In Gaza, at least two people were crushed to death and two others fatally shot Wednesday as thousands of starving Palestinians rushed a United Nations humanitarian aid distribution warehouse in Deir al-Balah, tearing open its metal walls in a desperate attempt to find food. Witnesses described a chaotic scene as starving people clamored for the supplies.

Abdel Qader Rabie: “I’m hungry, and I want to eat. There’s no flour, no food, no bread. There’s nothing at home. Every time I go get aid, I take hold of a box, and a hundred people crowd over me — 300. I couldn’t take anything. I just go home empty-handed. Before, the U.N. agency used to send me a message, and I would go, like any respected person. I’d take the aid, and I’d go back home. Now there’s nothing. If you’re strong, you get aid. If you’re not strong, you don’t.”

Gaza officials say at least 10 Palestinians seeking aid have been killed by Israeli forces in the past three days. The World Food Programme said in a statement, “Humanitarian needs have spiralled out of control after 80 days of complete blockade of all food assistance and other aid into Gaza. Gaza needs an immediate scale-up of food assistance. This is the only way to reassure people that they will not starve.”

Israeli attacks so far today have killed at least 55 people across Gaza. Among the dead is Palestinian journalist Moataz Rajab, who was killed along with four other civilians in an Israeli strike on his vehicle in Gaza City. He’s at least the 221st media worker killed by Israel in Gaza since October 2023.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his forces had killed Hamas commander Mohammed Sinwar. He was apparently the target of a May 13 strike in Khan Younis, when Israeli warplanes simultaneously dropped six large bombs on the European Hospital. Twenty-eight people were killed and dozens more wounded in that attack.

International doctors and healthcare workers report they’re increasingly being blocked by Israel from entering Gaza, with specialists approved for exits but denied new entry visas in what advocates are calling an “undeclared medical siege.”

On Wednesday, U.S. trauma surgeon Dr. Feroze Sidhwa testified to the U.N. Security Council about his time spent as an emergency doctor at the European Hospital in Gaza, where he treated young children severely injured by explosives.

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa: “Children are supposed to be protected. In Gaza, these protections are simply gone. Every day, the distinction between combatant and civilian is erased. Most of my patients were preteen children, their bodies shattered by explosives and torn by flying metal. … The medical system has not failed. It has been systematically dismantled through a sustained military campaign that has willfully violated international humanitarian law. Civilians are now dying not just from the constant airstrikes, but from acute malnutrition, sepsis, exposure and despair.”

In the occupied West Bank, family members say Israeli soldiers burst into their home without warning early Wednesday before shooting 20-year-old Palestinian Jassem al-Sadda as he slept. The young man was reportedly left to bleed to death with no one allowed to approach him.

His killing came as the Israeli military continues its campaign of stepped-up raids and home demolitions across the West Bank, where Israeli ministers have just approved 22 new settlements, which are illegal under international law. It’s the largest such expansion in Israel’s history. This comes amid a surge of attacks by settlers on Palestinian communities. On Tuesday, residents of Qaryout reported Israeli settlers descended on their village without warning, setting fire to homes and property.

Ali Qassam: “We were at home sitting safely — there was no one outside at all — when we were surprised by the sounds of bangs and saw fire and smoke. We opened the door and were surprised to see a huge number of settlers, and no one else. They set fire to cars and houses and damaged the neighborhood. They burned maybe 10 cars, as you can see. They burned the house and damaged the cars. They even hit people. I went outside, and I was also beaten by a bat.”

Meanwhile, a new Israeli law allows for children as young as 12 years old to be sentenced to life in prison. U.N. experts say the law is designed to punish Palestinian families and likely violates international laws, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In New York, a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of International Trade has ruled President Trump’s sweeping global tariffs were imposed illegally, blocking Trump for now from pursuing much of his trade war. The court agreed with business owners and a dozen states that sued Trump, arguing the president exceeded his authority by invoking a national emergency to bypass Congress in order to impose the tariffs. The ruling applies to Trump’s so-called Liberation Day tariffs, which roiled global markets in April, and to his levies on Canada and Mexico that he claimed were related to the flow of drugs and people across borders. Industry-specific tariffs imposed on automobiles, steel and aluminum are not affected by the order. The White House is expected to appeal. Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff for policy, wrote on social media that “the judicial coup is out of control.”

President Trump has nominated Emil Bove, his former personal defense attorney and current Justice Department official, to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Among other things, Emil Bove threatened to fire attorneys in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section if they refused to file a motion to dismiss the corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams, and he accused FBI leaders of “insubordination” after they refused to identify agents involved in the January 6 Capitol insurrection investigations.

Trump also announced new nominees for a federal district court in Florida. The Alliance for Justice this week urged senators to oppose Trump’s previously announced judicial nominees, warning they all “demonstrated their opposition to the protections of the law and their loyalty to the Trumpian agenda.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned the government will start “aggressively” revoking the visas of Chinese students, one day after the Trump administration announced it’s halting the processing of visas for foreign students. Rubio said people with links to the Chinese Communist Party — China’s sole and ruling party — would be especially targeted, as well as people studying in “critical fields.” Chinese nationals represent the second-largest proportion of overseas students in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Trump told reporters Wednesday Harvard should cap its acceptance of international students at “around 15 percent.” Last week, Trump revoked Harvard’s certification for admitting students from overseas.

A federal judge in New Jersey has ruled the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Columbia graduate and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil is likely unconstitutional, and arguments that Khalil represents a threat to national security and foreign policy are not likely to hold up. But Judge Michael Farbiarz stopped short of ordering Khalil’s release from a Louisiana immigration jail, pending developments on separate Trump administration charges against him related to his permanent residency application. Last week, Mahmoud Khalil testified that deportation would be life-threatening due to smears and lies by the Trump administration. He’s married to a U.S. citizen who gave birth to the couple’s first child last month.

Here in New York, masked federal agents arrested multiple people who showed up for appointments at immigration courts in downtown Manhattan Wednesday, including a family with small children. Police officers arrested protesters and observers who showed up to offer support and assistance, including a pastor. Community members also blocked vans carrying immigrants from driving down the street, before police officers pepper-sprayed, violently tackled and dragged them away. The Trump administration has reportedly ordered ICE to make 3,000 arrests per day.

NBC News is reporting immigration judges have moved to dismiss at least 14 cases involving immigrants who were expelled without due process to an El Salvador mega-prison under the Alien Enemies Act, despite ongoing legal challenges over Trump’s invocation of the 1798 wartime law. One of the recently dismissed asylum cases involves Andry Hernández Romero, a gay makeup artist from Venezuela, who was apparently expelled because he had tattoos.

In more immigration news, a federal judge in New York heard arguments Wednesday that could determine the fate of some 500,000 Haitian recipients of temporary protected status whose deportation protections are at risk of expiring in August, after the Trump administration moved to prematurely cut off their TPS status. This is Aline Gue, executive director of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees.

Aline Gue: “This is a huge disruption, not only to their lives, creating anxiety and harm, wreaking havoc in our communities at large, but it’s also unlawful, because this is precisely the reason why temporary protected status was created, right? For folks to not be returned back to situations that have a lot of political instability, violence, natural disasters. And that is exactly what we’re seeing in Haiti today.”

The White House confirmed Elon Musk will be leaving the Trump administration after leading efforts to gut government agencies while firing tens of thousands of workers through his Department of Government Efficiency. The confirmed departure came after Musk said he was “disappointed” that President Trump is pursuing the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act — a massive spending bill that increases the budget deficit. Musk said, “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both.” The Congressional Budget Office projects the legislation would add $3.8 trillion to the national debt over 10 years, slashing taxes for the wealthy while gutting social programs, including massive cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

Meanwhile, legal experts are sounding the alarm over a little-noticed provision of the more than 1,000-page spending bill which shields the president from contempt-of-court citations by federal judges. That would pave the way for Trump administration officials to continue ignoring court orders without fear of consequences.

Harvard has agreed to hand over 175-year-old photographs of an enslaved man and his daughter to a Black history museum in South Carolina as part of a settlement with the descendant of the photos’ subjects. The deal caps a 15-year legal battle between Harvard and Tamara Lanier, whose great-great-great-grandfather Renty is featured in the photos. Lanier celebrated the long-anticipated resolution, saying, “This pilfered property, images taken without dignity or consent and used to promote a racist psychoscience, will now be repatriated to a home where their stories can be told and their humanity can be restored.”

Namibia has issued fresh calls for reparations from Germany as Namibia marked its first national Genocide Remembrance Day Wednesday. Between 1904 and 1908, German colonial invaders killed up to 100,000 Indigenous people, most from the OvaHerero and Nama communities. This is OvaHerero leader Hoze Riruako.

Hoze Riruako: “What has happened here, because this is the first genocide of the 20th century, this was actually the prelude to the — you know, to the Holocaust. But this is not recorded anywhere. People are not aware of what has happened here, to the same level and same extent as some of the other atrocities.”