Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here.
A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the last 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
GLOBAL AFFAIRS
The new wave of fighting between Thailand and Cambodia has killed at least 10 people, injured around 20 people, and displaced hundreds of thousands. Fighting near the Gulf of Thailand started today, as the Thai Navy said it had conducted “military operations” to expel Cambodian forces. “We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said today, adding, “the government will support all kinds of military operations as planned earlier.” Cambodian President of the Senate Hun Sen said, “Cambodia wants peace, but Cambodia is forced to fight back to defend its territory.” Sui-Lee Wee reports for the New York Times; BBC News reports; Jintamas Saksornchai and Sopheng Cheang report for AP News.
The Southern Transitional Council (STC), a UAE-backed separatist group in Yemen, yesterday claimed broad control across southern Yemen, including the port city of Aden, in a military operation called “Promising Future,” according to senior STC official Amr al-Bidh. Reuters reports.
Israeli authorities yesterday raided a vacant UNRWA compound in East Jerusalem, with the intention of collecting municipal tax debts, the authorities said. UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said the compound was not in active use, but that it remains a U.N. location, exempt from search, seizure, or taxation under international law. According to a municipal official, the UNRWA compound lost its exemption from taxation when Israel banned the agency. Ephrat Livni reports for the New York Times.
Lithuania’s government today declared a state of emergency over smuggler balloons originating in Belarus that have disrupted aviation, and asked parliament to allow the military to operate alongside the police and border guards. “The state of emergency is announced not only due to civil aviation disruptions but also due to interests of national security,” Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovic said. Andrius Sytas reports for Reuters.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR – INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
Ukraine today will share a revised peace plan with the United States comprising 20 points, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters yesterday following talks in London with European allies. “The mood of the Americans, in principle, is for finding compromise,” Zelenskyy said. “Of course there are complex issues related to the territory, and a compromise has not yet been found there.” U.S. and Ukrainian officials say the Trump administration saw Zelensky’s meeting in Downing Street as an unhelpful attempt to buy time in the negotiations over Trump’s peace plan. Olena Harmash and Elizabeth Piper report for Reuters; Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR – CEASEFIRE
Israeli forces shot and killed a three-year-old girl, Ahed Tareq al-Bayouk, in southern Gaza on Sunday, according to local sources. Ahed al-Bayouk’s death appears to have taken place on the Palestinian side of the Yellow Line. The Israeli Defense Forces said that it was “not aware of a strike” but would “conduct an additional review.” James Cook reports for BBC News.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet President Trump on Dec. 29 to discuss the next steps of the Gaza ceasefire, an Israeli government spokesperson said yesterday. It is unclear where the meeting will take place. Maayan Lubell and Steve Scheer report for Reuters.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been dropped for consideration from Trump’s Board of Peace in Gaza, following objections from several Arab and Muslim states, according to multiple sources. Blair’s office declined to comment on the matter. Another source rejected suggestions that Blair would not be sitting on the board due to opposition in the region, claiming instead that Blair would not qualify for the board because it would be made up of serving world leaders. The source added that Blair is expected to sit on the executive committee alongside U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Andrew England and Neri Zilber report for the Financial Times.
SUDANESE CIVIL WAR
The World Health Organization said yesterday that the death toll from drone strikes last week on a kindergarten and other sites in the Kordofan region is now at 114 people, including 63 children. Fay Abuelgasim reports for AP News.
Sudanese Rapid Support Forces paramilitary said yesterday that it had taken control of the Heglig oil field in the South Kordofan region. Sudanese government forces and workers at the oil field withdrew from the area on Sunday to avoid clashes that could have damaged the oil facilities, government sources told Reuters. Jana Choukeir and Khalid Abdelaziz report.
U.S. CARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC OPERATIONS
U.S. lawmakers have included a provision in the final draft of the National Defense Authorization Act which would withhold a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget if the Pentagon fails to provide the congressional national security committees with a copy of the execute orders behind the strikes on alleged drug vessels and the “unedited video of strikes conducted against designated terrorist organizations.” Leo Shane III, Connor O’Brien, and Joe Gould report for POLITICO; Megan Mineiro reports for the New York Times.
Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expected to brief the “Gang of Eight” lawmakers this afternoon, according to three sources. The briefing follows the completion of the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy document last week, but lawmakers are also expected to raise questions about the legality of military strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific. Adm. Alvin Holsey, the outgoing head of U.S. Southern Command, is also expected to brief a separate group of Senate and House lawmakers today. Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, and Daphne Psaledakis report for Reuters; Anne Flaherty, Allison Pecorin, and Mariam Khan report for ABC News.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Democratic Republic of the Congo President Felix Tshisekedi yesterday accused Rwanda of violating its commitment to a U.S.-brokered peace deal in a speech to lawmakers. There was no immediate response from Rwanda. A senior Trump administration official said that Trump “has made clear to both sides that implementation is what he will judge, and as he stated, he is expecting immediate results.” Ange Adihe Kasongo reports for Reuters.
Honduran Attorney General Johel Antonio Zelaya Alvarez announced yesterday that he had issued an international arrest warrant for former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was recently pardoned by Trump and released from prison in the United States. Zelaya cited charges of money laundering and fraud connected to a case involving Hernández’s first presidential campaign. Annie Correal reports for the New York Times.
TECH DEVELOPMENTS
The Justice Department yesterday announced that two businessmen are in custody for allegedly smuggling Nvidia H100 and H200 chips to China. The alleged smuggling network “threatens our Nation’s security by funneling cutting-edge AI technology to those who would use it against American interests,” U.S. Attorney Nicholas Ganjei said. Rebecca Falconer reports for Axios.
Trump yesterday announced that the United States would allow Nvidia to “ship its H200 products to approved customers in China…under conditions that allow for continued National Security.” Trump added that “25% will be paid to the United States of America” without giving details of the arrangement. “The Trump administration’s announcement that it will allow the export of advanced H200 AI chips to China is a colossal economic and national security failure,” several senior Democratic senators said in a statement. Demetri Sevastopulo and Michael Action report for the Financial Times.
Trump said yesterday that he would issue an executive order this week to block state laws on AI. Trump did not offer details on the order, but a draft order circulated last month directed the U.S. attorney general to sue states to overturn AI laws and federal regulators were also directed to withhold broadband grants and other funding to states with AI laws. Cecilia Kang reports for the New York Times.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Certain judges “are engaging in an unconscionable campaign of bias and hostility against U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan,” Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said yesterday after judges in the Eastern District of Virginia criticized Halligan’s continued involvement in court matters. The statement added, “This Department of Justice has no tolerance for undemocratic judicial activism.” April Rubin reports for Axios.
Alina Habba, Trump’s former personal lawyer, yesterday stepped down as acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. Habba was disqualified from the role last week after an appeals court found that she was serving unlawfully. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the Justice Department will seek further review of the ruling and is “confident” the decision will be reversed. “Do not mistake compliance for surrender,” Habba wrote on social media. “This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.” Julianna Bragg and April Rubin report for Axios.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said yesterday that he signed an executive order declaring the Council on American-Islamic Relations a foreign terrorist organization. Patricia Mazzei reports for the New York Times.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
Trump yesterday unveiled a $12 billion bailout for farmers at an event at the White House. “We love our farmers,” Trump said. “And, as you know, the farmers like me.” Alan Rappeport, Kevin Draper, and Ana Swanson report for the New York Times.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development yesterday temporarily revoked a policy change that would significantly cut permanent housing funding for people experiencing homelessness, ahead of a court hearing. According to the court filing, HUD’s reasoning for rescinding the policy change was “to assess the issues raised by the Plaintiffs in their suits and to fashion a revised” notice of funding opportunity. “You can change the policy all you want but there’s a mechanism for doing so and it’s not doing things an hour before court,” the Judge said during the hearing yesterday. Katherine Hapgood reports for POLITICO.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
The Supreme Court yesterday appeared likely to allow Trump to remove a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission purely for policy reasons. The court’s conservative majority seemed ready to overturn or limit a landmark decision from 1935, which said Congress could constrain the president’s authority to remove some executive branch officials. Devin Dwyer reports for ABC News.
A federal judge yesterday vacated Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order blocking wind energy projects, saying the effort to halt virtually all leasing of windfarms on federal lands and waters was “arbitrary and capricious” and violates U.S. law. AP News reports.
A federal judge yesterday ordered top Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign to testify on Dec 16. about the decision to deport more than a hundred men to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act earlier this year. The judge also ordered testimony on Dec. 15 from Erez Reuveni, a former DOJ attorney who alleged the Trump administration sought to circumvent court orders. Peter Charalambous, Laura Romeo, and Ely Brown report for ABC News.
The creators of ICEBlock, an app on which users can report sightings of ICE agents, filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Trump administration, alleging that it illegally threatened to prosecute the app’s creators and pressured Apple to remove the app from its App Store. Andrew Pantazi reports for Axios
12 anonymous former FBI agents yesterday filed a lawsuit against the FBI and the Justice Department, alleging they were demoted or fired in retaliation for kneeling during a 2020 protest as a de-escalation tactic, conduct that the administration has characterized as participating in the demonstration. Devlin Barrett reports for the New York Times.
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 and Policy Options for a U.S-South Korea Nuclear Submarine Program
By
