First Thing: Hamas prepares for long war as Israel says there is ‘nowhere to hide’

Israeli military says air force carrying out strikes on Gaza every four hours. Plus Minnesota man’s 2,749lb pumpkin sets world record

Good morning.

The Israeli military has said Hamas operatives have “nowhere to hide” in Gaza and that its air force is carrying out intense strikes in waves every four hours.

“We will reach them everywhere,” Reuters reports the chief military spokesperson RADM Daniel Hagari as saying in a briefing today.

Meanwhile, Hamas is ready to fight a long war against Israel and will use the dozens of hostages being held in Gaza to secure the release of Palestinians detained in Israel and overseas, a senior member of the militant group has said.

Speaking to the Associated Press news agency, Ali Barakeh, a member of the group’s exiled leadership in Beirut, said only a small number of top commanders in Gaza knew about Saturday’s incursion into Israel and that even the group’s closest allies were not informed in advance about the timing. He denied reports that Iranian security officials helped plan the attack.

Were any US citizens killed in the Hamas attack? At least 11 US citizens were among those killed in the Hamas onslaught on Israel at the weekend, Joe Biden said on Monday, as the death toll in Israel rose above 800. The president also said US officials believed it likely that American citizens were among those being held hostage by Hamas.

Are civilians in danger in Gaza? The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, said Israeli air operations had struck residential buildings, including tower blocks, as well as schools and UN buildings, resulting in civilian casualties. “International humanitarian law is clear: the obligation to take constant care to spare the civilian population and civilian objects remains applicable throughout the attacks,” he added.

Revealed: Amazon linked to trafficking of workers in Saudi Arabia

Momtaj Mansur wanted to go home to his mom and his brother and the pastures of Nepal’s southern plains, writes Pramod Acharya and Michael Hudson. He felt like a prisoner, he says, in a roach-infested bunkhouse in Saudi Arabia, out of work, hungry and deep in debt.

The 23-year-old had come to Riyadh, the Saudi capital, in 2021 to work for one of the world’s biggest companies: Amazon.

Instead of his dream job, he says, he found low pay and misery. Amazon managers berated him, he says, for being too slow as he hustled across a vast two-story warehouse, grabbing iPhones and other items ordered by customers across the Arabian peninsula.

Then in May 2022, he says, he and many of his Nepali co-workers were abruptly let go from their jobs at the Amazon warehouse. They were 2,400 miles from home with no wages and little food. Mansur says he pleaded with the Saudi labor supply company that held their employment contracts and had placed them in what amounted to temporary positions at Amazon: if there was no more work, let them return to Nepal.

Is Mansur’s story unique? No, he is one of dozens of current and former workers who claim they were tricked and exploited by recruiting agencies in Nepal and labor supply firms in Saudi Arabia and then suffered under harsh conditions at Amazon’s warehouses.

What has the Guardian uncovered? Forty-eight of the 54 Nepali workers interviewed for the article say recruiters misled them about the terms of their employment, falsely promising they would work directly for Amazon.

California to require big firms to reveal carbon emissions in first law of its kind

A groundbreaking California law will force large companies doing business in the state – including global corporations – to disclose their planet-heating carbon emissions.

The measure, signed into law by the governor, Gavin Newsom, on Saturday, will be the first of its kind in the country, serving as a blueprint for national climate accountability. Federal regulators have dragged their feet on crafting similar rules, which could be finalized this month.

SB 253 will require California regulators to create rules by 2025 for public and private companies whose annual revenues exceed $1bn. That affects about 5,300 corporations, including Chevron, Wells Fargo, Amazon and Apple.

What will the companies have to do? By 2026, those companies will have to publicly disclose how much carbon is produced by their operations and electricity use. Critically, by 2027, they will also be required to report emissions generated by their supply chains and customers, known as “scope 3” emissions, which are highly controversial among business interests, including the fossil fuel industry.

In other news …

The Russian segment of the International Space Station has sprung its third coolant leak in less than a year, reviving questions about the reliability of the country’s space programme, even as officials said crew members were not in danger.

Russia will seek to return to the UN human rights council, days after a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian village of Hroza killed more than 50 people. Moscow was booted out after it invaded Ukraine last year but will be considered in a vote today by the general assembly for a new seat for the 2024-26 term.

San Francisco police said they shot and killed a driver who crashed into the Chinese consulate. Official details of the incident were incomplete, and police said the identity of the motorist and what precipitated the crash were not yet known. There was no mention of anyone else being injured.

Jerry Seinfeld has hinted that a Seinfeld reunion may be on the cards more than 25 years after the hit “show about nothing” aired its divisive finale. In response to a question from an audience member during his standup show in Boston on Saturday, the comedian teased that a re-envisioned finale may be in the works.

Stat of the day: Squash goals – Minnesota man’s 2,749lb pumpkin sets world record

A Minnesota horticultural teacher set a new world record for growing the heaviest pumpkin – a gargantuan jack-o’-lantern gourd weighing 2,749lb. Travis Gienger set the record at the 50th World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, California. The plump pumpkin beat the previous record, set in 2021 by Stefano Cutrupi of Italy, by 47lb.

Gienger told KSTP-TV in Minnesota he had named the pumpkin Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan grew into an enormous pumpkin, equivalent to about 2,110 basketballs, or about 275 jack-o’-lantern gourds. Gienger spent about $15,000 to feed and care for Michael Jordan as it ballooned in his backyard.

Don’t miss this: Orgy of sugar – how school donations turned my free pantry into a junk-food fever dream

“During the first year of the pandemic, I put out a few rolls of toilet paper in my Little Free Library,” writes Kim Foster. “I found myself adding more and more, until one day, I realized I was running a free pantry. People kept showing up, asking for food and supplies. Our family would run this pantry for more than a year, providing fresh vegetables, herbs, meat and dairy to our Las Vegas community. Neighbors often wanted to chip in and help.”

The local school district also began making donations – leftovers from meals handed out at a nearby elementary school but Kim was shocked by what they dropped off. Soon the pantry was packed with bag after bag of Doritos; boxes of single-serve Corn Pops and Frosted Flakes; little cartons of chocolate milk stacked in the fridge; and countless chocolate Pop-Tarts and frosted doughnuts. How was this coming from a school, she thought.

Addiction to ultra-processed food affects 14% of adults, global study shows

Climate check: Climate crisis is ‘not gender neutral’ – UN calls for more policy focus on women

Only a third of countries include sexual and reproductive health in their national plans to tackle the climate crisis, the UN has warned. Of the 119 countries that have published plans, only 38 include access to contraception, maternal and newborn health services and just 15 make any reference to violence against women, according to a report published today.

The report is the first to examine whether climate plans refer to sexual and reproductive health. Rising temperatures have been linked to poorer maternal health and complications during pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes. Extreme heat has been associated with triggering earlier deliveries and an increase in stillbirths.

Last Thing: Louisiana principal apologizes for punishing student’s off-campus dancing

A Louisiana public school principal has apologized and requested leave for punishing a student and questioning her religious beliefs after he saw a video of her dancing at an off-campus party. The 17-year-old student government president and scholarship candidate was filmed at the party after Walker high school’s homecoming festivities on 30 September. A hired DJ recorded the footage and posted it on to social media. Three days later, Jason St Pierre, the school principal, told the student she was not “living in the Lord’s way”, her mother said. She was removed from her position with the student government association and he said he would no longer recommend her for college scholarships. Before the apology, some parents likened the school’s approach to the plot of the 1980s film Footloose.

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