1. Israeli troops enter Gaza’s second-largest city
Israel said Tuesday its military forces had reached the “heart” of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city and Hamas’ last major bastion. The push followed Israel’s intensifying bombardment in southern Gaza after an initial focus on the north of the Palestinian enclave. Ambulances rushed to hospitals with wounded and dead Palestinians. Israel’s military said it was engaged in the “most intense day” of battles since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 surprise attack in southern Israel triggered the war. The United Nations said 1.87 million people, 80% of Gaza’s population, have been driven from their homes in the conflict. Thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed. Hamas’ leaders are reportedly hiding in a vast tunnel network. The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal
2. Tuberville stops blocking most military promotions
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) ended his blockade against military promotions, which he started in February to protest Pentagon policy on abortion. Tuberville said Tuesday he would lift holds on nominees from three-star generals and below. “It’s been a long fight. We fought hard. We did the right thing for the unborn and for our military,” the Republican lawmaker said. The Senate quickly approved the promotions of more than 400 officers his blockade had stymied. Tuberville’s continued hold on roughly a dozen four-star nominees means each will require an individual Senate vote. Some of his fellow Republicans had criticized his blockade, calling it “dangerous” and a threat to military readiness. Democrats had been preparing a procedural workaround. USA Today
3. McHenry won’t seek reelection
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who served as temporary House speaker during a Republican leadership fight this year, announced Tuesday he will not seek reelection in 2024. McHenry, 48, became speaker pro tempore after eight Republican hardliners triggered former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) ouster. Democrats bristled over his decision to remove former Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi from her ceremonial Capitol office, but members of both parties praised him for maintaining order for 22 days, through several failed attempts to elect a new speaker. McHenry resisted calls to accept more power to let the House pass legislation, and stepped aside after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was elected in late October. The Wall Street Journal
4. Israeli regulators deny investors profited from Hamas attack
Israeli regulators said they had detected no suspicious stock trading ahead of Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack, although an independent report this week said investors made millions by short-selling Israeli stocks ahead of the assault, news organizations reported Tuesday. The report by Robert Jackson of New York University School of Law and Joshua Mitts of Columbia Law School said profitable bets against Leumi, Israel’s largest bank, spiked in the days ahead of the attacks, suggesting some investors knew about them in advance. The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange said the authors had miscalculated, and short-selling profits were far smaller. But the report focused heavily on a U.S.-traded fund Israeli regulators didn’t review. Bloomberg, CNN
5. Special counsel says Trump encouraged Jan. 6 violence
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday accused former president Donald Trump of sending supporters, including angry groups like the Proud Boys, to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to criminally prevent Congress from certifying his election loss to President Joe Biden. The new court filing by prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smith’s team linked Trump to the Capitol attack more directly than in his August indictment. A Trump spokesperson accused Smith of trying to interfere in the 2024 presidential election, where Trump is the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican nomination. Biden said at a campaign fundraiser that he might not have run for reelection if Trump weren’t trying to return to the White House. “We cannot let him win,” Biden said. The Washington Post, The New York Times
6. Ex-DEA informant pleads guilty in Haiti assassination plot
Joseph Vincent, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration informant, pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise at his home in the mountains above Port-au-Prince, the Caribbean nation’s capital. Vincent, a Haitian-American, was the fourth person to plead guilty in the case. He and another Haitian-American, James Solages, were among 11 defendants, including ex-Colombian soldiers, arrested shortly after the attack. Vincent and Solages initially claimed to have been hired by the conspirators as interpreters, but a court filing Vincent signed said he had provided advice about Haitian politics and other support for the murder, which created a power vacuum that has destabilized the country. Reuters
7. Nigeria investigates deadly drone strike at religious celebration
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday promised a “thorough and full-fledged investigation” into a drone strike that killed at least 85 people at a public gathering for the Muslim celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. The blast hit a village in Nigeria’s northern Kaduna state. An army spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, said Nigerian forces had spotted a group of people and “misinterpreted their pattern of activities,” concluding they were militants. Tinubu said the “bombing mishap” was “disturbing and painful.” Amid calls for accountability, the army said it would “do everything possible” to avoid repeating the deadly mistake. NPR
8. 23andMe hack affects millions
Hackers used old passwords to access information on 6.9 million 23andMe customers, more than half of the genetic testing firm’s users, multiple news organizations reported. The compromised data included the genetic testing firm’s ancestry reports, birth years and zip codes for the affected customers, 23andMe told CNN. The company had said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday that the accounts of only about 14,000 customers, 0.1% of its users, had actually been breached. It stands by that number, but says basic information on 5.5 million profiles was accessed using the company’s DNA Relatives feature, and some family tree information was compromised for 1.4 million DNA Relatives profiles. BBC News, CNN
9. US teens’ math scores plunge
U.S. students’ performance in math plunged last year in a global exam, according to results released Tuesday. Scores fell in much of the world, but U.S. 15-year-olds, with their 13-point drop, lagged behind their global competitors. U.S. math scores were lower than 20 years ago. About 66% of U.S. students performed at a basic level or better in math, compared with 80% in reading and science, The New York Times reported. U.S. students fell behind peers in similar industrialized democracies like the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany, and trailed far behind students in the highest-scoring countries, including Singapore, South Korea and Estonia. The results provided the first global comparison since the pandemic. Axios, The New York Times
10. Moody Blues co-founder Denny Laine dies at 79
Denny Laine, the British rock star who co-founded The Moody Blues and Paul McCartney’s Wings, died “peacefully” Tuesday, his wife, Elizabeth Hines, said in a post on his Facebook page. He was 79. Hines added that Laine hoped he would “overcome his health setbacks” and return home, but his interstitial lung disease was “unpredictable and aggressive,” weakening and damaging his lungs with a series of infections. Hines thanked fans who “sent him so much love.” Laine was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018 for The Moody Blues, the iconic band he helped found in 1964 with hits like “Knights in White Satin.” Laine later joined Paul McCartney and his wife Linda to form Wings. NBC News
Israeli forces enter Gaza’s second-largest city, Tuberville ends his blockade of military promotions, and more
