Emily Fang

Israel has strongly protested the warrants, and its president, Isaac Herzog, said this week that Netanyahu's exclusion from the forum was a, quote, "...reward for terror," and said the charges should be lifted.

Netanyahu did say this week that Israel was joining President Trump's Board of Peace Organization, originally pitched to help govern Gaza, but is being designed to have a much broader international mandate.

Emily Fang, NPR News, Tel Aviv.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced this week his country would join, along with countries including Belarus and Morocco.

China's foreign minister said Beijing had received an invitation but did not confirm if they would join, like Russia, which said it was, quote, studying the details before making an answer.

According to a copy of the board's charter obtained by NPR, Trump has asked countries to pay a $1 billion membership fee to join the board, and Trump would serve as board chair indefinitely.

The Board of Peace was originally pitched to help govern the ruined Gaza Strip as part of a ceasefire deal with Israel last summer, but in its current proposed form would seek to then address international conflicts around the world, potentially rivaling the U.N.

Emily Fang, NPR News.

The number of new babies born in 2025 dropped by 17 percent from the year before.

And most crucially, the ratio of babies born per 1,000 women dropped to its lowest level since 1949.

China now has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, well below the ratio needed to maintain its current population of more than 1 billion people.

Starting in the 1970s, China enforced a one-child policy, driven by fears that the country could not support a population that grew too quickly.

But in 2016, China removed that cap, eventually lifting it to the maximum of three children per family now.

But despite more generous maternity policies, subsidies to make preschool more affordable, and publicity campaigns extolling the virtues of family life,

Chinese women are having fewer and fewer children.

Emily Fang, NPR News.

On Sunday, Israel's energy minister wrote on the social media site X that he'd moved to implement legislation passed in December to cut off utilities to UNRWA.

That's the agency that for decades has provided many social services in Palestinian communities in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Though in 2024, Israel banned it from Israeli territory.

Israel has accused UNRWA of being infiltrated by Hamas.