10 things you need to know today: October 12, 2023

1. Israel's Netanyahu, Gantz form unity coalition

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition National Unity party leader Benny Gantz agreed to form a unity government Wednesday night as Israel masses troops ahead of a likely ground offensive against the Palestinian group Hamas in retaliation for surprise attacks that killed more than 1,200 Israelis. Netanyahu said he responded to Gantz's offer to join a unity war Cabinet because "the fate of the country is at stake." He vowed to "crush and destroy" Hamas, saying, "Every Hamas member is a dead man." Gantz said the cooperation sent "a clear message to our adversaries and to all Israeli citizens: all of us together are mobilizing." Israeli strikes in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip have killed hundreds of Palestinians. Haaretz, The Washington Post

2. Republicans narrowly nominate Scalise over Jordan for House speaker

House Republicans on Wednesday elected Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) as their nominee to be House speaker. Scalise, the House majority leader, defeated Trump-endorsed House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in a 113-99 vote after both candidates spent several days trying to rally colleagues behind them in a scramble to replace ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Scalise needs 217 votes to get the job, and it wasn't clear he would have enough support in the first vote. Several Republicans, including controversial Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), said they still intended to vote for Jordan. The next speaker will immediately face huge challenges, including unifying a fractured GOP conference with a narrow House majority, and averting a looming government shutdown. Axios

3. UN chief appeals for humanitarian break in Israel's Gaza siege

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday appealed to "all parties — and those who have an influence over those parties — to avoid any further escalation and spillover" in the fighting that erupted after a Hamas surprise attack that left hundreds of Israeli civilians dead. Guterres called for "the immediate release of all Israeli hostages held in Gaza," and for Israel to let "crucial life-saving supplies — including fuel, food and water" — into the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave. The Red Cross pleaded for fuel to keep overwhelmed hospitals from "turning into morgues," Reuters reported. Israel said it wouldn't call a humanitarian pause in its siege of Gaza until Hamas frees the more than 100 hostages it captured in Israel. United Nations, Reuters

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4. Israel shells Lebanon towns after Hezbollah strike

Israel's military shelled towns in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in response to rocket attacks by Hezbollah in a fourth day of cross-border violence triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas' deadly surprise attack in southern Israel. Hezbollah confirmed that it fired two precision missiles at an Israeli military post near the border, calling it a response to Israeli shelling that killed some of its fighters earlier in the week. Israel's military said it conducted an airstrike on a Hezbollah position Wednesday. "We have deployed tens of thousands additional units along the northern border," Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said. "The message to Hezbollah is very clear. If they will try to attack, we are ready and vigilant along our border." Reuters, BBC News

5. Biden kicks off campaign by filing for Nevada primary

President Biden has filed to appear on Nevada's February Democratic primary ballot, a formality that officially kicked off his bid for re-election. Nevada's filing deadline is Oct. 16, one of the earliest in the Democratic Party's nominating contests. New Hampshire opened its primary filing period on Oct. 11. Biden isn't expected to face major opposition in Nevada, where only long-shot Democratic challenger Marianne Williamson and some lesser-known candidates have filed. The odds Biden would face a strong challenger plunged this week when environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced he was leaving the Democratic race and would run as an independent. NBC News

6. Report: Investors bet Fed done hiking rates

Investors have started betting that the Federal Reserve has finished its campaign to raise interest rates to fight high inflation, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The hikes have lifted interest rates to their highest level in 22 years. Several Fed leaders indicated this week that their efforts to slow the economy by raising borrowing costs has been amplified by other factors, such as a recent surge of bond rates that lifted the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield to a two-decade high. Those yields influence everything from mortgage rates to corporate debt. Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said the central bank doesn't want to go so far it hurts the economy unnecessarily, according to the Times. The New York Times 

7. Conservative justices skeptical South Carolina map shows racial bias

The Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority on Wednesday signaled support for reinstating a Republican-drawn South Carolina congressional map that made a Charleston-area district safer for a white Republican incumbent. The conservative justices questioned whether civil rights groups that challenged the change have evidence lawmakers focused on race rather than politics. A three-judge appellate panel in January ruled that the map illegally split Black neighborhoods. Chief Justice John Roberts said the plaintiffs' case was based on "circumstantial evidence" of racial gerrymandering. Liberal justices noted that excluding Black voters, who tend to vote for Democrats, from a district is the most effective way to achieve a Republican advantage, because race is "more predictive" of future voting behavior than data from recent elections. NBC News, The Washington Post

8. New York House Republicans propose expelling Santos

New York House Republicans announced Wednesday they would introduce a measure seeking to expel Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) from Congress. Federal prosecutors in New York this week filed 10 more charges against Santos, accusing him of stealing the identities and credit card data from campaign donors. Rep. Anthony D'Esposito (R-N.Y.) tweeted he was introducing a resolution to "rid the People's House of fraudster George Santos." D'Esposito said the resolution was co-sponsored by Reps. Nick LaLota, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Nick Langworthy and Brandon Williams — all first-term Republicans from New York. Santos now faces 23 charges. The six first-term lawmakers voted in May with the rest of the GOP conference to refer Santos' case to the House Ethics Committee. The Hill

9. NASA unveils asteroid sample containing carbon and water

NASA on Wednesday released the first images of black rocks and dust brought back from an asteroid. The small bits of the sample analyzed so far show that the asteroid, Bennu, contains water and carbon, adding to evidence that asteroids might have provided early Earth with essential elements for life. "We're already thrilled with the results," says Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, which sent a spacecraft on a seven-year mission to Bennu — 200 million miles away — and back. The sample appears to be nearly 5% carbon. "We picked the right asteroid — and not only that, we brought back the right sample," said Daniel Glavin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "This stuff is an astrobiologist's dream." NPR

10. ACT scores fall to 30-year low

The average ACT score dropped to a 30-year low of 19.5 out of 36 in 2023, down 0.3 points from a year earlier, according to the organization behind the college admissions test. It was the sixth straight year of declines. "The hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for postsecondary success," Janet Godwin, chief executive of ACT, said in a statement. The Covid-19 pandemic weakened students' college preparedness. The class of 2023 offered the best picture yet of the impact, because these students were in their first year of high school when the pandemic started and schools shifted to online instruction, The Wall Street Journal said. The Wall Street Journal