U.S. and world news for July 21

More than 80 killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza

More than 80 people were killed and around 150 people injured by Israeli gunfire in Gaza while seeking aid on Sunday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most of the people were killed in northern Gaza, the ministry said, while others were killed in Khan Younis in the south of the Strip. It wasn’t initially clear unclear whether the people reported killed in northern Gaza were all killed in the same place or in multiple incidents. It marks one of the highest reported death tolls among recent, repeated cases in which aid seekers have been killed. The Israel Defense Forces said that troops had “fired warning shots in order to remove an immediate threat posed to them” after “a gathering of thousands of Gazans was identified in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Trump ups pressure for football team name change

Donald Trump yesterday escalated his call for the Washington Commanders to change their name back to the “Redskins,” threatening to restrict the NFL team’s stadium deal if they don’t, though it’s unclear how he would be able to. “I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original ‘Washington Redskins,’ and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,'” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The organization left Washington for Landover, Maryland, in 1997, but D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and the team announced a deal in April to bring the Commanders back to the district at the site of the old Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium.

Shaky quiet in Syria

The Syrian government says clashes in the southern city of Suwayda have stopped after a week of violence left hundreds of people dead, drawing Israeli intervention and U.S. condemnation. A ceasefire agreement reached by the government, Druze groups and Bedouin tribes on Saturday appeared to be holding, but communications with the province remain difficult. There were no reports of gunfire in the city of Suwayda. “After several bloody days in Suwayda province, the Internal Security Forces have succeeded in calming the situation following their deployment in the northern and western areas,” Syria’s interior minister Anas Khattab said. “They managed to enforce the ceasefire within the city of Suwayda, paving the way for a prisoner exchange phase and the gradual restoration of stability across the province.”

Man drives car into crowd outside of LA nightclub

A lively night outside a bustling East Hollywood nightclub took a devastating turn over the weekend when a car barreled through a crowded sidewalk, injuring at least 30 people, including seven critically. The incident occurred outside The Vermont Hollywood, where 29-year-old Fernando Ramirez had been kicked out for being disruptive before police say he drove his car into the crowd. The suspect was beaten and shot by bystanders after the crash and is now in custody, facing potential charges including attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon, police said. Video footage after the crash showed blood on the street and injured patrons sprawled on the pavement as first responders provided aid, with some victims carried away on stretchers. Police cordoned off the area as investigators worked to piece together the sequence of events. The crowd had gathered outside for valet services, food stands and entry to the nightclub. A taco stand and valet podium were among the structures hit,

Zelenskyy calls for peace talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for talks with Russia this week to push forward ceasefire talks amid growing U.S. pressure on Moscow to reach a deal. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Rustem Umerov, proposed a meeting with the Russian side for this week. “The dynamics of the negotiations must improve. We need to do everything possible to achieve a ceasefire. The Russian side must stop avoiding decisions regarding prisoner exchanges, the return of children, and the cessation of killings,” Zelenskyy said. Russian state media outlet TASS reported that a source close to Russia’s negotiating team confirmed that they had received Kyiv’s proposal for a meeting. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian media that Russia is “ready to move quickly” on achieving a peace deal with Ukraine, but its “main goal” was to achieve its “objectives.”

Poll shows Americans largely oppose Trump’s immigration actions

Americans largely oppose recent efforts by Donald Trump’s Administration to scale up its deportation program, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds, with a rising majority saying the president has gone too far in carrying out deportations. In the latest survey, 55% say the president has gone too far when it comes to deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, up 10 points since February. Opposition among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents has risen in that time from widespread to nearly universal: Ninety percent of Democratic-aligned adults now say that Trump’s deportation policy has gone too far, while just 15% of Republican-aligned adults say the same. A 57% majority also say they oppose plans to build new detention facilities capable of holding up to 100,000 undocumented immigrants, while 53% oppose increasing the budget for Immigration and Customs Enforcement by billions of dollars — two White House priorities reflected in the sweeping policy bill that Trump recently signed into law.