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MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• U.S. officials say Israel has "backed and supported" a new proposal for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza that includes a pledge to participate in serious negotiations with Hamas and the release of some hostages. Reports cite Hamas officials as saying that while the proposal fails to meet the group's core demands, they intend to study the proposal more closely before giving a formal response. [more]
• Reports say Israeli troops fired warning shots yesterday amidst ongoing chaos at aid distribution sites in Gaza as crowds rushed the sites and grabbed food and other supplies. [more]
• Palestinian health officials say at least 34 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes across Gaza over the past 24 hours. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1191 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here is your update:

• In a further response to a Russian proposal for ceasefire negations to be held in Istanbul next week, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said today that Kyiv needs reassurances that Moscow is sincere about wanting to end the war before engaging in talks. [more]

U.S. SPENDING AND TAX BILL | Reports say among the more obscure provisions in the 1,000-plus-page Trump-backed spending and taxation bill passed by the House recently and currently under consideration in the Senate are:

• Section 899 of the bill, which would allow the U.S. to impose additional so-called "revenge taxes" on companies and investors from countries that are deemed to have punitive tax policies on U.S. entities. [more]
• A one-sentence provision that would prevents federal courts, including the Supreme Court, from enforcing contempt orders unless the plaintiffs in a case have posted a monetary bond, which analysts say would weaken the power of the U.S. judiciary in the face of any potential defiance of court orders by the government. [more]

U.S. TARIFFS | A day after the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority in imposing wide-ranging tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit paused the previous ruling yesterday, allowing the Trump tariffs to remain in effect, and ordered new responses from both the government and plaintiffs challenging the tariffs. [more]

U.S. IMMIGRATION | The Department of Homeland Security published a list yesterday of more than 500 so-called "sanctuary jurisdictions" across the country that the Trump administration says are obstructing immigration enforcement or are non-compliant with federal immigration laws. Reports note that the Trump executive order that mandated compiling the list also said such sanctuary jurisdictions could face "legal remedies" and loss of federal funding and contracts if they "remain in defiance" of federal immigration laws. [more]

U.S. ECONOMY | Among several economic indicators released by the Commerce and Labor departments this week were:

• Initial applications for unemployment benefits rose a higher-than-expected 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 240,000 for the week ended May 24. [more]
• U.S. consumer spending rose 0.2% in April – down from a 0.7% increase in March. [more]
• In a slight upgrade of initial estimates, the U.S. economy shrank at a 0.2% annual rate from January to March of this year – the first overall quarterly drop in three years. [more]

FLORIDA | U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams heard arguments yesterday on whether Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier should be held in contempt of court for failing to comply with the judge's order to not enforce a state law making it a misdemeanor for people in the U.S. illegally to enter Florida while court challenges to the law played out. [more]

U.S. HEALTH | News organization NOTUS reports that a review of the Department of Health and Human Services' “Make America Healthy Again" report released last week shows that at least seven of some 500 studies or papers cited in the report did not actually exist. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged the issue yesterday, saying the report will be updated and suggesting that the errors do "not negate the substance of the report." [more]

U.S. INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY | The Justice Department says Defense Intelligence Agency IT specialist Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, of Alexandria, Virginia, has been arrested and charged with attempting to transmit classified information to a representative of a foreign government. [more]

GLOBAL SECURITY | The annual Shangri-La Dialogue defense policy summit hosted by the International Institute for Security Studies opens today in Singapore with a keynote address by French President Emmanuel Macron. Among the topics expected to dominate talks among representatives of the 47 nations attending are the growing assertiveness of China, the global impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine, and the potential for conflict flare-ups in Asia. [more]

INTERNATIONAL MEDIATION | Representatives of more than 30 countries joined China today in establishing the International Organization for Mediation – a Hong Kong-based international mediation and dispute resolution group that Beijing says is the world’s first intergovernmental legal organization for resolving disputes through mediation and will be an important mechanism in safeguarding the principles of the Charter of the United Nations. [Chinese government statement] [more]

GLOBAL CLIMATE | According to a recent analysis from World Weather Attribution, Climate Central, and the Red Cross, about half the world's population - or some 4 billion people - experienced at least one extra month of extreme heat between May 2024 and May 2025 due to human-caused climate change. [full report] [more]

IRAN | Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi yesterday dismissed speculation about an imminent nuclear deal with the United States, saying that any such agreement must include the termination of all sanctions and uphold Iran's right to enrichment of nuclear materials. [more]

SYRIA | The Islamic State militant group yesterday claimed responsibility for two recent attacks in southern Syria – the group's first acknowledged actions in the country since the ouster of former President Bashar Assad. [more]

NORTH KOREA AND RUSSIA | A new report from the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, which is composed of the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea and the U.K., accuses Russia and North Korea of "unlawful activities" in violation of U.N. sanctions, notably through North Korea's transfer of weapons, ammunition, and related materials to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine. [full report] [more]

HOCKEY | The Edmonton Oilers beat the Dallas Stars, 6-3, last night to win the NHL's Western Conference finals and advance to the Stanley Cup Final for a second year in a row. The Oilers will play the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers for the league championship, with Game 1 scheduled for next Wednesday night. [more]

SPELLING BEE | Thirteen-year-old Faizan Zaki, of Allen, Texas, won the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee yesterday with his correct spelling of the word "eclaircissement," defined as "a clearing up of something obscure" or in a literary sense as "an enlightening explanation of something, typically someone's conduct, that has been hitherto inexplicable." [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 2024, Donald Trump became the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a felony crime after a New York jury found him guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush-money payment in 2016 to the adult-film star Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have had an affair with Trump in 2006. [more history]