July 17, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Reports say at least 20 Palestinians died yesterday in a stampede at a food distribution site run by the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. [more]
• Following days of clashes, the Syrian government and leaders of the Druze religious minority announced a renewed ceasefire yesterday. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1,239 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Speaking at a conference in Wiesbaden, Germany, today, NATO's top military commander General Alexus Grynkewich said efforts are proceeding quickly to transfer additional U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine. [more]
• European Union police agency Europol announced yesterday that a coordinated international operation has taken down a significant part of the infrastructure of a pro-Russian cybercrime network linked to a series of denial-of-service attacks targeting Ukraine and its allies. [more]

U.S. FEDERAL FUNDING | The Senate voted, 51-48, early this morning to cancel some $9 billion in previously approved federal spending as part of cuts requested by President Donald Trump to programs that include public broadcasting and foreign aid. The House is expected to vote quickly on the measure, which faces a midnight Friday deadline for the proposed rescissions to take effect. [more]

U.S. PROTESTS | Protests and demonstrations against controversial Trump administration policies, including those on immigration and healthcare cuts, are planned at more than 1,600 locations across the U.S. today, with major events scheduled in Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis, Oakland, and Annapolis. The "Good Trouble Lives On" national day of action honors the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis. [more]

U.S. NATURAL DISASTERS | A coalition of 20 U.S. states filed a lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency yesterday seeking to block the elimination of a long-running grant program for community-based programs to help guard against damage from natural disasters. [more]

U.S. POLITICS | Amidst ongoing tensions over the Justice Department decision to not release its files on the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation, President Donald Trump said yesterday that his "past supporters have bought into this “bullshit,” hook, line, and sinker,” and that he no longer wanted the support of "weaklings" who "continue forward and do the Democrats' work." [more]

ARKANSAS | Vacating a lower-court injunction, a panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the 1st Amendment does not give students the right to compel specific instruction in public schools and allowed Arkansas to enforce its ban on critical race theory instruction in K-12 classrooms. [more]

U.S. CIVIL RIGHTS | In its latest annual report, the National Urban League – one of the United States' oldest civil rights organizations – says a "state of emergency" exists for anti-discrimination policies, personal freedoms, civil rights, and Black economic advancement as a result of what the group says are Trump administration attacks on civil rights precedents and cuts in federal agencies and programs that enforce civil rights policies. [more]

IRAQ | Interior Ministry officials say 61 people were killed yesterday in a fire that broke out in a newly opened shopping mall in the eastern Iraq city of Kut. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. [more]

PAKISTAN | Officials with Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority say at least 63 people have died, and 290 others have been injured, in flooding and other damage resulting from torrential rains in the country's Punjab province that started yesterday morning. [more]

U.K. AND GERMANY | Reports say U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are expected to sign a treaty today pledging to strengthen their countries' defense ties and to increase law-enforcement cooperation aimed at stemming illegal migration across the English Channel. [more]

ISRAEL | The ultra-Orthodox Shas political party said yesterday that it is withdrawing from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government – the second such move by an ultra-Orthodox party this week over disagreements concerning military draft exemptions and one that will result in Netanyahu's coalition having only 50 seats in Israel's 120-seat parliament. [more]

CAMBODIA | Information Minister Neth Pheaktra says a new Cambodian government crackdown on cybercrime operations has resulted in the arrest of more than 1,000 suspects so far this week. [more]

U.K. | The British government announced today that it plans to lower the voting age across the U.K. to 16. Analysts say the move will increase the number of eligible voters in the country by about 1.6 million. [more]

SPORTS AWARDS | NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles were named best male and female athletes, respectively, at last night's 2025 ESPY Awards. The Icon Award was given jointly to retired U.S. national women’s soccer team star Alex Morgan and retired WNBA star Diana Taurasi. [full list of awardees] [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1945, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Harry S. Truman met at the Potsdam Conference, the last Allied summit conference of World War II. [more history]