Early Edition: August 15, 2025

Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here.

A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR — U.S. RESPONSE

President Trump yesterday said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin “is going to make a deal” to end the war in Ukraine during today’s Anchorage summit between the two leaders. Trump also added that he hopes to set up a second meeting during the talks, which would include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and “maybe” some of the European leaders. Separately, Putin praised the Trump administration’s “energetic and sincere” efforts to stop the war in Ukraine and hinted that Russia and the United States could strike a deal on “strategic offensive weapons” during the meeting. Earlier on, a Russian foreign policy aide suggested the talks could also touch on U.S.-Russia economic cooperation. Christian Edwards and Anna Chernova report for CNN; Ivan Nechepurenko reports for the New York Times.

Trump will go into today’s talks with Putin hoping to achieve a halt to the fighting in Ukraine, but a comprehensive solution to the war will take longer, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters yesterday. Reuters reports.

The U.S. Agency for International Development did not keep track of the Starlink terminals sent to Ukraine, with half of the operational units ending up in areas fully or partly held by Moscow, according to a report by the agency’s internal watchdog seen by Reuters. According to a letter attached to the report, USAID responded by arguing that it was impractical to monitor the terminals because of the dangerous wartime conditions and the “unprecedented emergency” created by Russian strikes. 

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

Ukraine has to date secured pledges of $1.5 billion from its European allies to purchase U.S. weapons, Zelenskyy said in a social media post yesterday, adding that the NATO Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List mechanism of weapons purchases “truly strengthens” Kyiv’s defense. Reuters reports.

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR 

Israel is in talks with several countries about taking in Palestinians displaced by the war in Gaza, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A senior Israeli official told CNN that the countries involved are South Sudan, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Libya, and Indonesia, and that they are looking for “significant financial and international compensation” in exchange for taking in Gazans. Earlier this week, South Sudan rejected a report that it was in discussions about the resettlement of Palestinians. Tal Shalev, Irene Nasser, Kathleen Magramo, Nadeen Ebrahim, and Eugenia Yosef report for CNN.

Israeli forces demolished houses in eastern areas of Gaza City overnight into yesterday, killing at least 11 people in aerial and tank fire, local health authorities said. The territory’s Hamas-run health ministry also said that four more people died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours. Nidal Al-Mughrabi reports for Reuters.

Israel’s Netanyahu has “gone too far” and “lost the plot,” New Zealand’s conservative Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Wednesday, describing Israel’s planned occupation of Gaza City as “utterly unacceptable.” Helen Regan reports for CNN.

SYRIA

Syria’s pro-government forces committed systematic and widespread crimes against civilians during the violence against Syria’s Alawite communities along the Mediterranean coast in March, according to a report published by the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic yesterday. The report found no evidence that the country’s new government orchestrated the attacks, however. Sudarsan Raghavan reports for the Wall Street Journal.

Turkey will provide weapons, military equipment, and logistical support to Syria under a newly signed defense cooperation agreement, Turkish Defense Ministry officials announced yesterday. Suzan Fraser reports for AP News.

OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS 

Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich yesterday said that construction plans have been approved for controversial settlement expansion near the occupied West Bank’s East Jerusalem that would “finally bur[y] the idea of a Palestinian state.” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas called on Israel to halt the plan to advance the settlement, stating that it would “further undermine the two-state solution while being a breach of international law,” remarks later echoed by British Foreign Minister David Lammy. Omar Abdel-Baqui reports for the Wall Street Journal; Reuters reports.

Delegates discussing the world’s first legally binding treaty to tackle plastic pollution failed to reach consensus after 10 days of U.N.-facilitated talks, diplomats said today. The chair of the negotiations, Ecuador’s Luis Vayas Valdivieso, adjourned the session with a pledge to resume talks at an undetermined later date. French Ecology Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said she was “enraged” that “despite genuine efforts” no results have been obtained, while Colombia’s delegate Haendel Rodriguez said a deal had been “blocked by a small number of states who simply did not want an agreement.” Emma Farge and Olivia Le Poidevin report for Reuters.

Erik Prince, a prominent Donald Trump supporter and private security executive, told Reuters that he has concluded a 10-year deal with Haiti to fight the country’s criminal gangs and help in restoring its tax-collection system. Anna Hirtenstein, Sarah Morland, and Harold Isaac report for Reuters.

Human Rights Watch yesterday described an Israeli airstrike on a notorious Iranian prison as an “apparent war crime,” citing information it obtained in interviews about the attack and analysis of videos and photographs of the Israeli strikes. Kareem Chehayeb reports for AP News. 

Israeli settlers have carried out an unprecedented number of attacks on Palestinians and their property during the first half of this year, according to records compiled by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and unpublished internal records reviewed by the New York Times. Patrick Kingsley, Fatima AbdulKarim, and Natan Odenheimer report. 

U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS

Texas Democratic lawmakers are “prepared” to bring their battle against redistricting “back to Texas under the right conditions and to take this fight to the courts,” Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said in a statement yesterday, the clearest signal yet that the lawmakers could soon return to the Lone Star state. Wu added that the lawmakers would return when the Texas Legislature ends its first special session on Friday, and California lawmakers introduce their expected proposal that could offset the Texas GOP gains. Andrew Howard reports for POLITICO.

More than a dozen Border Patrol agents assembled outside of a Los Angeles rally and news conference on congressional redistricting held by Gov. Gavin Newsom yesterday, according to a video shared by Newsom’s press office. Local elected officials expressed outrage that the agents, many of whom were masked and armed, turned up outside the event that had nothing to do with immigration, with Mayor Karen Bass describing the gathering as “a Customs and Border Patrol that has gone amok.” Laurel Rosenhal, Jesus Jiménez, and Hamed Aleaziz report for the New York Times.

An ICE office in New York City was evacuated yesterday after workers found “unidentified white powder” in the mail, according to NYC Mayor Eric Adams and officials. There were no immediate reports of injuries at the scene, attended by the New York City Fire Department’s hazmat teams. Rebecca Falconer reports for Axios.

A grand jury twice rejected the federal prosecutors’ attempts to obtain an indictment against Sydney Lori Reid, a D.C. woman charged with assaulting an FBI agent during an ICE inmate transfer, the U.S. Attorney’s Office admitted in court yesterday. Grand juries are tasked with deciding whether there is a reasonable basis to support charging someone with a crime. The rejection suggests the government’s evidence to support the charge “is wanting,” the judge overseeing the case said. Jordan Fischer reports for WUSA9.

Attorney General Pam Bondi yesterday announced that the man accused of throwing a sandwich at a federal officer patrolling a Washington, D.C. street was a Justice Department staffer and has been fired over the incident. Nicole Markus reports for POLITICO.

Several federal district courts are moving some of their record-keeping system to paper-only filings in the wake of a major cybersecurity breach of federal court records this summer. Katelyn Polantz and Aileen Graef report for CNN.

First Lady Melania Trump yesterday threatened to sue Hunter Biden, the son of former President Biden for more than $1bn over his claim that she was introduced to her husband by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Sean Seddon reports for BBC News.

U.S. FOREIGN DEVELOPMENTS 

Mexico sent 26 alleged cartel figures to be tried in the United States because the Trump administration requested their transfer and to enhance public safety in Mexico, and not as part of wider tariff negotiations, Mexican officials said on Wednesday. Fabiola Sánchez and Megan Janetsky report for AP News.

TECH DEVELOPMENTS

The Trump administration is considering taking a financial stake in Intel to advance Trump’s America-first manufacturing agenda and relieve the political pressure on the troubled chip-maker’s chief executive, sources say. The idea, which Trump discussed with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan on Monday, is still in early stages and could fall apart, the sources add. Robbie Whelan, Lauren Thomas, and Amrith Ramkumar report for the Wall Street Journal.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS

Attorney General Pam Bondi late yesterday declared Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration overseeing the federal takeover of Washington D.C.’s police department, as the city’s emergency police commissioner.” Bondi ordered an end to D.C.’s sanctuary policies, her spokesperson said. In a legal opinion, the D.C. Attorney General, Brian Schwalb, told D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser that the 1973 Home Rule Act does not give the president the authority to “alter the chain of command” in the city, and that she is not legally obligated to follow Bondi’s “unlawful” directive removing power from the police chief. Devlin Barrett and Karoun Demirjian report for the New York Times; Rebecca Falconer and Russell Contreras report for Axios.

All 800 National Guard troops Trump ordered to support Washington D.C. police and federal law enforcement officers have mobilized for duty, the Pentagon said yesterday. According to a Defense Department press secretary, the Guard will protect monuments and federal buildings, conduct “community safety patrols” and carry out “area beautification.” Eric Schmitt reports for the New York Times.

Federal agents from the FBI and the Secret Service last evening began a push to clear homeless encampments in northwestern Washington, D.C. It was unclear how widespread or effective the raids were, with at least one unhoused woman presenting agents with a city-issued notice saying she had until Monday to leave. Campbell Robertson and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs report for the New York Times.

The Health and Human Services Department yesterday announced it is reviving a federal task force created to improve the safety of childhood vaccines. An anti-vaccine group founded by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in May backed a lawsuit seeking to reestablish the task force, which has been inactive since 1998. Tina Reed reports for Axios; Reuters reports.

Trump administration officials suspect that Corey Lewandowski, a longtime adviser to Trump who acts as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s de facto chief of staff, is avoiding clocking into work to not meet the 130-day limit of his term of employment as a Special Government Employee, Axios has learned. According to Axios, White House officials began monitoring Lewandowski’s time at work in recent weeks. Brittany Gibson and Marc Caputo report.

PBS is reducing its budget by 21% to deal with Congress’s recent decision to eliminate roughly $500 million in federal funding from public TV and radio, according to a Wednesday memo from the PBS Chief Executive, Paula Kerger. Benjamin Mullin reports for the New York Times.

An intervention by the White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, was the cause of Trump’s decision to rehire Vinay Prasad as a top vaccine regulator, senior administration officials say. Wiles helped Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. make the case for Prasad following pleas from Kennedy and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, the sources add. David Lim, Dasha Burns, and Tim Röhn report for POLITICO.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION

A federal judge yesterday vacated the Education Department’s February letter that asserted that federal law prohibits schools from using race in decisions related to all aspects of education and declared the Department’s demand for schools to certify they would comply with the Trump administration’s interpretation of the law to be unlawful. The judge ruled that while “the administration is entitled to express its viewpoints and to promulgate policies aligned with those viewpoints … it must do so within the procedural bounds Congress has outlined” and “may not do so at the expense of constitutional rights.” Juan Perez Jr. and Rebecca Carballo report for POLITICO.

Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions

If you enjoy listening, Just Security’s analytic articles are also available in audio form on the justsecurity.org website.

ICYMI: yesterday on Just Security

Dissecting the Litigation: Where Trump Administration Actions Face Early Roadblocks or Traction

By Dani Schulkin and Ryan Goodman