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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
Iranian Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei yesterday said Iran is compiling a list of conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz after mediators asked Tehran to set them out. Rezaei said Iran agreed to a shipping corridor through the strait with Oman if the United States met Iran’s conditions. Reuters reports.
President Trump yesterday said the United States is not talking with Iran and is instead focused on punishing the country economically. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the U.S. economic campaign would continue until Iran decides to negotiate meaningfully. Reuters reports.
Iranian business and banking activity continues openly in Dubai despite the threat of U.S. economic sanctions. Omar Abdel-Baqui reports for the Wall Street Journal.
IRAN WAR – OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Iran’s Security Chief Mohsen Rezaei yesterday said the report about a potential plot to assassinate Trump’s son Barron is a lie, in an interview broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Manar TV. Reuters reports.
A U.S. defense official in Europe yesterday said its military is experiencing a “beyond critical” shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe, largely due to the war with Iran. A NATO official confirmed low inventories of Patriots among American and NATO forces in Europe. Emma Burrows and Ben Finley report for AP News.
META yesterday shared with Axios that they took down a network of Facebook and Instagram accounts tied to an Iran-based operation that used AI to target U.S. audiences with posts about U.S. politics. A META spokesperson said that the company shared information about the operation with U.S. law enforcement. Sam Sabin reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Hospital officials and local media yesterday reported that Israeli strikes killed at least three people in Gaza. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident. Nidal Al-Mughrabi reports for Reuters.
WEST BANK VIOLENCE
Israeli military Chief of Staff Gen. Eyal Zamir yesterday said he ordered a major bolstering of troops in the West Bank in light of recent tensions in the area. He also demanded the treasury supply the military with additional funds. Emanuel Fabian reports for the Times of Israel.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Current and former officials yesterday claimed C.I.A. Director John Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow was to privately share his assessment of the war against Ukraine, and to urge Russia to cut a deal before their military and economic situation gets worse. Some officials hoped Russian President Vladimir Putin would see the message from the C.I.A. director as more urgent and credible than communications through normal diplomatic channels. Adam Entous and Julian E. Barnes report for the New York Times
Trump yesterday told Axios that Putin will not attack NATO territories, and has downplayed media reports that Ratcliffe warned Russian officials against such attacks. Trump claimed Ratcliffe sees his Russian counterpart “once every six months or once every year,” and there was nothing unusual about the visit. Barak Ravid reports; Gram Slattery reports for Reuters.
Sources yesterday said Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow was preceded by fresh U.S. intelligence indicating that Russia sees the United States as weakened by the Iran war, offering Russia an opportunity to escalate action against U.S. interests and allies. Warren P. Strobel reports for the Washington Post.
Russian drone strikes today have killed one person outside Kyiv, and damaged over thirty buildings, according to Kyiv Oblast Governor Tymur Tkachenko. Dan Peleschuk and Anna Pruchnicka report for Reuters.
SUDANESE CIVIL WAR
Sudan yesterday said it was surprised that Chad had accused its army of an air strike that hit a military convoy in its territory last week. According to a source, the alert level in Chad has “been raised to its maximum.” Mahamat Ramadan and Khalid Abdulaziz report for Reuters.
CLIMATE CHANGE
According to a study published yesterday, the climate pattern that drives El Niño is becoming more erratic as the planet warms, and El Niño is becoming more intense. The study finds that El Niño events during the past 40 years have become 36% stronger than those before the Industrial Revolution, and around 16% stronger than El Niño events that occurred during the 20th century. The changes are “very likely due to human-caused climate change,” according to study co-author Jonathan Overpeck, Dean of the School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. Andrew Freedman reports for CNN.
TECH DEVELOPMENTS
Leading AI and cybersecurity companies yesterday released a joint letter urging greater collaboration between AI labs and the U.S. government to better equip cyber defenders against an impending onslaught of AI-enabled cyberattacks. The letter, supported by over 100 companies, claims there is a “limited window to strengthen the cyber defenses.” Pieter Haeck reports for POLITICO; Sam Sabin reports for Axios.
Cybersecurity companies Gambit Security and Cloudsek yesterday released reports that Russian-speaking hackers used SpaceX’s AI coding assistant, Cursor, to help break into a Belgian chemical company and at least six other firms earlier this year. Raphael Satter reports for Reuters.
Cybersecurity firm VulnCheck yesterday released findings that show more than a dozen models of Chinese-made Zbtlink routers have been released with at least two backdoors that could allow for invasive remote access akin to “surveillance.” The backdoors allow for easy access to information about the network on which affected routers are installed, and potentially for the direction of network traffic. A.J. Vicens reports for Reuters.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
Nepal’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lok Bahadur Chhetri today said Nepal does not need foreign assistance for search-and-rescue operations. Former Nepali ambassador to the U.N. Dinesh Battarai said that the government’s reluctance to accept foreign search-and-rescue teams may be linked to the location of the flood-hit Rasuwa district, which borders China’s Tibet. Gopal Sharma reports for Reuters.
Nepal’s early flood warning system was likely overwhelmed by the speed of the flash floods on Wednesday, according to experts. The system relied on a conventional network of river gauges which are designed to detect the slower rising water levels that typically precede a monsoon-driven flood or glacial lake outburst flood, making it ill-equipped to sufficiently alert locals. Leo Sands and Binod Ghimire report for the New York Times.
Former Bosnian Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic, who had been convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, yesterday died in custody in The Hague, aged 83. The Hague said he died while hospitalized, but did not provide a specific cause of death. Dan Bilefsky reports for the New York Times.
King Harald V of Norway today died aged 89. The royal palace confirmed that he passed away at Oslo University Hospital at 6:35 local time. Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche report for Reuters.
The Zambian Police Service yesterday said opposition leader Brian Mundubile and his running mate Makebi Zulu are in police custody after being questioned “in connection with an alleged offence of treason,” following the nation’s recent elections. Police did not immediately provide details of the allegations underpinning the treason investigation. Reuters reports.
Taiwan’s opposition-controlled government yesterday rejected a $6.6 billion government plan for a special budget to buy new military drones, and passed their own plan which increased spending to just under $7.6 billion over the next six years. The spending cap is only in principle, and can be increased if needed. Reuters reports; Joyu Wang from the Wall Street Journal reports.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Canadian Minister of Internal Trade Dominic LeBlanc yesterday welcomed U.S. withdrawal from its position against the promotion of the French language as an opening to renew negotiations. This came before Trump issued an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America. Ian Austen and Vjosa Isai report for the New York Times; Ashley Ahn reports for POLITICO.
The U.N. human rights office yesterday condemned the Trump administration’s designation of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation as “disproportionate and unnecessary restriction” on free speech rights. Kanishka Singh reports for Reuters.
The Pentagon is preparing to withdraw around 200 troops from Nigeria who had been deployed this year to fight Islamist militants, the New York Times reports. U.S. military officials said small teams of trainers and intelligence analysts will remain in Nigeria after the larger contingent leaves by late September. Eric Schmitt, Saikou Jammeh, and Ismail Auwal report.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command yesterday said the U.S. military used a laser in southern Texas’ Rio Grande Valley to shoot down three Mexican drug cartel drones this week near the border. The military did not give the precise location of the strikes nor make clear whether they took place over U.S. or Mexican territory. Mike Stone reports for Reuters.
U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby yesterday told NATO allies that the alliance must adapt and become more European-led in the defense of the continent. Colby praised Germany and Poland for their defense efforts, but said the United States hopes “to see more from countries like the United Kingdom.” Reuters reports; Lorne Cook reports for AP News.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
Immigration arrests rose to record highs this summer, with 43,000 people arrested in June and 49,000 in July, according to federal data. The data shows that a majority of those arrested in July were people accused of violating civil immigration laws but who had not been charged with or convicted of a crime. Albert Sun and Allison McCann report for the New York Times.
The Trump administration aims to increase deportation flights to Haiti from once a month to once a week, according to documents obtained by the New York Times, potentially allowing for the deportation of hundreds more people per month. A U.S. official cautioned that the plans are still being finalized. Hamed Aleaziz, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, and Frances Robles report.
ICE officer Christian Castro was released from jail yesterday after a federal judge ruled that Minnesota failed to prove that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had done anything wrong by waiting to act on the extradition request. Mitch Smith and Ernesto Londono report for the New York Times.
ICE has granted a $16.7 million contract to buy 6,000 pairs of electric shock gloves for officers in the field over the next six months, according to a notice on a federal database. Kanishka Singh reports for Reuters.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a memo this week for universities that seeks to restrict issuance of certain internship work authorization for international students, warning schools they could lose certification to enroll foreign students if they do not comply. Kanishka Singh reports for Reuters.
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Office for failing to comply with a new law limiting cooperation with ICE. Joseph De Avila reports for the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) on Wednesday expressed concern over the behavior of election monitors from the Justice Department during the state’s primaries last week, calling it “a bit aggressive” and “irregular.” Gordon said that state and local officials had not been told ahead of time of the DOJ’s plans, adding that while he was not “objecting to the observers,” their “behavior seemed to exceed what the authority that Congress had given them was.” He did not detail any specific incidents. Adam Edelman reports for NBC News.
Tennessee National Guard Members assigned to a federal anti-crime task force in Memphis fatally shot an armed 20-year-old man in the back last month, according to an autopsy report obtained yesterday by AP News. The authorities had said that Tyrin Johnson turned toward guard members with a gun while running from them, but according to the autopsy report, a single bullet went into the right side of his back and exited through his upper right chest. Jack Brook and Kristin M. Hall report.
A federal judge said yesterday that they would grant final approval of Bank of America’s $72.5 million class-action settlement with women who accused the bank of facilitating their sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein. Reuters reports
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) administration “misappropriated” $10 million in taxpayer money in 2024 by diverting it from a Medicaid settlement to a charity tied to his wife, according to a leaked Florida grand jury report. The money was quickly redirected to political committees backing a campaign led by DeSantis against a ballot measure that would have legalized marijuana. The report also said grand jurors found insufficient evidence to levy charges. “Nobody will take responsibility for deciding the $10 million of taxpayer money would go to Hope Florida… or had any memory of who made it, ” the report concluded. Patricia Mazzei and David Ovalle report for the New York Times; Jim DeFede reports for CBS News.
Documents obtained by AP News and the Guardian contradict Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s congressional testimony that his 2019 Samoa trip had “nothing to do with vaccines,” showing he had explicitly sought to study Samoa’s MMR vaccination program. “Any claim or insinuation based on these letters that Secretary Kennedy lied under oath or to Congress is not only false but outright defamatory,” the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. Ali Swenson reports.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
The Trump administration this month agreed to pay German energy company RWE $1.2 billion to abandon offshore wind leases, with $900 million of that going toward buying a stake in a Louisiana LNG project from Stonepeak, a private equity firm led by Trump donor Michael Dorrell. Evan Halper reports for the Washington Post.
Trump said yesterday that Ben Moss, a former top aide to Vice President JD Vance, would be his next staff secretary, replacing Will Scharf. Chris Cameron reports for the New York Times.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
A federal judge yesterday found that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acted unlawfully when he designated Anthropic a supply chain risk to national security. The judge said the move amounted to “unlawful retaliation” in violation of the First Amendment and that Anthropic was denied due process as required under the Fifth Amendment. Christine Mui reports for POLITICO.
A federal judge late last night blocked the U.S. Postal Service from continuing to implement its plan to limit mail-in voting for at least the next two weeks, calling it a “likely unconstitutional regulation for which compliance is practically impossible as to the 2026 midterm elections, now little more than two months away.” Kyle Cheney reports for POLITICO.
A federal judge yesterday asked administration officials to delay installing the phrase “renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump” on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as he considers a legal objection from a Democratic lawmaker. Hours later, lawyers for the Justice Department said in a court filing that they would delay the inscription until Oct. 8, at the earliest. Zach Montague and Julia Jacobs report for The New York Times.
The Justice Department yesterday filed a notice signaling that it will appeal a federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit accusing Harvard University of illegally tolerating antisemitism. Alan Binder reports for the New York Times.
Three Stars and Stripes journalists filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Pentagon, alleging that Defense Department officials fired them in retaliation for writing about the worsening condition inside the USS Abraham Lincoln. Sara Fischer reports for Axios; Minho Kim reports for the New York Times.
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