• Human Rights

August 11, 2025, 5:52 PM View Comments ()

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Israel’s deadly bombing campaign on Gaza, a federal takeover of the U.S. capital, and rare anti-government protests in India.

Expanded Operation

Israel escalated its bombing campaign of Gaza City on Monday, with attacks centering on the eastern suburbs of Sabra, Shejaia, and Zeitoun.

“I want to end the war as quickly as possible, and that is why I have instructed the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] to shorten the schedule for seizing control of Gaza City,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, adding that he expects to complete the expanded offensive against Hamas “fairly quickly.”

Netanyahu has described Gaza City as Hamas’s “capital of terrorism,” claiming that the militant group uses the area to launch rockets at Israeli communities. But it remains unclear what an occupation of the city might look like and how long such an offensive may last.

Among the attacks on Gaza City over the weekend, Israeli airstrikes killed at least six journalists, including prominent Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif, in a tent near al-Shifa Hospital. The Israeli military said it purposely targeted Sharif, claiming that he was leading a Hamas cell in the city and “advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and troops.” Sharif and Al Jazeera have previously called these allegations baseless.

Instead, press advocates have described the attacks as retribution against those documenting Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, including evidence of mass starvation.

“It is no coincidence that the smears against al-Sharif—who has reported night and day for Al Jazeera since the start of the war—surfaced every time he reported on a major development in the war, most recently the starvation brought about by Israel’s refusal to allow sufficient aid into the territory,” said Sara Qudah, the regional director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

More than 240 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the war began in October 2023, according to a United Nations spokesperson, and this weekend’s deaths—of whom five were Al Jazeera staffers—were the deadliest attacks on reporters in more than 22 months. Israel has a history of targeting Al Jazeera, which is partially funded by the Qatari government, by blocking the news site from airing in Israel and raiding its offices in the occupied West Bank.

On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for “an independent and impartial investigation into these latest killings.” And French President Emmanuel Macron said the recent actions in Gaza City herald “a disaster of unprecedented gravity” and “a move toward a never-ending war.”

Their statements add to a growing chorus of foreign leaders denouncing Israel’s actions in Gaza. On Monday, Australia joined Canada, France, and the United Kingdom in vowing to recognize an independent Palestinian state come September. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his decision was based on commitments that Canberra received from the Palestinian Authority, including promises to exclude Hamas from formal governance and to hold elections in the territory. New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters also said on Monday that Wellington is considering Palestinian recognition and would make a formal decision later this year.

Today’s Most Read

• Why Everyone in Washington Is a ‘Realist’ Now by Michael Hirsh
• The Political Giant the West Forgot by Howard W. French
• Gaza’s Hunger Crisis, Explained by John Haltiwanger

The World This Week

Wednesday, Aug. 13: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz convenes a virtual summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and other European leaders.

Friday, Aug. 15: Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Alaska to discuss Russia-Ukraine peace talks.

South Africa begins its first three-day National Convention in Pretoria.

Saturday, Aug. 16: Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto delivers a state of the nation address.

Sunday, Aug. 17: A deadline for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group to finalize a peace agreement expires.

Bolivia holds the first round of its general election.

What We’re Following

D.C. federal takeover. Trump announced on Monday that he will assert federal control of Washington’s police force and deploy 800 National Guard troops to combat what he characterized as rising crime in the capital. Washington is “one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world,” Trump said, despite violent crime rates decreasing for a second consecutive year in 2025 and reaching their lowest levels in more than 30 years.

The U.S. president painted a dystopian picture of Washington, saying the capital has “been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people.” He named Attorney General Pam Bondi to assume control of the city’s police, temporarily reassigned 120 FBI agents to Washington for nighttime patrols, and added that he may deploy the military “if needed.” The D.C. federal takeover is expected to last 30 days.

Protests quickly erupted in front of the White House in response. Trump’s actions are “unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful,” D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said. “We are considering all of our options and will do what’s necessary to protect the rights and safety of District residents.”

Trump used a similar strategy to crack down on anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles this year, and he has threatened to expand such measures to other major left-leaning cities, such as Chicago and New York. He did not, however, suggest employing similar actions in Republican-led states with high murder rates, namely in the cities of Memphis, Tennessee; St. Louis, Missouri; or New Orleans, Louisiana.

New voting restrictions. India’s opposition parties held rare protests on Monday, accusing the country’s Electoral Commission of rushing through a revision of the voter roll in the eastern state of Bihar. The policy will require nearly 80 million people to provide specific documentation, such as birth certificates and passports, to cast ballots. But critics warn that such measures will exclude vulnerable groups that suffer low literacy rates; Bihar is one of India’s poorest states.

Demonstrations began outside of Parliament on Monday and moved toward the commission’s offices in New Delhi. But police intercepted the protesters and briefly detained hundreds of individuals, including opposition leader Rahul Gandhi. Gandhi has claimed that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and India’s Electoral Commission have jointly manipulated elections by tweaking voter rolls, calling the latest policies in Bihar an “institutionalized chori [theft] to deny the poor their right to vote.”

New Delhi’s electoral agency denies such allegations and maintains that the new measures in Bihar will not let any eligible voters be “left behind.” The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also refutes these claims. Local elections in Bihar are scheduled for November.

A seat at the table. European foreign ministers convened an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss how best to ensure that Ukraine is not sidelined from future peace negotiations with Russia. Trump and Putin are expected to meet on Friday in the U.S. state of Alaska. But Zelensky will notably not be in attendance, prompting fears that Ukraine could be forced to accept territorial concessions to end the war.

“Any agreement between the United States and Russia must include Ukraine and the EU because it is a security issue for Ukraine and for the whole of Europe,” European Union foreign-policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday. Both European and Ukrainian leaders have urged the White House to put additional sanctions on Moscow to persuade Russia to soften its maximalist position and accede to Ukrainian demands, including respecting Kyiv’s sovereignty and allowing it to join NATO in the future.

Monday’s dialogue appears to be the first of several meetings on the matter. On Sunday, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said Washington is working to schedule a trilateral Trump-Putin-Zelensky meeting, though no date has been confirmed. And on Wednesday, Merz is expected to hold virtual talks to address the importance of Ukrainian involvement in peace negotiations. Both Trump and Zelensky have been invited to attend.

Odds and Ends

It’s never too early to begin Christmas preparations. Three German postal workers kicked off their two-week bicycle journey on Saturday to deliver letters and wish lists to Santa Claus Village, located in the small Finnish town of Rovaniemi along the edge of the Arctic Circle. The roughly 1,860-mile journey will begin in St. Nikolaus, Germany, then pass through Denmark and Sweden before reaching Finland. More than 30,000 letters from around the world are sent to the St. Nikolaus post office each year.