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Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- Israel carried out large-scale airstrikes on Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday morning—its first major bombardment of the enclave since a U.S.-brokered, three-phase ceasefire deal took effect in January. The resumed strikes followed several rounds of unsuccessful negotiations involving Israel, Hamas, and international intermediaries toward the second phase of the agreement, which was supposed to include a permanent end to the war and the release of all remaining hostages—about 60 people, 24 of whom are believed to be alive. The overnight attacks stopped short of a full resumption of the ground war, but the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for Gazan communities near the border on Tuesday, signaling that a ground maneuver could be imminent.
- Following U.S. strikes over the weekend against the Houthis, President Donald Trump on Monday threatened the Yemeni militant group, as well as their backer Iran, with further military actions if they retaliated. “Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!” he wrote on Truth Social. The administration’s air campaign against the Houthis, in order to prevent attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and on targets in Israel, is the largest military action taken yet in Trump’s second term.
- The U.S. has ordered Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, to leave the country by Friday. Responding to Rasool’s remarks at a recent online seminar hosted by a South African think tank in which he attributed President Trump’s political rise to a “supremacist” movement among Americans, Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the ambassador as a “race-baiting politician” and declared him a “persona non grata” on Friday. “South Africa remains committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the United States of America,” Vincent Magwenya, a spokesman for South Africa’s government, said Saturday. The Trump administration has criticized the current South African government for its alleged anti-white policies.
- More than 30 countries have expressed willingness to contribute troops to a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine if a peace deal is reached between Russia and Ukraine, a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday. Starmer convened a second summit of the “coalition of the willing,” a group of nations attempting to develop a peacekeeping structure for a post-truce Ukraine, over the weekend. The talks, which came amid continued efforts to push Russia to agree to a 30-day ceasefire, are being led by Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron. No U.S. representatives were present.
- President Trump claimed Monday that former President Joe Biden’s use of an automated pen to sign pardons for members of the House Select Committee on January 6 rendered the acts of clemency invalid. “The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” he wrote on Truth Social, stating that members of the committee, which included former Republican Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, would be “subject to investigation at the highest level.” Legal experts broadly agree that the president’s choice of pen does not affect the validity of a pardon and that pardons cannot be revoked by a subsequent president.
- Judge James Boasberg, chief justice of the federal district court in Washington, D.C., on Monday repeatedly accused the White House of ignoring a court injunction to halt the deportation of Venezuelan nationals accused of being members of a foreign criminal organization. Flights carrying about 250 Venezuelan nationals—including alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang—left the U.S. on Saturday for El Salvador, which had agreed to take them as prisoners, minutes before Boasberg issued his written injunction. Justice Department lawyers contended during a Monday hearing that even though Boasberg had instructed the administration to stop the flights from the bench, the order did not have the force of law until it was issued as a written injunction and that the court did not have authority over the planes once they left U.S. airspace. “That’s a heck of a stretch,” Boasberg said, ordering the government to respond in writing to his questions by noon Tuesday.
- A federal judge said Sunday that the government may have “willfully” disobeyed a court order after U.S. immigration officials deported Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen and member of Brown University’s medical school faculty who had a valid visa to remain in the country. Judge Leo T. Sorokin, a federal district judge in Massachusetts, had on Friday ordered the government to provide the court with a 48-hour notice before deporting Alawieh, who had been detained Thursday after returning from visiting relatives in Lebanon. Sorokin set a hearing date for Monday but later postponed it to give the government time to provide information about the case. Justice Department officials stated that they deported Alawieh after finding “sympathetic photos and videos” of Hezbollah leaders in a deleted folder on her phone.
- Adam Boehler, a health care investor and White House official during President Trump’s first term, on Friday withdrew his nomination to serve as special presidential envoy for hostage affairs. Boehler had drawn criticism from U.S. lawmakers and Israeli politicians after conducting direct negotiations with representatives of Hamas at Trump’s request, in a break with U.S. policy. Boehler, who previously headed the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and served as a key negotiator on the Abraham Accords, will continue to work for the White House as a special government employee, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday.
- New data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday showed that the U.S. recorded more than 300 cases of measles in the first three months of 2025, surpassing last year’s 12-month total of 285 cases. More than 90 percent of the cases stem from an outbreak that began in West Texas and spread to nearby counties in New Mexico, with initial cases concentrated in a Mennonite community. According to the CDC, more than 50 people have been hospitalized, and at least one person, an unvaccinated child, has died.
- Texas law enforcement officials on Monday arrested Maria Margarita Rojas, a midwife, for allegedly providing illegal abortions and practicing medicine without a license. The arrest is the first one made under the 2021 Texas Human Life Protection Act, a law that went into effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Rojas, who is accused of operating multiple unlicensed clinics in Houston where she performed abortions, faces second-degree felony charges and a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
The Middle East Reignites
After a period of relative calm, the Middle East may once again be on the precipice of a broader war following a string of U.S. and Israeli attacks launched in concert against Iran’s proxy network.
On Saturday, the U.S. began what officials called a series of “decisive and powerful” airstrikes on Houthi-controlled sites across Yemen, targeting the Iranian-backed militant group’s air defenses, weapons stockpiles, and senior leaders in what has stretched into a multi-day campaign. Then, early Tuesday morning, Israel launched a massive aerial attack on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip—a resumption of the war after negotiations in Doha, Qatar, aimed at continuing a ceasefire foundered.
“Tonight we returned to fighting in Gaza in light of Hamas’s refusal to release the hostages and amid its threats to harm IDF [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers and Israeli communities,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday. “We will not stop fighting until all of the hostages return home and all the war’s aims are achieved.”
The renewed military campaigns follow more than a year of regional instability in the wake of Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. But they mark President Donald Trump’s first major …
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Today’s Must-Read
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Worth Your Time
- Elon Musk declared this month that “no one” has died as a result of the Trump administration’s efforts to slash foreign aid. Using a combination of statistical analysis and on-the-ground reporting, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof evaluated that claim. “Achol Deng, an 8-year-old girl, was also infected with H.I.V. at birth and likewise remained alive because of American assistance. Then in January, Achol lost her ID card, and there was no longer a case worker to help get her a new card and medicines; she too became sick and died, said [health worker Moses Okeny] Labani. Yes, this may eventually save money for United States taxpayers. How much? The cost of first-line H.I.V. medications to keep a person alive is less than 12 cents a day. I asked Labani if he had ever heard of Musk. He had not, so I explained that Musk is the world’s wealthiest man and has said that no one is dying because of U.S.A.I.D. cuts. ‘That is wrong,’ Labani said, sounding surprised that anyone could be so oblivious. ‘He should come to grass roots,’” Kristof wrote. “Another household kept alive by American aid was that of Jennifer Inyaa, a 35-year-old single mom, and her 5-year-old son, Evan Anzoo, both of them H.I.V.-positive. Last month, after the aid shutdown, Inyaa became sick and died, and a week later Evan died as well, according to David Iraa Simon, a community health worker who assisted them. Decisions by billionaires in Washington quickly cost the lives of a mother and her son.”
- Celeste Wallander, who led the Biden administration’s efforts to arm Ukraine, outlined in Foreign Affairs how Europe can fill the gap amid U.S. threats to halt weapons shipments: “A few billion euros to sustain Ukraine’s resources for active defense in 2025 is well within Europe’s means. In early March, the European Union announced plans to create new defense financing mechanisms that enable members to devote more resources to defense production and procurement, generating as much as $840 billion in defense spending that addresses domestic spending requirements and assistance to Ukraine. Individual European countries (including Norway and the United Kingdom in recent weeks) have also announced new aid packages and others are preparing to do so. Kyiv, for its part, has demonstrated significant resolve and capacity for innovation. Together, Europe and Ukraine can present a strong enough front in support of U.S.-led negotiations to push Putin to the table.”
Presented Without Comment
Daily Beast: French Politician Demands the Return of the Statue of Liberty
Raphael Glucksmann, a member of the European Parliament, feels that America has reneged on the values that led to the statue being gifted. “We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: “Give us back the Statue of Liberty,” he said at a convention of his center-left party, Place Publique, Sunday. “We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home,” Glucksmann added.
Also Presented Without Comment
NBC News: USPS Worker Stole $1.6 Million in Checks From Mail, Spent It on Luxury Hotels and ‘Gentlemen’s Clubs’
In the Zeitgeist
The William & Mary Tribe, not known as a basketball juggernaut, reached a milestone this weekend: The school’s first-ever March Madness slot, won by the women’s team in the Colonial Athletic Association conference championship this weekend. A hearty congratulations to Mary Trimble, TMD’s editor emerita and a proud alumna!
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