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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 — INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
France will recognize Palestine as a state, French President Emmanuel Macron announced yesterday. In a social media post, Macron said that he would formalize the decision at the U.N. General Assembly in September and that “the urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved.” Separately, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he would hold an emergency call with France and Germany over the situation in Gaza. Angela Charlton reports for AP News; Reuters reports.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today urged Israel to “immediately” meet its international law obligations by allowing food into Gaza, adding that the situation in the territory has “gone beyond the world’s worst fears” and “Israel’s denial of aid and the killing of civilians, including children, seeking access to water and food cannot be defended or ignored.” Laura Sharman and Angus Watson report for CNN.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — U.S. RESPONSE
The United States is recalling its negotiating team from Doha, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said, as the latest response from Hamas “clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire.” The United States “will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza,” Witkoff added. Israel has also recalled its negotiating team to put additional pressure on Hamas, an Israeli source said, adding that the talks “did not collapse.” Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood report for CNN; Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
The United States “strongly rejects” France’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday, stating that France’s “reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace.” Jennifer Hansler reports for CNN.
A U.S. Agency for International Development assessment completed in late June found no evidence of systematic theft of U.S.-funded humanitarian supplies by Hamas, according to a findings presentation seen by Reuters. The analysis challenges the main rationale Israel and the U.S. presented for backing the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s militarised aid supply model. A State Department spokesperson disputed the analysis, accusing aid groups of covering up “aid corruption.” Jonathan Landay reports.
The United States will not attend the upcoming U.N. conference on the Israel-Palestine two-state solution, a State Department spokesperson said yesterday. Reuters reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — AID SUPPLY CRISIS
BBC News, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, and Reuters are “desperately concerned for [their] journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families,” the news agencies said in a joint statement yesterday, “once again” urging Israel to “allow journalists in and out of Gaza.” Amy Walker reports for BBC News.
Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF) charity today said it is witnessing “catastrophic levels of malnutrition” in Gaza, with 25% of children and pregnant women screened by MSF clinics suffering malnutrition. “What is happening in Gaza is the deliberate starvation of people, manufactured by the Israeli authorities,” the MSF statement reads. Separately, the U.N. aid agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) said that 20% of children in Gaza are malnourished, with cases increasing every day. BBC News reports; Aoife Walsh and Paulin Kola report for BBC News.
SYRIA
Senior Israeli and Syrian ministers yesterday met in Paris for a four-hour-long discussion on deescalating tensions, brokered by the United States. Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
Saudi Arabia yesterday announced it would invest $6.4 billion in Syria, in a sign of deepening relations between Riyadh and Damascus. Christina Goldbaum and Ismaeel Naar report for the New York Times.
A series of fires and explosions at military bases and weapons storage sites in Syria this month has raised concerns about whether caches of unexploded ordnance from Syria’s civil war located close to civilian areas have been properly secured. An explosion at a military base in north-western Syria yesterday killed at least six people and injured more than 100, according to the Syrian Civil Defense rescue teams. Raja Abdulrahim and Muhammad Haj Kadour report for the New York Times.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
The Netherlands and 40 other Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) member states have formally called for an independent investigation into the allegations of torture and mistreatment of Ukrainian POWs by the Russian forces, Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp announced yesterday. Veldkamp did not specify which countries joined the Netherlands’ request. Reuters reports.
SpaceX’s Starlink systems used by the Ukrainian forces were down for two and a half hours overnight into today due to a global outage of the system, a senior commander said. Max Hunder reports for Reuters.
GLOBAL AFFAIRS
Thailand and Cambodia exchanged heavy artillery fire for a second day today, amid fighting over a disputed border area that intensified despite international calls for a ceasefire. According to Thailand’s health ministry, more than 15 people have been killed on the Thai side, and more than 131,000 people in Thailand have been displaced since the fighting started. Shoon Naing and Artorn Pookasook report for Reuters; Sun Narin, Francesca Regalado, and Phuriphat Dejsuphong report for the New York Times.
Thailand has rejected mediation efforts from third countries to end the ongoing conflict with Cambodia and considers that the situation can be resolved only through bilateral talks, the Thai foreign minister said today. Panu Wongcha-um reports for Reuters.
The International Criminal Court judges yesterday convicted two men of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to their leadership of Christian-dominated militias in a campaign of violence against Muslims in the Central African Republic in 2013 and 2014. Reuters reports.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The White House will allow Chevron to pump oil in Venezuela, sources say, adding that while the details of the agreement are still unclear, the reversal in the White House’s policy toward Caracas follows last week’s prisoner swap and recent discussions involving Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Alex Leary, Vera Bergengruen, and Kejal Vyas report for the Wall Street Journal.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) yesterday cast the tiebreaking vote to advance Mike Waltz’s nomination for the post of the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., stating that in exchange for her vote, she was given an assurance that the administration would release $75 million in frozen aid funds for Haiti and Nigeria. Hans Nichols reports for Axios.
The United States yesterday lifted its sanctions designations on several allies of Myanmar’s ruling generals, two weeks after the head of the ruling junta praised Trump and called for the sanctions to be eased. The Treasury Department did not explain the reason for the move. David Brunnstrom reports for Reuters.
The United States has ignored Brazil’s attempts to negotiate the 50% tariff on Brazilian imports that Trump has threatened to impose, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said yesterday. AP News reports.
Nearly every EU country, save for Hungary, yesterday voted in favour of a plan for the EU to retaliate against U.S. tariffs if a trade deal is not agreed. Liz Alderman reports for the New York Times.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
The Supreme Court yesterday paused an appeals court ruling that would sharply curtail the Voting Rights Act by limiting who can sue to enforce protections against racial discrimination. Three of the court’s conservative justices, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, said they would have allowed the ruling to go into effect. Abbie VanSickle reports for the New York Times.
Lt. Col. Michael Schrama on Wednesday became the fifth judge to oversee the long-running terrorism case against men suspected of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks detained at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Carol Rosenberg reports for the New York Times.
A district judge yesterday sentenced an Arizona woman to more than eight years in prison for helping North Korean workers obtain remote jobs at U.S. companies using false identities in a scheme that generated more than $17 million, mostly for Pyongyang. Frances Vinall reports for the Washington Post.
The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday voted along party lines to proceed with Jeanine Pirro’s nomination to be the top federal prosecutor in the D.C. Hailey Fuchs reports for POLITICO.
The Senate yesterday voted 50-48 to advance Emil Bove’s nomination to a federal appellate court in a procedural vote, setting up a possible move to confirm him as early as next week. John Crawley reports for Bloomberg Law.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
In the first action of its kind, a Venezuelan man yesterday filed an administrative complaint with the Homeland Security Department, seeking $1.3 million in monetary damages for what he contends was the federal employees’ wrongful removal of him to El Salvador’s CECOT prison without cause or due process. “I want to clear my name,” the man said, adding that “he is not a bad person” and has no connection to the Tren de Aragua gang. Jan Wolfe reports for Reuters; Jazmine Ulloa reports for the New York Times.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
The White House is seeking payment of fines from Harvard, Cornell, Duke, Northwestern, and Brown universities in exchange for allowing them to access federal funding, a source says. According to a White House official, the demands mirror the $200 million deal the Trump administration struck with Columbia University over Columbia’s alleged failures to stop antisemitism on campus. Natalie Andrews, Douglas Belkin, and Sara Randazzo report for the Wall Street Journal.
The Federal Communications Commission yesterday announced it will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance after receiving assurances that the new company would be committed to unbiased journalism and would not establish programs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. A Democratic FCC Commissioner, Anna Gomez, said that the agency had used “its vast power” to “further erode press freedom” and impose “never-before-seen controls over newsroom decisions and editorial judgment.” Benjamin Mullin reports for the New York Times.
Attorney General Pam Bondi yesterday named Trump’s former personal lawyer Alina Habba to the position of chief deputy in the New Jersey U.S. attorney’s office, hours after Habba resigned from her position as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor. Habba will now inherit the title of acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey, according to Justice Department officials and Habba. To carry out the move, Trump withdrew Habba’s nomination for U.S. Attorney due to a statute preventing a nominee from simultaneously holding the acting position. Jeremy Roebuck reports for the Washington Post.
Trump yesterday signed an executive order directing federal agencies to find ways to make it easier to forcibly hospitalize homeless people with mental illness and addiction for longer periods. David Ovalle reports for the Washington Post.
The Pentagon is suspending its participation in all think tanks and research events to ensure that it is “not lending its name and credibility to organizations, forums and events that run counter to the values of this administration,” according to an email seen by POLITICO yesterday. Jack Detsch reports.
The Internal Revenue Service is considering eliminating its multi-language services, according to records seen by the Washington Post and sources. The move would make it dramatically more difficult for non-English speakers to file their taxes. Jacob Bogage reports.
The U.S. Agriculture Department will move most of its D.C.-based employees out of the capital and spread them across five regional hubs, the agency announced yesterday. Linda Qiu reports for the New York Times.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
FEMA’s former Chief Operating Officer, Mary Comans, yesterday filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration claiming her being fired was illegal. In her filing, Comans argues that the administrative body designated to hear cases of workers seeking reinstatement, the Merit System Protections Board, has become so dysfunctional that it no longer provides an effective remedy. Eileen Sullivan reports for the New York Times.
Former Jan. 6 prosecutor Michael Gordon, press aide Patty Hartman, and Joseph Tirrell, who headed the DOJ’s Departmental Ethics Office, yesterday sued Attorney General Pam Bondi over their terminations from the Justice Department. Ryan J. Reilly reports for NBC News.The Justice Department yesterday sued New York City and its leaders over allegedly failing to fulfil its obligations to assist in federal immigration enforcement by operating as a sanctuary city. Shayna Jacobs reports for the Washington Post.
Did you miss this? Stay up-to-date with our Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions
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ICYMI: yesterday on Just Security
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Congress Shrinking from the World: the Constitution’s Article I in the Shadow of Trump 2.0
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