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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the last 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
President Trump said yesterday that the Board of Peace had reached an agreement for Hamas to begin disarming in Gaza, but did not provide details. The Board of Peace later said that Hamas had agreed to a “detailed road map” on disarmament and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. A senior Trump adviser told reporters that the disarmament process would begin in the next month or so, while the overall plan requires Hamas and Israel to complete a series of reciprocal and independently verified steps over roughly seven to eight months. Hamas official Ghazi Hamad confirmed to Al Jazeera that “difficult” negotiations had produced an agreement, adding “we will not take any steps regarding disarmament before Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.” Israel has yet to acknowledge the plans publicly. Katie Rogers and Pranav Baskar report for the New York Times; Myah Ward reports for POLITICO; Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
IRAN WAR
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi yesterday urged Bulgaria to reconsider its decision to allow the temporary deployment of U.S. military aircraft at the Bezmer air base, according to Iranian state media. Araghchi told Bulgarian Foreign Minister Velislava Petrova-Chamova that Sofia’s approval of the U.S. request amounted to facilitating aggression against Iran. Araghchi also spoke to Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos and stressed the importance of preventing foreign military bases in Cyprus from being used against Iran. Reuters reports.
IRAN WAR – YEMEN
The Saudi Ministry of Defense yesterday met with nearly 50 countries in Riyadh to establish a multinational maritime defense coalition, the Saudi Arabian embassy in the United States said on social media. The group met to discuss the need to secure shipping routes in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Aden. The Saudi Defense Ministry said 14 countries gave their support for the coalition, including Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, and Nigeria. Mira Bhakta reports for The Hill.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia this week from Iraqi territory in coordination with Iraqi armed groups, according to assessments by Saudi Arabia and regional partners. The assessments, which differ from official accounts, indicate that members of Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance have strengthened their ties, two officials in the region said. The officials added that the strikes were carried out under the supervision of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Timour Azhari and Mohammed Ghobari report for Reuters.
IRAN WAR – OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Investigators believe a cyberattack this week on dozens of municipal water systems in Minnesota was probably the work of Iranian hackers, according to U.S. and state officials. The investigators also warned that the hackers could be posing as Iran-based in an effort to increase tensions between the two countries, though former intelligence officials said this was unlikely. Dustin Volz and Ernesto Londono report for the New York Times.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Trump yesterday told the Financial Times that he was “not sure” whether Washington would grant Ukraine a license to produce Patriot missiles, adding “we’re looking at it.” Trump’s comments come two days after he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, following which Zelenskyy said Trump “accepted he will give us licenses.” Edward Luce reports.
SUDANESE CIVIL WAR
An AP News investigation reports firsthand accounts from six former child soldiers who say they were abducted and forced to fight for the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces. The report also alleges that Colombian mercenaries trained some child soldiers and supported the RSF. Sam Mednick, Isabel Debre, and Astri Suarez report.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
Spain and Morocco have reinforced security around the Spanish enclave of Ceuta today after more than 49,000 people arrived by land and sea in a day, with at least 19 dead bodies found in the water. Michael Francis Gore and Ahmed Eljechtimi report for Reuters.
The EU has agreed plans to establish a Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, using funding from Italy and Malta, EU Ambassador to Libya Nicola Orlando said yesterday. While the EU formally recognises only the Tripoli-based government, it has stepped up contacts with authorities in eastern Libya since last year as migrant departures from areas controlled by military commander Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya have risen. Reuters reports.
Human Rights Watch said today that Russian paramilitary group Africa Corps killed eight civilians, including three children, in Mali last month. The rights group called the air strikes on the village of Kyrnia “unlawfully indiscriminate,” adding that there did not seem to be any specific military objectives. Portia Crowe reports for Reuters.
The United Kingdom’s Supreme Court yesterday announced that it will hear an appeal against a lower court ruling that Britain’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organization was lawful. Reuters reports.
TECH DEVELOPMENTS
Anthropic said yesterday that three of its AI models recently broke into the systems of three outside organizations. The attacks, which date as far back as April, were discovered when Anthropic carried out a review of its systems. Anthropic said that its technology had not purposefully broken out of its testing environment, but rather that people running the tests had left Anthropic’s systems connected to the internet. Mike Isaac and Kate Conger report for the New York Times.
Chinese military researchers have used outputs from leading AI models developed by OpenAI and Anthropic to train domestic AI systems to advance China’s defense capabilities, according to a Reuters review of more than 80 Chinese academic papers and patents. The documents show widespread use of a technique known as “model distillation,” in which outputs from a powerful AI system are used to train smaller, specialised models that can be deployed locally without the enormous computing requirements needed to build frontier AI systems from scratch. Eduardo Baptista report.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The U.S. delegation at a global AIDS conference in Brazil this week displayed a map of Africa, in which it wrongly labelled each of the six African countries that receive U.S. health funding. Reuters authenticated an image of the map and said a watermark indicated it was generated by AI. The State Department blamed a “team member who hastily altered the slide deck immediately before the presentation.” In a statement, the department took “full responsibility” for the “confusion and misrepresentation” it caused for conference attendees. Sammy Westfall reports for the Washington Post.
Vice President JD Vance and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a one-on-one meeting in Washington on Tuesday evening to discuss their differences, Israeli and U.S. officials said. An Israeli official said, “It was a frank and candid conversation.” A U.S. official confirmed the characterization, saying “the conversation was direct.” Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
The Trump administration is considering charging a $100,000 fee to international students who want to work in the United States after they graduate, according to sources. The fee would be attached to a program called optional practical training, which allows international university graduates to work for one to three years on their student visas. Michelle Hackman reports for the Wall Street Journal.
Thousands of unaccompanied migrant children could lose legal representation as soon as today as the federal government contract with the Acacia Center for Justice expires, advocates and lawyers told ABC News. The deadline comes as legal providers say the administration has withheld $65 million in overdue fees, alleging it is an attempt to force them to turn over confidential information about the migrant children they represent. Laura Romero reports.
Two more federal appeals courts issued rulings yesterday against the Trump administration’s policy of detaining immigrants and holding them indefinitely, without a bond hearing. Mattathias Schwartz reports for the New York Times.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
The Senate education committee yesterday approved a bipartisan bill that would block the executive branch from gutting the Education Department. However, competing legislation in the House would instead codify many of the administration’s actions, and Trump is unlikely to sign into law a measure that directly undermines his policy agenda. Michael C. Bender reports for the New York Times.
Trump’s nominee to oversee the parent agency of Voice of America, Sarah B. Rogers, said yesterday that if the Senate confirmed her, she would bring back many of the journalists who were placed on paid leave since last year. Rogers also told the lawmakers that the parent organization, U.S. Agency for Global Media, would oversee a “careful, tactical resuscitation of resources” to parts of Africa, especially in the Sahel region, where Russia and China have engaged in heavy propaganda campaigns. Minho Kim reports for the New York Times.
ABC accused Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr of “attempted censorship” in a regulatory filing posted yesterday, saying the agency is creating a potential chilling effect across the media by helping Trump attack his perceived adversaries. John Hendel reports for POLITICO.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
Trump yesterday threatened to temporarily withdraw Todd Blanche’s nomination to become attorney general. “I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd’s name, if they do not do the right thing, and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office,” Trump said on social media. Glenn Thrush, Michael Gold, and Carl Hulse report for the New York Times.
The Pentagon is considering a draft proposal that would eliminate tenure for civilian faculty at U.S. military academies and war colleges while reviewing all courses to ensure they directly support warfighting, with programs deemed non-essential or ideologically driven potentially being removed. The memorandum, labeled “Refocusing the Military Service Academic and Senior Service College on Warfighter Education,” has not yet been approved by top Pentagon officials. James LaPorta and Eleanor Watson report for CBS News.
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