5 things to know for Oct. 25: Israel, Speaker saga, Hurricane Otis, Immigration, Social media

5things to know for Oct. 25: Israel, Speaker saga, Hurricane Otis, Immigration, Social media

1. Israel

as a humanitarian crisis in the Middle East deepens, the main UN agency working in Gaza said it will be forced to halt its operations later today due to a lack of fuel. Doctors in overwhelmed hospitals on the brink of shutting down have repeatedly warned that waves of new patients injured in the daily bombings and babies relying on oxygen supplies will die if fuel is not brought in. Just eight out of 20 aid trucks scheduled to cross into Gaza on Tuesday made the journey, UNRWA said. No specific reason was given as to why the other 12 trucks didn’t make it. This comes as Israel’s leadership said a ground offensive is still on track after they vowed to wipe out Hamas in response to its October 7 terror attacks and kidnapping rampage in which 1,400 people — mostly civilians — were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.

2. Speaker saga

House Republicans selected Rep. Mike Johnson as their next speaker nominee in a secret-ballot vote Tuesday night after Rep. Tom Emmer dropped out of the race earlier in the day — just hours after he was selected as the GOP’s third nominee. Lawmakers will head to the House floor today to vote, but there is still uncertainty over whether the Louisiana lawmaker can secure the 217 votes needed to win the gavel. “Democracy is messy sometimes, but it is our system,” Johnson said Tuesday evening. “The intention is to go to the House floor tomorrow and make this official. So we will be doing that,” he added. For more than three weeks, the GOP conference has so far struggled to unite behind a successor to Rep. Kevin McCarthy following his ouster.

3. Hurricane Otis

Hurricane Otis has weakened to a Category 4 storm after making landfall early today near Acapulco, Mexico, as a life-threatening Category 5 hurricane. Forecasters have warned it could be a “nightmare scenario” for Mexico’s southern coast as it threatens to cause catastrophic damage with destructive winds, heavy rainfall and storm surge. Forecasts show Otis is expected to rapidly weaken later today as it presses inland and over southern Mexico’s higher terrain. Additionally, rainfall totals of 8 to 16 inches are expected in parts of the region through the end of the week, with some areas seeing up to 20 inches of rain. Meteorologists caution this could potentially cause dangerous flash floods and mudslides.

4. Immigration

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the Biden administration for allegedly cutting razor wire at the US-Mexico border. Federal agents, the Republican said in the lawsuit, implemented a policy in late September that called for the destruction of the wire, which he claims undermined the state’s border security. The suit, filed in the Western District of Texas, marks the latest chapter of the legal battle between the state and the Biden administration over border security during a migration surge that is straining local and federal resources. Last month, Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 200,000 migrants crossing the US-Mexico border, the highest total during a one-month period this year.

5. Social media

Dozens of states sued Instagram-parent Meta on Tuesday, accusing the social media giant of harming young users’ mental health through allegedly addictive features. In a federal lawsuit filed in California by 33 attorneys general, the states allege that Meta’s designs, such as infinite news feeds and frequent notifications, have contributed to a mental health crisis in the US. The suit also accuses Meta of violating consumer protection statutes, as well as a federal children’s privacy law that prohibits companies from collecting the personal information of children under 13 without a parent’s consent. The federal complaint calls for court orders prohibiting Meta from violating the law and, in the case of many states, unspecified financial penalties.