10 things you need to know today: November 2, 2023

1. First group of civilians allowed to leave Gaza

The first group of civilian evacuees to leave Gaza since Hamas started its current war with Israel entered Egypt at the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday. The group included 320 foreign nationals and dual citizens, and dozens of injured Palestinians. The evacuation, under a deal brokered by Qatar, came as another blast hit Gaza's largest refugee camp, Jabaliya, a day after an Israeli airstrike there killed at least 50 people and wounded 150 others, according to unconfirmed figures from the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry. Israel said the strike killed a Hamas commander. There were no immediate casualty numbers from Wednesday's blast. Videos showed people digging through rubble and carrying away injured people. Reuters 

2. Donald Trump Jr. testifies in fraud trial

Donald Trump Jr. testified Wednesday in the New York civil fraud case against former President Donald Trump and his family business. The younger Trump said he never worked on documents at the heart of the fraud allegations against him, his father and other Trump Organization executives. The judge in the case already agreed with New York Attorney General Letitia James' office that the Trumps and their company fraudulently inflated the value of their properties to get favorable loans. Donald Trump Jr., who took over the company along with his brother Eric and then-CFO Allen Weisselberg when Donald Trump was elected president, said the company relied on an outside accountant to handle its financial details. NBC News, The Washington Post

3. Fed leaves interest rates unchanged

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday held interest rates unchanged for the second straight meeting, but indicated it was open to another hike in December. The central bank has raised rates from near-zero in March 2022 to a 5.25%-5.5% range since July, aiming to slow the economy to cool demand and discourage companies from raising prices. The economy has remained stronger than expected. Inflation has come down significantly from a peak of more than 7% last year, measuring 3.4% on an annual basis in September. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said after a two-day policy meeting that Fed leaders are "proceeding carefully" given "the uncertainties and risks that we face." The New York Times

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4. Republicans rip Tuberville for blocking military promotions

Several Republican senators showed their growing frustration with Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who has blocked President Biden's military service promotions to protest a Pentagon abortion policy, by taking over the Senate floor Wednesday night to try and force confirmation votes for 61 generals and admirals. Tuberville blocked the promotions, one by one. The GOP senators — Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Todd Young (Ind.) and Mitt Romney (Utah) — said they agreed with Tuberville's objection to the policy, which supports female personnel who have to travel for abortions, but warned his blockade punishes blameless "heroes" and threatens national security. "Xi Jinping is loving this. So is Putin," Sullivan said. "How dumb can we be, man?" The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post

5. Infant mortality rises after 2-decade decline

The U.S. infant mortality rate rose last year for the first time in 20 years, according to a report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 2021 and 2022, infant deaths rose by 3%, to 5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births. Non-newborn infant deaths rose by 4%, reversing a two-decade trend. From 2002 to 2021, the nation's infant mortality rate dropped by 22%. Infant and maternal mortality are seen as "markers of a society's overall health, and America's rates are higher than those in other industrialized countries," The New York Times reported. Black and Native American babies die at twice the rate of white and Hispanic babies. The Hill, The New York Times

6. UK inquiry exposes embarrassing moments in Boris Johnson's Covid response

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a series of embarrassing revelations this week during testimony in a U.K. Covid-19 inquiry. Dominic Cummings, a former chief adviser to the prime minister, said a "low point" in the Johnson government's pandemic response came when the then-prime minister asked top scientists if Covid could be destroyed by blasting a "special hairdryer" up the nose. A day earlier, the inquiry learned that the government's former chief scientist wrote in his 2020 notebook that Johnson's attitude toward the crisis was made clear in a "bonkers set of exchanges" in which Johnson suggested the coronavirus pandemic was "nature's way of dealing with old people." The Guardian, New York Post

7. Mexico announces aid to hotels damaged by Hurricane Otis

The Mexican government said Wednesday it will pay half of the interest on bank loans needed to rebuild the 377 hotels in Acapulco that were heavily damaged by Hurricane Otis last week. The storm intensified in record time and slammed into the resort city on Mexico's Pacific coast with top sustained winds of 165 miles per hour. Damaged or destroyed hotels face months of repair and rebuilding with no money coming in, so the loans will be crucial. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, unveiling a $3.4 billion aid package, also promised 250,000 families new appliances and weekly food packages. Otis killed dozens of people, and more remain missing. The Associated Press

8. Second pig-heart transplant patient dies

The second U.S. patient at a Maryland hospital to receive a heart transplanted from a genetically modified pig died this week, nearly six weeks after his surgery. The man, 58-year-old Lawrence Faucette, was dying from heart failure and ineligible to receive a human heart, and decided to become the second person in the world to undergo the highly experimental surgery, in part because it was it was his only remaining option. Faucette died Monday after showing "initial signs of rejection" recently, the University of Maryland School of Medicine said. Ann Faucette, his wife, said he "knew his time with us was short, and this was his last chance to do for others." The Washington Post

9. Toyota raises pay in sign of UAW strike impact

Toyota Motor said Wednesday it would raise the pay of most of its non-union U.S. workers by 9%. The announcement came days after the United Auto Workers won big pay and benefit increases in deals to end its strikes against the big Detroit automakers — Ford, General Motors and Chrysler-owner Stellantis. The Toyota raises, scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, are the first sign of the impact of the UAW strike across the auto industry. The company shows it values employees "by offering robust compensation packages that we continually review to ensure that we remain competitive," Chris Reynolds, Toyota Motor North America's executive vice president, said in a statement. Reuters, The Wall Street Journal

10. Legendary college basketball coach Bob Knight dies at 83

Hall of Fame college basketball coach Bob Knight, who led the Indiana Hoosiers to three national championships, died Wednesday at his Bloomington, Indiana, home. He was 83. Knight got his start at Army in 1965. At age 24, he was the youngest coach at a Division I school. He went on to serve as head coach at Indiana for 29 seasons, winning a school-record 661 games. His career record was 902-371. Knight's 1976 squad is the seventh and most recent men's Division I team to go unbeaten. He stirred controversy with angry rants, but was known for running a clean program that graduated most of its players. ESPN, CNN