Last Living U.S. Hostage in Gaza to Be Released Saturday
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With record levels of dry powder available for investment, find out what's in store for private markets in 2025 and beyond. Listen to Crafting Capital in partnership with UBS at partners.wsj.com slash UBS, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Here's your midday brief for Friday, February 14th. I'm Zoe Kolkin for The Wall Street Journal.

The Republican Party's right flank is pulling the House their way on the federal budget. Party leaders have struck a deal with members of the House Freedom Caucus that ties spending cuts and tax cuts more firmly together. The original budget blueprint, released earlier this week, laid out at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts through 2034 and a maximum of $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. Under the updated deal, if spending cuts don't reach $2 trillion, the tax cuts get reduced.

Hamas says it'll release the last living American Israeli civilian who's being held hostage in Gaza on Saturday. The militant group is set to release three men total in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners, including 36 serving life sentences. A judge has ordered the Trump administration to temporarily lift a freeze on U.S. international aid. It comes after President Trump halted much of the nation's spending on aid abroad, part of his push to cut government spending across the board.

And a Russian drone hit the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine early this morning, setting fire to the containment shield that contains radiation from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the fire had been put out and said there's been no recorded increase in radiation levels since. We'll have more coverage of the day's news on the WSJ's What's News podcast. You can add it to your playlist on your smart speaker or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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