November 9, 2023

ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR | Updates from day 34 of the conflict:

• Reports say thousands of Palestinians continue to flee northern Gaza and Gaza City as Israeli forces expand ground operations in the region. [more]
• In a statement seen as contrary to Israeli plans, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called yesterday for the establishment of a united and Palestinian-led government for Gaza and the West Bank following the Israel-Hamas war. [more]
• Representatives of more than 50 Western and Arab nations, the United Nations, and nongovernmental organizations are scheduled to begin meeting in Paris today at a conference aimed at finding solutions for providing aid to civilians in Gaza amidst the Israel-Hamas conflict. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 623 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• Ukrainian officials say a Russian missile damaged a Liberia-flagged civilian cargo vessel entering the Black Sea port of Odesa this morning, killing one person and injuring four others. [more]
• Reports by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti claim that Ukrainian prisoners of war that have sworn allegiance to Russia are being deployed to the front in Ukraine to fight against their countrymen. [more]

TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDACY | The Minnesota Supreme Court yesterday dismissed a lawsuit that, citing the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment, sought to bar former President Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s Republican primary election ballot. Amidst similar legal action in Michigan, a judge is scheduled to hear arguments today on whether Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has the authority to keep Trump off the state’s election ballot. [more]

BIDEN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY | House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. James Comer yesterday issued subpoenas to President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and brother James as part of the committee’s impeachment inquiry into Biden and his family’s business dealings. [more]

HOLLYWOOD | The SAG-AFTRA actors’ union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached a tentative agreement on a three-year contract yesterday, signaling an end to the union’s more-than-100-day strike. The agreement, details of which have not yet been released, must still be approved by SAG-AFTRA members. [more]

COLORADO | The owners of the Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colorado, were arrested yesterday on charges related to the discovery of 190 sets of human remains found at one of the business’ facilities. The arrest warrant for owners Jon and Carie Hallford alleged 190 counts of abuse of a corpse, five counts of theft, four counts of money laundering, and more than 50 counts of forgery in connection with operation of the funeral home. [more]

PANDAS | The Smithsonian National Zoo’s three giant pandas began their journey back to China yesterday ahead of the December expiration of the zoo’s exchange agreement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association. [more]

FBI HQ | The U.S. General Services Administration, which manages federal buildings, announced yesterday that it has chosen a site in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Greenbelt, Maryland, for the construction of a new $3.5 billion FBI national headquarters facility. [more]

U.S., SYRIA, AND IRAN | In response to increased attacks on regional bases housing U.S. troops, the U.S. carried out an airstrike yesterday on a weapons storage facility in eastern Syria that was used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Iranian-backed militias. [more]

U.S. AND CHINA | U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng are scheduled to meet today in San Francisco to discuss economic issues ahead of an expected meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping next week on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. [more]

INDIA AND PAKISTAN | Reports say Indian and Pakistani soldiers exchanged gunfire and artillery shelling today in the disputed Kashmir region and that one Indian border guard was killed in the clashes. [more]

CLIMATE | A new report from climate scientists at World Weather Attribution suggests that the ongoing three-year drought in Syria, Iraq, and Iran would not have occurred without human-caused climate change and that the region’s degraded infrastructure and weakened water management combine with climate change to magnify drought-related effects. [more]

ISRAEL AND WEST BANK | The Palestinian Health Ministry said this morning that at least nine Palestinians were killed, and another 15 were wounded, today in a raid by Israeli forces in the West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp. Israeli officials say the raid was a counter-terrorism operation. [more]

BRAZIL | Officials at Brazil’s Finance Ministry say they are moving forward with a plan to implement a 15% minimum tax on profits of multinational corporations to deter profit-shifting to tax-favorable locations. The move is in line with a global taxation recommendation from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which has already been adopted by multiple countries, including South Korea and Japan. [more]

DIGITAL REGULATION | The Court of Justice of the European Union yesterday ruled in favor of Google, Meta, and TikTok in the companies’ challenge to an Austrian law that would have required them to delete hate speech on their platforms or face millions of dollars in fines. [more]

COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS | Lainey Wilson won five awards at last night’s Country Music Association Awards, including entertainer of the year, female vocalist of the year, and album of the year for “Bell Bottom Country.” Chris Stapleton won the male vocalist of the year award, and Old Dominion was named vocal group of the year. [full list of winners and nominees] [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | Long a symbol of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall, erected in 1961 and eventually extending 28 miles to divide the western and eastern sectors of Berlin, was opened by the East German government on this date in 1989. [more history]