Israel’s military has launched a full-scale ground invasion in Rafah as it relentlessly attacks the Gaza Strip for the fourth straight day since Israel unilaterally shattered the ceasefire with Hamas. Israeli troops are also pushing into the north near Beit Lahia and other areas. At least 200 Palestinian children have been killed in Israeli attacks since Tuesday. This is a mother in Khan Younis whose daughter was killed by an Israeli strike.

Buthayna al-Mujayda: “Stop this war. Stop this extermination. This is an extermination of the entire Palestinian people. What is the fault of the children? These are children. What is their fault? For every child, you bring 100. What is this? Shame on you! The entire square, not a stone or anything remains. It is all destroyed. They left nothing in the whole area.”

UNRWA announced five of its workers have been killed in recent days. This brings the total of all UNRWA workers killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza over the past 18 months to 284.

President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to start dismantling the Department of Education.

President Donald Trump: “My administration will take all lawful steps to shut down the department. We’re going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible. It’s doing us no good. We want to return our students to the states.”

The department cannot be fully shut down without an act of Congress, but Trump’s order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to shutter regional offices, transfer out some of its key functions and further slash the department’s workforce, which has already been cut in half since Trump took office. The fate of public education funding, labor, civil rights protections and financial aid for students now hangs in the balance. Protests are planned for today in D.C. and beyond. We’ll have more on Trump’s executive order and its implications after headlines.

A federal judge temporarily blocked Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, from accessing Social Security Administration databases containing personal information. Judge Ellen Hollander also ordered DOGE to delete identifiable personal data it may have already obtained and to remove software installed on Social Security systems. In her opinion, the judge wrote, “The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion.”

Federal Judge James Boasberg accused the Trump Justice Department of “again evading their obligations” and presenting “woefully insufficient” information around its deportation flights of Venezuelan immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg had ordered the administration to present the information after it violated the judge’s order last weekend to halt and turn around removal flights to El Salvador.

Meanwhile, lawyers and loved ones of the deported individuals say they’ve been falsely accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang simply because they have tattoos. One of them is professional soccer player Jerce Reyes Barrios. His lawyer says the tattoo that landed him on the deportation list depicts a crown sitting on top of a soccer ball with a rosary and the word “Dios,” chosen by Barrios as a nod to the Real Madrid soccer team logo. In Venezuela, families of deportees have pleaded with authorities to bring their loved ones home amid reports of serious abuses at El Salvador’s mega-prison where they’re being held.

Idalis Chirino: “We ask the corresponding authorities, the U.N., to please join us. We want to know the whereabouts of our children. Please, return them to us if they are in El Salvador. They are not criminals.”

In more immigration news, the private, for-profit company GEO Group has announced a new contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that will see the reopening of a shuttered Michigan prison to start detaining immigrants and asylum seekers. The North Lake facility in Baldwin would become one of the largest ICE jails in the country, with a capacity of at least 1,800 people. North Lake closed in 2022 as part of President Biden’s executive order to end the use of private prisons by the federal government. Detention Watch Network said in a statement, “The perverse financial incentives are glaring as GEO Group stands to generate in excess of $70 million in annualized revenue from North Lake, at the expense of people’s lives.” GEO Group’s stock value has soared since Trump returned to office.

This comes as the National Labor Relations Board has dropped a case accusing GEO Group of retaliating against immigrant detainees who protested over low pay and dangerous working conditions. Detainees are paid as little as $1 a day for their labor.

President Trump rescinded an executive order targeting the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison after meeting in person with its chair this week. Under the deal, the law firm will provide $40 million in free legal services supporting Trump’s agenda, including his “Task Force to Combat Antisemitism.” Last week, Trump’s order threatened to revoke the firm’s security clearances and end its federal contracts over its association with former partner Mark Pomerantz, who oversaw the Manhattan district attorney’s probe into Trump’s finances. The news has set off alarm in the legal profession. The firm is associated with Democratic causes and is known for fighting civil rights cases against the government.

The White House denied reports that Elon Musk will be briefed on potential war plans with China when he visits the Pentagon today. The meeting represents a significant expansion of Musk’s access to sensitive government information and underscores his many conflicts of interest. His companies, including SpaceX and Tesla, have received billions in government contracts, including with the Pentagon, and Musk has major financial interests in China.

Rwanda-backed M23 fighters have seized another key town in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The rebel group entered the mining hub of Walikale on Wednesday. M23’s latest advance comes after Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame called for an immediate ceasefire in the eastern DRC, following peace talks in Doha mediated by Qatar’s government. But M23 leaders are not backing down.

Corneille Nangaa: “They have put prices on our arrest. We have nothing more to lose. We will fight until our cause is heard. Meanwhile, what happened in Doha, as long as we don’t know the details and as long as it doesn’t solve our problems, we will say it does not concern us.”

In Sudan, military forces have recaptured the presidential palace in Khartoum, a major victory for the Sudanese army after nearly two years of war against the Rapid Support Forces. Over 28,000 people have been killed since the conflict began in April 2023, with millions forcibly displaced from their homes in what the U.N. has described as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

In Turkey, mass protests continue over the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a major rival to Turkey’s authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Turkish authorities have detained at least 37 people over social media posts in support of İmamoğlu, who was taken into custody Wednesday on what his backers say are trumped-up corruption charges ahead of primary elections on Sunday. Protesters took to the streets of Istanbul.

Bulent Gulten: “This is a coup to the national will and democracy. When viewed from foreign countries today, Turkey is seen as having an appearance where democracy is over, justice is over, and everyone who is not with the government is in prison. Do you actually know what this is like? It is proof that now the one-man regime is saying, 'There are no elections in Turkey. I am the king. There will be no elections.'”

At least six people have been killed, with another 40 still missing, after a rubber dinghy carrying refugees capsized Tuesday in the Mediterranean Sea off the Italian island of Lampedusa. Only 10 survivors have been rescued. The boat departed from Sfax, Tunisia, and the passengers were from Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Mali. At least 270 refugees have already died this year trying to cross the Mediterranean to seek safety in Europe.

Over 30 UCLA students who were brutalized last spring during Gaza solidarity protests have sued campus officials and law enforcement agencies. Students had set up a peaceful campus encampment demanding an end to UCLA’s financial ties with Israel’s war. But they were repeatedly targeted for abuse, including from outside groups, culminating in what they call a “brutal mob assault” on April 30. The live-streamed attacks on students and faculty were carried out for at least four hours while UCLA security stood by. The university called in police the following day to forcefully and violently remove the protesters. The plaintiffs describe enduring physical and psychological harm. This is Binyamin Moryosef, an Israeli American undergraduate plaintiff, who accused UCLA of antisemitism over its silencing of Jewish anti-genocide voices on campus.

Binyamin Moryosef: “This lawsuit asks for the barest of respect towards the right to free expression, the right to voice our righteous opposition to the ever-present reality of imminent death every Palestinian child faces so long as the Israeli military continues its aggression. I ask the university not to collaborate with the oppressive forces of our time, unless they wish to be remembered like the heartless administration that arrested the Vietnam War protesters. Choose now to stand on the side of justice.”

At Cornell University in New York state, outspoken international student activist Momodou Taal has filed a lawsuit along with two others, seeking to block Trump’s executive orders targeting Palestinian rights activists. The three Cornell plaintiffs argue they’ve been “unconstitutionally silenced.” Last year, Momodou Taal, a British and Ghanaian national, was twice suspended for his activism by Cornell, which moved to cancel his student visa but ultimately backed down. Taal says law enforcement agents started following him around after he filed his lawsuit earlier this week. Supporters at Cornell mobilized Thursday to demand “hands off Momodou!” Last month, Taal told Democracy Now! why he would never stop advocating for Palestinian rights.

Momodou Taal: “When we say Palestine is a litmus test, we’re saying that it is not that we privilege the Palestinian cause over every other cause, but rather Palestine holds a mirror up unto the world and says, 'What kind of world do we want to live in?'”

Click here to our full interview with Momodou Taal.

On Thursday, organizers say more than a thousand Jewish activists from groups including If Not Now and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice rallied in front of the Manhattan headquarters of ICE to demand the release of Columbia student activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was picked up by federal immigration agents on March 8 and remains in a Louisiana detention center. We’ll have the latest on Mahmoud Khalil’s case later in the broadcast.

Two House Democrats have openly called for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to be replaced amid mounting anger over his vote backing the GOP government spending package. Congressmembers Glenn Ivey and Delia Ramirez made the comments during recent town halls. Senator Schumer was forced to postpone his book tour amid widespread voter backlash and planned protests.

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee announced it’s going to host town halls in Republican-held House districts around the country.

Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has joined Senator Bernie Sanders as he continues his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, addressing packed crowds and overflow rooms in Republican and swing districts across the U.S. The pair were in Tempe, Arizona, yesterday.

Sen. Bernie Sanders: “We’re not going to allow you and your friend, Mr. Musk, and the other billionaires to wreak havoc on the working families of this country. No, you’re not going to destroy Social Security. You’re not going to destroy Medicaid. You’re not going to destroy the Veterans Administration.”

Bernie Sanders has been visiting areas where the districts’ own congressional representatives have neglected to meet with constituents. House Speaker Mike Johnson has urged fellow Republicans to avoid town hall meetings after confrontations with concerned voters.