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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 test as commander in chief. After pressing for diplomatic solutions to bring calm to the Middle East, the president may be embracing a tougher strategy as the U.S. and its allies seek to counter the Iranian axis.
The overnight strikes on Gaza marked the heaviest bombardment there since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas took effect in January. The agreement saw the release of about three dozen hostages held by the terrorist group, as well as some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel—including hundreds serving life sentences—in its first phase. But the exchanges stopped two weeks ago as negotiators struggled to make progress toward the deal’s second phase, which was supposed to include the release of all of the remaining hostages in Gaza—about 60 people, 24 of whom are believed to be alive—and a full Israeli withdrawal from the enclave.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff was in the region last week to facilitate negotiations aimed at continuing the truce. But the latest round of talks ended without a breakthrough. As Israel moved to resume the war, a White House spokesman placed the blame squarely on the Palestinian terrorist group: “Hamas could have released hostages to extend the ceasefire but instead chose refusal and war.” According to Palestinian reports, the renewed Israeli airstrikes have killed at least five senior leaders of Hamas, with dozens more casualties unconfirmed.
And there are signs that another ground maneuver may be imminent. On Tuesday, the IDF issued new evacuation orders for Gazans living near the border. It also changed the home front command guidelines for Israeli communities near the Strip, closing schools. “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, announcing the government had approved a new operational plan.
The decision to resume the war reflected a new prevailing belief among Jerusalem’s leadership, Enia Krivine, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Israel program, told TMD. “There’s no going back to October 6. The mentality of previous wars—the conception that you can go in, do damage to Hamas, and go back to life as normal—is not relevant anymore. There has been a radical change in the way that Israel looks at Hamas and its capabilities, and it’s not enough just to weaken them,” she said. “Hamas has never surrendered.”
Nor has it ceased its efforts to rearm, regroup, and rebuild in preparation for future attacks on Israel. A group of Knesset members recently claimed that Hamas had enlisted a fighting force of more than 25,000 people, while a recently freed hostage said Saturday that the group had continued to build tunnels under Gaza throughout his captivity. “Hamas has brought terrible destruction to Gaza, but it hasn’t been cowed,” Krivine said.
Meanwhile, in Yemen, the U.S. strikes came in response to the Houthis’ attacks on international ships in Middle Eastern waterways. The militia, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist group, began targeting vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in November 2023 in ostensible solidarity with Hamas. In the 16 months since, the Houthis have sunk two vessels, damaged 30 others, and forced 70 percent of global shipping to avoid the area and divert around the tip of Africa. They also held the multinational crew of the Galaxy Leader, an Israeli cargo ship, hostage for more than a year.
The Houthis boast a formidable arsenal of advanced weapons, including Iranian-made drones and ballistic missiles. In addition to targeting international shipping, the militants have launched hundreds of attacks on Israel and dozens at U.S. military targets in the region. “It is Iran that has repeatedly funded, resourced, trained, and helped the Houthis target not only U.S. warships, but global commerce,” National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz on Sunday. “What we inherited was a terrible situation, and this is one of what will be a sustained effort to right that wrong and to reopen global commerce.”
The Houthis vowed over the weekend to retaliate for the U.S. attacks, which Waltz and other administration officials have signaled could last weeks. A spokesman for the group said Monday it had launched two attacks on American warships, though U.S. officials pushed back on the claim. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Houthi supporters took to the streets of rebel-held Yemen, wielding assault rifles and chanting “Death to America, death to Israel!”
For now, the American strikes look poised to continue. “We’re doing the entire world a favor by getting rid of these guys and their ability to strike global shipping,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on Sunday. “That’s the mission here, and it will continue until that’s carried out.”
But the campaign appears to have at least one other goal: sending a message to Iran. In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump promised to hold the regime responsible for any attacks undertaken by the Houthis. And Tehran seems to be lying low. Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps chief Gen. Hossein Salami attempted to distance the Islamic Republic from its proxy in a recent speech: “We have always declared—and we declare again today—that the Yemenis are an independent and free nation in their own land, with an independent national policy.”
Still, Iran continues to resist engaging in talks about its ever-growing nuclear program—one of Trump’s key priorities. “We have a situation with Iran that something is going to happen very soon, very, very soon,” he told reporters this month. “I’d rather see a peace deal than the other, but the other will solve the problem.”
The latest attacks on Yemen likely reflect the president’s growing recognition that bringing Iran to the table may require force. “The timing of the Houthi attacks has everything to do with the Iran deal,” Krivine said. “It’s a clear message to the regime in Iran. We’re offering you a deal—Trump has made very blatant overtures to Tehran—and this is what you will potentially face down if you don’t take the carrot.”
Today’s Must-Read
Farmers and Manufacturers Show Guarded Optimism About Trump’s Tariffs
Contrary to the anxiety roiling corporate C-suites across the country and business groups in Washington, D.C.—where opposition to Donald Trump’s tariff strategy is rampant—farmers and manufacturers in the Midwest whose livelihoods rely on exports and imports seem generally supportive of the Trump administration’s early posture on trade. Agriculture and industry advocates in Michigan, North Dakota, and Wisconsin—three states with economies powered by international trade—said they are willing to give the president time to deliver his promised “golden age of America.”
Toeing the Company Line
The New Deep State
Donald Trump’s most lasting legacy may be the foreign policy apparatus forming in the shadows.
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.”
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.
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!
Let Us Know
Do you agree with the Trump administration’s decision to take stronger action against the Houthis in Yemen?
