10 things you need to know today: December 13, 2023

1. Biden warns Israel is losing support

President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which he described as "the most conservative in Israel's history," was losing support because of its "indiscriminate bombing" in Gaza following Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 attack. The comments marked Biden's most direct criticism yet of Netanyahu as international pressure mounts to ease a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Netanyahu said he hoped the U.S. and Israel could settle their differences but that his government wouldn't "give in to international pressure." The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday approved a non-binding call for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire. Reuters, The Washington Post

2. Zelenskyy appeals to Congress for more aid

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday made an emotional appeal to congressional leaders for more aid to help his country counter a Russian invasion, reportedly telling lawmakers that his country was in a do-or-die "fight for freedom." He also visited the White House and asked President Joe Biden to step up his effort to push through a $110 billion package that includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine. "Mr. President, I call on Congress to do the right thing, to stand with Ukraine, and to stand up for freedom," Zelenskyy said. Congress is deadlocked on the legislation, as Republicans insist on pairing the aid with measures to increase security at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Associated Press

3. Harvard board backs embattled university president

Harvard's board expressed unanimous support Tuesday for the university's president, Claudine Gay, after she and two other university leaders faced intense criticism over their testimony during a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism tied to the Israel-Hamas conflict. The board said that after "extensive deliberations" it decided "President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal" in "this tumultuous and difficult time." Gay and the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT gave what The Boston Globe described as "legalistic and equivocal answers" when asked during the Dec. 5 hearing whether calls for the genocide of Jews violated school rules. Some wealthy donors, alumni and lawmakers pushed for their removal. UPenn President Liz Magill resigned Saturday. The Boston Globe

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4. COP28 calls for transitioning away from fossil fuels

Negotiators at the United Nations–sponsored COP28 climate summit released a central document Wednesday calling for the world to transition away from burning planet-warming fossil fuels, a first. "Humanity has finally done what is long, long, long overdue," said Wopke Hoekstra, European Union commissioner for climate action. U.K. climate minister Graham Stuart called the delegates' approval of the document, which takes stock of how far off track the world is in fighting climate change, the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era, BBC News reported. "We're now unified in a common commitment to move away from fossil fuels," he said. Some delegates wanted the document to go further and call for phasing out coal, gas and oil entirely. BBC News, The Associated Press

5. Inflation slows slightly ahead of Fed meeting

Inflation edged lower last month thanks largely to falling gas prices, the federal government reported Tuesday. The Consumer Price Index rose 0.1% on a monthly basis and 3.1% compared to a year earlier. That was just under the 3.2% annual pace in October and far below a peak of more than 9% in summer 2022. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, held steady at 4%. The report came as the Federal Reserve started its last two-day meeting of the year. The Fed is expected to end the gathering Wednesday with a decision to keep interest rates unchanged amid mounting the evidence that inflation is cooling. The New York Times, The Associated Press

6. Court tells New York to redraw congressional map, boosting Democrats

New York's top court on Tuesday ordered the state to redraw its congressional districts, giving Democrats an opportunity to create a map that could flip as many as six seats currently held by Republicans. A shift in the balance of the state's 26-member congressional delegation would have national implications as Republicans struggle to hold onto their narrow House majority in the 2024 elections. The 4-3 decision by the New York Court of Appeals, which has a new liberal majority, called for the state's Independent Redistricting Commission to restart the process of drawing a new map before the 2024 election season. The Democratic-dominated state Legislature has final approval of the map. The New York Times, Reuters

7. US details Russian losses in Ukraine

A newly declassified U.S. intelligence assessment shared with Congress concluded that 315,000 Russian military personnel had been killed or injured since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The losses amount to 87% of Russia's pre-war troop strength of 360,000. Moscow has also lost 2,200 of the 3,500 tanks it had before the invasion. The assessment provided new details about the magnitude of Russia's widely reported losses in Ukraine. The United States didn't release new estimates of Ukraine's casualties. Officials have acknowledged that tens of thousands of Ukraine's troops have been killed or injured. The Wall Street Journal

8. Busy Rhode Island bridge closed

Authorities shut down one side of one of Rhode Island's busiest bridges after engineers found a critical structural failure. The westbound side of the Washington Bridge, which carries Interstate 195 over the Seekonk River from Providence to East Providence, is expected to be closed for three or more months until repairs are completed. The failure involves "some original 1960s bridge components," the Rhode Island Department of Transportation said. The closure of the bridge, which carries nearly 100,000 vehicles daily, caused major traffic jams on Tuesday. The Providence Journal, The Associated Press

9. Judge approves bankrupt Yellow's sale of shipping centers

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Craig Goldblatt on Tuesday approved trucking company Yellow's plan to sell most of its shipping centers and other real estate for $1.88 billion. Goldblatt called the price a "tremendous outcome" for Yellow. The sale will generate enough money to pay off the $1.2 billion in debt the shipping company had before seeking bankruptcy protection. The debt includes $700 million that Yellow owed on a federal Covid-19 relief loan. The judge's decision to allow the sale to multiple buyers ended a bidder's effort to keep the company intact. Sarah Riggs Amico, executive chair of trucking company Jack Cooper Transport, led a bid to buy Yellow and said she still wanted to buy some of Yellow's terminals and rehire as many as 15,000 of its workers. Reuters

10. Election worker testifies Giuliani's 'crazy lies' disrupted her life

One of the two former Georgia election workers a judge said Rudy Giuliani defamed with baseless allegations of 2020 election fraud testified Tuesday that Giuliani's "crazy lies" disrupted her life and triggered racist threats. The election worker, Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, said she suffered panic attacks and had to quit the job, which she loved. Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, sued Giuliani for falsely accusing them of tampering with the counting of votes in Atlanta. Giuliani, one of Donald Trump's lawyers who tried to overturn the former president's election loss, conceded in July that he made "false" statements, but he said outside the courtroom he did not regret anything, claiming he "told the truth." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, NBC News