First Thing: UN demands justice over Israel’s double bombing of Gaza hospital

Good morning.

The UN has demanded that Israel’s investigations into unlawful killings in Gaza, including its “double-tap” bombing of Nasser hospital, which killed 20 people including five journalists, yield results and ensure accountability.

“There needs to be justice,” said Thameen Al-Kheetan, the spokesperson for the UN’s human rights office. He added that the number of journalists killed in Gaza raised many questions about the targeting of media workers.

Israel twice struck Nasser hospital on Monday, the last functioning public hospital in southern Gaza. Witnesses said the second strike came just as rescue crews and journalists arrived to evacuate the wounded 15 minutes after the first bombing, killing first responders and media workers. The “double-tap” strike killed journalists working for Reuters, Associated Press and Al Jazeera, as well as independent journalists.

• What does international law say about the attack? It may constitute a war crime on many fronts, writes the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont. “What is striking about this incident is that each individual element – the targeting of a working hospital, of journalists and rescue workers, of injured civilians already under treatment – would be expected to draw accusations of a war crime in its own right,” he writes.

• Who were the five Palestinian journalists killed? Their names were Moaz Abu Taha, Mariam Abu Dagga, Mohammad Salama, Ahmed Abu Aziz and Hussam al-Masri, and you can read their stories here. “He loved his work deeply,” said Abu Taha’s brother Adly.

• Meanwhile, what is happening in Israel? Tens of thousands of people took part in demonstrations on Tuesday, blocking highways on a “day of disruption” that aimed to push Benjamin Netanyahu into agreeing a deal to end the war and call off plans to attack Gaza City.

Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook to sue Trump administration over its attempt to fire her

Lisa Cook at a Fed board open meeting in Washington in June. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

The Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook will sue the Trump administration for its attempt to fire her over unconfirmed allegations of mortgage fraud, her attorney has said.

Donald Trump announced he was firing Cook on Monday night, in an extraordinary move that marks the latest escalation in the US president’s attack on the central bank’s independence.

• What has Cook’s attorney said? Trump has “no authority” to remove Cook from the Fed’s board of governors, he said a statement. “His attempt to fire her … lacks any factual or legal basis.” In the meantime, Cook plans to stay put on the Fed’s powerful board of governors and rate-setting policy committee.

Trump imposes 50% tariff on India as punishment for buying Russian oil

A freight train carrying cargo containers rides along a railway track in Ajmer, India, on 26 August. Photograph: Himanshu Sharma/AFP/Getty Images

Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on most US imports from India, following through on a threat to punish one of the world’s largest economies for buying discounted Russian oil.

The tariffs, which came into effect just after midnight on Wednesday in Washington, risk inflicting significant damage on the Indian economy and further disrupting global supply chains.

• What is the reaction in India? Ministers there argue it has been unjustly singled out for its trade relationship with Russia and officials caution the country will probably work more closely with Moscow and Beijing – and drift further from Washington – as a result.

• Meanwhile, what is the latest on the Ukrainian frontline? Ukraine acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that Russia’s army had entered the Dnipropetrovsk region, a central administrative area previously spared from intense fighting.

In other news …

Portrait of a Lady, by Giuseppe Ghislandi, seen in an Argentinian real estate advert. Photograph: Robles Casas & Campos

• A portrait by an Italian master stolen by the Nazis has been spotted on a real estate listing in Argentina, 80 years after the painting was looted from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam and bought by Hermann Göring.

• Norway’s $2tn sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, is selling its $2.1bn stake in the US firm Caterpillar, amid what it called “extensive and systematic violations of international humanitarian law” by Israel using Caterpillar bulldozers to destroy Palestinian property in Gaza and the West Bank.

• Australia’s spy chief said the Iranian government had “fanned the flames” of antisemitism in Australia, alleging that Tehran directed at least two arson attacks, in Melbourne and Sydney, in the last year.

• India’s supreme court has ordered an investigation into a vast private zoo founded by the son of Asia’s richest person, over allegations of illegal wildlife imports and financial misconduct.

Stat of the day: Gambling logos and ads seen up to every 13 seconds during big US sports games

The Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers during this year’s Stanley Cup final. Photograph: Brian Babineau/NHLI/Getty

Since the supreme court overturned a federal ban on sports betting in 2018, the US gambling industry has surged. Researchers at the University of Bristol analyzed gambling marketing during the Stanley Cup and NBA finals games, finding 6,282 instances across 13 games – and as often as 3.5 times per minute for National Hockey League games.

Don’t miss this: ‘Cultural criticism is at risk of erasure’

Susan Sontag in 1972. Photograph: Jean-Regis Roustan/Roger Viollet/Getty

Media layoffs have swept the industry in recent years, but a spate of recent job losses have felt especially targeted, writes Jesse Hassenger. The Chicago Tribune is eliminating the position of film critic entirely, Vanity Fair is getting rid of its film critic and other journalists, and the New York Times recently reassigned four culture critics.

Climate check: Deforestation has killed half a million people in past 20 years, study finds

Deforestation is responsible for more than a third of the warming experienced by people living in the affected regions. Photograph: luoman/Getty Images

Deforestation has killed more than half a million people in the tropics over the past two decades as a result of heat-related illness, according to a study in Nature Climate Change. Researchers estimated that warming owing to deforestation accounted for 28,330 annual deaths between 2001 and 2020.

Last Thing: ‘It was like the Nasa of puppetry’ – how we made 1990 movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

An oral history of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1990. Photograph: Steve Barron

The performers and director of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film describe how they battled hellish costumes and slippery sets to bring the movie to life. Inside the suit, one actor said, “It felt like your blood was boiling.”

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