Israeli forces continue to advance deeper into Gaza City, forcing tens of thousands of Palestinians onto coastal roads away from the city center. Malnourished children and critically ill patients are among those displaced and ordered to walk south as Israel seeks to seize Gaza City. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Palestinians recount nonstop strikes, with the Israeli military blowing up entire neighborhoods. The World Health Organization warns hospitals are on the brink of collapse. Israeli soldiers have killed at least 21 Palestinians since dawn. Here’s Zahar Kafarna, a displaced Palestinian mother.

Zahar Kafarna: “They threw leaflets on us and told us to leave. Now there’s no place for me to go to. I don’t have a tent or anything. As you can see, we have been walking for four days. We’re in the street now. No tent, no shelter, nothing. I ask all relevant parties to support us, help us. We are tired. We’re really tired.”

The United States vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution yesterday that called for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent” ceasefire in Gaza. It was approved by 14 of the council’s 15 member states, and it was the sixth time the U.S. cast a veto since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Israel’s far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday called the Gaza Strip a “real estate bonanza” and said that “a business plan is on President Trump’s table.” He also added, “We’ve done the demolition phase. Now we need to build.”

A delivery driver transporting humanitarian aid from Jordan to Gaza on Thursday opened fire at Israeli soldiers, killing at least two in the Allenby Crossing into the occupied West Bank. The assailant, a civilian who had reportedly been delivering aid to Gaza for the past three months, was then shot dead by Israeli forces.

Afghanistan has rejected President Trump’s calls for the United States to retake control of Bagram Air Base. President Trump made the comments on Thursday during a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

President Donald Trump: “We were going to keep Bagram, the big air base, that’s one of the biggest air bases in the world. We gave it to them for nothing. We’re trying to get it back, by the way. OK? That could be a little breaking news. We’re trying to get it back, because they need things from us. We want that base back. But one of the reasons we want the base is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.”

On social media, Zakir Jalal, an Afghan Foreign Ministry official, said, “Afghanistan and the United States need to engage with one another … without the United States maintaining any military presence in any part of Afghanistan.”

President Trump is escalating his attacks on the press by threatening to revoke the broadcast licenses of networks that give him negative coverage. Trump’s comment came a day after ABC indefinitely suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night program following threats from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr over remarks Kimmel made after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

The Trump administration’s actions have been widely denounced. Fellow late-night host Stephen Colbert called the suspension of Kimmel’s show “blatant censorship.” On “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart mockingly described himself as the “patriotically obedient host” of what he called “the all-new, government-approved 'Daily Show.'”

Jon Stewart: “The point is, our great administration has laid out very clear rules on free speech. Now, some naysayers may argue that this administration’s speech concerns are merely a cynical ploy, a thin gruel of a ruse, a smoke screen to obscure an unprecedented consolidation of power and unitary intimidation, principleless and coldly antithetical to any experiment in a constitutional republic governance. Some people would say that. Not me, though. I think it’s great.”

Meanwhile, congressional Democrats denounced the Trump administration’s threats and introduced a bill to strengthen protections for people targeted over political speech. Here’s Democratic Congressmember Greg Casar of Texas.

Rep. Greg Casar: “We are in the biggest free speech crisis this country has faced since the McCarthy era. The murder of Charlie Kirk was a horrific crime, and it’s clear that Trump wants to hijack that horrific crime to silence anyone who disagrees with the president about any issue.”

President Trump has asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. An appeals court earlier this week rejected to unseat Cook, ahead of the Federal Reserve’s vote to lower interest rates. Trump’s attempt to fire Cook is the first time a president has tried to remove a current Fed governor in the agency’s 112-year history.

In New York, at least 11 Democratic elected officials were arrested Thursday as they demanded access to the notorious ICE jail inside 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, while a separate group staged a peaceful action blocking access to the building’s garage, used by ICE to transport detained immigrants. City Comptroller Brad Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams were among those arrested yesterday.

A new report from the Physicians for Human Rights, the Peeler Immigration Lab, and Harvard Law School experts has found ICE placed more than 10,000 people in solitary confinement between April 2024 and May 2025, with the practice skyrocketing after Trump returned to office. Immigrants, including those experiencing serious medical and mental health crises, are routinely placed in isolation for days, weeks and, in some cases, months, which the U.N. says amounts to torture.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has blocked the Trump administration from immediately deporting a group of at least 76 unaccompanied Guatemalan migrant children who were living in government custody. Judge Timothy J. Kelly, who is a Trump appointee, rejected claims by DHS that the children were being deported to be reunited with their parents, who had asked for their return to Guatemala. In his ruling, Kelly said the administration’s argument “crumbled like a house of cards” as “there is no evidence before the Court that the parents of these children sought their return.” Trump officials had attempted to secretly deport the children in the middle of the night over Labor Day weekend.

A vaccine advisory panel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted to restrict access to the MMRV vaccine, which is a combination shot that protects against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox, to children under the age of 4. About half of the panel’s members were appointed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The panelists are also set to vote today on COVID-19 shots and whether to delay administering the hepatitis B vaccine to newborns.

Meanwhile, New York, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have formed a Northeastern bloc to issue broader vaccine recommendations than the CDC. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement, “As Washington continues to launch its misguided attacks on science, New York is making it clear that every resident will have access to the COVID vaccine and the healthcare they rely on.”

Venezuela has launched a series of military drills, mobilizing more than 2,500 soldiers to the Caribbean island of La Orchila, in response to soaring tensions with the Trump administration over U.S. military attacks and presence in the region. U.S. forces have blown up at least two Venezuelan boats, killing at least 14 people that Trump officials, without providing evidence, claimed were drug traffickers. U.N. experts have condemned the U.S. for carrying out extrajudicial executions. The escalating U.S. military action against Venezuela comes after Trump signed a secret directive approving the Pentagon’s use of military force in Latin America, supposedly to target drug cartels.

In France, hundreds of thousands of protesters took part in demonstrations as labor unions went on strike against austerity measures proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron and his new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu. According to France’s Interior Ministry, half a million people attended the protests. Here’s Regis Delu, a helicopter worker for Airbus.

Regis Delu: “The government needs to understand that we are fed up with austerity, that there are real measures that need to be taken to save France, but these aren’t the ones that need to be taken against workers. These are measures that need to be taken at the government level and the savings that need to be made.”