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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the last 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR – INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
The United States, Ukraine, and Europe have agreed on security guarantees for Ukraine similar to NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense pact, two U.S. officials said yesterday. One official added, “Those guarantees will not be on the table forever. Those guarantees are on the table right now if there’s a conclusion that’s reached in a good way.” Following two days of talks in Berlin, U.S. officials also told reporters that they had significantly closed gaps on 90 per cent of the issues between Russia and Ukraine, but “there’s some more things that have to be worked out.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “for now we have different positions” on the territory issue, adding “but I think my colleagues have heard my personal position.” David E. Sanger and Christopher F. Schuetze report for the New York Times; Felicia Schwartz and Eli Stokols report for POLITICO; Laura Kelly reports for The Hill.
Zelenskyy and several other European leaders today are set to launch a Hague-based International Claims Commission to compensate Kyiv for destruction from Russian attacks and alleged war crimes. Details on how any damages awarded by the commission would be paid still need to be worked out. “The goal is to have validated claims that will ultimately be paid by Russia. It will really have to be paid by Russia, this commission offers no guarantee for the damages,” Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel said. Anthony Deutsch reports for Reuters.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Ukrainian underwater drones yesterday struck a Russian submarine for the first time, causing critical damage, according to Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency. Russia confirmed the attack but denied that its submarine had been damaged. Maria Varenikova reports for the New York Times.
U.S. CARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC OPERATIONS
The U.S. military yesterday struck three boats suspected of carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific, killing eight people, the U.S. Southern Command announced. Nathan Willis reports for the New York Times.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR – CEASEFIRE
The White House sent a private message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which stressed that the killing of a top Hamas commander in Gaza over the weekend constituted a violation of the ceasefire agreement, two U.S. officials told Axios. A senior official said the message to Netanyahu was, “’If you want to ruin your reputation and show that you don’t abide by agreements be our guest, but we won’t allow you to ruin President Trump’s reputation after he brokered the deal in Gaza.” Barak Ravid reports.
Appeal judges at the International Criminal Court yesterday refused to overturn a lower court decision allowing the ICC prosecutor to investigate alleged crimes in Israel’s war in Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023. The ruling means the investigation continues and the arrest warrants issued last year for Netanyahu and his former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant remain in place. Stephanie van den Berg reports for Reuters.
WEST BANK VIOLENCE
The Israeli military yesterday shot and killed a 16-year-old Palestinian during a raid on the town of Tuqu’ in the occupied West Bank. The boy was shot after Israeli troops gathered in the centre of the town and began firing indiscriminately, according to the Palestinian state news agency WAFA. The Israeli military told Reuters that rocks were thrown at soldiers, who in return used riot dispersal means and later responded with fire. Ali Sawafta and Pesha Magid report.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are set to withdraw from Uvira, a town in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, which they seized last week. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that Rwanda’s actions last week in eastern DRC violated the Washington accords and vowed to “take action to ensure promises made to the President are kept.” Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Alliance Fleuve Congo of insurgents that includes M23, said overnight that the rebels would withdraw as per the U.S. mediation request, adding that the move was a “unilateral trust-building measure in order to give the Doha peace process the maximum chance to succeed.” Reuters reports.
South Sudanese Foreign Minister, Monday Semaya Kumba, said yesterday that the government had grounded four U.N.-registered aircraft, adding that a government committee was examining the aircraft after intelligence reports raised security concerns, and two were found with advanced surveillance and intelligence recording systems. A U.N. spokesperson said yesterday that all air assets are used “solely in support of our mandate to help protect civilians and support lasting peace in South Sudan.” Deng Machol reports for AP News.
Thailand is working to repatriate up to 6,000 Thai citizens who are unable to return home following Cambodia’s closure of the Poipet checkpoint amid ongoing fighting between the two nations, authorities said today. Panu Wongcha-um and Chayut Setboonsarng report for Reuters.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said this morning that the attack at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach on Sunday, which killed 15 people and wounded over 40 others, was “motivated by Islamic State ideology.” Rebecca Falconer reports for Axios.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Trump yesterday filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Miami against the BBC, alleging that the news outlet defamed him by splicing together parts of a Jan. 6, 2021, speech and violated a Florida law that bars deceptive and unfair trade practices. Trump is seeking $5 billion in damages for each count. Jack Queen and David Thomas report for Reuters.
A Serbian special prosecutor yesterday filed an indictment against a Serbian cabinet minister and three other officials over alleged abuse of office and document falsification tied to the approval process for a planned Trump-branded development in Belgrade, on a site once bombed by NATO. Jared Kushner’s firm, Affinity Partners, withdrew from the project hours later “out of respect for the people of Serbia and the City of Belgrade.” Eliot Brown and Deborah Acosta report for the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said yesterday that Trump’s executive order limiting states from passing AI laws will not stop Florida from pursuing policies such as new safeguards for children. Andrew Atterbury reports for POLITICO.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
Trump yesterday signed an executive order classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. The order cites the lethality of the drug and that the sale of fentanyl by Foreign Terrorist Organizations threatens national security. Speaking as he signed the order, Trump said that the amount of drugs coming into the United States by sea has decreased by 94 per cent, adding that drug flows are “a direct military threat to the United States of America.” Erica Bazail-Eimil and Jack Detsch report for POLITICO.
Senior Pentagon officials are preparing to downgrade several of the U.S. military’s major headquarters and shift the balance of power among its top generals, according to sources. The plans would reduce the prominence of U.S. Central Command, U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command by placing them under the control of a new organization known as U.S. International Command, five sources said. The plan also calls for realigning U.S. Southern Command and U.S. Northern Command under a new headquarters to be known as U.S. Americas Command, or Americom. Dan Lamothe, Tara Copp, Noah Robertson, and Alex Horton report for the Washington Post.
The Pentagon is escalating its preliminary review into Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) over a recent video where he and five other Democratic lawmakers told U.S. troops to defy illegal orders to an official command investigation, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office told The Hill. Filip Timotija reports.
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