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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
IRAN-U.S. NUCLEAR TALKS
The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates all argued against striking Iran’s nuclear facilities and urged President Trump to continue pushing for a new nuclear deal during his recent Middle East visit, sources say. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed, and Qatari Emir Tamim al-Thani told Trump they are worried their countries, which host U.S. military bases, will be targeted for retaliation if Iran’s nuclear sites are attacked, a source added. Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Minister last month told Iranian officials to take Trump’s offer to negotiate a nuclear agreement seriously or risk war with Israel, according to Gulf sources close and Iranian officials. Samia Nakhoul and Parisa Hafezi report for Reuters.
Senior Iranian officials yesterday dismissed speculation about an imminent nuclear deal with the United States. AP News reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
The White House yesterday said Israel had agreed to a ceasefire and hostage proposal that the United States shared with Israel and Hamas. Seen by Reuters, the proposal would entail a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 28 Israeli hostages alive and dead in the first week, in exchange for the release of 1,236 Palestinian prisoners and the remains of 180 dead Palestinians. A senior Hamas official said the group would reject the proposal, stating that it did not satisfy its core demands, including an end to the war. Samia Nakhoul and Hatem Maher report; Rushdi Abualouf and David Gritten report for BBC News.
France could harden its position on Israel if it continues to block the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza and create an “untenable” situation, French President Emmanuel Macron said today. Reuters reports.
Israel subjects people in Gaza to “forced starvation,” which “is classified as a war crime,” U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher has told BBC News. “These are issues for the courts to take the judgement on,” Fletcher added. Fergal Keane reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
More chaotic scenes unfolded during the opening of a third Gaza aid hub run by a U.S.- and Israeli-backed aid group, with crowds of hungry Palestinians dodging stun grenades as they scrambled to secure aid bundles, according to videos verified by the New York Times. The Israeli military denied throwing stun grenades, while witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire to control crowds. The U.N. previously declined cooperation with the group, describing its effort as a militarized distribution operation that violates humanitarian principles. Isabel Kershner, Rawan Sheikh Ahmad, and Sanjana Varghese report; Abdel Kareem Hana, Mohhamed Jahjouh, and Sarah Edl Deeb report for AP News.
An Israeli strike yesterday killed seven Hamas police officers deployed to a market in Gaza City to restore order and confront “looters,” the Hamas-run interior ministry said. There were reports of a breakdown of order elsewhere in Gaza yesterday, as desperate people searched for aid supplies. Rushdi Abualouf and Alys Davies report for BBC News.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
The U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine is “Russia’s best possible outcome” and President Vladimir Putin should accept it, Acting Deputy U.S. Ambassador John Kelley told the U.N. Security Council yesterday. Michelle Nichols reports for Reuters.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday said that Russia was engaging “in yet another deception” by not handing over its peace settlement proposal to Ukraine ahead of a potential Moscow-Kyiv meeting. Reuters reports.
North Korea has supplied at least 100 ballistic missiles and more than 11,000 troops to Russia for its war in “flagrant violation” of U.N. sanctions, according to a new report issued yesterday by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, a group backed by the United States and key allies. Michael R. Gordon reports for the Wall Street Journal.
A partnership with Iran has substantially boosted Russia’s domestic drone industry, increased Moscow’s capability to attack Ukraine, and spawned a covert payment network involving gold transfers and intermediary countries to bypass Western sanctions, according to a report released yesterday by C4ADS, a Washington-based research group. Mary Ilyushina reports for the Washington Post.
GLOBAL AFFAIRS
Pakistan and India are close to reducing the troop build-up along their border to levels present before last month’s conflict, a top Pakistani military official said today. Idrees Ali and Raju Gopalakrishnan report for Reuters.
Myanmar resistance forces say they are ceding the territory they won under pressure from China. Rebel leaders say Beijing has been intervening in the civil war to help the junta and protect its financial interests. Richard C. Paddock reports for the New York Times.
Thai and Cambodian armies yesterday agreed to seek a peaceful solution to the disputed border area after a clash that killed one Cambodian soldier on Wednesday, Thai officials said. Jintamas Saksornchai and Sopheng Cheang report for AP News.
The United Nations Secretariat is preparing to cut its budget by 20% and slash about 6,900 jobs amid a financial crisis triggered in part by the withdrawal of U.S. funding, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. John Shiffman reports.
Poles will this Sunday choose the country’s new president in a tight race between liberal Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and national conservative Karol Nawrocki. Adam Easton reports for BBC News.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to eliminate or consolidate more than 300 State Department offices and bureaus, leading to a reduction of more than 3,400 employees and 45% of its structural entities, documents obtained by Government Executive show. According to internal documents reviewed by POLITICO, the plan would also entail gutting the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. The move that could lead to funding freezes or cuts to many pro-democracy and human rights programs. Simon Lewis, Humeyra Pamuk, and Jonathan Landay report for Reuters; Eric Katz and David Dimolfetta report; Robbie Gramer reports.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced that the United States would restrict visas from foreign officials who are “responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States.” The language of the policy appears to target Brazilian Supreme Court’s Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who Trump’s media company has previously sued. Jack Nicas reports for the New York Times.
The United States plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding that reached during the first Trump administration as part of an effort to counter China’s pressure on the island, U.S. officials say. Michael Martina, Yimou Lee, and Ben Blanchard report for Reuters.
The U.S.-China trade negotiations “are a bit stalled,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said yesterday. Rebecca Falconer reports for Axios.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
A Defense Intelligence Agency employee is accused of attempting to share classified material with an unspecified “friendly foreign government,” out of frustration with Trump, according to court documents and yesterday’s DOJ announcement. The employee worked in the DIA’s Insider Threat Division, devoted to detecting employees who might be disclosing or prone to disclose sensitive information, and allegedly told authorities he was requesting citizenship in the foreign country. Ali Bianco reports for POLITICO.
A federal judge yesterday sentenced a man who blamed exposure to far-right extremist content for his online threats to kill Democratic election officials in Colorado and Arizona to three years in prison, stating that the penalty for “keyboard terrorism” needed to be serious enough to deter others. Colleen Slevin reports for AP News.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) yesterday said she is “very disappointed” that Trump is “even considering” pardoning men who were convicted of conspiring to kidnap her in 2020. Alexandra Marquez reports for NBC News.
The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content for Amazon to use in its generative AI platforms, the NYT Company announced yesterday. Financial terms of the licensing deal with Amazon were not disclosed. Michael M. Grynbaum and Cade Metz report for the New York Times.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
Despite publicly stating that the administration is “eliminating” the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is quietly pushing to keep key FEMA employees in place and to approve reimbursements to states previously hit by disaster ahead of the hurricane season, sources say. Jacob Soboroff, Julia Ainsley, and Laura Strickler report for NBC News.
Trump yesterday nominated Paul Ingrassia to be the next head of the Office of Special Counsel, a watchdog office that examines public corruption, ethics, and protects federal whistleblowers. Ingrassia is a former far-right podcast host who now serves as the White House liaison to the DHS. Andy Newman reports for the New York Times.
Trump has fired all of the members of the advisory committee that helps oversee the Foreign Relations of the United States publication series, an exhaustive record of U.S. foreign policy history, according to the State Department website. A senior State Department official said that “there is a plan in place to maintain the committee.” Petula Dvorak reports for the Washington Post.
Floyd Brown, a right-wing activist who this month said he had started working at the Kennedy Center as Vice President of Development, on Wednesday said that he was fired from his post after CNN asked him for comment on his past statements on homosexuality and marriage. Andrew Kaczynski reports.
The FBI is investigating a covert effort to impersonate White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, sources say. According to the sources, an unknown individual pretending to be Wiles reached out to prominent Republican lawmakers and business executives in recent weeks. FBI officials told the White House they do not believe a foreign nation is involved, the sources added. Josh Dawsey reports for the Wall Street Journal.
Some of the citations that underpin the science in the White House’s “Make America Healthy Report” appear to have been generated using AI, with several studies cited by the report apparently being invented, experts said yesterday. Lauren Weber and Caitlin Gilbert report for the Washington Post.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
As part of the State Department reorganization, the Trump administration plans to create an “Office of Remigration” that will serve as “the [Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration]’s hub for immigration issues and repatriation tracking” and “actively facilitate the voluntary return of migrants to their country of origin or legal status.” David Gilbert reports for WIRED.
Several Immigration and Customs Enforcement leaders are leaving their positions, including the top ICE deportation official, Kenneth Genalo, his deputy, and Robert Hammer, who runs the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations wing, the agency announced yesterday. Homeland security officials said the move is intended to help meet Trump’s campaign promises of mass deportations. Hamed Aleaziz reports for the New York Times.
The DHS yesterday published a list of more than 500 “sanctuary jurisdictions” across the United States that the department said would receive formal notification that the government views them as obstructing immigration enforcement. Rebecca Santana reports for AP News.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
A federal appeals court yesterday granted a temporary stay of the U.S. Court of International Trade’s ruling that Trump did not have the legal authority to enact many of his sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners. Tony Romm reports for the New York Times.
A second federal court yesterday found Trump’s tariffs to exceed the limits of powers conferred on the President by the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, with the DC district court ordering a preliminary injunction blocking the collection of the duties on two plaintiffs who challenged the measures. Doug Palmer and Kyle Cheney report for POLITICO.
A federal judge yesterday extended an order blocking the Trump administration’s effort to bar Harvard University from enrolling foreign students, allowing the school to continue enrolling international students as Harvard’s challenge to the measure proceeds. Michael Casey and Annie Ma report for AP News.
Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions
