President Donald Trump welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House Monday, where the two leaders promoted a plan to expel thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Over dinner with Trump, his Mideast envoy and top Cabinet members, Netanyahu presented Trump with a letter nominating him for a Nobel Peace Prize. Netanyahu also said he was working with the U.S. to find countries willing to receive Palestinians, claiming they would be free to leave Gaza voluntarily.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “I think President Trump had a brilliant vision. It’s called free choice. You know, if people want to stay, they can stay. But if they want to leave, they should be able to leave. It shouldn’t be a, you know, prison.”

Netanyahu’s White House visit came as Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed his forces to establish what he called a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza, where Israel would forcibly relocate some 600,000 Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Trump has expressed confidence that Hamas would soon agree to a proposed 60-day ceasefire with Israel, even though indirect talks in Qatar on Monday once again failed to reach a breakthrough. 

Outside the White House, protesters rallied to demand an end to Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.

Megan Didavi: “I can’t stand the fact that people are suffering and being killed the way they are. It’s unbelievable that this is happening in this day and age. And I feel helpless, and I feel like our country is hijacked by people who want this to continue and are making it possible. And that’s not what I want my tax dollars to go to.”

In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 41 Palestinians since dawn. Victims include nine people killed in an Israeli drone strike on a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians near Khan Younis, and at least four people killed when Israel bombed a school sheltering displaced families in central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp. Tuesday’s attacks follow Israeli strikes that killed more than 60 Palestinians on Monday. Among them were civilians shot while trying to get food from a militarized Israeli- and U.S.-backed distribution site in Rafah and children killed and injured in an Israeli strike on a Gaza City neighborhood.

Mohammed Joundiya: “There were injuries inside the house caused by falling debris from the walls and doors which landed on the children. Then we heard screaming from our neighbors, so we ran over and found many bodies torn apart, including an infant baby girl no older than 4 months.”

We’ll have more on Gaza and Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump later in the broadcast, when we’ll speak with Peter Beinhart of Jewish Currents. He’ll also talk about The New York Times and the mayor candidate in New York, Zohran Mamdani.

In Texas, the death toll from catastrophic July 4 floods has reached 104 people. That includes 27 victims from an all-girls summer camp located on the banks of the Guadalupe River. Ten children and one teenage counselor from Camp Mystic are still missing as search and rescue efforts enter their fifth day.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick on Monday admitted local officials failed to place flood warning sirens along the Guadalupe River years ago due to the cost. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has called for an investigation into whether federal staffing cuts to the National Weather Service were a factor in the devastating death toll. Click here to see Democracy Now!’s segment yesterday on the flooding.

The Trump administration said it’s terminating deportation protections for some 76,000 immigrants from Honduras and Nicaragua. Many of those affected have been living and working in the U.S. for over a quarter of a century, after receiving temporary protected status in 1999 following Hurricane Mitch. Some have since obtained permanent residency, but the move could mean some 50,000 others will face deportation as soon as September. The National TPS Alliance on Monday announced it’s suing the Trump administration on behalf of immigrants from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal.

In Los Angeles, heavily armed federal immigration agents, some on horseback, staged a dramatic sweep on a public park Monday, inflaming tensions in a city already on edge from the Trump administration’s mass raids. Mayor Karen Bass arrived on the scene, where she told agents to leave MacArthur Park, a popular public space in a largely immigrant and working-class neighborhood where many children were playing. Activists and community members, some who’d been tipped off about the sweep, were seen repelling the agents, yelling insults at the armed and masked men, some hurling fruit toward them. Mayor Bass later condemned the incident.

Mayor Karen Bass: “Frankly, it is outrageous and un-American that we have federal armed vehicles in our parks when nothing is going on in the parks. … It’s outrageous and un-American that the federal government seized our state’s National Guard. It’s outrageous and un-American that we have U.S. Marines, who are trained to kill foreign soldiers overseas, deployed in our American city.”

The Community Self-Defense Coalition LA held a news conference Monday, marking 30 days of resistance against the assault by federal authorities on L.A. communities. This is organizer Héctor Rivera.

Héctor Rivera: “Stand up and organize in your communities. This is the cutting edge of the authoritarian, fascist takeover of America. This is it! Now, do you stand and fight for what you believe? Your silence will not save you. Pretending like nothing’s going on will not save you.”

In Kenya, at least 11 people were killed and over 500 arrested Monday as police cracked down on protests marking the 35th anniversary of a pro-democracy uprising on July 7, 1990. Authorities blocked major roads leading into Nairobi, and businesses shuttered in response to the unrest. This comes amid ongoing protests in Kenya over police brutality and corruption, as demonstrators demand President William Ruto resign. This is a protester speaking from Nairobi Monday.

Zablon Luseno: “This is our country. If we destroy it, all of us will be affected. Police officers should not think that if the country is destroyed, they will be safe. They will also be affected, together with their families.”

Russian drones struck military recruitment centers in Ukraine Monday, killing one person and wounding over 70 others in Kharkiv. Elsewhere, one person was killed by a Russian strike in Odesa, while in Zaporizhzhia at least 20 people were injured when Russian drones struck a military draft center. Nearby residents said their homes were destroyed or damaged by Russia’s assault.

Dmytro Sokolovskyi: “There’s a draft center office over there, and there is a private residential area here. I want to tell those idiots who are glad that draft offices are being attacked to come and see for themselves. They can tell the people who have lost their homes, or whose houses are now without doors and windows, how happy they are.”

On Monday, President Trump said the United States would send more weapons to Ukraine, declaring, “I’m not happy with President Putin at all.” It was a sudden about-face for the Trump administration, which just last week ordered a halt to shipments of missiles and ammunition to Ukraine. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at the time it was due to concerns over the Pentagon’s stockpiles. Congress approved the arms transfers last year as part of a $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine. President Trump said he wasn’t aware the weapons shipments had been stopped.

Meanwhile, the British government has brought new sanctions against Russian officials, accusing them of deploying chemical weapons to Ukraine’s frontlines. Dutch and German intelligence agencies said last week they’d gathered evidence of Russian drones dropping a choking agent on Ukrainian troops to drive them out of trenches and into the line of fire. 

President Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of 25% to 40% on imports from 14 countries, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand. On Monday, Trump used his social media platform Truth Social to publish letters to leaders of nations targeted by the tariffs, which Trump said would take effect on August 1 unless countries negotiate new trade deals with the U.S. That amounts to a three-week extension of Trump’s original July 9 deadline to strike a deal or face higher tariffs.

President Trump has threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on countries that align themselves with the BRICS group of nations, led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Trump cited the group’s “Anti-American policies.” The threat came as Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva kicked off a two-day BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: “I think it’s not responsible for a president from a country like the United States to threaten the world with tariffs on social media. Honestly, there are other forums for the president of a country the size of the United States to talk to other countries.”

For the first time since he took power in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping skipped this year’s BRICS summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for war crimes committed in Ukraine, appeared by video link. 

In Boston, a federal judge has temporarily blocked part of the newly passed Republican budget reconciliation bill that bars Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood clinics. Monday’s injunction came just hours after Planned Parenthood sued to block the prohibition, arguing it unconstitutionally targets workers for their advocacy work and speech promoting reproductive rights. Advocates warn enforcement of the cuts would result in more than half of Planned Parenthood’s 2.1 million patients losing access to reproductive care, and the closure of hundreds of clinics.