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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR — U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
After speaking with European leaders yesterday, President Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin must agree to a ceasefire at tomorrow’s summit or face “very severe consequences.” European leaders say they have agreed on a strategy with Trump for the meeting, including an insistence that any peace proposal must begin with a ceasefire and keeping Kyiv “at the table” for follow-up meetings on the war. Trump also told his European counterparts that he would not negotiate territorial issues during the summit, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said, adding that Trump believes Ukraine must discuss that directly with Russia. Trump told reporters that if tomorrow’s meeting goes well, a follow-up trilateral meeting with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could happen “almost immediately” afterward. Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo report for Axios; Jim Tankersley reports for the New York Times; Bojan Pancevski reports for the Wall Street Journal; Christian Edwards and Lauren Kent report for CNN.
Putin and Trump will hold a joint press conference after tomorrow’s talks, the Kremlin announced. Laura Gozzi reports for BBC News.
Zelenskyy met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Downing Street today. While there has been no word from either leader on how the discussions went, there was a warm embrace between the pair. BBC News reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Israeli gunfire killed at least 25 people seeking aid in Gaza yesterday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry and local witnesses. Staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the bodies, said the people were shot while traveling to aid distribution sites or while awaiting convoys entering Gaza. Meanwhile, Netanyahu has again called for what he refers to as the voluntary migration of Palestinians from Gaza, telling Israeli media on Tuesday, “We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave.” Melanie Lidman and Samy Magdy report for AP News.
Tension is growing between Netanyahu’s government and the head of the country’s military, Eyal Zamir, who pushed back against a plan to take over Gaza City in a security cabinet meeting last week. Zamir, who expressed concern about troop exhaustion and personnel shortages if the plan proceeds, was overruled as the cabinet voted in favor of the plan. Yesterday, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Zamir should be ousted unless he severs links to a group of former generals who are allegedly advising him. Meanwhile, Defense Minister Israel Katz has also clashed with Zamir over recent military chief of staff appointments. Anat Paled reports for the Wall Street Journal.
Over 100 organizations have signed a joint letter calling on Israel to halt the “weaponization of aid” in Gaza. Humanitarian groups, including Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières, report they are increasingly being denied permission to deliver aid unless they adhere to stricter Israeli regulations. The letter warns that groups risk being banned if they are deemed to “delegitimize” the state of Israel or fail to provide detailed information about their Palestinian staff. James Chater reports for BBC News.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
The head of Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, met with Lebanese leaders yesterday in Beirut, amid growing pressure for Hezbollah, Tehran’s most powerful regional ally, to disarm. Ali Larijani became the highest-ranking Iranian official to visit Beirut since Lebanon’s government last week endorsed a U.S.-backed plan to dismantle Hezbollah’s weapons by the end of the year. The plan, which Hezbollah has rejected, came after weeks of U.S. shuttle diplomacy aimed at enforcing a ceasefire deal signed last year with Israel, ending Lebanon’s deadliest conflict in decades. Euan Ward reports for the New York Times.
Norwegian authorities said yesterday that Russian hackers are the likely perpetrators behind suspected sabotage at a dam in April that disrupted water flows. Emma Burrows reports for AP News.
The UK secretly spent $3.2 million on a covert “super injunction” court order preventing journalists from reporting a data breach that nearly risked the lives of 19,000 Afghans and their families, according to records obtained by the New York Times. The breach, which happened in 2022, exposed the personal information of Afghans who had worked alongside British forces before the Taliban’s 2021 takeover. Fearing for those individuals’ safety, the British government sought a court order, known in the UK as a “super injunction,” which prevented not only disclosure of the breach, but also prohibited journalists from reporting on the injunction itself. The use of the injunction, which officials argued was essential to save lives, has also intensified questions and concern about press freedom in the UK. Lizzie Dearden reports.
The U.N. Security Council yesterday rejected plans by Sudan’s paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, to establish a rival government in areas under its control, warning such a move risks worsening the ongoing civil war. Council members said the step posed “a direct threat to Sudan’s territorial integrity” and could fragment the country further. Edith M. Lederer reports for AP News.
The Myanmar junta is detaining and torturing people at detention centers, including children as young as 2 years old who are being held as proxies for their parents, U.N.-backed investigators said in a report released Tuesday. “We’ve documented torture against those in detention, including beatings and electric shocks, strangulations, pulling out fingernails, gang rape, burning of sexual body parts and other forms of sexual violence,” the head of the Independent Investigative Mechanim for Myanmar said, adding, “Some of the detained children have been subjected to torture, ill-treatment or sexual and gender-based crimes.” The Myanmar government has not commented on the report at the time of writing. Jennifer Jett reports for NBC News.
Violent clashes broke out for a second day yesterday between Serbian anti-government protesters and supporters of President Aleksandar Vucic, marking a major escalation after more than nine months of demonstrations against his rule. Jovana Gec reports for AP News.
Turkey publicly expressed support for the new Syrian government yesterday, warning Israel and Kurdish fighters to stop actions that threaten its stability. Ankara and Damascus also signed a “Joint Training and Advisory Cooperation” memorandum yesterday, Turkey’s defense ministry announced, without providing details. Suzan Fraser and Andrew Wilks report for AP News.
A Peruvian judge yesterday ordered former President Martin Vizcarra be held in pre-trial detention over allegations that he accepted bribes during his tenure as governor over a decade ago. The case marks the fifth ex-Peruvian president being imprisoned in recent years. Reuters reports.
Peru’s president has approved a contentious new law granting pardons to soldiers, police, and civilian militias on trial for abuses committed during the country’s two-decade conflict with Maoist rebels. Rachel Hagan reports for BBC News.
TECH DEVELOPMENTS
U.S. authorities have secretly installed location-tracking devices in certain shipments of advanced chips considered at high risk of illegal diversion to China, sources say. The devices are intended to detect AI chips being diverted to destinations restricted under U.S. export rules, and are applied only to specific shipments under investigation, the sources added. Fanny Potkin, Karen Freifeld, and jun Yuan Yong report for Reuters.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday announced actions to revoke or restrict visas for certain officials from Africa, the Caribbean, and Brazil, citing alleged connections to a Cuban program that sends medical workers abroad. The visas of Brazilian Ministry of Health official Mozart Julio Tabosa Sales and former Pan American Health Organization official Alberto Kleiman have been revoked, Rubio said. The officials from Africa, Cuba, and Grenada have not been named. Jasper Ward and Kanishka Singh report for Reuters.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
A man arrested in D.C. Sunday is facing felony charges for throwing a wrapped Subway sandwich at a federal law enforcement officer, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced yesterday. Court documents say that Sean Charles Dunn directed obscenities at Metro transit police and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, calling them “fascists” before approaching an officer and throwing a sandwich at him. Joe Heim and Sophia Solano report for the Washington Post.
Nine Latino Democratic officials and political operatives pleaded not guilty yesterday in South Texas to criminal voter fraud charges, accusations that their supporters denounced as blatant voter suppression and political intimidation by the state’s Republican Attorney General, Ken Paxton. The case marks the second time in under four months that Paxton has brought charges against prominent Latino Democratic officials over alleged criminal “ballot harvesting,” the typically standard practice in other parts of the country of collecting absentee ballots and delivering them to drop boxes or polling locations for counting. A 2021 Texas law on the practice is being constitutionally challenged. Edgar Sandoval and Samuel Rocha IV report for the New York Times.
Solomon Peña, an unsuccessful New Mexico state House candidate, was sentenced yesterday to 80 years in prison “for orchestrating a politically motivated shooting spree and plotting to murder witnesses to obstruct justice,” the Justice Department announced. A federal jury in March convicted the 42-year-old on all 13 counts, stemming from a series of drive-by shootings targeting the homes and offices of Democratic state officials in December 2022 and January 2023. “After his electoral defeat, Peña falsely claimed the election was rigged and began pressuring members of the Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners not to certify the results,” the statement said, adding that he later recruited accomplices to carry out shootings after the commissioner rejected his demands. Rebecca Falconer reports for Axios.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
Trump yesterday hinted he believes that he could avoid congressional approval to extend his 30-day federal takeover of Washington’s police. Earlier this week, Trump invoked the Home Rule Act, granting the executive branch authority over the city’s police for up to 30 days, after which congressional approval would be required for an extension. During yesterday’s announcement of the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees, Trump said, “If it’s a national emergency we can do it without Congress, but we expect to be before Congress very quickly … I don’t want to call a national emergency [but] if I have to, I will.” Meanwhile, protestors yesterday gathered around law enforcement officers who set up a police checkpoint in Northwest Washington. Elsewhere in Southeast Washington, teams of federal agents and local police officers rolled out of the parking lot of a U.S. Park Police facility, with scores of National Guard troops gathering on the lawn of the facility. Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing reports for POLITICO; Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Darren Sands, and Ashley Ann report for the New York Times.
Trump’s pick to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics, E.J. Antoni, was among the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, with a White House official stating yesterday that he was a “bystander” who did not cross any barricades or participate in any demonstrations. Ryan J. Reilly reports for NBC News.
Two law firms that struck deals with Trump this year to avoid punitive executive orders have recently been linked to the Commerce Department about potential trade work, sources say. The firms, Kirkland & Ellis and Skadden Arps, were linked to the department by Trump’s personal lawyer, Boris Epshteyn, two people said. Epshteyn’s previously undisclosed efforts highlight his push to advance Trump’s interpretation of the deals, including enlisting firms to support government work aligned with the administration’s agenda. Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman report for the New York Times.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
In a 2-1 decision yesterday, a federal appeals court panel allowed the Trump administration to continue withholding billions in foreign aid, ruling that aid organizations that brought the lawsuit lacked the legal standing to bring the challenge. In the split decision, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals did not weigh the merits of the aid groups’ arguments, which alleged that Trump illegally impounded congressionally appropriated funding. Instead, the majority overturned the injunction on procedural grounds, ruling that the grantees lacked the legal right to pursue a constitutional challenge that hinged on an alleged violation of law. Zach Montague reports for the New York Times; Lauren Gardner reports for POLITICO.
A Baltimore judge appeared skeptical yesterday in the Trump administration’s lawsuit against all 15 Maryland-based federal judges over a standing order relating to deportation cases. Back in May, Chief Judge George Russell issued and later revised an order that established procedures for handling cases involving immigrants at immediate risk of deportation. Under the order, deportations are temporarily halted for two business days while the court considers the case. The Justice Department challenged the order, arguing Russell lacked the authority to impose such a sweeping directive. U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen, who typically serves in Virginia but was assigned to the case because Maryland judges are recused, questioned whether the Justice Department had followed the right approach in filing a lawsuit. “You probably picked up that I don’t have a very good poker face … I have some skepticism,” he said. Laurence Hurley reports for NBC News.
In a court filing yesterday, detainees at Alligator Alcatraz alleged their tent camp on an Everglades airstrip has become overcrowded and unsanitary with limited access to the outside. The allegations follow a federal judge’s order earlier this week requiring ICE to improve conditions at a holding center in Manhattan, where lawyers reported unsafe and unhygienic environments. The filing alleges that detention officials go “cell to cell” pressuring detainees to sign forms to drop their immigration cases and leave the country voluntarily, with at least one man reportedly coerced into signing in exchange for a blanket. Mariah Timms and Victoria Albert report for the Wall Street Journal.
ICE sent three U.S. citizen children, including a 4-year-old boy with stage 4 cancer, to Honduras with their deported mothers, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of the families. The suit alleges that despite the government’s own directives, the parents “were never given a choice as to whether their children should be deported with them and were prohibited from contacting their counsel or having meaningful contact with their families to arrange for the care of their children.” In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said that U.S. children were not being “deported” and rejected claims that the parents lacked a choice about their children’s care before being sent to Honduras. Daniella Silva reports for NBC News.
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