President Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House for a second straight day Tuesday, as Trump’s Middle East envoy claimed Israel and Hamas were nearing a breakthrough on a ceasefire agreement. It’s not clear what Trump and Netanyahu discussed behind closed doors, but Israeli media are reporting Netanyahu is under “extreme” pressure to reach a 60-day ceasefire deal that would see 10 living Israeli hostages released, along with the bodies of dead hostages, in exchange for the release of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, many without charge. Hamas negotiators are also seeking the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, international guarantees for an end to the war, the resumption of humanitarian aid shipments overseen by the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross, and an end to the operations of the U.S.- and Israeli-backed militarized aid group, the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF. 

Earlier today, hundreds of starving Palestinians in Gaza were forced to move toward the southern city of Rafah to search for food, after GHF closed its only remaining aid distribution center in the central Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials say more than 770 people have been killed by Israeli forces and U.S. security contractors at sites run by GHF since it began operations in May. 

Israeli attacks killed nearly 100 people across Gaza on Tuesday as Palestinians awaited word on whether Israel would agree to a ceasefire deal. Among the dead are displaced Palestinians torn to pieces when an Israeli missile struck a roundabout where children were playing.

Mohamed Abu Al-Ata: “At that moment, children were playing on the swivel chairs here. Nearby stood a tent, the temporary shelter of a disabled man who wasn’t affiliated with any faction. Then, tragically, the airstrike came without warning. We’re all waiting for a ceasefire, but every delay brings new deaths. I could die. He could die. What exactly are they waiting for?”

The United Nations humanitarian office warns fuel shortages caused by Israel’s blockade have reached a “critical point,” with power for services including water desalination and hospitals’ intensive care units rapidly running out. On Tuesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced it was closing the Al-Zeitoun Medical Clinic in Gaza City after Israeli artillery shells struck nearby. The Red Crescent says it’s the 18th time the organization has been forced to close a clinic due to Israeli attacks and its blockade of medicine. This comes as Gaza health officials are warning of an “alarming” rise of meningitis cases among Gaza’s children, with hundreds of cases reported in recent weeks. 

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says an Israeli strike on a vehicle near the northern city of Tripoli killed at least three people and injured 13 others Tuesday, in Israel’s latest breach of its ceasefire with Lebanon. The Israeli military claimed the strike hit a “key” figure from Hamas, but did not identify the target. Separately, Israel claimed it killed a Hezbollah commander in a drone strike on southern Lebanon Tuesday night. 

Yemen’s Houthi fighters have attacked another merchant vessel in the Red Sea, killing three sailors and wounding two others aboard a Liberian-flagged cargo ship. Tuesday’s attack follows another Houthi strike on Sunday that sank a Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned ship. All 22 crew members were rescued by a nearby ship responding to their distress call. The Houthis have vowed to continue attacking Red Sea shipping lanes until Israel ends its war on the Gaza Strip.

The United States Supreme Court has cleared a path for the Trump administration to gut the federal workforce and eliminate entire federal agencies. On Tuesday, justices released an unsigned order from its “shadow docket” lifting lower court injunctions that had blocked mass layoffs and the restructuring of federal agencies — even though Congress has not authorized those plans. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson called the court’s lifting of the injunctions “unfortunate, hubristic and senseless.” The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents some 820,000 federal workers, said in a statement, “Today’s decision has dealt a serious blow to our democracy and puts services that the American people rely on in grave jeopardy.” 

In New Mexico, at least three people were killed by unprecedented flash floods Tuesday in the community of Ruidoso. Among the victims were children aged 4 and 7, who were swept downstream by the rushing floodwaters that saw the river rise to a record-breaking 20 feet. This comes as rescue teams in Texas are searching for over 170 people who went missing in the catastrophic floods on July 4. The official death toll has climbed to at least 109 victims. 

Ukraine’s Air Force says Russia launched its largest aerial attack overnight since its 2022 full-scale invasion, firing a record 741 drones and missiles, most of them targeting the city of Lutsk in western Ukraine. The barrage prompted Poland to activate its air defenses and scramble fighter jets. Russia’s attack came after President Trump on Tuesday sharply criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin — his latest in a series of U-turns on Ukraine policy.

President Donald Trump: “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

Trump said the U.S. would now send additional weapons to Ukraine, after the Pentagon last week halted arms shipments. President Trump said he didn’t know about that. We’ll have more on Ukraine later in the broadcast with Matt Duss, former foreign policy adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders. 

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for two top Taliban leaders in Afghanistan on charges of committing gender-based persecution against women and girls. The court said in a statement that since regaining control of Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have “specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms.” Women and girls have essentially been erased from public life in Afghanistan, including a Taliban-enforced ban on girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade. The Taliban quickly rejected the arrest warrants issued against Taliban supreme leader Sheikh Hibatullah Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Afghanistan’s top justice official.

The government of El Salvador has admitted to U.N. investigators that the Trump administration controls the fate of nearly 140 Venezuelan immigrants transferred from the U.S. to the notorious CECOT mega-prison. The finding came in a document issued in response to a U.N. inquiry that was obtained by lawyers for the Venezuelan men, indicating El Salvador says it bears no legal responsibility for the detainees. The revelations contradict claims by Trump officials and DOJ lawyers who’ve repeatedly said they do not have the jurisdiction or power to facilitate the return of dozens of immigrants who were sent to El Salvador from the U.S. without due process.

Immigrants jailed in Florida’s new detention camp, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” say conditions of their confinement are a form of torture. In a phone interview with CBS, immigrants described being served maggot-infested food, a lack of access to water for sanitation, and the denial of medical care and religious rights. There have also been reports of flooding near electric cables. The detention camp was built in just eight days at an abandoned airfield in the remote Everglades swamplands, with the first group of immigrants transferred last week. The detention camp can hold up to 5,000 immigrants. Last week, a group of Democratic Florida state lawmakers said they were denied entry to the detention camp for an inspection.

On Capitol Hill, House Democrats are demanding the release of all files related to the deceased convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein that also mention Donald Trump. A letter from 16 lawmakers accuses Attorney General Pam Bondi of withholding Epstein files that implicate Trump. They write, “Stop protecting your boss!” This comes after the Justice Department released a memo this week reiterating that Epstein died by suicide and claiming he did not keep a client list. That’s a U-turn from Bondi’s previous statements, including this claim during a Fox News interview in February.

Attorney General Pam Bondi: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review. That’s been a directive by President Trump. I’m reviewing that. I’m reviewing JFK files, the MLK files. That’s all in the process of being reviewed, because that was done at the directive of the president from all of these agencies.”

Jeffrey Epstein counted Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton among his friends. In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” On Tuesday, Trump angrily dismissed reporters’ questions about Epstein during a Cabinet meeting.

President Donald Trump: “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy has been talked about for years. You’re asking — we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.”

Swiss medical authorities have approved the first drug suitable to treat malaria in babies and very young children. Eight African countries that participated in clinical trials are now poised to approve the malaria treatment, which is dissolvable and can be mixed with breast milk, making it easy to administer. Malaria kills about 600,000 people worldwide each year, a majority of them children under the age of 5. 

A coalition of doctors and public health organizations has sued Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over changes to vaccine policy which they say undermine public trust in vaccines. The complaint, filed in a U.S. district court in Massachusetts, accuses RFK Jr. of violating federal law by unilaterally altering COVID-19 vaccine recommendations — without scientific evidence — for children and people who are pregnant. The American Academy of Pediatrics called the move an “assault on science, public health and evidence-based medicine.” The Academy’s president, Dr. Susan Kressly, spoke in a video accompanying the lawsuit.

Dr. Susan Kressly: “Because this wasn’t just sidelining science. It’s an attack on the very foundation of how we protect families and children’s health. And the consequences could be dangerous. … The American Academy of Pediatrics isn’t standing by. We’re stepping up. We’re taking legal action, because we believe children deserve better. We’ve published our own immunization schedule for decades, and will continue to do so, because kids can’t wait for politicians to sort this out.”