Health officials in Gaza say Israeli attacks have killed at least 38 Palestinians and wounded more than 200 over the past 24-hour reporting period. Among the latest deaths were 10 Palestinians killed in an Israeli missile attack on the Shati refugee camp and two women killed when Israel shelled a home east of Khan Younis. In northern Gaza, doctors were forced to close the intensive care unit at the besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital after an Israeli attack triggered a large fire. The U.N.’s humanitarian office warns U.N.-led missions to supply northern Gaza continue to be overwhelmingly denied, with Israeli forces turning back three humanitarian aid convoys carrying food and water on Tuesday alone.

Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official involved in indirect negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza said talks were in a “decisive and final phase.” News of a possible truce was welcomed by Gaza residents who’ve survived more than 15 months of Israel’s assault. 

Yasser Oweida: “Let them stop the war so we can live in peace and they can open the border crossing for us to bring in food and everything we need — flour, diapers and baby formula. Let them bring in everything for us.”

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians near the town of Sofin Tuesday. They were identified as 32-year-old Mohammed Ashqar and 31-year-old Diaa Salmi. Israeli forces reportedly blocked anyone from approaching the wounded men, leaving them to bleed out before medical help could arrive. Israel has carried out near-daily raids across the occupied West Bank, killing at least 800 Palestinians since October 2023 and arresting over 12,000.

A United Nations envoy has warned Syria’s civil war has not yet ended, despite the removal of President Bashar al-Assad by opposition fighters. On Tuesday, U.N. Syria envoy Geir Pedersen told the U.N. Security Council that Turkish-backed armed groups are continuing to battle Kurdish groups for control of several areas of northern Syria. Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department said it had brokered an extension of a ceasefire deal between Turkey and the U.S.-backed Kurdish Syrian forces around the northern Syrian city of Manbij.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that his forces will remain in Syria indefinitely, after Israeli troops expanded their occupation beyond the Golan Heights. On Tuesday, Netanyahu and senior Israeli officials toured the peak of Syria’s Mount Hermon, which Israeli troops seized after the fall of the Assad regime. The mountain on the border of Lebanon and Syria extends into — and even beyond — a U.N.-designated demilitarized buffer zone. This comes amid growing international condemnation of Israel’s plans to build new settlements in Israeli-occupied parts of Syria, which are illegal under international law. Israeli military bulldozers have begun clearing land for new construction projects in the Golan Heights community of Majdal Shams, where Druze residents condemned the surge in planned settlements.

Shihadeh Nasrallah: “Regarding this Israeli occupation, it is not surprising, since Israel occupied Palestine and Sinai and occupied the Syrian Golan Heights and Lebanon, that it is currently starting a new occupation. Behind us, you can see the digging which the Israeli army is doing, which is against all international conventions.”

Israel and Saudi Arabia have reached a breakthrough in talks that could soon result in an agreement to normalize relations between the two nations. That’s according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which reports the deal would see Saudi crown prince and de facto leader Mohammed bin Salman agree to a vague commitment to a “path towards Palestinian statehood” — rather than an explicit recognition of a Palestinian state.

Human rights groups are blasting the international soccer federation FIFA for selecting Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 men’s World Cup, citing the exploitation of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, the jailing of political activists for expressing themselves peacefully, and discrimination against women and LGBTQ+ people. In a joint statement, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and others write, “It is evident that without urgent action and comprehensive reforms, the 2034 World Cup will be tarnished by repression, discrimination and exploitation on a massive scale.”

The Biden administration is releasing three more prisoners from the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The Pentagon says Mohammed Farik bin Amin and Mohammed Nazir bin Lep will be transferred to their home country of Malaysia to serve an additional five years in prison, after they pleaded guilty to participating in deadly bombing attacks in Indonesia in the early 2000s. Before they were sent to Guantánamo, both men were held at secret CIA “black sites,” where they were tortured. The U.S. will also release another torture survivor, Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu, to Kenya, after imprisoning him for 17 years at Guantánamo without trial. In a statement, Amnesty International welcomed the prisoners’ release and called for the remaining 27 Guantánamo detainees to be freed, writing, “President Biden must transfer these men before he leaves office, or he will continue to bear responsibility for the abhorrent practice of indefinite detention without charge or trial by the U.S. government.”

President-elect Donald Trump has escalated his attacks on the press. On Tuesday, Trump filed a lawsuit against prominent pollster J. Ann Selzer, her polling firm Selzer & Company, The Des Moines Register, and the newspaper’s parent company, Gannett, alleging violations of the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act. Trump accuses them of “brazen election interference” over a November 2 poll that showed former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris ahead of Trump by three points in Iowa. Trump claims news coverage of the poll, just days before Election Day, was intended to help Harris’s campaign. Trump ended up winning Iowa with 56% of the votes. This comes after ABC News, which is owned by Disney, agreed to donate $15 million to Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation suit filed by the president-elect. We’ll have more on this story later in the broadcast.

On Capitol Hill, Democrats have selected Virginia Congressmember Gerry Connolly to serve as their party’s ranking member on the House Oversight Committee. Connolly won the role after defeating progressive Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by a vote of 131 to 84 in a closed-door Democratic caucus meeting. The move rejected mounting calls to select a younger generation of lawmakers to serve in leadership positions following Democrats’ disastrous performance in November’s election. Connolly will be replacing Congressmember Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who will move on to become the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee when Congress convenes on January 3.

Authorities in Mayotte are warning of the spread of hunger and disease after Cyclone Chido battered the Indian Ocean archipelago, leaving hundreds, if not thousands, of people dead. Amid growing anger over France’s slow response to the crisis, French President Emmanuel Macron announced he will visit Mayotte on Thursday. Mayotte is France’s poorest overseas territory. Survivors have described “apocalyptic scenes” in which ramshackle homes were completely blown away by 140-mile-per-hour winds.

Camille Cozon Abdourazak: “It really is a war landscape. Around me, I don’t recognize anything anymore. There’s not even a tree left. On the hills, there’s not even a blade of grass. It’s impressive. … There were multi-story houses, and everything is gone.”

In Mozambique, authorities say at least 34 people were killed after Cyclone Chido made landfall Sunday.

In media news, CNN is facing widespread backlash after the fact-checking group Verify-Sy and CNN’s own investigation determined that a person interviewed on a CNN video report claiming to be a Syrian prisoner was actually a former intelligence officer in the Bashar al-Assad regime who once ran a notorious checkpoint in Homs. CNN’s report shows journalist Clarissa Ward and her team stumbling upon the person, who has now been identified as former Syrian Air Force Lieutenant Salama Mohammad Salama, who claimed to have been held in a windowless cell for three months in a Damascus prison.

Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York, has been charged with first-degree murder and second-degree murder as an act of terrorism. New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the charges Tuesday, saying Mangione intended “to sow terror.” Bragg described the killing as a “frightening, well-planned and targeted murder.” Twenty-six-year-old Mangione is scheduled for another court hearing in Pennsylvania on Thursday to determine whether he’ll be extradited to New York. Click here to see our coverage of this story.

In Greenland, the longtime anti-whaling and environmental activist Paul Watson has been released from a Danish-run jail after authorities rejected a request by Japan to extradite him. Watson was arrested in July as his ship docked in Greenland before setting off to the North Pacific on a mission to intercept a Japanese whaling vessel. Watson co-founded Greenpeace and is the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which takes nonviolent direct action to protect the worlds’ oceans and marine life. Paul Watson spoke to reporters from Greenland’s capital Nuuk after his release on Tuesday.

Paul Watson: “I’m very thankful that the president and the former prime minister of France have been extremely helpful. The president of Brazil has been — you know, intervened. Bernie Sanders, my senator, has actually been very helpful. The U.S. Embassy has been very, very helpful also. But really, the public pressure from all over the world — you know, I’ve received over 4,000 letters while I’ve been in prison — has been really overwhelming.”

If extradited to Japan, Watson faced a possible sentence of up to 15 years in prison.