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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
President Trump yesterday signed a travel ban barring visitors and immigrants from 12 countries from entering the United States. The ban, which comes into effect on Monday, bars the entry of citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. It also imposes restrictions stopping short of a full ban on travel from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. Hamed Aleaziz reports for the New York Times.
Trump yesterday accused Iran of “slow-walking their decision” in the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei criticized Washington’s most recent proposal for a deal, which U.S. officials expect Tehran will reject. Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
The Trump administration’s proposed budget submitted to Congress last week proposes to eliminate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s global health unit, a move that would eliminate the CDC’s $230 million program providing lifesaving vaccines around the world. Apoorva Mandavilli reports for the New York Times.
Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz will today meet Trump in Washington D.C. A White House official said topics Trump is likely to raise with Merz include Germany’s defense spending, trade, Ukraine, and what the official called “democratic backsliding.” Geir Moulson and Seung Min Kim report for AP News.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to respond to Ukraine’s drone attack on Russian strategic bomber bases, Trump said yesterday, citing the first conversation between the leaders since the Sunday’s attack. Trump described his call with Putin as a “good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate [p]eace.” Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Jonathan Swan, Ivan Nechepurenko, and Marc Santora report for the New York Times.
The Trump administration is redirecting a key antidrone technology earmarked for Ukraine to U.S. forces, according to a notification the Pentagon submitted to Congress last week. Michael R. Gordon reports for the Wall Street Journal.
A Russian drone strike on the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky killed at least five people early today, including a 1-year-old child, his mother, and grandmother, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. Hanna Arhirova and Illia Novikov report for AP News.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
The United States yesterday vetoed the U.N. Security Council’s draft resolution calling for an “unconditional and permanent” ceasefire in Gaza. Acting U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Shea stated that the draft resolution would “undermine diplomatic efforts” to reach a ceasefire and did not condemn Hamas or call for the group to disarm and leave Gaza. The other 14 members voted in favour of the document. Danai Nesta Kupemba reports for BBC News.
The U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has not yet reopened its aid distribution sites by mid-morning today, local time, a day after pausing aid distributions following a series of deadly shootings close to the sites. The GHF did not say when aid distribution would resume. Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Alexander Cornwell report for Reuters.
The Israeli military today said it had recovered the bodies of two Israeli-Americans hostages from the southern Khan Younis area of Gaza. David Gritten reports for BBC News.
GLOBAL AFFAIRS
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, yesterday expressed concerns about the discovery of dozens of bodies and a burial site in an area of Libya’s capital controlled by an armed militia whose leader was killed last month. Türk called on authorities to seal the area to preserve evidence and said there needed to be accountability for the killings. AP News reports.
Syria’s new government has agreed to give International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors immediate access to suspected former nuclear sites, the IAEA’s Director-General, Rafael Mariano Grossi, told AP News yesterday. Abby Sewell reports.
Turkish prosecutors have opened an investigation into Ozgur Ozel, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party, on charges of threatening and insulting Istanbul’s chief prosecutor. The move adds to President Tayyip Erdogan’s broad crackdown on opposition. Reuters reports.
South Korea’s liberal-led legislature yesterday voted to approve special investigations into former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived martial law decree and criminal allegations against his wife. AP News reports.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
Trump yesterday suspended Harvard University from participating in the student visa program, prohibiting foreign students from attending the university. Natalie Andrews and Douglas Belkin report for the Wall Street Journal.
The State Department has moved $250 million from funds previously used to resettle refugees in the United States to the Department of Homeland Security for voluntary deportations by migrants without legal status, a State Department spokesperson said yesterday. Jonathan Landay reports for Reuters.
ICE detained more than 2,200 people on Tuesday, carrying out the most arrests in a single day in the agency’s history as it responds to White House pressure to rapidly increase arrest numbers, a source said. Hundreds of the people arrested had been enrolled in ICE’s Alternative to Detention program, sources add. Julia Ainsley, Laura Strickler, and Didi Martinez report for NBC News.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has paused a plan to issue a $47 million contract for an expanded immigrant detention center in Georgia amid a DOGE review of the project, according to a local official and documents seen by the Washington Post. Douglas MacMillan and Hannah Natanson report.
A judge yesterday barred CoreCivic, a major U.S. private prison operator, from housing immigrants facing possible deportation in a shuttered Kansas City area detention center without obtaining a permit from the city officials. Heather Hollingsworth reports for AP News.
The Justice Department and the state of Texas yesterday settled a DOJ lawsuit with the settlement now blocking a law that had offered undocumented immigrants residing in Texas the in-state tuition rates for its public colleges and universities. Hannah Rabinowitz reports for CNN.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
Trump yesterday signed a memorandum directing the White House counsel and the Attorney General to investigate the executive decisions of former President Biden and his staff. The order asserts, without evidence, that Biden’s “cognitive decline” and alleged use of autopen to sign documents may have “implications for the legality and validity” of some of Biden’s actions as president. Biden rebuked the claim he was not making decisions during his presidency, calling Trump’s suggestions “ridiculous and false.” Chris Cameron reports for the New York Times; Brett Samuels reports for the Hill.
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday told the Transportation Department to disregard the Government Accountability Office’s ruling that the Trump administration violated law by freezing electric vehicle funding. In a letter to the DOT, OMB’s General Counsel Mark Paoletta called GAO’s ruling “wrong and legally indefensible;” a GAO spokesperson said the agency stands by its ruling. Chris Marquette reports for POLITICO.
The Trump administration this week notified Congress of a plan to shrink the Voice of America’s staff count from 1,400 journalists and administrative staff to less than 20, according to a letter dated Tuesday addressed to Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Minho Kim reports for the New York Times.
The Education Department yesterday said it had notified Columbia University’s accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, that the school is no longer meeting the accreditation standards after failing to protect Jewish students from harassment. The move threatens Columbia’s ability to receive federal student aid. Bianca Quilantan reports for POLITICO.
Trump has nominated Vice Adm. Brad Cooper to take over as the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East and Air Force Lt. Gen. Dagvin Anderson to head U.S. Africa Command, the Pentagon announced yesterday. Lolita C. Baldor reports for AP News.
The Trump administration’s cuts to the Education Department’s civil-rights office are stalling the investigations and resolutions on thousands of complaints involving students with disabilities and those facing discrimination, parents, lawyers, and conservative activists say. Ken Thomas reports for the Wall Street Journal.
Trump’s approvals of disaster relief funds are not being notified to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, leading to confusion, communication breakdowns, and delays in the provision of assistance to disaster-hit communities, FEMA officials say. Gabe Cohen reports for CNN.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics yesterday announced it is cutting back its collection of data on consumer prices, and that it had stopped gathering data entirely in Buffalo, New York; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Provo, Utah. The agency did not give a specific reason for the cuts, which economists warn may further worsen the quality of the statistical system’s data. Ben Casselman reports for the New York Times.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed frustration with the Trump administration’s failure to submit a defense budget yesterday, with House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-AL) asking Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George to show the committee the math behind the Pentagon’s funding requests. Abigail Hauslohner and Olivia George report for the Washington Post.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
The Trump administration must facilitate the ability of the 140 Venezuelan immigrants removed to El Salvador to seek habeas relief, a federal judge ruled yesterday. Finding that the removals were carried out illegally, the judge gave the administration a week to propose how the men can pursue cases in U.S. courts challenging their removal. Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney report for POLITICO; Mariah Timms reports for the Wall Street Journal.
A federal judge yesterday blocked the deportation of the family of the man accused of attacking a group of demonstrators who were expressing support for Israeli hostages in Boulder, Colorado, ruling that “deportation without process could cause irreparable harm.” Victoria Albert reports for the Wall Street Journal.
A federal appeals court yesterday declined to lift a lower court’s order blocking the Trump administration from carrying out mass layoffs at the Education Department that would effectively shut the agency down. Devan Cole reports for CNN.
A federal judge yesterday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from eliminating the Job Corps, the largest U.S. job training program for low-income youth, while proceedings challenging the effort to shutter the program are ongoing. Dietrich Knauth reports for Reuters.
Pennsylvania yesterday filed a lawsuit against the Department of Agriculture alleging that the agency had illegally cut off funding under a pandemic-era federal food assistance program. Marc Levy reports for AP News.
Alvin Brown, the former Vice-chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, yesterday filed a lawsuit challenging his removal by Trump last month, arguing that his firing was illegal and threatened the NTSB’s safety mission. David Shepardson reports for Reuters.
A judge yesterday agreed to grant the joint request filed by the DOJ and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s attorneys to dismiss the DOJ’s case filed as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to recover Navarro’s emails sent during the first Trump administration. Spencer S. Hsu reports for the Washington Post.
A Guatemalan man who the Trump administration unlawfully deported to Mexico landed back in the United States yesterday, the man’s attorneys confirmed. The man was later taken into custody by ICE agents and was being transported to a detention facility in Arizona, an attorney added. Jennifer Sinco Kelleher reports for AP News.
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