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Trump’s choice to replace Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve has been ruled out by Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.

Trump, who has repeatedly criticized Powell for slowing down interest rates, stated on Tuesday that Bessent wanted to stay in his current position.

Trump claimed in an interview with CNBC that he loved Scott but wanted to stay where he was, noting that Bessent had previously told him he didn’t want the position.

Trump mentioned Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Fed’s seven-member board of governors, and Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council as two potential replacements for Powell, whose term expires in May.

He said he could use the opportunity to nominate someone for chair of the board ahead of Powell’s departure to replace Adriana D. Kugler, who announced her early resignation last week as one of the seven governors.

Trump stated, “I’m going to make the decision right away.”

Concern about the US central bank maintaining its independence, which investors believe is crucial to the health of the US economy, has been fueled by Trump’s repeated attacks on Powell, who he mockingly dubbed “too late.”

The S&amp, P 500 dropped 0.7% in response to rumors last month that Trump had asked Republican lawmakers about firing the Fed chair.

After Trump denied that he had any intention to fire Powell early, US stocks quickly recovered.

The president may only remove the Fed chair “for cause,” which is widely accepted to be evidence of corruption or malfeasance, under US law and US Supreme Court precedent.

Russian Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Tuesday that Moscow “considered the attack a grave violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961” and that it “occurred with the connivance of Israeli military personnel.”

A group of settlers attacked the “illegal Israeli settlement of Giv ‘at Asaf” east of Ramallah and about 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Jerusalem, according to Zakharova. The vehicle was owned by Russia’s representation to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

“Mechanical damage was sustained by the vehicle.” According to the spokeswoman, verbal threats were made against Russian diplomats as well, adding that Israeli soldiers present “did not even bother to stop the attackers’ aggressive actions.”

The vehicle was attacked while it was traveling with members of Russia’s diplomatic mission to the Palestinian Authority, who are also working for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, according to reports in Russian media.

Zakharova added that the Israeli government has received a demarche letter from the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN, made the attack on the diplomatic vehicle during a UN Security Council session on Tuesday that focused on Israeli prisoners in Gaza.

The attack on Russia’s vehicle in the occupied West Bank, according to Polyansky, comes as “Israeli authorities have adopted the policy of cleansing and colonizing” the Palestinian territory.

According to the UN representative of Russia, “it is ordinary Palestinians and even foreigners who are consistently the victims of raids by security forces and settler violence.”

He claimed that the Israeli military “under the lenient eye of the Israeli military” carried out the “attack on an official vehicle of the Russian Mission to the Palestinian Authority.”

A systematic exile of Palestinians, whether from the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, poses new risks and threats to stability and security in the Middle East, he added, and it is likely that this will bring the region to the brink of a major war.

Since October 2023, Israeli settlers and soldiers have launched vicious attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the UN, killing almost 650 Palestinians there between January 1st, 2024, and the beginning of July 2025.

A senior US official confirmed that US President Donald Trump will meet with Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s leaders for peace talks at the White House.

The official told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday that a possible framework for a peace agreement might be revealed at the meeting on Friday in Washington, DC.

No announcement of a resolution to the decades-old conflict was made after the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan met last month in Abu Dhabi for peace talks.

Since Nagorno-Karabakh split away from Armenia in the late 1980s, the two South Caucasus nations have been at odds with one another.

Azerbaijan and Armenia claimed the area in 1917 after the Russian Empire fell, and there was a predominately ethnic Armenian population there.

In September 2023, Azerbaijan recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh, sending almost all of Armenia’s 100 000 Armenians to Armenia.

In a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Armenia claimed that Azerbaijan had “wiped out all traces” of the ethnic Armenian presence in the disputed territory.

The case is related to the Nagorno-Karabakh war of 2020, which resulted in the deaths of more than 6,600 people. It is one of three full-fledged wars the two nations have waged in the region.

The top court of the UN has mandated that Azerbaijan grant ethnic Armenians who have fled Nagorno-Karabakh a visa to return. Despite their national or ethnic origin, Azerbaijan claims to have not forced ethnic Armenians, who are primarily Christian, to leave the Karabakh region. It also claims that it is committed to ensuring all residents’ safety and security.

Azerbaijan, whose majority of its inhabitants are Muslims, also attributes its historical significance to the region, accusing Armenians of evicting Azeris from their homes in the 1990s.

After the two nations finalized a draft peace deal in March, the two nations convened in Abu Dhabi last month to discuss the situation.

No more specific steps were provided in the talks’ final statement, but the two leaders “agreed to continue bilateral negotiations and confidence-building measures between the two countries.”

Authorities in the United States have indict two Chinese nationals for violating export controls by sending tens of millions of dollars worth of advanced Nvidia chips to China.

The US Department of Justice claimed on Tuesday that Chuan Geng and Shiwei Yang “knowingly and willfully” exported the graphic processing units (GPUs) used to power artificial intelligence without permission from October 2022 to July 2025.

According to export records, Geng and Yang, 28, organized at least 21 shipments with businesses in Singapore and Malaysia through ALX Solutions Inc., their El Monte, California-based business.

The US Department of Justice reported that the exports included a shipment of “false labelled” and illegitimately authorised Nvidia H100 GPUs that had been “falsely labelled” and had not received the necessary license from the US Department of Commerce in December 2024.

Instead of the businesses that accepted the shipments, ALX Solutions received payments from Hong Kong and China, including a $1 million payment from a Chinese company in January 2024.

Last week, a search of Geng and Yang’s and ALX Solutions’ offices revealed “incriminating communications,” including those regarding shipping chips to China through Malaysia to evade US export restrictions.

If found guilty under the Export Control Reform Act, Geng and Yang could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The accused’s attorneys could not be reached for comment right away.

Nvidia, based in Santa Clara, California, claimed the case demonstrated that “smuggling is a nonstarter.”

A company spokesman said that “we primarily sell our products to well-known partners, including OEMs [original equipment manufacturers], who help us ensure that all sales adhere to US export control regulations.”

Any detained products would not have any service, support, or updates, despite being relatively small exporters and shipments being subject to thorough review and scrutiny.

In the midst of Washington and Beijing’s contentious battle for technological supremacy, the US government has halted the export of the most cutting-edge chips to China.

According to US officials, restrictions are necessary to safeguard national security, many of which were implemented under former US President Joe Biden.

China has accused Washington of undermining global trade and abusing its position of dominance in technology, which has responded with its own export controls against China.

Following discussions with US President Donald Trump, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced last month that Washington had agreed to rescind its ban on the sale of its H20 GPU to China.