First Thing: Biden defends refusal to call for ceasefire in Gaza

US president appears to acknowledge Israeli bombing campaign has been ‘indiscriminate’. Plus, 10 ways the changing climate is creating a health emergency

Good morning.

Joe Biden has presented an unapologetic defence of his refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, arguing that Hamas represents a continuing threat to Israel and that Israeli forces were seeking to avoid civilian casualties.

After a summit meeting with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of the Apec summit in San Francisco, Biden told reporters on Wednesday night that Hamas had vowed to continue its attacks on Israel.

Biden also argued that Israeli forces had switched from aerial bombardment, which he seemed to acknowledge had been indiscriminate in parts, to more targeted ground operations, after more than 11,000 Palestinians are reported to have died.

Meanwhile, Israeli fighter jets struck the Gaza home of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Telegram. Haniyeh, considered to be the militant group’s overall leader, has lived in Qatar for several years.

What happened during the raid of the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza? Witnesses told Reuters that tanks entered the complex at 3am and that one parked in front of the emergency department. Israeli soldiers used loudspeakers to demand that all males aged 16 to 40 enter the hospital courtyard.

What has happened since the raid? Israel faced an unprecedented wave of international condemnation after its troops entered the hospital complex. The scale and virulence of the global condemnation from Arab and western governments raised questions about how much longer Israel can continue with its offensive in the face of waning international support.

Marjorie Taylor Greene claims Democrats failed to defend house from Capitol rioters

In a new book, the extremist Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene claims no Democrats stayed in the house chamber on January 6 to help defend it against rioters sent by Donald Trump to block the certification of Joe Biden’s election win – a claim one Democrat who did stay labeled “patently false”.

Greene’s book, MTG, will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.

Describing January 6, Greene writes: “Several of the Republican congressmen said, ‘We’re going to stay right here and defend the house chamber.’ As they began barricading the door with furniture, I noticed not one Democrat was willing to stay to defend the chamber.”

But that version of events sits in stark contrast to others, including that of Jason Crow of Colorado, a Democratic congressman and former US army ranger who worked to help fellow representatives before being, by his own description, the last politician to leave.

What has Crow said about Greene’s account? He told the Guardian: “Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t exist in the same reality as the rest of us. For those of us who were there on January 6 and actually defended the chamber from violent insurrectionists, her view is patently false. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

Joe Biden hails progress after Xi Jinping talks but Taiwan still the sticking point

Joe Biden has claimed that his summit meeting with Xi Jinping has brought substantial progress, including agreements on limiting narcotics trafficking, restoring militaries lines of communication, and to start talking about the global risks posed by artificial intelligence.

However, it was clear that after more than four hours of talks in a mansion outside San Francisco, the meeting had not brought the US and China any closer on the fate of Taiwan, which Xi reportedly told Biden was “the biggest, most potentially dangerous issue in US-China relations”.

Furthermore, Biden himself risked undoing some of the bridge-building at the summit, the first between the two leaders for a year, with an off-the-cuff response to a reporter’s question at the tail end of a press conference, in which he confirmed he still looked on Xi as a dictator.

“Look, he is,” the president said. “He’s a dictator in the sense that he’s a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that’s based on a form of government totally different than ours.”

What did China say about the meeting? The account of the summit from China’s foreign ministry was mixed, portraying Xi as having taken a tough line, over Taiwan in particular. “The US side should … stop arming Taiwan, and support China’s peaceful reunification,” Xi told Biden, according to Beijing’s account. “China will realise reunification, and this is unstoppable.”

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In other news …

The European Commission is proposing a 12th round of sanctions against Moscow, including restrictions on scores of individuals, apparently including the relatives of senior officials including the Putin family and Dmitry Medvedev’s son, which is likely to provoke anger in the Kremlin.

The UK’s new foreign secretary, David Cameron, met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, during his first trip to Kyiv, pledging continued military support and a refocus on Ukraine as conflict continues in the Middle East. He said today’s meeting was important to “make sure the attention is here”.

Replacing meat and dairy with whole grains, beans, nuts and olive oil may significantly reduce cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, according to a major review into the impact of diet on health. Analysis of 37 studies finds the largest health benefits come from replacing processed meat.

Getting a Covid booster and a flu shot together is better than getting them separately, a new study has found. The research concluded that a study group that had their shots administered together had higher levels of immunoglobulin G1, or IgG1 – the antibodies that counter Covid-19 and that strain of influenza.

Stat of the day: as bad as 15 cigarettes a day – WHO declares loneliness a ‘global public health concern’

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared loneliness to be a pressing global health threat, with the US surgeon general saying that its mortality effects are equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. In older adults, loneliness is associated with a 50% increased risk of developing dementia and a 30% increased risk of incident coronary artery disease or stroke. But it also blights the lives of young people: between 5% and 15% of adolescents are lonely, according to figures that are likely to be underestimates.

While loneliness is often seen as a problem for developed countries, the US surgeon general, Dr Vivek Murthy, said the rates of one in four older people experiencing social isolation were similar in all regions of the world. “These issues don’t affect one country … [Loneliness] is an underappreciated public health threat,” Murthy said.

Don’t miss this: custom showers and designer crates – welcome to the ‘barkitecture’ boom

In 2021, Johnathan Lower, then a real estate agent in South Carolina, posted some old photos on TikTok that showed how he had turned a closet into a miniature home for his golden retriever, Teddy. The post attracted millions of views and Lower set out to build an even more elaborate indoor dog house for Teddy, this one including lights, wall decor, a miniature television, a faux fireplace and a tiny magazine called “Playdog”. (“I just did it because I’m extra,” Lower said.)

Welcome to the world of “barkitecture”, as Pinterest dubbed the growing “animal-first architecture” trend in 2021. Fueled by social media images, magazine spreads and home renovation TV shows, Americans are investing serious resources into home design for pets.

Climate check: 10 ways the changing climate is creating a health emergency

The lives of billions of people are being threatened by the climate crisis, experts from around the world said in the annual Lancet Countdown report this week. No one will escape the consequences of climate change, but people living in poorer countries are particularly vulnerable. Floods and disease are among the ways the climate crisis is affecting global health. As life becomes less tolerable for humans, animals and plants, it will become easier for disease-causing organisms. More than half of all known diseases have been made worse by the climate crisis, say scientists. A warming world makes outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio more likely. Outbreaks often happen where extreme weather events have damaged infrastructure and led to poor sanitation. Here are nine more ways the changing climate is creating a global health emergency.

Last Thing: musical based on Gwyneth Paltrow ski trial set to open in London

Gwyneth Paltrow’s legal battle with a retired Utah optometrist who accused her of injuring him in a skiing accident shared qualities with the most enthralling theatre: drama and teary testimony; a seemingly endless run of chic outfits, and even a devastating final line, whispered by Paltrow as she left the courtroom: “I wish you well.”

Months after the trial that stopped the internet, a stage musical inspired by the court case is set to open in London, with audience members serving as the jury. Gwyneth Goes Skiing, put on by Awkward Productions and starting at the Pleasance theatre in December, will feature original songs written by the US singer-songwriter Leland, who has worked with musicians including Selena Gomez and Troye Sivan.

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