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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments. Here’s today’s news:
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, the world’s leading association of genocide scholars declared in a resolution passed on Sunday. The International Association of Genocide Scholars’ resolution declares that Israel’s policies and conduct in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide contained in the U.N. Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity as defined in international humanitarian law and the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute. According to BBC News, out of IAGS’s 500 members, “28% took part in the vote and 86% of those who voted supported the resolution.” Emir Nader reports.
Belgium plans to recognize Palestine’s statehood at the U.N. General Assembly later this month, Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot announced yesterday, stating that Belgium has a “duty to prevent any risk of genocide.” The recognition will be officially enacted “once the last hostage has been released and Hamas no longer governs Palestine,” Prevot added. According to Israeli officials, Israel is considering annexing parts of the occupied West Bank in retaliation for the anticipated recognition of a state of Palestine by several Western countries. Tal Shalev reports for CNN; Mrinmay Dey reports for Reuters.
More than 250 news outlets from around the world, including the United States’ NPR, have signed an appeal organized by Reporters Without Borders and Avaaz calling for the protection of Palestinian journalists in Gaza and for Israel to grant foreign press independent access to the territory. Israel’s Foreign Ministry described the appeal as a “political manifesto against Israel.” Aya Batrawy reports for NPR.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — U.S. RESPONSE
The United States will not issue visas to Palestinian officials to prevent them from attending the U.N. General Assembly next month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Friday. According to the State Department, the move is intended to hold the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization “accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace.” The office of the PA and PLO’s leader, Mahmoud Abbas, expressed “deep regret and astonishment” at Rubio’s decision, according to Wafa, the occupied West Bank’s government-run news agency. Edward Wong and Adam Rasgon report for the New York Times.
The State Department has also instructed U.S. diplomats to refuse nonimmigrant visas for Palestinian passport holders, regardless of their place of residence, according to an internal cable from Rubio to U.S. embassies and consulates dated August 18 and reviewed by CNN. Jennifer Hansler reports.
A prospectus with a proposal for a postwar plan for Gaza circulating within the Trump administration envisions a temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s more than 2 million population through “voluntary departures,” the Washington Post reports. Under the proposal, developed by some of the same people who created and set in motion the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, says Gaza should be turned into a U.S.-administered trusteeship for at least 10 years, during which it would be transformed into a tourism resort and high-tech manufacturing and technology hub. Karen DeYoung and Cate Brown report.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Israel is set to pause airdrops of aid over Gaza City and reduce the entry of relief trucks to the area ahead of its planned major offensive, a source tells CNN. The Israeli military already announced it is ending a policy of pausing daytime military operations in Gaza City to facilitate aid delivery, describing the area as a “dangerous combat zone” in a Friday statement. The International Committee of the Red Cross denounced Israel’s instructions for the city’s residents to evacuate, saying that it is “impossible that a mass evacuation of Gaza City could ever be done in a way that is safe and dignified.” Mahmoud Atef, Eugenia Yosef, Kareem El Damanhoury, Ibrahim Dahman, Sana Noor Haq, Abeer Salman, Eyad Kourdi report; Adam Rasgon reports for the New York Times.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz on Saturday congratulated the Israel Defense Forces and Israel’s security agency, Shin Bet, for allegedly killing Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing. Hamas has not confirmed Abu Obeida’s death. Jaroslav Lukiv and Rushdi Abualouf report for BBC News.
Israeli military commanders are struggling to find enough reservists willing to report for duty ahead of the planned offensive on Gaza City, according to more than 30 officers and soldiers interviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
HOUTHI DEVELOPMENTS
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have vowed to respond to an Israeli strike that, according to Houthi officials, killed the militia’s prime minister, Ahmed al-Rahawi, and “several of his colleagues” last week. Shuaib Almosawa and Vivian Nereim report for the New York Times.
Houthi militants on Sunday stormed the offices of the U.N. World Food Programme and UNICEF in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, detaining a WFP staff member and several UNICEF employees, the agencies said. The U.N. special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said that he “strongly” condemns the detentions of at least 11 U.N. personnel and the rebels’ forced entry into U.N. premises. It is unclear whether the raids were related to Israel’s attacks. Catherine Nicholls, Eyad Kourdi, and Dana Karni report for CNN.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
A suspected Russian interference attack targeting the jet carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday deprived the plane of electronic navigational aids while on approach to a Bulgarian airport, three officials briefed on the incident say. According to online flight trackers, the interference did not appear to have affected another aircraft in the area. A Kremlin spokesperson denied Russia was behind the incident. Henry Foy reports for the Financial Times.
Kyiv suspects Russia was involved in the Saturday murder of Ukraine’s former parliamentary speaker Andriy Parubiy in Lviv, Ukrainian officials said yesterday. To date, there has been no claim of responsibility for the killing of Parubiy, a leading figure in Ukraine’s 2014 Euromaidan protests. Reuters reports.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR — INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
European countries are working on “pretty precise plans” for potentially deploying their troops to Ukraine as part of post-conflict security guarantees, Ursula von der Leyen told the Financial Times, adding that Trump “reassured” European leaders that the planned multinational troop force would have an “American presence as part of the backstop.” Henry Foy reports.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today held hands and promised to cooperate in a display of unity at a regional summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in China’s Tianjin. The summit was also attended by the leaders of Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Belarus, and Central Asian and Caucasus states. Yaroslav Trofimov reports for the Wall Street Journal.
Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Friday removed Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office, citing serious ethical breaches related to a leaked phone conversation she held with Cambodia’s former leader this summer. Gabriele Steinhauser reports for the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. FOREIGN DEVELOPMENTS
The once-close relationship between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has soured after a June phone call in which Modi told Trump that the United States’ involvement had nothing to do with the ceasefire between India and Pakistan and that he would not nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize, sources based in Washington and New Delhi suggest. Mujib Mashal, Tyler Pager, and Anupreeta Das report for the New York Times.
The Trump administration is considering recommending White House economic adviser Pierre Yared to be the International Monetary Fund’s next First Deputy Managing Director, sources say. Andrea Shalal reports for Reuters.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro yesterday said Caracas is at “maximum preparedness” and ready to respond if attacked by the U.S. forces deployed to the Caribbean. The United States is set to expand its maritime presence in the waters off Venezuela this week in a push to combat threats from drug cartels. It has not indicated any plans to act against Venezuela. Regina Garcia Cano and Juan Arraez report for AP News.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
“What Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done to the Centers for Disease Control is … unlike anything we had ever seen at the agency and unlike anything our country had ever experienced,” nine former CDC directors or acting directors wrote in a New York Times op-ed yesterday, adding that they are worried about the impact of Kennedy’s actions on United States’ health security.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has fired two dozen FEMA IT employees over allegedly neglecting security protocols in a manner that allowed a “threat actor” to breach the agency’s network, the DHS said on Friday. According to the department’s press release, the breach was detected before the actor extracted any sensitive data. FEMA officials say the top IT leaders ousted by Noem were “extremely competent” and “highly respected.” Gabe Cohen reports for CNN.
Kari Lake, the Senior Advisor for the Voice of America’s parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, on Friday issued termination notices to 532 remaining USAGM employees. Virtually all VOA staffers have been on administrative leave since March. Giselle Ruhiyyih Ewing reports for POLITICO.
Trump on Saturday said that he plans to issue an executive order that would mandate voter IDs to be used for all U.S. elections and reiterated his intention to restrict mail-in voting. It is unclear what legal authority Trump would use to issue the order, as the Constitution gives the president no explicit authority to regulate elections. Yan Zhuang reports for the New York Times.
The Trump administration on Friday announced it is cancelling or withdrawing $679 million in federal funding for ports intended to support the U.S. offshore wind industry. Lauren Sommer reports for NPR.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s decision to strip the security clearances and publish the names of CIA analyst and undercover agent last week has alarmed the CIA’s workforce, according to multiple current and former intelligence sources. Two former government officials suggest that Gabbard’s move was an attempt to regain Trump’s approval after she disagreed with his claims on Iran’s nuclear capabilities earlier in the summer, and reflected continuing tensions between her and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Dan De Luce and Andrea Mitchell report for NBC News.
Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove has continued working at the Justice Department despite being confirmed to an appeals court post last month, sources say. The code of conduct for federal judges does not appear to apply to Bove at present, as he has not yet been sworn in. Devlin Barrett reports for the New York Times.
The White House is actively drawing up plans to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War, according to a White House official. Trump has repeatedly raised the idea since re-taking office. Annie Linskey reports for the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
Robert Mueller, the former special counsel who oversaw the ties between Trump’s first presidential campaign and Russia, has Parkinson’s disease and is experiencing difficulties with speaking and mobility issues, his family said on Sunday. The Mueller family’s statement came after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said it would subpoena Mueller to testify about the FBI’s handling of the Epstein investigation files. The Committee has since withdrawn the subpoena. Michael S. Schmidt and Nina Agrawal report for the New York Times; Tara Suter reports for the Hill.
Trump yesterday announced he would award Rudy Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Giuliani was the mayor of New York City at the time of the 9/11 attacks, and later acted as Trump’s personal lawyer in lawsuits seeking to overturn the 2020 election. He is barred from practicing law in New York and Washington, D.C., and faced racketeering charges and defamation lawsuits in Georgia and Arizona over his conduct related to the 2020 election. Raquel Coronell Uribe reports for NBC News.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) on Saturday signed an executive order laying out the framework for the city’s response to Trump’s planned immigration crackdown. Separately, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday confirmed she plans to “add more resources” to ICE’s operations in major cities, including Chicago. Whitney Wild and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn report for CNN; Alexandra Marquez reports for NBC News.
The Trump administration is weighing up a plan to send about 600 military lawyers to work temporarily as immigration judges in order to bolster the deportations rate, the New York Times reports, citing several current and former officials. Charlie Savage, John Ismay, Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt, and Greg Jaffe report.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
A federal judge early on Sunday issued an emergency order halting the Trump administration’s attempts to deport more than 600 unaccompanied Guatemalan children back to their home country. The judge held that the “exigent circumstances” of the case justified the imposition of measures preserving the status quo until a hearing. The children’s advocates said that the government was planning to send them back to Guatemala without notice or a chance to contest their deportation, while the administration’s attorneys described the effort as a “first of its kind pilot program” carried out in cooperation with the Guatemalan government. Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein report for POLITICO.
The Supreme Court has made it clear that challenges to grant terminations must be heard by a special tribunal, a federal judge ruled on Friday, dismissing a lawsuit brought by a group of nonprofits whose environmental justice grants were terminated by the Environment Protection Agency. Alex Guillén reports for POLITICO.
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