White House vows vengeance for Kirk and a grilling awaits Patel: Morning Rundown

Israel launches a ground offensive in Gaza City. JD Vance and Stephen Miller discuss vengeance against the left for Charlie Kirk. A new investigation shows a slip in childhood vaccinations. And Kash Patel heads to two hearings where he may face a bipartisan grilling.

Here’s what to know today.

Israel launches intense Gaza City ground offensive

Israel’s military says it has begun “expanded ground operations” in famine stricken Gaza City, after calling up 60,000 reservists for an intense new assault in the besieged Palestinian enclave. 

“The troops’ activity began according to the operational plan and is expected to expand in line with the current situational assessment,” it said.

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Troops are operating in the security zone along the border facing the western Negev communities and in the Rafah and Khan Younis areas, the military’s statement said, adding that they also continue operating in the northern part of the enclave.

Large explosions were seen overnight in Gaza from southern Israel. In a social media post, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Gaza was “burning,” and that Israel will “not relent.”

The Israeli Air Force has struck more than 850 “terror targets” and “hundreds of terrorists” in Gaza City in the past week, the IDF said in the statement.

Meanwhile, an independent United Nations inquiry has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Statements made by Israeli civilian and military authorities along with the “pattern of conduct” of Israeli forces indicate Israel’s actions in Gaza have been “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, Palestinians” in the enclave as a group, the United Nations’ human rights office said after a UN commission found Israel had committed genocide in the enclave.

Israel dismissed the report as “distorted and false” but there has been growing international outrage over the war and the mounting humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, which began with the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks that killed 1,200 and saw about 250 taken hostage.

It comes as Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Qatar amid fury over Israel’s attack on the U.S. ally less than a week ago. Rubio said there was now only “a very short window of time” for a deal with Hamas.

Follow updates on our live blog.

Vance and Miller add to chorus demanding vengeance for Kirk

Vice President JD Vance and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller continued calls for vengeance in the aftermath of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

While hosting Kirk’s namesake podcast, Vance blamed liberals for political violence and advocated for shaming and calling the employers of those publicly cheering Kirk’s death. Miller promised to use the resources of the federal government to fight what he described as “a vast domestic terror movement,” referring to left-wing political organizations.

Tyler Robinson, 22, was arrested in connection with the Utah shooting of Kirk. Full details on a motive have yet to be revealed, but FBI Director Kash Patel said in a Fox News interview that Robinson’s actions were premeditated and based on his political, left-leaning beliefs.

Kirk frequently toured college campuses with the non-profit he co-founded, Turning Point USA, and challenged students to debate him on divisive topics where he stated his far-right stances on political and cultural issues.

During the two-hour podcast that included other guests from the White House and Tucker Carlson, Vance pointed his frustration at progressive magazine The Nation, accusing the publication of falsely smearing Kirk after his death, and singled out 95-year-old Democratic megadonor George Soros who he said helped fund The Nation. The magazine denied ever receiving funding from Soros.

Vance counted Kirk as a close friend and credited him for his ascendance to the vice presidency.

Read the full story.

More on the Kirk assassination:

• The man accused of fatally shooting Kirk has been linked to evidence found at the scene through DNA sequencing, Patel said.

• Analysis: Few conservatives had as meteoric a rise as Kirk, who built a massive audience while drawing criticism for inflammatory rhetoric on issues like race, gender and sexual identity.

Childhood vaccination rates fall in the U.S.

America is dangerously backsliding on its historically successful attempt to eradicate the most lethal and devastating childhood infectious diseases.

A monthslong NBC News data investigation found that the majority of counties in the U.S. are experiencing declining rates of childhood vaccination and have been for years. The investigation, done in collaboration with Stanford University, is the most comprehensive analysis of vaccinations and school exemptions to date.

The data gathered from state governments and archives of public records reached back decades and focused on core childhood vaccines that, together, consider someone to be “up to date” on immunizations; these are the measles, mumps, rubella, polio, whooping cough and diphtheria shots.

One key finding of the analysis: A large swath of the U.S. currently does not have the basic, ground-level immunity medical experts say is necessary to stop the spread of measles, which had once nearly been eliminated.

See what else the data revealed, and read local investigations into the escalating movement against immunization.

Patel to face criticism over Kirk investigation at hearings

FBI Director Kash Patel has faced public criticism from Democrats and Republicans over high-profile issues hampering the agency and his handling of the Charlie Kirk investigation. The issues will be front and center as Patel appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee today and the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow for prescheduled oversight hearings that will dive into his tenure at the FBI.

The agency has seen high-level departures and the creation of a new co-deputy director position that was filled by former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who will be working alongside Patel’s former fellow podcaster, Deputy Director Dan Bongino. Patel is facing a lawsuit from three FBI leaders he fired, who say they were unlawfully targeted so that Patel could stay in Trump’s good graces.

Patel has even faced criticism from conservative figures after Kirk’s assassination. He had dinner at the exclusive New York City restaurant Rao’s on the night of Kirk’s killing. He tweeted that night that “the subject for the horrific shooting” was “in custody.” Roughly ninety minutes later, he tweeted that that person had been released. The White House has defended Patel’s handling of the investigation, saying his doubters are using the moment as a “disgusting act of political gamesmanship.”

Read the full story.

More politics news:

• The Senate voted to confirm Stephen Miran to the Federal Reserve Board, bringing it a step closer to Trump’s vision as he pressures the central bank to lower interest rates.

• A panel of federal judges blocked President Donald Trump from removing Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board.

• Trump signed a memo establishing a task force in Memphis that would mobilize the National Guard and other federal law enforcement agencies to crack down on crime.

• Trump said the U.S. military carried out a strike on a second Venezuelan boat, alleging that the ship was helmed by “narcoterrorists” and carrying “illegal narcotics.”

• A standoff over how to prevent a government shutdown intensified as Trump called on Republicans to write a funding bill on their own and cut Democrats out of the process.

Read All About It:

• The 16-year-old who shot and wounded two students before he turned the gun on himself at his high school in Colorado left hints of his intentions online in the days leading up to the attack.

• Ukrainian children have been taken to over 200 different facilities across Russia, including locations where they have been subjected to forced “re-education” and military training, according to new research.

• The Trump administration rescinded a grant that maintained FlyBase, a pillar of global basic research, as part of its broader $2.2 billion funding cuts at Harvard.

• After decades of scouring the bottom of Lake Michigan, searchers have finally found the wreckage of a “ghost ship” that sank during a ferocious storm almost 140 years ago off the Wisconsin coastline.

Staff Pick: Gen Z rattles governments across Asia

Nepal and Indonesia erupted in deadly anti-government protests over different issues, but the two countries that are separated by 2,000 miles had something in common among its protesters: They were mainly born between 1997 and 2012.

In Nepal, demonstrations were set off by a social media ban, while in Indonesia anger erupted over lavish perks for government officials. But they share the driving force of young people who are furious over a lack of jobs, rampant corruption and rising economic inequality.

Reporters Mithil Aggarwal, Janhvi Bhojwani and Jay Ganglani dove into both protests where young people disenchanted by corruption and a lack of jobs took to the streets to demand radical economic and political reforms. – Christian Orozco, newsletter and platforms editor

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