November 10, 2022

*) Republicans closer to secure House majority The Republicans are nudging closer to winning enough seats to gain a majority in the US House of Representatives, but control of the Senate is still up for grabs. The outcome will affect President Joe Biden's ability to push his agenda through a highly partisan Congress. The Senate race in Georgia will go into a run-off next month. According to the latest numbers, the Democrats and the Republicans both have 48 seats. The parties need to gain 51 seats to control the Senate. *) Russia orders troops to pull out of Kherson Russia's military has ordered its troops to pull out of the Ukrainian city of Kherson. It is a significant setback for the Kremlin as Kherson was the only regional capital to fall to Russia after the offensive began in February. Military officials reportedly admit they can no longer supply troops defending the city and say they'll build defensive positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River. *) ICC briefs UNSC on Libya The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has updated the UN Security Council on the discovery and verification of mass graves in Libya. Karim Khan has met families of suspected victims at the site of mass graves during his visit. He believes crimes against humanity have been committed in Libya. International teams have so far discovered more than 270 bodies in mass graves around the town of Tarhuna, a former stronghold for warlord Khalifa Haftar. *) Hackers demand $10 mn for stolen Australian health records Hackers are demanding 10 million dollars to stop leaking highly sensitive records stolen from a major Australian healthcare company, as they uploaded yet more intimate details about customers. Medibank, Australia's largest private health insurer, confirmed this week that hackers had accessed the information of 9.7 million current and former clients, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The hackers on Thursday uploaded a second batch of files to a dark web forum, with more sensitive det