A United Nations inquiry has found Israel has committed genocide during its nearly two-year assault on the Gaza Strip. Earlier today, the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a 72-page report that Israel’s government is responsible for four of the five acts prohibited under the 1948 Genocide Convention. The report holds three Israeli leaders responsible: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and President Isaac Herzog. Navi Pillay, who heads the commission, drew parallels between Israel’s assault on Gaza and the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

Navi Pillay: “Genocide is occurring in Gaza. … In the Rwandan genocide, the group were the Tutsis, and here the group are the Palestinians.”

The findings could be used by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court or the U.N.’s International Court of Justice.

Israel’s military says it has launched a major ground offensive to seize Gaza City and displace its 1 million residents. Israel’s defense minister says quote, “Gaza is burning.” Gaza health officials report at least 68 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes since dawn, most of them in Gaza City. This is Fatima, an elderly resident of a tent camp close to the Al-Ghefari building in western Gaza City, which Israel bombed into rubble on Monday.

Fatima: “I cannot stand on my legs out of fear. Enough hunger, thirst and fear. When they did this, I collapsed completely. I cannot walk.”

The Palestinian Civil Defense reports Israel has blown up over 50 Gaza high-rises in recent weeks.

In Geneva, Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, said Monday Israel’s military is destroying entire neighborhoods and the remnants of buildings where people were seeking shelter.

Francesca Albanese: “It’s trying to forcibly evacuate the 800,000 Palestinians who were seeking refuge there. But the question is 'why?' Why? Because this is the last piece of Gaza that needs to be rendered unlivable before advancing the ethnic cleansing of that piece of land, and then probably they will move to the West Bank.”

Lebanon’s Health Ministry says an Israeli airstrike on a residential building injured 12 civilians in the Nabatieh region of southern Lebanon on Monday. Four children and seven women were among the wounded. Israel has repeatedly attacked Lebanon despite a ceasefire deal signed in November.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Doha today for talks with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, in the wake of Israel’s deadly strike last week targeting Hamas leaders in Doha. Rubio’s trip comes after leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council said Monday they had agreed to activate a mutual defense pact in response to Israeli aggression. Meanwhile, Axios reports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed President Trump last Tuesday morning that Israel planned to attack Hamas leaders in Qatar nearly an hour before the strike took place. That report contradicts White House claims that Trump was notified only after missiles were in the air, giving him no opportunity to oppose the strike.

President Trump said Monday the U.S. had carried out a strike against a second boat he alleged was carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing at least three people on board. Trump made the announcement on social media and posted a video of an apparent airstrike, showing a speedboat erupting in flames. This follows a strike earlier this month on another boat also allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, which reportedly killed 11 people. Speaking to The New York Times, Rear Admiral Donald J. Guter, a retired top judge advocate, said, “Trump is normalizing what I consider to be an unlawful strike.” Here’s Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro speaking shortly before the second strike.

President Nicolás Maduro: “This is not tension; it is outright aggression — judicial aggression, when they criminalize us; political aggression, with their daily threatening statements; diplomatic aggression; and possible military aggression. Venezuela is empowered by international law to comprehensively confront this aggression. It is not tension; it is aggression.”

FBI Director Kash Patel says investigators have found DNA evidence linking 22-year-old suspect Tyler Robinson to the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah last week. Utah County prosecutors will formally arraign Robinson today; they’re planning to seek the death penalty.

On Monday, Vice President JD Vance vowed to dismantle institutions on the political left that he claimed were promoting violence and terrorism. Vance made the remarks while hosting Kirk’s podcast “The Charlie Kirk Show.”

Vice President JD Vance: “Of course, we have to make sure that the killer is brought to justice. And importantly, we have to talk about this incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years and, I believe, is part of the reason why Charlie was killed by an assassin’s bullet. We’re going to talk about how to dismantle that.”

Joining Vance’s call for retribution were White House adviser Stephen Miller, spokesperson Karoline Leavitt and Health Secretary RFK Jr. Since Kirk’s killing, scores of politicians, public figures and private-sector workers have faced firings, suspensions or investigations over their comments about the assassination — among them, The Washington Post’s last remaining full-time African American opinion columnist, Karen Attiah. In a post on Substack Monday, Attiah wrote, “Last week, the Washington Post fired me. The reason? Speaking out against political violence, racial double standards, and America’s apathy toward guns.”

In Utah, a law allowing people with permits to openly carry guns on college campuses is being questioned in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Before the bill’s passage last month, firearms had to be concealed on college campuses in Utah. Meanwhile, Florida’s attorney general says people can now openly carry firearms in public after the state’s appeals court struck down a 40-year ban on the practice.

President Trump signed an order Monday authorizing the deployment of National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of a new federal task force to combat violent crime in the city. Trump’s order came just days after the Memphis Police Department reported crime is at a 25-year low, with robbery, larceny and burglary all at record lows over the past eight months. Tennessee Democrats gathered in Memphis Monday to condemn Trump’s crackdown. This is state Representative Justin J. Pearson, who represents Memphis.

Rep. Justin Pearson: “Today, it is a conversation about crime. In 14 months, it will be a conversation about protecting the vote at the vote — at the voting booth. In three-and-a-half years, it’s going to be about a presidential election and the need to protect it. And what happens when we go to the polls, and the National Guard is there, and all they’re doing is asking you, 'Are you sure you want to vote?' This isn’t just a slippery slope; this is a dangerous impediment on our democracy.”

President Trump said Monday that New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s endorsement of Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral election was “a very bad one for New York City.” Trump suggested that he would consider holding back federal funds from the city if Mamdani is elected.

After headlines, we’ll look at Trump’s escalating immigration crackdown on Chicago with Congressmember Delia Ramirez. Trump has also threatened deploying U.S. troops to Chicago.

A New York Times report has revealed how a member of the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates invested $2 billion in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company just days before the UAE received access to rare artificial intelligence chips. Back in May, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan invested $2 billion into World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency startup run by the Trump and Witkoff families — Steve Witkoff is President Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East. Two weeks later, the Trump administration approved the sale of hundreds of thousands of AI chips to the Emiratis, despite concerns that the chips could be shared with China.

The Times report did not directly link the two deals, but cast suspicion on the timing. Ryan Cummings, chief of staff at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy, said, “If this is true, this is the largest public corruption scandal in the history of the United States and it’s not even close.”

The Trump administration said Monday it has reached a deal with China to keep TikTok operational in the United States, after Trump threatened to shut down the popular social media platform, saying it poses a national security concern. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Trump will speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday to finalize the deal. It’s not clear who the U.S. buyer will be, but it’s widely expected to be led by Oracle co-founder and chair Larry Ellison, who last week briefly surpassed Elon Musk as the world’s richest person.

Larry Ellison has a decades-long history with the Republican Party and has frequented Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for dinners and has met Trump in the Oval Office. He’s also an ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, donating money to Israel’s military through the nonprofit Friends of the Israel Defense Forces.

This comes just months after the Trump administration cleared the way for an $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance, which is run by David Ellison, son of Larry Ellison. According to The Wall Street Journal, Paramount Skydance is exploring a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, which would put two of Hollywood’s most powerful legacy studios under the same owner.

Meanwhile, Paramount Skydance is reportedly in talks to hire Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief or co-president of CBS News. Weiss has opposed diversity and inclusion programs and is an ardent supporter of Israel’s war on Gaza; her publication The Free Press has called widespread reporting on famine conditions there “a myth.”

Senate Republicans have confirmed one of President Trump’s top economic advisers, Stephen Miran, to the Federal Reserve Board. In an unusual arrangement, Miran will only take a leave of absence from his role as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, instead of resigning from his post. Miran says he intends to return to the White House after his term ends. The move allows Miran to attend the Fed’s two-day meeting to set interest rates, which starts today.
Meanwhile, a U.S. appeals court blocked Trump’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve

Governor Lisa Cook before today’s interest rate meeting. In an opinion, Appellate Judge Bradley Garcia wrote, “Before this court, the government does not dispute that it provided Cook no meaningful notice or opportunity to respond to the allegations against her.” President Trump has repeatedly demanded that the Federal Reserve cut interest rates fast, and has threatened to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Fired federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, is suing the Trump administration for her sudden termination in July. As an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Comey had worked on several high-profile cases, including against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. Comey’s lawsuit claims that she had been fired for “her father’s protected speech, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both.” The lawsuit also notes that the far-right activist Laura Loomer had called for Comey’s firing on social media.

In El Salvador, protesters took to the streets Monday to demand the release of activists and human rights defenders jailed by President Nayib Bukele, a staunch ally of President Trump. The protests came as El Salvador marked its 204th Independence Day celebrations. This is opposition lawmaker Claudia Ortiz.

Claudia Ortiz: “El Salvador is on the path to an authoritarian system, an authoritarian system where the state is more important than the individual. And that should not be the case. The state exists to serve the individual, their dignity and their freedom. The state must provide legal certainty. But in El Salvador, the opposite is true.”