Early Edition: November 19, 2025

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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 – INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE  

The Trump administration has been secretly working with Russia on a new 28-point plan to end the war in Ukraine, U.S. and Russian officials told Axios. The plan is concerned with four general areas: peace in Ukraine, security guarantee in Europe, and future U.S. relations with Russia and Ukraine. It is unclear how the plan approaches territorial control in eastern Ukraine. Steve Witkoff is leading the drafting of the plan, working closely with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, a U.S. official said. Barak Ravid and Dave Lawler report.

U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George are visiting Ukraine this week on a previously unannounced trip. The two officials are set to meet with Ukrainian military leaders, lawmakers and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from today. The focus of the trip will be to engage Ukrainian leadership on the stalled peace process with Russia and to progress a major U.S.-Ukraine deal to exchange drone and autonomous munitions technologies, according to two sources. Paul McLeary and Jack Detsch report for POLITICO.

Zelenskyy said yesterday that he will travel to Turkey this week to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss a “just peace for Ukraine.” The Kremlin said that Russia would not be sending anyone. A senior Turkish official told AP News that U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff would join Zelenskyy, but retracted this later in the day and confirmed that Witkoff was not coming. Illia Novikov reports.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR 

A Russian missile and drone attack overnight killed 10 people in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, Ukrainian officials said today, adding that another 40 people were injured in the strikes. Officials said that Russia launched more than 470 drones and 48 missiles overnight. Andriy Perun reports for Reuters.

The Polish authorities yesterday accused two Ukrainians of working with Russia to sabotage Polish train tracks in an attack over the weekend. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the attack “perhaps the most dangerous situation for the security of the Polish state today since the outbreak of the full-scale war in Ukraine.” Tusk told Parliament that the two Ukrainian men had been identified but had fled to Belarus. A Kremlin spokesperson denied Russian involvement in the attack. Lara Jakes and Anatol Magdziarz report for the New York Times.

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR CEASEFIRE 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday applauded President Trump’s Gaza peace plan following the U.N. Security Council vote and called on neighbouring countries to “join [Israel] in expelling Hamas and its supporters from the region,” in a series of social media posts. A spokesperson for Netanyahu later said that expelling Hamas would mean “ensuring there is no Hamas in Gaza as outlined in the 20-point plan.” However, there is no clause in the 20-point plan that explicitly calls for Hamas to disband or leave Gaza. Diplomats have said privately that entrenched positions on both the Israeli and Hamas sides are making it difficult to advance the plan, which lacks specific timelines or enforcement mechanisms. Alexander Cornwell and Nidal Al-Mughrabi report for Reuters.

Israel yesterday killed at least 13 people and wounded several others in an airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese officials. The Israeli military said it was targeting a training compound for Hamas. Hamas rejected the statement, describing it as “pure fabrication and lies,” adding that “there are no military installations in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon.” Euan Ward and Ephrat Livni report for the New York Times.

WEST BANK VIOLENCE

Israeli settlers yesterday launched an arson attack in the town of Beit Lid in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian activists in the area and video footage obtained by CNN. The videos show torched trucks, tents, and metal sheds. Another film shows settlers coming down a hill towards the Bedouin village. CCTV footage shows settlers attacking the dairy factory. The Palestinian Ministry of National Economy today called on the international community to stop the attacks. Zeena Saifi reports.

Two 18 year old Palestinians killed a 71 year old Israeli man and wounded three others at the Gush Etzion junction in the West Bank yesterday, the Israeli military said. The Israeli military shot and killed the two attackers. Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli forces shot cameraman Fadi Yassin in both legs while he was covering a protest in the city of Tulkarem, according to Al Jazeera’s Director of the Palestine Bureau Walid al-Omari. Julia Frankel reports for AP News.

U.S. CARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC OPERATIONS

Trump has signed off on CIA plans for covert measures inside Venezuela, according to multiple sources, who added that the operations could be meant to prepare a battlefield for further action. It is not clear what the covert actions might be or when they might happen. The sources also said that Trump has authorized a new round of back-channel negotiations with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Tyler Pager, Julian E. Barnes, and Eric Schmitt report for the New York Times.

OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS

Syrians are uncovering more than a hundred mass graves across the country in the aftermath of the Assad regime’s collapse, according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal. The International Center for Transitional Justice and the Syrian group Lawyers and Doctors for Human Rights have so far counted 134 mass graves. Jared Malsin and Hamza Bonduk report.

Britain’s domestic security service, MI5, yesterday issued a statement warning that China has been using headhunters on LinkedIn to recruit and compromise British lawmakers and parliamentary staff members. Michael D. Shear reports for the New York Times.

Mali’s military and allied militias have killed at least 31 people in attacks on two villages where Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, the insurgent group linked to Al Qaeda, operates, Human Rights Watch said in a report yesterday. The report said witnesses described the army and militia forces executing villagers after accusing them of collaborating.|Jessica Donati reports for  Reuters.

TECH DEVELOPMENTS

Nvidia and Microsoft announced yesterday that they will invest up to $15 billion in Anthropic, with Anthropic committing to buy up $30 billion of computing capacity from Microsoft Azure running on Nvidia AI systems. “We are increasingly going to be customers of each other,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a video statement with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Sebastian Herrera, Amrith Ramkumar, and Robbie Whelan report for the Wall Street Journal.

The European Commission is set to announce plans to streamline the EU’s AI and privacy laws today, according to a draft plan seen by Reuters. The plans include allowing tech firms to use personal data to train AI models based on legitimate interest without asking for consent, and delaying rules for high-risk AI systems by a year. Supantha Mukherjee and Foo Yun Chee report.

“We MUST have one Federal Standard [for regulating AI] instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes,” Trump said yesterday on social media, adding “”some States are even trying to embed DEI ideology into AI models, producing “Woke AI” (Remember Black George Washington?).” Maria Curi reports for Axios.

U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Trump announced yesterday that the United States and Saudi Arabia have entered into a security agreement, which designates Saudi Arabia as a “major non-NATO ally.” This deepens defense cooperation between the two countries, but does not include a security guarantee. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) said earlier in the day that he would increase Saudi investments in the United States from $600 billion to $1 trillion. The Trump administration announced several deals, including the Saudi purchase of nearly 300 U.S. tanks. Irie Sentner reports for POLITICO; Colin Demarest reports for Axios.

MBS told Trump yesterday that he is ready to work on Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords and normalization relations with Israel, but added “we want also to be sure that we secure a clear path to a two-state solution” for Israel and Palestine. Barak Ravid reports for Axios.

Trump defended MBS yesterday to reporters, saying that what the Crown Prince has done is “incredible in terms of human rights.” When MBS was asked about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Trump interjected and said, “things happen, but [MBS] knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that,” despite a 2021 CIA report found that MBS had “approved an operation in Istanbul…to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.” Mariam Khan and Ivan Pereira report for ABC News.

The United States cancelled meetings in Washington with Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces Gen. Rudolf Haykal due to a statement issued on Sunday by the Lebanese army about border tensions with Israel, Lebanese officials said. In the statement, the army accused Israel of “insisting on violating Lebanese sovereignty, causing instability and obstructing the army’s deployment in the south.” A U.S. official confirmed that the meetings were cancelled but did not offer a reason. Laila Bassam reports for Reuters.

A vote on Sunday in Ecuador has rejected the expansion of U.S. military presence in Ecuador, with 61 percent voting against allowing U.S. military bases. Genevieve Glatsky and José María León Cabrera report for the New York Times.

The United States approved a $700 million sale of NASAMS air-defense systems to Taiwan, its second weapons package in a week. The de facto U.S. ambassador in Taipei, Raymond Greene, yesterday confirmed that U.S. commitment to Taiwan is “rock solid.” Ben Blanchard reports for Reuters.

U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS

Around 250 federal border agents are set to arrive in New Orleans in the coming weeks and begin a two-month immigration crackdown, called “Swamp Sweep”, which aims to arrest roughly 5,000 people across southeast Louisiana and into Mississippi, according to three sources and documents seen by AP News. Jack Brooke and Sara Cline report.

The Trump administration improperly deported Uriostegui Rios to Mexico last week in violation of an immigration judge’s order. “ICE confirmed that [Rios] was removed to Mexico inadvertently,” a Justice Department attorney wrote in an email filed in federal court. The attorney later added, “ICE stands ready to remedy the inadvertent removal by allowing your client to voluntarily reenter the United States if your client wishes to do so.” A Homeland Security Department official said in a statement that Rios would be brought back to the United States until another country is found for her deportation. Kyle Cheney reports for POLITICO.

Eswatini received $5.1 million from the U.S. government under a deal to accept third-country nationals deported by the Trump administration, Eswatini’s finance minister said yesterday. Reuters has seen an unverified copy of the agreement, signed on May 14, which says Eswatini would use the money to “build its border and migration management capacity,” and in exchange would accept up to 160 deportees. Lunga Masuku reports.

U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS 

The House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill 427-1 that would order the release of the Justice Department’s file on Jeffrey Epstein. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) was the only lawmaker who voted against the measure. Late on Tuesday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) asked for the bill to be deemed passed by the Senate as soon as it was processed by the House. No one objected. John Parkinson and Lauren Peller report for ABC News; Allison Pecorin reports for ABC News.

A panel of federal judges yesterday blocked Texas’ newly redrawn congressional map, saying the plan appeared to be an illegal race-based gerrymander and ordering Texas to revert to its 2021 boundaries. Kyle Cheny, Andrew Howard, and Josh Gerstein report for POLITICO.

A three-judge appeals panel yesterday refused to revive Trump’s lawsuit against CNN for the network’s use of the term “Big Lie” to describe Trump’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 election. The panel ruled that CNN’s use of the phrase often associated with Adolf Hitler amounted to First Amendment-protected opinion. Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein report for POLITICO.

DOMESTIC DEPLOYMENT OF U.S. MILITARY 

Gov. Bill Lee’s (R-TN) office said yesterday that the Tennessee National Guard will keep supporting a crime-fighting task force in Memphis while the state appeals a judge’s decision that Lee exceeded his authority by deploying the Guard. Adrian Sainz reports for AP News.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS

The Trump administration is moving forward with plans to dismantle the Education Department by shifting responsibility for six department offices and tens of billions in funding to four other federal agencies: the Labor Department, the Interior Department, the State Department, and the Department of Health and Human Services, according to two sources. Juan Perez Jr. reports for POLITICO.

Interviews and records reviewed by ProPublica show that Paul Ingrassia, who was then serving as a White House liaison, intervened on behalf of Andrew Tate and his brother when Customs and Border Protection officials seized their electronic devices earlier this year. Ingrassia told senior Homeland Security Department officials to return the devices, criticizing the seizure as a poor use of time and resources. Ingrassia emphasized that the request was coming from the White House. Robert Faturechi and Avi Asher-Schapiro report.