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MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Reports cite local officials and aid groups as saying Israeli troops have encircled two of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals, preventing anyone from leaving or entering the facilities. World Health Organization Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus says the Israeli operations and related evacuation orders are "stretching the health system beyond the breaking point." [more]
• Speaking before the House of Commons yesterday, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that Israel's blockade of aid into Gaza has been "indefensible" and that Israel's renewed military offensive in Gaza is a "dark new phase" that is "damaging the image of the State of Israel in the eyes of the world." Lammy also noted that the U.K. has suspended negotiations with Israel on a new free trade agreement over the Israeli conduct in the Gaza conflict. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1182 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here is your update:

• Reuters cites a previously unreported white paper from Ukraine as indicating that Kyiv will ask the European Union next week to consider new actions against Russia, including seizing Russian assets and imposing sanctions on some buyers of Russian oil. [more]

U.S. DEPORTATIONS | Following reports and court filings yesterday suggesting that immigration authorities had begun deporting people from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan, U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Massachusetts ruled that U.S. officials must retain custody and control of the migrants apparently removed to the East African nation in case he finds that their removals were unlawful. Murphy also warned that the deportations could be in violation of his previous order that migrants not be deported to countries other than their own before they could raise any concerns that they might face torture or persecution there. [more]

U.S. DEFENSE | President Donald Trump announced his selection yesterday of a concept to develop a "Golden Dome" missile defense system for the U.S. – a ground- and space-based system able to detect and stop missile attacks that would put U.S. weapons in space for the first time and cost an estimated $542 billion over the next 20 years, according to a recent Congressional Budget Office estimate. Reports note that no funds have yet been allocated for the project, but that Trump has requested an initial $25 billion for the project in the budget bill currency under consideration in Congress. [more]

NEW JERSEY | The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration announced yesterday that flight restrictions that cap the number of hourly arrivals and departures at Newark Liberty International Airport will be extended into June. The restrictions were put in place following recent incidents in which air traffic controllers briefly lost radar and radio functionality. [more]

U.S. CONSTITUTION | In testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs yesterday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said habeas corpus is a "constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their rights" – a clear mischaracterization of the constitutional protection that allows people to legally challenge their detention by the government. [more]

COVID-19 | In a new vaccine framework published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it will limit approval of seasonal COVID-19 shots to adults 65 and older as well as children and younger adults with at least one high-risk health problem and urges vaccine manufacturers to conduct extensive new studies before the vaccines can be approved for healthier people. [full FDA report] [more]

ILLINOIS | The U.S. Department of Justice says it has opened a civil rights investigation into the city of Chicago's hiring practices after Mayor Brandon Johnson highlighted the number of Black employees in top positions of his administration, which the DOJ said could indicate a pattern of violations of prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of race. [DOJ investigation letter] [more]

U.S. TRADE | A three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based U.S. Court of International Trade is scheduled to hear arguments today on a lawsuit filed by 12 U.S. states challenging President Donald Trump's authority to declare a national emergency to impose across-the-board taxes on imports from nations that sell more to the U.S. than they buy. [more]

U.S. AND SOUTH AFRICA | South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump today amidst tensions arising from Trump's accusations that South Africa’s Black-led government is seizing land from white farmers, enforcing anti-white policies, and pursuing an anti-American foreign policy. [more]

G7 FINANCE | Finance ministers from the world's leading economies are attending a summit this week in Banff, Canada, with ongoing trade tensions over U.S. tariffs, the war in Ukraine, inflation, and economic stability expected to be among the main topics of discussion. [more]

GERMANY | Federal prosecutors say German police arrested five teenagers today on suspicion of involvement with a right-wing domestic terror organization that aimed to destabilize Germany's democratic system by carrying out attacks on migrants and left-wing political opponents. [more]

AUSTRALIA | Reports say flooding from heavy rainfall has cut off access to multiple rural towns in the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of Australia's New South Wales state. Meteorologists say additional heavy rains and flooding are expected in the region over the next 24 hours. [more]

COLOMBIA | A new report from Colombia's Office of the Inspector General says the South American country lost nearly 88,900 hectares, or 340 square miles, of Amazon basin forest between October 2024 and March 2025, due largely to illegal roads, coca cultivation, and unregulated mining. [more]

MORE COLOMBIA | In a statement yesterday, Scott Campbell, Colombia’s representative for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned that five Indigenous groups – the Kogui, Wiwa, Kankuamo, Arhuaco, and Ette Naka – in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range face "physical and cultural” extinction due to actions of armed groups fighting over their territory and to insufficient state protection. [more]

PAKISTAN | At least five people were killed – including three children – and 38 others were wounded today when a suicide car bomber struck a school bus in southwestern Pakistan's Balochistan province. Reports say no claims of responsibility for the attack have yet been made, but that suspicion is likely to fall on ethnic Baloch separatists. [more]

UGANDA | The Ugandan parliament passed an amended law yesterday that allows the restoration of measures allowing the prosecution of civilians by military tribunals. Reports note Uganda's Supreme Court forbade military trials of civilians in a January ruling, saying the tribunals lacked legal competence to handle criminal trials in a fair and impartial manner. [more]

LITERATURE | Indian author Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi won the International Booker Prize for 2025 yesterday for the short story collection "Heart Lamp," which chronicles the everyday lives and struggles of women in southern India. It was the first time the award was given to a collection of short stories. [award website] [more]

R.I.P. | Actor George Wendt, best known for his role as Norm in the 1980s TV comedy "Cheers" and for his later Broadway roles, died yesterday at the age of 76. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1927, American aviator Charles Lindbergh completed the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, traveling from New York to Paris in the monoplane Spirit of Saint Louis in about 33.5 hours. [more history]