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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the last 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
For the first time since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Poland early today directly engaged with Russian assets, shooting down at least four Russian drones that “repeatedly” violated Polish airspace, the Polish armed forces said. The drones flew deep enough into Poland to force the closure of four airports, including Warsaw’s main international aviation hub. According to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, no casualties have been recorded. A Polish interior ministry spokesperson said that the authorities have found seven drones and the remains of an unidentified object in various sites across the country. Russia’s top diplomat in Poland said there is “no evidence that these drones are of Russian provenance.” Stuart Lau, Chris Graham, and Thomas Mackintosh report for BBC News; Rebecca Falconer reports for Axios.
At least two dozen Russian drones could have entered Polish airspace today, with at least two drones entering through the Belarusian airspace, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding that Kyiv is working on verifying the precise scale of the incursion. BBC News reports.
A Russian bomb strike killed at least 23 people and injured 18 others in an eastern Ukrainian village yesterday, the majority of whom were retirees queueing to pick up their pension payments, the Ukrainian authorities said. The head of the Ukrainian postal service said the strike was the first time Russia had hit a pension distribution site. Maria Varenikova reports for the New York Times.
The Russian cruise missile that struck a government building in Kyiv on Sunday had at least 35 components manufactured in Western countries, including U.S. chips and other electronic parts, Ukraine’s presidential commissioner for sanctions policy said yesterday. Ivana Kottasová, Daria Tarasova-Markin, and Victoria Butenko report for CNN.
Russia is using AI tools to scale up its disinformation campaign against Ukraine, according to new data collected by PeakMetrics. Sam Sabin reports for Axios.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR — REGIONAL RESPONSE
Multiple European leaders have condemned the incursion of Russian drones into Poland. In separate statements, French President Emmanuel Macron and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán both described the incident as “unacceptable,” while U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that it was “an extremely reckless move by Russia [that] only serves to remind us of President Putin’s blatant disregard for peace.” BBC News reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Israel yesterday struck a building in Doha, Qatar, in an attack targeting the homes of several senior Hamas politicians based in the country. Hamas said that the strike failed to kill the senior officials who were discussing a cease-fire proposal backed by President Trump at the time of the attack. The group confirmed, however, that five other people affiliated with Hamas were killed. Separately, the Qatari interior ministry said that the strike also killed a member of Qatar’s internal security forces and injured a number of civilians. Adam Rasgon, Vivian Nereim, and Ronen Bergman report for the New York Times; David Gritten and Paul Adams report for BBC News.
Israel Defense Forces Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and Mossad chief David Barnea questioned the plan for Israel to carry out a strike targeting the Hamas negotiating team while the United States was pushing to restart negotiations, according to three Israeli sources. Tal Shalev and Eugenia Yosef report for CNN.
“No one is talking” about the Gaza ceasefire proposal at the moment, a senior Hamas official told CNN. According to a diplomat briefed on the talks, prior to the Israeli strike, Hamas was due to give its response to the U.S. truce proposal later yesterday. Ibrahim Dahman reports.
Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, yesterday claimed responsibility for a Jerusalem bus stop shooting that killed at least six people and wounded several others. Lara Jakes reports for the New York Times.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — U.S. AND REGIONAL RESPONSE
Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, yesterday described Israel’s attack on Doha as “state terrorism” and said that Qatar would take the “necessary measures to respond.” “Nothing will deter [Qatar] from continuing” in its role as a mediator in the Israel-Hamas war, Al Thani added. Mohamad El Chamaa and Sammy Westfall report for the Washington Post.
Trump yesterday said the United States learned of Israel’s planned attack on Qatar “too late to stop” the strike and that he “feels very badly about the location of the attack” and is “very unhappy about every aspect” of the strike. Trump added that he has assured Qatar’s emir and prime minister that “such a thing will not happen again on their soil.” According to Al Thani, U.S. officials notified Doha of the attack only 10 minutes after it occurred. The White House initially claimed that the United States gave Qatar advance warning of the strike. Sammy Westfall reports for the Washington Post; Tal Shalev reports for CNN.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today announced she would seek sanctions and a partial trade suspension against Israel over the war in Gaza. The Commission will also “set up a Palestine donor group next month,” von der Leyen added. AP News reports.
GLOBAL AFFAIRS
The Nepalese army has deployed patrols to the streets of the capital Kathmandu in response to fierce protests against corruption and nepotism that spiralled into arson and violence yesterday. A nationwide curfew is also in place until tomorrow morning. The military has invited the Gen Z protesters to engage in peace talks, who are consolidating a list of demands, the protest leaders’ representative said. Charlotte Scarr, Phanindra Dahal, and Gavin Butler report for BBC News.
French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday named close ally Sébastien Lecornu as France’s new Prime Minister. Lecornu previously served as France’s armed forces minister, and will be the seventh PM of the Macron presidency. Paul Kirby reports for BBC News.
Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency yesterday reached an agreement for the U.N. nuclear watchdog to resume international inspections of Tehran’s nuclear sites, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said. Erika Solomon, Sanam Mahoozi, and Farnaz Fassihi report for the New York Times.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
In an unusual move, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard in recent months ordered the National Security Agency to retract a classified intelligence report on Venezuela, sources say. According to sources, the report, which described the work on Venezuela carried out by Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions of the United States, Richard Grenell, was assessed as accurate and complying with all NSA policies. A senior intelligence official said the report was “withdrawn over concerns about protecting a person’s civil liberties and privacy.” Julian E. Barnes and Maggie Haberman report for the New York Times; Kaitlan Collins, Zachary Cohen, and Kristen Holmes report for CNN.
The Justice Department is compiling the largest set of national voter roll data it has ever collected, seeking data from more than 30 states in what is essentially an effort to establish a national voting database, sources say. The administration plans to compare the collected voter data to a database maintained by the Homeland Security Department in order to determine how many registered voters match up with noncitizens listed by immigration agents, the sources add. Devlin Barrett and Nick Corasaniti report for the New York Times.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary and Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Vinay Prasad, are compiling examples of harmful effects of Covid-19 shots on pregnant women, according to sources. Makary and Prasad are seeking to waive privacy protections on some Covid-19 vaccine data concerning pregnant women to publicly highlight more detail on what they see as the vaccines’ potential harms, the sources added. Liz Essley Whyte reports for the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. FOREIGN DEVELOPMENTS
The State Department last week told European countries the United States is stepping back from efforts to combat disinformation from countries such as Russia, China, and Iran in a joined-up manner, three European officials say. The terminations of memoranda of understanding on the U.S. participation in the efforts are the last step in the shuttering of the Global Engagement Center, a State Department agency that worked to counter disinformation spread overseas and terrorist propaganda. Amy Mackinnon reports for the Financial Times.
An Iran-backed militia, Kataib Hezbollah, has freed Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Russian-Israeli Princeton graduate student they abducted more than two years ago, Trump announced yesterday. It is unclear what, if anything, the militant group had received in exchange for freeing her. Ronen Bergman, Patrick Kingsley, and Aaron Boxerman report for the New York Times.
Trump yesterday signalled a potential reset in the strained U.S.-India relations, saying that his administration is continuing trade negotiations with New Delhi and that he looks forward to speaking to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the “upcoming weeks.” Andrea Shalal, Bhargav Acharya, and Aftab Ahmed report for Reuters.
TECH DEVELOPMENTS
United Arab Emirates-based Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence yesterday announced the release of K2 Think, a new, low-cost reasoning model that the university says can compete with OpenAI and DeepSeek despite being a fraction of their size. Ryan Browne reports for CNBC.
Exxon Mobil yesterday announced it would buy a production facility, a research center, and other assets from Chicago-based Superior Graphite in a bid to increase its capacity to produce synthetic graphite, an important EV battery ingredient. Rebecca F. Elliott reports for the New York Times.
FEDERALIZATION OF DOMESTIC POLICING
Deployment of the military within the United States to be used against the U.S. population “is not only contrary to core American values, but can also be harmful to the reputation, integrity, and morale of the military itself,” eleven retired U.S. military generals told a court in an amicus filing in California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s challenge to Trump’s Los Angeles National Guard deployment. April Rubin reports for Axios.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
A Michigan judge yesterday threw out a criminal case against 15 “false electors,” GOP activists who falsely claimed to be Trump’s presidential electors in 2020, ruling that the state prosecutors failed to establish that the activists intended to commit fraud. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said she is “evaluating” whether to appeal the ruling. Benjamin Swasey reports for NPR.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook can, for now, continue serving on the Fed’s Board of Governors while contesting Trump’s attempt to dismiss her from the post, a federal judge ruled yesterday. The judge concluded that Trump’s effort to fire Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud predating her time at the Fed likely violated a federal law intended to insulate the Fed from political pressure. Kyle Cheney, Josh Gerstein, Sam Sutton, and Victoria Guida report for POLITICO.
Chief Justice John Roberts yesterday issued an interim administrative stay of a lower court ruling ordering the Trump administration to pay out $4 billion in foreign aid that had been appropriated by Congress, pending a fuller hearing on the matter on Friday. Adam Liptak reports for the New York Times.
A federal judge yesterday quashed the Justice Department’s subpoena asking the Boston Children’s Hospital to share an “astonishingly” broad array of documents related to the facility’s care for transgender minors with the federal government. The subpoena, the judge said, was a “fishing expedition” seeking to give effect to the Trump administration’s political priorities by intimidating the hospital to stop providing gender-affirming and to dissuade patients from seeking it. Nate Raymond reports for Reuters.
The Supreme Court yesterday agreed to hear a pair of challenges to Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs on an accelerated schedule, with oral arguments set to be held in the first week of November. In its filings, the Trump administration has previously asked the court to put the case on an expedited schedule. Doug Palmer and Josh Gerstein report for POLITICO.
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