Monday morning news: July 21, 2025

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Tenuous ceasefire holds in Syria » A U.S.-brokered ceasefire in southern Syria appears to be holding.

Syria’s government says there were no reports of gunfire Sunday between Bedouin tribes and the majority Druze group in Suwayda province.

The deal was struck Saturday, and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, translated through an interpreter, says his government won’t tolerate violations.

AL-SHARAA: The Syrian state is committed to protecting all minorities in the country, and is proceeding to hold all violators accountable.

There’s a history of tension and clashes between the Bedouins and Druze, both offshoots of Islam. The latest fighting started after members of a Bedouin tribe attacked and robbed a Druze man.

Last week, Syrian government troops intervened in the fighting, prompting Israeli airstrikes on Damascus. Hundreds of Israeli Druze had crossed into Syria to help with the fighting, and Israel said it carried out the strikes to protect the Druze.

Deadly weekend in Gaza » After hopes for a ceasefire in Gaza washed out last week, the conflict is once again intensifying.

Sunday was reportedly the deadliest day of the conflict for Palestinians seeking food and other help, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. It reports Israeli gunfire killed at least 85 people Sunday, a day after it claimed 32 were killed Saturday.

Israel says it’s aware of the casualty claim and is still examining details. Dr. Travis Melin is an anaesthesiologist working in Gaza:

MELIN: Sadly, no, this is not an abnormal day. The days where we don’t have a mass casualty are sort of the surprising ones.

Israel says it issued warnings to residents in several different parts of Gaza to stay away from combat zones. It also says its troops fired warning shots Sunday to remove an immediate threat posed to them when a gathering of thousands of Gazans was identified in the northern Gaza Strip.

Ukraine offers Russia third round of peace talks » Ukraine is offering to meet with Russia for a third round of peace talks to end the ongoing war between the two countries.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling on Russian leaders to meet next week for ceasefire talks. The latest round of talks in June ended after about an hour.

This comes as the White House threatens new sanctions if Russia doesn’t end the war soon. Democratic Congressman Adam Smith tells Fox News Sunday President Trump needs to now act with clarity, after pressuring Ukraine in the early months of his second term.

SMITH: The rhetoric has changed ever so slightly in the Trump Administration the last week or two. But we’ve got a long way to go for the Trump Administration to make it clear that we’re with Ukraine, and we’re going to stand with Ukraine, and we’re going to stop Putin from taking over the country. If that happens, that can force Putin to the table.

A Kremlin spokesman says Putin is ready to move toward a peace settlement, but Moscow’s main objective is to achieve its goals.

Russia has stepped up its drone and missile attacks on Ukraine significantly over the past few weeks.

U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement renegotiation coming » Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says President Trump will be renegotiating one of the signature trade deals from his first term: the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, or USMCA.

Under the deal as it stands now, 75 percent of goods from Mexico and Canada come into the US tariff-free. But Lutnick tells CBS’s Face the Nation that doesn’t benefit America.

LUTNICK: It makes perfect sense for the president to renegotiate it. He wants to protect American jobs. He doesn’t want cars built in Canada or Mexico when they can be built in Michigan and Ohio.

Lutnick says negotiations could be as much as a year away. A revamped deal would extend the USMCA another 16 years.

Texas GOP aims to redistrict this week at Trump’s urging » Republicans in Texas are holding a special legislative session to redraw the state’s congressional maps this week.

President Trump is pushing for the move, hoping it’ll create a handful of winnable new U.S. House seats for the GOP in next year’s midterm elections.

Democrats, however, are thinking about staying away from this week’s special session, potentially denying the state legislature the minimum number of lawmakers to convene. Former Democratic Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke says that’s the right move.

O’ROURKE: I think it's time that we match fire with fire. I think Democrats in the past too often have been more concerned with being right than being in power.

The purpose of the special session isn’t only to redraw the maps. Lawmakers will also address flood response measures after that devastating July 4th flooding in central Texas that killed at least 135 people.

Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton says any Democrats who don’t attend should be arrested.

Gabbard wants Obama officials prosecuted for falsified Russia info » U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has forwarded documents about the Obama Administration to the Justice Department for possible criminal referrals.

Gabbard says the documents show top Obama White House officials falsified intelligence information in 2016 to make it look like Russian interference had played a role in Donald Trump’s election.

Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas tells Fox News:

MARSHALL: There are new documents that are showing that President Obama was in the room and they did this conspiracy… There was a conspiracy to try to throw out this misinformation to try to address, make this an illegitimate election.

Gabbard didn’t specify whether she’s referring specific officials for possible prosecution.

Democrats say Gabbard’s claims are baseless. They point to a Republican-led Senate report from 2020 that shows Russia tried to help Trump through social media, but found no evidence of Russian tampering with the actual voting process.

I’m Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: revisiting a Supreme Court decision on banning homeless encampments on public property. And later, a Founding Father’s lesser-known legacy.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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