Fresh Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have killed at least 25 Palestinians, including children. That includes 16 people killed in Jabaliya in northern Gaza, a strike on Maghazi refugee camp that killed four and bombings in Gaza City that killed at least five others. Survivors scrambled to retrieve people from under the rubble.

Mahmoud Al-Ghafry: “At exactly 10:02 at night, we were sleeping. We were sleeping. Suddenly, we heard the sounds of a strike. How? We don’t know. We went down and found it was our neighbors’ house, the Zeitouniya family. We pulled out several martyrs, children and women. And until now there are still people under the rubble they cannot reach. As you can see, they’re pulling them out. They are digging with their hands.”

Among the recent victims of Israel’s bombardment are twin sisters Sally and Dalia Ghazi Ibaid. The 26-year-olds had recently been accepted to attend the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, as part of the Global Student Relief Initiative, which supports students from conflict zones. They were killed by an Israeli bombing on December 5 as they attempted to leave Gaza via the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.

A new report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz finds Israel’s military has designated the Netzarim Corridor, which cuts the Gaza Strip in half, as a “kill zone.” The report quotes Israeli soldiers describing how they arbitrarily killed dozens of Palestinian civilians, including children, then posthumously declared them to be terrorists.

Separately, Human Rights Watch warns in a new report that since October 2023, Israeli authorities have deliberately obstructed Palestinians’ access to the adequate amount of water required for survival in the Gaza Strip — an act tantamount to genocide.

Israel killed at least nine people in overnight bombing raids on port infrastructure and oil storage facilities near Yemen’s capital Sana’a. The bombings came after Israel’s military said it had intercepted a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi movement before it crossed into Israeli territory.

The U.S. Senate has approved a record $895 billion military spending package on a bipartisan vote of 85 to 14, sending the bill to President Biden for his signature. Congress approved this year’s National Defense Authorization Act [for Fiscal Year 2025], or NDAA, even after the Pentagon failed its seventh consecutive audit, with Defense Department officials unable to fully account for trillions of dollars in military assets. An amendment to the NDAA strips away service members’ parental rights to access gender-affirming healthcare for transgender children. That prompted calls from the ACLU and other civil rights groups for President Biden to veto the legislation. The bill also includes more than a half-billion dollars in additional military funding to Israel.

Republican lawmakers have rejected House Speaker Mike Johnson’s plan to avert a government shutdown after President-elect Trump condemned the deal and Elon Musk threatened to end the political careers of Republicans who support it. Unless Congress approves new spending by midnight on Friday, most federal agencies will shut down nonessential operations. Johnson’s compromise plan included more than $100 billion in disaster aid to states hard hit by Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters. It also included $30 billion in economic assistance to farmers.

Politico reports Speaker Mike Johnson is now considering passing a so-called clean funding package that excludes farm relief and disaster aid. Johnson’s reversal came after Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, wrote on his social media site X, “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” Responding to Musk, Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders wrote, “Billionaires must not be allowed to run our government.”

House Republicans have introduced the DOGE Act, a bill to cut federal spending by $114 billion. The bill would slash programs for climate, education, energy, healthcare, transportation, veterans’ care and more. However, it would not reduce Pentagon spending. On Tuesday, Republicans convened the first meeting of the Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency Caucus, or DOGE. The new caucus’s name is a nod to the Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory commission led by billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. It’s also a reference to a “meme coin” cryptocurrency promoted by Musk. At least one Republican lawmaker, Greg Lopez of Colorado, said at the DOGE Caucus meeting he expects cuts to Social Security and Medicare, despite Trump’s campaign pledge to leave the programs alone.

Alex Lawson: “Sir, can we get a pledge to stand with President Trump against cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits?”

Rep. Greg Lopez: “I think, you know what? When we look to reduce our national debt, I think these should be on the table.”

Alex Lawson: “OK.”

Rep. Greg Lopez: “You know, so I am a strong advocate of discussing this and reevaluating it. And I do believe at the end of the day there will be some cuts.”

Alex Lawson: “Cuts to Social Security and Medicare?”

Rep. Greg Lopez: “Yes.”

The House Ethics Committee has reportedly voted to release its report on former Congressmember Matt Gaetz, including his sex trafficking of underage girls. The report could be made public as soon as this week after lawmakers cast their final votes of the 118th Congress. The firestorm around the report and the accusations led to Gaetz withdrawing from consideration to be attorney general under the incoming Trump administration.

Donald Trump has tapped failed U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker to become ambassador to the Bahamas. Walker, who lost his 2022 Georgia Senate race to Raphael Warnock, has been accused of violence by his ex-wife, as well as pressuring at least two partners to have abortions — even though his public stance is ardently anti-abortion.

In a case that has galvanized France, a court has found the ex-husband of a French woman, Gisèle Pelicot, guilty on all charges for repeatedly raping his wife and inviting dozens of other men to rape her after he drugged her unconscious. A panel of judges sentenced Dominique Pelicot to the maximum 20 years in prison. Fifty other defendants who also raped Gisèle Pelicot with her husband’s help were also found guilty.

The shocking case has made headlines around the world, and the three-and-a-half-month trial gripped France, with supporters regularly gathering around the Avignon courthouse to support Gisèle Pelicot, who famously waived anonymity to give a voice to survivors and change the public discourse on sexual violence. She told the court during the trial, “It’s not for us to feel shame — it’s for them.” She also insisted videos of her rapes be shown in court as part of the trial. Gisèle Pelicot spoke after the verdict was pronounced.

Gisèle Pelicot: “I’m thinking about the victims, who aren’t recognized and whose stories often remain in the shadows. I want you to know we share the same struggle. I wish to express my deepest gratitude to all those who have supported me throughout this ordeal. Your testimonies devastated me, and I was able to pull the strength from them to come back every day to face these long days of the trial.”

The U.S. government will pay a record nearly $116 million to settle lawsuits brought by 103 women who survived sexual abuse and assault at the now-shuttered Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California. The prison became known as the “rape club” due to the systematic assaults perpetrated by staff on detainees. We’ll have more on this story later in the broadcast and hear from one of the survivors and plaintiffs in the case.

In Texas, a Houston father is fighting to reunite his family after Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, deported his wife and four children to Mexico last week. Two of the children — infant twins — are U.S. citizens, born in September. The father, Federico Arellano Jr., is also a U.S. citizen. The mother, Christina Salazar, and the couple’s four children were apparently lured by ICE to a meeting point, where they were arrested and forced onto a plane to Reynosa, Mexico. They were targeted for deportation after Salazar and their older children missed an immigration hearing because she was recovering from her emergency cesarean section, of which the family had notified the court. This comes as President-elect Trump has repeatedly vowed to end birthright citizenship.

Another employee of President Biden’s State Department has resigned over U.S. policy toward Gaza. Mike Casey quietly left his role as deputy political counselor on Gaza — one of only two jobs specifically focused on Gaza — in July, after realizing all his reports were systematically dismissed despite the rapidly mounting death toll and catastrophic humanitarian situation Gaza.

Casey found that, unlike in his previous diplomatic work in Malaysia, China and Pakistan, the U.S. government does not expect Israeli authorities to listen to any of their recommendations or demands, and instead defers completely to Israel. Mike Casey told The Guardian in an interview about his resignation he “got so tired of writing about dead kids” and that “We don’t have a policy on Palestine. We just do what the Israelis want us to do.”

The Supreme Court has agreed to rule on the constitutionality of a contested TikTok ban. Under the law, passed by a bipartisan Congress, the highly popular social media platform would become banned unless its Chinese owner, ByteDance, sells the app to an American company by January 19. Critics have described the ban as a form of censorship fueled by anti-Chinese sentiment.

The state of Indiana has carried out its first execution in 15 years, killing 49-year-old Joseph Corcoran by lethal injection after a 27-year legal battle to spare his life. Corcoran had been convicted of killing his brother and three other men, including his sister’s fiancé, in 1997. Corcoran’s lawyers say his execution was unconstitutional since he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Corcoran’s sister fought for the execution to be halted, saying she had forgiven him and that “I believe that the death penalty does not address grief or provide true justice especially for victims, and those with mental illness. Instead, it is a lengthy, costly and political process.”

Thousands of Amazon workers have launched the largest strike against the retail giant in U.S. history, setting up picket lines at hundreds of Amazon fulfillment centers nationwide. Workers say Amazon forced them to strike by refusing to follow the law and bargain with the thousands of Amazon workers who organized with the Teamsters union.