September 3, 2025

MIDDLE EAST | Update from regional conflicts:

• Officials with the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon say Israeli drones dropped four grenades today close to peacekeepers working to clear a roadblock near the village of Marwahin. The UNIFIL force says Israel was informed of the road-clearing work and that no injuries were sustained in what it, nevertheless, described as a "serious attack." [more]

U.S. MILITARIZATION | Saying he has an "obligation to protect this country," President Donald Trump said yesterday that he intends to deploy National Guard troops to combat crime in Chicago and Baltimore, despite strong opposition to such moves from elected leaders in both cities. [more]

CALIFORNIA | San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled yesterday that the Trump administration "willfully" violated federal law by deploying National Guard troops to Los Angeles earlier this year following days of protests over immigration raids. Breyer said in his ruling that the government knew “they were ordering troops to execute domestic law beyond their usual authority" and raised concerns that the administration and the Department of Defense are "creating a national police force with the President as its chief.” The administration has indicated that it will appeal the ruling. [more]

U.S. IMMIGRATION | Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reported to have approved the seconding of up to 600 military lawyers to the Justice Department to serve as temporary immigration judges. Reports note that the move comes amidst a growing backlog of immigration cases and cite experienced immigration judges as being concerned about the need for the military attorneys to complete training in complex immigration law. [more]

MORE U.S. IMMIGRATION | Saying they "“found no invasion or predatory incursion” in this case, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that the Trump administration cannot use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to speed the deportation of alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. [more]

U.S. SPACE FORCE | President Donald Trump announced yesterday that the headquarters of the U.S. Space Command will be moved to Huntsville, Alabama, reversing a Biden administration decision to keep the military command headquarters in Colorado. [more]

MINNESOTA | Gov. Tim Walz announced plans yesterday to call a special session of the Minnesota legislature to consider tougher gun laws in the wake of last week's shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis that left two children dead and 21 people injured. [more]

U.S. AND VENEZUELA | President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday that the U.S. military carried out a "lethal strike" on a drug-carrying vessel in the southern Caribbean Sea that departed from Venezuela and was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang. [more]

PAKISTAN | At least 13 people were killed, and 30 others were wounded, last night in a suicide bombing outside a stadium on the outskirts of Quetta, Pakistan, as nationalist party supporters were leaving a rally. No claims of responsibility for the attack have yet been made. [more]

CHINA | About two dozen foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, joined Chinese leader Xi Jinping today to view a major military parade in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. [more]

SYRIA | International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi said this week that the agency detected traces of uranium in soil samples taken from a site in Syria believed to be a part of a clandestine nuclear program under the government of former President Bashar Assad. [more]

AFGHANISTAN | The U.N. humanitarian office, the United Kingdom, and the European Union are among the countries and organizations that have pledged millions of dollars in emergency aid to various relief efforts to help victims of Sunday's earthquake in eastern Afghanistan in which at least 1,400 people were killed. [more]

DATA PRIVACY | The Walt Disney Company will reportedly pay $10 million to settle a U.S. Federal Trade Commission lawsuit that charged the company with violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by allowing the collection of personal data on children under the age of 13. [more]

COLLEGE FOOTBALL | Ohio State tops the AP Top 25 college football poll following the first week of the season, followed by Penn State, LSU, Georgia, and Miami. [full poll] [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1783, representatives of the United States of America and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris, officially ending the American Revolutionary War and recognizing U.S. sovereignty. [more history]