June 3, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• In the third such incident in three days, Palestinian health officials say Israeli forces fired on civilians as they approached an aid distribution site in Gaza today, killing at least 27 people. Israeli officials say the incident is under investigation. [more]
• Israeli military officials say three Israeli soldiers were killed in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia today when their vehicle was struck by an explosive device. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1195 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Meeting in Istanbul yesterday, Ukrainian and Russian representatives agreed to exchange thousands of war dead and seriously wounded troops. Reports say no significant progress was made in the talks on ending the war and that a Russian memorandum provided to Ukraine suggested the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from four Russia-annexed regions as a condition for a cease-fire. [more]
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said yesterday that he supports a proposal by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to organize an in-person meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and himself. [more]
• Reports say at least 700,000 people in the Russia-occupied southern Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are without power today following Ukrainian drone attacks that damaged multiple electricity substations. [more]

U.S. TRAVEL AND MEASLES | Saying that, "Most people who bring measles into the United States are unvaccinated U.S. residents who get infected during international travel," the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its vaccination guidance last week to suggest that all international travelers be vaccinated against the disease. [CDC guidance] [more]

U.S. TSA | A federal judge yesterday issued a temporary injunction blocking Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's order to terminate a collective bargaining agreement reached between the government and Transportation Safety Administration workers in 2024. In its lawsuit, the union representing TSA workers said Noem's order was issued as retaliation for the TSA's "unwillingness to acquiesce to the Trump Administration’s assault on federal workers." [more]

U.S. ENERGY | The Department of Energy has reportedly ordered Constellation Energy to delay its planned shutdown of units of the oil- and gas-powered Eddystone power plant just south of Philadelphia until at least August 28 as a precaution against electricity shortfalls in the mid-Atlantic region over the summer. [more]

U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT | The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court yesterday to allow plans for large-scale downsizing of the federal workforce to move forward while related lower court proceedings play out. The administration's lawsuit follows a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals finding that the downsizing could have broader effects, including on the nation’s food-safety system and health care for veterans, and a district judge ruling that sizable reductions in the federal workforce require congressional approval. [more]

U.S. AND GLOBAL ECONOMIES | A new forecast from the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development suggests that U.S. economic growth will slow to 1.6% this year and 1.5% in 2026 – down from 2.8% growth in 2024 – due largely to higher U.S. tariffs, increased costs, and business and consumer uncertainty. OECD analysts predict 2.9% growth for the global economy for both this year and next – down from 3.3% growth in 2024. [more]

U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY | Former German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was elected to be the next president of the U.N. General Assembly yesterday. Baerbock will replace current assembly President Philemon Yang, a former prime minister of Cameroon, at the start of the 80th U.N. session in September. [more]

IRAN | U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday that the U.S. will not allow Iran to continue any type of nuclear material enrichment program as part of any potential deal to end U.S. sanctions on the Middle Eastern country. Reports note that the U.S. has previously suggested it could allow lower levels of nuclear enrichment and that a recent U.S. proposal suggests the establishment of a regional consortium to handle uranium enrichment for civilian uses. [more]

MEXICO | Amidst concern about the country's system of governmental checks and balances, preliminary results from Sunday's first-ever judicial elections suggest that Mexico's Supreme Court will be controlled by supporters of President Claudia Sheinbaum's ruling Morena party. [more]

SOUTH KOREA | Voters are choosing between liberal candidate Lee Jae-myung and conservative candidate Kim Moon Soo in today's presidential election in South Korea, with early exit polls suggesting a win for Lee. The victor will succeed conservative Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached and removed from office over his short-lived imposition of martial law last December. [more]

SUDAN | United Nations refugee agency officials say at least four million people have fled Sudan since the beginning of the African nation's civil war in 2023, making it what the agency says is "the world's most damaging displacement crisis at the moment." [more]

GUATEMALA AND COLOMBIA | A Guatemalan court yesterday ordered the arrests of Colombian Attorney General Luz Adriana Camargo Garzón and former Colombian Defense Minister Iván Velásquez, who led a U.N. anti-corruption investigation mission in Guatemala that operated from 2007 to 2019. [more]

PAKISTAN | Officials in Pakistan's southeastern Sindh province say more than 100 inmates escaped from a prison in the city of Karachi overnight after they were temporarily moved out of their cells following mild earthquake tremors. [more]

MORE PAKISTAN | Amidst ongoing large-scale immunization drives, health officials reported Pakistan's 11th case of polio in 2025 yesterday. According to the World Health Organization, Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world in which the wild polio virus has not been eradicated. [more]

NETHERLANDS | Far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders says his Party for Freedom has withdrawn from the Netherlands' coalition government over what he says is the government's refusal to pursue a crackdown on immigration and asylum. Analysts say the move could end the 11-month-old government of Prime Minister Dick Schoof. [more]

SWEDEN | An independent government commission recommended yesterday that Sweden stop all international adoptions after its investigation found cases of adoption-related abuses and fraud, including child trafficking, in every decade from the 1970s to the 2000s. [more]

COLLEGE SOFTBALL | Texas Tech beat Oklahoma, 3-2, last night to advance to the Women's College World Series championship, where they will play Texas in a best-of-three series that starts tomorrow. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1989, the Chinese government called in the military to put down a pro-democracy demonstration carried out by more than 100,000 people in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, resulting in hundreds of deaths. [more history]