November 18, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• The U.N. Security Council voted yesterday to approve a U.S.-drafted resolution calling for the establishment of an International Stabilization Force in Gaza, including plans to secure border areas and ensure the disarmament of militants, and establishing a Board of peace that would oversee governance, reconstruction, and delivery of aid to the Palestinian enclave. Hamas condemned the measure, saying the plan "imposes an international guardianship mechanism on the Gaza Strip, which our people and their factions reject." The resolution, despite Israeli opposition, leaves open the possibility of an independent Palestinian state. [more]
• Hours after Israeli settlers clashed with Israeli forces providing security for an unauthorized settlement scheduled for demolition in the occupied West Bank, settlers set multiple homes and vehicles on fire yesterday in the nearby Palestinian village of al-Jab’a. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the settlers' actions, blaming the unrest on "a handful of extremists." [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1,361 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here is your update:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced today that he will travel to Turkey, where low-level talks between Ukraine and Russia were held earlier this year, tomorrow as part of attempts to jump-start negotiations on ending the war with Russia. [more]

U.S. MILITARIZATION | In a ruling issued yesterday, Tennessee chancery court judge Patricia Head Moskal blocked President Donald Trump's deployment of federalized National Guard troops in Memphis but put the order on hold for five days to give the government time to file an appeal. [more]

U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT | In a 24-page opinion issued yesterday, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick said the Justice Department engaged in a "disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps," including fundamental misstatements of the law to the grand jury and use of potentially privileged communications, in securing the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey on charges of lying to Congress. Citing significant procedural and substantive irregularities, Fitzpatrick also ordered the release of all grand jury materials to Comey's lawyers, but that order was later put on hold pending resolution of Justice Department objections. [full ruling] [more]

U.S. MEDICAL RESEARCH | According to a report published yesterday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, more than 74,000 people have been affected by the National Institutes of Health’s medical research funding cuts this year, with the cuts disproportionately impacting efforts to address infectious diseases like the flu, pneumonia, and COVID-19. Report authors note that about 1-in-30 NIH-funded studies lost funding during the February to August period. [full report] [more]

CALIFORNIA | The Trump administration filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking to block a California state law that bans most law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from wearing masks or other face coverings while conducting official business and requires them to wear clear identification showing their agency and badge number. Justice Department officials say the option to wear face coverings is a protective measure, while California officials say the practice is "dystopian" and that it has led to multiple incidents in which masked criminals posing as immigration officers robbed and kidnapped victims. [more]

NORTH CAROLINA | As federal immigration agents continue their enforcement surge in Charlotte, North Carolina, reports say the operation will be expanded to the city of Raleigh as early as today. [more]

MARYLAND | In a new timeline and cost analysis, officials at the Maryland Transportation Authority estimate that replacing Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed and killed six construction workers last year after a container ship crashed into it, will cost between $4.3 billion and $5.2 billion, with an anticipated open-to-traffic date in late 2030. The agency had previously estimated a cost of $1.9 billion and an opening date of late 2028. [more]

U.S. AND SAUDI ARABIA | Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House today, with Middle East tensions, Saudi investments in the U.S., and defense and energy cooperation expected to be among the main topics of discussion. Reports note that, ahead of the meeting, Trump announced yesterday that he has agreed to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, despite concerns that such a sale could lead to China gaining access to U.S. technologies used in the advanced warplane's systems. [more]

PAKISTAN | Military officials say security forces carried out raids on two militant hideouts in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province yesterday, killing 15 Pakistani Taliban militants. [more]

CANADA | With the governing Liberal Party gaining the support of a Green Party member and multiple New Democratic Party abstaining, the Canadian parliament voted 170-168 yesterday to approve Prime Minister Mark Carney’s budget, thereby avoiding a possible new national election. [more]

COLOMBIA | Iris Marín, Colombia's human rights ombudswoman, called on President Gustavo Petro to suspend airstrikes against rebel groups in the South American country after revealing yesterday that at least five teenagers were killed in such strikes between October and November. [more]

JAPAN AND CHINA | Amidst ongoing tensions between Asia's two largest economies following recent comments by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Taiwan, Japan warned its citizens in China today to increase their safety precautions and to avoid crowded locations. [more]

CYBERSECURITY | Online security and infrastructure company Cloudflare has reported a global outage this morning, affecting access to millions of websites, including popular platforms such as X and ChatGPT. The company says it is working to mitigate the underlying issues but warned that customers may see "“higher-than-normal error rates." [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1477, William Caxton, a pioneering English printer, published Dictes and Sayenges of the Phylosophers, the first dated book printed in England. [more history]