In Gaza, the World Food Programme has been forced to further reduce food rations amid the worsening displacement caused by Israel’s intensifying attacks throughout the besieged territory. Some 96% of Gaza’s population is already facing acute food insecurity, and U.N. experts have accused Israel of carrying out a “targeted starvation campaign.”

On Thursday, Gazans reacted to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Wednesday address to U.S. congressmembers.

Abu Mohammed: “For those who have been killed in the Gaza Strip, the majority, 90% of them, are civilians, which is contrary to what Netanyahu said in Congress. … The speech that was delivered yesterday was a trivial speech, trying to mock us like little children. The United States is mocking people, gathering Biden’s supporters and Netanyahu’s supporters in Congress to applaud after every two words. Was that a speech?”

In news from the occupied West Bank, Israel released eight Palestinians from captivity at Israel’s Ofer Prison. The six men and two women told reporters they were tortured, threatened and denied medical treatment by Israeli interrogators as they demanded information about Hamas and Israelis held captive in Gaza.

Here in the U.S., Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Biden, as well as vice president and presumptive presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Thursday. Harris says she urged Netanyahu to move forward with a proposed ceasefire deal that would bring about a “permanent end to the hostilities,” and condemned the civilian toll of the war.

Vice President Kamala Harris: “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time, we cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering.”

Harris also reaffirmed U.S. support for Israel and, earlier in the day, released a statement condemning the burning of the U.S. flag during antiwar protests on Wednesday.

Ahead of Netanyahu’s visit with Biden on Thursday, protesters poured gallons of fake blood on streets near the White House as demonstrations against the U.S. backing of Israel’s war on Gaza continued. This is Catholic nun and peace activist Carol Gilbert.

Carol Gilbert: “I think it is criminal. I think it is criminal. I think this is what should have happened to him. There should have been a warrant of arrest that was given to him when he entered on U.S. soil. He never should have been allowed on U.S. soil, first of all.”

In election news, Kamala Harris is reportedly preparing to announce her running mate by August 7, ahead of the DNC. Former President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have become the latest high-profile Democrats to endorse Harris for president. Meanwhile, Harris says she is ready to face off with Trump on a debate stage after Trump’s campaign refused to commit to debating the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Vice President Kamala Harris: “I’m ready to debate Donald Trump. I have agreed to the previously agreed-upon September 10th debate. He agreed to that previously. Now it appears he’s backpedaling. But I’m ready. And I think the voters deserve to see the split screen that exists in this race on a debate stage. And so, I’m ready. Let’s go.”

On Thursday evening, Harris’s campaign set a record for the largest Zoom meeting ever. More than 136,000 people joined the campaign event titled “White Women: Answer the Call,” raising more than $1 million for Harris’s presidential campaign in less than an hour. This followed “Win with Black Men” and “Win with Black Women” events that raised nearly $3 million for the Harris campaign over the weekend.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered officials to begin removing encampments of unhoused people on state property and will encourage local officials to carry out similar sweeps. Newsom announced his executive order on Thursday, just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court voted to criminalize sleeping and camping on public property.

Gov. Gavin Newsom: “It’s time to move with urgency at the local level to clean up these sites, to focus on public health and focus on public safety. There are no longer any excuses. A billion dollars this state has invested to support communities to clean up these encampments. We have now no excuse with the Supreme Court decision. This executive order is about pushing that paradigm further and getting the sense of urgency that’s required of local government to do their job.”

Housing rights advocates blasted Newsom’s executive order as “cowardly” and “cruel.” National Low Income Housing Coalition President Diane Yentel said, “You didn’t provide the needed affordable housing. You’re choosing political expediency over real solutions. That’s not leadership, it’s cowardice. This will only worsen homelessness.”

New information has emerged in the police killing of Sonya Massey, an unarmed 36-year-old Black mother who was shot dead in her own home after calling 911 for help. The former Illinois sheriff’s deputy who killed Massey, Sean Grayson, had held six police jobs over the past four years. The ex-officer, who has been charged with first-degree murder, had previously been discharged by the Army for “serious” misconduct.

Meanwhile, Sonya Massey’s family has revealed she is a descendant of William Donnegan, a Black man who survived being lynched by a white mob during a 1908 race riot that killed 17 Black people over a two-day span. The massacre led to the creation of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Federal authorities in El Paso, Texas, have arrested two suspected leaders of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel. The Justice Department says it took into custody co-founder Ismael Zambada García, as well as Joaquín Guzmán López, the son of “El Chapo,” who’s serving a life sentence in the U.S. The pair face multiple indictments for smuggling cocaine, fentanyl and heroin into the United States.

In Kenya, beleaguered President William Ruto appointed four members of the main opposition party to a new Cabinet and announced new anti-corruption measures as he attempts to quell a nationwide anti-government uprising. Earlier this month, Ruto dismissed his previous Cabinet amid the mounting protests, which were triggered by proposed tax hikes.

The brutal crackdown on protests has killed some 50 people, with hundreds of others injured. Young activists in Kenya say they will continue to protest to remove Ruto.

Wanjira Wanjiru: “Everyone is coming together to bring whatever it is they can contribute to the liberation struggle to take this country forward. The president is doing everything in his capability to take this country backwards. … Kenya has become a police state. The police can even come to your residential areas with tear gas and guns and water cannons, that young people are abducted in their homes, that I have to keep looking over my shoulders just in case someone is coming to abduct me.”

Protests inspired by the uprising in Kenya have now taken place in Uganda and are being planned in Nigeria.

Venezuela’s presidential candidates wrapped up their campaigns with competing rallies that brought thousands of supporters into the streets of the capital Caracas this week. On Sunday, voters will decide whether to elect President Nicolás Maduro to a third term in office. His main challenger is former diplomat and opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia.

The U.N. Refugee Agency estimates more than 7.7 million people have left Venezuela since 2014 as sanctions imposed by the U.S. and European Union devastated Venezuela’s economy.

In France, a series of apparently coordinated arson and vandalism attacks have shut down the high-speed rail network near Paris, just hours ahead of the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics. Some 800,000 travelers were impacted by cancellations and delays. Eurostar said its services between London and Paris had also been affected. We’ll have more on the Summer Olympics later in the broadcast.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is calling again for a global shift away from fossil fuels in the face of what he called the “extreme heat epidemic.” Guterres’s warning came as a series of high temperature records were broken this week.

Secretary-General António Guterres: “Heat is estimated to kill almost half a million people a year, and that’s about 30 times more than tropical cyclones. We know what it is driving it: fossil fuel-charged, human-induced climate change. And we know it’s going to get worse. Extreme heat is the new abnormal.”

A new U.N. study this week found over 70% of the global workforce is at high risk of extreme heat.

California’s largest wildfire of the summer has exploded in size, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate fast-moving flames. The Park Fire, north of Sacramento, has scorched more than 160,000 acres and is just 3% contained. It’s one of dozens of active large wildfires burning across the western U.S. and Canada.

In Alberta, Canada, a raging wildfire swept through the Rocky Mountain tourist town of Jasper overnight Wednesday, forcing 25,000 people to flee. Alberta’s Premier Danielle Smith said up to half of Jasper’s structures were damaged or destroyed.

Danielle Smith: “Homes and businesses have been lost to a wildfire that people are calling a wall of flames. There is no denying that this is the worst nightmare for any community. … Right now the wildfire is still out of control, and crews are working in dangerous conditions to try and protect critical infrastructure in the town.”

A new study finds that pesticides used on crops are becoming increasingly laced with “forever chemicals,” also known as PFAS. The findings, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, indicate the spread of PFAS, which have been linked with a host of health conditions, in our foods and waterways is even more widespread than previously thought. The chemicals industry has been fighting efforts to regulate PFAS.

Here in New York, Governor Kathy Hochul has been hit with two new lawsuits this week, challenging her suspension last month of Manhattan’s long-awaited congestion program just weeks before it was set to start. One of the lawsuits claims Hochul’s move violates a New York law requiring a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030.

In labor news, the American Federation of Teachers passed a resolution to join a possible nationwide strike on May 1, 2028. The United Auto Workers union is calling on labor unions around the country to back May 1, 2028, as the expiration date for all local contracts, uniting workers in a possible massive work stoppage if employers fail to agree on fair terms for new contracts.