October 17, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Update from regional conflicts:

• Commenting yesterday on reports of ongoing internal violence by Hamas in Gaza, U.S. President Donald Trump warned that "we will have no choice but to go in and kill them" if internal bloodshed persists. Trump later clarified that he did not mean to suggest the involvement of U.S. troops in action against Hamas in the Palestinian enclave. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1,331 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump today at the White House, says Russia launched more than 300 drones and 37 missiles at targets across Ukraine over the past day, targeting energy infrastructure and causing power outages in eight Ukrainian regions. [more]
• Following a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday, U.S. President Donald Trump said the two leaders would meet in the coming weeks in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss ways to end the war in Ukraine. [more]

U.S. PROSECUTION | Former national security advisor John Bolton, who was fired during President Donald Trump's first term in office and became a vocal Trump critic, was charged yesterday with crimes related to the storage and sharing of classified information. Bolton is the third vocal Trump critic, along with former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Leticia James, to be charged with crimes in recent weeks, but reports note that the investigation underlying Bolton's indictment began prior to Trump's second term in office. [more]

U.S. DOMESTIC TERRORISM CHARGES | Two people arrested in connection with a July shooting at an immigration detention center in Texas were indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday on charges that include providing material support to terrorists – a charge that comes after President Donald Trump recent executive order designating the decentralized movement known as antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. [more]

U.S. PROTESTS | Organizers say millions of Americans are expected to take part in more than 2,000 "No Kings" demonstrations scheduled for tomorrow around the country to protest against Trump administration policies. [more]

U.S. DRUG APPROVALS | The Food and Drug Administration announced the first nine drugs selected for accelerated review and potential approval under the FDA's new Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher pilot program yesterday. The selected drugs, deemed to have "significant potential to address a major national priority," include potential treatments for infertility, diabetes, nicotine vaping addiction, deafness, blindness, pancreatic cancer, porphyria, as well as a general anesthetic and a common antibiotic. [press release] [more]

U.S. VISAS | Saying that the Trump administration's new $100,000 annual fee for H-1B visa applications for skilled foreign workers would "inflict significant harm on American businesses," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a federal lawsuit yesterday asking the court to declare that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority by imposing the fee and bloc federal government agencies from enforcing it. [more]

NEW YORK | The New York City public school system filed a lawsuit yesterday against federal education officials over the cancellation of $47 million in promised grants because of school system's guidelines supporting transgender students. [more]

CALIFORNIA | Gov. Gavin Newsom announced yesterday that California will begin selling affordable insulin under its own label on January 1. The "CalRx" brand of insulin will be available at a recommended price of $11 per pen. [more]

U.S. SOLAR POWER | Officials in 22 U.S. states and the District of Columbia filed a joint lawsuit against the Trump administration yesterday over the Environmental Protection Agency’s cancellation of the Solar for All program, which included some $7 billion in federal funding intended for affordable solar energy projects across the country. [more]

U.S. AND VENEZUELA | Venezuelan officials called yesterday for the U.N. Security Council to investigate recent U.S. military strikes on small boats in the Caribbean Sea that U.S. officials say were carrying illegal drugs. Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.N., Samuel Moncada, called the U.S. strikes, in which 27 people are believed to have been killed, "extrajudicial executions" and "assassinations." In possibly related news, Navy Admiral Alvin Holsey, the leader of the U.S. Southern Command, which encompasses operations in the Caribbean Sea region, announced his pending retirement yesterday after less than a year in his position. Also, BBC cites flight radar data as showing that three U.S. B-52 bomber aircraft approached and circled an area near the Venezuelan coast on Wednesday in what analysts suggest was a purposeful show of force amidst tensions between the two countries.  [more]

GLOBAL ECONOMY | In a Reuters interview, World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala urged the U.S. and China to de-escalate their trade tensions and warned that the countries' ongoing trade war and potential economic decoupling could reduce global economic output by 7% over the long term. [more]

AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN | Local authorities say at least three militants were killed in clashes with Pakistani security forces following a suicide car bomb attack today on an army compound in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Reports say the Afghan-backed Pakistani Taliban is believed to have carried out the car bomb attack and note that the incident comes amidst a temporary cease-fire between Afghanistan and Pakistan announced earlier this week. [more]

FRANCE | The French national anti-terror prosecution office announced yesterday that four people have been detained in connection with an alleged plot against exiled Russian rights activist Vladimir Osechkin, who currently lives in southern France and says he has long suspected he could be targeted for assassination because of his work exposing abuses in Russian prisons. [more]

MADAGASCAR | Col. Michael Randrianirina, who led this week's coup against the government of President Andry Rajoelina, was sworn in as the new leader of Madagascar today. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the coup yesterday as an "unconstitutional change of government" and called for a "return to constitutional order and the rule of law" in the island nation. [more]

NIGERIA | Dauda Lawal, the governor of Nigeria's northwestern Zamfara state, says yet-unidentified gunmen ambushed security personnel in the state yesterday, killing at least eight people. [more]

ROMANIA | Police in the Romanian capital of Bucharest say at least three people were killed, and 13 others were injured, today in an explosion at a multi-story apartment building in the city. Reports cite officials as saying the cause of the blast remains under investigation. [more]

R.I.P. | Ace Frehley, founding member and original lead guitarist of the rock band Kiss, died yesterday at the age of 74. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1346, at the Battle of Neville's Cross, the English defeated the Scots, who, as allies of the French, had invaded England in an attempt to distract Edward III from the siege of Calais, France. [more history]