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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH CEASEFIRE
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said in an interview published on Tuesday he hopes Iran-backed Hezbollah can be peacefully disarmed this year, adding that Hezbollah members who want to join the Lebanese army would be able to undergo “absorption courses.” Nadeen Ebrahim reports for CNN.
Qatar is sending 162 military vehicles and a $60 million donation to the Lebanese army to help it “preserve stability and control the border,” the two countries announced yesterday. Bassem Mroue reports for AP News.
The Lebanese army yesterday said it had detained several Palestinians and Lebanese suspected of involvement in the March rocket attacks on Israel. The army’s statement did not mention Hezbollah, which has denied any role in the attack. Reuters reports.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Israel had planned to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, potentially with U.S. assistance, as soon as next month, but military action plans were eventually waved off by President Trump in favor of negotiating a deal to limit Tehran’s nuclear program, according to administration officials. Julian E. Barnes, Eric Schmitt, Maggie Haberman, and Ronen Bergman report for the New York Times.
The mixed U.S. messaging on whether Washington wants Iran to dismantle its nuclear program completely is “not helpful,” Tehran’s foreign minister said yesterday, adding that Iranian officials will keep talking to U.S. officials and focus on what is said in private. Separately, Tehran’s foreign ministry confirmed the second round of talks would take place in Rome on Saturday. Farnaz Fassihi reports for the New York Times.
The State Department is closing the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced yesterday. In a statement, Rubio claimed the office, a hub for fighting foreign disinformation campaigns, had “spent millions … to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving.” Maggie Miller reports for POLITICO.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Russia is planning to use a U.S-owned canned food producer Glavprodukt seized by the Kremlin and placed under state control to supply food to the Russian army, a document seen by Reuters shows. Anna Hirtenstein and Alexander Marrow report.
A Russian mass drone attack killed two adults and a child while injuring 30 others in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro late yesterday, regional authorities said. Russian glide bombs and artillery also killed one person and wounded nine others in the Ukraine’s city of Kherson, according to a local governor. Reuters reports; llia Novikov reports for AP News.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR — U.S. RESPONSE
Ukraine and the United States have made “substantial progress” in their minerals deal talks and will sign a provisional memorandum in the near future, Kyiv’s First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said yesterday. Reuters reports.
Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will hold talks with their European counterparts in Paris later today to discuss Ukraine war efforts, the highest level of transatlantic engagement about the war since February. Victoria Bourne reports for BBC News.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
The war in Gaza will soon escalate with “tremendous force” and an extended humanitarian blockade if Hamas does not release the remaining hostages, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said yesterday. Lara Jakes reports for the New York Times.
Hamas is so low on cash it cannot pay its fighters, according to Arab, Israeli and Western officials, with distribution chains also affected by Israel’s killing of Hamas officials who oversaw the process. The liquidity crisis may signal a deepening organizational dysfunction in the militant group. Summer Said, Carrie Keller-Lynn, and Benoit Faucon report for the Wall Street Journal.
Trump has expanded the portfolio of adviser Adam Boehler and appointed him as special envoy for hostage response, according to a notification sent to Congress on April 4 reviewed by Axios. Boehler previously withdrew his nomination as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs after reports he had met directly with Hamas officials. Barak Ravid reports.
SYRIA
Syria’s former ruler, Bashar al-Assad, used a private jet to move cash, valuables, and confidential documents mapping the corporate web behind his wealth to Abu Dhabi as the rebels closed in on Damascus, according to an account of the operation pieced together by Reuters. Feras Dalatey, Joanna Plucinska, Reade Levinson, and Maha El Dahan report.
GLOBAL AFFAIRS
The World Health Organization member states yesterday agreed on a draft of a “pandemic treaty,” intended to help the global community prevent and respond to health crises in part by obliging wealthier nations to share their information and technology. The United States is not expected to ratify the treaty. Stephanie Nolen and Emily Anthes report for the New York Times.
The United Arab Emirates is disappointed at the failure of this week’s London conference to find consensus on ending the two-year war in Sudan, a top Emirati diplomat said. According to sources, the UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia disagreed on issues concerning Sudan’s governance during the talks. Maha El Dahan and Nafisa Eltahir report for Reuters.
Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Shabaab fighters yesterday captured Adan Yabaal, a central Somalian town that government forces had been using as a staging area to resist the militants’ offensive, residents and soldiers said. Reuters reports.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia yesterday denied reports they are involved in talks with the United States over a possible land offensive against Houthis by Yemen’s military factions. Reuters reports.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (MD-D) yesterday met with El Salvador’s vice president, Félix Ulloa, and U.S. embassy officials but did not succeed in securing a meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident mistakenly deported by the Trump administration to a maximum security prison. Van Hollen said that the justification provided by Ulloa for continuing to keep Abrego Garcia in detention in the absence of a criminal charge was that the Trump administration was paying the country to do so. Robert Jimison reports for the New York Times.
Immigration officials and DOGE staffers are seeking access to a sensitive Medicare database containing addresses of people sought by ICE officials as part of their crackdown on undocumented immigrants, according to a source and records obtained by the Washington Post. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which manages the database, was still weighing the request as of early April, according to the person and the records. Hannah Natanson, Rachel Roubein, and Dan Diamon report.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia “will never live” in the United States again and would be “immediately deported again” if he re-enters the country, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said yesterday. Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu reports for BBC News.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele told Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem he plans to double the size of the Terrorism Confinement Center, the maximum-security prison where U.S. deportees are held, during Noem’s visit last month, sources say. Vera Bergengruen and Michelle Hackman report for the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Chris Krebs, a former top cybersecurity officials in the first Trump administration who was recently targeted with a federal investigation, has resigned from his private sector job to more freely fight back against what he called “the government pulling its levers to punish dissent.” Josh Dawsey and Dustin Volz report for the Wall Street Journal.
New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office has accused the Trump administration of “weaponizing the government against the rule of law” after Federal Housing Finance Agency director William Pulte wrote a criminal referral to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche accusing James of mortgage fraud. Rebecca Falconer reports for Axios.
Thomson Reuters, the parent company of the Reuters news wire agency, on Tuesday announced it would drop “diversity” from company language and replace it with “inclusion” to comply with Trump’s January executive order on diversity, equity and inclusion. The New York Times’ Ben Mullin reports; Ashleigh Fields reports for the Hill.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
The Internal Revenue Service is weighing whether to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status, sources say. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has also canceled more than $2.7 million in DHS grants to the university and threatened to strip its ability to enroll international students if the school does not turn over records on international students’ “illegal and violent activities,” the DHS said yesterday. Evan Perez, Alayna Treene, and Marshall Cohen report for CNN; Tara Suter reports for the Hill; Taylor Romine, Nouran Salahieh, and Hanna Park report for CNN.
The Pentagon yesterday put Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, on administrative leave over a wide-ranging investigation into leaks, according to sources. Carroll is the third top Pentagon official to have been suspended in the probe. Daniel Lippman and Jack Detsch report for POLITICO.
Former top Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot yesterday announced he would resign from the Defense Department at the end of the week, saying that he was “not interested in being number two to anyone in public affairs.” Daniel Lippman and Jack Detsch report for POLITICO.
Trump yesterday fired Tanya Otsuka and Todd Harper, the two Democrats on the three-member board of the National Credit Union Administration, which regulates U.S. credit unions. Emily Peck reports for Axios.
Trump yesterday announced he appointed Jay Clayton to be the interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Clayton served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term. Benjamin Weiser and Santul Nerkar report for the New York Times.
The Trump administration is formulating plans to cut roughly a third of the federal health budget, in a move that would eliminate dozens of programs and significantly whittle down health agencies, according to internal documents reviewed by CNN. Sarah Owermohle and Meg Tirrell report.
AmeriCorps, the federal agency that oversees volunteerism and service work, abruptly pulled teams of young people out of a variety of community service projects on Tuesday over cuts attributed to DOGE, sources say. Molly Taft reports for WIRED.
Trump himself ordered that Elon Musk should not attend a planned top-secret briefing on China, sources tell Axios. Marc Caputo reports.
General Services Administration staffers say they have spotted equipment connected to Elon Musk’s private Starlink satellite network at the GSA’s headquarters. While a GSA spokesperson said that the equipment’s presence is not a security risk, it is unknown what, if any, role the devices are playing at the agency. Byron Tau, Joshua Goodman, Garance Burke, and Brian Slodysko report for AP News.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
A federal judge yesterday found probable cause to hold Trump administration officials in criminal contempt of court over what the judge described as “willful disregard” of an order to stop transferring deportees to a notorious El Salvador prison. Hassan Ali Kanu, Erica Orden, and Josh Gerstein report for POLITICO.
A federal judge late on Tuesday ruled that the Trump administration cannot scrap the contracts awarding billions for a “green bank” to finance clean energy and climate-friendly projects. Michael Phillips reports for AP News.
The ACLU on Tuesday sued the Defense Department’s school system for children of military families, arguing the removal of race- and gender-related books and curricula violated students’ First Amendment rights. Olivia Diaz reports for AP News.
California’s Governor Gavin Newsom (D) and state Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) yesterday filed a challenge against the Trump administration’s tariff regime, arguing Trump unlawfully escalated a trade war that has caused “immediate and irreparable harm” to the state’s economy. Shawn Hubler and Soumya Karlamangla report for the New York Times.
The Trump administration yesterday sued Maine over state policies that allow some transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports, claiming they violate a federal law intended to prevent discrimination based on sex. Glenn Thrush reports for the New York Times.
The White House had defied a federal judge’s order requiring the administration to restore the Associated Press’s full access to presidential events, the wire service alleged in a court filing yesterday. Tim Balk reports for the New York Times.
Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions
