In Doha, officials from Egypt, Qatar, the U.S. and Israel are meeting for the second day of negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreement. The U.S. indicated some progress had been made Thursday as regional tensions remain high in the wake of the Israeli assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Iran and Lebanon. Israel has called this week’s talks “the last chance” to make a deal. Hamas is not directly participating but is being briefed by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

This comes as Israel continues its deadly war on Gaza, killing more children in an overnight attack on a building in the Jabaliya refugee camp. In the southern city of Khan Younis, some displaced Palestinians are sheltering at a cemetery.

Abu Mohamed al-Masri: “I can see that every day the number of martyrs will increase. Yesterday, there was a bloodbath in the Abu Shahma family and the Oweida family in which 20 or 30 people died, and people are still under the rubble. And as we sit in the cemetery, more and more martyrs are being brought in. One feels that they don’t know whether they’re dead or alive. I tell you, I hope to die. One hates living now. Unfortunately, there is no joy in living at all, and one doesn’t want to keep living.”

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers shot and killed at least one Palestinian and critically wounded another Thursday as a horde of armed settlers attacked a Palestinian village near the city of Qalqilya. Over 620 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank since October 7, while the official death toll in Gaza topped 40,000 this week. The true toll is certain to be far higher.

The Biden administration has announced patients will pay lower prices on 10 high-cost and common prescription drugs, including blood thinners and arthritis medication, the result of the first round of Medicare negotiations. The new costs range from 38% to 79% lower than the current list price but won’t go into effect until 2026. Medicare would have saved $6 billion if the new prices had already been in effect last year. On Thursday, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris touted the landmark deal as they appeared on stage in Maryland for their first joint event since Biden withdrew from the presidential race.

President Joe Biden: “You may have heard about the MAGA Republican Project 2025 plan. They want to repeal Medicare’s power to negotiate drug prices, let Big Pharma back to charge whatever they want. Let me tell you what our Project 2025 is: beat the hell out of them.”

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is expected to announce a plan to ban corporate price gouging on groceries, and addressing the housing crisis, as part of an economic policy speech later today.

In more election news, the immigrant rights group Make the Road Action has announced its support for Kamala Harris in its first-ever general election presidential endorsement. The group acknowledged the vice president has a checkered track record on immigration, including warning migrants, “Do not come,” during a visit to Guatemala. The Biden administration has launched a major crackdown on asylum seekers at the border. But Make the Road Action says its members see Harris as someone they can work with, and someone who has a similar lived experience, as a daughter of immigrants.

Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled the state’s Republican-controlled Legislative Council can use the phrase “unborn human beings” to refer to embryos and fetuses in an informational pamphlet for voters about a November ballot measure that seeks to enshrine abortion access in Arizona’s Constitution. The group Reproductive Freedom for All Arizona said, “This decision is beyond disgraceful. … But no matter what type of dirty tricks they try to pull to slow down our momentum, we know Arizonans will show up and vote for their freedoms this November.”

Doctors across India are poised to halt nonessential medical services on Saturday in a nationwide 24-hour strike to protest the brutal rape and murder of a female medical trainee at a hospital in Kolkata. The body of the 31-year-old was discovered in a hospital seminar room where she had gone to rest after a lengthy shift. A hospital volunteer has since been arrested for the crime. Earlier today, medical workers launched solidarity protests in New Delhi.

Dr. Margaret: “A fellow colleague was brutally murdered, so we want justice for her, as well as the vandalizing of the properties of the hospital, we are against that. What we want is justice given to the fellow resident who was brutally murdered and also a central protection act for protection of the doctors, so that there is no further incident happening in the future.”

Protesters say India’s government has failed to tackle sexual violence since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in Delhi sparked nationwide protests.

Thailand’s parliament has selected Paetongtarn Shinawatra as prime minister, days after Thailand’s Constitutional Court removed the former Thai leader over alleged ethics violations. At 37 years old, Paetongtarn is the youngest person to lead Thailand and the fourth member of the Shinawatra family selected as prime minister. Her father, billionaire tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra, spent 15 years in exile after his ouster in a military coup in 2006; he returned to Thailand last year.

Last week, Thailand’s Constitutional Court disbanded the progressive Move Forward opposition party, saying it broke laws that bar public criticism of Thailand’s royal family. The party had been critical of Thailand’s powerful military, as well as unelected and unaccountable institutions including the Thai Senate and Constitutional Court.

In Indonesia, outgoing President Joko Widodo held his first Cabinet meeting in the country’s soon-to-be new capital Nusantara this week. This comes ahead of Saturday’s scaled-down Independence Day celebrations, as construction of Nusantara, on the island of Borneo, continues to face a series of challenges. Widodo announced plans in 2019 to shift Indonesia’s capital away from the heavily polluted and fast-sinking Jakarta. But Indigenous communities say they are being kicked off their land and have suffered health and other problems from the construction of the $30 billion project.

Ukraine says its troops are now in full control of the Russian town of Sudzha in the Kursk region and are setting up a military command. Sudzha is home to a metering station for Russian gas that is headed to Europe. Kyiv says it has taken some 80 Russian settlements near the countries’ shared border since Ukraine’s unprecedented incursion into Russia began less than two weeks ago.

A court in Greenland has extended the detention of American Canadian environmental activist Paul Watson until September 5 as Denmark considers his possible extradition to Japan, where he could face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. The 73-year-old anti-whaling activist is the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and co-founded Greenpeace. He was arrested in Nuuk in July and is wanted in Japan for a 2010 direct action that sought to disrupt Japanese whalers. This is François Zimeray, France’s former ambassador to Denmark and one of Watson’s lawyers.

François Zimeray: “Paul Watson’s fight is not only for a world more respectful of nature, ecosystems, the environment and biodiversity, but also one of principles.”

Street vendors from across New York City rallied at Union Square to demand passage of the Street Vendor Reform Platform. Currently thousands of small businesses are forced to operate in a shadow economy as they wait years to receive vending permits, all while facing fines of up to $1,000 and experiencing harassment and property confiscation. Democracy Now! was at Thursday’s rally.

Cleotilde Juárez: “My name is Cleotilde Juárez. I’m a street vendor in Queens, New York. … I sell Mexican food. We’re here to demand that the City Council pass a reform of the street vending rules. We’re tired of being criminalized. Every week there’s a new video on social media showing police going after people, their families. We’re thousands of parents, many of them single mothers who don’t have other sources of income for their families than working in the streets. As you can see, we’re not criminals. We’re working people who want to be part of the economy of this country. We are the foundation of New York’s economy.”