March 7, 2025

UKRAINE | Today is day 1107 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Ukrainian officials say Russia carried out large-scale attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight, with a reported 67 missiles and 194 drones launched to target sites across the country. Reports say at least 10 people were wounded in the strikes. [more]
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed yesterday that he will attend talks with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia next week to discuss cease-fire negotiations for the war with Russia. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | Labor Department data released today shows that U.S. employers added a lower-than-expected 151,000 jobs in February and that the unemployment rate for the month increased slightly to 4.1%. [full report] [more]

U.S. IMMIGRATION | A federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments on a request by the Denver, Colorado, public school system to block the Trump administration policy of allowing immigration agents to carry out arrests at schools while court challenges to the policy play out. Reports note that no such arrests have been carried out at Denver schools under the new policy as of last week. [more]

U.S. TARIFFS | President Donald Trump said yesterday that he will delay, for one month, 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods that comply with the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, trade pact. Reports note that about half of Canadian and Mexican imports will still be subject to tariffs, as they are not USMCA compliant, and cite Canadian officials as saying that retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods are expected to remain in place during the one-month pause. [more]

U.S. FEDERAL WORKFORCE | U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled yesterday that President Donald Trump acted illegally when he fired Gwynne Wilcox from her position on the National Labor Relations Board. In her ruling, Howell said that “An American president is not a king — not even an ‘elected’ one — and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute.” The Trump administration has appealed the ruling. [more]

U.S. ENVIRONMENT | A new study in the journal Science says a comprehensive review of nearly 77,000 surveys of U.S. butterfly populations by both scientists and community volunteers shows that the total number of butterflies of all species decreased by 22% from 2000 to 2020, with about half the species suffering population drops of 42% or more. Researchers say insecticides, climate change and habitat loss are the largest contributors to the butterfly population loss. [findings article] [full study] [more]

U.S. CRYPTOCURRENCY | President Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday establishing a government reserve of the cryptocurrency bitcoin. The order also creates a “U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile” intended to store seized crypto assets other than bitcoin. [more]

U.S. FOREIGN AID | A federal judge yesterday gave the Trump administration a deadline of this coming Monday to pay a large part of some $2 billion in debts to partners of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department for completed foreign aid projects. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali’s order came after the Supreme Court this week rejected the Trump administration’s bid to freeze funding that flowed through USAID. [more]

NATO | A day after his pick to be NATO ambassador assured senators of the administration’s “ironclad” commitment to the alliance, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested yesterday that U.S. military support for NATO allies could depend on their meeting defense spending targets, saying “I think it’s common sense, right? If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them.” [more]

EUROPEAN SECURITY | European Union leaders meeting in Brussels yesterday unanimously backed plans to give member nations fiscal flexibility to increase defense spending and to jointly borrow up to 150 billion euros to lend to E.U. governments to spend on their militaries. [more]

UGANDA | Authorities with the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda has seen 14 cases in the last week and note that the source of this latest outbreak remains under investigation. [more]

CHINA | Speaking today on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary congress, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticized what he called “arbitrary tariffs” imposed by the U.S., expressed his belief that the war in Ukraine could have been avoided, said China-Russia relations are as strong as ever, and reiterated the Chinese government stance that “Taiwan has never been a country and will never be a country in the future.” [more]

AUSTRALIA | Thousands of residents of Australia’s eastern regions have been ordered to evacuate ahead of the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which is expected to make landfall near Brisbane early tomorrow. Reports say the storm has already caused travel disruptions and widespread power outages in the area. [more]

BRAZIL | Five cities in southern Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state closed schools yesterday and today amidst an ongoing heat wave that school administrators say the schools are not equipped to handle. Classes are expected to resume Monday. [more]

SOUTH KOREA | The Seoul Central District Court ordered today that impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol be released from jail while court proceedings on criminal charges and his possible removal from office over his short-lived imposition of martial law last year play out. [more]

FRANCE | Rail service into and out of Paris’ Gare du Nord train station was suspended this morning following the discovery of an unexploded World War II-era bomb near tracks serving the station. French transportation officials say service could be disrupted throughout the day while the bomb is being disposed of and urged travelers to postpone their trips. [more]

GERMANY | Transportation officials say around 500,000 travelers will be affected and an estimated 3,400 flights will be canceled Monday due to a 24-hour strike scheduled at major German airports. [more]

SPACE | A lunar lander from private space company Intuitive Machines touched down on the moon’s surface yesterday, but the company says the lander appears to have fallen over after landing. It was the second landing of a private craft on the moon this week, following Firefly Aerospace’s successful touchdown on Sunday. [more]

GAMING | This year’s finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame were announced yesterday, and include Age of Empires, Angry Birds, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Defender, Frogger, Golden Eye, Golden Tee, Harvest Moon, Mattel Football, Quake, NBA 2K and Tamagotchi. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1965, a march by over 500 civil rights demonstrators was violently broken up at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. State troopers fired tear gas and beat marchers with batons in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” [more history]