Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president on Wednesday on the third night of the Democratic National Convention here in Chicago. Walz played up his time as a former high school football coach and outlined his achievements as governor.

Gov. Tim Walz: “We made sure that every kid in our state gets breakfast and lunch every day. So, while other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours.”

The iconic talk show host Oprah Winfrey was the surprise speaker of the night. In her first speech ever to a political convention, Winfrey gave a ringing endorsement for Kamala Harris for president.

Oprah Winfrey: “Soon, and very soon, we’re going to be teaching our daughters and sons about how this child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, two idealistic, energetic immigrants — immigrants — how this child grew up to become the 47th president of the United States.”

Outside the convention hall, delegates from the Uncommitted National Movement and their supporters launched a sit-in protest Wednesday night, after the DNC and the Harris campaign refused to let a Palestinian take the main stage, despite allowing family members of Israeli hostages to address the convention. We’ll air clips from the sit-in, which is still ongoing, later in the broadcast. Earlier in the day, uncommitted delegates and progressive lawmakers gathered for an event outside the DNC. This is Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar.

Rep. Ilhan Omar: “Working tirelessly for a ceasefire is really not a thing, and they should be ashamed of themselves for saying such thing, because we supply these weapons. So, if you really wanted a ceasefire, you just stop sending the weapons. It is that simple.”

In response to the Democratic refusal to let a Palestinian speak at the DNC, the group Muslim Women for Harris-Walz announced it was disbanding, saying in a statement, “This is a terrible message to send to Democrats. Palestinians have the right to speak about Palestine.” Protesters also took to the streets of Chicago Wednesday for more rallies calling for an end to U.S. support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Climate activists are also at the convention this week to demand Democrats do more to address the climate catastrophe and divest from fossil fuels. On Wednesday, activists disrupted an event by Punchbowl News on the sidelines of the DNC, that was sponsored by ExxonMobil. This is California DNC member RL Miller.

RL Miller: “Yes, I’m a Democratic Committee — National Committee member. I am here because Exxon lied, and people died.”

Protesters: “Exxon lies, people die! Exxon lies, people die! Exxon lies, people die! Exxon lies, people die!”

We’ll have more on the climate crisis and climate activism at the DNC in hour two of our live broadcast.

In Gaza, Israeli attacks continue to kill more Palestinians, with at least 22 reported deaths today. On Wednesday, at least 13 people were killed, including children, in an attack east of Khan Younis. This father lost his teenage son.

Mourning father: “Oh my son Mudi is dead! Mudi is dead! They hit us, and we’re all destroyed. … He was so precious to me, my oldest son, my darling son.”

Reporter: “How old was he?”

Mourning father: “Fourteen years old. He hasn’t seen anything in his life. I went to buy him a rooster and left it on the floor. A mere 10 minutes later, we were hit. God rest your soul.”

Another strike on a school acting as a shelter in Gaza City killed two people and injured 10 children.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed home after his latest visit to the region once again failed to secure a Gaza ceasefire. Blinken warned the failed plan may have been the chance to avert a broader regional war.

A new report from Defense for Children International Palestine says Israeli forces are detaining and torturing Palestinian children in Gaza, using children as human shields and “intentionally and systematically” separating children from their families. The report includes testimony of children survivors, including the case of many boys who were forced to strip naked and walk with their hands bound in front of Israeli tanks and bulldozers. The children were also beaten, denied water and threatened with dogs. Sixteen-year-old Abdulmunim, who was abducted with his younger brother Ali, said he was barely able to move after Israeli forces blindfolded them, tied them up and beat them with rifles before leaving them in the cold.

Israel and Hezbollah continued to exchange cross-border fire Wednesday, with Israel targeting multiple areas across southern Lebanon and Hezbollah blasting over 50 rockets and a swarm of drones in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel also killed a senior member of Palestine’s Fatah movement in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, claiming Khalil al-Maqdah has orchestrated attacks on Israeli forces in the West Bank. The Fatah party accused Israel of seeking to “ignite a regional war.”
Meanwhile, President Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday, and a second U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, arrived in the Middle East Wednesday as the U.S. bolsters forces in the region.

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has rejected an attempt by pro-Israel groups and Hollywood celebrities to rescind an Emmy nomination for the widely admired Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda. Owda, who has been reporting from the ground in Gaza since October, was nominated for her Al Jazeera Plus report, “It’s Bisan from Gaza and I’m Still Alive,” which chronicles her family’s forced evacuation of their home in Beit Hanoun. The pro-Israel group Creative Community for Peace and celebrities like Debra Messing and Selma Blair accused Owda of spreading antisemitism, an accusation which has been widely used against anyone who opposes Israel’s war.

Israel has killed at least two more Gaza journalists in recent days. Twenty-six-year-old photojournalist Ibrahim Muharab was killed while covering ground invasions north of Khan Younis Monday. In Gaza City, Hamza Abdul Rahman Murtaja was one of the victims in Israel’s attack on the Mustafa Hafez School this week. Hamza Murtaja was the brother of Yasser Murtaja, who was killed by an Israeli sniper in Gaza in 2018. Some 170 journalists have been killed in Gaza since October 7, by far the largest death toll of media workers recorded in any war.

Canada’s two major rail freight companies have shut down after failed negotiations with union leaders, bringing an unprecedented rail stoppage that threatens to disrupt the U.S.-Canada supply chain. Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City both locked out 10,000 of its employees as the companies refused to reach an agreement with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which represents the workers. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke Wednesday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “My message is very straightforward. It is in the best interest of both sides to continue doing the hard work at the table to find a negotiated resolution.”

In a blow for workers’ rights, a federal judge struck down the Federal Trade Commission’s ban on noncompete agreements just two weeks before it was set to take effect, after ruling the FTC did not have the authority to issue the ban. The new rules would have barred companies from preventing employees from working for a rival or starting their own business. Some 30 million U.S. workers are subject to noncompete agreements.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is widely expected to drop out of the presidential race Friday and endorse Donald Trump. RFK Jr. is addressing his supporters from Phoenix Friday; Trump is also scheduled to be in Arizona then. RFK Jr. initially launched his campaign as a Democratic challenger to Biden before running as an independent, but recent reports say he courted both Harris and Trump for a future job. On Tuesday, Jack Schlossberg, grandson of John F. Kennedy and cousin to RFK Jr., addressed the DNC and declared his support for the Harris-Walz ticket.

A British diplomat has resigned, charging the U.K. government of complicity in war crimes amid its continued military aid and arms supply to Israel. Mark Smith previously worked in Middle East arms export licensing assessment for the British government, and said he raised his concerns, including to Foreign Secretary David Lammy, but was ignored. He recently spoke to the BBC.

Mark Smith: “For me, personally, my profession, or former profession, as of last week, was to advise the government on the legality of arms sales. And when you look at what constitutes a war crime, it’s actually quite clear, even from what you see in open source on the TV, that the state of Israel is perpetrating war crimes in plain sight.”

The Biden administration in March approved a revised nuclear strategy that for the first time shifted its focus on China’s supposed “nuclear threat” — in addition to Russia and North Korea. The secret policy was revealed by The New York Times this week. Anti-nuclear advocates have called on the U.S. to stop ratcheting up nuclear tensions and its nuclear arsenal.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban has barred U.N. special rapporteur on human rights Richard Bennett from entering the country. Bennett has previously called the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls a likely crime against humanity. Since regaining power three years ago, the Taliban has largely barred women and girls from education and much of the workforce, and aid agencies have reported an increase in child and forced marriage, gender-based violence and femicides with impunity.

In New Caledonia, U.N. experts have found France guilty of undermining the rights of Indigenous Kanak people in its plan to expand voter rolls. Earlier this year, a French bill that would allow foreign residents who have been living in New Caledonia for 10 years to vote set off a series of deadly protests. New Caledonia has been under French control since its colonization by France in the 19th century. But some 40% of the population is Kanak, and a growing independence movement is seeking an end to colonial rule.

Back in the U.S., in Oregon, the ACLU is suing the city of Medford, saying its police has been illegally spying on progressive political activists and groups for several years. The lawsuit accuses the Medford Police Department of monitoring the social media accounts of activists and groups involved in “racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive justice, housing justice, harm reduction, and decriminalization,” and collecting information on them. The groups and activists in question were not suspected of involvement in any criminal activity.

In more election news, Kamala Harris has raised nearly $500 million over the past month, since President Biden dropped out of the race. Democrats expect the total to hit $600 million by the end of the month.

This comes as campaign reform advocates have called out both the Democratic and Republican campaigns for failing to disclose the source of some of their largest contributions, using a practice known as “bundling.” Bundlers collect large sums of money, but candidates are not required to disclose their information. The nonprofit group Issue One said disclosure is “a transparency practice that is a guardrail for good government, and to see both sides eroding that guardrail is concerning.”

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will review the case of Crystal Mason, a Black mother who was sentenced to five years in prison for attempting to cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 election when she was ineligible to vote. At the time, Mason was on supervised release for a tax felony and was unaware that this barred her from casting a ballot. Her ballot was never actually counted. Mason’s conviction was already overturned, and she was acquitted earlier this year, but Tarrant County’s conservative district attorney appealed the decision. Crystal Mason appeared on Democracy Now! in 2018.

Amy Goodman: “Crystal, do you ever plan to vote again?”

Crystal Mason: “I do. I do. And that’s what I’m encouraging my kids, to get out there so we can make a difference right now. I do. I just feel right now that the system failed me. You get out, you rehabilitate yourself, you get a good job, you go to school, you graduate from school, you’re doing everything right — so, why would I go and vote, to go back to prison?”