Copyright Just Security
Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here. A curated guide to major news and developments over the weekend. Here’s today’s news: U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS The Senate voted 60-40 on Sunday to move forward toward passing legislation to fund the government and hold a later vote on extending Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire on January 1. The agreement is a step toward ending the government shutdown, but does not guarantee that the health care subsidies will be extended. Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro report for AP News. Federal judge Mark L. Wolf warned yesterday of the “existential threat to democracy” posed by the Trump administration, in an essay published in the Atlantic. The essay came two days after an announcement by the Federal District Court for Massachusetts that Wolf was leaving his post. Mattathias Schwartz reports for the New York Times. U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told young lawyers on Friday that Justice Department lawyers are “bouncing around this country fighting these activist judges,” adding “we need you, because it is a war, and it’s something we will not win unless we keep on fighting.” Avery Lotz and Andrew Pantazi report for Axios. Far-right influencers have hinted online that U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Reding Quiñones will pursue charges of a “grand conspiracy” against Trump’s adversaries. The investigation appears to focus in part on a January 2017 intelligence community assessment about Russian interference in the 2016 election, looking particularly at the role played by former CIA director John O. Brennan. Quiñones last week issued more than two dozen subpoenas, according to sources. Glenn Thrush, Alan Feuer, and Charlie Savage report for the New York Times. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS The Department of Agriculture on Saturday told states to only move ahead with partial SNAP payments following the Supreme Court decision on Friday, according to a USDA memo. The memo instructed states to deliver just 65 percent of benefits during the government shutdown. “To the extent States sent full SNAP payment files for November 2025, this was unauthorized. Accordingly, States must immediately undo any steps taken to issue full SNAP benefits for November 2025,” the memo says. Rachel Shin reports for POLITICO. Trump has pardoned several allies who backed his efforts to subvert the 2020 election, according to Justice Department Pardon Attorney Ed Martin who shared the documents on Sunday night. The pardons are largely symbolic as none of those who were identified in Martin’s post were charged with federal crimes. Kyle Cheney reports for POLITICO. Trump has also approved a pardon for former police officer Michael McMahon who was convicted of acting as an unregistered agent of the Chinese government, conspiracy, and interstate stalking of a family living in New Jersey. Kenneth P. Vogel reports for the New York Times. Ghislaine Maxwell is preparing a commutation application to be reviewed by the Trump administration, according to a document obtained by the House Judiciary Committee Democrats. If approved, Maxwell’s sentence could be significantly reduced. The Supreme Court already rejected Maxwell’s appeal to her conviction; Trump has not ruled out granting her a pardon. Hailey Fuchs reports for POLITICO. Cornell University agreed to pay $30 million to the Trump administration to immediately restore millions in federal funding and settle investigations into Cornell’s response to antisemitic incidents on campus. The school has also agreed to invest $30 million on agricultural and farming technology programs; submit undergraduate admissions data to the administration; and comply with foreign funding reporting requirements. Bianca Quilantan reports for POLITICO. U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS A 3-year old child died as a boat, carrying 21 migrants, capsized off Panama’s Caribbean coast on Sunday, according to Panamanian officials. An official confirmed that the boat was not traveling northward to the United States but in the direction of Colombia. This is the second known case of a child drowning this year on this ‘new migrant route,’ whereby individuals are returning to South America since the Trump administration closed the U.S. border. Panamanian officials say that since late September 14,000 people have travelled in small boats along the coast to avoid passing through the Darien Gap. Annie Correal reports for the New York Times. Naomi Seibt, a prominent far-right German activist, has applied for political asylum in the United States. Kate Brady and Aaron Wiener report for the Washington Post. U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS The Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced yesterday that it would suspend export controls for a year on five critical minerals needed for the manufacture of certain semi-conductors and explosives. On Friday, the Ministry of Commerce suspended export control regulations on rare earth materials as agreed between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the end of October. Keith Bradsher reports for the New York Times. U.S. government officials will not attend this year’s G20 summit in South Africa, Trump said on Friday. “Afrikaners… are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated,” Trump posted on Social Media, adding that “no U.S. Government Official will attend as long as these Human Rights abuses continue.” Faith Wardwell reports for POLITICO. More than $5 billion worth of U.S. weapon exports to support NATO allies and Ukraine have been delayed by the government shutdown, according to a State Department estimate shared with Axios. “This is actually really harming both our allies and partners and US industry to actually deliver a lot of these critical capabilities overseas,” a senior official said. Stef W. Kight reports. The United States on Friday opted out of a regular review of its human rights record at the U.N. Human Rights Council. AP News reports. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Friday condemned the COP30 summit as “essentially a hoax,” adding “It’s not an honest organization looking to better human lives.” A White House spokesperson said regarding COP30 that “President Trump will not jeopardize our country’s economic and national security to pursue vague climate goals that are killing other countries.” Derek Gatopoulos, Theodora Tongas, and Mauricio Savarese report for AP News. GLOBAL AFFAIRS Thailand today threatened to suspend the ceasefire agreement with Cambodia following the explosion of a land mine in the border area that injured two Thai soldiers. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said that the “hostility towards our national security has not decreased as we thought it would,” adding that all action under the U.S.-brokered truce agreement will be halted until Thailand’s demands are met. There was no immediate response from the Cambodian government. Jintamas Saksornchai reports for AP News. Malaysian authorities said today that hundreds of migrants who left western Myanmar about two weeks ago were missing at sea, including dozens who were on a boat that capsized over the weekend. The migrants had initially set off in a wooden boat carrying about 300 people, according to the Langkawi District Police, adding that the passengers were then transferred to two other boats on Thursday. One boat, carrying 70 people, capsized on Saturday. The police have recovered seven bodies and 13 survivors. The other boat, carrying about 230 others, is still missing at the time of writing. Zunaira Saieed and Ashley Ahn report for the New York Times. BBC Director General Tim Davie and CEO Deborah Turness resigned yesterday following a report in the Telegraph last week that the public broadcaster had misleadingly edited a speech by Trump prior to the Jan 6. Capital riot. The Telegraph leaked a BBC internal memo arguing that a BBC Panorama documentary had juxtaposed Trump’s comments in a way that made it sound as though he had explicitly encouraged the attack. Stephen Castle reports for the New York Times. The Saudi Arabian government has disclosed at least 320 executions so far this year. According to human rights group Reprieve, two-thirds of the executions this year have been related to drug offenses. In court documents reviewed by the New York Times, some of those facing the death penalty are low-level smugglers who say they were coerced into carrying drugs. Ismaeel Naar and Vivian Nereim report. A Paris appeal court is considering the request for release of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy Nicholas from prison. The ruling is expected this afternoon. The appeal trial is expected to take place in several months, possibly in spring. Vaux-Montagny and Sylvie Corbet report for AP News. The Serbian Parliament on Friday approved a new law to tear down the former General Staff military complex in Belgrade which was bombed by NATO in 1999 and to replace it with a Trump-branded hotel and apartments. The plans had previously been stalled after Serbian government officials who had endorsed it were charged with fraud. Lara Jakes and Alisa Dogramadzieva report for the New York Times. Syria carried out nationwide operations targeting Islamic State cells, which involved 61 raids and 71 arrests, a Syrian Interior Ministry spokesperson said on Saturday. Timour Azhari reports for Reuters. ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR – CEASEFIRE Over 69,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza, Gaza health officials said on Saturday. The death toll includes bodies recovered from the rubble in Gaza and Palestinians killed by the Israeli army since the ceasefire began on October 10. Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinians on Saturday who approached troops, the Israeli army said in a statement. Israel on Saturday returned the remains of another 15 Palestinians to Gaza, a day after Hamas returned the remains of the deceased hostage, Lior Rudaeff. Wafaa Shurafa, Sally Abou Aljoud, and Julia Frankel report for AP News. The U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Centre in southern Israel replaced Israel as the overseer of humanitarian aid to Gaza on Friday, but the Israelis are still “part of the conversation,” a U.S. official said. The United States has not yet said which of the Israeli restrictions on aid might be lifted or how the CMCC plans to manage aid operations. A statement from COGAT, the unit within the IDF responsible for facilitating aid to Gaza, said that while “the Americans will take the lead…It should be emphasized that this does not constitute a transfer of authority or responsibility from COGAT.” Karen DeYoung, Claire Parker, Alex Horton, and Cate Brown report for the Washington Post. The World Bank supports the U.S.-drafted U.N Security Council resolution on Gaza that would authorize a two-year mandate for a ‘Board of Peace’ transitional governance administration, according to a letter, dated Saturday, seen by Reuters. Michelle Nichols reports. Hamas fighters in Rafah, within the Israeli-controlled area of Gaza, will not surrender to Israel, Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades said yesterday, adding that “the enemy must know that the concept of surrender and handing oneself over does not exist in the dictionary of the Al-Qassam Brigades.” Hamas did not comment directly on continuing U.S.-led talks over the fighters in Rafah. Nidal Al-Mughrabi reports for Reuters. The Biden administration last year gathered intelligence that Israeli military lawyers were concerned about the legality of the tactics being used by Israel’s army in the war in Gaza, which could support charges of war crimes against Israel, according to five former U.S. officials. The intelligence prompted an interagency meeting at the National Security Council in late 2024 where officials and lawyers debated how to respond. Three former officials said that U.S.-lawyers concluded that it was still legal for the U.S. to continue supporting Israel with weapons and intelligence because the U.S. had not gathered its own evidence that Israel was violating the law of armed conflict. Erin Banco, Jonathan Landay, and Humeyra Pamuk report for Reuters. WEST BANK VIOLENCE The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday that Israeli settlers carried out at least 264 attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in October. OCHA added that this amounts to an average of eight incidents per day and marks the biggest monthly total since the U.N. began tracking such incidents in 2006. Michelle Nichols reports for Reuters. RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR – INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE President Donald Trump granted Hungary a one-year exemption from U.S. sanctions on Russian oil, following a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the White House on Friday. Hungary also agreed to buy liquefied natural gas from the United States, according to a State Department fact sheet. Erica L. Green reports for the New York Times. SUDANESE CIVIL WAR Last week, the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces paramilitary announced it had agreed to a humanitarian truce proposed by the United States, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. The Sudanese government’s ambassador to South Africa said on Friday it was too early for his country to agree to the plan, adding “we had many truces at the beginning of the war but every time there was no respect from the [RSF].” Residents in Khartoum told AFP News Agency that they heard the sounds of drones and explosions early on Friday morning. Barbara Plett Usher and Mayeni Jones report for BBC News. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday evening temporarily halted a lower court order that would have required the Trump administration to fund SNAP payments in full. Tony Romm and Abbie VanSickle report for the New York Times. A federal appeals court on Sunday night declined to block an order from a district court judge requiring the Trump administration from paying SNAP payments in full for November. The ruling is on hold due to an earlier order from the Supreme Court on Friday. Josh Gerstein reports for POLITICO. A federal judge ruled on Friday that Trump overstepped his authority when he sought to deploy the National Guard troops to Portland for the stated purpose of protecting the ICE office, issuing a permanent block on troop deployment. Anna Griffin reports for the New York Times. A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Education Department had violated the First Amendment rights of furloughed workers by using their work email accounts to send partisan messages blaming Democratic lawmakers for the government shutdown. Chris Cameron reports for the New York Times. Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions If you enjoy listening, Just Security’s analytic articles are also available in audio form on the justsecurity.org website.
