July 11, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says European officials have reached a new deal with Israel to allow increased food and fuel aid into Gaza amidst Israel's ongoing military operations against the Hamas militant group in the Palestinian enclave. [more]
• Reports cite unnamed Israeli government sources as saying Israel believes Iran could potentially recover enriched uranium from at least one of the nuclear sites hit by U.S. airstrikes on June 22. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1,233 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Bipartisan U.S. Senate co-sponsors of a proposed new U.S. sanctions package targeting Russia briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation yesterday. Reports say the measure calls for a 500% tariff on goods imported from countries such as China and India that continue to buy Russian oil, gas, uranium, and other exports. [more]
• In an interview yesterday, U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. plans to supply weapons to Ukraine via NATO and indicated that he would make an unspecified "major statement" on Russia this coming Monday. [more]

TEXAS | Authorities in central Texas say the death toll from the July 4 flooding of the Guadalupe River has risen to at least 120 and that more than 170 people remain missing as search and rescue efforts continue. [more]

U.S. CITIZENSHIP | U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante yesterday certified a challenge to President Donald Trump's proposed re-interpretation of U.S. birthright citizenship to exclude children born to parents in the country illegally as a class-action lawsuit and granted a preliminary nationwide injunction against enforcement of the related Trump executive order. Laplante's ruling included a seven-day stay to allow the Trump administration to appeal. [more]

U.S. IMMIGRATION | The Department of Health and Human Services announced yesterday that it is revising a nearly 30-year-old interpretation of legislation that allowed immigrants without legal status to access certain federal public benefits. According to the HHS, the change will prevent immigrants in the country illegally from accessing the federally funded Head Start preschool program, as well as some health clinic programs, health workforce programs, and substance abuse programs, among others. [HHS press release] [more]

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT | In a move Secretary of State Marco Rubio says is a "very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused," department employees were informed yesterday that layoff notices will soon be sent to a yet-unknown number of staffers. [more]

U.S. EMPLOYMENT | Initial applications for unemployment benefits fell by 5,000 to 227,000 in the week ended July 5, according to Labor Department data released yesterday – a level lower than the 238,000 analysts had forecast. [more]

MISSOURI | Gov. Mike Keho signed the repeal of a law yesterday that had guaranteed paid sick leave to workers and inflationary adjustments to the minimum wage – measures that were approved by voters in the state last year. Keho characterized the repeal as a business-friendly move to eliminate "costly mandates." [more]

U.S. AND CANADA | President Donald Trump said yesterday that the U.S. will impose a 35% tariff on goods imported from Canada starting August 1. Trump cited fentanyl smuggling from Canada and its trade surplus with the U.S. as reasons for the move. [more]

U.S., SOUTH KOREA, AND JAPAN | Amidst ongoing tensions with North Korea and the North's deepening military ties with Russia, the U.S., South Korea, and Japan held military aerial drills in international waters off the coast of South Korea’s southern Jeju island today in a show of regional cooperation and strength. [more]

GLOBAL HIV/AIDS | A new UNAIDS report released yesterday says the sudden withdrawal of U.S. funding has caused a “systemic shock to global AIDS prevention efforts and warns that more than 4 million AIDS-related deaths and 6 million more HIV infections could occur by 2029 if the funding isn't replaced. [press release] [full UNAIDS report] [more]

TURKEY AND IRAQ | Forces of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party separatist militant group began a symbolic laying down of arms today in northern Iraq – the first move toward a promised disarmament aimed at ending decades of insurgency in Turkey. [more]

SUDAN | Nazhat Shameem Khan, deputy prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, warned yesterday of ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's western Darfur region amidst the ongoing conflict between government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force. [more]

ECUADOR | In a move that critics say could violate environmental and Indigenous protections enshrined in the country's 2008 Constitution, Ecuador's parliament approved a new law yesterday that allows private entities, including foreign companies, to participate in managing conservation zones. [more]

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | The European Union released a voluntary code of practice on general purpose artificial intelligence yesterday, which aims to guide AI-related business practices in the areas of transparency, copyright protection, and safety and security. The code of practice complements the E.U.'s AI Act regulations approved last year. [more]

TENNIS | American Amanda Anisimova beat World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka yesterday to advance to tomorrow's women's final at Wimbledon, where she will face Iga Swiatek. In the men's bracket, Carlos Alcaraz faces Taylor Fritz and Novak Djokovic plays Jannik Sinner today to determine participants in Sunday's championship match. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1995, the U.N.-designated “safe haven” of Srebrenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina fell to Bosnian Serb forces, who subsequently carried out the killings of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys. Thousands of people have gathered in Srebrenica today to mark the 30th anniversary of what is Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since the Holocaust. [more history]