Good morning.
Joe Biden has “underscored the need to sustain a continuous flow of urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza” in a phone call with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House has said.
A third aid convoy, of 20 trucks, was allowed into Gaza via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Monday. The UN said fuel was not included and reserves would run out within the next two days.
Despite the urgency, US has said now is not the time for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, told CNN that Israel still had “work to do to go after Hamas leadership”, echoing comments from Biden that any discussions of a ceasefire could take place only if Hamas freed all its hostages in Gaza.
The statement from the White House was at odds with comments from UN and EU officials who on Monday called for a humanitarian pause in fighting so that aid could be delivered into Gaza.
What’s the situation like in Gaza? Concern about the plight of people in Gaza intensified. The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, Thomas White, said shortages of shelter, food and drinking water in the south had forced some residents to return to their homes in the north.
Republicans fail to find consensus for US House speaker at candidate forum
Republicans tried to find consensus yesterday on a new speaker to lead the House of Representatives and address funding needs for Israel, Ukraine and the federal government.
Nine speaker candidates, including the No 3 House Republican, Tom Emmer, made their pitches to colleagues at a closed-door forum, and answered questions about how they would handle the job, which has become a flashpoint for factional strife between rightwing hardliners and more mainstream Republicans.
The field quickly dropped to eight when one of the candidates, Dan Meuser, used his presentation to announce he was withdrawing. He told reporters it was time for the party to get its act together.
“People are angry, people are frustrated, people are blaming us for the dysfunction, and they are kind of right. So we need to respond. We need to get this done,” Meuser said
What will happen now? Republicans are due to meet at 9am ET on Tuesday to begin choosing a nominee behind closed doors through a series of secret ballots.
Michael Cohen to face former boss Trump in New York courtroom
Donald Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen is due to deliver highly anticipated testimony today against his former boss at Trump’s fraud trial in New York.
Trump is expected to be in attendance for the testimony, which Cohen said would be the first time he had seen Trump in five years.
“I look forward to the reunion,” said Cohen, once Trump’s lawyer. “I hope Donald does as well.”
Trump, his adult sons and their family business have been found liable for inflating the value of Trump’s assets to routinely and repeatedly deceive banks, insurers and others. The judge Arthur Engoron is using the hearings to decide on punishment, which could include a huge fine and will probably lead to the dissolution of the Trump’s New York property empire.
Why is Cohen’s testimony so important? The New York attorney general, Letitia James, who brought the case against Trump, said Cohen’s 2019 congressional testimony led her office to pursue this fraud case against Trump. Cohen had told Congress that Trump “inflated his assets when it served his purposes”.
In other news …
An Alaska Airlines flight bound for San Francisco was diverted to Portland, Oregon, after an off-duty pilot inside the cockpit reportedly attempted to disable the aircraft engines. The FAA told airlines that the crew was able to subdue the man and remove him from the flight deck.
The Canadian government has said it has detected a China-linked campaign that involved bots posting disinformation and propaganda as comments on the social media feeds of members of parliament, including the prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
More than 1 million children in the UK experienced destitution last year – meaning their families could not afford to adequately feed, clothe or clean them, or keep them warm – according to a study.
A wax museum in Paris that was criticised for “whitewashing” a statue of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson says it will give the waxwork a do-over. Musée Grévin says it is “improving” the wax figure of the Fast and Furious star after it attracted widespread ridicule on social media.
Stat of the day: Seven killed after smoky ‘superfog’ in Louisiana causes 158-vehicle pileup
At least seven people were killed after a “superfog” of smoke from south Louisiana marsh fires and dense fog caused multiple massive car crashes Monday morning involving a total of 158 vehicles, authorities said. Twenty-five people were injured and the number of fatalities may increase as first responders continue to clear the crash scenes and search for victims, Louisiana state police said in a press release Monday evening. The governor, John Bel Edwards, issued a call for blood donors and asked for prayers “for those hurt and killed”.
Don’t miss this: I have spent years in such pain that I begged for someone to cut my arm off
Amy Pohl was working as a teacher when a medical accident left her with the condition CRPS. She talks about the agony that even doctors struggle to understand – and her new life as a TikTok star.
Just a few years ago, Pohl loathed her left hand. “Despised it,” she says. It had become a sort of shape-shifter that was part of her and not part of her. It would swell up, change colour. She could not touch it, could not move it. Even the sensation of air upon it was excruciating, so that for months, going outside or even opening a window became impossible. “I felt that it didn’t belong to me, and it wasn’t mine,” she says. “I had a real hatred towards it.”
Climate check: Rapid ice melt in west Antarctica now inevitable, research shows
Accelerated ice melt in west Antarctica is inevitable for the rest of the century no matter by how much carbon emissions are reduced, research indicates. The implications for sea level rise are dire, scientists say, and mean some coastal cities may have to be abandoned. The ice sheet of west Antarctica would push up the oceans by 5 metres if lost completely. Previous studies have suggested it is doomed to collapse over the course of centuries, but the analysis shows the rate of melting of the floating ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea will be three times faster this century compared with the previous century.
Last Thing: World’s oldest known dog dies aged 31 after being saved from shallow grave as pup
When a brown-and-white puppy called Bobi mewled into the world on 11 May 1992, Yugoslavia was tearing itself apart, LA was still smouldering from riots and the ink was drying on the Maastricht treaty. The canine, who has died at the spectacular age of 31 years and 165 days, not so much broke the record for the world’s longest-lived dog as shook it violently from side-to-side, tore it to pieces, buried it and then cocked a triumphant, if elderly, leg over it.
Bobi, a Portuguese mastiff, or Rafeiro do Alentejo, shuffled off his mortal collar on 21 October in the Portuguese village of Conqueiros, where he had lived his entire life with Leonel Costa and his family.
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