If he cuts off the remaining US aid and information sharing with Kiev, Ukraine will have a hard time continuing its fight, even if European support is strengthened.

Prior to the summit, the White House appears to be underestimating expectations for a peace agreement, characterizing the High Stakes Conference as a “listening exercise.”

That might work for Putin.

After all, according to the White House, it was the Kremlin who recruited the summit. Perhaps as a way to head towards the threat of US tariffs and secondary sanctions Trump said he would kick last week. Continuing Trump’s story might be an effective way to push that deadline back indefinitely.

More broadly, Putin will fundamentally reset his ties with Washington with a unique opportunity, separate his ties with Russia from the United States, and separate his fate from Ukraine’s destiny.

For months, Kremlin officials have spoken about the potential economic, technical and space cooperation with the United States, as well as lucrative transactions regarding infrastructure and energy in the Arctic and other regions.

The fact that Kremlin’s top economic envoy, Kiril Dmitriev (an important conversation with the Trump administration), is part of Russia’s delegation to Alaska, suggests that more talk of the US-Russia deal will be on the agenda.

And if Putin went his own way at this summit, he may find that the “Ukrainian Question” is relegated to only one of the many topics among the powerful ones Leaders of two great powers – and not even the most pressing.

Seoul
–

The copyright battle over the viral song “Baby Shark,” worshiped by young children and often feared by parents, ended in a courtroom that cleans up the Korean creator of the most popular version of the plagiarism.

The Internet fell in love with the “Baby Shark” version of Pinkphone, featuring the unforgettable “Doodoodoo” line. The rendition has produced spin-off television shows, movies and smartphone apps, bringing the company to millions. However, in 2019, the American Children’s songwriter claimed that Pink Phong had copied his work.

Jonathan Wright, known only as Johnny, took his claim to the Supreme Court in South Korea, accusing Pink Phong of plagiarizing an earlier version of “Baby Shark.”

However, the court ruled Thursday that Wright’s version cannot be considered his “creative work.” Because he has an earlier version of the baby shark that already exists and he has not added much new creativity.

“The plaintiff’s song is difficult to protect as a secondary copyright work, as it did not reach a substantial change in extension that could be considered as another work by social norms,” the ruling reaffirms previous findings of the lower court.

When Pink Phone’s direction accumulates billions of perspectives on YouTube becoming a national anthem for toddlers everywhere, most of the world may have heard “Baby Shark” first, but the catchy song is The folk songs were sung for at least 15 years.

Wright uploaded his version. This included Doo Doo Doo Doo Part on my YouTube channel in 2011. He and his children are bounced beats with simple hand movements similar to the mouth of a shark.

In 2015 and 2016, Pink Phong uploaded the version in Korean with the shark singing the cartoon, and later released it in English with the kids performing choreographed dances.

However, there are many versions of “Baby Shark” before Wright’s video, including the German version called “Kleiner Hai,” which spread to a lesser extent in Europe in 2010.

Seeing Pink Phong’s rendition attracted global attention and caused social media moments like #BabySharkChallenge, and the song hit number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Wright compensated for the plagiarism and sought 30 million won ($21,600).

His lawsuit is based on the allegations that Pinkphone’s song is “substantially similar” to him, and sought “compensation for damages caused by copyright infringement,” a press release from the court said.

Wright told Canadian public broadcaster CBC in 2019 that Pink Phone’s version “seems to be astoundingly similar,” pointing out that the two songs have “same keys, same tempo changes, same melody and rhythm.”

The court focused on whether his version could be considered a “secondary work” of the original children’s song, and whether Pinkphone made a version based on his work.

The Supreme Court ruled that Wright could “edit or change the level” and grant copyright as a secondary work.

Even assuming that his version is a secondary work of folk songs, the court said there was “no substantial similarity” between the Pinkphone song and his version.

Pinkfong’s “Baby Shark Dance” video has recorded over 16 billion views on YouTube over the years. The company has created millions of baby shark-themed products, including television shows, movies, and smartphone apps featuring baby sharks, mom sharks, dad sharks, grandma sharks and grandpa sharks.