May 28, 2025
MIDDLE EAST | UKRAINE | U.S. ECONOMY | U.S. STUDENT VISAS | U.S. FEDERAL SPENDING | U.S. CYBERATTACKS | U.S. PUBLIC BROADCASTING | HAWAII | MISSOURI | U.S. MINING | U.S. LEGAL PRACTICE | U.S. COVID-19 | GLOBAL CLIMATE | SUDAN | CHINA | CANADA | NETHERLANDS | U.K. | THAILAND AND CAMBODIA

CORRECTION | In an item about three renewed FBI investigations in yesterday's Daily Brief, we incorrectly stated that all three incidents took place during the Biden administration. That was the case for only two of them. The third, which involved a pair of undetonated pipe bombs left near the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on January 5, 2021, was during the final weeks of the first Trump administration.
MIDDLE EAST | Update from regional conflicts:
- Palestinian health officials say at least one person was killed, and 48 others were wounded, yesterday when forces opened fire on a crowd overrunning an aid distribution site that was one of the first efforts by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Reports say it remains unclear whether it was Israeli forces or private security contractors who opened fire on the crowd. [more]
UKRAINE | Today is day 1189 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin today as part of ongoing efforts to secure increased military aid amidst the ongoing Russian invasion. [more]
- Reuters cites multiple unnamed Russian sources as saying that President Vladimir Putin's conditions for ending the war in Ukraine include demands that Western leaders pledge in writing to stop enlarging NATO eastwards, lift some sanctions against Russia, and ensure protections for Russian speakers in Ukraine. [more]
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reportedly warned Western leaders that Russia has amassed some 50,000 troops on the border of Ukraine's northeast Sumy region in preparation for a possible large-scale summer assault. [more]
U.S. ECONOMY | The Conference Board reported yesterday that its measure of Americans' confidence in the economy rose in May for the first time in five months. The business think tank also says the proportion of consumers saying they think a U.S. recession is coming in the next 12 months has declined. [more]
U.S. STUDENT VISAS | The State Department yesterday temporarily suspended the scheduling of new appointments for visa interviews for foreign students planning to study at U.S. schools in order to prepare for expanded social media screening of applicants. [more]
U.S. FEDERAL SPENDING | Tech billionaire and de facto head of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk suggested in a video yesterday that President Trump's tax and budget bill currently under consideration in Congress would raise the U.S. budget deficit and undercut DOGE efforts to reduce spending. [more]
U.S. CYBERATTACKS | An Iranian national – Sina Gholinejad, 37 – pleaded guilty yesterday to charges related to ransomware and extortion cyberattacks on multiple U.S. cities in 2019, including on Baltimore, Maryland, and Greenville, North Carolina. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for August. [more]
U.S. PUBLIC BROADCASTING | National Public Radio and three of its local stations filed a lawsuit yesterday seeking to block the Trump administration's efforts to cut funding for the 246-station NPR network. NPR claims in the lawsuit that the administration based its directives on the substance of the network's programming in an effort to force it to adapt its journalistic standards and editorial choices to the preferences of the government. [more]
HAWAII | Gov. Josh Green signed a measure into law yesterday that increases taxes imposed on hotel and vacation rental stays in Hawaii to raise money to address eroding shorelines, wildfires, and other consequences of climate change. The tax is expected to generate nearly $100 million annually. [more]
MISSOURI | Planned Parenthood halted abortions in Missouri yesterday following a state Supreme Court ruling that ordered a lower court judge to re-evaluate her earlier order that abortions could resume in the state after voters struck down a ban on the procedure last November. The high court said Judge Jerri Zhang must re-evaluate the case to explicitly consider whether there would be harms from allowing abortions to resume. [more]
U.S. MINING | The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday let stand a lower court ruling allowing the Oak Flat copper mining project on federal land in Arizona to move forward over the objection of Apache Native American tribes that say they hold the land on which the mine will be located to be sacred. [more]
U.S. LEGAL PRACTICE | U.S. District Judge Richard Leon yesterday issued a permanent injunction barring enforcement of an executive order from President Donald Trump that sought to impose sanctions on the WilmerHale law firm, saying in his ruling that the "cornerstone of the American system of justice is an independent judiciary and an independent bar willing to tackle unpopular cases" and that to permit the executive order to stand "would be unfaithful to the judgment and vision of the Founding Fathers." [more]
U.S. COVID-19 | HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said yesterday that COVID-19 vaccinations have been removed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women. The move reverses previous U.S. health officials' policy on the vaccine, and reports note that neither Kennedy nor HHS officials provided additional information about the reasoning behind the move. [more]
GLOBAL CLIMATE | According to a report released today by the World Meteorological Organization and the U.K. Meteorological Office, there is an 80% chance the world will break another annual temperature record in the next five years and an 86% chance that one of the next five years will exceed the Paris climate accord threshold of temperatures averaging 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages. [full report] [more]
SUDAN | Health officials say at least 172 people have died, and more than 2,500 have been sickened, over the past week in Sudan's latest outbreak of cholera, and that the war-torn African nation's health facilities are struggling to cope with the surge of patients. [more]
CHINA | At least five people were killed, 19 were injured, and six remain missing in yesterday's explosion at a chemical plant in the city of Weifang in eastern China's Shandong province. Local reports say teams have been dispatched to monitor potential pollution leaks from the plant, but have not yet reported on their findings. [more]
CANADA | In his "speech from the throne" before Canada's new parliament yesterday and amidst continued suggestions by U.S. President Donald Trump that Canada should become a U.S. state, Britain's King Charles III said that "many Canadians are feeling anxious and worried about the drastically changing world around them" and that "Canada is facing challenges that, in our lifetimes, are unprecedented." [more]
NETHERLANDS | Dutch intelligence officials say a newly identified Russian hacking group called Laundry Bear was responsible for a cyberattack last year that targeted Dutch police data and other information on military support to Ukraine. Reports cite Dutch officials as saying the group is "extremely likely" to have ties to the Russian government. [more]
U.K. | Police in Liverpool, England, say a 53-year-old British man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with the Monday incident in which a vehicle was driven into a crowd of soccer fans, injuring at least 65 people. [more]
THAILAND AND CAMBODIA | Thai and Cambodian soldiers briefly exchanged gunfire along their shared border early today, according to officials from both countries. Each side has blamed the other for the incident near a disputed area, but say the situation has been resolved. [more]
TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1830, U.S. President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which forced nearly 50,000 Native Americans to relocate to designated territories west of the Mississippi River, clearing the way for further white settlement within existing U.S. states. [more history]