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A curated guide to major news and developments over the past weekend. Here’s today’s news:
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — AID SUPPLY CRISIS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military yesterday announced Israel would suspend its armed activity in parts of Gaza from 10AM to 8PM “until further notice” to allow in a “minimal humanitarian supply.” The military also said that safe routes for aid convoys will be opened. The U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher, yesterday confirmed that over 100 truckloads of aid were delivered to Gaza. The Israeli air force also resumed airdrops of aid, the military said, while Jordan and the United Arab Emirates parachuted 25 tons of aid into Gaza yesterday. Aaron Boxerman reports for the New York Times; Feliz Solomon reports for the Wall Street Journal; Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Charlotte Greenfield, and Dawoud Abu Alkas report for Reuters.
The Israeli military never found proof that Hamas had systematically stolen aid from the United Nations, according to two senior Israeli military officials and two other Israeli sources. The U.N. aid delivery mechanisms were largely effective in providing food to Gaza’s population, the military officials added. For the past two years, the Israeli government has relied on Hamas’ alleged aid theft as its main rationale for restricting food from entering Gaza, with the claim echoed by President Trump as recently as yesterday. This news follows Friday’s report that an internal U.S. government review found no evidence of widespread theft by Hamas of the U.S.-funded aid. Natan Odenheimer reports for the New York Times; Maureen Chowdhury reports for CNN.
Israeli soldiers killed 12 Palestinians and injured more than 100 others as they sought to collect food aid from a distribution point in central Gaza yesterday, according to the Al-Awda Hospital. It was unclear whether the incident occurred before Israel’s “tactical pause” in fighting came into effect. The IDF said its troops fired “warning shots” and that it is “not aware of any casualties.” Ibrahim Dahman, Tim Lister, Dana Karni, and Mohammed Tawfeeq report for CNN.
The malnutrition in Gaza has reached “alarming levels” in July, with rates on a “dangerous territory” amid an “entirely preventable” crisis, the World Health Organization said yesterday. Netanyahu yesterday reasserted his claim that “there is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.” According to the Hamas-run health ministry, 14 people have died from malnourishment in Gaza in the past 24 hours. Mitchell McCluskey reports for CNN; Dana Karnl reports for CNN; BBC News reports.
The International Rescue Committee’s Senior Vice President of International Programs, Ciarán Donnelly, yesterday described the focus on air drops of aid into Gaza as a “grotesque distraction,” saying that air drops would “never deliver the volume or the quality” of aid needed. BBC Verify found evidence that aid had fallen into areas that Israel has declared “dangerous” combat zones. Joe Inwood reports for BBC News.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
Dozens of ministers are set to gather at the United Nations today for a delayed conference on laying out the parameters for a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. The United States and Israel are boycotting the event. Michelle Nichols reports for Reuters.
Trump on Friday said that he believes that Israel should “fight” and “clean it up” to “finish the job” and “get rid of Hamas,” stating that he thinks that Hamas “want to die.” Yesterday, Trump also said Washington would provide more humanitarian aid to Gaza, but wanted other countries to participate as well. Separately, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a group of hostage families on Friday that the United States needs to “do some serious rethinking” of its Gaza strategy. Barak Ravid reports for Axios; Andrew Gray, Andrea Shalal, and Kanishka Singh report for Reuters.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Hamas’ Qatar-based lead negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya yesterday blamed Israel and the United States for stalling Gaza ceasefire talks, saying that Hamas demonstrated “every possible flexibility” and the starvation crisis in the territory meant there is “no point in continuing negotiations” at present. Abeer Salman and Mohammed Tawfeeq report for CNN.
An Israeli airstrike hit a residential apartment in western Gaza City yesterday during the humanitarian pause on military activity, killing two people, according to BBC Verify and local journalists. Rushdi Abualouf reports for BBC News.
The Israeli navy this weekend intercepted a Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship aiming to bring aid to Gaza, Israeli officials and pro-Palestinian activists said. Pranav Baskar reports for the New York Times.
THAILAND-CAMBODIA CONFLICT
The leaders of Cambodia and Thailand today arrived in Malaysia for talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in their border conflict, a Malaysian official said. The ambassadors to Malaysia of the United States and China were also present at the meeting, the official added. The conflict, now in its fifth day, has killed at least 35 people and displaced more than 218,000. Huey Mun Leong and Danial Azhar report for Reuters; Jintamas Saksornchai and Sopheng Cheang report for AP News.
Trump yesterday said that he told the prime ministers of Thailand and Cambodia that there would be no talks on reducing the 36% trade tariffs he has imposed on them unless they end the fighting. Separately, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that U.S. diplomats are in Malaysia to help broker a ceasefire. Jonathan Head and Dearbail Jordan report for BBC News; Edward Wong and Sui-Lee Wee report for the New York Times.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
The Kremlin on Friday ruled out any meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the last stages of signing a peace deal, rebuffing Zelenskyy’s Thursday call for a meeting. Robyn Dixon, Natalia Abbakumova, and Alex Horton report for the Washington Post.
A Russian overnight air attack wounded eight residents of an apartment building in Kyiv, local authorities said today. Valentyn Ogirenko, Gleb Garanich, and Max Hunder report for Reuters.
The European Union on Friday said that it would suspend the payment of 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) in good governance aid to Ukraine due to Kyiv falling short on three of 16 governance benchmarks. The suspension was not directly connected to the Ukrainian lawmakers’ passing of a bill that would impede the independence of two anticorruption agencies. Andrew E. Kramer reports for the New York Times.
SYRIA
Syria will hold its first parliamentary elections since the fall of the Assad government in September, the chairman of the Higher Committee for People’s Assembly Elections told state news agency SANA yesterday. Under Syria’s interim constitution, a third of the 210 seats will be appointed by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, with the rest to be elected. AP News reports.
GLOBAL AFFAIRS
A Rapid Support Forces-led alliance of paramilitaries in Sudan on Saturday announced the formation of a parallel government in areas under the groups’ control. Samy Magdy reports for AP News.
Islamic State-affiliated fighters killed at least 34 people in an attack on a Catholic church in eastern Congo yesterday, according to a local civil society leader. Justin Kabumba, Ope Adetayo, and Jeans-Yves Kamale report for AP News.
At least 652 children died from malnutrition in the Nigerian state of Katsina in the first six months of 2025, the Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) said on Friday, pointing to funding cuts by international donors. Reuters reports.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The United States and the European Union yesterday concluded a framework trade agreement, avoiding the prospect of a transatlantic trade war. The deal imposes a 15% import tariff on most EU goods, and includes plans for the EU to invest approximately $600 billion in the United States and dramatically increase its purchases of U.S. energy and military equipment. Andrew Gray and Andrea Shalal report for Reuters.
The United States and Qatar are finalizing the deal for Qatar to “donate” a Boeing 747-8 aircraft for the Department of Defense to use as Air Force One, months after the Pentagon first said that such a deal was complete, multiple sources say. According to the New York Times’ analysis, the Pentagon appears to be using funding from the U.S. nuclear upgrades program to retrofit the plane. Noah Robertson reports for the Washington Post; David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt report.
The Trump administration has made a “preliminary decision” to destroy a stockpile of U.S.-funded “certain abortifacient birth control commodities” worth about $9.7 million, a State Department spokesperson said. According to documents reviewed by the Washington Post, the stockpile includes more than 50,000 intrauterine devices, nearly 2 million doses of injectable contraceptives, nearly 900,000 implantable contraceptive devices, and more than 2 million packets of oral birth control. Maham Javaid, Joyce Sohyun Lee, and Meg Kelly report.
A State Department official reportedly told U.S. diplomats in South Africa earlier this month that only white people can apply for Trump’s refugee program for Afrikaners after the diplomats asked Washington to clarify whether non-white people can apply under the scheme, sources say. The State Department has since described the scope of the policy as encompassing both white Afrikaners and other racial minorities. Ted Hesson, Humeyra Pamuk, and Kristina Cooke report for Reuters.
U.S. forces on Friday killed a senior Islamic State leader and two other ISIS insurgents in a northwestern Syria raid, the Pentagon’s Central Command said in a statement. Eric Schmitt reports for the New York Times.
The United States and China will today resume talks in Stockholm in an attempt to ease trade tensions and extend tariff truce by 90 days, sources say. David Lawder reports for Reuters.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
A second whistleblower has disclosed documents appearing to show that Emil Bove suggested DOJ officials could ignore court orders during a contentious legal battle to the DOJ Office of the Inspector General. “I think it would be incredibly dangerous for someone like that to have a lifetime appointment as a federal appellate judge,” the whistleblower, a former DOJ attorney in the Office of Immigration Litigation, said. Annie Grayer reports for CNN.
Democracy Defenders Fund has filed an expansive Freedom of Information Act request with the Justice Department and FBI, demanding the release of all Epstein-related files reviewed by top DOJ officials, as well as any communications about how DOJ officials should “approach or address references to Donald Trump or Mar-a-Lago” appearing in the Epstein files. Adam Wren and Dasha Burn report for POLITICO.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
The White House has directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to stop using polygraph tests to search for people leaking information to the news after Hegseth’s senior adviser raised alarm about being targeted, according to U.S. officials and other sources. Hegseth previously also threatened to use a polygraph on Navy Adm. Christopher Grady, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Army Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims, the director of the Joint Staff. Despite intervention from Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Dan Caine and senior Pentagon officials, Hegseth has since decided to bypass promoting Sims to a four-star general due to Sims’ closeness to Gen. Mark Milley and suspecting, without evidence, that Sims might be leaking information. Sims is now expected to retire in the coming months after 34 years in the military, officials said. Dan Lamothe and Ellen Nakashima report for the Washington Post; Greg Jaffe, Eric Schmitt, and Helene Cooper report for the New York Times.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to remove all members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an advisory panel that determines what cancer screenings and other preventive health measures insurers must cover, sources say. Liz Essley Whyte reports for the Wall Street Journal.
DOGE is using a new AI tool to slash federal regulations, with the goal of eliminating half of Washington’s regulatory mandates by January 2026, according to documents obtained by the Washington Post and four government officials. According to the documents, the tool has already been used to complete “decisions on 1,083 regulatory sections” at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in under two weeks, and to write “100% of deregulations” at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Hannah Natanson, Jeff Stein, Dan Diamond, and Rachel Siegel report.
The Trump administration plans to release more than $5 billion in funding to public schools after withholding it for nearly a month amid a review of whether the grants have been used for “radical left-wing agenda,” a senior administration official said on Friday. Justine McDaniel and Laura Meckler report for the Washington Post.
FEMA has proposed cutting nearly $1 billion in grant funding that communities and first responders use for disaster preparation and countering possible terror or cyberattacks, according to internal memos and two FEMA officials familiar with the plans. Gabe Cohen reports for CNN.
Nearly 4,000 NASA employees have chosen to leave through the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program, the space agency said on Saturday. The cuts amount to an estimated 20% of NASA’s workforce. Chandelis Duster reports for NPR.
The State Department on Friday announced that Darren Beattie will serve as the acting president of the U.S. Institute of Peace. Beattie was fired from his job as a speechwriter during the first Trump administration for speaking at a conference attended by white nationalists. Jacob Wendler reports for POLITICO.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
A federal judge on Friday dismissed the Trump administration’s challenge to Illinois and Chicago’s “sanctuary” policies, ruling that the government’s attempt to force states into aiding its deportation agenda would encroach on autonomy guaranteed to states under the Tenth Amendment. Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein report for POLITICO.
A third federal judge on Friday issued a decision blocking the Trump administration from ending birthright citizenship. The court found that a nationwide injunction granted to more than a dozen states remains in force under an exception that the Supreme Court allowed. Michael Casey reports for AP News.
A federal district judge in New York on Friday issued a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration’s mass cancellation of National Endowment for the Humanities grants, ruling that the “defendants terminated the grants based on the recipients’ perceived viewpoint, in an effort to drive such views out of the marketplace of ideas.” Gary Fields reports for AP News.
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