Amnesty calls for export restrictions on electroshock devices

An investigation reported in The Guardian’s First Thing newsletter on 22 October has found that Israeli forces are using US-made electroshock weapons on Palestinian detainees, and that the American company Axon is still supplying the Taser weapons despite evidence they have been used to torture prisoners. First Thing, the Guardian’s US-news newsletter delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday, led with the finding and paired it with reports of the detentions near Bethlehem and of the settler attack on a journalist.

Human rights groups have condemned allegations of the repeated torture and ill-treatment of detainees held in Israeli detention centres and prisons using electric shock devices, with Amnesty calling for restrictions on exports of such devices. A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said the abuse of detainees was strictly prohibited.

Israeli detentions and olive-harvest volunteers

A photograph by Alaa Badarneh/EPA accompanying the report showed Israeli troops stopping Palestinian farmers for searches as they tried to reach their lands near the village of Beita. The Israeli military detained about 80 U.S., Israeli and British volunteers near Nahalin in the occupied West Bank, where they were helping Palestinians harvest olives near Bethlehem. Those detained included Brad Lander, the New York Democratic congressional nominee, several rabbis and Israel’s former deputy attorney general. Soldiers said the area had been declared a closed military zone.

The newsletter also relayed further details from Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine, who was attacked and seriously injured by Israeli settlers on Friday. Levine described being saved with the help of local Palestinians. Witnesses said her beating ceased only after young men used slingshots to aim stones at the settlers, forcing them back.

Election planning accelerates before the November midterms

Democratic state attorneys general, other top state officials and civic groups have accelerated planning to resist federal intervention in the November midterms, according to The Guardian. A photograph caption in the newsletter said Donald Trump continued to make “false charges of widespread voting fraud” and “veiled threats” of interfering in the process. The Guardian said the increased cooperation was significant because many secretaries of state supervise elections and state attorneys general are charged with defending the laws governing them.

Elon Musk’s Super Pac has spent more than $500,000 in New York’s highly competitive 17th congressional district race to help Republican incumbent Mike Lawler hold his seat. The Guardian described Lawler as a “moderate Republican.” Lawler is fending off a challenge from Democrat Cait Conley in what the newsletter called one of the most-watched races that could determine who controls Congress.

Nancy Pelosi’s office received what The Guardian’s newsletter described as “a suspicious letter” on Wednesday. The newsletter said the letter “appears to be the latest incident of ill-intentioned mailings targeted at US Congress members.” The offices of more than three dozen members of Congress across the political spectrum have received envelopes containing white powder in recent days. Separately, the newsletter said Donald Trump’s approval rating has sunk to 36%, the lowest recorded, with most respondents expressing frustration over his handling of the US economy, cost of living and Iran war. The president was heckled at least nine times during a campaign event the previous day, and reacted to a supporter punching a demonstrator by saying: “Man, I loved that.”

Supreme Court action and international developments

The US Supreme Court went against Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday, refusing to allow the immediate enforcement of sweeping restrictions on gender-affirming care for transgender individuals held in prisons and federal facilities. The Guardian called the decision “an unusual victory for transgender rights” and noted that the court has largely sided with the administration and other opponents of transgender rights in several major cases.

The US State Department ordered some diplomats and the families of US government employees to leave Saudi Arabia as it faces a barrage of near-daily attacks from Yemen’s Houthis. Reports have emerged of similar US withdrawals in the UAE, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain amid concerns of a return to conflict with Iran after the midterm elections. In France, President Emmanuel Macron accused Donald Trump and other foreign leaders of making “stupid comments” about France’s street unrest for political gain. Trump had blamed France’s violence on “migrants, jihadists and communists”.

PHP vulnerability prompts temporary shutdowns

Websites around the globe went dark after a serious vulnerability was found in PHP, the computer language used to build much of the world wide web. Several European governments took down sites temporarily as they scrambled to patch the critical weakness in PHP, a language used by almost 70% of websites. The US National Security Agency told all organisations using PHP to take their systems offline if they were unable to patch them immediately, and the Guardian’s technology reporter Josh Taylor provided an explainer on what PHP is and how bad the flaw is.

A 24-year-old Kansas man, Jaden J Read, was arrested for allegedly threatening to shoot Donald Trump, having allegedly written “I’m killing this pedo” on Facebook. Jeffrey Epstein’s attorney and accountant have been accused of “facilitating and concealing” his crimes in a civil lawsuit filed by New Mexico’s attorney general. Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar has denied allegations of immigration fraud, saying that after agents scoured her residence room by room for nearly five hours, they took 17 items, including several phones.

Pope Leo will not need any further treatment after undergoing lung cancer surgery last week, his doctors said, indicating that his tumour had not spread.

Culture, features and survivor reporting

The culture and feature selections included sweets from around the world, including caffeine-boosted chocolate drops and dragonfruit gummies, available before Halloween. Xan Brooks spoke with director Taika Waititi, who turned Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel about an ailing adolescent and her glitchy robot friend into a film; the edition identified Jenna Ortega as a star in Klara and the Sun. Hospice and end-of-life workers discussed with Madeleine Aggeler what they have learned from their work and patients in their last moments, a segment the newsletter’s standfirst described as 12 lessons about life and death.

Oliver Milman reported from Kerrville, Texas, where survivors were united on the need for urgent action after floods killed 136 people last year. Bukang-i, the nearly 10-foot-long female dusky shark that became a viral sensation after getting stuck in a South Korean canal for a month, has returned to the canal just hours after South Korean officials coaxed her out to sea.

MSI previously reported that Israeli settlers had attacked olive harvesters and injured Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine. The newsletter’s new account adds Levine’s description of being saved by local Palestinians and witnesses’ account of young men using slingshots to force the attackers back.