Global Headlines: Gaza Offensive, Pakistan Floods, Thai PM Ousted, US Gun Violence & Immigration

Gaza Conflict Escalates

• ⚠️ Israel's military has declared Gaza City a dangerous combat zone, intensifying its offensive and conducting drone, artillery, and fighter jet attacks that killed at least 41 Palestinians.
• 💔 UNICEF warns of a worsening starvation crisis in Gaza City, with thousands of residents fleeing towards the coast.
• 🕊️ Israel recovered the body of Elan Vice, an abductee, while 49 hostages remain in Gaza, with 27 reported deceased.
• 🇵🇸 Israel's far-right Finance Minister called for the annexation of Gaza, a threat condemned by Hamas as a call for extermination.
• ⚖️ Israeli forces arrested at least nine Palestinians in the West Bank, including a school principal and a village council head, and shot two others.
• 🤝 Israelis and Palestinians held a joint vigil in B'ala demanding an end to the assault on Gaza and mourning the killed children.

International Developments

• 🌊 Pakistan is experiencing its worst flooding in over four decades, displacing over a million people and killing more than 800 due to monsoon rains and overflowing dams.
• 🇹🇭 Thailand's constitutional court removed Prime Minister Pongan Shinawat from office for ethics violations related to a phone call criticizing the Thai military.
• 🇱🇧 Two Lebanese soldiers were killed and two injured by an Israeli drone in South Lebanon, despite a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.
• 🕊️ The UN Security Council voted to end the UN's peacekeeping mission in Lebanon over the next two years, amidst US pressure for Hezbollah to disarm.

US Domestic Issues

• 🏫 A shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis killed two children, 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moy, and wounded 15 other children and three adults.
• 💊 Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested, without evidence, that psychiatric medications might contribute to mass shootings, drawing strong criticism from lawmakers.
• 🏛️ Elected officials in Minneapolis demanded immediate action on gun control, advocating for a ban on access to certain weapons.
• 📉 Health Secretary RFK Jr. appointed Jim O'Neal, a biotech investor with no medical training, as acting CDC head after the abrupt firing of CDC director Susan Monades.
• ✊ CDC staff staged a mass walkout in support of senior officials protesting RFK Jr.'s actions and calling for science to lead public health decisions.
• ⚖️ Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook filed a federal lawsuit challenging President Trump's attempts to fire her.
• 🚨 Trump's 'border czar' warned of intensified immigration raids in Los Angeles and other sanctuary cities, with plans to use a US military base as a staging ground.
• 🇷🇼 Rwanda accepted seven immigrants from the US as part of a third-party deportation deal, with the Trump administration also seeking deportations to South Sudan and Eswatini.
• 🐊 Florida is reportedly emptying an immigration detention camp in the Everglades following a federal judge's order to close it due to environmental violations.
• 🇺🇸 The US Air Force is offering full military honors to Ashley Babbot, a January 6th rioter, while another rioter, Yvon Saint Seir, had his felony conviction dropped by Trump.
• 🚫 The Trump administration announced the US will withdraw from a UN review of its human rights record, a move criticized by the ACLU as an attempt to evade accountability.
• ⚖️ Texas Republicans advanced a bill allowing private citizens to sue anyone involved in providing abortion medication, with plaintiffs receiving a cash bounty of at least $100,000.
• 🚫 President Trump signed an executive order stripping union protections from federal employees, ending collective bargaining agreements for agencies like NASA and the National Weather Service.
• ✊ Union members and organizations marched in Washington, DC, protesting Trump's anti-worker policies, while Reverend Al Sharpton led a march against Trump's actions on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.