First Thing: al-Shifa hospital in Gaza ‘no longer functioning’, says WHO

WHO confirms Gaza’s largest hospital is without power, putting patients including infants at risk of death. Plus, the book club that spent 28 years reading Finnegans Wake

Good morning.

Health officials and people trapped inside Gaza’s largest hospital rejected Israel’s claims that it was helping babies and others evacuate on Sunday, saying fighting continued just outside the facility where incubators lay idle with no electricity and critical supplies were running out.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, said on the X social media platform that Dar al-Shifa has been without water three days and was “not functioning as a hospital any more”. Several humanitarian groups told the Associated Press they were unable to reach the hospital on Sunday.

The last generator ran out of fuel on Saturday, leading to the deaths of three premature babies and four other patients, according to the health ministry. It said another 36 babies were at risk of dying, the WHO said.

Meanwhile, two other major hospitals in northern Gaza have closed to new patients amid Israeli airstrikes and heavy fighting around both facilities, as medical staff were left without oxygen, medical supplies or fuel to power incubators.

How are the 39 babies being looked after? With no oxygen supplies or power for incubators, nurses are attempting to provide what care they could for 39 babies who were transferred from the neonatal unit in another part of the sprawling complex after a strike on Dar al-Shifa’s intensive care unit. Staff are swaddling dozens of tiny premature babies seven or eight to a bed, in a desperate effort to keep the infants warm – and alive.

What’s happening with the US hostages taken by Hamas? Nine Americans are still missing after the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel, the US national security adviser said yesterday. Jake Sullivan, the White House’s chief security adviser, said the US was involved in “ongoing negotiations” for the release of hostages believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza.

Trump Jr set to return to witness stand as defense makes case in fraud trial

Donald Trump Jr is expected to take the witness stand in New York for a second time as defense lawyers for the family firm make their case in the $250m fraud trial.

Trump Jr is the first witness to testify from the defense’s witness list, which also includes Donald and Eric Trump as witnesses, though it is unclear whether they will end up being called.

The New York attorney general’s office is suing Trump, his adult sons and other executives at the Trump Organization for inflating the value of assets on financial statements. They rested their case after Ivanka Trump testified last Wednesday. Trump faces a fine of at least $250m if found guilty at the end of the trial. The New York judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled Trump should have his business licenses revoked for fraud, though the ruling is going through an appellate court.

Trump’s eldest son had taken the stand on 1 November, where he said he did not work on the financial statements on the case – though he signed several documents affirming their fairness and accuracy – and said he expected banks to do their own “due diligence” rather than relying on the financial statements.

What will the defense lawyers be trying to do during his appearance? His lawyers will be trying to make their case that lenders were not harmed by and had actively sought out relationships with the Trump family. In testimony so far, the Trumps have downplayed the importance of the financial statements, saying they were exclusively handled by the organization’s accountants and legal departments and that the family typically had enough cash on hand to conduct deals.

David Cameron returns to UK government as foreign secretary

Former British prime minister David Cameron has returned to government as UK foreign secretary, in a stunning comeback that highlighted Rishi Sunak’s willingness to take risks as he looks to revive his political fortunes.

Downing Street announced today that Cameron would join the government, accepting a peerage in order to do so, as part of a wider reshuffle in which Suella Braverman was sacked as home secretary and replaced by the foreign secretary, James Cleverly.

A spokesperson also confirmed Jeremy Hunt would remain as chancellor.

Cameron stood down in 2016 after Brexit happened when he lost the EU referendum, but reportedly told friends in 2018 he wanted to return to frontline politics, preferably as foreign secretary.

Why has Sunak brought Cameron back? His decision to bring back Cameron is likely to please moderates in the Conservative party who have been dismayed by Braverman’s aggressively rightwing rhetoric on issues such as immigration, policing and homelessness.

Will everyone be happy in the party? No, the decision could also fuel anger on the right of the party, especially given Cameron’s last meaningful political action was to lead the failed campaign to remain in the EU.

In other news …

The United States carried out strikes against two Iran-linked sites in Syria on Sunday in response to attacks on American forces, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said. It is the third time in less than three weeks that the US military has targeted locations in Syria it said were tied to Iran

Some period pants sold by high street retailers contain high levels of silver that could have health and environmental implications for consumers, an investigation has found. Silver is used as an antimicrobial agent and is typically added to period pants to combat user concerns about smell and hygiene.

US House speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a Republican stopgap spending measure late Saturday aimed at averting a government shutdown in a week, but the measure quickly ran into opposition from lawmakers from both parties in Congress.

Stat of the day: ‘We save 98% of our patients’ – inside a frontline Ukrainian field hospital

On the Ukraine frontline, medics work in makeshift conditions, even while targeted by Russian bombs, to stabilize patients before they can be taken to hospitals. “We save 98% of our patients,” said Dr Denys Sholom, the head of the medical team.

The Russians frequently target the ground floor clinic, he added. Sholom – a children’s anaesthesiologist by training – said he and a surgeon would continue working, whenever bombs fell, as his colleagues took cover in a basement. “I worry about them,” he said, adding: “Sometimes we have to amputate. If there’s the smallest chance of saving a limb we send them for treatment elsewhere.”

Don’t miss this: ‘Cary Grant’s whole life was a civil war’ – the TV drama unmasking Hollywood’s permatanned icon

Freezing rain is lashing the roof of the movie-set trailer. Even with the heating on full, the conditions are still shivery. But Jason Isaacs is sporting the sort of deep tan that suggests months spent under fierce sun. Appropriately, given the role he’s playing, it’s fake. These intensive cosmetics reproduce the Los Angeles-broiled face of the movie star Cary Grant, Alfred Hitchcock’s favourite leading man, the star of North By Northwest, Charade, Notorious and To Catch a Thief, and the No 1 box office superstar smoothie of the mid-20th century. For Isaacs is to play him in ITV’s forthcoming four-part bio-drama Archie.

The mansion-dwelling megastar was born Archibald Leach and grew up in a squalid Bristol terrace believing his mother was dead. The stars and writer of Archie talk about his rise, shame and redemption.

Climate check: Climate crisis and China-US rivalry – five top takeaways from the Pacific’s most important summit

Leaders from Pacific island countries – together with Australia and New Zealand – have just wrapped up their most important annual political talks. Pacific island countries are especially vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather events, despite being responsible for only a small share of the global greenhouse gas emissions that drive the climate crisis. They wrestled with calls to phase out fossil fuels and discussed how to navigate intense rivalry between the US and China, all while trying to keep a lid on simmering internal tensions.

Here’s what we learned from the weeklong Pacific Islands Forum (Pif) summit hosted by the Cook Islands.

Last Thing: ‘It never ends’ – the book club that spent 28 years reading Finnegans Wake

For a quarter-century, Gerry Fialka, an experimental film-maker from Venice, California, has hosted a book club devoted to a single text: James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, one of the most difficult texts in literary history. Starting in 1995, between 10 and 30 people would show up to monthly meetings at a local library. At first they read two pages a month, eventually slowing to just one page per discussion. At that pace, the group – which now meets on Zoom – reached the final page in October. It took them 28 years. The California reading group spent longer reading Finnegans Wake than Joyce spent writing it: the 628-page experimental text took the author 17 years to complete, Slote said, including a four-year stretch of near-complete writer’s block.

Sign up

First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.

Get in touch

If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com