By James P. Sutton,Peter Gattuso,Ross Anderson
Copyright thedispatch
Multiple news outlets reported that the Israel Defense Forces launched its major ground offensive to occupy Gaza City overnight, starting with air strikes on the city before tanks entered. According to two Israeli officials who spoke with Axios, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the White House backs the operation, so long as it’s completed quickly. The IDF has increased its activity in Gaza City over the past week, issuing an evacuation order for the city’s residents a week ago, and the IDF estimates that 300,000 Palestinians have evacuated so far.
President Donald Trump announced in a social media post Monday that the U.S. military had struck a boat containing suspected drug traffickers somewhere in the zone covered by the U.S. Southern Command, which covers Central and South America and the Caribbean. It was the second such attack this month, following a strike that killed 11 people off the coast of Venezuela. “The Strike resulted in 3 male terrorists killed in action,” stated Trump, who also attached a video of the alleged drug-carrying boat being struck by a missile. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has characterized the U.S. deployment to waters near his country as military aggression.
Axios reported Monday that Netanyahu informed Trump of impending air strikes on Qatar roughly an hour before Israel attacked Hamas leadership in Doha last week. Previously, the White House had claimed that it was notified of the strike only after missiles had been launched and that it was never in a position to prevent Israel from carrying out the attack on the terror group’s leaders. Last week, Trump told reporters that he was “very unhappy” about the Israeli strike and claimed that he sent White House special envoy Steve Witkoff to warn Qatar about the strike as soon as he was informed of it.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that the U.S. and China had reached a framework deal concerning ownership of the social media platform TikTok, following trade negotiations in Madrid over the weekend. While he declined to comment on the details of a deal “between two private parties,” Bessent said that “commercial terms have been agreed upon” and that the deal’s objective is for TikTok to switch to U.S. ownership. In 2024, Congress passed a law to ban TikTok on national security grounds unless its Chinese owner divested the platform, but Trump has declined to enforce it, instead issuing extensions while his administration tries to arrange a sale. The latest extension is set to expire Wednesday. Bessent said that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would speak on Friday to finalize the deal.
Chinese regulators said Monday that artificial intelligence chip manufacturer Nvidia violated anti-monopoly laws, announcing the results of a preliminary antitrust investigation. The announcement came after the U.S. on Friday barred two Chinese chip manufacturers, GMC Semiconductor Technology Co. and Jicun Semiconductor Technology, from buying American semiconductors. China did not say what penalties Nvidia may face, but the move complicates ongoing trade negotiations between the U.S. and China. China generated $17 billion in revenue for Nvidia in its fiscal year ending January 2025, representing 13 percent of the company’s total sales. In August, Nvidia agreed to pay the U.S. government 15 percent of revenue from high-end AI-specialized chips sold to China—chips that had previously been blocked from sale.
The armed forces of the U.S., South Korea, and Japan began a trilateral defense exercise Monday off the coast of Korea’s Jeju Island. The exercise, set to run until Friday, is called Freedom Edge 25 and meant to improve cooperation between the three countries in air, naval, and cyber capabilities in order to counter North Korea. “Freedom Edge 25 will stand as the most advanced demonstration of trilateral defense cooperation to date,” said a statement from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, on Monday announced that she would endorse state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, the winner of the New York City Democratic primary, for mayor in November’s election. “We’ve had our disagreement,” wrote Hochul in the New York Times. “But in our conversations, I heard a leader who shares my commitment to a New York where children can grow up safe in their neighborhoods and where opportunity is within reach for every family.” Trump criticized the decision on social media and appeared to threaten to withhold federal funds from New York City if Mamdani won, saying, “No reason to be sending good money after bad!”
A federal appeals court on Monday rejected Trump’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, hours before the central bank’s critical two-day interest rate meeting. Trump sought to fire Cook, the first black woman to serve as a Fed governor, on the basis of mortgage fraud allegations, saying she had claimed two homes as primary residences on home loan applications. She has not been charged related to the allegations, has denied wrongdoing, and sued to block her removal from the Fed board. Reuters reported on Saturday that Cook had listed one of her properties in Atlanta as a “vacation home” rather than a primary residence.
The Senate Monday night confirmed Stephen Miran to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in a 48-47 vote, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska the only Republican to vote no. Miran, who chairs the White House Council of Economic Advisers, becomes the first White House official to simultaneously serve on the Fed board in 90 years after Trump nominated him to fill the remaining term of Governor Adriana Kugler, who resigned in August. Miran said he would take unpaid leave rather than resign from his administration role as he serves until January 2026.
Maurene Comey, a former federal prosecutor and the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, sued the Trump administration on Monday for unlawful termination. In the suit, she alleged that her firing in July was “without cause, without advance notice, and without an opportunity to contest.” The suit also referenced Trump’s harsh criticism of her father and social media posts from pro-Trump influencer Laura Loomer urging that Comey be fired.
