The two-week US-Iran ceasefire announced on April 8 — brokered by Pakistan in an 11th-hour deal before Trump’s threatened bombing campaign — is already in jeopardy. Hours after the announcement, Israel expanded strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, hitting commercial and residential areas in Beirut. At least 182 people were killed in Lebanon’s deadliest day of fighting. Iran responded by re-closing the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil flows.

The White House says the ceasefire does NOT include Lebanon. Iran says it does. JD Vance called the deal “fragile” and is set to lead the US negotiation team to Pakistan on Saturday.

Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz on April 7. The resolution — submitted by Gulf states including Bahrain — had been repeatedly watered down from authorizing “all necessary defensive means” to merely encouraging “coordination of defensive efforts,” but still failed. The vote was 11-2, with Pakistan and Colombia abstaining. The veto came hours before Trump’s ceasefire deadline.

Vietnam’s National Assembly unanimously elected Communist Party Secretary General To Lam as state president on April 7, making the 68-year-old the most powerful Vietnamese leader in decades. The move breaks Vietnam’s traditional “four pillars” collective leadership model, consolidating party and state power in one person — a structure analysts compare to Xi Jinping’s China.

Meta unveiled Muse Spark on April 8, the first AI model from its $14 billion Meta Superintelligence Labs overhaul led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang. The natively multimodal model ranks 4th on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (score: 52), behind Gemini 3.1 Pro, GPT-5.4, and Claude Opus 4.6. Crucially, this is Meta’s first CLOSED, proprietary model — a departure from its Llama open-weight strategy. Meta stock rose ~6.5% on the news.

Greece announced on April 8 it will ban children under 15 from accessing social media starting January 1, 2027. PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis cited rising anxiety, sleep problems, and the “addictive design” of platforms. An opinion poll showed 80% public approval. Greece joins Australia (which banned under-16s in December) and urged the EU to adopt a bloc-wide framework.

The FCC announced on April 8 it will vote this month on a proposal to ban ALL Chinese labs from testing electronic devices for the US market — a dramatic expansion from last year’s ban on only government-controlled labs. Currently, about 75% of all electronics sold in the US are tested in China-based labs. The expanded ban could disrupt supply chains for smartphones, cameras, and computers.