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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the last 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
IRAN WAR – CEASEFIRE
President Trump privately told aides he would consider ending the ceasefire with Iran if Tehran kills U.S. troops, U.S. officials said, insisting that the ceasefire remains intact. Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday described the recent tit-for-tat attacks as purely defensive in nature and not a renewed outbreak of full-scale war. “In that part of the world, ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner,” Trump told reporters, adding that peace talks are advancing. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said yesterday that Israeli attacks on Beirut would lead to a return to all-out war. Alexander Ward, Laurence Norman, and Robbie Gramer report for the Wall Street Journal.
Trump also said yesterday that the war in Iran is “not a big thing” for the United States. He reiterated that the conflict was going better than expected, maintaining that he was “very proud” of what he called a “detour” to Iran. Trump went on to claim that “costs were coming down” for consumers, and cited “great financial people” who he said had assured him that because 401(k)s were rising, “everybody’s making a lot of money.” Erica L. Green reports for the New York Times.
IRAN WAR – LEBANON OPERATIONS
Israel and Lebanon yesterday agreed to implement a full ceasefire, contingent on Hezbollah halting attacks and withdrawing its operatives from the area south of the Litani River, according to a joint statement from the United States, Israel, and Lebanon. The agreement “reaffirmed that the future of the relationship between Israel and Lebanon must be decided by the two sovereign governments,” rejecting “any attempt, by any state or nonstate actor, to hold Lebanon’s future hostage.” Ephrat Livni reports for the New York Times.
Trump yesterday confirmed that he had sharply criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Lebanon in a tense phone call on Monday. Asked whether he called Netanyahu “fucking crazy” and that he would be in prison if not for Trump, Trump confirmed he did. In an interview with CNBC, Netanyahu also did not deny any of the details about the call reported by Axios, but said it did not amount to a “crisis” in his relationship with Trump. “If you think this is a crisis, you should be at some other conversations…we have a common goal,” Netanyahu said. Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo report for Axios.
A U.N. peacekeeper in Lebanon died today from wounds sustained when mortar shells hit his position in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL said, and two others were wounded. UNIFIL did not say where the shells originated, but confirmed that it had opened an investigation into the incident. Reuters reports.
IRAN WAR – OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
The House of Representatives yesterday voted 215-208 to approve a war powers resolution that would halt the U.S. military action against Iran, with four Republicans siding with the Democrats. The House is also expected to consider a war powers resolution to block U.S. action in Lebanon. Lisa Mascaro reports for AP News.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Israeli airstrikes today killed at least nine Palestinians, including five members of the same family, in separate attacks in Gaza, health officials said. Medics said Israeli planes launched strikes on four apartments before dawn. A video circulated on Palestinian social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed people going into one apartment with blankets to recover bodies. Nidal Al-Mughrabi reports for Reuters.
The Israeli Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a government policy banning visits to Palestinian prisoners by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross violated Israeli and international law. The policy, which prohibited visits to those deemed “security” prisoners in the Israeli system, was enacted after Oct. 7, 2023. The Red Cross said in a statement that it stood ready to restart its visits and called the decision “an important reminder of the role [it plays in] ensuring the conditions of detention and treatment of detainees” meet international humanitarian law standards. Ephrat Livni reports for the New York Times.
WEST BANK VIOLENCE
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich yesterday announced the construction of more than 2,162 residential units in three Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. The new homes would “strengthen our hold on the land, reinforce Israel’s security, and establish clear facts on the ground that prevent the creation of an Arab terror state in the heart of the country,” Smotrich said in a statement. Benjamin Raab reports for Reuters.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
The House of Representatives voted 218-204 yesterday to take up a bill to impose new sanctions on Russia and provide additional aid to Ukraine. The bill must still win passage in the House. Trump has repeatedly signaled that he does not want Congress to constrain his flexibility to negotiate directly with Moscow, and could veto the legislation if it reaches his desk. Robert Jimison reports for the New York Times.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
The U.N. General Assembly yesterday elected Austria, Kyrgyzstan, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago, and Zimbabwe to the 15-member Security Council for two-year terms starting on Jan. 1, 2027. German Foreign Minister Joseph Wadephul said that Germany’s leading role in rallying support for Ukraine and its close relations with Israel may have cost Berlin the chance of a seat on the council. Reuters reports; Rachel More reports for Reuters.
Serbia’s Security and Information Agency (BIA) said in a statement yesterday evening that a trip to Montenegro is a high security risk for Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic due to “hostile activities of foreign secret services and a presence of a criminal clan there.” Speaker of the Parliament Ana Brnabic said Vucic planned to travel to the summit with EU and Balkan leaders despite the warning. Reuters reports.
Taiwan is set to increase its arsenal of powerful anti-ship missiles to more than 1,800 by early 2029, as it seeks to enhance its capacity to counter a mounting threat of blockade or invasion by China, according to a Reuters calculation and current and former Taiwan military officers. David Lague and Yimou Lee report.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Netanyahu said he would support a new Republican-led proposal to phase out the roughly $3.8 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Israel and replace it with a relationship based on trade and joint defense cooperation. Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), who is introducing the resolution, said the goal is to send a message “to the rest of the world that Israel is not just leaning on America.” In a letter to Stutzman, Netanyahu wrote that “the time has now arrived for us to move from aid recipient to partner,” according to a copy viewed by the Washington Post. Natalie Allison reports.
The United States and other nations in the Five Eyes intelligence partnership yesterday issued a joint warning that China is using LinkedIn and other job platforms to pry secret information from security professionals worldwide. Chinese operatives “pose as employees of private consultancies, think tanks or human resources firms and place online job advertisements” aimed at attracting those with access to state secrets, the alert stated. Greg Miller reports for the Washington Post.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin yesterday appeared to reverse the Trump administration’s position by saying it would willingly deport Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers immediately sent a copy of Mullin’s remarks to the federal judge handling the deportation case, who had previously pressed the administration on why it could not send him to Costa Rica. Alan Feuer reports for the New York Times.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) said yesterday that federal immigration officials were continuing to bar her from entering Delaney Hall, a detention center in Newark. On Tuesday, the state’s attorney general, Jennifer Davenport, filed a lawsuit after state health officials were denied access to the medical unit and several other areas of the facility during an inspection. Tracey Tully reports for the New York Times.
A report by the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog has found that ICE officers at a detention center in Louisiana violated federal standards on physical force and noted that the facility refused to provide full video of some episodes of violence against detainees. The report is part of a wider audit that the inspector general’s office is conducting of ICE’s roughly 200 detention centers. Hamed Aleaziz and Nicholas Nehamas report for the New York Times.
“All [ICE] training starting July 1st will be back up to the regular standards,” Mullin told the House Homeland Security Committee yesterday. Documents released by Senate Democrats earlier this year showed that training hours had dropped by roughly 40 percent as of February, to approximately 336 hours. Hamed Aleaziz reports for the New York Times.
An AP News investigation finds that dozens of children have been re-separated from their parents under Trump’s renewed immigration enforcement, despite a prior court settlement meant to prevent such family separations. Garance Burke and Sonia Perez D. report.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Several Republican senators said yesterday that they would not support Bill Pulte if Trump nominated him to serve as director of national intelligence permanently. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the law that created the job required nominees with extensive national security experience. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) likewise said he would not support Pulte’s nomination. Jonathan Landay, Patricia Zengerle, and Erin Banco report for Reuters.
Voters in Monterey Park, California, yesterday overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure permanently banning data centers, with about 86% support, making it likely the first U.S. city to do so. Billy Witz reports for the New York Times.
TECH DEVELOPMENTS
In a new policy paper, OpenAI has proposed mandatory government-led safety evaluations for advanced AI models, overseen by the Commerce Department’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), which differs from the White House’s new voluntary framework led by the National Security Agency. Brendan Borderlon reports for POLITICO.
Top AI executives, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, have urged Congress to require companies selling synthetic DNA and RNA to screen orders and verify customers, arguing that increasingly powerful AI could lower the barriers to creating dangerous biological weapons. Amrith Ramkumar reports for the Wall Street Journal.
Google released a set of guidelines yesterday that it says should become the industry standard on data center water consumption. The framework calls for returning more water to local watersheds than its data centers consume by 2030, avoiding water-intensive cooling in more water-stressed regions, and disclosing water use annually. Amy Harder reports for Axios.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
Trump yesterday announced his intention to nominate acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to the post permanently. Katherine Faulders and Nicholas Kerr report for ABC News.
Trump yesterday signed an executive order reclassifying about 8,000 senior federal workers and making it easier to fire them for any reason. Democrats, unions, and good-government groups have objected, arguing that the change would erode long-standing protections that keep the civil service from becoming a politicized patronage system. Meryl Kornfield reports for the Washington Post.
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