The World Health Organization says Israel has agreed to a three-day partial pause in attacks on Gaza starting Sunday in order to allow aid workers to distribute polio vaccines, after Israel’s brutal assault led to Gaza’s first outbreak of the paralytic disease in 25 years. The WHO said the vaccination drive aims to reach 640,000 children under the age of 10.

Dr. Rik Peeperkorn: “So, we start the 1st of September, and we start in central Gaza for three days, followed by south Gaza and then followed by the north of Gaza. Due to the insecurity, the damage, the road infrastructure and population displacement, but also based on our experience with these kind of campaigns globally and worldwide, the three days might not be enough to achieve adequate vaccination.”

On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike on a residential building killed eight people in Nuseirat in central Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Israel’s military said it was withdrawing its forces from Khan Younis after a three-week offensive left much of the city in ruins.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers backed by armored bulldozers are continuing a wide-scale assault on Jenin for a third straight day. Three people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a car, which reportedly killed Wassam Hazem, the head of Hamas in Jenin. Israeli forces withdrew late Thursday from Tulkarm and Tubas, following a two-day raid that saw several Palestinians killed and the widespread destruction of roads and civilian infrastructure including water and electricity. Tulkarm residents assessed the damage after returning home.

Hussein Shehada: “Here, where you are filming, was the house of an old woman. Since the first moment of the raid, they destroyed the house, and they entered the house behind us. There were walls and a road here. They destroyed them. My relative’s house, Yousef Shehada’s house, was also destroyed using missiles and drones.”

Vice President Kamala Harris has given her first major sit-down interview since replacing President Biden on the Democratic ticket. On Thursday, Harris appeared on CNN alongside running mate Governor Tim Walz. The pair vowed to support the U.S. middle class, including through the child tax credit, lowering grocery costs and addressing the housing crisis. Harris also said she would not ban fracking — a reversal from her earlier position, that she would continue to crack down on the border, and that she might appoint a Republican to her Cabinet. On Gaza, Harris vowed to continue the U.S. policy of unconditional support to Israel. We’ll have more on the Harris-Walz interview after headlines.

JD Vance has ramped up his attacks on Kamala Harris, saying at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Wednesday she can “go to hell.” Vance criticized the Biden administration for failing to fire anyone over the death of 13 U.S. troops who died during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago.

Sen. JD Vance: “Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won’t even do an investigation into what happened. And she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up? She can — she can go to hell.”

This comes as newly resurfaced comments show JD Vance claiming childless teachers “brainwash” and “destroy” the minds of children. He converted to Catholicism in 2019. He didn’t address whether nuns or priests should teach children.

The Arlington National Cemetery filed a report after two Trump campaign aides verbally attacked and pushed an Arlington employee during a visit by Trump on Monday. The staffer was attempting to prevent Trump’s team from taking photos and videos in Section 60, where political campaigning and photographing is prohibited.

South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled Thursday the country’s climate law violates the rights of future generations, in a major victory for the youth climate movement. The landmark decision finds the absence of legally binding greenhouse gas reduction targets is counter to the South Korean Constitution and shifts too large of a burden on the country’s future generations. Climate activists in Seoul celebrated the decision.

Yoon Hyeonjeong: “Our focus will shift to legislative and administrative capacity next. I plan to find ways to drive change through these areas. In the near future, I’m planning a campaign targeting the National Assembly.”

In Bangladesh, ongoing heavy flooding has killed at least 52 people and displaced nearly half a million people. Authorities say more than 1 million families have been cut off by the floodwaters, many of them without food or clean water.

In Yemen, at least 33 people are dead and dozens more missing after flooding from monsoon rains triggered mudslides that swept through a district controlled by the Houthi movement. At least one clinic in Yemen is reporting cases of cholera, with concerns that continuing rains could help the water-borne disease spread.

There are also reports of more than 1,000 cholera cases in Sudan, where the U.N. says over 300,000 people have been impacted by recent flooding, worsening an already-dire humanitarian crisis. Residents of the city of Tokar in Sudan’s Red Sea state have been leaving on foot after the Arbaat Dam collapsed, washing away bridges and roads.

Mohamed Taher: “People have no food. They sit on high places, and they have nothing, no food or water. There are people who died and have not been buried yet. There are people who are missing. There are collapsed houses, and others were swept away by the flood.”

Authorities across Brazil have implemented emergency measures after a thick blanket of smoke settled over major cities, including São Paulo and the capital Brasília, closing schools, grounding flights and triggering air quality alerts. The Amazon and the Pantanal wetlands — the world’s largest tropical wetland — have reported a record-breaking wildfire season amid Brazil’s severe drought and extreme heat.

In related news, newly published data shows Canada’s devastating 2023 wildfires produced more carbon emissions than the burning of fossil fuels in seven out of the 10 worst polluting countries. The unprecedented wildfires ranked as the fourth-largest carbon emitter in 2023, behind China, the U.S. and India.

Environmentalists and Indigenous communities in California and Oregon are celebrating after work crews this week breached the last of four dams along the Klamath River, completing the largest dam removal project in U.S. history. For decades, conservationists, led by the Yurok, Karuk and Hupa tribes, fought to remove the dams, citing their heavy toll on salmon spawning grounds. Yurok Tribe Vice Chairman Frankie Myers said in a statement, “The dams that have divided the basin are now gone and the river is free. Our sacred duty to our children, our ancestors, and for ourselves, is to take care of the river, and today’s events represent a fulfillment of that obligation.”

Timor-Leste, or East Timor, is marking the 25th anniversary of its vote to become independent from Indonesia. East Timor had been under Indonesian occupation since 1975. Indonesia killed more than a third of the population, over 200,000 Timorese. After the 1999 independence vote, the Indonesian military and pro-Jakarta militias began attacking civilians, killing an estimated additional 1,500 people and burning parts of East Timor to the ground. Timor-Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, who had been imprisoned for years by Indonesia, and President José Ramos-Horta, leaders of East Timor’s independence movement, are addressing the nation today.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is in East Timor for the occasion. Guterres was the prime minister of Portugal at the time of the 1999 vote and a vocal supporter of East Timorese independence. East Timor was occupied by Portugal before Indonesia invaded. Earlier this week, Guterres spoke from the capital Dili, where he addressed the climate crisis.

Secretary-General António Guterres: “Throughout the Pacific, climate chaos is affecting those who did the least to cause it. And this is the time to act against climate change and to reinforce measures to protect the Timorese people in the face of the intensification of climate disasters. But Timor-Leste cannot be alone in this effort. The international community has an obligation to support them, namely through an ambitious result at COP29 this year in terms of financial support.”

Back in the U.S., dozens of detainees at two immigrant prisons in California relaunched a hunger and labor strike this month to protest their inhumane treatment at the Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex facilities. Both of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement prisons are run by the for-profit prison company GEO Group. Among other things, detainees report medical neglect, lack of drinking water, poor food quality that has made them sick, sexual harassment and abuse, working for just $1 a day, and retaliation for speaking out. Protesters rallied in solidarity with the striking detainees in San Francisco on Wednesday and delivered copies of recent civil rights complaints to Senator Alex Padilla.

Police in Ann Arbor arrested four protesters at the University of Michigan Wednesday as they attempted to hold a peaceful “die-in” protest against Israel’s assault on Gaza. The activists said, “We will not celebrate back to school as UM invests in and funds genocide.”

Here in New York, the campus group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine reports their Instagram account has been permanently banned — with no reason provided. The NYU Palestine Solidarity Committee similarly had its Instagram account frozen, with no opportunity to appeal.

Meanwhile, as students return to the classroom at New York University, the administration has issued a new code of conduct stating use of the word “Zionist” could violate nondiscrimination and anti-harassment policies. In a statement, NYU Faculty for Justice in Palestine says the policy “troublingly equates criticism of Zionism with discrimination against Jewish people.”

The president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, Jimmy Williams Jr., says his union is directing its massive international pension fund to divest from the Gaza genocide. Williams spoke Thursday at IUPAT’s general convention.

Jimmy Williams Jr.: “There isn’t another union in the building trades that hasn’t called for a ceasefire like this union has, number one. Number two, we have called on the federal government to stop funding the genocide.”

In more labor news, thousands of United Airlines flight attendants have voted to authorize a strike amid stalled contract talks with the airline. Members of the Association of Flight Attendants United Airlines haven’t had a pay raise since 2019. They’re seeking double-digit salary increases, more flexible scheduling, better pensions and job security.

Voice actors and motion capture performers who work on video games are entering their second month on strike. SAG-AFTRA is demanding a guarantee of consent and fair compensation for actors who allow their images and voices to be used to generate artificial intelligence creations.

Here in New York, a Long Island man is the first person to be charged with wearing a face mask in public. Police say the 18-year-old was wearing a ski mask when he was arrested on Sunday and charged with possessing a knife with the intent to engage in robbery. A new law passed by Nassau County’s Republican-controlled Legislature makes it a misdemeanor crime to wear a face covering in public, with narrow exceptions for health or religious reasons. Last week, the group Disability Rights New York filed a lawsuit against the mask ban, saying it discriminates against immunocompromised people.