First Factor: Home Republicans vote to dam publication of Matt Gaetz ethics report

Good morning.

The Home has voted in opposition to publishing the ethics committee’s report into allegations of sexual misconduct and potential unlawful actions by the previous Florida Republican consultant Matt Gaetz.

The decrease chamber of Congress, the place Republicans now have a majority of 220 in opposition to the Democrats’ 215, voted 206-198 to dam its launch. The long-awaited report examines allegations that Gaetz was concerned in illicit drug use, misuse of marketing campaign funds and sexual misconduct with a 17-year-old lady, in addition to allegations of obstructing the investigation.

Gaetz, who was a possible Trump administration nominee, has constantly denied the claims. He withdrew after it turned apparent he wouldn’t cross a affirmation listening to.

• On what grounds was it blocked? Gaetz resigned from the Home on 13 November, when Trump picked him for legal professional normal – and the Mississippi Republican Michael Visitor, the committee chair, mentioned the panel’s investigative authority ended then.

Senior Biden aide commits to giving Ukraine avalanche of navy help

The Biden administration will present an Eleventh-hour tranche of assist to Ukraine’s beleaguered military earlier than handing over to Donald Trump in January, providing it substantial navy help and recent sanctions in opposition to Russia, in keeping with a background briefing from a nationwide safety council spokesperson.

In a gathering on Thursday, the US nationwide safety adviser, Jake Sullivan, met the top of the workplace of the Ukrainian president, Andriy Yermak, and pledged to supply a whole lot of hundreds of extra artillery rounds, hundreds of rockets and a whole lot of armored autos by mid-January, in keeping with the briefing shared with the Guardian.

The US can also be committing to coach new troops outdoors Ukrainian territory, in addition to $20bn in loans.

Hundreds flee Homs in central Syria as insurgent forces push on

Hundreds of individuals fled Homs in central Syria in a single day, a warfare monitor and residents mentioned, as insurgents drove their offensive in opposition to authorities forces farther south, every week after the shock assault that seized Aleppo inside three days.

The rebels, led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), have captured the Syrian metropolis of Hama, 40km (25 miles) north of Homs. The profitable seizures of the 2 cities have dealt devastating blows to President Bashar al-Assad, practically 14 years after anti-Assad protests unfold throughout Syria.

With Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon and Russia’s warfare in opposition to Ukraine seizing heart stage, analysts mentioned the regime – and its backer, Russia – had been distracted, creating a possibility the insurgents seized.

• What’s the toll in Syria? 826 individuals, together with 111 civilians, have been killed because the re-eruption of preventing within the final week, in keeping with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In different information …

• Emergency alerts for tsunami dangers had been triggered after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the northern California coast on Thursday morning.

• The UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killing has triggered a bitter dialogue concerning the state of US healthcare, with some on-line feedback expressing little pity for Thompson.

• The top of South Korea’s ruling occasion mentioned that the South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, may pose a “nice hazard” to residents until he’s suspended, suggesting that parliament is probably going to vote to question him.

• The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has vowed to stay in put up till the tip of his mandate in Might 2027 after Michel Barnier’s authorities collapsed following a no-confidence vote.

Stat of the day: Malawi hospital utilizing AI foetal security software program sees child fatalities fall by 82% in three years

In Malawi, about 19 in each 1,000 infants die throughout delivery or inside the first month of their lives, with delivery asphyxia being a number one trigger. However technological developments provide promising developments on this discipline, as the one hospital within the nation utilizing AI-enhanced foetal security software program has recorded an 82% drop in child fatalities over a course of three years.

Don’t miss this: Haitian theater persists amid political disaster and violence

Regardless of the photographs ringing out within the streets, Haitian actors at a stage faculty in Port-au-Prince are dedicated to persevering with their work. Since a coordinated legal rebellion in February toppled Haiti’s authorities and freed hundreds of prisoners, practically 4,000 have been killed. However to the director Eliezer Guérismé, theater is “an act of riot and resistance” within the face of the adversity that surrounds them. To the actor Jenny Cadet, protecting the present going regardless of the horrors simply past the theater’s partitions is significant: “Our remedy, as actors and other people of the stage, is to maintain creating.”

Local weather test: Regardless of 2024’s ‘greenlash’, the battle in opposition to local weather breakdown can nonetheless be gained. Right here’s how

It’s been a troublesome yr for these of us who’re anxious concerning the planet’s future, from Donald Trump’s re-election to the defeat of Inexperienced events in European races. So this opinion piece by three co-conveners of the Progressive Politics Analysis Community, which argues that each one will not be misplaced, appears like a breath of recent air. It underlines that there’s public assist for tackling the local weather emergency – and explains how policymakers should get individuals onside by constructing belief and providing compensation.

Final Factor: Soup drips via and also you stab your self – is the spork the worst utensil?

If you happen to imagine progress is an inevitable function of historical past, you could wish to think about the spork, Ken Albala writes. In a polemic in opposition to the “worst utensil” Albala argues that it provides us the worst of each worlds: “Liquid spills via the diminutive tines earlier than soup hits the lips, and the tines themselves are too blunt to simply puncture and convey to the mouth something that may be thought of strong meals.”

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