10 things you need to know today: December 18, 2023

1. Israel-Hamas cease-fire calls intensify

Israel, which said Sunday its forces found Hamas' biggest Gaza tunnel yet, bombarded dozens of sites in the Palestinian enclave over the weekend, defying intensifying calls for a cease-fire in its war against Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would "fight to the end." The brother of one of three hostages Israeli soldiers mistakenly shot dead on Friday — Alon Shamriz, 26, Yotam Haim, 28, and Samar Fouad Talalka, 24 — criticized the government and the military for the tragedy. "The one who abandoned you also murdered you," said Shamriz's brother, Ido. The hostages' deaths fueled questions about the way Israel has conducted the war, ignited by Hamas' deadly Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel. The Associated Press, The Times of Israel

2. Florida GOP censures scandal-plagued leader

The Florida Republican Party's executive board on Sunday voted to strip authority from the state GOP chair, Christian Ziegler, and cut his salary to $1, launching a bid to oust him over a woman's claim that he raped her in October. The woman said that she, Ziegler and his wife, Sarasota County School Board member and Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, had a three-way sexual encounter more than a year ago and had planned another tryst. After Bridget Ziegler backed out, the woman said, Christian Ziegler showed up anyway and sexually assaulted her. He maintains the sex, which he filmed, was consensual. The Florida GOP board plans to meet again in a month and decide whether to oust Ziegler. The New York Times, USA Today

3. Biden campaign says Trump immigrant remark 'parroted' Hitler

President Joe Biden's reelection campaign accused former President Donald Trump of echoing Nazi rhetoric by saying immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country." "Donald Trump channeled his role models as he parroted Adolf Hitler," Biden-Harris 2024 campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said. Hitler wrote in his "Mein Kampf" manifesto that blood poisoning threatened the Aryan race. Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, made the remark about immigrants during a New Hampshire rally and in a Truth Social post Saturday night. Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung accused the media and the academics criticizing Trump's immigration comments of giving "safe haven for dangerous antisemitic and pro-Hamas rhetoric." CNBC, Reuters

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4. Chileans reject proposed conservative constitution

Chilean voters on Sunday rejected a conservative constitution proposed to replace one dating to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The proposed new charter was drafted by a right-leaning constitutional council and was more conservative than the old one, according to CNN. With nearly all the votes counted, 55.8% opposed the new constitution while 44.2% favored it. The balloting came more than a year after voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed progressive constitution drafted by a left-leaning convention. Chilean President Gabriel Boric said his government wouldn't take a third stab at changing the constitution. He conceded that he had failed to "channel the hopes of having a new constitution written for everyone," and said after two fruitless referendums "the country became polarized." The Associated Press, CNN

5. Negotiators scramble to reach a border-security deal

White House and Senate negotiators on Sunday tried to hammer out a compromise border security deal to satisfy the demands of Republicans blocking President Joe Biden's request for more than $60 billion in new aid for Ukraine. Negotiators met behind closed doors at the Capitol in a rush to strike a deal before senators leave town for the holidays. "Every day we get closer, not farther away," said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) disagreed, saying on NBC's "Meet the Press" that deliberations would likely continue into the new year. "We're not anywhere close to a deal," he said. The Associated Press

6. Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai's trial starts

The landmark trial of prominent Hong Kong activist and publisher Jimmy Lai opened Monday. Lai, 76, was arrested in August 2020 during a crackdown on the city's pro-democracy movement. If convicted, he faces a possible life sentence under a security law Beijing imposed to stamp out protests by dissidents. The trial of Lai, who founded the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, is widely considered a crucial test of judicial independence in the semi-autonomous Asian financial hub. China had promised it would respect Hong Kong's Western-style civil liberties for 50 years after the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997. NPR

7. North Korea test-fires missiles

North Korea on Sunday fired suspected short-range and long-range ballistic missiles off its east coast. The launches came as Pyongyang accused the U.S. of leading its allies in aggressive measures, including the arrival of a submarine in South Korea, that amounted to "a preview of a nuclear war." The short-range missile flew about 350 miles and came down in the ocean. South Korea and Japan had warned that Pyongyang planned the missile tests, including the suspected firing of one of the isolated communist-led nation's longest-range intercontinental ballistic missiles, Reuters reported. North Korea says its missile program is part of its legitimate self-defense measures, although its ballistic missile launches violate United Nations Security Council resolutions. Reuters

8. 61 die in migrant boat wreck off Libya

About 61 migrants died in a shipwreck off Libya, the United Nations' International Organization for Migration said Sunday. The agency's Libya office said the boat left Zuwara, a coastal town west of the capital Tripoli and 37 miles from the Tunisian border. Survivors said there were 86 people on board, the IOM's Libya office posted on X, formerly Twitter. Libya is a main transit point for asylum-seekers trying to reach Europe. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says more than 2,500 people have died or gone missing this year in the central Mediterranean, which "continues to be one of the world's most dangerous migration routes." CNN 

9. Powerful storm hits Florida, heads up East Coast

A powerful storm system hammered Florida and the Carolinas over the weekend and threatened to batter other places up the East Coast as a "bomb cyclone" on Monday. The high winds knocked down trees and power lines, leaving more than 33,000 utility customers without power in Florida on Sunday. Another 8,000 faced power outages in South Carolina. Heavy rains caused potentially dangerous flooding in low-lying areas on South Carolina's coast, including downtown Charleston. The National Weather Service issued flash flood and coastal flood warnings. Charleston Harbor experienced the highest tide on record not associated with a tropical storm system, according to the National Weather Service. NBC News, USA Today

10. 'Wonka' debut fuels hopes for holiday box office

"Wonka," featuring Timothée Chalamet in the title role, brought in a better-than-expected $39 million in its debut weekend in North American cinemas, in a promising sign for the holiday season box office. The musical fantasy film led the domestic box office, beating out another prequel, "Hunger Games: A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," for the top spot. "Wonka," which tells the origin story of the fictional chocolatier, also scored $92.6 million in ticket sales overseas, making it the No. 1 movie globally over the weekend. The film follows a young Willy Wonka before his days as the mysterious chocolate factory owner from Roald Dahl's 1964 book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." The Hollywood Reporter, CNN