April 15, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Reports say at least 10 people, including medics and patients, were wounded yesterday when an Israeli airstrike hit the entrance of the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in Gaza's al-Muwasi region. [more]
• The European Union announced a new $1.8 billion financial aid package yesterday for the Palestinian Authority to fund projects in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Gaza aimed at improving financial sustainability, democratic governance, and private sector development. [more]
• Reports say a second U.S. aircraft carrier strike group is operating in the Middle East ahead of this coming weekend's second round of talks between the U.S. and Iran on the state of Tehran's nuclear program and amidst ongoing U.S. operations against Houthi rebel forces in Yemen. Satellite imagery places the USS Carl Vinson and its strike group in the Arabian Sea near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1146 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here is your update:

• U.S. President Donald Trump yesterday appeared to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for starting the war with Russia, saying during a White House press event that "You don't start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles." Trump also blamed both Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin for the "millions of people dead" in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. [more]

U.S. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT | President Donald Trump suggested yesterday that he would like to find a way to send U.S. citizens who commit violent crimes to prison in El Salvador. Speaking to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Trump said Bukele could have to build additional prison facilities to hold the potential new arrivals. [more]

U.S. DEPORTATIONS | In a White House meeting yesterday, both Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and U.S. President Donald Trump suggested they don't have the power to return Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador. The Trump administration stance comes despite a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling upholding a lower court order that the government "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return. In a court filing yesterday, attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security said the Department “does not have authority to forcibly extract” Abrego Garcia because he is “in the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation.” [more]

U.S. SOUTHERN BORDER | A recently released presidential memorandum indicates that the Trump administration intends to turn over a strip of federal land along the U.S. southern border known as the Roosevelt Reservation to the Defense Department for use as a military installation, which would allow the use of military troops to detain trespassers, including migrants. Reports cite government officials as saying the move is part of an administration attempt to circumvent a federal law that prohibits U.S. troops from being used in domestic law enforcement on American soil. [more]

U.S. HIGHER EDUCATION | Federal officials say they have frozen more than $2.2 billion in grants and contracts to Harvard University after the school's president yesterday rejected Trump administration calls for changing school policies and practices to be more in line with President Trump's political agenda. In a letter to the Harvard community, school President Alan Garber said, "No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.” [more]

U.S. TARIFFS | The Commerce Department announced plans yesterday to launch investigations into imports of computer chips, chip making equipment, and pharmaceuticals as part of a possible expansion of U.S. tariffs on those sectors. The announcement notes that justification for the potential tariffs is being considered under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which permits the president to order tariffs for the sake of national security. [Federal Register announcements on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors] [more]

U.S. PRESS FREEDOM | The Associated Press was barred from an Oval Office news conference yesterday with President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele despite last week's federal court order that said the White House cannot take such actions to punish the AP for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico. A federal appeals court hearing is scheduled for Thursday to hear the Trump administration's appeal of the lower court ruling. [more]

WASHINGTON | In a statement yesterday, Gov. Bob Ferguson said the Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied Washington state’s request for emergency relief funds to help repair an estimated $34 million in damage from a deadly bomb cyclone storm system in November. The FEMA letter denying the funds said the supplemental federal assistance requested "is not warranted," but did not specify additional reasons for the denial. [more]

U.S. ENVIRONMENT | Several environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, the Environmental Integrity Project, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, filed a lawsuit yesterday challenging the Trump administration's shuttering and removal of environmental justice tools and data used by regulators, academics, and advocates to identify communities disproportionately affected by industrial pollution and climate change. [more]

U.S. AND CHINA | Amidst ongoing political and economic tensions, China today said it is pursuing three alleged U.S. National Security Agency operatives who Chinese police say carried out cyberattacks on Chinese infrastructure during the Asian Games held in the city of Harbin in February. Police named the three suspects as Katheryn A. Wilson, Robert J. Snelling, and Stephen W. Johnson, but did not say how the suspects were identified. [more]

SUDAN | Today marks the two-year anniversary of the start of Sudan's ongoing civil war between government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in which more than 24,000 people have been killed. International aid organizations say nearly 13 million people have fled their homes during the two years of war and the United Nations says mounting atrocities and famine make Sudan the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Fighting has escalated in recent days as the anniversary approached, with more than 300 civilians killed since Saturday, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. [more]

NIGERIA | Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said yesterday that suspected Muslim gunmen killed at least 40 people Sunday night in an attack on a Christian farming community in the West African country's north-central Plateau state. [more]

SINGAPORE | Government officials announced the dissolution of Singapore's parliament today ahead of the city-state's May 3 general election. Reports note that Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's People’s Action Party is expected to remain in power, but that Wong is seeking to clinch a stronger majority after the party suffered a setback in 2020 elections. [more]

FRANCE | Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin says vehicles were set afire outside several French prisons overnight and that one jail in Toulon was hit by gunfire. Darmanin suggested that the "intimidation attempts" against the jails may be linked to a government crackdown on drug trafficking. [more]

AI INDUSTRY | Tech giant Nvidia announced yesterday that it plans to build facilities to produce computer chips and supercomputers for artificial intelligence in the U.S. for the first time. Company founder Jensen Huang says Nvidia has commissioned more than one million square feet of manufacturing space to build and test its specialized Blackwell chips in Arizona and AI supercomputers in Texas. [more]

BASKETBALL | The Dallas Wings selected UConn's Paige Bueckers with the No. 1 pick in yesterday's first round of the WNBA draft. Seattle selected French star Dominique Malonga with the No. 2 pick, and Washington took Notre Dame’s Sonia Citron third. [full WNBA draft] [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1947, Jackie Robinson, baseball’s first Black major league player of the modern era, made his official debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers on opening day at Ebbets Field. The Dodgers defeated the Boston Braves, 5-3. [more history]