Vowing retribution but urged to show restraint, Israel has yet to agree on its response to an expansive drone and missile strike carried out on its territories by Iran on Saturday.

A Monday meeting of Israel’s five-person war Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, concluded without comment on whether the Jewish state will honor its pledge to “exact a price” from Tehran or concede to calls for a measured response from international leaders.

The prolonged deliberation came after the Israeli military said that Iran on Saturday fired more than 300 drones and missiles at its soil. It claimed that it and international allies eliminated 99% of these attacks as part of its now-dubbed “Iron Shield” operation.

The U.S., U.K., France and Jordan assisted in intercepting these threats. Tehran said its assault was in response to an Israeli strike that killed several top commanders at an Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, on April 1 — an offensive for which Israel has yet to claim responsibility.

Iran said the Saturday hostilities have “concluded” its retaliation — and Israel is now left to consider next steps.

The Israeli war Cabinet is set to meet again Tuesday, according to Reuters. The prime minister’s office and Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Speaking after the Cabinet’s Monday gathering, an Israeli official said that the country’s decision-makers believe it is important for any potential response to closely follow the attack, and that such a gesture would be coordinated with Washington, NBC News reports.

Concerns are mounting that the conflict — rooted in the Oct. 7 terror attack undertaken by Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel’s retaliatory war campaign in the Gaza Strip — will seep into the broader Middle East region. Since October, Israel has traded fire with a spate of other Iran-supported factions, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemeni Houthis and Bashar Assad’s Syrian administration.

Global markets have also been rattled by the hostilities. Oil prices have been bolstered by the potential for disruptions from heavyweight crude producer Iran, and international maritime trade has faced delays and suspensions amid Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

“There are those in the war Cabinet now who will be pushing for a wider campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah, against Iran itself to take advantage of this moment,” Julien Barnes-Dacey, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe.”

Netanyahu, who has previously battled fraud and corruption charges and civil protests over his proposed judicial reforms, faces domestic pressure to assume a hard line against Iran – and international ones to stand down.

In a Google-translated social media post, Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, said he is mobilizing a “diplomatic offensive” against Iran, noting that he has sent 32 world figures a letter “calling for calling for sanctions to be imposed on the Iranian missile project and that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps be declared a terrorist organization.”

The Israeli military has also signaled its readiness to respond: “Iran will face the consequences for its actions. We will choose our response accordingly,” IDF Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi said Monday night in a video address.

Yet U.S. officials say a potential Israeli retaliation could be restricted in scope to strikes against Iranian military forces and Iranian-backed proxies outside of Iranian territory, four U.S. officials told NBC News, with three sources adding that Washington does not intend to participate in such an offensive.

CNBC could not independently verify these reports.

“All that is left of “Mr. Security” is a village of ruins from Bari to Kiryat Shmona, and a complete loss of Israeli deterrence,” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said of Netanyahu on social media, according to a Google translation. “It’s election time, now.”

But Ehud Olmert, former Israeli prime minister, told CNBC’s Dan Murphy that the absence of casualties and limited damage resulting from the Saturday attack means Israel may now “act in a quieter and more restrained and more reserved manner to somehow bring to a halt a direct confrontation with Iran.”

He acknowledged that Netanyahu is under strain from right-wing groups within the cabinet that are demanding a very “tough and painful reprisal” against Israel, but stressed “it’d be a mistake to attack Iran now. We defeated Iran on Saturday night.”

He added, “[U.S. President Joe] Biden wants to contain the situation, not to allow it to expand, and we all are in the same page with President Biden.”

The U.S. leader, who previously vowed “ironclad” commitment to Israel, has told Netanyahu that the White House would not join offensive operations against Iran, a senior administration official told NBC News.

World leaders across Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East have widely called for calm, with Saudi Arabia — a now reconciled former foe of Iran — urging “the utmost levels of restraint.”

Iran rained a deluge of drones and missiles on Israel on Saturday night in response to a suspected Israeli strike that killed top Iranian officials in Syria, in a deep escalation of Middle East tensions.

Israel said it identified 300 “threats of various types” and eliminated “99%” of those bound for Israeli soil, according to an update from an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. He said a 10-year-old girl was “severely injured by shrapnel” but reported no additional casualties, adding that “several launches” were also made toward Israel from Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.  

Last night marked the first instance of a direct attack on Israel from Iranian territory. Iran-backed factions – such as Palestinian militant group Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemeni Houthi and Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian administration – have engaged militarily with the Jewish state.  

Earlier on Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had seized a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, claiming a connection to Israel.

Iran’s chief of staff of the armed forces, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, said that Tehran’s operation had now concluded and would involve no further actions, in comments carried by Iran’s state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency.

“At this juncture, the Islamic Republic of Iran has no intention of continuing defensive operations, but if necessary, it will not hesitate to protect its legitimate interests against any new aggression,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on social media on Sunday, according to a Google translation.

Israel and Iran have been on the cusp of direct conflict since the start of Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, which came in response to Hamas’ terror attack of Oct. 7. Iran vowed revenge after a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, on April 1, which killed several top Iranian military commanders.

“We will not be able to comment on the claims regarding a strike in Damascus,” an Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson told CNBC by email, adding, “Iran’s attack on Israel on the night of April 14th is a direct attack on a sovereign nation, its use of proxies for the last decades and the destabilizing effect of the Ayatollah regime in the region and beyond must end.”

Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N., Gilad Erdan, has also called an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council and “demanded that they condemn Iran’s attack on Israel and designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organization.”

The European Union has blasted Tehran’s offensive: “The EU strongly condemns the unacceptable Iranian attack against Israel,” EU High Representative Josep Borrell said late Saturday on social media. “This is an unprecedented escalation and a grave threat to regional security.”

U.S. President Joe Biden also denounced the Iranian strike on Saturday as “unprecedented” and asked to convene G7 leaders to “coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran’s brazen attack,” according to a White House statement.  

“While we have not seen attacks on our forces or facilities today, we will remain vigilant to all threats and will not hesitate to take all necessary action to protect our people,” he added.

Relations between stalwart allies Washington and Israel had appeared to slightly chill in recent weeks, with Biden warning further support would hinge on Israel taking steps to protect civilians and humanitarian aid workers in the Gaza enclave.

But the U.S. – alongside the U.K. and France, according to Israeli military – intervened to mitigate last night’s Iranian attack and the assault could reignite urgency to pass a key $95 billion bill including funding for Israel and Ukraine, which has passed the Senate but stagnated on Republican opposition in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“In light of Iran’s unjustified attack on Israel, the House will move from its previously announced legislative schedule next week to instead consider legislation that supports our ally Israel and holds Iran and its terrorist proxies accountable,” said House leader Steve Scalise on social media.

“Congress must also do its part. The national security supplemental that has waited months for action will provide critical resources to Israel and our own military forces in the region,” Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican leader, said in a statement. “We cannot hope to deter conflict without demonstrating resolve and investing seriously in American strength.”

Oil futures prices are in focus after intermittently swelling in recent months on trade disruptions and delays caused by Red Sea maritime attacks from Yemen’s Houthi, who claim solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Iran is also home to vast oil resources, which it has been largely routing toward China since the U.S. reimposed sanctions during Donald Trump’s administration.

The Iranian currency fell to a record low of 705,000 rials / USD on the unofficial market around 10:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, according to data from foreign exchange monitoring site Bonbast.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s flagship index, the TA-35, was down 0.38% at 10:23 a.m. London time.

In aviation, several airlines grounded or diverted service through the Middle East, following the Iranian attack. Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon have reopened their airspaces after brief closures on Saturday in the wake of the offensive, Reuters reports.

— CNBC’s Emma Graham contributed to this report

The collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge is likely to send shock waves across the U.S. economy, as a key shipping route for certain goods remains snarled for the foreseeable future, officials said Sunday.

“This is not [just] a Baltimore catastrophe, not a Maryland catastrophe. This is a national economic catastrophe as well,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The channel that’s now blocked by the wreckage is a primary access point for the Port of Baltimore, which Moore described as among the “busiest [and] most active” in the nation.

“This is going to impact the farmer in Kentucky. This is going to impact the auto dealer in Ohio. This is going to impact the restaurant owner in Tennessee,” he said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg echoed that sentiment.

“It’s important not just to the people and the workers of Baltimore, but to our national supply chains to get that port back up and running as quickly as possible,” Buttigieg said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

The bridge collapsed Tuesday after a large cargo ship crashed into it, following a mayday call shortly before the collision. Two construction workers died; four are missing and presumed dead.

An operation to remove the ship, clear out debris and reopen the channel began Saturday, officials said.

“Parts of the non-federal channel are already being worked on and there is a 1,000-ton-capacity lift crane on a barge being put into place now,” Buttigieg said. There’s another 600-ton crane on the way, he added.

There isn’t yet a timeline for that salvage work to be completed, Buttigieg said. The time frame for the bridge to be rebuilt is also unclear, he said.

Federal and local officials reiterated that the operation would be lengthy and complex.

“We have a ship that is nearly the size of the Eiffel Tower that is now stuck within the channel that has the Key Bridge sitting on top of it,” Moore said. “And so this is going to be a long road. … But movement is happening.”

The Port of Baltimore processed a record 1.1 million containers of cargo in 2023, according to state data. That made it the ninth-busiest port in the nation based on U.S. trade volume, wrote Ryan Petersen, chief executive of Flexport, a supply chain logistics company.

It also handled nearly 850,000 shipments of cars and light trucks in 2023, more than any other port for the 13th consecutive year, according to state data.

“This port is the No. 1 port for cars and farm equipment,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said Sunday on “Face the Nation.”

“So this matters to folks in rural North Carolina and Kansas and Iowa,” he added. “This matters to the global economy.”

Additionally, there are more than 15,000 people who work directly for the port, and thousands of others whose livelihoods depend on it, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said on ABC’s “This Week.”

The Small Business Administration announced Saturday that it would make low-interest, long-term loans of up to $2 million available to local small businesses in the mid-Atlantic region affected by the bridge collapse.

The U.S. government awarded Maryland an initial $60 million in funding to clear the wreckage. The federal government will cover 90% of the costs to rebuild the bridge, said Van Hollen. He plans to introduce legislation along with Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., to cover the remaining 10%, Van Hollen said.

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he intends for the federal government to pay for the entire cost of rebuilding the bridge, and expects Congress to support that effort.

Some lawmakers have balked at the idea, though. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., called Biden’s notion of using federal funds to cover the full cost “kind of outrageous.”

While the current Congress is divided, Buttigieg expressed confidence that lawmakers would approve bridge funding on a bipartisan basis.

“If we can see Republicans and Democrats cooperate to get President Biden’s infrastructure package through, surely they can cooperate to help America and Baltimore deal with this tragedy,” he said Sunday on MSNBC.

French President Emmanuel Macron has doubled down on the possibility of sending troops into Ukraine, a day before a key summit with Germany, which is staunchly opposed to the idea.

“We cannot exclude options,” Macron said in a joint interview with TF1 and France 2 TV on Thursday, when asked to revisit controversial comments made in late February. At the time, the French leader refused to rule out the prospective deployment of Western troops into Ukrainian territory — resulting in scorn from Russia and a backlash from Macron’s NATO allies.

“What we are doing is giving ourselves red lines,” the French premier continued on Thursday, in comments translated by CNBC, noting that the international community has placed “too many limits in our vocabulary” regarding the war.

“If we decide today to be weak, if, in the face of someone who has no limits, who has crossed all the limits we have given him, if we naively tell him: ‘I will not go farther than this or that.’ In that moment we don’t decide peace, we decide defeat.”

The French leader declined to specify how he envisages a potential troop deployment into Ukraine, stressing instead that “the security of Europe and the security of the French people is at stake here.”

In response to the comments, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “France is already involved in the conflict in Ukraine and is not averse to increasing its involvement,” according to Google-translated remarks reported by Russian state news agency Tass.

The latest statements by Macron once again risk pitting him against NATO allies, who distanced themselves from the possibility of their own national military deployment in Ukraine in February.

The alliance members face separate pressure to increase their defense spending to a previously agreed target of 2% of their national GDP, with two-thirds of members set to meet this objective this year, according to the latest projections.

“We have the capacity to give Ukraine what it needs. Now we need to show the political will to do so,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stressed during a press briefing.

NATO member contributions have so far been used to supply ammunition and military equipment and maintenance to Ukraine, rather than sending troops into Ukrainian territory — a move that would position the alliance closer to war with Russia. Foreign volunteers have assisted both Russia and Ukraine in the war so far, but not as part of any formal military deployment.

Macron on Friday is meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin for talks that many hope could silence simmering tensions over Ukraine. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk will also join them, in a rare meeting of the Weimar Triangle — a regional coalition between the three countries, born in 1991.

Berlin has fought to shrug off its image as a slow responder to the conflict in Ukraine, after stalling approval to send Kyiv its Leopard-2 tanks. It now faces similar calls to deliver its Taurus missiles, which Scholz says would require the involvement of German soldiers to operate.

In February, Scholz joined the chorus of NATO leaders starkly opposing Macron’s position of potentially sending troops into Ukraine, insisting on social media: “It is clear: there will be no ground troops from European countries or NATO. That applies.”

Tusk, whose country has staunchly backed Ukraine in the war, comes fresh from a White House engagement earlier this week, during which he, Polish President Andrezj Duda and U.S. President Joe Biden committed “continued support of Ukraine’s self-defense against Russia’s war of aggression,” according to a readout.

“True solidarity with Ukraine? Less words, more ammunition,” Tusk said on social media on Friday.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Monday raised concerns about efforts to ban Chinese-owned social media app TikTok in the U.S., saying it would only serve to empower Meta’s Facebook platform.

“Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,” Trump, who was formerly U.S. president between 2017 and 2021, said in a CNBC TV interview on Monday.

Acknowledging his concerns around national security and data privacy over TikTok, Trump said “there’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad” with the platform.

“There are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it,” Trump said.

CNBC has reached out to Meta for comment.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, has exploded in popularity over the last few years, becoming an international sensation with its short videos.

It has also led regulators to fear that the software’s Chinese ownership would mean that it could share private user data at the request of the Beijing government.

ByteDance, like other Chinese companies, would be forced to disclose such information if asked to do so, experts say. China’s National Intelligence Law of 2017 requires organizations and citizens to “support, assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work.”

In 2020, the Trump administration unsuccessfully tried to have TikTok removed from app stores in the U.S. due to these concerns. Trump subsequently ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok within 90 days. This effort, which at one point saw Microsoft put a bid in for TikTok’s U.S. business, also never came to fruition.

Now, U.S. lawmakers are once again stepping up efforts to tackle concerns surrounding TikTok, with separate pieces of legislation proposing either a divestiture of TikTok by ByteDance, or a full ban. Incumbent President Joe Biden, who has expressed national security concerns over TikTok, has also said he would sign a bill to ban the app, if Congress passes it.

Trump has recently softened his tone, saying he fears a TikTok ban would only serve to make Facebook more powerful.

In Monday’s interview, Trump said that he feels TikTok remains a national security risk, given its Chinese ownership — but he also deflected attention to Facebook, noting that the platform has similar issues concerning privacy and security.

“If China wants anything from [TikTo], they will give it, so that’s a national security risk [that] goes up,” Trump acknowledged. “But when I look at it, I’m not looking to make Facebook double the size. And if you if you ban TikTok, Facebook and others — but mostly Facebook — will be a big beneficiary, and I think Facebook has been very busy.”

“I think Facebook has been very bad for our country, especially when it comes to elections,” Trump added.

Hedge fund billionaire Ray Dalio attended a Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert in Singapore, and posted a selfie from the packed venue along with a caption explaining why he thought the megastar should be the next president of the United States.

“@TaylorSwift for President!” the Bridgewater Associates founder Dalio wrote Thursday on Instagram.

“I just saw her at her concert in Singapore and realized that she can bring together Americans and people in most countries much better than either of the candidates, and that bringing people together is the most important thing,” Dalio wrote.

“Watching this concert with people from all over the world made me and them feel good and connected and reminded me how powerful that universal culture is,” he added. “Wouldn’t it be great if we had two candidates who could lead that culture and make smart leadership decisions too?”

While the post was likely made in jest, politicians and pundits know all too well of the record-breaking Grammy award winning singer’s powerful influence and enormous fan base.

Dalio later tweeted an update, elaborating on his frame of mind when he made the first post, and explaining it.

“Re: my Taylor Swift for president! comments, no I wasn’t drunk (though obviously I need to work on my selfies) and yes it was a joke, which is a half-truth,” Dalio wrote in the post on the social media site X.

“The half that’s true is that I think she can bring people together a lot better than either of the presidential candidates and bringing people together is one of the most important things a president should do.”

Swift’s get-out-the-vote efforts have previously spurred tens of thousands of young people to register to vote in a single day.

And the reputation she gained supporting Joe Biden’s campaign against former President Donald Trump that year have fostered right-wing conspiracy theories that she’s being deployed as a tool of the Democrats or even the Pentagon and CIA for this year’s presidential race.

While some Republican lawmakers and television pundits suggest Swift is part of a masterminded plot to achieve the Biden administration’s endgame, her fans have replied with “you need to calm down.” Swift has not made any endorsements for the 2024 election, but encouraged her 283 million Instagram followers to vote in a post on Tuesday for the Super Tuesday primaries.

Dalio, who turned Bridgewater into the world’s largest hedge fund, has previously stressed what he believes is the need for a more centrist approach to American politics. Many voters have not expressed happiness at the prospect of a Trump-Biden rematch, bracing for a potentially cruel summer and fall campaign season as the contenders’ bad blood risks stoking further polarization in the country’s politics.

“What we need is a very strong middle,” Dalio said at a financial forum in November.

“We have irreconcilable differences by sides that will not accept losing.”

He said at the time that he saw former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, as the most promising candidate. Perhaps he now hopes Swift will fill in the blank space left by Haley’s recent departure from the race.

The Eras Tour is the most profit-generating concert tour in history, spanning 152 shows in five continents over 21 months.

Since launching her tour, Swift has become a billionaire and boosted the economies of numerous cities and states, surpassing many forecasters’ wildest dreams. The U.S. Federal Reserve in 2023 cited her concerts as providing significant economic boosts to American cities, and some analysts estimated that by October of that year, the shows and subsequent gold rush of travel and spending by fans had added $5.7 billion to the U.S. economy.

In Singapore alone, six consecutive days of concerts are estimated to have added between $225 million to $300 million to the city-state’s economy in the first quarter of this year, according to a survey of economists published by Bloomberg.

India is seeking the release of its nationals who have been “duped” into serving in the Russian army, a spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said Friday, in a rare rift from Moscow.

“Several Indian nationals have been duped to work with the Russian army. We have strongly taken up the matter with the Russian government for early discharge of such internationals,” said spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal. “A case of human trafficking has been registered against several agents.”

He appealed to Indian nationals to “not be swayed by offers made by agents for support jobs with the Russian army. This is fraught with danger and risk to life,” stressing that New Delhi remains “committed to early release of our nationals serving as support staff with the Russian army and the eventual return home.”

Late on Thursday, the Central Bureau of Investigation of India said it had raided several “major human trafficking networks” that were “targeting gullible youths” with offers of lucrative jobs abroad. The CBI identified at least “35 instances” of Indian citizens being sent abroad as a result of these operations.

“These traffickers have been operating as an organized network and were luring Indian nationals through social media channels like Youtube etc and also through their local contacts/agents for highly paid jobs in Russia,” the CBI said in a statement.

Following their recruitment, Indian nationals were “trained in combat roles and deployed at front bases in Russia-Ukraine War Zoen against their wishes, thus, putting their lives in grave dangers.”

“It has been ascertained that some of these victims also got grievously injured in the war zone,” the agency said.

It comes amid a domestic labour crisis that has incentivized Indian nationals to seek jobs abroad.

India’s unemployment rate climbed to 8% in February from 6.8% in January, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), an independent think tank, as the country’s economic expansion sharply outpaces job creation.

Moscow and Kyiv have been locked in a more than two-year war of attrition on Ukrainian territory, with Russia introducing strict drafting laws and increasing its maximum age of conscription. Volunteer foreign fighters have joined both sides of the conflict.

Indian and international news outlets have carried reports of Indian citizens being stranded fighting for the Russian army. Reuters on Thursday said Mohammed Asfan from India’s Hyderabad city died while fighting in the Ukraine war, after travelling to Russia to work as an army “helper.”

“We have learnt about the tragic death of an Indian national Shri Mohammed Asfan. We are in touch with the family and Russian authorities. Mission will make efforts to send his mortal remains to India,” the Indian embassy to Russia said on March 6 on social media. It did not state whether Asfan had died while fighting for Russia or on Ukrainian territory.

CNBC has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.

The request for the release of India nationals fighting for Russia pits New Delhi at rare odds against Moscow.

Defying the U.S., India has adopted a staunchly neutral position following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, abstaining from voting on successive resolutions put to the U.N. Security Council, U.N. General Assembly and U.N. Human Rights Council that denounced Moscow.

India has also offered a rare outlet for Russian seaborne crude volumes, bereft of EU and G7 buyers since sanctions prohibiting its purchase were enforced in late 2022.

The two countries also share close ties as partners in the BRICS economic coalition of emerging markets.

A 72-hour state of emergency has been declared in Haiti after armed gangs stormed two of the country’s largest prisons, reportedly allowing thousands of people to escape.

A government statement said two prisons, one in the capital of Port-au-Prince and another in nearby Croix des Bouquets, were overrun by gang members over the weekend, according to multiple media reports.

Nearly all the 4,000 inmates at Haiti’s National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince were thought to have escaped.

CNBC could not independently verify the figures.

Haiti’s government on Sunday imposed a state of emergency and a night-time curfew in an attempt to restore order, with Finance Minister Patrick Boisvert reportedly calling on police to use “all legal means” to recapture the prisoners and enforce the curfew, according to Al Jazeera.

Boisvert is in temporary charge of the Haitian government while Prime Minister Ariel Henry is on an overseas trip to Kenya, looking to rouse support for a U.N.-backed security force to help prop the country after years of deadly gang violence.

Haitian lawyer Arnel Remy, head of the Collective of Lawyers for the Defense of Human Rights in Haiti, said in a Google-translated update on the X social media platform that a total of 3,597 prisoners escaped from the National Penitentiary.

The U.N. has warned the Haitian government’s presence “continues to erode,” with lawlessness and extreme gang violence casting a long shadow over everyday life in the crisis-stricken country.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says Haiti has faced a multitude of challenges in recent years, “encompassing political, social and economic issues, further exacerbated by recurring natural disasters.”

In a Google-translated post on X, one of Haiti’s police unions on Sunday called on all officers in the capital to assist in the battle to regain control of the prison. “No one will be spared in the capital because there will be 3000 extra bandits now effective,” the statement said.

The U.S. embassy in Haiti on Sunday issued a security alert, urging U.S. citizens to leave the country as soon as possible by commercial or other privately available transport options.

The embassy, which on Friday warned of heavy gunfire and traffic disruption near Port-au-Prince airport, said operations would be limited on Monday and that further activity may be affected due to “gang-related violence and its effects on transportation and infrastructure.”

Russia appears to be relishing the gaffe French President Emmanuel Macron made this week in suggesting that NATO countries discussed the possibility of Western ground troops being deployed in Ukraine, saying such an eventuality could not be “ruled out.”

Macron’s suggestion was widely — and very publicly — rejected by NATO member countries Tuesday. The United States, Germany, the U.K., Spain, Poland and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg were among those denying that sending ground troops into Ukraine was an option.

The Kremlin was quick to seize upon the comments Tuesday, warning that any move to put Western boots on the ground in Ukraine would lead to an “inevitable” conflict between NATO and Russia. Since then, state-run Russian media has been dominated by Russian officials relishing the obvious division in NATO, and Macron’s apparent misreading of the NATO mood music.

Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and prime minister, said Macron had suffered a bout of verbal “incontinence” while Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said Macron’s “loud statements … horrified the residents of his country and the leaders of a number of European states.”

“To maintain personal power, Macron came up with nothing better than to spark a third world war. His initiatives are becoming dangerous for French citizens,” Volodin said on Telegram, comparing the French president to French leader and military commander Napoleon Bonaparte, whose invasion of Russia in 1812 is widely recognized as a military disaster for France that led to a massive number of casualties.

“Before making such statements, Macron would do well to remember how it ended for Napoleon and his soldiers, more than 600,000 of whom were left lying in the damp earth,” Volodin said, referring to the muddy conditions that hampered France’s invasion. 

Russia’s Foreign Ministry claimed Wednesday that Ukraine is facing a “catastrophic” situation at the front — Russia is currently enjoying a spate of small territorial gains in eastern Ukraine — and that Macron’s statement had not helped the country.

“The situation at the front for the Kyiv regime is monstrous, catastrophic,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told the Sputnik radio station, the Tass news agency reported.

She claimed NATO countries’ denials that they planned to send their ground troops into Ukraine showed the West had “betrayed Ukraine and will continue to use and betray it,” repeating Moscow’s baseless claims that Western countries are using Ukraine to destroy Russia.

Macron’s controversial comments came Monday evening, after he had hosted European heads of state and representatives from the U.K., U.S. and Canada for talks in Paris on how best to help Ukraine.

After the conference, Macron said discussions had also covered the possibility of deploying ground troops, although he said there was no agreement on the issue.

“There is no consensus today to officially, openly, and with endorsement, send troops on the ground. But in terms of dynamics, nothing should be ruled out,” Macron said at a news conference Monday evening, adding that allies “will do everything necessary to ensure that Russia cannot win this war.”

French opposition lawmakers rounded on Macron for making the comments, with the leader of the hard-right National Rally party Marine Le Pen stating on X that by “affirming that sending ground troops was not excluded, Emmanuel Macron took a further step towards co-belligerence.”

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne attempted to ease tensions in France’s parliament on Tuesday without rowing back on Macron’s comments, saying French troops could take on non-combat roles rather than actively battle in Ukraine.

“We must consider new actions to support Ukraine. These must respond to very specific needs, I am thinking in particular of mine clearance, cyberdefence, the production of weapons on site, on Ukrainian territory,” he told lawmakers, Reuters reported.

“Some of its actions could require a presence on Ukrainian territory, without crossing the threshold of fighting. Nothing should be ruled out. This was and still is the position today of the president of the Republic,” he said.

France was left looking increasingly isolated throughout the day Tuesday, with the White House also distancing itself from Macron’s comments.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters yesterday that any decision to deploy ground troops was a “sovereign decision,” but that it was not one the U.S. would be taking in Ukraine.

When asked about Macron’s comments, Kirby said “well, that’s a sovereign decision that every NATO ally would have to make for themselves. You heard [NATO] Secretary General Stoltenberg say himself he had no plans or intentions of — certainly under NATO auspices — of putting troops on the ground. And President Biden has been crystal clear since the beginning of this conflict. There’ll be no U.S. troops on the ground in a combat role there. In Ukraine.”

Russia analysts have said Macron’s comments were a gift to the Kremlin, and would be fully exploited by Russia’s propaganda machine at home — and abroad.

The Elysee Palace sought to clarify and defend France’s position on the matter further Tuesday, with a spokesperson stating that “we want to avoid escalation. Let me remind you that we’re not at war with the Russian people, but we can’t let Russia win in Ukraine.”

Timothy Ash, emerging markets strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, was among those questioning “French foreign policy sense on anything to do with Russia/Ukraine.”

“Literally idiotic comments from Macron,” Ash said in emailed comments Tuesday. “Ukraine does not need Western boots on the ground — it needs Western military kit to do the job themselves of defeating Russia.”

Ash said that “talk of Western boots on the ground is so damaging” as “it plays to the Putin narrative of NATO expansion East, and that this is a NATO war with Russia” and “plays up to similar narratives being plied in the Global South,” referring to countries often described as “developing” economies with whom Russia would like to develop ties.

He noted the comments would also likely be “seized on by Putin’s allies in the GOP [the Republican Party] to stall in agreeing military support/financing for Ukraine.”

“What the U.S. public do not want is U.S. boots on the ground in another foreign conflict. But the beauty of Western support for Ukraine thus far is that it has not required Western boots on the ground, but through a modest financial outlay has had a devastating impact on Russian military capability,” Ash said.

Munich, GERMANY — The U.S. is considering slapping sanctions on Chinese companies it believes are helping Russia fuel its war in Ukraine, members of Congress told CNBC, marking the first direct apportioning of blame toward Beijing since the start of the war.

Democratic Senator Gerald Connolly, member of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Relations, on Saturday said that lawmakers were already considering such plans after similar measures were proposed last week by the European Union.

The provisions would mark the first direct penalties against Beijing despite long-held Western suspicions over its support for Russia’s military operations.

“China has to understand that the same kinds of sanctions which are beginning to really take hold in Russia and are affecting Russian productivity, economic performance and quality of life, can also be applied to China,” he told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.

“And frankly, China has a lot more to lose than Russia.”

U.S. sanctions could severely hurt a Chinese economy already in the doldrums, after a slower-than-anticipated Covid-19 recovery and turbulence in its real estate sector. But such a step could also hurt the U.S., given the countries’ trade interdependence, and this consideration has prompted caution from Washington in the past.

Still, Connolly said that would not deter such penalties, which could come “very soon.”

“My hope is the very threat of it — and the fact that the Europeans are really serious about this, which is a relatively recent development — ought to clarify some thinking in Beijing, I hope,” he said.

“If broad sanctions were applied to China, it would really hit home. And their economic performance right now is already weak. So I would hope China would calculate carefully that there are consequences around the corner for supporting Russia’s violence and depravity in Ukraine.”

Asked whether the U.S. is considering similar sanctions on China as those proposed by the EU, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin said Congress was currently looking into options with the Biden administration.

“It’s an area that we’re looking at, and Congress is working with the administration as to how we can enforce the sanctions against Russia, and that will require greater cooperation of other countries.”

CNBC reported last week that the European Union was preparing to impose sanctions on Chinese companies it believes are helping Russia circumvent Western penalties intended to curb its war in Ukraine.

The proposals, which would form part of the bloc’s 13th sanctions package since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, could be ready later this month to mark the war’s second anniversary. The EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said Monday that those plans had gained a new urgency in the wake of the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Friday.

The plans come amid ongoing reports that Beijing is propping up Moscow’s war economy.

A September CNBC investigation found that Chinese firms are playing an critical role in boosting Russia’s military capabilities, including via the trade of goods for use on the battlefield in Ukraine. A separate January report found that China has become key conduit in funnelling critical Western tech into Russia.

China’s foreign ministry and the U.S. National Security Council did not immediately respond to CNBC requests for comment.

A U.S. intelligence report stated that China “has also become an increasingly important buttress for Russia in its war effort, probably supplying Moscow with key technology and dual-use equipment used in Ukraine.”

However, Beijing has been forthright in its rejection of such accusations, saying that its trade with Moscow constitutes “normal economic cooperation,” and that it targets no “third party.” China has also previously attempted to mediate in the war in Ukraine, last year releasing a 12-point peace plan for the conflict that has yet to gain traction.

In a speech at MSC, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that trade should not be weaponized and said that any attempts to limit trade ties with his country would be a “historic mistake.”

“Those who attempt to shut China out in the name of derisking will make a historical mistake,” he said referring to existing restrictions implemented by the U.S. to limit, for instance, the trade of sensitive technologies.

Wang later met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the side lines of the conference, where he urged Washington to lift existing sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals and said the U.S. should not hurt China’s legitimate development rights.

Washington has imposed sanctions on various Chinese companies that it says are working with China’s military, despite the firms’ denials. U.S. sanctions have also been placed on individuals and entities accused of human rights abuses in the Chinese region of Xinjiang.