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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — AID SUPPLY CRISIS
More than 110 aid and rights agencies today issued a joint statement “sounding the alarm to allow life-saving aid” into Gaza due to “mass starvation” spreading across the territory. “With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes,” the statement reads, as “tons of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items and fuel sit untouched with humanitarian organisations blocked from accessing or delivering them.” Daphne Psaledakis reports for Reuters.
33 people in Gaza had died from malnutrition in the last 48 hours, including 13 children, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry said yesterday. Separately, the U.N. yesterday said that the Israeli military has now killed a total of 1,054 Palestinians seeking aid since the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution system began on May 27. David Gritten and Rushdi Abualouf report for BBC News.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the largest independent aid organisations in Gaza, yesterday told Reuters that some of its staff in the territory are starving, with the Council’s secretary-general accusing Israel of “want[ing] to paralyse our work” by blocking the entry of aid. Separately, the head of the U.N. aid agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) said that its staff, as well as doctors and humanitarian workers, were fainting on duty in Gaza due to hunger and exhaustion. Olivia Le Poidevin reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
Gaza is seeing “a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times,” with “starvation knocking on every door” as the humanitarian system “built on humanitarian principles … is being denied the conditions to function,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told the U.N. Security Council yesterday. BBC News reports.
U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff will meet with Qatari and Israeli officials in Rome tomorrow to continue negotiations over the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, sources say. The meeting will take place in parallel with indirect Hamas-Israel negotiations in Qatar. If sufficient progress is made, Witkoff will travel from Rome to Doha to try and seal the deal, U.S. and Israeli sources add. Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
“All options remain on the table” if Israel does not deliver on its pledge to expand aid access to Gaza, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas said yesterday, adding that she spoke with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar “to recall our understanding on aid flow and made clear that IDF must stop killing people at distribution points.” Reuters reports.
The Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency yesterday called on Israel to allow the immediate evacuation of its freelance contributors and their families from Gaza, citing the “appalling situation” in the territory and the “extreme difficulty of leaving a territory under strict blockade.” Reuters reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks are stalled over control of humanitarian aid distribution in Gaza, with Hamas insisting that the U.N. and the Palestinian Red Crescent control all the aid supply into the territory and the GHF is cut out entirely from distribution, Arab mediators say. Summer Said, Jared Malsin, and Saleh al-Batati report for the Wall Street Journal.
Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 21 people late yesterday and early today, according to Gaza’s health authorities. AP News reports.
SYRIA
Senior U.S., Israeli, and Syrian officials are expected to meet tomorrow as part of an effort to avoid new crises and reach security understandings on southern Syria, according to a U.S. official and another source. The meeting, chaired by the U.S. Special Envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, would be the first between the parties since the crisis in Suweida province began. Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
Special Envoy Barrack yesterday told Reuters that he had advised Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to recalibrate his policies and embrace a more inclusive approach to integrating minorities into governance or risk losing international support for Damascus. Samia Nakhoul and Maya Gebeily report.
Medics at Suweida’s National Hospital say that Syrian government troops carried out a “massacre” and “killed scores of patients, from the very young to the very old” during sectarian unrest in the area last week. The Syrian defense ministry yesterday said that it is aware of “shocking violations” by people wearing military fatigues in the city. Jon Donnison reports for BBC News.
The killings of more than 1,400 people in sectarian violence in March 2025 were “not organized” or directly ordered by Syria’s military leaders, according to findings released by a Syrian commission of inquiry yesterday. According to Hiba Zayadin, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, the findings fall short of confronting the “deeper systemic failures” that enabled the killings to happen, including “the lack of accountability at command level.” Euan Ward reports for the New York Times.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Ukraine urgently needs the United States and Europe to transfer more air defense systems and missiles to Kyiv, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, told the Washington Post. Russia is targeting “virtually everything,” Syrsky said, so Ukraine needs “supplies of ballistic missiles … to give the enemy a fitting rebuff.” Siobhán O’Grady and Serhii Korolchuk report.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to sign a bill that critics say weakens the independence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies yesterday sparked the biggest anti-government protest since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022. In an address today, Zelenskyy said that the anti-corruption agencies would still “work” but needed to be cleared of “Russian influence.” Vitaly Shevchenko reports for BBC News.
GLOBAL AFFAIRS
The International Court of Justice will today hand down its advisory opinion on countries’ international law obligations to protect the planet from greenhouse gas emissions and the legal consequences for countries that harm the climate. While non-binding, the opinion is likely to influence future global climate litigation. Stephanie van den Berg reports for Reuters.
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba today denied reports that he plans to announce his resignation in the wake of his party’s historic defeat in the weekend election, saying that he wants to focus on overseeing the implementation of the U.S.-Japan trade deal. Mari Yamaguchi reports for AP News.
Many recent explosions and fires across Iran may have been acts of sabotage, and not a coincidence or the fault of aging infrastructure, according to three Iranian officials and a European official. Iranian authorities publicly cited other causes for the string of explosions, including gas leaks, garbage fires, and old infrastructure. Farnaz Fassihi and Erika Solomon report for the New York Times.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Trump “has decided to withdraw the United States from UNESCO — which supports woke, divisive cultural and social causes,” a White House spokesperson said yesterday. The United States will remain a full member of the U.N. cultural agency until its withdrawal takes effect on Dec. 31, 2026, the State Department added. Amy B Wang reports for the Washington Post.
In a social media post, the State Department yesterday claimed that thousands of people in Europe are being convicted for criticizing their governments, appearing to link the claim to the Digital Services Act, the EU’s tech and social media rulebook. Seb Starcevic reports for POLITICO.
Trump yesterday announced that the United States has concluded trade deals placing a 15% tax on goods imported from Japan and a 19% tariff on imports from the Philippines. Josh Boak reports for AP News; Didi Tang and Michelle L. Price report for AP News.
Chinese and U.S. officials will meet in Stockholm next week to discuss extending the deadline for negotiating a trade deal, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced yesterday. David Lawder, Susan Heavey, and Andrea Shalal report for Reuters.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
The heads of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, Reps. John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), have written to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to stress their strong support for the AUKUS submarine project, currently under Pentagon review. David Brunnstrom reports for Reuters.
House Speaker Mike Johnson yesterday announced that he was cutting short the House’s legislative business, starting the summer recess a day early in a bid to deny Democrats the chance to force procedural votes that would call on the Justice Department to publish information related to the accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Annie Karni and Michael Gold report for the New York Times.
The Senate yesterday voted 50-48 to advance Emil Bove’s confirmation to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Hailey Fuchs report for POLITICO.
TECH DEVELOPMENTS
Three Chinese hacking groups have been involved in the sweeping cyberattack aimed at Microsoft SharePoint’s vulnerabilities since at least July 7, the tech company confirmed in a blog post yesterday. According to U.S. officials, federal investigators believe multiple U.S. government agencies are among the victims of the ongoing cyber exploitation campaign, although the full scope of the breach is not yet clear. John Sakellariadis and Dana Nickel report for POLITICO.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
The Homeland Security Investigations arm of ICE last week arrested Pierre Reginald Boulos, one of the wealthiest and most powerful figures in Haiti, the Homeland Security Department announced. In its statement, the DHS accused Boulos of “supporting and collaborating with Haitian gang leaders.” Frances Robles and Hamed Aleaziz report for the New York Times.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
Federal judges in New Jersey yesterday refused to appoint Trump’s pick for U.S. Attorney in the state, Alina Habba, in a brief order that did not explain the reasoning behind the decision and selected Desiree Leigh Grace, a career prosecutor whom Habba had named as her first assistant, as Habba’s replacement. Hours after the order was issued, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced she had “removed” Grace. Senior Justice Department officials announced they had reinstated Habba. In her statement, Bondi accused the judges of being “politically minded” and said that the DOJ “does not tolerate rogue judges — especially when they threaten the president’s core Article II powers.” Jeremy Roebuck reports for the Washington Post; Ry Rivard and Madison Fernandez report for POLITICO.
The NPR Editor-in-Chief and Acting Chief Content Officer, Edith Chapin, yesterday told colleagues that she has decided to step down. Chapin said that her choice was not driven by the Congress’s recent decision to strip public broadcasting of all federal funding. David Folkenflik reports for NPR.
The Environmental Protection Agency has reportedly drafted a plan to repeal the 2009 “endangerment finding,” a fundamental scientific finding that gives the federal government authority to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions and fight climate change, sources say. Lisa Friedman reports for the New York Times.
The White House is expanding its search for partners to build the Golden Dome missile defense system, with Trump’s tensions with Elon Musk making the administration wary of over-reliance on SpaceX, sources say. Mike Stone reports for Reuters.
More than 140 National Science Foundation employees have signed a letter expressing “deep concern over a series of politically motivated and legally questionable actions” that “threaten the integrity of the NSF” taken by the Trump administration. Alexa Robles-Gil reports for the New York Times.
The inclusion of Elon Musk’s xAI on the list of the Pentagon’s multimillion-dollar AI contracts intended to “address critical national security challenges” was a late-in-the-game addition under the Trump administration, according to a former defense official. David Ingram and Ben Goggin report for NBC News.
The White House intends to bring a second rescission request to Congress, targeting the Education Department, according to a White House aide. Calen Razor, Juan Perez Jr., and Eli Stokols report for POLITICO.
The Labor Department is aiming to repeal or rewrite more than 60 “obsolete” and “burdensome” workplace regulations, including minimum wage requirements for home health care workers and people with disabilities or standards governing exposure to harmful substances, according to a statement from the agency and the proposals posted in the Federal Register. Cathy Bussewitz reports for AP News.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
An appeals court yesterday denied CASA’s emergency motion to postpone the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for migrants from Afghanistan and Cameroon while proceedings are pending, stating that while CASA made a plausible claim that the termination was “preordained,” there is insufficient evidence to warrant the grant of a preliminary injunction.
An appeals court yesterday unanimously stayed a lower court ruling that had ordered the reinstatement of former FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter.
A group of immigrants filed a complaint yesterday challenging the administration’s practice of dismissing immigration cases and initiating arrests shortly after, arguing the actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act and Due Process.
Various school districts and teacher organizations filed a complaint yesterday challenging the administration’s withholding of funds appropriated under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
A U.S.-based juice company on Friday filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade against Trump’s pledge to impose a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports starting next month, arguing that justifications for the measure cited by Trump do not meet the legal threshold to trigger the president’s powers to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. Alicia Chen reports for the New York Times.
Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions
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