Early Edition: August 8, 2025

Signup to receive the Early Edition in your inbox here.

A curated weekday guide to major news and developments in the last 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR 

Israel’s security cabinet has approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to take over Gaza City. Before the late-night meeting, Netanyahu said he intended to take over all of Gaza to remove Hamas and “ensure our security.” After 10 hours of deliberations, a majority of the security cabinet backed the proposal, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, which stopped short of explicitly stating Israel would take full control of Gaza. BBC News reports; Adam Rasgon, Natan Odenheimer, Ronen Bergman, and Isabel Kershner report for the New York Times; Reuters reports. 

The IDF’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, warned against the plan, according to four Israeli security officials. The military leadership would prefer a new ceasefire, according to three of the officials. Adam Rasgon, Natan Odenheimer, Ronen Bergman, and Isabel Kershner report for the New York Times.

The deadline for the first phase of the newly-approved Israeli operation which includes the evacuation of Gaza City and an expansion of aid distribution is Oct. 7, according to an Israeli source. Israel will significantly expand the humanitarian aid effort at the start of this first phase, according to a second Israeli source, however the plan excludes distribution within Gaza City as a means to encourage Palestinians to evacuate. Tal Shalev reports for CNN.

Around 12,000 children aged under five in Gaza are suffering from acute malnutrition, and the number of hunger-related deaths is increasing, the Director General of the World Health Organization said yesterday. Olivia Le Poidevin reports for Reuters. 

Commercial satellite images show the Israeli military building up forces and equipment for a possible ground invasion in Gaza, according to three U.S. officials and a former official who viewed the imagery. Courtney Kube, Katherine Doyle, Monica Alba, and Carol E. Lee report for NBC News.

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE

Several international leaders have criticized Israel’s plan, with Germany announcing today that “under these circumstances, the German government will, until further notice, not approve any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip.” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer also said that Israel’s “decision to further escalate its offensive in Gaza is wrong, and we urge it to reconsider immediately,” while Australia’s foreign minister urged Israel “not to go down this path.” China said it is “gravely concerned” about Israel’s decision to occupy Gaza City, Belgium’s foreign minister has summoned the Israeli ambassador, and Denmark has called on Israel to reverse the plan. Chris Lunday reports for POLITICO; Reuters reports. 

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — U.S. RESPONSE

Top U.N. aid officials met Wednesday with the chair of the U.S.-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), marking their first direct engagement since the GHF began operating in late May, sources told Axios. No decision was made on cooperation in Gaza in the U.S.-brokered meeting, held at the U.N. mission in New York, the sources added. Barak Ravid reports. 

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Trump “in the coming days,” the Kremlin announced yesterday. The announcement followed Trump walking back on a White House official’s claim that a condition for a summit with Trump was for Putin to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Alexander Smith and Monica Alba report for NBC News.

OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS 

Haitian businessman Laurent Saint-Cyr assumed national leadership yesterday, marking the final stage of transition before the country is mandated to hand power to a democratically elected successor. Gunfire was heard in Port-au-Prince after the ceremony, as the leader of the coalition of gangs that now controls most of the capital threatened to disrupt the transition ahead of November’s election. Harold Isaac reports for Reuters. 

U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS

The United States has presented Lebanon with a plan for disarming Hezbollah by the end of this year, along with halting Israeli military operations in Lebanon and securing a full withdrawal of its troops from five positions in south Lebanon, according to a copy of a Lebanese cabinet agenda reviewed by Reuters. The plan was submitted by U.S. envoy to the region, Tom Barrack, with a Lebanese minister confirming its cabinet yesterday approved only the objectives of the U.S. proposal without discussing it in detail. Laila Bassam reports. 

The Trump administration has agreed to correct an “extremely regrettable” error in the implementation of its trade deal with Japan, according to Japan’s chief trade negotiator, who visited Washington this week for his ninth round of trade discussions. Japanese officials believe the deal they struck in July would set a standard tariff rate of 15%, but a July 31 executive order results in a higher rate to the point that beef exports would experience 41.4 percent tariffs. River Akira Davis reports for the New York Times.

The United States has doubled its reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to $50 million, accusing him of being “one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world.” Venezuela’s foreign minister said the increased reward was “pathetic” and called it “political propaganda.” Sean Seddon reports for BBC News.

Trump will host a signing ceremony today at the White House for the U.S.-brokered Armenia-Azerbaijan peace deal, with leaders from both countries in attendance. The deal includes Armenia agreeing to allow a 43.5 km corridor through its territory to let people and goods travel between Turkey and Azerbaijan without passing through Iran or Russia, with the corridor set to be named the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.” Dave Lawler and Barak Ravid report for Axios.

The United States has paused all routine visa applications for citizens of Zimbabwe, the State Department announced, stating the measure would be effective from today “while we address concerns with the Government of Zimbabwe.” Farai Mutsaka reports for AP News. 

U.S. DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said yesterday that the FBI has approved his request for the use of federal law enforcement to help locate Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled the state in an effort to block a Trump-backed effort to redraw its congressional map. It is unclear what, if any, specific plans federal agents had to engage, and when asked about Cornyn’s statements, the FBI declined to comment. Dylan Wells, Molly Hennessy-Fiske, and Jeremy Roebuck report for the Washington Post; Andrew Howard and Aaron Pellish report for POLITICO.

Deepening its purge, the FBI has ousted at least three senior officials who clashed with the Trump administration, including a former acting director who refused to fire agents involved in investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, sources say. Brian Driscoll, who briefly served as acting head of the bureau during the first few weeks of Trump’s second term, was fired this week without explanation, the sources said. Others dismissed this week include Steven Jensen, assistant director overseeing the FBI’s Washington field office, and Walter Giardina, an agent involved in the investigation that landed Trump’s former trade adviser in prison, the sources added. Jeremy Roebuck, Ellen Nakashima, and Perry Stein report for the Washington Post; Adam Goldman, Devlin Barrett, Glenn Thrush, and William K. Rashbaum report for the New York Times.

Video footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol attack shows a man who now works as an adviser at the Justice Department shouting at rioters to “kill” law enforcement officers. The footage from a body camera worn by a Metropolitan Police Department officer also shows Jared Wise, who eventually faced six charges as a result of his actions, calling officers responding to the riots “the Gestapo.” A Department spokesperson said that Wise “is a valued member … and we appreciate his contributions to our team.” Tom Dreisbach reports for NPR. 

A neo-Nazi leader has been sentenced to the maximum possible term of 20 years after being convicted of a white supremacist terror plot to attack Maryland’s power grid. Leading the Atomwaffen Division, Brandon Clint Russell, 30, was “the brains” behind the plan to destroy five Baltimore Gas and Electric substations, Baltimore District Court Judge James K. Bredar said. Mike Hellgren reports for CBS News; Michael Levenson reports for the New York Times.

A Georgia sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a man recently exonerated and released from prison has been indicted on separate civil rights charges, federal prosecutors announced yesterday. The charges relate to the use of excessive force against people on four occasions, the use of a taser, and the preparation of “multiple” misleading reports to justify the use of force, officials say. The Camden County Sheriff’s Office said that Aldridge has been immediately relieved of his duties. Phil Helsel reports for NBC News.

The Federal Aviation Authority expects to recruit 8,900 air traffic controllers by late 2028, it announced yesterday in its workforce plan. The “supercharge” hiring and training plan is not expected to end the nationwide staffing shortage of controllers, according to the agency’s own numbers. Karoun Demirjian reports for the New York Times.

The Air Force will withhold early retirement benefits from transgender service members with 15 to 18 years of military service, even in cases where an early retirement had previously been approved, according to a new memo. Instead, transgender personnel who were forced to leave or voluntarily separate under a Trump-era policy will be offered enhanced voluntary separation pay, a lesser benefit typically granted to those who choose to leave active duty before qualifying for retirement. Brooke Migdon reports for The Hill. 

Trump announced yesterday that he would nominate his White House economic adviser, Stephen Miran, to the Federal Reserve Board. If confirmed by the Senate, Miran’s appointment would last until January 31, 2026, and would fill a vacancy created by the unexplained early departure of Fed governor Adriana Kugler. Andrew Ackerman and Jacob Bogage report for the Washington Post. 

The Education Department yesterday announced an investigation into Baltimore’s public school system following allegations that it failed to adequately address antisemitism. The announcement signals the administration is now broadening its focus on antisemitism to K-12 schools, after previously concentrating on similar issues at universities. Dana Goldstein reports for the New York Times.

A string of U.S. armory break-ins at Tennessee National Guard last fall, which has not previously been reported by authorities, indicates a rising security crisis and possible signs of an inside job, according to a confidential memo reviewed by WIRED. Dell Cameron reports.

Alabama must use congressional maps drawn by an independent court-appointed special master — which add a second Black-majority district likely to benefit Democrats —  for the remainder of the decade, a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ruled unanimously yesterday. The court previously blocked Alabama’s 2023 map, which omitted a second Black-majority district in violation of a Supreme Court decision. The ruling, which helped Democrats gain a seat in the last election, comes as both parties brace for redistricting fights. Aaron Pellish reports for POLITICO.

TECH DEVELOPMENTS

OpenAI has begun rolling out GPT-5, the latest iteration of its flagship AI language model. At a press briefing, the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, stopped short of claiming the model reaches artificial general intelligence, but said the new model is smarter, faster, and more efficient, with a lower hallucination rate than previous models. Kyle Robison reports for Wired. 

Trump yesterday demanded the immediate resignation of new Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, calling him “highly conflicted” due to his links to Chinese firms. Trump’s comments follow reports that Tan invested at least $200 million in hundreds of Chinese manufacturing and chip firms, some of which were linked to the Chinese military. Aditya Soni reports for Reuters.

IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS

A federal judge will today consider a Trump administration request to end the 1997 policy on ensuring safe conditions for immigrant children held in federal custody. Valerie Gonzalez reports for AP News.

Florida must temporarily halt construction of “Alligator Alcatraz,” the immigration detention center in the Everglades, for 14 days while an environmental lawsuit is being litigated, a federal judge in Miami ruled yesterday. Rebecca Falconer reports for Axios. 

In the latest effort to advance its immigration agenda, the Trump administration has revealed a plan to build the nation’s largest federal migrant detention center on a Texas military base. The initial plan is to hold 1,000 migrants at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, by mid-to-late August, with construction of the 5,000-bed facility in “the weeks and months ahead,” the Pentagon said. Reuters reports. 

Trump stated yesterday that he has directed the Department of Commerce to start work on a new U.S. census that excludes undocumented immigrants from the population count. Alejandra Jaramillo and Ethan Cohen report for CNN.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS

The Trump administration has suspended $584 million in federal research funding to UCLA, school officials announced Wednesday. The figure, which is more than what was initially estimated, comes as the Justice Department announced last week it was investigating the school for civil rights violations stemming from allegations of antisemitism on campus. Nicole Norman reports for POLITICO.

The Trump administration plans to increase federal law enforcement in Washington, D.C., as early as today, following last weekend’s reported assault of former Department of Government Efficiency staffer Edward Corstine. The officers will come from the D.C. National Guard, the FBI, U.S. Marshals, ICE, the U.S. Secret Service, and additional components of the Department of Homeland Security, according to sources briefed on the deployment. A White House official confirmed the plans for increased federal law enforcement involving multiple federal agencies, to begin Thursday (yesterday) at midnight. Nicole Sganga reports for CBS News.

Trump yesterday ordered his Education Department to begin collecting data on the race, gender, test scores, and grade point averages of college applicants in the latest effort to examine whether universities are favoring minority students in admissions. The effort aims to provide the government with information long sought by conservative activists looking for proof that schools have been circumventing a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that largely prohibited the consideration of race in college admissions. Michael C. Bender and Anemona Hartocollis report for the New York Times.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION

The Trump administration yesterday urged the Supreme Court to allow ICE to continue patrols in Southern California. The emergency petition followed an appeals court refusing to lift a temporary restraining order preventing authorities from stopping or arresting people solely based on factors such as the language they speak or their work location. The Justice Department argued that federal agents would be allowed to consider such factors during immigration enforcement, with Trump’s Solicitor General writing to the court, “No one thinks that speaking Spanish or working in construction always creates reasonable suspicion … But in many situations, such factors—alone or in combination—can heighten the likelihood that someone is unlawfully present in the United States.” Lindsay Whitehurst reports for AP News.

A federal judge in Maryland yesterday issued a new nationwide injunction blocking Trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship. U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman’s ruling followed her approval of a petition from CASA, an immigrant rights group, to certify a class-action lawsuit on behalf of U.S.-born children who would be denied automatic citizenship under Trump’s order. David Nakamura reports for the Washington Post.

The post Early Edition: August 8, 2025 appeared first on Just Security.