Latest News Headlines for Monday December 18, 2023 – Israel’s military reported on Sunday the discovery of a substantial tunnel shaft in Gaza, near a once-bustling crossing into Israel.
This development raises questions about how Israeli surveillance overlooked the conspicuous preparations by Hamas for the militants’ deadly Oct. 7 assault. The tunnel’s entry point is just a few hundred meters from the heavily fortified Erez crossing and a nearby Israeli military base. It stands as the largest and longest tunnel found by Israeli forces to date.
Israel’s government faces calls for a cease-fire from some of its closest European allies after a series of shootings, including the mistaken killing of three Israeli hostages, sparked global concerns about the conduct of the 10-week-old war in Gaza.
Israeli protesters urge the government to renew negotiations with Gaza’s Hamas rulers, whom Israel has vowed to destroy. Pressure is expected to increase during U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit, as Washington expresses growing unease with civilian casualties while providing vital military and diplomatic support.
Chilean voters rejected a proposed conservative constitution to replace the country’s dictatorship-era charter. With 96% of votes counted, about 55.8% voted “no” to the new charter, with approximately 44.2% in favor.
This comes more than a year after Chileans resoundingly rejected a proposed constitution written by a left-leaning convention, characterized as one of the world’s most progressive charters.
The Republican Party of Florida suspended Chairman Christian Ziegler and demanded his resignation during an emergency meeting Sunday, adding to calls by Governor Ron DeSantis and other top officials for him to step down as police investigate a rape accusation against him.
Ziegler is accused of raping a woman with whom he and his wife, Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, had a prior consensual sexual relationship, according to police records. “Christian Ziegler has engaged in conduct that renders him unfit for the office,” the party’s motion to censure Ziegler said.
Five people, including three young children, have died in a house fire in northwestern Arizona, authorities said Sunday, adding it appeared no adults were home at the time. Bullhead City police said the fire broke out around 5 p.m.
Saturday, and the victims did not make it out of the two-story duplex in that community near the Colorado River. A city fire department spokeswoman said the five victims were ages 2, 4, 5, 11 and 13. Their names weren’t immediately released Sunday. Authorities said the cause of the fire isn’t known yet.
A car plowed into a parked SUV guarding President Joe Biden’s motorcade Sunday night while the president was leaving a visit to his campaign headquarters.
The president and first lady Jill Biden were unharmed. While Biden was walking from the campaign office to his waiting armored SUV, a sedan hit a U.S. Secret Service vehicle that was being used to close off intersections near the headquarters for the president’s departure. The sedan then tried to continue into a closed-off intersection before Secret Service personnel surrounded the vehicle with weapons drawn and instructed the driver to put his hands up.
Gunmen attacked a Christmas season party early Sunday, killing a dozen people in the town of Salvatierra in Mexico’s north-central state of Guanajuato, prosecutors said.
State prosecutors also reported that four other people died in a shooting in the city of Salamanca, but did not describe the circumstances of that attack. Local media said the victims in Salvatierra were leaving an event hall following a Christmas party known as a “posada” when they were gunned down.
At least 61 migrants drowned in a “shipwreck” off the coast of Libya, a migration organization said Saturday night.
Women and children were among the dead, according to the International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental group that’s part of the United Nations network. “The Central Mediterranean continues to be one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes,” IOM Libya said on social media. The vessel left Zwara, Libya, with about 86 people onboard, survivors of the wreck told IOM Libya, according to the organization.
