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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments in the last 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
U.S. FOREIGN DEVELOPMENTS
President Trump chose to order the U.S. military’s deadly strike on an alleged drug trafficking vessel to send a deterrent message to traffickers, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday, adding that Trump “is going to wage war on narco-terrorist organizations.” While Rubio claimed that the “president has a right to eliminate immediate threats to the United States,” as of yesterday, Pentagon officials were still working to decide on what legal authority they would tell the public gave Trump the power to order the strike. It is unclear whether the U.S. forces gave the vessel’s crew a chance to surrender before striking the boat. John Hudson, Samantha Schmidt, and Alex Horton report for the Washington Post; Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper, Alan Feuer, Charlie Savage, and Edward Wong report for the New York Times.
[Editor’s note: Readers may be interested in Brian Finucane’s Legal Issues Raised by a Lethal U.S. Military Attack in the Caribbean, Just Security, September 3, 2025]
The United States and Mexico will move forward with security cooperation to dismantle organized crime groups and limit migration while respecting their respective “sovereignty,” according to a joint statement the countries issued yesterday after Rubio’s meeting with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. Edward Wong reports for the New York Times.
The White House has dropped the World Trade Organization from a list of $4.9 billion in funding cuts to international programs announced last Friday, according to the White House website. A trade source confirmed the funding would be retained, while a second source said that the initial reference to WTO in the list of cuts came without prior consultation with other agencies and the ultimate fate of its funding remains unclear. Olivia Le Poidevin, Andrea Shalal, and Emma Farge report for Reuters.
The United States will continue placing troops in Poland and will “put more there if they want,” Trump said yesterday as he met with Poland’s new president, Karol Nawrocki. Earlier this year, Trump took the unusual step of endorsing the conservative-aligned Nawrocki in the Polish elections. Aamer Madhani and Michelle L. Price report for AP News.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
More than 1,000 current and former Health and Human Services Department employees yesterday released a letter demanding the resignation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. from his position as the HHS Secretary. The letter argues that Kennedy’s actions endanger the nation’s health, including through his appointment of “political ideologues who pose as scientific experts” and role in the firing of the Senate-confirmed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, Susan Monarez and the resignations of multiple top CDC leaders. Kennedy will face scrutiny from the Senate Finance Committee early today, amid reports of plummeting morale at the agency. Liz Essley Whyte, Jennifer Calfas, and Sabrina Siddiqui report for the Wall Street Journal.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is considering appointing seven members to the new CDC independent vaccine advisory panel, at least three of whom have a history of questioning the safety of messenger RNA vaccines against Covid-19, according to an internal list seen by POLITICO. Kennedy fired all of the previous appointees on the panel in June and replaced them with members who are more closely aligned with his own vaccine sceptic-views. Sophie Gardner and Lauren Gardner report.
The Director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Vinay Prasad, overruled assessments from staff scientists when deciding to significantly restrict the availability of Covid vaccines made by Moderna or Pfizer, the New York Times reports. Both pharmaceutical companies yesterday issued statements saying they would release more data on the vaccines’ safety. Christina Jewett reports.
The Government Accountability Office “should not exist,” the Office of Management and Budget Director Russel Vought said yesterday, describing it as a “quasi-legislative independent entity.” The GAO released multiple reports finding the Trump administration to be in breach of federal law this year, including a report finding that Vough himself violated the Impoundment Control Act by blocking investments required by law. April Rubin reports for Axios.
The Defense Department is considering leasing out parts of California’s Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton for commercial use in order to fund the Golden Dome missile defense project, according to a current and a former defense official. The Marine Corps describes the camp as the “largest undeveloped portion of coastline in Southern California.” Courtney Kube and Gordon Lubold report for NBC News.
The U.S. Navy has overturned Rep. Ronny Jackson’s 2022 demotion and restored his retired rank of rear admiral, Jackson announced yesterday. An inspector general’s report that led to Jackson’s demotion found that he had made “sexual and denigrating” comments about a female subordinate and violated alcohol policies while he was a physician to Trump and former President Barack Obama. Konstantin Toropin reports for AP News.
The Justice Department’s Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division, Andrew Warner, has recently sought access to voting equipment used in Missouri during the 2020 election, according to two Republican clerks who received the request. The two clerks say they rejected the request. Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Patrick Marley report for the Washington Post.
TECH NEWS
A U.S. federal court yesterday ordered Google to pay $425m for breaching users’ privacy by collecting data from millions of users who turned off a personalisation setting in their Google accounts. The tech giant said that the “decision misunderstands how our products work” and that it plans to appeal. Peter Hoskins and Lily Jamali report for BBC News.
Trump will today host Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai for a dinner in the newly-renovated White House Rose Garden. Samantha Waldenberg reports for CNN.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
The Homeland Security Department yesterday announced it would allow the temporary protected status designation for Venezuelan citizens to expire on Sept. 10. In its statement, the DHS argued that the designation “directly undermines the Trump administration’s efforts to secure our southern border and manage migration effectively.” Eric Bazail-Eimil reports for POLITICO.
Attorney General Pam Bondi late on Tuesday issued a pair of immigration rulings that in effect reinstate rulings from the first Trump administration that determined that victims of domestic abuse and families targeted by gangs or other threats generally would not qualify for asylum under U.S. law. The rulings are the first time that Bondi has used her authority to set precedents for judges nationwide. Maria Sacchetti and Jeremy Roebuck report for the Washington Post.
Many family members of Guatemalan children that the Trump administration sought to deport back to Guatemala over the weekend did not want their children to be returned, according to an internal Guatemalan government report seen by Reuters. The report contradicts assertions made by a Justice Department attorney who said the parents wanted their children to be deported during a Sunday court hearing. Emily Green, Ted Hesson, and Kristina Cooke report for Reuters.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
New York City Mayor Eric Adams yesterday denied reports he is considering abandoning his reelection campaign in order to take up a job at the Trump administration. According to sources, Trump’s aides have floated the idea of offering Adams a job at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in order to block the Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani. Gloria Pazmino reports for CNN; Dana Rubinstein, Nicholas Fandos, Maggie Haberman, and William K. Rashbaum report for the New York Times.
Republican Senators are preparing proposals for a party-line overhaul of how presidential nominations are handled in order to speed up confirmations of Trump’s nominees, POLITICO reports. According to senators, the leading proposal would allow multiple nominees to be confirmed with one vote instead of votes on each individual nomination, but would not apply to Cabinet-level nominees or picks for the Supreme Court and courts of appeals. Jordain Carney reports.
The House yesterday voted down a Republican measure to censure Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) over her role in a May confrontation with ICE at a New Jersey immigration detention center. GOP Reps. Don Bacon (NE), Mike Flood (NE), David Joyce (OH), Michael Turner (OH), and David Valadao (CA) joined all Democrats to sink the resolution. Kyle Stewart and Rebecca Shabad report for NBC News.
House Republicans yesterday also voted to establish a new subcommittee to reinvestigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The subcommittee will likely be headed by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA). Republicans have complained that the previous probe was biased against Trump. Kadia Goba reports for the Washington Post.
Trump is expected to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the $5 million verdict in a civil suit that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll, according to a petition filed by the president’s council asking the court for an extension of the deadline for challenging the decision. Josephine Walker reports for Axios.
FEDERALIZATION OF DOMESTIC POLICING
Trump yesterday suggested he could deploy federal troops to New Orleans, a blue city in a Republican-led state. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) “wants us to come in,” Trump added. New Orleans City Council President JP Morrell said that it is “ridiculous to consider sending the National Guard into another American city that hasn’t asked for it.” Megan Lebowitz reports for NBC News.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Israel is intensifying its attacks on Gaza City, pushing into one of the urban centre’s largest and most crowded neighbourhoods, city residents say. Israeli strikes killed more than 30 Palestinians in the city yesterday, according to local hospitals. The U.N. and aid groups warn that Israel’s operations are already having “horrific humanitarian consequences” for the families sheltering in the famine-struck city. David Gritten reports for BBC News; Nidal Al-Mughrabi reports for Reuters.
The United Arab Emirates has told the White House that an Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank would harm the Abraham Accords and undermine the prospects for further regional integration, a senior Emirati official told Axios. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich yesterday unveiled a map showing a proposed Israeli annexation of most of the West Bank during a news conference. Barak Ravid reports; Wafaa Shurafa, Sam Metz, and Jon Gambrell report for Axios.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Around 30 leaders are set to take part in a top-level meeting in Paris today, aiming to finalize discussions on the European security guarantees for post-war Ukraine. French diplomats suggest that “technical work” on providing the guarantees is now complete, with the Europeans now waiting on U.S. confirmation that it would act as an ultimate backstop. The meeting is taking place against a backdrop of increasing concern that Russia will mount a new offensive on Ukraine’s Donetsk region, sources suggest. Sarah Rainsford and Paulin Kola report for BBC News; Daryna Krasnolutska, Alberto Nardelli, and Samy Adghirni report for Bloomberg News.
Ukraine is using AI to allow groups of drones to coordinate with each other on when and how to attack Russian positions, according to a senior Ukrainian officer and the company that makes the software. Military experts say that Ukraine’s attacks are the first known routine use of the technology in combat. Alistair MacDonald reports for the Wall Street Journal.
Trump yesterday said he would speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “over the next few days.” According to the White House, the Trump-Zelenskyy call is scheduled for today. Betsy Klein reports for CNN.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
A wide range of universities and private sector companies are helping China’s People’s Liberation Army modernize with cutting-edge technology, according to new data published yesterday by Georgetown University researchers. Josh Chin reports for the Wall Street Journal.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s talks with Iran on how to resume inspections at Tehran’s nuclear sites cannot go on for months at end, IAEA Director Rafael Grossi said yesterday. Francois Murphy reports for Reuters.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
The Trump administration has to unfreeze nearly $2.2 billion in federal grants to Harvard, a federal judge ruled yesterday. In her order, the judge wrote that there was “in reality, little connection between the research affected by the grant terminations and antisemitism” at the university, and “review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that Defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities, and did so in a way that runs afoul of the APA, the First Amendment and Title VI.” Gary Grumbach and Marlene Lenthang report for NBC News.
A federal judge yesterday ordered the Trump administration to obligate billions in Congressionally appropriated foreign-aid funds by Sept. 30. POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein reports.
The Justice Department yesterday asked the Supreme Court to quickly hear Trump’s appeal against a judgment striking down his administration’s wide-ranging tariffs and “expedite” its ultimate ruling “to the maximum extent feasible.” In his filing, Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the court to accept the case by next week and hear arguments in early November. Daniel Desrochers and Josh Gerstein 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
Legal Issues Raised by a Lethal U.S. Military Attack in the Caribbean
By Brian Finucane
Selling AI Chips Won’t Keep China Hooked on U.S. Technology
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When Law Fails Women: Jirgas, Gender Violence, and the Collapse of International Accountability
By Mahwish Moazzam
