Early Edition: December 1, 2025

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A curated guide to major news and developments over the weekend. Here’s today’s news:

U.S. CARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC OPERATIONS 

Republican and Democratic members of Congress yesterday said that U.S. military officials might have committed a war crime, following a report by the Washington Post on Friday alleging that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized a strike to kill all survivors aboard a boat suspected of smuggling drugs on September 2. “Obviously if that occurred, that would be very serious, and I agree that that would be an illegal act,” Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) said yesterday on CBS’s Face the Nation. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said that if the report is accurate, the attack “rises to the level of a war crime.” Bipartisan leadership of the armed services committees in both chambers vowed to probe the matter. Michael Gold reports for the New York Times; Jacob Wendler reports for POLITICO.

The Venezuelan National Assembly will form a special commission to investigate U.S. strikes on suspected drug trafficking vessels off the Venezuelan coast, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said yesterday. Rodriguez said the investigation would look into the Washington Post report that Hegseth gave a verbal order to kill everyone on board a suspected drug vessel in September. Reuters reports.

Trump spoke by phone to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over a week ago, according to multiple sources. Trump told Maduro that if he left Venezuela immediately, then he could save himself and those closest to him, which Maduro refused, sources told the Miami Herald. Maduro requested global amnesty for any crimes he and his group committed, and Venezuelan officials proposed handing over political control to the opposition in Venezuela while retaining command of the armed forces. The White House refused both of these proposals. On Thursday, Trump said that the U.S. Armed Forces would “very soon” begin land-based operations in Venezuela. Maggie Haberman and Anatoly Kurmanaev report for the New York Times; Antonio María Delgado reports.

The airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered “CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” Trump said on Saturday in a social media post aimed at “all airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers.” The Venezuelan government condemned Trump’s comments in a statement later on Saturday, describing them as a “colonialist threat.” Julian E. Barnes and Helene Cooper report for the New York Times; Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali report for Reuters.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR – INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE  

U.S. and Ukrainian officials met yesterday in Miami for further discussions on the U.S. peace plan. “We had a very productive session,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday after the talks, adding “there is more work to be done.” Neither Rubio nor Ukraine’s national security adviser Rustem Umerov revealed details of the discussions. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who took part in the negotiations yesterday, are expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow to present the latest plan. Barak Ravid reports for Axios; Cassandra Vinograd reports for the New York Times.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, resigned on Friday amid a $100 million embezzlement investigation at Ukraine’s publicly owned nuclear power company. Yermak has not been officially named in the investigation, but his home in Kyiv was searched on Friday. Kim Barker and Andrew E. Kamer report for the New York Times.

Russia carried out a nearly 10-hour air assault across Ukraine on Saturday, killing at least two people in Kyiv and injuring dozens more, according to the Ukrainian authorities. More than 600,000 people were without power in Kyiv and the surrounding region on Saturday. Cassandra Vinograd and Oleksandr Chubko report for the New York Times.

Ukrainian drone strikes hit two oil tankers, said to be part of Russia’s shadow fleet, in the Black Sea on Friday, a Ukrainian official told AP News. The targeted tankers were named by Turkish authorities as the Kairos and Virat, both flagged to the Gambia. Andrew Wilks, Suzan Fraser, and Isobel Koshiw report.

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR – CEASEFIRE 

More than 70,000 people have died in Gaza since October 2023, Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Saturday. 301 people have been added to the death toll since Thursday, which includes 2 people killed in Israeli airstrikes and 299 people identified from remains previously buried under the rubble. Nidal Al-Mughrabi reports for Reuters.

WEST BANK VIOLENCE 

Israeli security forces shot dead two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Thursday after they appeared to surrender, according to video footage. Palestinian officials condemned the killings as “field execution.” The Israeli authorities said in a statement that they were investigating the shooting, claiming that the two men were involved in militant activity. A U.N. Human Rights Office spokesperson denounced the killings, adding that they appeared to be “summary execution[s].” Adam Rasgon, Sanjana Varghese, and Fatima Abdulkarim report for the New York Times; Emma Farge reports for Reuters.

SUDANESE CIVIL WAR  

354 children have arrived in a refugee camp in Tawila, about 70 kilometres from El Fasher, without immediate family members, between Oct. 26 and Nov. 22, according to UNICEF. Sheldon Yett, UNICEF’s representative in Sudan, described the children arriving in the camp as “bewildered, malnourished and dehydrated.” Fatma Khaled reports for AP News.

OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS

An Israeli raid into southern Syria on Friday killed at least 13 people and injured at least two dozen others, according to Syrian health officials, Syria’s state news agency SANA, and the Israeli military. The Israeli military said that Israeli troops had moved into Beit Jinn to detain suspected Islamist militants, claiming that Israeli forces had returned fire after coming under attack from gunmen. SANA reported that Israeli forces had shelled Beit Jinn before entering the town and killed 13 residents, including two children. Reham Mourshed and Euan Ward report for the New York Times.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday submitted a request for pardon for his corruption charges to the legal department of the office of the Israeli President. Netanyahu said the pardon would help unify the country at a time of momentous change in the region. The President’s office called it an “extraordinary request”, carrying with it “significant implications.” Sam Mednick reports for AP News.

The U.N. Human Rights Office on Friday warned that Myanmar’s military government may be pressuring citizens to vote in the election this month and may use electronic voting machines and AI surveillance to monitor voter behaviour. James Rodehaver, head of the Myanmar team for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said OHCHR has received reports of displaced people being forced back to their villages by the military to vote. Emma Farge reports for Reuters.

The International Criminal Court on Friday ruled that former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte must remain in court detention to await a possible trial, refusing a request for his release on grounds of age and declining health. Stephanie van den Berg reports for Reuters.

U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Trump announced on Friday that he would grant “a Full and Complete Pardon” to a former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, who was found guilty by a U.S. jury last year of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. A Drug Enforcement Administration agent who worked on the Hernández investigation called the pardon “lunacy.” Hernández’s lawyer said he had not known about the pardon until his client’s wife called him on Friday and read Trump’s social media post to him.  Annie Correal, Jeff Ernst, Shawn McCreesh, and David C. Adams report for the New York Times; Christopher Sherman and Marlon Gonzalez report for AP News.

Trump also on Friday endorsed former mayor Nasry “Tito” Asfura, from the conservative National Party, in the Honduran election.“Tito and I can work together to fight the Narcocommunists and bring needed aid to the people of Honduras,” Trump said on social media. Sunday’s election results have not been announced at the time of writing.  Annie Correal, Jeff Ernst, Shawn McCreesh, and David C. Adams report for the New York Times.

U.S. Central Command said yesterday that it and Syrian forces had destroyed 15 sites containing Islamic State weapons caches in southern Syria from Nov. 24 to Nov. 27. “The combined operation destroyed over 130 mortars and rockets, multiple assault rifles, machine guns, anti-tank mines, and materials for building improvised explosive devices,” CENTCOM said in a statement. Jasper Ward and Ted Hesson report for Reuters.

The presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda will travel to Washington later this week to sign a further peace deal and meet with Trump, three sources told Reuters. The meeting is set to build on a U.S.-brokered peace deal reached in June and a Regional Economic Integration Framework agreed in November. Ange Adihe Kasongo and Giulia Paravicini report.

U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS 

19-year-old college student Any Lucía López Belloza was detained last week at Boston Logan International Airport and deported to Honduras, as she was about to board a flight to Austin, Texas, to visit her family for the Thanksgiving holiday. Ms López’s father said in an interview yesterday that no one was aware there was an order for her deportation, adding that Ms López was told only when she was arrested. ICE told the Boston Globe that an immigration judge had ordered Ms López’s deportation in 2015. Ms López’s lawyer said she had been deported in violation of a court order signed on Friday that said Ms López could not be removed while her case was pending. Amanda Holpuch and Annie Correal report for the New York Times.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow said on Friday that USCIS has “halted all asylum decisions until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.” Edlow added, “The safety of the American people always comes first.” The announcement followed the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C, on Wednesday. Hamed Aleaziz and Edward Wong report for the New York Times; Camilo Montoya-Galvez reports for CBS News.

The Trump administration on Friday ordered its diplomats worldwide, effective immediately, to stop processing any immigrant or non-immigrant visa applications for Afghan nationals, according to a State Department cable seen by Reuters. The order freezes the Special Immigration Visa program for Afghans, set up for people who helped the U.S. military during the war. If visas have been approved and printed but not handed to the applicant, diplomats should destroy the printed visas, the cable says. Humeyra Pamuk reports; Hamed Aleaziz and Edward Wong report for the New York Times.

At least 225 judges have ruled in more than 700 cases since July 8 that the Trump administration’s policy to detain nearly all immigrants facing deportation proceedings, and depriving people of an opportunity to seek release, is a likely violation of law and the right to due process. Kyle Cheney reports for POLITICO.

U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem yesterday said that the motive behind the shooting of two National Guard members last week remains unknown, but that the alleged shooter was “radicalized” upon coming to the United States. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who has been charged with first-degree murder since the attack, is an asylum seeker who came to the United States in 2021 following the Afghanistan withdrawal. He was part of an Afghan Army Zero Unit backed by the CIA. Noem rejected the idea that the current administration bore any responsibility for Lakanwal’s residency, adding “the vetting process all happened under Joe Biden’s administration.” Cheyanne M. Daniels reports for POLITICO.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS

Northwestern University announced on Friday that it would pay the Trump administration $75 million as part of a deal to restore $790 million of frozen federal research grants. The university said the agreement would end the probes by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Education Department into Northwestern’s compliance with anti-discrimination laws. Bianca Quilantan and Gloria Gonzalez report for POLITICO.

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