Israeli military jets bombarded southern Lebanon Thursday, while Hezbollah struck sites in northern Israel, after mass walkie-talkie and pager explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday killed at least 37 people in Lebanon and injured thousands of others in what is widely believed to be a coordinated attack by Israel. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah accused Israel of crossing “all red lines” as he addressed the week’s attacks in televised remarks.

Hassan Nasrallah: “War crimes or a declaration of war — you can call it anything, and it deserves those words. … Undoubtedly, we have been subjected to a major attack in terms of security and humanitarian aspects, unprecedented in the history of resistance in Lebanon. … We say to the enemy’s government, army and society that the Lebanese front will not stop before the aggression on Gaza stops.”

Despite the widely condemned attacks on Lebanon, Israel is doubling down on its intent to expand its war on Lebanon. This is Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Yoav Gallant: “Over the past several days, we have held a series of important discussions. This is a new phase of the war. It includes opportunities but also significant risks. Hezbollah feels it is being persecuted, and the sequence of military and defense actions will continue.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has postponed a trip to Israel early next week amid the mounting tensions. The Associated Press reports Yoav Gallant warned Austin ahead of the attacks this week that Israel was launching a military operation in Lebanon, but did not give any more details.

Deadly Israeli raids are continuing in the occupied West Bank, including in Jenin and Qabatiya, where a video has been circulating showing Israeli soldiers pushing dead bodies off a roof after a raid that killed at least five Palestinians. The desecration of corpses is considered a war crime, but Palestinians say the Israeli military frequently violates the deceased bodies of its victims. During the Qabatiya raid, Israeli forces also opened fire on a group of journalists filming the events. This is an eyewitness.

Zakaria Zakarneh: “Israeli special forces, fully equipped, raided and surrounded the area. They started shooting grenades and missiles. They struck young men at our place on the rooftop as they were trying to escape the trap.”

Israeli attacks on Gaza have also continued with deaths reported over the past day in Gaza City, Jabaliya, Nuseirat and Beit Hanoun. The official death toll in Gaza since October 7 has topped 41,000 with over 95,000 wounded, though the true toll is certainly much higher.

A U.N. committee on Thursday accused Israel of engaging in unprecedented violations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child over the past 11 months.

Ann Skelton: “More children have died in this war than men or women. That is massive. And I think when we think about it and we know that under international humanitarian law, that Israel admits it is bound by, killing of civilian targets on this scale is unacceptable in international humanitarian law and international human rights law, as well. And children are always civilians.”

Here in the U.S., three Democratic lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bill that would restore emergency funding to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after the U.S. suspended its contributions in January and later passed a bill barring any further funding of UNRWA until March of next year.

Resistance to Israel’s U.S.-backed war on Gaza continues on college campuses as the new school year gets underway with more protests and calls to divest from Israel. On Wednesday, Cornell students shut down a career fair featuring weapons manufacturers supplying Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Meanwhile, a chapter of the activist group Students for Justice in Palestine is suing the University of Maryland in College Park after the school canceled an October 7 Gaza vigil.

In campaign news, Donald Trump said Thursday Jewish voters would be to blame if he loses November’s election. Trump made the remarks at an event by the Israeli-American Council titled “Fighting Anti-Semitism in America.”

Donald Trump: “The Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss if I’m at 40%. If I’m at 40, think of it. That means 60% of voting for Kamala, who in particular is a bad Democrat. The Democrats are bad to Israel, very bad. … I mean, Chuck Schumer is a Palestinian.”

North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, a Trump-supported, trans-bashing Republican gubernatorial candidate, referred to himself as a “black NAZI!” and expressed support for reinstating slavery. That’s according to CNN, which reports Robinson made the remarks over a decade ago on “Nude Africa,” a pornographic website. CNN also found Robinson called Martin Luther King Jr. “worse than a maggot,” repeatedly used antisemitic and anti-Muslim slurs, and said he enjoyed watching transgender pornography. Robinson has a long history of backing anti-transgender legislation. On Thursday, Robinson denied CNN’s report.

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson: “Let me reassure you: The things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson.”

Robinson has vowed to remain in the race.

A former, longtime CIA officer has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for sexual assault. Over 14 years in the CIA, Brian Jeffrey Raymond drugged, photographed and assaulted women he met while stationed in various countries.

Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty to a new sex crime charge in New York this week. Weinstein, who has been accused of rape and sexual assault by over 80 survivors, is currently awaiting retrial after a 2020 rape conviction was overturned. He was separately convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case and remains behind bars. Earlier this week, a federal judge in California dismissed a sex trafficking and sexual assault lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein and Madison Square Garden Chief Executive James Dolan. The men are accused of sexually assaulting a massage therapist named Kellye Croft.

In the United Kingdom, five women have accused the billionaire former owner of the Harrods department store of rape. Others accused Mohamed al-Fayed of sexual assault and harassment while they worked at his luxury department store in London. The revelations came as part of the new BBC documentary “Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods.” Mohamed al-Fayed died last year at 94.

France has been gripped by the horrific case of serial rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot as it plays out in open court. Seventy-one-year-old Gisèle Pelicot’s husband Dominique Pelicot confessed on the stand this week that he recruited dozens of men for over a decade to rape his wife after drugging her so she was unconscious.

The case has roiled France, as throngs of people have come out to show their support for Gisèle Pelicot during the trial.

Clémentine Goujet: “I would like to tell Gisèle that we hear her words. I am here to speak for the victims, to tell them that we are listening to them, we will fight for them, that the impunity of men is over.”

Gisèle Pelicot chose to reveal her name and have a public trial in order to give a voice to other survivors.

In climate news, the World Meteorological Organization warns the globe is on track to exceed 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, likely bringing about widespread climate catastrophe.

Andrea Celeste Saulo: “2023 was the warmest year on record by a huge margin. Leading international datasets say that the first eight months of 2024 are also the warmest on record. There is an 80% chance that the global minimum surface temperature will temporarily exceed 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels at least one of the next five calendar years.”

In more climate news, severe flooding from heavy rains in West and Central Africa has affected 4 million people, with nearly 1 million people left homeless. More than 30 people are dead in northeastern Nigeria after a dam ruptured and caused floodwaters to sweep across the city of Maiduguri. Aid groups say 150,000 children are in displacement camps, with many disconnected from their families and no access to drinking water.

A record number of wildfires have been recorded across South America this year, surpassing the prior record set in 2017. Smoke recently blanketed up to 60% of the skies above Brazil, choking major cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

In Budapest, Hungary, the Danube has overflowed its banks after heavy rains pushed the river to its highest level in more than a decade. On Thursday, the European Union committed billions of euros to aid recovery efforts after the worst floods to hit Central Europe in at least two decades killed at least two dozen people and destroyed homes and infrastructure from Romania to Poland. Meanwhile, Portugal’s government has declared a “state of calamity” as more than 100 wildfires continue to rage. At least seven people have died in the fires.

Back in the U.S., in Tennessee, a federal trial is underway for three former Memphis police officers charged over the killing of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black father who was beaten to death following a traffic stop in January of 2023. On Thursday, prosecutors showed the jury disturbing bodycam video showing officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith milling around and failing to render medical aid to Nichols, who was slumped on the ground after he was brutally punched, kicked, tased and pepper-sprayed by officers. Nichols died three days later.

The officers are charged with violating Nichols’s civil rights, failure to intervene, and obstruction of justice for conspiring to cover up the killing. They also face murder charges in a Tennessee state court. Two other officers — Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr. — pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges ahead of the trial.

The Justice Department has launched a civil rights probe into the Mississippi sheriff’s department that was home to the self-described “Goon Squad.” The six white deputies were convicted for raiding a home and torturing two Black men. Click here to see our coverage of this case.

In Kentucky, Letcher County Sheriff Shawn Stines was arrested Thursday and charged with first-degree murder for fatally shooting District Judge Kevin Mullins after an argument in the judge’s chambers. Authorities say they’re still investigating a motive in the killing.

Housing justice advocates celebrated the introduction this week of the Homes Act by Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Tina Smith. The social housing proposal would establish a federally backed development authority charged with financing union-built, energy-efficient homes across the U.S. where rent would be capped at 25% of household income. The units would remain permanently affordable by keeping them out of the hands of corporate landlords, prioritizing cooperative and land trust models instead. The homes would benefit those most affected by the housing crisis, including unhoused people, people of color, low-income families, single mothers, and immigrants.