First Thing: Fighting traps hundreds in Gaza’s largest hospital

Patients and medics in ‘desperate situation’ at al-Shifa as Israeli tanks and snipers encircle the complex. Plus, the menu items that mystify us but we order them anyway

Good morning.

Patients and medics remain trapped in Gaza’s main hospital after days of fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas, as aid agencies warn that critically ill patients and babies are at risk of death due to lack of fuel and dwindling supplies of food and water.

Israel says Hamas’s headquarters are underneath the hospital, a charge that Hamas and doctors at the facility deny.

Another 200,000 people have fled northern Gaza since 5 November, the UN humanitarian office said on Tuesday. In all, about 1.5 million Palestinians, more than two-thirds of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes. UN-run shelters in the south are severely overcrowded, with an average of one toilet for 160 people.

Meanwhile, Isreal’s military has confirmed the death of Noa Marciano, a soldier seen yesterday in a hostage video posted by Hamas. Hamas’s Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades claimed Marciano was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 9 November. Marciano was 19.

What’s happening in the US? A New York civil liberties group is suing Joe Biden for allegedly failing in his duty under international and US laws to prevent Israel committing genocide in Gaza. The complaint by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of several Palestinian groups and individuals alleges that Israel’s actions, including “mass killings”, the targeting of civilian infrastructure and forced expulsions, amount to genocide.

‘The science is irrefutable’: US heating up faster than global average, says report

The US is heating up faster than the global average and its people are suffering “far-reaching and worsening” consequences from the climate crisis, with worse to come, according to an authoritative report issued by the US government.

An array of “increasingly harmful impacts” is hitting every corner of the country, from extreme heat and sea level rise in Florida to depleted fish stocks and increased food insecurity in Alaska, the new National Climate Assessment has found.

While planet-heating US emissions have fallen since peaking in 2007, the reductions are still not enough to meet international targets to avert disastrous climate change, and without deeper cuts in carbon pollution “severe climate risks to the US will continue to grow”, the report states.

“Even if greenhouse gas emissions fall substantially, the impacts of climate change will continue to intensify over the next decade,” the report finds, adding that choices made by the US and other countries will “determine the trajectory of climate change and associated impacts for many generations to come”.

What else does the report say? Allison Crimmins, a climate scientist and director of the National Climate Assessment, said escalating dangers from wildfires, severe heat, flooding and other impacts meant the US now had a disaster costing at least $1bn in damages every three weeks on average, compared with once every four months in the 1980s.

US supreme court announces ethics code amid pressure over gift scandals

The US supreme court has finally responded to mounting pressure over a spate of ethics scandals engulfing some of its senior rightwing justices by publishing its first ever code that sets out the “rules and principles that guide the conduct of members of the court”.

The 14-page document follows months of increasingly sharp criticism of the justices and their failure to apply to themselves basic ethical rules that bind all other judges in the US. Even as they released the code, however, the justices maintained their defensive posture, insisting in a brief statement that the furore of recent months had been a “misunderstanding”.

The statement said the absence of a code had led in recent years to the “misunderstanding that the justices of this court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules”.

The newly published code is signed by all nine justices, and lays out the basic guardrails within which they are expected to behave. The first page states baldly that “a justice should avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities”.

What does the code say about gifts? In a section labelled “outside influence”, the code says that the nine members of the court should not “knowingly convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the justice”.

Has the code been welcomed? The instant reaction to the guidelines was not effusive. Several experts on judicial ethics pointed out that it lacks any mechanism for enforcement, leaving the justices in effect to police themselves.

In other news …

Donald Trump’s eldest son hailed the “sexiness” of his father’s properties after returning to the stand at the $250m fraud trial over the former president’s real estate empire. He showered praise on his father, saying he “has been good at finding value, doing something differently” and identifying “sexiness within a real estate project”.

Arson was likely the cause of a raging fire over the weekend that closed a mile-long stretch of the I-10, a major elevated interstate highway near downtown LA, the California governor said. The California department of forestry and fire protection fire marshal made a preliminary determination that the fire was set intentionally, Gavin Newsom said

The body of an elderly hiker missing since August in Colorado’s San Juan mountains was discovered by a hunter who also found the man’s dog alive at the scene, authorities said. Rich Moore and his jack russell terrier Finney failed to return from a trip to the mountains on 19 August.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has used his regular address to pledge to meet all the recommendations set out by the European Commission to help Ukraine on its path towards EU membership. Meanwhile, fighting around the shattered eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka has grown more fierce.

Paul Pelosi has recounted publicly for the first time details of the night he was attacked by a hammer-wielding man in the San Francisco home he shares with his wife, the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Testifying in the trial of David DePape, Pelosi described his “tremendous shock”.

Don’t miss this: Cardiologists on 20 simple, successful steps to a healthy heart

Our hearts beat 100,000 times a day, but we tend not to worry about their maintenance unless there is a problem. What should we know about how to keep this vital organ pumping? Four cardiologists give their advice on how to keep our hearts healthy. Managing stress is one of their tips.

“We know that if you’re running on adrenaline, you’re more likely to get abnormal beats,” says Graham Stuart, one of the cardiologists. “If you’re in a constant high-adrenaline environment, you’re more likely to develop problems. How you deal with stress in the modern world is more difficult. I tell the teenagers I see to make sure they get time for rest, whether it’s meditation or a walk.”

Help us raise $1.5m to fund independent journalism in 2024

As we head into 2024, the Guardian’s journalists are already hard at work preparing for one of the most consequential news cycles of our lifetimes. We need your support to raise $1.5m to fund our reporting into areas such as: the 2024 election and the potential for another Trump presidency; continued war in the Middle East; the sweeping implications of artificial intelligence; the climate crisis; and investigations into high-stakes abuses of power. If you value our reporting, please make a year-end gift today. We’re depending on you.

Last Thing: Tortes, tuiles and terrines – menu items that mystify us … and why we order them anyway

A new survey shows that diners are routinely baffled by items they see on dessert menus. Only 35% of the 2,000 British adults surveyed recognised the term ganache, while only 13% could say what a tuile was. Moreover, 40% could not define mousse, three-quarters had no idea what a coulis was, and up to 80% would give up if confronted by the word posset. This ignorance extends to savoury dishes as well. Frequently misunderstood menu terms include terrine (a coarse paté), crudo (raw, basically) and lardo (an Italian cured pork product). The confusion is by no means limited to French and Italian words. Another recent survey found that diners are just as mystified by English terms such as fermented and smacked.

Sign up

First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.

Get in touch

If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email [email protected]