Monday Briefing: Dozens killed in Gaza
Plus, a film takes us back to the pandemic.
Morning Briefing: Asia Pacific Edition
July 21, 2025

Good morning. We’re covering an Israeli attack in Gaza and results from key elections in Japan.

Plus, “Eddington” takes us back to the pandemic.

People kneel crying next to a body.
Palestinian mourners in Gaza City yesterday.  Saher Alghorra for The New York Times

Israel killed dozens of Palestinians looking for aid, Gaza officials said

Israeli forces yesterday killed and wounded dozens of Palestinians who were gathered in northern Gaza to receive aid from U.N. trucks entering the territory, the Gaza health ministry and health workers said.

The health ministry and a hospital director in Gaza City said that more than 60 people were killed in the attack, which took place near the Zikim crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel. A nearby field hospital was flooded with victims, including more than 100 who were wounded.

Israel’s military said that its soldiers fired warning shots, and that they then opened fire to “remove an immediate threat,” which it did not specify. It also said the reported toll from the violence did “not align” with its review, and that it was continuing to examine the episode.

The U.N. World Food Program said that its convoy of 25 trucks carrying food for Palestinians was entering northern Gaza when it “encountered massive crowds of hungry civilians which came under gunfire.”

Chaos has dominated aid distribution in Gaza, where Palestinians are facing widespread hunger. Israeli soldiers have repeatedly opened fire near huge crowds of Palestinians desperate for food and other aid.

Evacuations: After the shooting, the Israeli military warned Palestinians to leave the populated areas of northern Gaza and parts of Gaza City, describing them as “combat zones.”

The Japanese prime minister is seen seated in a chair in front of several microphones.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at a news conference in Tokyo yesterday.  Pool photo by Franck Robichon

Japan’s prime minister faced calls to resign

Exit polls from parliamentary elections yesterday pointed to a major defeat for the Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan for nearly seven decades. Powerful members of the party called for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to step down.

In a television interview, Ishiba said that he wanted to stay on as leader despite the election setback. Under his leadership, the Liberal Democrats have struggled to deal with a variety of issues, including the rising price of rice, a backlash against immigration and the threat of U.S. tariffs.

What’s next: If Ishiba is forced to step down, it could create political paralysis at a time when Japan faces tariff negotiations with the Trump administration as well as an increasingly assertive China next door, analysts said.

Populist surge: The biggest winners in the election were the Democratic Party for the People and Sanseito. Both parties have made populist appeals to younger voters, including a proposal to cut a national consumption tax that has paid for pensions and other costs to support Japan’s growing population of retirees.

Jeffrey Epstein, in profile, sits between two men, presumably lawyers, as he’s in court.
President Trump has encouraged his base to move on from Jeffrey Epstein. Uma Sanghvi/Palm Beach Post, via Associated Press

Lawmakers want more Epstein files released

Republicans and Democrats called yesterday for more files to be released about the investigation of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, adding another obstacle to President Trump’s efforts to dispel criticism and conspiracy theories coming from many of his supporters over the Epstein case.

The lawmakers suggested that the Justice Department’s request last week to unseal grand jury testimony in the Epstein case was not enough.

Trump and Epstein, a multimillionaire financier and convicted sex offender who died in prison, socialized together for nearly 15 years until they had a falling out around 2004. Here’s the story of their long friendship.

MORE TOP NEWS

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, earlier this month in Rome. Antonio Masiello/Getty Images

SPORTS NEWS

A cyclist lifts his hands up in triumph.
Anne-Christine Poujoulat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
  • Boxing: Mario Barrios retained his welterweight title belt after a controversial draw with Manny Pacquiao.

MORNING READ

The three members of Big Ocean standing next to one another in Seoul.
Tiffany Boubkeur/Getty Images

Like other K-pop boy bands, Big Ocean sings, raps, dances and attracts swooning fans. But this trio incorporates something more into its performance: sign language.

The band members — Lee Chan-yeon, 27; Park Hyun-jin, 25; and Kim Ji-seok, 22 — are all deaf or hard of hearing. They use audio technology to help make their music. Fans are devoted, and many are learning sign languages from the band.

Lives lived: Peter Phillips, a vanguard figure in the British Pop Art movement of the 1960s who captured postwar culture’s swirl of sex and consumerism, died. He was 86.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Sandra Oh dressed in a pantsuit and dancing on a cube platform.
Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times

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ARTS AND IDEAS

In a scene from the movie “Eddington,” Joaquin Phoenix wears a cowboy hat and uses a laptop inside a car. The whole scene has a red cast.
Joaquin Phoenix in “Eddington.”  A24

‘Eddington’ takes us back to the pandemic

Ari Aster made his name as a horror director with “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.” His new film, “Eddington,” enters more familiar territory: It’s a western set during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Reality felt so unreal during those months, and Aster captures that mood in a dystopian movie about a world gone mad.

Our critic Alissa Wilkinson said the film — which stars Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone — at times left her giggling. Yet “Eddington” can’t help but make a point, perhaps in spite of itself. She declared it a Times Critic’s Pick.

For more: As a director, Aster terrifies us. As a man, he is afraid of everything.

RECOMMENDATIONS

A piece of blueberry upside down cake with a scoop of ice cream on a plate, next to fork.
Julia Gartland for The New York Times

Bake: It’s simple to pull together Nigella Lawson’s blueberry upside-down cake.

Travel: Spend 36 hours in Key West, Fla., one of the most gay-friendly cities in the U.S.

Read: Our editors have made a list of the best books of the year (so far).

Listen: Justin Bieber’s “Swag” is a winning example of an artist willing to toss out the old playbook.

Consider: Is “joyspan” the key to aging well? A long life doesn’t matter much if you don’t enjoy it.

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