Good evening. I'm Amna Nawaz. Jeff Bennett is away. On the news hour tonight, Secretary

of State Marco Rubio aligns the United States with Israel's vision of a military victory in Gaza,

dimming hopes for a diplomatic solution to the war. Calls for firing and singling out critics

of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk grow louder,

raising questions about free speech.

And what's caused American students' reading scores

to drop to their worst point in decades?

Reading and math has long-term consequences for students' earnings and

educational attainment.

Welcome to the News Hour.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is flying to Doha tonight to meet with Qatar's leaders

following unprecedented Israeli strikes targeting Hamas leaders last week.

Earlier today, Rubio met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem,

and as Nick Schiffrin reports, the two presented a unified front.

In Jerusalem, a show of solidarity and support to end the war in Gaza using the military, not diplomacy.

I think we have to be prepared for the fact that savage, you know, terrorists don't

normally agree to things like that.

But we'll continue to pursue that route.

It's the ideal outcome, but it may require ultimately a concise military operation to eliminate

them.

The Israeli military today again targeted Gaza city high high-rises that it calls Hamas terrorist

infrastructure, and confirmed it launched the formal effort to capture Gaza's most populated

...