Day: July 16, 2025

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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 — U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE 

President Trump has privately encouraged Ukraine to strike deep into Russia, even asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy whether he would strike Moscow if the United States provided Kyiv with long-range weapons during a call in early July, the Financial Times reports, citing sources. Speaking to reporters yesterday, Trump said that Ukraine “shouldn’t target Moscow” and that the United States is “not looking” to supply long-range missiles to Kyiv. The White House said Trump’s question was taken out of context. Christopher Miller, Henry Foy, Max Seddon, and Lauren Fedor report; Madeline Halpert reports for BBC News; Kevin Liptak, Kylie Atwood, Kristen Holmes, and Alayna Treene report for CNN.

The State Department last week laid off some senior analysts specializing in analyzing intelligence on Russia and Ukraine at the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, according to current and former U.S. officials. It is unclear how many intelligence analysts were dismissed in total. Michael Crowley, Greg Jaffe, and Julian E. Barnes report for the New York Times.

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to keep fighting in Ukraine until the West engages on his terms for peace and may widen his territorial demands if Russian troops advance, sources say. Putin believes that Russia’s economy and military are strong enough to weather any additional Western measures and is not fazed by Trump’s threats of tougher sanctions, the sources add. Guy Faulconbridge and Darya Korsunskaya report for Reuters.

SYRIA 

Clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in Syria’s Sweida city early today, according to a local news outlet, Sweida24. The resumed hostilities collapsed a ceasefire announced hours earlier by Syria’s defense ministry, which blamed militias for violating the truce agreement. Reuters reports; AP News reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday said he had ordered strikes on Syrian government forces and weapons in the Druze-majority city of Sweida, alleging the Syrian government “intended to use [them] against the Druze.” Damascus condemned the strikes, saying they had resulted in the deaths of members of the armed forces and civilians. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz today threatened to escalate the strikes and said that Israel would continue to attack Syrian government forces “until they withdraw from the area.” David Gritten reports for BBC News; AP News reports.

The Trump administration has asked Israel to stop its strikes on Syria’s government forces, Axios’ Barak Ravid reports a U.S. official as saying. According to the official, Israel promised that it would cease the attacks on Tuesday evening, and the Syrian government had informed Israel in advance that it was sending tanks to the Sweida area to restore order. 

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — AID SUPPLY CRISIS 

Twenty Palestinians trying to get food have been killed “amid a chaotic and dangerous surge” at a southern Gaza aid distribution centre today, with nineteen people trampled to death in a stampede and one person stabbed, the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said in a statement. Today’s announcement is GHF’s first acknowledgement of a deadly incident near its sites. David Gritten reports for BBC News; AP News reports.

Malnutrition rates among children in Gaza have doubled since Israel sharply restricted the entry of food in March, the U.N. aid agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) said yesterday, citing its finding that 10.2% of children screened at UNRWA clinics in June were acutely malnourished. Wafaa Shurafa reports for AP News.

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR

The U.N. conference on Gaza, rescheduled to July 28-29, will focus on sketching out post-war Gaza and preparing the recognition of a Palestinian state by France and “countries that will engage in this approach,” France’s foreign minister said yesterday. Reuters reports.

Israeli strikes killed more than 90 people in Gaza yesterday, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry’s daily report. Wafaa Shurafa reports for AP News.

ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH CEASEFIRE

Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley killed at least 12 people yesterday, including three Lebanese people and a family of five Syrians, a regional governor said in a social media post. The Israeli military said it had struck a number of military compounds belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force unit. A Lebanese military official said Israel had not requested to inspect the facilities before attacking. Samantha Granville reports for BBC News; Euan Ward reports for the New York Times.

ISRAEL-IRAN CEASEFIRE 

The foreign ministers of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom on Monday agreed with the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to set the end of August as the deadline for making progress on a nuclear deal with Iran, sources say. If no deal is reached by the end of August, the three European countries plan to trigger the “snapback” mechanism that would automatically reimpose all U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran. Barak Ravid reports for Axios; Edith M. Lederer reports for AP News.

OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS

The British government moved thousands of Afghan refugees to the United Kingdom under a secret scheme set up in 2023 after a British official inadvertently leaked the personal details of nearly 19,000 people who had applied for asylum after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, BBC News reports. The existence of the leak and the scheme were kept secret until yesterday under a court injunction prohibiting the scheme or the injunction’s existence from being revealed to the public. The scheme is now being closed down, the British defense ministry said. Joel Gunter and Sean Seddon report.

The Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF) charity yesterday released a report accusing Ethiopia’s government of failing to properly investigate the killings of three MSF aid workers whose bodies were found on a remote roadside in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region in 2021. Eve Sampson and Declan Walsh report for the New York Times.

The U.N. Security Council yesterday authorized continued reporting on attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Houthi rebels until Jan. 15, 2026. Edith M. Lederer reports for AP News.

TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce yesterday announced that it would restrict any effort to transfer eight key technologies for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries out of China without a license, in a move that could cement Beijing’s dominance in the electric car industry. Keith Bradsher reports for the New York Times.

Trump late yesterday said that he had reached a deal with most of the House Republicans who derailed a procedural vote on three cryptocurrency bills, teeing up a re-vote today after the bills’ passage was brought to a halt yesterday. Mychel Schnell and Julia Schapero report for the Hill.

Speaking at a Pennsylvania summit, Trump yesterday said he would speed up permitting and make it easier for AI data centers to connect to the electricity grid. Daniel Moore reports for Axios.

U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS

The United States has launched a Section 301 investigation into “unfair” trading practices in Brazil, Trade Ambassador Jamieson Greer announced yesterday, stating that the investigation will focus on digital trade and electronic payment services, preferential tariffs, intellectual property protection, and anti-corruption interference. John Liu reports for CNN.

Trump yesterday announced that the United States has reached a trade agreement with Indonesia, without describing the deal’s contents. Megan Messerly and Doug Palmer report for POLITICO.

The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, yesterday called on the Israeli authorities to “aggressively investigate” last Friday’s “murder” of a Palestinian-American citizen in a “criminal and terrorist act” during a clash with Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Ephrat Livni reports for the New York Times.

There is “not a lot of evidence right now” that Canada can get a trade deal with the United States that does not impose tariffs, Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday. Carney’s comment is a departure from his earlier suggestions that Ottawa was making progress toward his goal of reaching a deal to eliminate recently imposed tariffs. Ian Austen reports for the New York Times.

U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS

The Senate yesterday voted 51-50 to advance Trump’s $9 billion rescission package containing steep cuts to foreign aid and funding for public radio and TV stations. Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote after Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) voted against the measure. Theodoric Meyer reports for the Washington Post.

In a 52-46 vote, the Senate also confirmed Anthony Tata as the Pentagon’s Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness yesterday. Tata, a retired Army brigadier general and former Fox News commentator who has called then-President Barack Obama a “terrorist leader” and accused senior Pentagon officials of being “compromised … by hatred” against Trump, has previously failed a Senate vote during Trump’s first term. Joe Gould and Connor O’Brien report for POLITICO.

An unnamed U.S. state’s Army National Guard network was “extensively compromised” in the China-backed Salt Typhoon hack, according to a DHS memo obtained by Property of the People, a national security transparency nonprofit. Reuters reports.

U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS

The Homeland Security Department yesterday announced it had deported five men to Eswatini in a “third country” deportation. The DHS announcement is the third known instance of the Trump administration deporting people to a country of which they are not a citizen. A DHS spokesperson said that the deportees had serious criminal convictions and that their home countries would not receive them. Frances Vinall reports for the Washington Post.

A coalition of 21 Democratic Attorneys General yesterday called on Congress to pass legislation prohibiting federal immigration agents from wearing masks or plainclothes during enforcement operations. Alayna Alvarez reports for Axios.

The State Department told DHS investigators normally tasked with uncovering narcotic and financial crimes to prioritize the arrest of Rümeysa Öztürk, a university student with no criminal record, a Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) agent testified yesterday. The State Department passed information about Öztürk to the HSI, the agent testified, adding that ICE leadership had made the decision not to tell the student that her visa had been revoked. Holmes Lybrand reports for CNN; Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio reports for the Boston Globe.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS

The National Institutes of Health on Monday fired its Chief Operating Officer, Eric Schnabel, amid an investigation into whether a NIH contract on autism and other topics could have benefited his spouse, sources say. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya appointed Schnabel as the NIH COO in April, after 25 years in the Army. Carolyn Y. Johnson, Hannah Natanson, and Dan Diamond report for the Washington Post.

The Education Department yesterday announced it is investigating the University of Michigan over allegedly improperly labelling some donations and disclosing millions in foreign funding “in an untimely manner.” In the news release announcing the move, the Education Department sought to tie the investigation to two smuggling cases involving Chinese researchers working at laboratories at the university. Chris Cameron reports for the New York Times.

A criminal referral connected to Trump publicly accusing Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) of mortgage fraud has been made to the Justice Department, a senior administration official said yesterday. Schiff, who led impeachment proceedings against Trump as a House member before he was elected to the Senate last fall, denied any wrongdoing and said the administration’s claims were politically motivated. Rachel Siegel reports for the Washington Post.

The Department of Health and Human Services on Monday finalized its layoffs of thousands of employees, sources say. The layoffs followed a Supreme Court ruling that the Trump administration can proceed with mass firings across the government while proceedings challenging the terminations continue. Christina Jewett and Benjamin Mueller report for the New York Times.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at the top DOGE staffer assigned to the Pentagon in a tense meeting weeks ago over claims that the DOGE lead had summoned law enforcement to remove a DOGE subordinate from the building, sources say. Dan Lamothe reports for the Washington Post.

About half of the California National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles are being released, Trump administration officials said yesterday. The move affects over 2,000 Guard members. No change in status of the Marines has been reported. Shawn Hubler reports for the New York Times.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION

The Trump administration yesterday sued three members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, seeking a federal judge’s approval for Trump’s attempt to terminate their appointments. Scott Nover reports for the Washington Post.

Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions

If you enjoy listening, Just Security’s analytic articles are also available in audio form on the justsecurity.org website.

ICYMI: yesterday on Just Security

The Security Stakes in the Global Quantum Race
By Argyri Panezi

What It Takes to Stop the Next Salt Typhoon
By Morgan Peirce

Gender Apartheid Should Be an International Crime
By Heather Barr, Macarena Saez, and Stacey-Leigh Manuel

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