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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR — U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
The United States has paused all military aid to Ukraine until President Trump decides that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is making a good-faith effort toward peace negotiations with Russia, a White House official has said. Nancy A. Youssef, Alexander Ward, and Jared Malsin report for the Wall Street Journal.
The White House has asked the State and Treasury Departments to draw up a plan to ease the U.S. sanctions on Russia and hopes to discuss the possible sanctions relief during talks with Moscow in the coming days, according to a U.S. official. Erin Banco reports for Reuters.
The United States-Ukraine minerals deal is not dead yet but Zelenskyy should be “more appreciative” of U.S. support, Trump told reporters yesterday. Brett Samuels reports for the Hill.
Trump’s clash with Zelenskyy last week was “not spontaneous” but a “deliberate escalation” by the United States, said Friedrich Merz, Berlin’s likely next Chancellor, German media reported yesterday. Seb Starcevic reports for POLITICO.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
The next round of Russia-United States talks on ending the war in Ukraine is unlikely to happen before the countries normalize embassy staffing levels, the Kremlin said yesterday. Reuters reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Israeli forces killed at least two people in Rafah and wounded three others in Khan Younis overnight, according to medics, raising fears of the ceasefire collapsing altogether. The Israeli military said it fired at suspects who posed a threat. Separately, a Palestinian official allied with Hamas said that a state of alert had been declared among fighters. Nidal Al-Mughrabi reports for Reuters.
The prices of essential goods in Gaza have already risen in response to Israel’s imposition of a blockade on the entry of all goods and humanitarian assistance into the territory, residents say. Hiba Yazbek reports for the New York Times.
Egypt’s proposal for rebuilding Gaza would sideline Hamas and replace the group with interim bodies controlled by Arab, Muslim, and Western states, according to a draft seen by Reuters. Cairo is set to present its vision for the territory’s future during an Arab League summit today. Andrew Mills reports for Reuters.
SYRIA
Israeli forces yesterday struck a site in northwest Syria where arms belonging to the previous Syrian government were stored, the Israeli military said. According to the Syrian state news agency SANA, the strikes caused no casualties. Reuters reports.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
The head of the FBI’s New York field office, James Dennehy, yesterday told the office’s staffers that he was ordered to resign from his position, sources say. According to the email announcing his resignation, Dennehy, who last month urged his employees to “dig in” amid the Trump administration’s efforts to remake the Bureau, was not given a reason for being ordered to quit. Ken Dilanian, Jonathan Dienst, Ryan J. Reilly, and Tom Winter report for NBC News.
The Treasury Department on Sunday announced it qould no longer enforce a beneficial ownership information database for small businesses, created by the Biden administration to curb money laundering and shell company formation. Fatima Hussein reports for AP News.
The Trump administration is firing dozens of General Services Administration technology specialists, who worked on a broad portfolio including the passport services and the IRS’s tax filing software, according to an email from the GSA’s Technology Transformation Services director seen by the New York Times. Karoun Demirjian and Madeleine Ngo report.
Health and Human Services Department employees can apply for early retirement over the next 10 days and must respond to DOGE’s “what did you do last week” email, the health agency’s leaders told staffers in an email yesterday. Patrick Wingrove and Dan Levine report for Reuters.
Georgia’s Fort Moore will revert back to its old Fort Benning name, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced. The fort, previously named for Brig. Gen. Henry L. Benning, a Confederate officer during the American Civil War, will now be named in honor of World War I soldier Cpl. Fred G. Benning, a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, the Pentagon said. Lolita C. Baldor reports for AP News.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Trump administration’s 25% tariffs on Canada’s and Mexico’s exports to the U.S. and new levies on China came into force early today, with Canada retaliating by announcing a raft of countermeasures and China responding by announcing 15% tariffs on some core U.S. agriculture imports. Rebecca Falconer reports for Axios.
The U.N. World Food Program is closing its southern Africa office in the wake of the Trump administration’s aid cuts, the agency’s spokesperson said yesterday, adding that the WFP’s food programs would continue. Gerald Imray and Farai Mutsaka report for AP News.
France has “trouble understanding” why the United States has ordered a halt of offensive cyber operations against Russia, French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said yesterday, pointing to “constant” Russian cyberattacks on European Union countries. Victor Goury-Laffont reports for POLITICO.
OTHER U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
The Justice Department will review the conviction of a former election clerk from Mesa County, Colorado who last summer was found guilty of tampering with voting machines in a failed bid to prove they were rigged against Trump during the 2020 election, according to a statement the DOJ filed with a court yesterday. Alan Feuer reports for the New York Times.
The Senate yesterday voted 51-45 to confirm Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education. Trump is expected to sign an executive order calling for McMahon to diminish the Education Department and work with Congress to pass legislation that would eliminate it as soon as this week, sources say. Arthur Jones II reports for ABC News.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin yesterday requested the agency’s Inspector General to probe the management of the $20 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, held at Citibank under a Biden-era arrangement. Zack Colman reports for POLITICO.
The Supreme Court will today hear a lawsuit in which Mexico seeks to hold U.S. gun manufacturers liable for allegedly aiding in the trafficking of weapons used by the cartels. Abbie VanSickle reports for the New York Times.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
Armed men in Sudan raped more than 200 children since the beginning of 2024, targeting infants as young as a year old, UNICEF said yesterday, citing records compiled by Sudanese gender-based violence service providers. The number of recorded rapes is likely to be “the tip of the iceberg” of the scale of sexual violence, the agency’s spokesperson added. Fatma Khaled reports for AP News.
Israeli troops have demolished houses and cleared a roadway through the occupied West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp, leading to the displacement of almost 13,000 people, the head of the camp’s services committee has said. Ali Sawafta and James Mackenzie report for Reuters.
Rwanda-backed M23 rebels abducted at least 130 sick and wounded men from two hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Goma city during a raid last Friday, the U.N. Human Rights Office spokesperson said today. Mark Banchereau reports for AP News.
Several senior Russian missile experts have visited Iran over the past year amid signs of deepening Tehran-Moscow defense ties, a Reuters review of travel records and employment data indicates. James Pearson, Polina Nikolskaya, Anton Zverev, and Parisa Hafezi report.
Austria’s new three-party government was sworn in yesterday, ending five months of political deadlock that followed the electoral victory of the far-right, pro-Russian Freedom Party in September. Csongor Körömi reports for POLITICO.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
A federal judge yesterday kept in place an order temporarily prohibiting mass terminations at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau pending her final ruling on whether the Trump administration is attempting to shutter the agency. Chloe Atkins, Julia Jester, Lawrence Hurley, and Dareh Gregorian report for NBC News.
Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions
