Friday morning news: August 8, 2025

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Israel to move forward with reoccupying Gaza » Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel intends to take full control of the Gaza Strip temporarily.

Israel already controls about three-fourths of Gaza. The goal of taking full control is to dismantle Hamas. Then, control would later be handed back over to friendly Arab forces.

Netanyahu tells Fox News:

NETANYAHU: I don’t want to occupy Gaza forever. I don’t want to govern Gaza. I want to have a different governance there that basically is willing to live in peace with Israel and give Gazans a different future.

Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet met Thursday to discuss different options for handling a temporary occupation of Gaza.

Some former top Israeli officials have come out against the plan, fearing it could turn into a quagmire with little military benefit. Some families of hostages still in Hamas captivity are also worried about what an Israeli takeover in Gaza could mean for their loved ones, and protested outside the Security Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

Trump-Putin Summit latest » President Trump says he’s willing to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, even if Putin won’t meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The U.S. and Russia are trying to work out a summit between Trump and Putin as soon as next week, possibly in the United Arab Emirates, though there’s no final decision yet on a location.

Trump says he’ll do whatever he can to stop the killing in Russia’s war with Ukraine, even if it means holding the summit without a commitment from Putin to expand talks to include Zelenskyy.

Today is the date Trump had set as the deadline for Moscow to show progress toward ending the Ukraine war or face tougher economic sanctions. When asked if the deadline still holds, Trump said, of Putin:

TRUMP: We’re going to see what he has to say. It’s going to be up to him. Very disappointed.

Putin is already trying to temper hopes about the outcome of the possible meeting, saying all disappointments arise from excessive expectations. The summit would be Trump’s first sitdown with Putin since the start of his second term.

Trump pushes for new census » President Trump says he’s directed the Commerce Department to begin work on a new U.S. census that excludes unauthorized immigrants from the population count. He made that announcement in a social media post Thursday.

Historically, the Constitutionally-mandated census has counted everyone living in the country every 10 years regardless of their immigration status.

It’s unclear if Trump is asking for changes to the normally-scheduled 2030 census or if he’s pushing for an additional census before then.

Either way, census experts tell the Associated Press his directive will set off legal fights.

Texas redistrict fight » The FBI is actively searching for Democratic Texas state lawmakers breaking quorum and refusing to show up for a vote on a Republican-led redistricting plan.

Roughly 60 lawmakers went MIA on Sunday, claiming the plan, designed to give the GOP five additional U.S. House seats, amounts to gerrymandering. Without a quorum, the legislature can’t conduct business.

Civil arrest warrants were already issued. But Thursday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the FBI is now also working to track down the Democrats who’ve fled the state.

State Rep. Mihaela Plesa tells The Will Cain Show she has no intention of going back.

PLESA: I will not return to Texas by tomorrow. This is much bigger than Texas...I am willing to take votes when Republicans are showing that they're not doing the bidding of Donald Trump and that they're focused on Texans and Texas voters.

But White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller says gerrymandering should be nothing new to Democrats…

MILLER: At every level of this country–Illinois, Chicago, New York, Massachusetts–Democrats have gerrymandered the vote beyond recognition to try to maintain their advantage in the House elections.

Abbott said any Democratic lawmakers who are arrested will immediately be transported back to the state Capitol building.

Indiana, Florida could possibly do early redistricting » Efforts to redraw congressional boundaries are now springing up in other red states like Florida and Indiana. But, as WORLD’s Travis Kircher reports, some blue states could be pushing back.

TRAVIS KIRCHER: Vice President J.D. Vance was in Indiana yesterday...trying to sell President Donald Trump's plan for Republican-run states to take part in early redistricting.

Local media outlet WTHR reported that hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Indiana's statehouse to protest the redistricting proposal. Indiana GOP leaders didn’t commit to redistricting, but say they’ll continue conversations.

Republican leaders in Florida also announced yesterday that they would begin redistricting efforts.

Several Democrat-led states have responded by saying they may start efforts to redraw congressional boundaries as well.

For WORLD, I'm Travis Kircher.

Trump defends record amid rising economic troubles » Despite warning signs starting to show up in some data, President Trump insists the U.S. economy is solid under his watch.

Trump invited reporters to the Oval Office Thursday, where conservative economist Steve Moore flipped through charts designed to show the president is stewarding the economy well.

Among Moore’s claims: that Trump was right to fire Bureau of Labor Statistics Director Erika McEntarfer last week… because the bureau overestimated the number of jobs created during the last two years of Joe Biden’s term by 1.5 million.

MOORE: That’s a gigantic error, and I don’t know if she’s, I’m not…” TRUMP (interrupts): “It might not have been an error. That’s the bad part. If it was an error, that would be one thing. I don’t think it’s an error. I think they did it purposely.

Democrats have criticized the president’s firing of McEntarfer, with one senator accusing Trump of weaponizing the bureau.

Trump’s facing consistently tough economic headlines for the first time in his second term, with job growth slowing and inflation rising. The stock market, however, has performed solidly.

I'm Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: John Stonestreet is standing by for Culture Friday. Plus, a monster movie with an important message.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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