Control over the U.S. House of Representatives still hangs in the balance, teetering between a Republican or Democratic majority with less than 20 races left to be called. A majority in the House, alongside the Senate, would give President-elect Donald Trump a greater chance of getting his plans approved than if Democrats controlled one or both. In addition, Trump-appointed justices in the Supreme Court would allow for easier implementation of his sweeping agenda.
President-elect Donald J. Trump is expected to name Senator Marco Rubio of Florida as his secretary of state, three people familiar with his thinking said on Monday, as Mr. Trump moves rapidly to fill out his foreign policy and national security team. Mr. Trump could still change his mind at the last minute, the people said, but appeared to have settled on Mr. Rubio, whom he also considered when choosing his running mate this year. Mr. Rubio was elected to the Senate in 2010, and has staked out a position as a foreign policy hawk, taking hard lines on China, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba in particular. He initially found himself at odds with those Republicans who were more skeptical about interventions abroad, but he has also echoed Mr. Trump more recently on issues like Russia’s war against Ukraine, saying that the conflict has reached a stalemate and “needs to be brought to a conclusion.” - NYT
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An Israeli strike hit a tent sheltering a displaced family in the central Gaza Strip, killing at least three people, including the parents of twins, Palestinian health officials said. The strike late Sunday in the Nuseirat urban refugee camp wounded the two children, aged 10. They were treated for serious injuries at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby city of Deir al-Balah. The details of the casualties were listed in hospital records and an Associated Press reporter saw two of the bodies. The Israeli military says it only targets militants and accuses them of hiding among civilians. At least 24 people were wounded in the attack and taken to Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, said Mohamed Muhareb, head of the hospital’s ambulance service - AP
Vladimir Putin has deployed 50,000 Russian and North Korean troops in an attempt to recapture Kursk from Ukraine before Donald Trump takes office as US president in January. Ukraine’s top military commander said “tens of thousands of enemy soldiers” had arrived to expel Kyiv’s forces from the Russian enclave, fuelling Western fears of a significant escalation of the war. Nato allies believe Putin is hoping to recapture territory lost to Ukraine before Mr Trump’s inauguration on Jan 20. A British defence intelligence assessment seen by The Telegraph shows Russia is likely to ramp up kamikaze drone attacks on Ukrainian positions in the coming days, using new launch sites close to the border. It was reported that Mr Trump used a phone call with Putin after the presidential election last week to warn the Russian leader against escalating the war, amid fears of a winter offensive boosted by North Korean troops and supplies. Around 12,000 North Korean conscripts will also likely be involved in the fighting in the Kursk region, under a Russia-North Korea mutual military assistance pact agreed this year. - The Telegraph
The Kremlin on Monday rejected reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke last week with President-elect Donald Trump about the war in Ukraine, and a spokesman for Trump refused to comment on what he called his “private calls” with world leaders. The Washington Post first reported Sunday, citing anonymous sources, that the two spoke Thursday, with Trump advising Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine and cited the sizable U.S. military presence in Europe. In a conference call Monday with journalists, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said “there was no conversation” and the report was “completely untrue, it is pure fiction. Asked about the report, Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung said, “We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders.” - AP
A Spirit Airlines flight attempting to land in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was shot at on Monday and forced to divert, marking a sharp escalation in the violence that has gripped the nation. Flight 951, which took off from Fort Lauderdale for Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, was struck several times and landed in Santiago, in the Dominican Republic, according to Tommy Fletcher, a spokesman for the airline. “An inspection revealed evidence of damage to the aircraft consistent with gunfire,” Mr. Fletcher said in a statement. “One flight attendant on board reported minor injuries and is being evaluated by medical personnel.” No passengers were hurt, the airline said. Spirit suspended flights to Port-au-Prince and to the northern Haitian city Cap-Haïtien. The plane was taken out of service - NYT
A famous Belarusian prankster who has garnered a reputation for duping schools to highlight the “fascistization of Russian society” has tricked teachers in Russia's Voronezh region into wearing pro-Russia “protective” tinfoil hats. Vladislav Bokhan, an exiled Belarusian artist and activist who lives in Poland, wrote on Telegram on November 9 that in July he sent out what appeared to be an official government directive to schools in the Voronezh region to organize events in which tinfoil hats bearing the Russian flag were made. The hats, the order said, would “protect against foreign enemies.” The schools were also instructed to provide videos and images of the teachers wearing the hats to -- what they thought was -- the government. In one video shared by Bokhan on Telegram, a teacher talks about the supposed benefits of the tinfoil hat, which the fake government order described as the “helmet of the fatherland.” “Let the helmet that you make with your own hands become a means of protection against foreign enemies of our wonderful country,” the teacher says in the video. Bokhan has staged several similar pranks aimed at opposing Russia's invasion of Ukraine and highlighting contradictions and hypocrisy in government rhetoric. - RFE/RL
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