Briefly

UNITED STATES

Combat teams in Europe downsized

The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that it has reduced the number of US Brigade Combat Teams assigned to Europe from four to three, returning troop levels to those seen in 2021. The decision resulted in a temporary delay in the deployment of US forces to Poland, the Department of Defense said in a statement. The Pentagon will determine the final disposition of US forces in Europe based on further analysis of US' strategic and operational requirements, the statement said. This analysis is designed to advance US President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda by incentivizing and enabling NATO to take primary responsibility for Europe's conventional defense, the statement added.

Talks held with Cuba on $100m aid offer

The US and Cuba held talks this week on an offer of $100 million in assistance, which Washington has dangled as an "incentive for reforms", a US official said on Tuesday. The aid would be distributed through Catholic Relief Services, and Samaritan's Purse, an evangelical Protestant charity, and not handed over directly to the Cuban government, the official said. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez last week said that Havana was open to reviewing the aid proposal. Cuba has been in the throes of a major economic crisis with persistent energy blackouts after the US forcefully seized Venezuela's then-president Nicolas Maduro and ended the flow of free oil from Caracas in exchange for Cuban medical expertise and other services.

UNITED NATIONS

Forecast for global growth reduced

Responding to Middle East conflicts and rising oil prices, the United Nations on Tuesday lowered its forecast for global economic growth and raised the prospects for inflation this year. UN economists said the global GDP growth is now forecast at 2.5 percent for 2026, down from 2.7 percent in January, and they said it could fall to only 2.1 percent "in a more adverse scenario". That would be one of the weakest growth rates this century, outside of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global financial crisis of 2008, said Shantanu Mukherjee, director of economic analysis in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. He said life can get harder for billions of people, and some countries may see their economies contract.

Agencies - Xinhua