U.S. and world news for Dec. 21

Hamas’ command center: Israel’s military says it has uncovered a Hamas command center in Gaza City. The Israelis say the command center was in a network of tunnels under the city that was used to move weapons, Hamas fighters and supplies throughout Gaza City. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has again said that Israel needs to cut back on its military operations in Gaza and focus on hitting only Hamas. Talks aimed at another cease-fire and hostage release are reported underway today in Egypt.

Texas flights: A spokesman for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says that because Chicago has imposed restrictions on buses carrying immigrants arriving in the city from Texas, Texas has started flying immigrants to Chicago. Chicago imposed fines for bus operators who did not submit proper paperwork or unload passengers only at designated locations and added the threat that buses would be towed or impounded by police. The first flight from El Paso, Texas, to Chicago, carried 120 immigrants.

Possible entertainment merger: CNN reported this morning that the chief executives of Warner Discovery and Paramount Global have met to discuss a possible merger of the two entertainment giants. It was reported that Warner CEO David Zaslav and Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish met at lunch at Paramount’s New York City headquarters. The meeting reportedly lasted several hours. Both Warner and Paramount have declined to comment.

Tesla investigation: The news agency Reuters reported this morning that Tesla is facing a major recall in Norway because the suspensions in its electric vehicles have been failing. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration has been investigating the issue since last year. Telsa blames the drivers of its vehicles rather than a manufacturing defect for the suspension failures, according to the reports.

Giuliani order: United States District Court Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., has lifted a stay and ordered former Trump Attorney Rudy Giuliani to immediately pay the $148 million judgment he owes to the election workers he defamed. The jury award was approximately three times the amount for which former election workers Rudy Freeman and Shaye Moss had asked. Giuliani has continued to repeat his defamatory statements and Freeman and Moss are seeking a court order requiring Giuliani to stop lying about them.

Harvard president: The House Committee on Education has widened its investigation into Harvard University President Claudine Gay to include allegations of plagiarism. Gay had been called before the committee, which was looking into alleged antisemitism on college campuses. An internal investigation by Harvard also is looking at whether Gay gave proper attribution to sources of content in material she had previously published. A Harvard spokesperson this morning told CNN that Gay is now updating her doctorate dissertation to correct what the spokesperson called “inadequate citation.”

Cover photo by Harvard Radcliffe Institute