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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 said yesterday that he is open to the possibility of bilateral talks with Ukraine. Ukraine and Russia have not held direct talks since the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion in 2022. Separately, a Kremlin spokesperson said Russia is “satisfied” by hearing “from Washington … that Ukraine’s membership in NATO is out of the question.” Kyiv is expected to respond to the latest U.S. proposal during a meeting with U.S. and European officials in London later this week. Ross Adkin reports for CNN; Georgi Kantchev reports for the Wall Street Journal.
GLOBAL AFFAIRS
A Rapid Support Forces paramilitary attack on the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur province killed more than 30 people and injured dozens, according to the Resistance Committees activist group. Samy Magdy reports for AP News.
Criminal networks behind the multibillion-dollar cyberscam industry that emerged in Southeast Asia are expanding globally to South America and Africa, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a report published yesterday. Poppy Mcpherson reports for Reuters.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly pressed Ronen Bar, who leads the Shin Bet, to spy on Israeli citizens who led and funded anti-government protests and demanded personal loyalty above the rulings of the Israeli Supreme Court, Bar said in an affidavit published yesterday in a case challenging Netanyahu’s attempt to dismiss the domestic security chief. Isabel Kershner reports for the New York Times.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Qatari and Egyptian mediators have proposed a new plan to end the war in Gaza that envisages a truce lasting between five and seven years, the release of all Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a formal end to the war, and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, according to a senior Palestinian official. Israel and Hamas have yet to comment on the mediators’ newest plan. Rushdi Abualouf and Raffi Berg report for BBC News.
Israel today launched one of the biggest waves of strikes in Gaza in weeks, residents say. Israeli air strikes also killed 22 Palestinians across Gaza since Monday evening, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose spokesperson also warned the ministry anticipates a “real catastrophe” if Israel continues to block the supply of polio vaccines to the territory. Rushdi Abualouf and Raffi Berg report for BBC News; Nidal Al-Mughrabi reports for Reuters.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society yesterday rejected the findings of Israel’s probe into the killings of 15 medical workers last month, describing it as a “fabricated investigation.” The Israeli army announced the results of its investigation on Sunday, finding “professional failures.” AP News reports.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
The Justice Department on Friday permitted DOGE representatives to access the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s Courts and Appeals System (ECAS), a highly sensitive database that contains information including the addresses and case histories of millions of legal and undocumented immigrants, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Post. Hannah Natanson, Jeremy Roebuck, and Rachel Siegel report.
DOGE is building a master database at the Homeland Security Department that could be used to track and surveil undocumented immigrants, knitting together databases from across DHS and uploading data from outside agencies such as the Social Security Administration, sources that spoke to WIRED say. Makena Kelly and Vittoria Elliott report.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro yesterday demanded El Salvador “provide proof of life” and release hundreds of Venezuelans deported by the United States after El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele earlier proposed a prisoner swap. Michael Rios and José Álvarez report for CNN.
House Democrats Reps. Robert Garcia (CA), Maxwell Frost (FL), Yassamin Ansari (AZ) and Maxine Dexter (OR) yesterday arrived in El Salvador on a trip intended to “keep the pressure on the Trump administration to do the right thing, to release Kilmar [Abergo Garcia],” Rep. Garcia said. Marianna Sotomayor reports for the Washington Post.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce yesterday said it would “resolutely take countermeasures” against countries that curb trade with China in order to win a reprieve from U.S. tariffs in response to reports that the Trump administration was trying to pressure other countries on their trade with Beijing. Vivian Wang reports for the New York Times.
President Trump yesterday said he would attend the funeral of Pope Francis, in what would be the first foreign trip during his second administration. Jake Traylor reports for POLITICO.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
The White House has begun the process of looking for a new Defense Secretary to replace Pete Hegseth, NPR cites a U.S. official as saying. Striking a different note, Trump yesterday said that he has full confidence in Hegseth and considers concerns over the Defense Secretary’s decision to share military attack plans in a Signal group chat to be “a waste of time.” Tom Bowman and Quil Lawrence report; Jonathan Swan, Aishvarya Kavi, and Michael Gold report for the New York Times.
The Office of Special Counsel will drop its inquiry into more than 2,000 complaints related to the Trump administration’s mass firings of federal workers, according to notices reviewed by the New York Times. The independent agency justified its decision in part by saying it concluded that the workers were fired not for individual cause, a justification that experts in federal employment law described as “baffling.” Emily Peck reports for Axios; Eileen Sullivan reports.
The Trump administration yesterday demanded the resignation of Maria-Elena Giner, the top federal official at the International Boundary and Water Commission overseeing a U.S.-Mexico dispute over untreated sewage. Giner said that White House officials did not give a reason for their decision, and asked her to resign by the end of the day or be fired. A White House official said Chad McIntosh, the acting Deputy EPA Administrator, has been appointed to lead the Commission. Maxine Joselow and Joshua Partlow report for the Washington Post.
The Education Department yesterday announced it would restart collecting federal student loans in default on May 5, ending a pandemic-era pause on collecting debts by garnishing federal and state payments, such as tax returns or social security benefits. Piper Hudspeth Blackburn reports for CNN.
The Trump administration is directing the Environmental Protection Agency staff to cancel tens of millions of dollars in grants to scientists studying health issues, including environmental hazards faced by children in rural United States, according to internal emails seen by the New York Times. Hiroko Tabuchi reports.
Dan Caldwell, a former senior Pentagon adviser fired with several other Defense Department officials amid a leak investigation, yesterday claimed he was fired for “advancing things that a lot of people in the foreign policy establishment didn’t want” and insisted he never leaked any information. Jack Detsch and Gregory Svirnovskiy report for POLITICO.
“It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon” and “it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer,” former chief Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot wrote in a Sunday POLITICO opinion piece. According to AP News sources, Ullyout was asked to resign from the Defense Department last week. Tara Copp reports.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NB) yesterday became the first sitting GOP lawmaker to indirectly call for Hegseth’s dismissal, calling his alleged disclosure of sensitive information about military operations in Yemen on Signal “unacceptable” and a sign of “an amateur person.” Rachael Bade reports for POLITICO.
US stocks and the dollar fell yesterday as Trump intensified pressure on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to “preemptively” cut interest rates. Separately, the Chair of the Congressional Task Force on Monetary Policy, Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK), told Axios the challenge is to “keep [his] friends in Congress and other political forces around from impeding price stability and … the focus of the Fed.” Natalie Sherman reports for BBC News; Courtenay Brown reports for Axios.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s passport and DHS access badge were stolen from a restaurant on Sunday, along with about $3,000 in cash that she carried inside her purse, the department confirmed yesterday. Josh Campbell and Kit Maher report for CNN.
A New York judge yesterday issued an order temporarily blocking the plan allowing federal immigration agents to operate within the Rikers Island jail complex ahead of a hearing later this week. Jake Offenhartz for AP News.
A Manhattan jury yesterday convicted Nadine Menendez of participating in a complex bribery conspiracy with her husband, former New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez (D). Tracey Tully reports for the New York Times.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
Harvard University yesterday filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s threat to more than $2.2 billion in grants for the school’s research, in a major escalation of the ongoing fight between the higher education sector and Trump. Michael Casey and Jocelyn Gecker report for AP News.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) yesterday asked the Supreme Court to broaden its weekend order that temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting dozens of Venezuelan migrants using the Alien Enemies Act authority, arguing the court should take up the broader question of whether the administration can lawfully invoke the Act if the United States is not actually at war with the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. Ann E. Marimow reports for the Washington Post.
The American Oversight watchog group yesterday broadened its lawsuit against several top national security officials in the Trump administration, asking the court to order the officials to preserve all messages they have sent as part of their official business on Signal following new reports of Defense Secretary Hegseth’s use of the communications app to share detailed military information. Alan Feuer reports for the New York Times.
In a court filing, the Trump administration yesterday said the Salvadoran government told the U.S. Ambassador for El Salvador that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held at the Centro Industrial facility in Santa Ana, “in good conditions and in an excellent state of health.” Joshua J. Friedman reports.
In his first remarks on the issue since the Supreme Court’s Saturday order blocking summary deportation of migrants, Trump yesterday complained about being “stymied at every turn” by the courts, claiming that it was “not possible” to hold trials for all migrants the administration wants to deport. Rebecca Beitsch and Brett Samuels report for the Hill.
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