Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has expanded his goals for the war on Gaza to include the return of Israelis displaced by fighting near the border with Lebanon. Netanyahu’s office announced the escalation after an overnight meeting of Israel’s security Cabinet, and just hours after Israel’s war chief Yoav Gallant told a senior adviser to President Biden, “The only way left to return the residents of the north to their homes is via military action.” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin responded by warning Gallant that a full-scale war with Hezbollah would lead to “devastating consequences.”

The Palestinian Education Ministry reports Israeli attacks have killed more than 11,000 students across the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank since October 7. In one of the latest assaults, at least 20 Palestinians were killed when Israel’s military bombed the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Five others were killed in an attack on Gaza City’s al-Zeitoun neighborhood.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting Egypt today to discuss a potential Gaza ceasefire and the release of hostages. Blinken’s visit comes as top experts at the United Nations have strongly condemned the U.S. and other Western nations for supporting Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza. Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, spoke Monday.

Francesca Albanese: “I think that it’s unavoidable for Israel to become a pariah in the face of its continuous, relentless, vilifying assault on the United Nations, on top of millions of Palestinians.”

In campaign news, Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance have seized on Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt on Trump to assail their Democratic rivals over their “rhetoric.” This is Vance at a Faith and Freedom Coalition event in Atlanta Monday.

Sen. JD Vance: “No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months. I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down their rhetoric and needs to cut this crap out. Somebody’s going to get hurt by it.”

Trump ally Elon Musk amplified this Trump campaign message, posting — then deleting — a response to an X user, in which the billionaire X owner mused, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala” along with a thinking-face emoji. The Secret Service said afterward it was “aware” of the post and reiterated that it investigates all such threats.

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmaker Jamie Raskin, who led the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, told The Washington Post Kamala Harris and Tim Walz “do not talk about bloodbaths, American carnage, overturning the rule of law or the Constitution, or imprisoning and exacting revenge against their opponents.” He added, “Only one candidate in this race has been impeached in a bipartisan vote for inciting a violent insurrection against our government.”

On Monday, 58-year-old Ryan Routh, the suspect in Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt at Trump International Golf Club, appeared in federal court. Prosecutors say Routh spent nearly 12 hours lying in wait with a rifle before a Secret Service agent fired on him, scuttling his plans to shoot at Trump. This is U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe.

Markenzy Lapointe: “Routh was charged federally with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession and receipt of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.”

Markenzy Lapointe is the first Haitian American to serve as a U.S. attorney.

In Ohio, Republican Governor Mike DeWine announced he’s deploying state troopers and conducting daily bomb sweeps in Springfield schools after racist and inflammatory comments by Trump, Vance and other Republican officials against the city’s Haitian community led to 33 separate bomb threats. During a recent CNN interview about the lies he is helping spread about the Haitian community, JD Vance said he is willing to “create stories.” The city of Springfield also announced it’s canceling its annual CultureFest that was scheduled for later this month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his military to expand the number of active-duty troops by 180,000 to a total of 1.5 million. It’s the third increase in troop size since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022. With the decree, it’s likely Putin will have to either expand the draft or change Russian law to allow more women into the military. This comes just days after Putin warned the U.S. and its NATO allies against allowing Ukraine to use Western arms to strike deeper inside Russia.

President Vladimir Putin: “If this decision is made, it will mean nothing less than the direct participation of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine. This is their direct participation. And this, of course, significantly changes the very essence, the very nature of the conflict.”

On Friday, President Biden shrugged off Putin’s threat, telling reporters, “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin.”

Afghanistan’s Taliban has suspended a U.N.-led polio eradication effort, ordering a halt to house-to-house vaccinations. It’s a major setback to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. So far this year, the World Health Organization has identified 18 polio cases in Afghanistan — triple the number recorded all of last year.

In Massachusetts, a man set himself on fire last Wednesday near the Israeli Consulate in Boston to protest the war on Gaza. He was reportedly hospitalized immediately after with severe burns, but few other details are known. Matt Nelson is believed to be the third person to self-immolate outside an Israeli consulate over the past 11 months. Video has circulated online purportedly of Nelson speaking ahead of his self-immolation.

Matt Nelson: “My name is Matt Nelson, and I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest. We are all culpable in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. We call ourselves the greatest nation in history, yet we spend more on weapons of war than we do on educating our children, helping the homeless, ensuring all Americans have equal rights and protecting the environment combined. We are slaves to capitalism and the military-industrial complex. Most of us are too apathetic to care. The protest I’m about to engage in is a call to our government to stop supplying Israel with the money and weapons it uses to imprison and murder innocent Palestinians, to pressure Israel to end the genocide in Gaza and to support the ICC indictment of Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli government.”

Meanwhile, in Newton, Massachusetts, a U.S. veteran was charged for assaulting and shooting a man who was defending Palestinian rights to a group of pro-Israel protesters.

Here in New York, the NYPD is facing public outrage after an officer shot four people following a suspected subway fare evasion. The cop ended up sending the suspect, two bystanders and another police officer to the hospital. The NYCLU said, “This deeply disturbing incident shows why endlessly relying on more police in subways and harsh crackdowns for minor offenses won’t bring true community safety.”

In Georgia, protesters interrupted Atlanta’s City Council meeting on Monday to demand a public referendum on the massive, 85-acre police training complex known as “Cop City.” Monday’s protest came one year after the Vote to Stop Cop City Coalition in Atlanta submitted more than 116,000 signatures calling for a ballot measure on the fate of Cop City, the estimated budget of which has ballooned to $110 million. Atlanta officials led by Mayor Andre Dickens have so far committed $67 million in public funds to the project while racking up outside legal fees in a bid to keep a referendum off November’s ballot. On Monday, protesters released thousands of ping-pong balls into Atlanta City Council chambers and unfurled a banner reading “Andre Dickens, you dropped the ball on democracy.” This is Pastor Keyanna Jones Moore, speaking during a public comment ahead of the protest.

Rev. Keyanna Jones Moore: “If you’re so confident in what you have to offer, then give people a choice. Andre Dickens constantly says that this project has overwhelming support. Well, all right, then, Andre, why you working so hard to keep people from voting? Because 116,000 people, whether they want Cop City or not, believe that people should be able to vote on the issue.”