Democrats demand answers after ICE takes eight-year-old Haitian boy into custody
US Treasury chief Scott Bessent has relocated from his home in the Washington area to a military base after an Iranian threat against his life, the New York Times reported, according to The Guardian’s First Thing newsletter published November 11. Bessent has led the US sanctions and economic pressure campaign against Iran, called Operation Economic Outcast, since August.
Democratic lawmakers in California are demanding answers from the Trump administration about the safety and whereabouts of an eight-year-old Haitian boy who they say was put in restraints and taken into custody by federal immigration officers at a check-in last week. A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement took the child into custody “out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the child’s safety”.
The newsletter also reported that House Republicans blocked an effort to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, moving to kill a resolution from Republican lawmaker Thomas Massie by referring it to the House judiciary committee. Top Democrats announced their support for the resolution. The referral leaves the resolution in that committee rather than before the full House. Hegseth dismissed the resolution as “political spectacle” and said it was an attempt to set up a “show trial”.
Massie’s 34-page resolution, which he read aloud on the House floor, centered on the Iran war. Hegseth said the articles targeted not just him but the troops who carried out his orders. He insisted that every operation the articles cite — including strikes on Iran and Yemen, attacks on alleged drug boats and the capture of Venezuela’s now-former leader Nicolás Maduro — was lawful, ordered by Donald Trump and notified to Congress.
House Republicans elected the longtime Ohio congressman Jim Jordan as their new leader in the House of Representatives as they navigate the fallout from sweeping losses in last week’s midterm elections. The Guardian describes Jordan as a strident defender of Donald Trump. Newly elected Democrats, including Abdul El-Sayed and Annie Andrews, arrived in Washington for a new-member orientation day.
An independent professor who reviewed the medical records of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, a prominent Gaza doctor held in an Israeli prison without charge for nearly 23 months, has raised serious concerns about his health. Abu Safiya was detained at work in December 2024 and later held in solitary confinement at Rakefet, which The Guardian described as a notorious underground prison. During a visit by a lawyer from Physicians for Human Rights Israel last summer, the doctor told of harsh conditions, untreated medical problems and severe food shortages.
One of Britain’s best-known entertainers and children’s authors, David Walliams, has been accused of using his celebrity status to prey on young women for sex, in a joint investigation by The Guardian and ITV News that spoke to 30 first-hand sources. Walliams denies the allegations. A court rejected his attempt to block publication after his legal team argued it was “highly likely” to lead him to attempt suicide. The Guardian’s Michael Savage explains the main legal issues considered by the court, balancing Walliams’s right to privacy against the media’s right to publish.
Thomas Markle, the estranged father of Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, has been jailed after US authorities said he cut an electronic monitoring device off his ankle, days after his arrest for keeping child sexual abuse material in storage units. Separately, at least three people are dead and three critically injured after a car struck pedestrians on a Los Angeles street corner during rush hour; the driver’s identity remains unknown, and the driver is in a critical condition in hospital.
The FDA issued a new warning on GLP-1 weight-loss medications over a rare eye condition that could lead to sudden and permanent blindness. Parents are suing to stop a Washington state trans sports ban that could require “invasive” genital exams. In South Carolina, local police said an 11-month-old boy was found alive after he was believed to have been buried for about 24 hours. And a woman in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 100 lashes for giving birth outside marriage.
US inflation rose 0.4% from September to October, slightly above expectations but still a cooldown in price increases as the cost of gas dipped during the month, The Guardian reported. The October inflation data followed Republicans’ midterm losses, which were largely seen as a rebuke of the party over high prices.
It takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies to develop in the body and provide protection against influenza virus infection, ahead of the holiday season. The SS United States is to be sunk off the coast of Florida to become an artificial reef, with internal fixtures and toxic materials removed and divers able to visit the wreck at a depth of about 180ft as it becomes home to marine wildlife.
On climate finance, developing countries have been left in limbo by the failure of some of the world’s biggest economies to flesh out their plans: poor countries are supposed to receive $300bn a year from the governments of industrialized nations by 2035 to help them cope with the effects of extreme weather and shift to a low-carbon future, but many rich governments have not yet set out their targets. The Guardian followed the summit from Cop31 in Turkey.
On Washington’s National Mall, a new statue titled The Foot Soldier has been installed mocking Donald Trump, depicting the president sitting down and rubbing his bare foot in reference to the bone spurs he was diagnosed with, which allowed him to defer the Vietnam war draft. The installation was created by the Secret Handshake, a group of anonymous artists. The newsletter also carried a feature on the art of storyboarding examining a pushback against AI being involved in the process, a photo gallery of Günther Kieser’s psychedelic music posters for the likes of David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix and Diana Ross, and domestic advice from Victoria Turk on how to solve 10 stubborn laundry problems, from stains to rough towels to “permastank”.