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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
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said he agrees “in principle” with the U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine while suggesting conditions that would likely delay the truce or make it impossible, including limits to Ukraine’s ability to mobilize more troops and import weaponry during a cease-fire. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Putin’s statement as “very manipulative,” adding that the Russian leader’s remarks suggest he has no interest in ending the war and that the United States should impose sanctions on Russia to force it into a ceasefire. Anton Troianovski reports for the New York Times; Marc Santora reports for the New York Times; Seb Starcevic reports for POLITICO.
Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, has been excluded from the high-level talks on ending the war in Ukraine after the Kremlin said it did not want him there saying that he was “too close to Ukraine,” according to a U.S. official and Russian official. Keir Simmons, Courtney Kube, Natasha Lebedeva and Peter Alexander report for NBC News.
Putin remains determined to dominate Ukraine, according to classified U.S. intelligence that includes an assessment made earlier this month, sources say. Warren P. Strobel and Ellen Nakashima report for the Washington Post.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR — U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
President Trump said yesterday that he was getting “good signals” from Russia and hoped Moscow would “do the right thing” regarding the ceasefire proposal. Brett Samuels report for the Hill.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has called on the United States to move some of its nuclear warheads to Poland as a deterrent against Russia in an interview published yesterday. Raphael Minder reports for the Financial Times.
SYRIA
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa yesterday signed a temporary constitution that will leave the country under Islamist rule for the next five years. The Kurdish-led administration in north-eastern Syria criticised the document, saying the provisions stipulating that Islam should be the religion of the president and Islamic jurisprudence is “the main source of legislation” contradict “the reality of Syria’s diversity.” Ghaith Alsayed and Kareem Chehayeb report for AP News; David Gritten reports for BBC News.
Thousands of largely Alawite Syrians have crossed into Lebanon after attacks on Syrian security forces by Alawite gunmen affiliated with the Assad regime triggered a surge of sectarian reprisals, local officials say. Loveday Morris and Mohamad El Chamaa report for the Washington Post.
Russia trenchantly criticised Syria’s new government in a closed U.N. meeting this week, “warning against the rise of jihadists in Syria” and comparing the recent sectarian killings of the Alawite minority to Rwanda’s genocide, sources say. Samia Nakhoul and Maya Gebeily report for Reuters.
An Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of Syria’s Damascus hurt three civilians yesterday, Syria’s state news agency reported. The Israeli military said it was targeting a command centre belonging to Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad. Reuters reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff this week presented Israel and Hamas with a new Gaza ceasefire extension proposal, a source said, as Witkoff divides his attention between the negotiations on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. An Israeli official yesterday said that the negotiations remain deadlocked, a sentiment echoed by a Hamas spokesperson. Jeremy Diamond and Lauren Izso report for CNN; Aaron Boxerman reports for the New York Times.
Israel has carried out “systematic” gender-based violence in Gaza, including by imposing measures intended to prevent births amounting to “genocidal act[s] under the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention,” according to a report released yesterday by the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the report’s conclusions are “baseless.” Shira Rubin and Lior Soroka report for the Washington Post.
The United States and Israel have reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss potential resettlement of Palestinians on their land, according to U.S. and Israeli sources. Sudanese officials said they have rejected Washington’s overtures. Separately, Trump yesterday said that “nobody is expelling any Palestinians” from Gaza. It is unclear whether the comment amounts to a shift in Trump’s previous policy of “moving [Palestinians] to a beautiful location.” Josef Federman, Matthew Lee, and Samy Magdy report for AP News; Rob Picheta, Ibrahim Dahman, and Kareem El Damanhoury report for CNN.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
Trump is planning to soon invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1789, a long-dormant wartime authority, to try to summarily expel suspected members of drug cartels and criminal gangs from the United States, according to sources. The Trump administration intends to send some of those arrested to Guantánamo Bay, the sources added. Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Hamed Aleaziz, and Maggie Haberman report for the New York Times; Priscilla Alvarez, Jennifer Hansler and Alayna Treene report for CNN.
[Editor’s Note: for a list of expert analyses of the Alien Enemies Act, readers may be interested in Just Security’s What to Read on the Alien Enemies Act collection]
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “disestablishing” the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment (ONA), the unit responsible for high-level strategic analysis, and cancelling a number of ONA-related contracts in a bid to “rebuild” the office in a manner “consistent with his priorities,” according to a memo obtained by Breaking Defense. The move is likely to affect a number of DC think tanks and research organizations. Valerie Insinna reports.
Elon Musk this week met with the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, General Timothy Haugh, an NSA spokesperson said yesterday. Haugh has also held meetings with White House advisers to ensure the NSA and Cyber Command were “aligned” with the priorities of the Trump administration, the spokesperson added. Julian E. Barnes reports for the New York Times.
The Food and Drug Administration’s new Chief Counsel, Hilary Perkins, has resigned just two days after her appointment was announced, the agency announced yesterday. Reuters reports.
The White House yesterday abruptly retracted its nomination of Dave Weldon, a vaccine-sceptic former Florida Congressman, to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention amid concerns his candidacy might not be endorsed by the Senate. Lena H. Sun, Dan Diamond, Rachel Roubein, and Fenit Nirappil report for the Washington Post.
Federal agencies should refrain from firing their cybersecurity teams while drawing up their mass layoff plans, the White House said on Wednesday in an email reviewed by Reuters. Alexandra Alper reports.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Trump administration has asked the Pentagon to draw up “credible military options” to ensure unfettered U.S. access to the Panama Canal, two U.S. officials said. Courtney Kube, Gordon Lubold, and Carol E. Lee report for NBC News.
The United States and other countries’ cuts to foreign aid and humanitarian assistance have been a “seismic shock,” U.N. Undersecretary of Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said yesterday, adding that “many people will die” as a result of aid drying up. Karen DeYoung reports for the Washington Post.
China, Iran, and Russia yesterday called for diplomacy over “pressure and threats” and an end to “all illegal unilateral sources” following talks on Tehran’s nuclear program today, the Chinese state media reported. The move follows the Trump administration’s increased pressure on Iran over the program. Simone McCarthy reports for CNN.
OTHER U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Columbia University yesterday announced disciplinary actions against students who took over a campus building last year during pro-Palestinian protests, without specifying how many or which students were affected. Lexi Lonas Cochran reports for the Hill.
Newsmax Media has paid $40 million to settle allegations it defamed the voting machine company Smartmatic by reporting it helped rig the 2020 election for former President Biden, according to a regulatory filing. Costas Pitas and Jack Queen report for MSN.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) on Wednesday called for the Justice Department’s Inspector General to investigate the interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., Ed Martin, over what Raskin said were violations of the First Amendment and legal ethics codes. In a separate letter, nearly 100 former federal prosecutors yesterday called for the Senate to reject Martin’s nomination to lead the office permanently. Spencer S. Hsu and Perry Stein report for the Washington Post.
The Massachusetts Air National Guard member who leaked highly classified documents about the war in Ukraine, Jack Teixeira, yesterday said he is a “proud patriot” who was “exposing and correcting the lies perpetuated by the Biden administration” and called on the Trump administration to review his case during his court-martial. Teixeira previously pled guilty to military charges of obstructing justice. Michael Casey reports for AP News.
A federal judge on Wednesday approved a class-action settlement between the Defense Department and LGBTQ veterans discharged under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Jo Yurcaba and Brooke Sopelsa report for NBC News.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
Armenia and Azerbaijan have agreed to the terms of a peace agreement to end nearly four decades of conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, officials from both countries said yesterday. Caitlin Danaher and Gul Tuysuz report for CNN.
South Africa, Tanzania, and Malawi yesterday announced they are withdrawing their troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo, amid surging public opposition to the peacekeeping deployment. Farai Mutsaka reports for AP News.
Yemen’s Houthi forces are attempting to use hydrogen fuel cells to power their uncrewed systems, a development that would constitute a major escalation in the group’s capability, according to a report from Conflict Armament Research. John Ismay reports for the New York Times.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
The Trump administration yesterday asked the Supreme Court to narrow nationwide injunctions blocking Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship, a move that could have repercussions across other cases in which nationwide orders have been issued. Lawrence Hurley reports for NBC News; Josh Gerstein reports for POLITICO.
A federal judge yesterday denied the Justice Department’s attempt to adopt a wide reading of Trump’s pardon for Jan. 6 Capitol rioters, ruling that the DOJ’s position “contradicts” the “clear and unambiguous” language of the order. Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein report for POLITICO.
A second federal judge yesterday issued an order reversing the Trump administration’s mass terminations of probationary employees, in a sweeping ruling covering 18 major federal agencies. Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein report for POLITICO.
Federal worker unions yesterday dropped a part of their lawsuit seeking to block the U.S. Agency for International Development from shredding documents after receiving assurances that no personnel records had been destroyed and that they would be consulted before any further destruction. Brendan Pierson reports for Reuters.
Detained activist Mahmoud Khalil yesterday sued Columbia University and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in a bid to prevent the university from giving over student disciplinary records to lawmakers. Lexi Lonas Cochran reports for the Hill.
Democratic Attorneys General in 20 states and Washington D.C. yesterday sued the Trump administration over its efforts to lay off nearly half of the Education Department staffers. Zach Schonfeld reports for the Hill.
Two Harvard researchers on Wednesday sued the Trump administration after their research was pulled from a public government website because it referred to the LGBTQ community. Deon J. Hampton report for NBC News.
The union for Transportation Safety Administration workers has sued Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over Noem’s announcement she is ending a collective bargaining agreement signed last year. Rebecca Beitsch reports for the Hill.
Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions
