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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the weekend. Here’s today’s news:
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
The Israeli military today issued extensive evacuation orders covering most of south Gaza’s city of Rafah. The move may indicate Israel could soon launch another ground operation in the area. Wafaa Shurafa reports for AP News.
Hamas has agreed to a new Egyptian proposal to release five hostages, including the American-Israeli Edan Alexander, in exchange for a renewed ceasefire, according to a Hamas source. Israel responded with a counter-proposal, demanding the release of 11 living hostages and half of the deceased hostages in return for a 40-day ceasefire, a senior Israeli official said yesterday. Jeremy Diamond, Dana Karni, and Tamar Michaelis report for CNN.
Israeli airstrikes on a tent and a home yesterday killed 10 people, including children, as Palestinians observed the first day of Eid-al-Fitr, rescuers said. Twenty people were also injured in a strike in the Al-Mawasi area, Khan Younis’s civil defense director said. Eyad Kourdi, Ibrahim Dahman, Mohammad al-Sawalhi and Sophie Tanno report for CNN.
The bodies of eight Palestine Red Crescent medics who have gone missing after coming under fire in Gaza last week have been recovered, with the ninth worker still unaccounted for, the International Committee of the Red Cross said yesterday. The Palestine Red Crescent, which blamed Israeli forces for the deaths, said it also recovered the bodies of six civil defence members and one U.N. worker from the same area. Reuters reports.
Wounded Palestinians are dying because of the lack of medical equipment and supplies in Gaza, according to a U.S. surgeon who worked in two Gaza hospitals in the past three weeks. Separately, the U.N. World Food Programme last Thursday said Gaza’s bakeries will run out of flour within a week unless aid deliveries resume. Sebastian Usher reports for BBC News; Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magdy, Sarah El Deeb, and Lee Keath report for AP News.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
Israel’s “mandatory evacuation orders” fail to comply with international humanitarian law by forcibly displacing Palestinians in Gaza, a U.N. Human Rights Office spokesperson said on Friday, adding that Israel is not taking “any measures to provide accommodation for the evacuated population.” Olivia Le Poidevin reports for Reuters.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday suggested that an interim government under U.N. support could be put in place in Ukraine to hold elections before negotiating a peace treaty, according to Russian state-owned news agency TASS. The head of the Ukrainian government’s center for countering disinformation described the proposal as part of Moscow’s efforts to stall peace negotiations. Ketrin Jochecová reports for POLITICO.
A Russian drone strike killed two, wounded 35, and damaged a military hospital in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv on Saturday, officials said. Russia’s continued attack on the city overnight into today injured three people, according to the mayor of Kharkiv. Vitalii Hnidyi reports for Reuters.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR — U.S. RESPONSE
President Trump yesterday said he was “very angry” when Putin questioned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s legitimacy to sign a peace deal, and that the United States would put secondary tariffs on Russian oil if Trump considers Russia is dragging its feet on a ceasefire deal. Trump also criticized Zelenskyy, saying the Ukrainian leader would have “big, big problems” if he backed out of the rare minerals deal. Kristen Welker and Megan Lebowitz report for NBC News; Chris Megarian reports for AP News.
ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH CEASEFIRE
Hezbollah will “have to resort to other alternatives” if Israel’s attacks on Lebanon continue and the Lebanese state does not act to stop them, the militant group’s leader Naim Kassem said on Saturday following Israel’s first strikes on Beirut in months. Bassem Mroue reports for AP News.
SYRIA
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Saturday announced the formation of a caretaker government that will be in power for up to five years and lead the country through the transition period after the fall of the Assad regime. The new government includes al-Sharaa’s key allies alongside experienced officials and popular activists. Carlotta Gall and Christina Goldbaum report for the New York Times.
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons inspectors have inspected previously unseen chemical weapon production and storage locations of the former Assad regime, sources said on Friday. Reuters reports.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
A French court today barred France’s far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen from political office for five years after finding her and other senior party figures guilty of misappropriating European funds to finance the far-right National Rally party. Le Pen was also sentenced to four years in prison, two of which were commuted to wearing an electronic monitoring device, and a €100,000 fine. Saskya Vandoorne, Joseph Ataman and Serene Nourrisson report for CNN; Tamsin Paternoster and Sophia Khatsenkova report for Euronews.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today announced Eli Sharvit, a former head of the Israeli Navy, as the next head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic spy agency. Sharvit’s installation would be delayed until the Supreme Court rules on the legality of the dismissal of Ronen Bar, the current agency leader, Israeli officials added. Patrick Kingsley reports for the New York Times.
Aid groups are struggling to respond to the humanitarian crisis caused by a months-long Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank that displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians, aid workers and local Palestinian officials say. Claire Parker and Heidi Levine report for the Washington Post.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has created and hosted multiple other sensitive national security discussions on Signal, including threads on how to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine and on military operations, U.S. officials say. Alexander Ward, Josh Dawsey, and Meredith McGraw report for the Wall Street Journal.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has brought his wife, a former Fox News producer, to two meetings with top foreign military officials where sensitive information was discussed, according to multiple sources. A Pentagon spokesperson declined to say whether Hegseth’s wife has a security clearance. Katherine Long, Max Colchester, Daniel Michaels, and Lindsay Wise report for the Wall Street Journal.
Trump yesterday said that “there are methods” that could allow him to seek a third term, stating that “a lot of people want him to do it” but “it’s very early in the administration.” Under the 22nd Amendment, no one may be elected President more than twice, which would make the move unconstitutional. Kristen Welker and Megan Lebowitz report for NBC News.
The State Department on Friday formally notified Congress it is effectively shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and taking over some of the agency’s functions. Sean Lyngaas and Jennifer Hansler report for CNN.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe has invited Elon Musk to discuss “government efficiency” at the CIA today, according to a CIA spokesperson and Ratcliffe’s social media. Seb Starcevic reports for POLITICO.
The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official, Dr. Peter Marks, has been pushed out by the new Health and Human Services Department leadership, sources say. Liz Essley Whyte reports for the Wall Street Journal.
The Trump administration fired nearly all staffers of the U.S. Institute of Peace on Friday, according to interviews with staff members and termination offices obtained by the New York Times. Aishvarya Kavi reports.
The White House plans to take charge of creating the seating chart for reporters in its briefing room based on “metrics more reflective of how media is consumed today,” a senior White House official said. The function has been long managed by the reporters themselves through the White House Correspondents’ Association. Mike Allen reports for Axios.
Several passages of Hegseth’s internal Defense Department strategic guidance memo are nearly identical or similar to a 2024 Heritage Foundation report, according to the Washington Post’s analysis of both documents. Alex Horton and Hannah Natanson report.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The United States would receive a “firm retaliatory response” if Trump acts on his threat to bomb Tehran unless it reaches a new nuclear deal with Washington, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said today. Arsalan Shahla reports for Bloomberg.
The Taliban have released Faye Hall, a U.S. citizen detained in Afghanistan, according to a social media post on Saturday by Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq. A British couple detained alongside Hall have not been released, according to British media. Eve Sampson reports for the New York Times.
Lithuania’s Defense Ministry today said it had recovered a U.S. military vehicle out of a deep, muddy bog after four U.S. soldiers were reported missing last week while on a training mission. Yan Zhuang reports for the New York Times.
The Trump administration has established a “Mission South Africa” program to help white Afrikaners apply for refugee status in the United States, according to documents obtained by the New York Times. At least 100 Afrikaners whose applications could be approved have already been identified, the documents show. Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz report.
The United States “will not get Greenland,” the territory’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said yesterday, following Trump’s refusal to rule out using military force to control the island. AP News reports; Kristen Welker and Alexandra Marquez report for NBC News.
Nearly 40 nations have voiced opposition to a mining company’s plan to ask the Trump administration to grant it approval for mining in international waters. Eric Lipton reports for the New York Times.
HOUTHI DEVELOPMENTS
Suspected U.S. airstrikes struck around Yemen’s Houthi-held capital Sanaa city overnight into today, killing at least one person, the militant group said. Jon Gambrell reports for AP News.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
Trump was within his rights to fire Gwynne Wilcox, the head of the National Labor Relations Board, and Cathy Harris, the head of the Merit Systems Protection Board, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. The ruling is likely to paralyze both boards. Eileen Sullivan reports for the New York Times.
A federal appeals court on Friday lifted a lower court’s injunction that temporarily blocked Musk and DOGE from continuing to dismantle USAID, with the majority of the court ruling that Musk’s actions were not unconstitutional because “all decisions pertaining to USAID were either made or approved” by officials authorized to make them. Hassan Ali Kanu and Kyle Cheney report for POLITICO.
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sending individuals with a final deportation order to countries of which they are not citizens without first offering a “meaningful opportunity” to seek humanitarian protection in the United States. Maria Sacchetti reports for the Washington Post.
Two federal judges in separate Friday rulings blocked parts of Trump’s executive orders targeting the Jenner & Block and WilmerHale law firms, with both judges ruling the orders likely violated the right to choose an attorney and retaliated against protected speech. Tierney Sneed, Devan Cole, Emily R. Condon, and Katelyn Polantz report for CNN.
The Trump administration temporarily cannot carry out mass firings at or otherwise dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after a federal judge on Friday found that the plaintiffs in the case were likely to succeed in a suit claiming that the decision to gut the agency was unlawful. Stacy Cowley reports for the New York Times.
A federal judge on Friday issued an order temporarily restraining the Trump administration from disbanding the government-funded news outlet Voice of America, ruling that the move was not compliant with the Administrative Procedure Act. Filip Timotija reports for the Hill.
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the deportation of a Turkish Tufts University doctoral student who was detained by U.S. immigration officials last week, pending further proceedings in the case. Nate Raymond and Kanishka Singh report for Reuters.
The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow officials to rely on the Alien Enemies Act authority to summarily deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Justin Jouvenal reports for the Washington Post.
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