First Thing: House ethics committee deadlocked on whether to release Matt Gaetz report

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Panel met but failed to reach decision on releasing report. Plus, Senate rejects Bernie Sanders’ efforts to block arms sales to Israel

Good morning.

The House ethics committee was deadlocked on releasing a report examining allegations of sexual misconduct against Matt Gaetz, the former Republican representative and Donald Trump’s choice to lead the justice department, after the panel met behind closed doors on Wednesday.

How did the committee split? Susan Wild, the top Democratic representative on the ethics committee, said the committee, which is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, broke along party lines and could not reach a decision.

How many children in Gaza need support? According to the UN children’s aid agency, Unicef, there are an estimated 2,500 children in Gaza in urgent need of medical treatment they cannot receive in the territory, where most health infrastructure has been destroyed over the past 14 months of war. It said children were being evacuated from Gaza at a rate of fewer than one a day.

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Gaza food production ‘decimated’ with 70% of farmland hit, UN finds

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Israeli attacks have destroyed huge areas of land used for crops, with 90% of cattle killed, analysis shows

More than 90% of cattle have died and about 70% of land for crops in Gaza has been destroyed or damaged since the beginning of the war in the territory, an analysis of satellite imagery by the UN has found.

More than half of sheep and goat herds have been wiped out, while more than three-quarters of the territory’s famous orchards have been destroyed or damaged, the survey in September found.

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Pakistan: Dozens dead in attack on passenger vehicles in Kurram – BBC.com

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  1. Pakistan: Dozens dead in attack on passenger vehicles in Kurram  BBC.com
  2. Gunmen Kill 38 Shiite Muslims in Deadly Attack  Newsweek
  3. At Least 38 Killed as Gunmen Ambush Shiite Convoys in Pakistan  The New York Times
  4. At least 38 dead in gun attack on passenger vans in KP’s Kurram District: police  DAWN.com
  5. Gunmen attack Pakistan passenger vehicles, killing at least 38 people  Reuters
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Billionaire Gautam Adani charged in US over alleged $250m bribery plot

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Indian chair of Adani Group, worth about $85bn, accused of agreeing to pay bribes to obtain solar energy contracts

Gautam Adani, one of the world’s richest men, has been indicted in New York over an alleged multibillion-dollar scheme to pay $250m in bribes and conceal it from US investors.

Prosecutors charged the chair of the Indian conglomerate Adani Group and two other executives of a renewable energy company with securities fraud and conspiring to commit securities and wire fraud.

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New law introduced to block legal challenge to An0m organised crime bust

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People charged after the AFP sting against the encypted app claim the information was not obtained lawfully

The Albanese government will attempt to block legal challenges by people charged after an elaborate Australian Federal Police sting using the encrypted An0m application.

The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, introduced laws to prevent any legal challenge to Operation Ironside on Thursday, despite special leave already being granted to the high court for an appeal by people charged in South Australia as a result of the sting.

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MSF aid workers ‘heartbroken’ as charity forced to halt services in Haitian capital after repeated attacks

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For the first time in over 30 years Médicins Sans Frontières halts activity leaving 2 million people in Port-au-Prince without vital healthcare

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said its aid workers are “heartbroken” after the medical NGO was forced to suspend all of its healthcare services in Port-au-Prince for the first time in three decades, leaving Haitians in the violence-ravaged capital without a critical lifeline.

The international non-profit said it had no choice but to halt all operations on Wednesday after staff were repeatedly attacked and received death threats from armed vigilantes and the national police.

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Transgender woman wins record payout in China after electroshock treatment

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Case marks first time a trans person has successfully challenged use of such conversion practices in country

A transgender woman in China has won a record amount of compensation from a hospital that subjected her to several sessions of electroshock conversion practices without her consent.

Changli county people’s court in Qinhuangdao, a city in Hebei, approved a 60,000 yuan (£6,552) award to Ling’er, a 28-year-old performance artist who was recorded male at birth but identifies as a woman. LGBTQ+ activists described the award, approved on 31 October, as a victory for trans rights in China.

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Melbourne teen Bianca Jones dies in hospital after methanol poisoning in Laos

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A New Zealand citizen is also ill, while a US citizen has died following a suspected mass poisoning event in the town of Vang Vieng

Melbourne teen Bianca Jones has died from methanol poisoning in a Thai hospital, a week after the Melbourne teen and her best friend fell ill while travelling in neighbouring Laos.

Anthony Albanese confirmed the 19-year-old’s death on Thursday, after her parents travelled to Thailand to be with her.

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Chinese vessel under investigation after 2 data cables found cut in the Baltic Sea – NPR

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  1. Chinese vessel under investigation after 2 data cables found cut in the Baltic Sea  NPR
  2. Accident or sabotage? American and European officials disagree as key undersea cables are cut  CNN
  3. Chinese-Registered Ship Is Held in Baltic Sea Sabotage Investigation  The Wall Street Journal
  4. Resilient Internet connectivity in Europe mitigates impact from multiple cable cuts  The Cloudflare Blog
  5. Why Undersea Cables Are a Tempting Target for Saboteurs  Bloomberg
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To hit deep inside Russia, Ukraine has built its own drones – NPR

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  1. To hit deep inside Russia, Ukraine has built its own drones  NPR
  2. Ukraine's double challenge: Russia's advance and the return of Trump  BBC.com
  3. Exclusive | Killer Robots Are About to Fill Ukrainian Skies  The Wall Street Journal
  4. ‘War of robots’: How 1,000 days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spurred an automation boom  Reuters
  5. A night with the drone squad targeting Russian forces in micro battles  The Guardian
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Cop29 climate finance deal hits fresh setback as deadline looms

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Outcry after draft text contains only an ‘X’ instead of setting $1tn funding goal to support developing countries

Hopes of a breakthrough at the deadlocked UN climate talks have been dashed after a new draft of a possible deal was condemned by rich and poor countries.

Faith in the ability of the Azerbaijan presidency to produce a deal ebbed on Thursday morning, as the draft texts were criticised as inadequate and providing no “landing ground” for a compromise.

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NSW government bid to prevent Rising Tide protest in Newcastle harbour invalid, court finds

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Four-day exclusion zone an improper use of Marine Safety Act, judge rules, despite ‘skilful’ submission from transport minister Jo Haylen

The New South Wales supreme court has set aside a Minns government decision to cut off access to Newcastle harbour to try to prevent a four-day climate protest.

The court found the notice was invalid after hearing an urgent application from climate activist organisation Rising Tide on Thursday.

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Angela Merkel, once celebrated as one of the world’s most popular politicians, now faces growing scrutiny over her legacy – Fortune

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  1. Angela Merkel, once celebrated as one of the world's most popular politicians, now faces growing scrutiny over her legacy  Fortune
  2. Merkel: I mistook Trump for ‘someone completely normal’  The Guardian
  3. Merkel eviscerates ‘emotional’ Trump in upcoming memoir  POLITICO Europe
  4. Angela Merkel's legacy under fire as she publishes memoirs  Reuters
  5. Nato right to heed Russian anger over Ukraine accession plan, Angela Merkel says in memoirs  Financial Times
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