A U.N. special committee has found Israel’s actions in Gaza since October 2023 are “consistent with genocide,” including using starvation as a weapon of war and recklessly inflicting civilian casualties. The report, released today, comes one day after a Human Rights Watch report found Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity through its mass forced displacement of civilians in Gaza. HRW is calling on nations to adopt sanctions and halt weapons sales to Israel.

But Israel’s indiscriminate slaughter continues, with at least five Palestinians killed today in central Gaza’s al-Maghazi refugee camp. Elsewhere, at least two people were killed by an Israeli strike on a tent encampment for displaced Palestinians near Nuseirat.

Meanwhile, the U.N.’s humanitarian affairs office warned Palestinian children are at high risk of injury or death from unexploded ordnance left after more than 13 months of Israeli attacks. Among the victims is severely wounded 8-year-old Mohammed Qarmash. This is his mother.

Amal Al-Wadiya: “No one was there to tell him that these are explosives that the Israelis throw. The children play with them, and they blow up. What is happening to us is not fair. His father died at the Karni border, and his body stayed there. What is happening to us is not fair, really.”

In Lebanon, Israel launched at least seven airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight after ordering residents to leave their homes. At least eight people were killed in Israeli attacks on the village of Dawhit Aramoun, south of the capital. Israeli warplanes also struck Damascus and the Syrian city of Homs. In southern Lebanon, Israel’s army says six soldiers were killed on Wednesday in an exchange of gunfire with Hezbollah fighters defending Lebanese territory. The deaths were announced after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had expanded Israel’s military ground operation in southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post is reporting a close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner this week that Israel is rushing to advance a ceasefire deal in Lebanon as a “gift” to Trump ahead of his inauguration in January.

The U.N. Security Council voted to extend sanctions on Yemen for another year, freezing assets and banning travel by leaders of Yemen’s Houthi movement. Wednesday’s vote came after the U.S. and U.K. launched airstrikes on Yemen over the weekend, targeting what the Pentagon said were advanced weapons storage facilities. The bombings came after Houthis fired missiles and drones at Israel and attacked commercial vessels in the Red Sea in response to Israel’s war on Gaza and Lebanon.

Senate Republicans have selected John Thune of South Dakota to become the next majority leader, replacing Mitch McConnell as the party’s leader. Republicans picked the establishment conservative over John Cornyn and Trump loyalist Rick Scott. The White House is urging Senate Democrats to quickly confirm some 30 federal judges appointed by President Biden before Trump comes into office and Democrats lose control of the Senate.

Meanwhile, Pennsylvania’s Senate race is headed for a recount as Republican David McCormick remains ahead of incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Casey by about 28,000 votes. If McCormick’s lead holds, Republicans will have a 53-seat majority in the U.S. Senate.

House Republicans have nominated Speaker Mike Johnson to remain head of their conference as Republicans cemented their control of the House of Representatives.

In other news from Washington, President Biden hosted Trump at the White House Wednesday, continuing a long-standing tradition — though Trump did not host Biden after Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.

President-elect Trump announced Wednesday he will nominate disgraced Florida Congressmember Matt Gaetz as attorney general. Also on Wednesday, Gaetz abruptly resigned from Congress. It came just two days before a “highly damaging” report about Gaetz was set to be released by the House Ethics Committee, according to multiple reports. Gaetz was at the center of a sex trafficking probe, which included allegations he misused campaign funds, engaged in bribery and obstructed government. The House committee has now lost its jurisdiction to investigate Gaetz, though it could still release its report.

Trump has also nominated former Democratic Congressmember Tulsi Gabbard to become director of national intelligence. Before entering politics, Gabbard was part of the U.S. Army’s Psychological Operations Command. Critics warn of Gabbard’s support for anti-Muslim figures, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist government.

Concerns are mounting over Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, Fox News host and military veteran Pete Hegseth. CBS News reports that Hegseth was one of 12 National Guard members who were removed as guards for President Biden’s 2021 inauguration over possible extremist ties. Hegseth has tattoos associated with the white supremacist and neo-Nazi movements, including what’s known as a Jerusalem cross, a symbol used by Christian nationalists.

In related news, the government watchdog Accountable.US announced it’s launching a “Trump Accountability War Room” to monitor Trump’s appointments and executive actions as he takes up his second term.

House Democrats are introducing a resolution to clarify the Constitution’s two-term limit for presidents applies even if the terms are not consecutive. The resolution, set to be unveiled by Congressmember Daniel Goldman today, comes after Trump joked to House Republicans on Wednesday, “I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say, ’He’s so good we’ve got to figure something else out.’”

A new study suggests the death toll in Sudan’s devastating civil war is far higher than is being reported, with as many as 61,000 killed in Khartoum state in the first 14 months of the war, which began in April of last year. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine say over a third of those were violent deaths, while others were caused by starvation, illness and lack of medical care. Most deaths were not officially recorded, as many victims were never brought to a morgue or treated in a hospital, many of which have been destroyed in the fighting. This is Mohammed Omar, who helped bury his friend, the musician Khalid Sanhouri, in his front yard in the city of Omdurman.

Mohammed Omar: “My brother Khalid was sick, and the war started, and this is a frontline area. There were no hospitals or pharmacies where we could get medicine, not even markets to buy food, which is essential to one’s health. These were all factors which had an impact, until his body was frail and he got sick.”

The war in Sudan has forced some 11 million people to flee their homes and led to the world’s largest hunger crisis. Half of Sudan’s population — nearly 25 million people — are in need of aid. Earlier this week, the Darfur Women Action Group appealed to the U.N. Security Council to deploy peacekeepers to Sudan, citing the “scorched earth tactics” of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in North Darfur, including rampant sexual violence and indiscriminate killings.

In Haiti, two patients being treated by Doctors Without Borders were killed after their ambulance was ambushed in the capital Port-au-Prince. The organization said its employees were violently attacked by vigilantes and police officers during the ambush. The attack comes as Haiti is suffering a worsening security and humanitarian crisis. Earlier this week, the Federal Aviation Administration banned all civilian flights from the U.S. to Haiti for a month after gang members fired on JetBlue and Spirit Airlines planes at the Port-au-Prince airport.

As the COP29 climate summit continues in Azerbaijan, activists staged a protest at the Baku sports stadium where the U.N. conference is taking place, holding up giant letters spelling out the words “Pay Up.” Financing is the key issue of this year’s summit, but wealthy nations like the U.S. have so far refused to commit the necessary funding to manage the climate crisis they have disproportionately created. This is Sandra Guzmán from the group GFLAC.

Sandra Guzmán: “For instance, if we reduce the fossil fuel subsidies, if we tax the richest, we could be already generating sources to pay for climate change. So it’s not a lack of money. It’s a lack of a political will to allocate that money where it is needed.”

This comes as a new report says $1 trillion per year should be spent on helping poorer countries mitigate the effects of the climate disaster. A separate report finds the world is on track for a disastrous 2.7-degree centigrade temperature rise. In other news from COP29, Argentina has withdrawn its 80+ negotiators from the U.N. conference. Argentina’s far-right President Javier Milei has previously called the climate crisis a “socialist lie.”

A Central Intelligence Agency official is due to appear in federal court in Guam today, charged with disclosing classified documents that revealed Israeli military planning to attack Iran. The documents reference recent Israeli drills involving air-launched ballistic missiles, as well as covert drone activity. The official, Asif Rahman, was arrested in Cambodia last week and indicted on two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act.

A federal court in Massachusetts has sentenced Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira to 15 years in prison for violating the Espionage Act. The 22-year-old had pleaded guilty to leaking highly classified Pentagon intelligence documents about Russia’s war on Ukraine to a group of gamers on the messaging app Discord. Teixeira was convicted of violating the same part of the Espionage Act initially used by federal prosecutors to charge Donald Trump over his mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon — a Trump appointee — dismissed the case.

In media news, The Guardian announced it will no longer post their content on X, formerly known as Twitter, though X users will still be able to share Guardian articles from the platform. The Guardian writes, “The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.”