In Gaza, at least four Palestinians have starved to death over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of malnutrition-related deaths to at least 197. The World Food Programme has warned food aid needs to be immediately flooded into Gaza to prevent mass starvation. This is Amira Muteir, a Palestinian mother in Gaza City. She decried the Israeli siege as she held her emaciated baby Ammar.

Amira Muteir: “If Israel doesn’t kill us with strikes and missiles, it is killing us by the famine it is creating. But I want to ask the entire world and the people who believe Israel and its lies: If there wasn’t a famine in Gaza, what made this baby reach this state? His bones are visible. The signs of death appear on him.”
This comes as Israeli settlers have attacked aid convoys coming from Jordan twice in recent days. During one of the attacks, settlers were filmed chanting, “May Palestine’s name be wiped out.” Over the past day, Israeli attacks killed at least 98 Palestinians across Gaza, including 51 aid seekers.

Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, has called for the closure of Israeli- and U.S.-backed aid centers in Gaza, saying they have become sites of “orchestrated killing and dehumanisation.” Some 1,400 Palestinians have been killed since May trying to access aid since the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation took over aid delivery. In a statement, MSF said, “In MSF’s nearly 54 years of operations, rarely have we seen such levels of systematic violence against unarmed civilians.” On Wednesday, Israel shelled the headquarters of the Palestinian Red Crescent in Khan Younis. It was the second attack on the facility in recent days.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is convening his security cabinet today to consider plans for the Israeli military to fully take over Gaza.
But there is growing push back internationally and inside Israel. One top U.N. official said Israel’s plans would have “catastrophic consequences.” On Wednesday, Israeli protesters rallied near the Gaza border. This is Alon-Lee Green of the group Standing Together.

Alon-Lee Green: “This plan to occupy the entire Gaza Strip has only one meaning, and this meaning is the death of the hostages, the death of the Palestinians and, yes, also the death of the Israeli soldiers. If they send our soldiers to kill and get killed, the only meaning is just more death.”

Earlier today, families of Israeli hostages launched a protest flotilla toward the maritime border with the Gaza Strip, calling for an end to war and the release of their loved ones.

In news from the occupied West Bank, Israeli authorities have finally released the body of Palestinian activist Odeh Hadalin, who was shot to death by an Israeli settler 10 days ago. The Israeli journalist Oren Ziv reports the Israeli army has now closed the area of Hadalin’s village and is blocking people from attending his funeral. Hadalin was a beloved activist who worked on the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land.” Click here to see our interviews with the director.

Microsoft has helped Israel develop one of the world’s most invasive surveillance systems: a cloud platform to store and analyze millions of Palestinian phone calls intercepted by the Israeli spy unit, Unit 8200. That’s according to an investigation by The Guardian and +972 Magazine, which finds the intercepted data has been used to target Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

U.S. tariffs on more than 90 countries took effect today, raising import taxes to the highest levels since the Great Depression. They range from 15% on imports from countries like Bolivia, Ecuador, Iceland and Nigeria, to up to 50% on India and Brazil. President Trump slapped India with one of the highest tariff rates, which are set to go into effect on August 27, to pressure India to stop buying Russian oil. Separately, President Trump tied Brazil’s tariffs of 50% to punish Brazil for putting former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro on trial for his 2022 coup attempt. Trump has called Bolsonaro’s prosecution a “witch hunt.” Bolsonaro was placed under house arrest earlier this week.

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin could meet as early as next week to discuss the war in Ukraine. It would be the first U.S.-Russia summit in more than four years. It’s unclear where the summit between the U.S. and Russia would take place, since there’s an ICC arrest warrant out for Putin. The U.S. has floated the possibility of a follow-up three-way summit including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. But Russia has not commented on this. On Wednesday, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow.

The Washington Post is reporting the State Department’s forthcoming human rights report will dramatically scale back U.S. criticism of several countries, including Israel, El Salvador and Russia. The report also removes references to gender-based violence or violence against LGBTQ+ people. A leaked draft says there have been “no credible reports of significant human rights abuses” last year in El Salvador. Previous State Department reports on El Salvador had condemned government-sanctioned killings, torture and “life-threatening prison conditions.” The draft report on Israel is just 25 pages, down from 100 in the previous report. Sections removed include a line criticizing Israel’s “experimental facial recognition system to track Palestinians and enforce movement restrictions.”

In news from Sudan, an investigation by The Guardian has revealed the Rapid Support Forces, armed by the United Arab Emirates, massacred more than 1,500 civilians during an attack in April at Zamzam camp in northern Darfur, the country’s largest camp for displaced people. The final death toll may be even higher, with many bodies still remaining at the camp, which is now controlled by the RSF. Last month, the International Criminal Court said it had “reasonable grounds” to conclude that war crimes were unfolding in Darfur.

The U.N. says that Rwanda-backed M23 rebels killed over 300 civilians in eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the past month, describing it as one of the largest death tolls since the M23 reappeared in the country in 2022. The U.N. statement cited firsthand accounts and said that the M23 rebels targeted four villages in North Kivu province. It comes as President Trump is pushing for a peace deal between Congo and Rwanda, which would also allow the U.S. to tap the DRC’s rich mineral resources.

In southern France, at least one person has died and three people are missing as firefighters battle France’s biggest wildfire in almost 80 years. Meanwhile, wildfires in Spain and Portugal prompted evacuations this week amid a protracted heat wave that’s seen temperatures of up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

New research suggests the wildfires that swept through densely populated neighborhoods of Los Angeles County last winter killed hundreds of people — far more than the official count of 31. Publishing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found 440 excess deaths from January 5 to February 1 as the Palisades and Eaton fires consumed 16,000 structures while displacing 150,000 residents. The excess deaths are attributed to lung or heart conditions exacerbated by smoke or stress and other indirect factors.

The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its push to hire new ICE agents by removing age limits for applicants. Until now, new hires had to be at least 21 years old and, in most cases, not older than 37. ICE is also offering $50,000 signing bonuses and student loan forgiveness. Congress recently approved $75 billion in ICE funding. This comes as federal agents continue to carry out raids across the country. On Wednesday, masked and heavily armed Border Patrol agents were seen jumping out of the back of a rental truck during a raid targeting day laborers at a Home Depot in Los Angeles. Officials described the operation as a “Trojan horse” raid.

President Trump is threatening to deploy the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and take over the city’s police department after a former DOGE staffer was injured in an attempted carjacking. On social media, Trump said he had “no choice but to take federal control of the city.” Trump was also asked if he wanted Congress to overturn D.C.’s home rule, which has allowed the district to self-govern since 1973, and he replied, “The lawyers are already studying it.”

Five soldiers were wounded and hospitalized after an attack at Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia yesterday. The suspected gunman was an Army sergeant at the base and fired on his own unit. He was apprehended at the scene when other soldiers tackled him. The suspect’s father said he complained about racism and was seeking a transfer from the base.

Republican Congressmember Mike Flood of Nebraska faced boos and jeers during a town hall in Lincoln, as the crowd confronted him about his vote for Trump’s tax and spending bill. Hundreds packed the town hall chanting “Tax the rich,” and multiple people called Flood a “liar” as he defended his vote to cut Medicaid, food benefits and other programs. Here’s an audience member questioning Congressmember Flood.

Audience member: “My question is fiscal. With $450 million FEMA dollars being reallocated to open Alligator Alcatraz, and $600 million taxpayer FEMA dollars being used to now open more concentration camps, and ICE burning through $8.4 million a day to illegally detain people, how much does it cost for fascism? How much do the taxpayers have to pay for a fascist country?”

In Tucson, Arizona, the City Council has unanimously voted to reject Project Blue, a proposed massive data center campus linked to Amazon. The 7-0 vote came after widespread community organizing against what critics viewed as a corporate water grab. The 290-acre data center would have consumed millions of gallons of water in an area already facing drought. Tucson’s Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz spoke ahead of Wednesday night’s vote.

Lane Ramona Santa Cruz: “Hundreds of our families have reached out deeply worried about what this data center could mean for them, for our water, for our shared future. I’ve listened to elected officials in other cities who’ve been left to deal with the aftermath of similar developments. And I’ve spoken with national experts in AI data infrastructure to understand what’s truly driving this push. What I’ve learned is simple. Giant corporations prefer to operate in the shadows. But Tucson is not for sale. We deserve transparency and accountability.”

The Stanford University student newspaper has filed a First Amendment lawsuit against Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the Trump administration’s campaign to revoke visas of noncitizens over constitutionally protected speech, including criticism of Israel. Greta Reich, editor-in-chief of The Stanford Daily, said, “There’s real fear on campus and it reaches into the newsroom. I’ve had reporters turn down assignments, request the removal of some of their articles, and even quit the paper because they fear deportation for being associated with speaking on political topics, even in a journalistic capacity.”