Political Guyentist

Netanyahu rejects Trump's 15-point Gaza plan, says troops stay until Hamas disarms

Israel's leader publicly refused the swap at the center of the deal his own government signed onto last month: Hamas gives up its guns while Israeli forces pull back.

What the 15-point plan was supposed to do: Trump's Board of Peace, the body that oversees the deal, announced it in July 2026 — about three weeks before Netanyahu's public rejection. The plan pairs the handover of Hamas weapons with an Israeli pullout at the same time, not one after the other. It also calls for a Palestinian authority to govern Gaza. Netanyahu rejected that along with the weapons terms. The U.S. sends Israel about $3.8 billion a year in military aid, under a 10-year agreement signed in 2016 under Barack Obama. That gives Washington leverage it has rarely used in public.

ContextNetanyahu has broken with a U.S. president in public before. In March 2015 he spoke to Congress against Obama's Iran deal, an appearance set up with Speaker John Boehner without telling the White House. This time is different. Trump's team had announced the Gaza agreement as settled, so the fight is over a deal Israel appeared to have already accepted. Netanyahu's governing coalition is narrow, and his far-right partners have threatened to bring it down over any Gaza withdrawal.

THE HILL5 sources

2us

Ohio Republicans miss the deadline to replace Max Miller, locking him onto the November ballot

The withdrawal cutoff passed Saturday, Aug. 8 with Max Miller (Rep-R Ohio) — accused of domestic abuse and unopposed in the May 5 primary — refusing to quit; Democrat Brian Poindexter (D-OH) is the only other name on the ballot.

What the missed deadline actually forecloses: Had Miller withdrawn in time, Ohio law would have handed the replacement pick to the district's Republican central committee — party officials, not voters. A write-in is the only remaining Republican alternative, and write-ins essentially never win House seats: the last to do it was Ron Packard, a California Republican, in 1982. The House cannot refuse to seat a winner over allegations. Expulsion takes a two-thirds vote and has happened six times in the chamber's history, most recently George Santos (Rep-R New York), 311-114, in December 2023.

ContextMiller, who has represented Ohio's 7th Congressional District since January 2023, is seeking a third term. He faced no opponent in the May 5 Republican primary. After the Saturday, Aug. 8 withdrawal cutoff passed, the November ballot was left with two named candidates: Miller and Democrat Brian Poindexter.

AXIOS4 sources

3not newsuscontested

Senate leaves for August without voting on Trump's voting bill, seven short of the 60 it needed

The president's top elections priority never reached the floor, and senators went home for a month without putting a vote on the fall calendar.

The numbers, and the four Democrats who voted yes in the House: About 21.3 million voting-age citizens — roughly 9% of everyone old enough to vote — cannot quickly find a birth certificate, passport, or naturalization papers, per a 2023 Brennan Center and VoteRiders survey. Only about half of American adults hold a valid passport, so for most people the document in question is a birth certificate held in another state's records office. Ed Case (Rep-D Hawaii) — voted for the House version Henry Cuellar (Rep-D Texas) — voted for the House version Jared Golden (Rep-D Maine) — voted for the House version Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Rep-D Washington) — voted for the House version

ContextThe bill grew out of the SAVE Act, which the House passed 220-208 on April 10, 2025, with four Democrats joining every Republican. It would rewrite the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, the "motor voter" law that lets people register at the DMV or by mail. Trump ordered a similar requirement by executive order on March 25, 2025 — a directive from the president, not a law passed by Congress. A federal judge blocked the registration piece weeks later. That is why supporters want the rule written into law instead.

NEW YORK TIMES1 source