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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments in the last 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
U.S. Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and President Trump on Monday discussed plans for the United States to “take over” providing aid to Gaza because Israel is not handling it adequately, according to two U.S. officials and an Israeli official. Israel supports the plan to increase the United States’ role, according to the officials. Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo report for Axios.
Trump yesterday said that the United States would not interfere with Israel’s decision on whether to occupy more of Gaza, stating that the call on potentially expanding military operations there is “pretty much up to Israel.” Dov Lieber reports for the Wall Street Journal.
U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca yesterday called the Israeli government’s reported plans to expand Israel’s military operations in Gaza “deeply alarming,” telling the Security Council that such a move would risk catastrophic consequences … and could further endanger the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza.” David Brunnstrom reports for Reuters.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, has presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other security and defense officials with options “for continuing the campaign in Gaza,” Netanyahu’s office said yesterday. According to Israeli media reports, Zamir, who previously signaled his opposition to conquering Gaza, reportedly told ministers that full occupation would endanger the remaining hostages and exhaust the army. Shira Rubin, Lior Soroka, and Abbie Cheeseman report for the Washington Post; BBC News reports.
Four aid trucks that overturned onto a crowd close to midnight yesterday killed 20 Palestinians and injured 30 others, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said, adding that the “rugged” road on which the incident occurred was under Israeli military control. Separately, the Hamas-run health ministry said it had recorded five deaths as a result of malnutrition in the last 24 hours. Malak Hassouneh reports for BBC News.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Russian President Vladimir Putin sees Trump’s threatened U.S. sanctions as likely manageable, and retains the goal of capturing Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions in their entirety, according to sources close to the Kremlin. Darya Korsunskaya, Andrew Osborn, and Mark Trevelyan report for Reuters.
Denmark, Sweden, and Norway yesterday agreed to fund a $500 million package of U.S. arms for Ukraine. The Nordic countries’ move, which follows the Netherlands’ Monday announcement that it would fund a separate $500 million package, brings the total declared value of European-funded arms for Kyiv to approximately $1 billion. Daniel Michaels and Lara Seligman report for the Wall Street Journal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday thanked Trump for a “productive” phone call. According to a Ukrainian source, during the call the two leaders agreed that targeting Russia’s sales of oil to India, China, and other countries could create enough pressure for Putin to change his mindset about the war, and Trump told Zelensky that Witkoff is visiting Moscow at the Kremlin’s request. Laura Gozzi reports for BBC News; Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
Russian strikes killed two people and wounded ten others in Ukraine’s frontline Zaporizhzhia region, Governor Ivan Fedorov said today. According to a BBC Verify analysis, Russia has more than doubled the volume of drones and missiles fired towards Ukraine since Trump’s January return to office, with attacks peaking early last month. Reuters reports; Matt Murphy and Ned Davies report.
The Trump administration’s decision not to advance the extensive U.S. sanctions regime built in the first three years of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has allowed the Kremlin to revive its military and prolong the war, Senate Democrats argue in a report published yesterday. Noah Robertson reports for the Washington Post.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Trump will meet with Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev, and Armenia’s Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, on Friday in a bid to broker a stalled peace deal between the two countries, according to White House officials. Natalie Allison reports for the Washington Post.
European lawmakers and NGOs are pressuring the EU and France to prevent the planned incineration of the U.S. Agency for International Development-owned contraceptives worth nearly $10 million currently stored in a Belgian warehouse. Belgium has “initiated diplomatic talks with the U.S. Embassy in Brussels” to explore how the destruction could be avoided, Belgium’s Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Prévot said. Victor Goury-Laffont and Claudia Chiappa report for POLITICO.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) yesterday announced that he had filed a lawsuit asking the Texas Supreme Court to declare that state House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu had relinquished his post by leaving the state in an effort to block a GOP redistricting effort. Wu said his actions were allowed under the state constitution. Separately, Sen John Cornyn (R-TX) asked the FBI to help locate and arrest the Democratic lawmakers, whose departure from the state is an attempt to run down the clock on a GOP attempt to change the state electoral maps. The FBI declined to comment on whether its agents will get involved in the dispute. Zoë Richards reports for NBC News; Patrick Marley, Hannah Knowles, and Molly Hennessy-Fiske report for the Washington Post.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KC) yesterday issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Along with the Epstein documents subpoena, Comer also subpoenaed several high-profile figures, including Bill and Hillary Clinton and former FBI director Robert Mueller. Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing and Kyle Cheney report for POLITICO.
TECH DEVELOPMENTS
U.S. authorities last week arrested two Chinese nationals and charged them with illegally shipping millions of dollars’ worth of Nvidia AI chips to China without the required licences, the Justice Department announced yesterday. Osmond Chia reports for BBC News.
Tech companies’ greenhouse gas emissions are “going through the roof” due to the AI boom and could pose a serious threat to Big Tech’s net zero goals, according to the NewClimate Institute’s June report on the tech sector’s zero emissions targets. Claire Brown reports for the New York Times.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
In at least nine cases, Trump administration officials have separated children from parents who refused to comply with deportation orders, according to internal government documents, case files, and interviews. The resumed practice does not appear to be as widespread as the systematic policy of separation of children from their immigrant parents implemented during Trump’s first term. A DHS spokesperson said that “ICE does not separate families” as “the parents had the right and the ability to depart the country as a family.” Hamed Aleaziz reports for the New York Times.
ICE yesterday announced, and then abruptly cancelled, a pilot program that would offer cash bonuses to agents for deporting people quickly. The email cancelling the program was reportedly sent shortly after the New York Times inquired about the initial announcement. A DHS spokeswoman said the program had not been authorized by agency leaders. Hamed Aleaziz and Nicholas Nehamas report.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
The Trump administration’s cancellation of 1,800 grants for the National Institutes of Health and delays in releasing funds to the agency were unlawful, the Government Accountability Office announced yesterday. The office said the administration violated federal laws which prohibit the president from withholding the authorized money, and that it could not confirm that the money had resumed flowing. Tony Romm reports for the New York Times.
The Health and Human Services Department yesterday announced it would carry out a “coordinated wind-down” of 22 mRNA vaccine technology projects worth $500 million supported by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the government’s biodefense agency. Some late-stage mRNA initiatives will continue to preserve “taxpayer investment,” the HHS added. Carolyn Y. Johnson and Rachel Roubein report for the Washington Post.
The Trump administration has dismissed the five Democrats sitting on Puerto Rico’s federal control board that oversees the U.S. territory’s finances, leaving the body with two sitting members. Commenting on the move, a White House official claimed the board “has been run inefficiently and ineffectively … for far too long.” In a July social media post, far-right activist Laura Loomer claimed that Trump had the power to fire and replace members of the board, The text of Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act states the president can remove members of the board “only for cause.” Dánica Coto reports for AP News; Cristina Corujo and Jennifer Jacobs report for CBS News.
Trump yesterday threatened to have the federal government “take control” of how Washington D.C. “should be run,” citing an attempted carjacking of a vehicle driven by Edward Coristine, a former DOGE staffer known as “Big Balls,” over the weekend. Ben Johansen and Sophia Cai report for POLITICO.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will likely disburse the delayed $140 million in funds for state and local public health departments working to lower drug overdose deaths, according to a senior CDC official. Previously frozen funding for other CDC programs, including rape and domestic violence prevention, will also be released, the official said. Selena Simmons-Duffin and Brian Mann report for NPR.
The Trump administration yesterday officially ended a requirement for federal employees to summarize five weekly achievements in emails, according to a White House and Office of Personnel Management official. The mandate was originally introduced by Elon Musk, the then-head of DOGE, and has already been phased out by many agencies. Alexandra Alper reports for Reuters.
Defense Department officials attending this week’s Space and Missile Defense Symposium are prohibited from discussing the nascent Golden Dome missile shield outside a briefing dedicated to the program under a directive issued by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office. The Symposium typically showcases the Pentagon’s missile defense priorities. Joe Gould and Jack Detsch report for POLITICO.
Columbia University and Brown University will provide the Trump administration with data on accepted and rejected applicants broken down by “race, color, grade point average and performance on standardized tests,” according to settlements the schools concluded with the federal government. Sharon Otterman and Anemona Hartocollis report for the New York Times.
Commenting on the administration’s planned executive order on “debanking” that would direct banking regulators to address any politically motivated account closures, Trump yesterday accused JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and others of “discriminating” against him by refusing to accept more than $1 billion of his deposits. Michel Stratford reports for POLITICO.
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