November 12, 2024

MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• A new report distributed today by eight international aid organizations, including Oxfam, Refugees International, and Save the Children, says that Israel has failed to meet a 30-day deadline put out by the U.S. last month for Israel to significantly increase levels of humanitarian aid allowed into Gaza. [more]
• Palestinian health officials say at least 14 people were killed overnight in Israeli strikes on southern Gaza’s Muwasi region and central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. [more]

U.S. POLITICS | Among additional staffing choices announced by President-elect Donald Trump yesterday were: Congressman Mike Waltz as national security adviser, long-time Trump adviser Stephen Miller to be deputy chief of staff for policy, and former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Reports today say Trump is expected to name Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as his selection for secretary of state. [more]

MORE U.S. POLITICS | The Associated Press cites an unnamed source familiar with the funding as saying that billionaire Elon Musk’s America PAC spent about $200 million to support the presidential campaign of now-President-elect Donald Trump. [more]

TRUMP NEW YORK TRIAL | In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, New York Judge Juan M. Merchan is scheduled to rule today on the fate of President-elect Donald Trump’s conviction in May on state charges of business records falsification related to hush money payments. Trump is currently scheduled to be sentenced in the case on November 26. [more]

MASSACHUSETTS | Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guard member who pleaded guilty in March to charges of willful retention and transmission of national defense secrets, is scheduled to be sentenced today. Prosecutors have proposed that Teixeira be sentenced to 17 years in prison. [more]

MARYLAND | Former slave and abolitionist icon Harriet Tubman, who established the Underground Railroad and also helped to oversee a gunboat raid against Confederate forces in South Carolina during the U.S. Civil War, was posthumously awarded the rank of general in the Maryland National Guard yesterday by Gov. Wes Moore. [more]

CHINA | Authorities in the southern China city of Zhuhai say at least 35 people were killed, and more than 40 others were injured, last night when a man drove an off-road vehicle into a large crowd of people outside a local sports center. A suspect has been arrested in connection with the incident, according to Chinese media. [more]

U.K. | Some members of the Church of England’s National Assembly are circulating a petition demanding the resignation of the church’s head, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, over his alleged failure to quickly inform police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps. [more]

BANGLADESH | A special Bangladeshi tribunal today asked the international police organization Interpol for assistance in arresting former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India in August following mass demonstrations against her government. Hasina’s arrest is being sought in connection with the deaths of dozens of protesters during the demonstrations. [more]

HAITI | A day after Haiti’s governing transitional council replaced the country’s prime minister, gangs shot at a commercial plane landing in the capital Port-Au-Prince yesterday, forcing the temporary closure of the airport and prompting several airlines to suspend services to and from the violence-stricken Caribbean island nation. [more]

GEORGIA | Reports say thousands of opposition demonstrators took part in ongoing protests yesterday in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi to demand new parliamentary elections under international supervision following last month's election in which the ruling Georgian Dream party was declared the winner. [more]

CONGO | The World Health Organization says the number of cases of mpox in the South Kivu province of Congo, where a new variant of the disease was first detected earlier this year, appears to have plateaued even as infections in the region continue to show a “general rising trend.” [more]

GERMANY | Reports say governing and opposition German politicians have agreed to hold new national elections on February 23 – just 11 weeks following the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's governing coalition. [more]

CRYPTOCURRENCY | Bitcoin rose to a record high price of $89,982 early today. The industry-leading cryptocurrency is up around 30% since the November 5 U.S. elections on what analysts suggest is a view that the incoming Trump administration will be crypto-friendly. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1970, the Bhola cyclone, considered the deadliest tropical cyclone in recorded history and one of the greatest natural disasters ever, struck East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 300,000-500,000 people in the densely populated Ganges-Brahmaputra delta. [more history]