• President Donald Trump granted temporary tariff exemptions for Canadian and Mexican goods covered by the North American trade agreement known as USMCA until April 2.

• About 50% of Mexican imports and 38% of Canadian imports are covered by the trade agreement, according to a White House official.

• Trump is poised to enact “reciprocal tariffs” April 2 on foreign nations that have import taxes on U.S. goods.

• Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico should be spared when such reciprocal tariffs come into effect. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his goal remains to get “all tariffs removed.”

• Thursday’s tariff exceptions excluded those imposed on China. The country is standing tough, saying it’s prepared to fight “any type of war” with the U.S.

A sharply divided Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration must comply with a district court order and pay out nearly $2 billion in foreign assistance funds to nonprofit aid groups for work already completed on the government's behalf.

The court ruled 5-4 with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett siding with the liberal justices.

The Trump administration has approved a waiver for $95m in military assistance to Lebanon in a sign that it sees it's making progress against Hezbollah.

The approval, confirmed by a State Department spokesperson on Wednesday, marks one of the rare instances of foreign military aid moving through the Trump administration.

In January, the State Department instituted a 90-day funding pause on all aid, with exceptions only for Israel and Egypt. Funding to Ukraine was also recently cut amid the very public differences with Kyiv on ending the war there.

The $95m in aid was originally earmarked for Egypt, but the Biden administration diverted the funds to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).

Israeli forces arrested Israa Ghneimat from Surif, Hebron, at dawn on Tuesday, just a month after her release in the latest prisoner exchange deal.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club condemned the move, stating, "The re-arrest of the released prisoner Ghneimat is a new violation of the exchange deals... sending a message that anyone freed remains a target."

The organisation warned that this could endanger future agreements. It called on mediators, particularly Egypt and Qatar, to intervene and pressure Israel to honour the terms of the exchange and halt the re-arrest of released prisoners.

WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada will definitely take effect on Tuesday, raising fears of a trade war in North America and sending financial markets reeling.

"They're going to have to have a tariff. So what they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs," Trump said at the White House. He said there was "no room left" for a deal that would avert the tariffs by curbing fentanyl flows into the United States.

Trump's comments sent U.S. stocks down sharply in late afternoon trading. The dollar rose against the Mexican peso and the Canadian dollar following his remarks.

Ukrainian officials said Monday that an unspecified number of people were killed in a Russian missile strike on military training grounds around 130 kilometers (80 miles) from the front line.

The attack happened on Saturday and targeted "an army training ground near the village of Cherkaske" outside the city of Dnipro, a military source told AFP.

Ukrainian military blogger Yury Butusov claimed that between 30 and 40 soldiers were killed, while another 90 were injured. No official death toll has been released.

The Israeli government is reportedly planning to ratchet up its blockade on Gaza as part of what it has called a “hell plan” to pressure Hamas into further hostage releases without a troop withdrawal from the Palestinian territory.

The government of Benjamin Netanyahu was reported to have made preparations to go beyond the suspension of food and fuel announced on Sunday, to implement a programme of steadily increased isolation of the coastal strip and its population of about 2.2 million, according to the national public radio station, Kan, which said the government was referring to the programme of measures as the “hell plan”.

The plan would involve cutting off electricity and remaining water supplies, and moving Palestinians in northern Gaza back down to the south, to pave the way to the potential resumption of full-scale war.

The International Court of Justice has appointed Yuji Iwasawa as its new president, replacing Nawaf Salam, the new prime minister of Lebanon.

The 70-year-old will head the Hague-based court – which rules in disputes between nations – until Salam’s term was due to expire on February 5, 2027, the ICJ said in a statement.

The court is weighing on a case brought by South Africa that Israel is committing genocide in its war on Gaza.

BRUSSELS, March 1 (Reuters) - NATO chief Mark Rutte said on Saturday he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that he needs to find a way to restore his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump after their clash at a White House meeting on Friday.

The confrontation flared over differing visions of how to end Russia's three-year-old invasion, with Zelenskiy seeking strong security guarantees from a Trump administration that has embraced diplomacy with Vladimir Putin's Russia.

The meeting, which Rutte described as "unfortunate", plunged ties between Kyiv and its top military backer to a new low. "I said: I think you have to find a way, dear Volodymyr, to restore your relationship with Donald Trump and the American administration. That is important going forward," Rutte told the BBC, commenting on a call he had with Zelenskiy on Friday.

Outlawed Kurdish militants have declared a ceasefire with Turkey after a landmark call by the jailed PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan, asking the group to disband.

It was the first reaction from the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) after Öcalan this week called for the dissolution of the group and asked it to lay down arms after fighting the Turkish state for more than four decades.

“In order to pave the way for the implementation of leader Apo’s call for peace and democratic society, we are declaring a ceasefire effective from today,” the PKK executive committee said, referring to Öcalan and quoted by the pro-PKK ANF news agency.

“We agree with the content of the call as it is and we say that we will follow and implement it,” the committee, which is based in northern Iraq, added. “None of our forces will take armed action unless attacked.”

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and the EU, has waged an insurgency since 1984 with the aim of carving out a homeland for Kurds, who account for about 20% of Turkey’s 85 million people.