President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday that a major ground offensive in Gaza's Rafah would be a "mistake," as the two leaders spoke for the first time in a month amid growing tensions. Netanyahu had also agreed to Biden's request to send a delegation of senior Israeli officials to Washington to discuss Rafah plans and a possible "alternative approach," the White House said. But in a sign of the increasingly difficult relationship, Netanyahu said he insisted to Biden on achieving Israel's war aims against Hamas.

NETANYAHU'S RESPONSE TO US PRESSURE AGAINST INVASION

The U.S. plans to refill its strategic oil reserve by the end of 2024 after the stockpiles reached historic lows last year, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Monday. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden announced an unprecedented tapping of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). From 2021 to 2023, the US pumped 274 million barrels, dropping the SPR to its lowest level in 40 years. The government began buying back oil to bolster the reserve.

SEE HOW THE US HAS MANAGED ITS OIL RESERVES SINCE 1973

President Joe Biden's administration on Monday finalized a rule banning the last remaining form of asbestos in the United States, half a century after the government first started targeting the cancer-causing mineral once popular in the US. Chrysotile asbestos, used in industrial processes, vehicle brake linings, pipe gaskets and more, has long been prohibited in more than 50 countries, with the US the notable outlier.

ASBESTOS BAN IS PART OF BIDEN'S 'CANCER MOONSHOT' PLAN

Asbestos exposure is tied to cancer in how many Americans annually?

Monday's answer: Mount Tambora in Indonesia is considered the world's deadliest volcanic eruption in recorded history, killing at least 71,000 and as many as 250,000 when it erupted on April 10, 1815.