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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has left the United Kingdom after agreeing to a plea deal with the United States, ending a long-running legal saga. Assange was charged with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information after the Wikileaks site published secret U.S. military records. He will spend no time in U.S. custody, and will travel to his homeland Australia this week. Assange’s plea deal is expected to be finalized tomorrow. BBC News reports; Ellen Nakashima, Devlin Barrett and Rachel Weiner report for the Washington Post.
A local official in Russia’s Dagestan region was sacked yesterday after two of his sons were reported to be among the gunmen in Sunday’s deadly attack. Eva Hartog reports for POLITICO.
The president of France’s far-right party National Rally insisted yesterday that he is ready to govern. Jordan Bardella said he would be prime minister for all French people if he won the snap election, even as he defended his party’s proposal to bar dual French citizens from certain “sensitive” jobs. French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that both National Rally and the left wing New Popular Front coalition risk bringing “civil war” to France. Aurelien Breeden reports for the New York Times.
The Paris Court of Appeal will decide tomorrow whether to approve or annul a French arrest warrant for Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Investigating judges from the Paris Judicial Court’s crimes against humanity division issued arrest warrants for Assad and three other top Syrian officials in November 2023, but the French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office has requested that the arrest warrant be annulled on the grounds of personal immunity for sitting heads of state. Agence France-Presse reports.
South Korea yesterday spotted another 350 North Korean balloons “presumed” to be carrying waste. South Korea today threatened to restart anti-Pyongyang frontline propaganda broadcasts, as the tit-for-tat exchange continues. Gawon Bae and Michael Mitsanas report for CNN.
The Philippines said today it is committed to working with China to develop “confidence building measures” to manage tensions in the South China Sea after last week’s incident seriously injured a Filipino sailor. Neil Jerome Morales reports for Reuters.
The U.S. State Department yesterday elevated Vietnam’s ranking in a human-trafficking report, despite citing concerns that the country had failed to investigate government officials complicit in trafficking crimes. Simon Lewis reports for Reuters.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Israel’s Supreme Court ruled today that ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students must immediately conscript into the Israeli military and are no longer eligible for substantial government benefits. The decision, which follows years of controversy, could result in ultra-Orthodox lawmakers pulling out of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition and collapsing the government. Shira Rubin reports for the Washington Post.
About 100 Israelis filed a lawsuit in Manhattan yesterday against the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, arguing that the aid group pays local employees in dollars that buoy Hamas. The suit says that some of the cash sent by UNRWA to Gaza to pay employees and support infrastructure ended up funding Hamas’s military operations. The plaintiffs are seeking unspecified financial damages and claim UNRWA is liable because it helped fund Hamas. Ken Bolson and Katherine Rosman report for the New York Times.
Israeli forces killed at least 24 Palestinians in three separate airstrikes on Gaza City early today, the Hamas-run health ministry said, as Israeli tanks pushed further into Rafah. Separately, an Israeli strike killed a top official in charge of ambulance services in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run ministry said. Reuters reports.
An Israeli government panel issued warnings to Netanuyahu and four others yesterday as part of a yearslong inquiry into the purchase of submarines and missile boats from Germany. The episode is regarded as the worst corruption scandal in the country’s history. In a statement, the panel said Netanyahu had endangered Israel’s security and bypassed official channels with the purchase. The New York Times reports.
ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH TENSIONS
The United States has warned Lebanon’s Hezbollah that it cannot restrain Israel if escalation continues, according to three sources. During his meeting with the Lebanese speaker of parliament in Beirut, President Biden’s envoy Amos Hochstein asked for the message to be relayed to Hezbollah that Washington does not control Israel and would not be able to stop it from invading Lebanon if the group continues its attacks. Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE DEVELOPMENTS
E.U. countries yesterday approved a first tranche of up to €1.4 billion (U.S. $1.5 billion) in military aid for Ukraine from the proceeds of frozen Russian assets, according to four diplomats. While Hungary vetoed the plan, E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the E.U. will use a “legal procedure” to get around Hungary’s blockage. Jacopo Barigazzi reports for POLITICO; Joe Barnes reports for The Telegraph.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday removed one of his top generals amid public criticism that the commander’s decisions had resulted in excessive casualties. Marc Santora reports for the New York Times.
The Pentagon said yesterday that Ukraine makes its own targeting decisions after the Kremlin directly blamed the United States for a deadly attack on Crimea that it said was carried out with U.S.-supplied weapons. Reuters reports.
Two key advisers to former President Trump have presented him with a plan to end the war in Ukraine — if he wins the presidential election — that involves telling Ukraine it will only get more U.S. weapons if it enters peace talks. The United States would simultaneously warn Moscow that any refusal to negotiate would result in increased U.S. support for Ukraine, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg said in an interview. Gram Slattery and Simon Lewis report for Reuters.
DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Hunter Biden filed a motion yesterday calling for a new trial on the federal gun charges levied against him due to a “lack of jurisdiction” in the previous trial, which was handled by a federal court in Delaware. Ivana Saric reports for Axios.
Several Louisiana families filed a lawsuit yesterday against the state’s new law forcing public schools to display the Ten Commandments. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, who include rabbis and pastors, argue the law is unconstitutional and violates Supreme Court precedent. Ed Pilkington reports for The Guardian.
TRUMP LEGAL MATTERS
Federal prosecutors faltered yesterday in a push to restrict Trump from publicly attacking law enforcement officials and FBI agents in his classified documents case. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon did not immediately rule on the motion to add a new condition to Trump’s bail, suggesting a decision is unlikely to come before Thursday’s scheduled debate between Trump and President Biden. Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein report for the Washington Post. Readers may also be interested in Adam Klasfeld’s analysis for Just Security of key takeaways from Trump’s challenges to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s authority in the classified documents case.