President Donald Trump announced more than $243.5 billion in economic deals between the United States and Qatar on Wednesday, including a $96 billion agreement for Boeing to sell up to 210 jets to Qatar Airways.

The White House stated that the agreement with Qatar is projected to generate at least $1.2 trillion in economic exchange between both countries. The president was joined by Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for the signing ceremony in Doha.

Ortberg signed the deal with Qatar Airways CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer while standing next to Trump and Tamim. The president said Ortberg told him that it’s “the largest order of jets in the history of Boeing.” Qatar Airways had signed a $96 billion agreement to acquire up to 210 U.S.-made 787 Dreamliner and 777X aircraft from Boeing with GE Aerospace engines inside, according to the White House. (More)

President Donald Trump met with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday. The historic meeting took place after the president announced that he would lift sanctions on Syria and before Trump’s scheduled address to the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which comprises six countries in the region: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman.

“We are currently exploring normalizing relations with Syria’s new government,” Trump said during his remarks to the GCC leaders, noting that the process began with his meeting earlier with al-Sharaa. Trump told reporters on Air Force One that the meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa went “great.”

“He’s got a real shot at holding it together. I spoke with President Erdogan, who is very friendly with him. He feels he’s got a shot of doing a good job. It’s a torn-up country.” He said he thought Syria would at some point join the Abraham Accords, an agreement that established diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab neighbors in late 2020. (More)

Drug overdose deaths in the United States dropped sharply in 2024, falling to their lowest level since before the pandemic, according to provisional data released on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The report estimates that 80,391 people died of a drug overdose in 2024—a 26.9 percent decline from 110,037 in 2023, marking the largest one-year drop since the agency began collecting comparable data more than four decades ago. It’s the second consecutive annual decrease after overdose deaths surged during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Social isolation, disruptions to treatment, and other factors helped push fatalities to a peak of nearly 115,000 in 2023.

All but two states—Nevada and South Dakota—recorded declines last year, with especially steep drops in hard-hit areas such as West Virginia, which reported a 43.5 percent decrease. While the final figures may shift slightly as data are finalized, the CDC data indicate an unmistakable downward trend. (More)