Israel’s renewed all-out massacre of Palestinians in Gaza is continuing into its second week, with at least 23 people killed before dawn today, including seven children. On Monday, an Israeli strike on Beit Lahia killed the noted Al Jazeera journalist Hossam Shabat. This is Shabat’s colleague Mahmoud Abu Salameh.

Mahmoud Abu Salameh: “We heard the sound of the explosion near the Indonesian Hospital. We rushed immediately at the moment of targeting. At the moment we heard the sound of this explosion, we headed to the place and saw the targeting of our colleague, journalist Hossam Shabat. We were shocked by the scene. This is our colleague Hossam’s car, and this is his blood.”

A letter by Hossam Shabat, posted by his team after his killing Monday, reads in part, “For the past 18 months, I have dedicated every moment of my life to my people. I documented the horrors in northern Gaza minute by minute, determined to show the world the truth they tried to bury.” Shabat added, “I ask you now: do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories—until Palestine is free.” Later in the broadcast, we’ll speak to another of Hossam Shabat’s colleagues, Drop Site News editor Sharif Abdel Kouddous.

Separately on Monday, another journalist, Palestine Today correspondent Mohammed Mansour, was killed in an airstrike north of Khan Younis.

In the occupied West Bank, a mob of masked and armed Israeli settlers on Monday brutally attacked Hamdan Ballal, the Oscar-winning Palestinian director of the documentary “No Other Land.” The group of at least 15 settlers also assaulted activists with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. The attack took place in the village of Susya in the Masafer Yatta region. One of Ballal’s co-directors, journalist Basel Adra, said the group entered their village and started the assault shortly after residents broke their daily Ramadan fast. Ballal screamed, “I’m dying,” as he was being brutally beaten. He was then loaded, while heavily bleeding, into a military vehicle. He was released earlier today. We’ll speak with Basel Adra and an eyewitness from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence after headlines.

In a stunning breach of security protocol, senior members of Trump’s administration unknowingly shared plans to bomb Yemen with a reporter on an unclassified Signal group chat. Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, revealed the chats in a piece titled “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.” Goldberg said he did not think the chat could be real until U.S. strikes actually did hit Yemen on March 15.

National security adviser Mike Waltz created the chat, which also included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance. Vance initially argued against the strikes, saying, “3 percent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 percent of European trade does.” Vance also messaged, “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now,” before backing down. In response to the first wave of bombings, Waltz posted emojis of a fist, an American flag and fire. Over 50 people were killed during those U.S. strikes on Yemen, including children.

National security experts say using Signal to share classified information likely violates the Espionage Act and federal records law.

The U.S. continues to attack Yemen after Houthi fighters threatened to renew strikes on Red Sea vessels over Israel’s resumption of its all-out war on Gaza. On Monday, U.S. airstrikes in Sana’a killed at least two people and wounded over a dozen others, including children. This is a local resident who witnessed the attack.

Hafezallah Saleh Al Hamidi: “A brutal American-Israeli aggression targeted civilians in a residential area that had no weapons or warehouses as the Americans claim, only innocent civilians. They bombed an empty basement with nothing in it. The residents of nearby buildings were harmed. Among them, people, and even children, were injured.”

In Ukraine, over 80 people were wounded, including children, in a Russian missile attack Monday on a densely populated area in the city of Sumy which also severely damaged a school and hospital. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian rocket attack in eastern Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Luhansk region killed at least six people, including three Russian journalists.

The latest attacks came as U.S. and Russian officials wrapped up talks in Saudi Arabia Monday over a proposed ceasefire deal between Kyiv and Moscow. Ukrainian and U.S. delegations also met separately in Riyadh. Details have not been made public, but a main issue on the agenda was reportedly the revival of a 2022 grain deal allowing Kyiv to export across the Black Sea in exchange for an easing of Western sanctions on Moscow.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal in the landmark legal case Juliana v. United States. The lawsuit has inspired other successful cases by youth demanding the government take responsibility for the climate crisis. This is Mat dos Santos of the group Our Children’s Trust, which brought the case.

Mat dos Santos: “For nearly a decade, 21 young people fought to hold the U.S. government accountable for fueling the climate crisis in Juliana v. United States. Today, the Supreme Court refused to hear their case. And in a very rare move, the Department of Justice issued a statement calling the lawsuit a 'distraction.' That’s coming from the shock-and-awe administration actively dismantling environmental laws, the agency that enforced them, and our democracy. Juliana has spanned four presidents. This case isn’t political. It’s about fundamental rights, life, liberty and a livable future. That’s why young people are winning, from Montana to Hawaii. We’re not done. We’ll see the federal government back in court.”

In more Supreme Court news, in a major win for press freedom, justices have declined to hear a case brought by Trump ally Steve Wynn challenging the landmark ruling New York Times v. Sullivan, which in 1964 established bedrock protections for journalists against spurious defamation and libel cases. To learn more about NYT v. Sullivan, click here to watch our interview last week with New York Times reporter David Enrich.

The Supreme Court on Monday also heard arguments in a key voting rights case in Louisiana which could have a major impact on the future of the already-weakened Voting Rights Act. The case centers on whether Louisiana’s new congressional map, which created a second majority-Black district, is unconstitutional. One-third of Louisiana’s population is Black. Last year, using the newly drawn maps, voters elected Cleo Fields, a Black Democrat, to represent the district, sending two Democrats from Louisiana to the U.S. House for the first time in a decade.

President Trump threatened Monday to impose 25% tariffs on any country that imports oil or gas from Venezuela. Trump claimed the move was in retaliation for Venezuela “purposefully and deceitfully” sending “criminals” and gang members to the U.S. Also on Monday, the Treasury Department extended Chevron’s oil production license in Venezuela until late May.

This comes as Trump appeared to retreat from his widely touted threats to impose sweeping tariffs across multiple industries starting April 2. He told reporters, “I may give a lot of countries breaks.”

U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy resigned from his post Monday. DeJoy, who has been head of USPS since 2020 in Trump’s first term, had recently signed a deal with DOGE to help gut the Postal Service, with plans to cut 10,000 workers and billions of dollars from its budget. Unionized postal workers have been out protesting amid reports Trump is attempting to privatize the USPS.

A federal judge has kept in place a ruling that bars the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to summarily expel Venezuelan immigrants accused, without evidence, of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Judge James Boasberg said the order should allow the immigrants to fight the accusations in court.

In related news, Venezuela has announced it will resume accepting U.S. deportation flights amid mounting concerns of human rights violations after Trump officials expelled hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador’s maximum-security mega-prison without due process. Venezuela’s National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez Gómez said, “Migrating is not a crime, and we will not rest until we accomplish the return of all who need it, and until we rescue our brothers [who] are kidnapped in El Salvador.”

Venezuelan immigrants have described harrowing conditions while in U.S. custody.

Venezuelan immigrant: “We have experienced many psychological, emotional and physical traumas, mistreatment in the conditions in which we were held in the facilities, how we were transferred and how we were treated in terms of health. They violated our rights. Many of those here were physically assaulted.”

A 21-year-old Columbia University student on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, which is seeking to deport her for participating in Palestinian rights protests on campus. Yunseo Chung is a legal permanent resident from South Korea who has lived in the U.S. since she was 7 years old. Federal immigration agents searched Chung’s university housing earlier this month as they attempted to arrest her. The Trump administration is targeting Chung under a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which gives the secretary of state authority to begin deportation proceedings against any noncitizen deemed a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests — even permanent legal residents like Chung and Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained by federal agents from his Columbia housing earlier this month.

Yesterday, dozens of faculty members gathered to condemn Trump’s and Columbia’s attacks on free speech. This is political science professor Timothy Frye.

Timothy Frye: “Why do autocrats fear higher education? Why are they so hostile to the free expression of ideas? Well, universities are threatening to autocrats because we teach independent and critical thinking, because we train our students to scrutinize evidence and demand rigor, and because we teach students to be skeptical of authority, especially our own authority. If anyone thinks that we can brainwash Columbia students, they’ve never met a Columbia student.”

Click here to see our interview with former Columbia Law professor Katherine Franke.