By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes and gunfire in the Gaza Strip killed at least 46 Palestinians overnight and into Wednesday, most of them among crowds seeking food, health officials said.

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Israel has continued to carry out daily strikes as its military offensive and blockade have led to the “worst-case scenario of famine” in the territory of some 2 million Palestinians, according to an international authority on hunger crises.

Ceasefire talks appeared to have stalled again last week, with no end in sight to the nearly 22-month war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The Trump administration’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected in Israel on Thursday, according to a person familiar with his plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they have not yet been made public.

More than 30 people were killed while seeking humanitarian aid, according to hospitals that received the bodies and treated dozens of wounded people. Another seven Palestinians, including a child, died of malnutrition-related causes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The Israeli military didn’t immediately comment on any of the strikes. It says it only targets combatants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, because the group operates in densely populated areas. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Strikes, and gunfire at aid sites

Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said that it received 12 people who were killed Tuesday night when Israeli forces opened fire towards crowds awaiting aid trucks coming from the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza.

Thirteen others were killed in strikes in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, and the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, the hospital said.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, Nasser Hospital said it received the bodies of 16 people who it says were killed Tuesday evening while waiting for aid trucks close to the newly-built Morag corridor, which the Israeli military carved out between Khan Younis and the southernmost city of Rafah.

The hospital received another body for a man killed in a strike on a tent in Khan Younis, it said.

The Awda hospital in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp said that it received the bodies of four Palestinians who it says were killed Wednesday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, or GHF, in the Netzarim corridor area, south of the Wadi Gaza.

Israel has eased its blockade but obstacles remain

Under heavy international pressure, Israel announced a series of measures over the weekend to facilitate the entry of more international aid to Gaza, but aid workers say much more is needed.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, the leading world authority on hunger crises, has stopped short of declaring famine in Gaza but said Tuesday that the situation has dramatically worsened and warned of “widespread death” without immediate action.

COGAT, the Israeli military body that facilitates the entry of aid, said over 220 trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday. That’s far below the 500-600 trucks a day that U.N. agencies say are needed, and which entered during a six-week ceasefire earlier this year.

The U.N. is still struggling to deliver the aid that does enter, with most trucks unloaded by crowds in zones controlled by the Israeli military. The alternative aid system run by the Israeli-backed GHF has also been marred by violence.

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid since May, most near sites run by GHF, according to witnesses, local health officials and the U.N. human rights office. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding.

International airdrops of aid have also resumed, but many of the parcels have landed in areas that Palestinians have been told to evacuate while others have plunged into the Mediterranean Sea, forcing people to swim out to retrieve drenched bags of flour.

Deaths from malnutrition

A total of 89 children have died of malnutrition since the war began in Gaza. The ministry said that 65 Palestinian adults have also died of malnutrition-related causes across Gaza since late June, when it started counting deaths among adults.

Israel denies there is any starvation in Gaza, rejecting accounts to the contrary from witnesses, U.N. agencies and aid groups, and says the focus on hunger undermines ceasefire efforts.

Hamas started the war with its attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which terrorists killed around 1,200 people and abducted 251 others. They still hold 50 hostages, including around 20 believed to be alive. Most of the rest of the hostages were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.

Samy Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two top Federal Reserve officials could dissent from the central bank’s likely decision Wednesday to hold its key interest rate steady, a sign of division at the Fed that reflects the economy’s muddy outlook and possibly the jockeying to replace Chair Jerome Powell when his term ends in May 2026.

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Based on their public comments in the past two months, it’s possible that governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman could vote against leaving the short-term rate at about 4.3%. If so, it would be the first time two of the seven governors at the Fed have dissented in over three decades.

The division could be a preview of what might happen after Powell steps down, if President Donald Trump appoints a replacement who pushes for the much lower interest rates the White House desires. Other Fed officials could push back if a future chair sought to cut rates by more than economic conditions would otherwise support.

On Wednesday, Trump seized on a report showing the economy expanded at a 3% annual rate in the second quarter as evidence that growth is accelerating and called on Powell to cut rates. Yet the Fed typically reduces borrowing costs when the economy is faltering and threatening to send unemployment higher.

The economy isn’t necessarily doing as well as the 3% figure suggests. It follows a negative reading in the first three months of the year, when the economy shrank at a 0.5% annual rate. Most economists are averaging the two figures to get a growth rate of about 1.25% for the first half of the year. If that sluggishness continues, the Fed could cut rates as early as September.

For now, any dissent also would likely reflect that there are at least two different ways to see the U.S. economy, which is clearly in flux. The first is the way that most Fed officials have described it: Unemployment is at a low 4.1%, while the economy is growing, albeit modestly, and inflation did tick up in June, largely because of tariffs.

So, the thinking goes, why not stand pat on rates and see what happens next? If inflation continues to heat up, a rate cut could make things worse — the Fed typically raises borrowing costs to combat inflation. And as long as the economy is doing well, there is no need to cut to support growth.

The other view is more worrisome: There are signs the economy is weakening, such as sluggish hiring, slower consumer spending, and pretty modest overall growth. The economy, in the first six months of the year, probably expanded at an annual rate of about 1.5%. At the same time, tariffs have lifted inflation by less than many economists had feared, so far.

This is the view of the economy that Waller sketched out in a speech earlier this month.

“Private-sector payroll growth is near stall speed,” Waller said. “We should not wait until the labor market deteriorates before we cut the policy rate.”

When the Fed cuts its rate, it often — but not always — results in lower borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.

Some economists agree with Waller’s concerns about the job market. Excluding government hiring, the economy added just 74,000 jobs in June, with most of those gains occurring in health care.

“We are in a much slower job hiring backdrop than most people appreciate,” said Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at PGIM Fixed Income.

Waller was appointed to the Fed’s seven-member governing board by Trump during the president’s first term. He has often been mentioned as a potential replacement for Powell. Waller has underscored in several speeches that he does not think Trump’s tariffs will lead to persistently higher inflation.

Bowman, the vice chair for regulation, was also appointed during Trump’s first term. She suggested in June that the Fed should soon reduce borrowing costs. Bowman is also a possible Powell replacement, though more of a long shot.

Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan Chase, said in a note to clients this week if the pair were to dissent, “it would say more about auditioning for the Fed chair appointment than about economic conditions.”

The Fed’s two-day meeting comes after a week of extraordinary interactions with the Trump White House, which has accused Powell of mismanaging an extensive, $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings. Trump suggested two weeks ago that the rising cost for the project could be a “firing offense” but has since backed off that characterization.

Notably, Trump argues that the Fed should cut because the economy is doing very well, which is a different viewpoint than nearly all economists, who say that a healthy, growing economy doesn’t need rate cuts.

“If your economy is hot, you’re supposed to have higher short-term rates,” Porcelli said.

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI, JOHN HANNA and NADIA LATHAN, Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a new congressional map that creates five additional GOP-leaning districts, bolstering their chances of maintaining control as they brace for a challenging midterm election.

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The redrawn map comes during a special legislative session called by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, as President Donald Trump urges Texas Republicans to reshape districts in the party’s favor.

Republicans hope the new Texas map will strengthen their chances of holding the U.S. House in 2026, and Trump officials have signaled their efforts may expand beyond the state, with similar pushes now underway in Missouri. But it’s also spurred a push by Democrats in California and New York to consider redrawing their districts as well to counter the GOP efforts.

“Everything depends on performance,” said Republican state Rep. Cody Vasut, chair of the Texas House’s redistricting committee, on the new maps. “My understanding is that there is a path forward for a Republican to win five more of those seats.”

Republicans in Texas currently hold 25 of the state’s 38 seats, and the new map ups the total they could win to 30. All of those new 30 seats were won by Trump in November by at least 10 percentage points, leading to conservative optimism they can hold them even in what’s likely to be a tough midterm environment for the party.

Some Democratic lawmakers have talked of walking out of the special session to block action on redistricting. Legislators in Texas — and in other states, including Minnesota this year — have used the tactic in hopes of thwarting the other party, with mixed results.

Texas state Rep. Jolanda “Jo” Jones looks through U.S. Congressional District maps during a redistricting hearing at the Texas Capitol, Thursday, July 24, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

In 2003, House Democrats fled to Oklahoma and senators later fled to New Mexico but failed to thwart a GOP redistricting plan. But in 1979, a dozen liberal Democratic senators who became known as the “Killer Bees” bunked down in a staffer’s garage and evaded Texas Rangers for four days, killing a plan to change the date of the state’s GOP presidential primary to favor former Gov. John Connally.

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, who’d be drawn into a liberal district for Austin and San Antonio with fellow Democratic incumbent Lloyd Doggett, called the proposed changes “illegal voter suppression,” pointing to the merging of his district with another Democratic-held seat.

“Everyone who cares about our democracy must mobilize against this illegal map,” Casar said in a statement.

The new seats come from making two Rio Grande Valley seats that have been narrowly won by Democrats recently slightly more Republican, collapsing the seats held by Casar and Doggett and turning two Democratic-held seats in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area into GOP-majority ones.

By LISA MASCARO, Associated Press Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — On this day in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed legislation into law that launched Medicaid, creating a U.S. health care safety net for millions of low-income Americans in what would become one of the crowning achievements of his domestic legacy.

FILE – President Lyndon B. Johnson uses the last of many pens to complete the signing of the Medicare Bill into law at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, July 30, 1965, with former President Harry S. Truman at his side. At rear are Lady Bird Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and former first lady Bess Truman. (AP Photo, File)

A year earlier, he did the same for food stamps, drawing on President John F. Kennedy’s first executive order for the development of “a positive food and nutrition program for all Americans.”

This summer, with the stroke of a pen, President Donald Trump began to chisel them back.

The Republican Party’s big tax and spending bill delivered not just $4.5 trillion in tax breaks for Americans but some of the most substantial changes to the landmark safety net programs in their history. The trade-off will cut more than $1 trillion over a decade from federal health care and food assistance, largely by imposing work requirements on those receiving aid and by shifting certain federal costs onto the states.

While Republicans in Congress argue the trims are needed to rightsize the federal programs that have grown over the decades and to prevent rising federal deficits, they are also moving toward a long-sought GOP goal of shrinking the federal government and the services it provides.

“We’re making the first changes to the welfare state in generations,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a recent podcast interview.

As the tax breaks and spending cuts law begins to take shape, it is unleashing a new era of uncertainty for the safety net programs that millions of people in communities across the nation have grown to depend on, with political ramifications to come.

Big safety net changes ahead

Polling shows most U.S. adults don’t think the government is overspending on the programs. Americans broadly support increasing or maintaining existing levels of funding for popular safety net programs, including Social Security and Medicare, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Local governments are scrambling to figure out how they will comply with the new landscape, calculating whether they will need to raise their own taxes to cover costs, trim budgets elsewhere or cut back the aid provided to Americans.

Pediatrician Irving Phillips, left, examines a 16-month-old boy at a CommuniCARE+OLE clinic Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Davis, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

“The cuts are really big, they are really broad and they are deeply damaging,” said Sharon Parrott, president of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a research institute in Washington.

“The consequences are millions of people losing health care coverage,” she said. “Millions of people losing food assistance. And the net result of that is higher poverty, more hardship.”

At the same time, certain people who receive aid, including parents of teenagers and older Americans up to age 64, will have to prepare to work, engage in classes or do community service for 80 hours a month to meet new requirements.

All told, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates 10 million more people will end up without health insurance. Some 3 million fewer people will participate in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known as SNAP.

“People are really concerned what this means for their fiscal health,” said Mark Ritacco, chief governmental affairs officer at the National Association of Counties, which held its annual conference the week after Trump signed the bill into law.

The organization had pushed senators to delay the start dates for some Medicaid changes, and it hopes that further conversations with lawmakers in Congress can prevent some of them from ever taking hold. At its conference, questions swirled.

“We’re talking about Medicaid and SNAP — these are people’s lives and livelihoods,” Ritacco said.

GOP bill trims back health care and food aid

Republicans insist the law is adhering to Trump’s vow not to touch Medicaid as the changes root out waste, fraud and abuse. A memo from the House GOP’s campaign arm encourages lawmakers to focus on the popularity of its new work requirements and restrictions on benefits for certain immigrants.

“Those safety nets are meant for a small population of people — the elderly, disabled, young pregnant women who are single,” the House speaker said on “The Benny Show.”

He said the years since the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, came into law, “everybody got on the wagon.”

“All these young, able-bodied, young men who don’t have dependents, riding the wagon,” the speaker said.

Medicaid then and now

When President Johnson established Medicaid alongside Medicare — the health care program for seniors — as part of the Social Security Amendments of 1965, it was meant for low-income families as well as the disabled.

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And it quickly took off. Almost every state signed on to participate in Medicaid by 1970, according to the KFF, an organization focused on health policy. It soon went beyond covering its core population to include pregnant women, school-age children and not just the very poor but also those with incomes just over the federal poverty limit, which is now about $15,650 annually for a single person and $26,650 for a family of three.

In the 15 years since the Affordable Care Act became law under President Barack Obama, Medicaid has grown substantially as most states opted to join the federal expansion. Some 80 million adults and children are covered.

While the uninsured population has tumbled, the federal costs of providing Medicaid have also grown, to more than $880 billion a year.

“There are a lot of effects Medicaid has on health, but the most stark thing that it does is that it saves lives,” said Bruce D. Meyer, an economist and public policy professor at the University of Chicago who co-authored a pivotal study assessing the program.

The law’s changes will certainly save the federal government “a substantial amount of money,” he said, but that will come at “substantial increases in mortality. And you have to decide what you value more.”

Food stamps, which had been offered toward the end of the Great Depression but were halted during World War II amid rationed supplies, launched as a federal program when Johnson signed the Food Stamp Act of 1964 into law.

Today, SNAP provides almost $200 in monthly benefits per person to some 40 million recipients nationwide.

Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who delivered the longest speech in House history while trying to stall the bill, said the changes will hurt households and communities nationwide.

“Who are these people?” Jeffries said. “Ripping health care away from the American people. The largest cuts in Medicaid in American history. Ripping food out of the mouths of children, seniors and veterans who are going to go hungry as a result of this one big, ugly bill.”