Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has accused Israel of waging “a war of extermination” after Israeli airstrikes killed at least 558 people, including 50 children, and injured over 1,800 since Monday. It was Israel’s largest attack on Lebanon in nearly two decades. Israel said today it will further “accelerate” its attacks on Lebanon. Israel claimed the airstrikes struck 1,600 Hezbollah targets, but Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israel mostly struck civilian sites including hospitals, medical centers and ambulances. Thousands of Lebanese residents have fled southern Lebanon, with many heading to Beirut. The U.N. Human Rights Office warned Israel that sending a “warning” before attacking civilians is not acceptable.

Hezbollah forces responded to Israel’s massive attack by firing missiles at Israeli military bases, arms factories and other areas. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned, “We are almost in a full-fledged war,” while U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres was “alarmed” at the large number of civilian casualties reported in Lebanon.

Stéphane Dujarric: “The message to the parties that are firing at each other across the Blue Line, to all the parties involved in this conflict, is: Step back from the brink. Stop the escalation. … As we just said, there is no military solution at this point that will make anyone in either country any safer.”

Israel’s attack on Lebanon also killed at least one journalist. Hadi Al-Sayed, a reporter for Al-Mayadeen, died after Israel bombed his home in southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has announced more U.S. troops would be sent to the Middle East.

The U.N. Human Rights Office is calling on Israel to stop attacking schools in Gaza that provide shelter to displaced Palestinians. Over the past three days, Israeli attacks on schools have killed at least 32 Palestinians, including 16 children. The U.N. agency said, “The children of Gaza have already lost schools as a place of education. Now, they are being killed in schools as they seek shelter.”

On Monday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa spoke at the United Nations.

Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa: “As I speak to you, before you, our people in Gaza are enduring one of the darkest chapters in modern history. For nearly a year now, Israel’s genocidal war has caused unprecedented loss and suffering and humanitarian catastrophe. At the same time, our people in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, continue to face systemic threats driven by the escalating settlers’ violence, military raids, movement restrictions and financial siege, withholding of Palestinian tax revenues.”

ProPublica has revealed USAID and the State Department’s refugees bureau both concluded this spring that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza. But U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top Biden officials rejected the findings of the agencies — the two foremost U.S. authorities on humanitarian assistance. Blinken’s decision allowed the U.S. to keep sending arms to Israel. Under U.S. law, the government is required to cut off weapons shipments to countries preventing the delivery of U.S.-backed aid.

U.S. prosecutors have announced plans to bring attempted assassination charges against Ryan Routh, the man accused of trying to kill Donald Trump while he was playing golf in Florida. The charge carries a life sentence if convicted. Prosecutors revealed Routh wrote a letter months ago detailing his plans to kill the former president.

The state of Missouri is scheduled to execute Marcellus Williams this evening despite significant indications he was wrongfully convicted. On Monday, Missouri’s Supreme Court and Governor Mike Parson declined to halt the scheduled killing even though St. Louis’s top prosecutor, Wesley Bell, said in a January filing that “new evidence suggests that Mr. Williams is actually innocent.” The prosecutor, the jurors and the murder victim’s family are all against the execution.

DNA found on the murder weapon did not match Williams, but instead matched another man. Williams, who is African American, was convicted in 2001 of killing former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle, who was white, during a robbery. He was convicted by 11 white jurors and one Black juror, after the prosecution was allowed to preemptively strike out six other prospective Black jurors. Last week, Democratic Congressmember Cori Bush spoke about the case on the House floor.

Rep. Cori Bush: “I am urging Governor Parson not to let another innocent man be murdered at the hands of the state. He must heed this call. And as a proud co-sponsor of the Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act, Congress must also act. Let’s end this racist, this flawed and inhumane practice once and for all. Save the life of this innocent man.”

Climate activists disrupted a speech yesterday by President Biden’s climate adviser Ali Zaidi during an official Climate Week NYC event. Two protesters held up a banner reading “Off fossil fuels. Free Palestine” as they took the stage.

Ali Zaidi: “… are necessary to have” —

Protester: “The Biden and Harris campaign cannot continue to fund and subsidize and approve new fossil fuel projects. They also have to stop funding Israel and the Pentagon, who are continuing to carry out the genocide of the Palestinian people.”

And nearby, at Citibank’s headquarters in Manhattan, police arrested over 30 activists as they blocked the building’s entrance and demanded it stop funding fossil fuel projects. Protesters also called for world leaders gathering at the U.N. General Assembly to put people over profit and end the war on Gaza. Democracy Now! was there; we’ll play voices from that action later in the broadcast.

Prominent climate activist Greta Thunberg has joined demands to boycott Chevron over its supplying of energy to Israel.

Greta Thunberg: “In Palestine and all over the world, the fight against colonialism and corporations’ destruction of the planet are intrinsically linked. Look at Chevron. Everyone knows that Chevron is one of the world’s biggest climate criminals, but the oil giant is also fueling Israel’s genocide in Palestine.”

In California, activists with Sunrise Movement gathered outside Kamala Harris’s Los Angeles home demanding the Democratic presidential nominee take serious action on the climate. The protesters brought with them a couch that had been burnt down to its frame in a nearby wildfire. In response, Harris posted on X she will “tackle the climate crisis with bold action to build a clean energy economy, advance environmental justice, and increase resilience to climate disasters,” but did not lay out any specifics, as climate activists have been demanding.

In more news from California, the state’s Attorney General Rob Bonta announced California is suing ExxonMobil for lying to the public about plastics being recyclable.

Attorney General Rob Bonta: “The truth here is that this myth of recycling, this decadeslong campaign of deception, has led to and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis. And while plastics are not actually being recycled, the one thing that ExxonMobil does recycle is its lies.”

President Biden on Monday designated the United Arab Emirates a “major defense partner” as the U.S. seeks to deepen military cooperation in the Middle East, East Africa and Indian Ocean regions. The White House said in a statement this would facilitate “joint training, exercises, and military-to-military collaboration” between the U.S. and UAE armed forces. The UAE is only the second nation to receive such designation, after India.

The announcement came as Biden met with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and despite mounting concerns over the UAE’s backing of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which has been accused of massive rights abuses along with the Sudanese military, in the country’s devastating civil war.

France has sent a long-banned riot police force to the Caribbean island of Martinique amid mounting protests over the cost of living and inequality. Martinique, which has a majority-Black population, has been colonized by France since the 17th century. Residents of Martinique pay an estimated 30 to 40% more for food than residents of France. White and French residents of Martinique also hold outsized political and economic power.

In Senegal, authorities have recovered the remains of at least 30 people on a boat off the coast of Dakar. The boat was likely adrift at sea for days. Senegal has become part of a common route for the increasing number of refugees being forced to flee West Africa due to conflict, extreme poverty and other dire conditions. Most migrants who depart from the region are attempting to reach Spain’s Canary Islands as they hope to resettle in Europe.