Palestinian officials say Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza City have left more than 50,000 people displaced and without shelter, as Israeli bombs continue to fall on high-rise buildings, flattening the city’s skyline. Medical sources say Israeli attacks have killed at least 42 Palestinians so far today, including 14 members of a single family — three generations wiped out in a single airstrike. Thousands continue to flee Gaza City after Israel ordered the forced displacement of its 1 million inhabitants. This is Abu Tarek Habboub, whose family was forced to trek south along Gaza’s coastline on foot.

Abu Tarek Habboub: “I have nothing. My 10 children and I are walking in the street heading south. We don’t know where we’re going. We don’t have mattresses or blankets. We don’t even have money or anything. … Maybe death would be better than what we’re living through. I have children who slept in the street yesterday.”

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces rounded up over 1,500 Palestinians in Tulkarem on Thursday, ordering a curfew for the city’s residents. Footage shared by residents showed Israeli soldiers marching Palestinians, including children, through the streets. Tulkarem’s governor urged the U.N. to take action, saying that Israeli forces were “arbitrarily and unjustly” carrying out mass arrests, destroying property and “terrorizing children and women.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved a plan to dramatically expand illegal West Bank settlements, greenlighting the construction of 3,400 new homes on land Palestinians want for a future state. The expansion into what Israel calls the E1 area would link occupied East Jerusalem to the large Ma’ale Adumim settlement, dividing the West Bank and further isolating Palestinian communities. Netanyahu spoke at a signing ceremony Thursday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “We said there would not be a Palestinian state, and we say again there won’t be a Palestinian state. … This place is ours. We will take care of our country and our security and our heritage.”

Qatar has held a funeral for five Palestinians and a Qatari security official killed in an Israeli attack targeting Hamas’s diplomatic delegation in Doha on Tuesday. Later today, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani is set to meet with President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff to discuss the Israeli strike.

On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council condemned Israel’s actions in a rare joint statement, after the United States criticized Israel’s “unilateral bombing.” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon remained defiant, saying Israel had targeted “terrorists” rather than “legitimate politicians, diplomats, or representatives.”

Danny Danon: “Here in this council, some members chose to give Hamas legitimacy, even protection. Israel will not. We will act against the leaders of terror wherever they are hiding.”

On Capitol Hill, Democratic Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley released a report Thursday accusing the Israeli government of “collective punishment” and “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza. The senators recently returned from a humanitarian fact-finding mission to the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings into Gaza; they also visited the occupied West Bank and Jordan. This is Senator Van Hollen.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen: “From our trip, from our observations, from our firsthand accounts, it’s clear that the Netanyahu government has gone far beyond targeting Hamas to imposing collective punishment on all the people of Gaza. The title of our report is 'The Netanyahu Government Is Implementing a Plan to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza of Palestinians. America Is Complicit. The World Must Stop It.'”

President Trump has just announced on Fox News that the suspected gunman who shot the right wing activist Charlie Kirk killing has been caught. Trump said, quote “I think, with a high degree of certainty, we have him, in custody.” Trump’s comment came a day after the FBI announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Officials released images showing someone appearing to be a college-aged white man in a baseball cap, dark sunglasses and a long-sleeved shirt with a U.S. flag and eagle printed on it. Investigators also released surveillance footage showing a suspect running across a rooftop and jumping over the edge before entering a wooded area. Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox vowed to catch Kirk’s killer and said the state will seek the death penalty.

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau on Thursday warned immigrants against “praising, rationalizing or making light of” Charlie Kirk’s killing, writing on social media, “foreigners who glorify violence and hatred are not welcome visitors to our country.” Kirk had a long history of demonizing immigrants and promoted the white supremacist conspiracy theory known as the “great replacement,” including these remarks in 2024.

Charlie Kirk: “The 'great replacement' strategy, which is well underway every single day on our southern border, is a strategy to replace white rural America with something different.”

President Trump said Thursday he would honor Charlie Kirk with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Separately, Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha met with Kirk’s family in Salt Lake City and accompanied them, along with Kirk’s casket, to their home in Arizona aboard Air Force Two.

At least two members of Congress canceled events Thursday, citing security concerns in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder — Republican Congressmember Nancy Mace and Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The New York Yankees tightened security ahead of a game with the Detroit Tigers attended by President Trump, who watched through bulletproof glass. Trump was roundly booed.

Several historically Black colleges and universities canceled classes and ordered students to shelter in place Thursday after receiving threats in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder. The affected schools are Alabama State University, Southern University in Louisiana, Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College in Georgia, Virginia State University and Hampton University in Virginia and Bethune-Cookman University in Florida. In a statement, the Congressional Black Caucus called the threats “a chilling reminder of the relentless racism and extremism that continues to target and terrorize Black communities in this country.”

Brazil’s Supreme Court has sentenced former President Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison for attempting a coup after losing the 2022 election. It’s the first time a former Brazilian head of state has faced trial for trying to overthrow the government. Bolsonaro and his co-conspirators — who were also sentenced to prison — hatched a plan that would have used armed forces personnel to assassinate then President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The court also detailed attempts by Bolsonaro to cast doubt on the country’s electoral system leading to the January 8 riots in 2023, when thousands of Bolsonaro supporters attacked government buildings. Here’s Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Cármen Lúcia explaining the verdict.

Justice Cármen Lúcia: “The prosecutor’s office provided conclusive evidence that a group led by Jair Messias Bolsonaro, comprised of key figures from the government, the armed forces and the intelligence services, implemented a progressive and systematic plan to attack democratic institutions, with the aim of harming the legitimate transfer of power in the 2022 elections.”

President Trump said he was “very unhappy” with the verdict and called Bolsonaro an “outstanding man.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on social media, “The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt.” In July, President Trump had imposed 50% tariffs on Brazil and sanctioned Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, citing Bolsonaro’s prosecution. After headlines, we’ll speak with Maria Luísa Mendonça, the director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil.

In Michigan, 15 Republicans who tried to falsely certify President Trump as the winner of the 2020 election in the state will no longer face trial, after a judge dismissed their criminal charges. District Court Judge Kristen D. Simmons said, “I believe they were executing their constitutional right to seek redress.” Simmons’s ruling cast the group as simply following orders from more senior leaders such as Rudy Giuliani and Kenneth Chesebro, who were not on trial. After the 2020 election, Republican activists in seven states tried to produce false Electoral College certificates claiming Trump had won in their state.

Senate Republicans voted Thursday to invoke the so-called nuclear option to speed confirmation of nearly 150 of President Trump’s nominees awaiting floor votes. The change to Senate rules will allow the confirmation of multiple people at once, by a simple majority rather than the usual 60 votes.

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday in favor of the Trump administration, allowing it to block Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood and its members. In a statement, Planned Parenthood said the cuts put 200 Planned Parenthood health centers at risk of closure, with more than 1.1 million patients unable to use Medicaid to pay for reproductive health services. Planned Parenthood’s President Alexis McGill Johnson said, “We will continue to fight this unconstitutional law, even though this court has allowed it to impact patients.”

In California, lawmakers have passed a bill allowing healthcare providers to omit the names of patients from abortion pill bottles, in an effort to protect people in states with abortion bans. Labels could also omit the name of the patient, prescriber and pharmacist. California is a hub for dispensing and shipping abortion medication nationwide.

President Trump is calling Russia’s drone incursion into Poland “a mistake,” while NATO members are calling it a deliberate provocation. France’s President Emmanuel Macron said, “We will not yield to Russia’s growing intimidation.” Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz called Russia’s actions a “serious threat to Europe.” This is Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk: “We don’t think Russia is behind this provocation — we know it. I hope that none of our allies will pretend that nothing happened, because it did happen.”

Several NATO members, including the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Germany and France, are sending troops, artillery and air defense systems to NATO’s eastern flank.

The government of Belarus freed 52 political prisoners to Lithuania on Thursday in a deal brokered by the Trump administration. Among those released were 14 foreign nationals; journalists and bloggers; opposition politicians; and leaders of mass protests in 2020 against Belarus’s authoritarian President Aleksandr Lukashenko. Many of those released say they were starved and tortured. In return for their release, the United States is lifting sanctions on Belarus’s national airline. The deal came after Trump envoy Keith Kellogg traveled to Minsk, where he presented President Lukashenko with a pair of cufflinks and a letter from Trump that Kellogg described as a “special sign of friendship.”