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A curated guide to major news and developments over the weekend. Here’s today’s news:
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR — U.S. RESPONSE
President Trump on Sunday criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for Moscow’s intensifying attacks on Ukraine, telling reporters he is “not happy” about the recent escalation and later writing that Putin has “gone absolutely crazy” in a social media post. Trump also confirmed he may levy additional sanctions against Russia. Sources say that Trump is tiring of the peace negotiations and is considering abandoning them altogether. Trump’s Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, called Russia’s attacks a “clear violation of the 1977 Geneva Peace Protocols.” Erica L. Green reports for the New York Times; Annie Linskey, Alexander Ward, and Josh Dawsey report for the Wall Street Journal.
In response to Trump’s comments, the Kremlin yesterday said that Trump’s criticism of Putin may be due to “emotional overload” and thanked the United States and Trump for their “assistance in organising and launching this negotiation process.” Reuters reports.
The “silence” of the United States and others “only encourages Putin,” with Russia “dragging out” the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday. In a social media post, Trump said Zelenskyy was “doing his country no favors by talking the way he does” and that “he better stop.” Kosta Gak, Eve Brennan, and Simone McCarthy report for CNN.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Russia launched its biggest drone attack on Ukraine overnight into yesterday, marking the third night of significant aerial bombardments in a row, a Ukrainian military official said. According to Kyiv, an overnight Russian barrage of 367 drones and missiles on Sunday killed at least 12 people and injured dozens. Illia Novikov and Volodymyr Yurchuk report for AP News; Max Hunder and Jeff Mason report for Reuters; Constant Méheut and Daria Mitiuk report for the New York Times.
Ukraine is increasingly worried about securing more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems amid shrinking stockpiles and the Trump administration’s reluctance to send more weapons, according to Ukrainian and Western officials. Isobel Koshiw, Siobhán O’Grady, and Ellen Francis report for the Washington Post.
Work on Russia’s proposal for a possible peace deal with Ukraine is “ongoing” and a draft has not yet been submitted, a Kremlin spokesperson said yesterday. Reuters reports.
Ukraine and Russia on Sunday completed the swap of 1000 prisoners held by each side, the largest such exchange since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The exchange was the only step to emerge from the first direct talks between the sides earlier in May. Reuters reports.
Kyiv has confirmed information that China is supplying a range of important products to Russian military plants, the Ukrinform state news agency quoted the head of Ukrainian foreign intelligence as saying yesterday. Reuters reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — AID SUPPLY
Jake Wood, the chief executive of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), resigned yesterday, saying that it is “not possible” to implement the Israeli-backed plan “while also strictly adhering to the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.” The GHF named John Acree as its interim executive director following Wood’s resignation. Jeremy Diamond, Hira Humayun, and Jessie Yeung report for CNN.
The Executive Director of the U.N. World Food Programme, Cindy McCain, on Sunday called the food situation in Gaza “a catastrophe,” adding that 500,000 people inside of Gaza are “extremely food insecure.” The WFP last Friday said fifteen of its trucks were looted in Gaza last week, an incident that the agency said underlined the insecurity connected to “hunger, desperation, and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming.” Gregory Svirnovskiy reports for POLITICO; Louisa Loveluck, Heidi Levine, Miriam Berger, and Hazem Balousha report for the Washington Post.
The GHF announced yesterday that it has opened the first distribution hubs of its new aid distribution system and begun delivering food to Palestinians. The foundation did not specify the location of the hubs or the amount of food distributed. It remains unclear who is funding the project, which Israeli officials say was first proposed by Israeli officials in the earliest weeks of the war. Wafaa Shurafa and Samy Magdy report for AP News; Patrick Kingsley, Ronen Bergman, and Natan Odenheimer report for the New York Times.
Swiss authorities on Sunday said they were exploring whether to open a legal investigation into GHF activities. TRIAL International, a Swiss NGO, last week submitted a request for a probe into whether GHF’s aid plan complies with Swiss law and international humanitarian law. Olivia Le Poidevin reports for Reuters.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
A Palestinian official yesterday claimed that Hamas has agreed to U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff’s proposal for a Gaza ceasefire. Witkoff said that the proposal being discussed was not the same as his and was “completely unacceptable.” An Israeli official likewise denied that the proposal was Washington’s and said that no Israeli government could accept it. Barak Ravid reports for Axios; Jeremy Diamond, Abeer Salman, and Oren Liebermann report for CNN; Reuters reports.
An Israeli airstrike on a school-turned-shelter and other targets in Gaza killed at least 25 people yesterday, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. Israeli strikes also killed at least 30 Palestinians across Gaza on Sunday, including a senior rescue service official, a journalist, and two International Committee of the Red Cross staffers, according to the local health authorities and the ICRC. Shira Rubin, Abbie Cheeseman, and Karen DeYoung report for the Washington Post; Nidal Al-Mughrabi reports for Reuters.
The Israeli military is “systematically” using Palestinians as human shields in Gaza despite the practice being prohibited under Israeli and international law, according to several former detainees and Israeli soldiers. The Israeli military says it strictly prohibits using civilians as shields or otherwise coercing them to participate in operations. Sam Mednick and Samy Magdy report for AP News.
Israel aims to control 75% of Gaza within two months and push Palestinian civilians into just a quarter of the territory, the Israeli military said on Sunday. Dov Lieber reports for the Wall Street Journal.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — U.S. RESPONSE
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem met with officials in Israel yesterday and on Sunday. According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, Noem spoke in a meeting on Sunday of her “unwavering support for the prime minister and the state of Israel” and expressed “great appreciation” for Netanyahu’s conduct of the war. Separately, Trump on Sunday said he wants to end the war in Gaza “as quickly as possible.” Johnatan Reiss reports for the New York Times; Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH CEASEFIRE
Lebanon will begin disarming the armed Palestinian factions in refugee camps on its territory in June, a spokesman for the prime minister said on Friday. Disarming the factions would serve as a trial run before an attempt to disarm the powerful Hezbollah, experts say. Vivian Yee, Dayana Iwaza, and Hwaida Saad report for the New York Times.
GLOBAL AFFAIRS
Venezuela’s electoral council on Sunday claimed without evidence that President Nicolás Maduro’s party had won an overwhelming victory in regional and legislative elections. Critics say the election was a sham designed to rubber-stamp Maduro’s government. In the election, Venezuelans had also been asked to elect a governor and legislators to represent Essequibo, a region internationally recognized as a part of neighboring Guyana. Julie Turkewitz reports for the New York Times.
British security officials are investigating whether Moscow was involved in arson attacks on properties connected to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, according to senior Whitehall figures. The Kremlin yesterday rejected claims of Russian involvement in the attacks. Miles Johnson, Sam Jones, Charles Clover, George Parker, and David Sheppard report for the Financial Times; Reuters reports.
North Korea has detained shipyard officials responsible for a recent failed launch that crippled Pyongyang’s newest warship, North Korea’s KCNA state news agency said on Sunday. Reuters reports.
Crowds of far-right Israelis chanted insults and assaulted Palestinians yesterday during an annual parade commemorating Israeli forces taking Palestinian-majority East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Wyre Davies and Ruth Comerford report for BBC News.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Trump on Sunday announced he would delay imposing 50% tariffs on all imports from the European Union until July 9 to allow more time for trade negotiations. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the talks will advance “swiftly and decisively.” Alan Rappeport and Ana Swanson report for the New York Times.
Iran is open to compromises in nuclear talks with Washington, but uranium enrichment remains non-negotiable, Tehran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said yesterday. Separately, Trump on Sunday hinted an announcement regarding the talks could come “in the next two days.” Frederik Pleitgen, Joseph Ataman, and Claudia Otto report for CNN; Seung Min Kim reports for AP News.
The Trump administration on Friday lifted several major sanctions on Syria, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, in the first step aimed at fulfilling Trump’s promise to help stabilize Damascus’ new government. Separately, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, on Friday said he had assumed the role of special envoy to Syria. Isabela Espadas Barros Leal and James C. McKinley Jr. report for the New York Times; Reuters reports.
The U.S. military wants to get its partners in Africa to “the level of independent operations” and participate in “some burden sharing,” Gen. Michael Langley, the U.S. military’s top official in Africa, told AP News. Sam Metz and Monika Pronczuk report.
A dual U.S.-German citizen was charged with attempting to firebomb a U.S. Embassy office in Tel Aviv last week, the Justice Department announced on Sunday. Drew Harwell reports for the Washington Post.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
The DOJ on Friday announced it had agreed to end its felony case against Boeing over the manufacturer’s role in two passenger jet crashes that killed a total of 346 people in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Under the new settlement, Boeing must spend over $1.1 billion on fines, safety improvements and compensation for families of the people who died in the crashes in October 2018 and March 2019. Oriana Pawlyk and Sam Ogozalek report for POLITICO.
Four high-profile partners are leaving the law firm Paul, Weiss to start their own firm, a month after Paul, Weiss entered a deal with the White House to remove Trump’s punitive executive order, according to an email seen by POLITICO. Daniel Barnes reports.
The FBI will launch new probes into the 2023 discovery of cocaine at the White House and the 2022 leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion in the Dobbs case, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino announced yesterday. Raphael Satter reports for Reuters.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday dismissed scores of staff at the White House National Security Council in a bid to downsize the body, sources say. A White House official also said that Andy Baker, who has been national security adviser to Vice President JD Vance, and Robert Gabriel, a policy adviser to Trump, have been appointed as Deputy National Security Advisors. Ellen Nakashima and Adam Taylor report for the Washington Post.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday issued a series of restrictions on the press that include banning reporters from entering wide swaths of the Pentagon without a government escort. The Pentagon Press Association said the move “appears to be a direct attack on the freedom of the press.” David Bauder reports for AP News.
DOGE’s staff cuts at the Interior Department have set off a tussle over how the Bureau of Land Management employees should fulfil the duties for the thousands of vacant jobs that people inside the agency say are critical for its day-to-day operations, according to sources and documents reviewed by POLITICO. Ben Lefebvre reports.
Trump on Friday signed a series of executive orders intended to quadruple domestic production of nuclear power within the next 25 years. Experts say it is unlikely that the United States will meet this goal in the timeframe specified. Matthew Daly and Jennifer McDermott report for AP News.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
A federal judge on Friday issued an order temporarily restraining the Trump administration from rescinding Harvard University’s ability to enroll foreign students, hours after the school filed a lawsuit accusing the DHS of retaliation for Harvard’s refusal to agree to the government’s demands. Bianca Quilantan, Josh Gerstein, and Kyle Cheney report for POLITICO.
Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday issued an administrative stay of a lower court order directing the government to respond to freedom of information requests seeking documents from DOGE and allowing for the deposition of the DOGE administrator, Amy Gleason. Lawrence Hurley and Gary Grumbach report for NBC News.
Trump’s order threatening penalties against the law firm Jenner & Block was unconstitutional, a federal judge held on Friday. The judge found that Trump’s orders were “doubly violative” of the Constitution, violating the First Amendment rights of Jenner & Block and intimidating all other lawyers. The ruling is the second decision finding Trump’s orders punishing law firms unconstitutional. Zach Montague reports for the New York Times.
A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a Guatemalan man the U.S. authorities have deported to Mexico. The judge ruled that the man was likely to succeed in “showing that his removal lacked any semblance of due process.” Mattathias Schwartz reports for the New York Times.
The DOJ on Thursday sued the New Jersey cities of Newark, Jersey City, Hoboken, and Paterson over their so-called sanctuary city policies, alleging that the cities are shielding illegal immigrants from immigration enforcement. Christopher Maag reports for the New York Times.
An environmental group has filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s order that opened the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial fishing, arguing that commercial fishing in the area would harm the interests of a group of Native Hawaiian plaintiffs. Jennifer Sinco Kelleher reports for AP News.
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