Gaetz out-Bondi in, Bolsonaro and Europe’s new migration frontline
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Today, Trump selects a new attorney general pick after Matt Gaetz drops out. Brazilian police accuse the former president of plotting a coup. Spain's Canary Islands feel the strain of a surge in migrants as the rest of Europe pushes back. And what the Comcast breakup means in the battle between cable and streaming.

It's Friday, November 22nd. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Christopher Waljasper in Chicago. And I'm Carmel Crimmins in Dublin. When you hear LSEC data and analytics, what do you think of?

comprehensive data you can trust, exclusive access to Reuters news, industry-leading analytics and unique insights. Discover new possibilities with LSEC Data & Analytics. Donald Trump has nominated Pam Bondi, the former top law enforcement officer in Florida, to be Attorney General, the president-elect wasting no time replacing his first pick, Matt Gaetz, after the embattled former congressman withdrew from consideration.

Gates faced stiff opposition from Senate Republicans over allegations about his conduct. Bondi, who was the former Attorney General in Florida, will likely have an easier go at confirmation. Gates is the subject of an Ethics Committee probe into allegations of having sex with a 17-year-old girl and illicit drug use. He has denied wrongdoing. Our U.S. producer, Jonah Green, caught up with politics editor, Scott Malone, on another busy day on the Hill.

So, Scott, Gaetz was always seen as kind of a long shot given his profile and his reputation. But what exactly went wrong here? Well, there were a few things. One, he went into this process being perhaps not the most popular man in the Congressional Republican Caucus. You might recall that last year he had orchestrated the ouster of Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. That set off several weeks of chaos in the House of Representatives.

and, you know, probably cost him some friends on Capitol Hill. The other thing that we know is that he was the subject of an investigation by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee into some allegations of sex with a 17-year-old girl. And at the time of his resignation, indicated that they might not release the report because he was no longer in Congress. That

in turn, caused a lot of consternation among Senate Republicans, some of whom said that they did want to see that report and that they could have a hard time voting or making a decision without getting access to that evidence. It wasn't an intercontinental ballistic missile after all, but Russia did fire a new hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile at Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin telling Russians in a televised address that more could follow, and warning that the Ukraine war was escalating towards a global conflict. The Russian launch follows the US and UK allowing Kyiv to strike inside Russian territory with advanced Western weapons earlier this week.

Israeli officials are criticizing a decision by the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Galant. The court says they're responsible for murder, persecution and using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. Here's Netanyahu's response in a video statement. The anti-Semitic decision of the International Court in The Hague is a modern Dreyfus trial.

and it will end the same way. An arrest warrant has also been issued for Hamas leader Ibrahim al-Masri, though Israel says it killed him in an airstrike in July. The ICC's 124 member states will be responsible for enforcing the warrants. Israel and the United States are not members.

For more on Israel, tune into our special episode this weekend. We'll take a look at Jewish settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the settler's cause, and what we know about what Donald Trump's policy towards Israel and the wider Middle East might look like. That pod drops on Saturday.

TV giant Comcast announced this week that it's carving off some of its entertainment and news cable networks. Brands like USA Network, Syfy, and Oxygen, as well as some of its news channels, will be spun off into a new publicly traded company. Our entertainment reporter Dawn Chmielewski is in Los Angeles. She's been digging into what the split says about how legacy cable companies are trying to adjust to the streaming age.

So the industry has reached an inflection point. Now, the cable businesses that Comcast is spinning off continue to make money. But Comcast has decided to hold on to those entertainment assets that really fuel the growth of its streaming service, Peacock. So they're holding on to the film and television studios. They're holding on to NBC, which has rights to big sporting events and news.

And they're holding on to Bravo, which is another cable network, but it comes with a very devoted and sizable following. So what does that mean for those of us watching at home? Something like 65 million U.S. households still subscribe to cable television. So those viewers are still expecting content. So there still is a market for entertainment delivered the old-fashioned way via cable and satellite TV. So this new company will be focused on creating programming for that audience.

Police in Brazil are accusing former President Jair Bolsonaro and some of his cabinet ministers of plotting a coup to stay in power after losing the 2022 election. The allegations cap a two-year investigation into events leading up to riots in the capital by Bolsonaro's supporters in January 2023. The former president has responded in a post on social media, calling investigators, quote, creative in how they conducted the case.

Our Brazil bureau chief, Brad Haynes, is in Sao Paulo. He's already been stripped of his electoral rights through 2030. The issue is now his allies, who have been really enthusiastic after seeing Donald Trump rebound from his legal woes to be re-elected, they were hoping Bolsonaro could pull off something similar. And this is going to make it much more difficult.

On the smallest of the Canary Islands, medical workers rush to save migrants from rickety boats arriving from West African nations like Mali, Senegal, and Morocco. This year has seen a surge in migrants arriving into Spain's Canary Islands, and those caring for them are feeling the strain. Our reporter, Joan Faust, visited the island of El Hierro.

This is a slow-paced little island, pretty rural. It's a mix of a bit green, but it's also volcanic land. You could see goats, horses, and it's a pretty quiet island.

But that laid-back atmosphere has been disrupted recently when this island that has a population of 11,400 people has received so far this year almost twice its population. It's true that most migrants are pretty quickly transferred to a larger island nearby, but nonetheless this has put a lot of pressure on El Hierro. They are gentlemen, they are people, in short, who we treat

The medical chief of the only hospital in the island, Luis González, he's the one that assesses the migrants as they arrive in their boats. And he told us how the staff were growing exhausted, but also how at the same time his staff is very committed to providing as much help as they can to these newcomers.

One man we spoke to from Mali could not give us his name because of security reasons, but he told us how he had decided to leave his country due to rising violence. He left his wife behind in Mali and now he's figuring out what he can do in Europe. The central Mediterranean is still the busiest area

irregular migratory route into the European Union, but arrivals have decreased significantly this year compared to the Canary Islands, where they have actually increased 23% so far this year, while overall to the EU have fallen more than 40%, and to Italy, which is the busiest route, more than 60%.

Irregular migration only represents between 5 to 10% of all migratory arrivals to Europe. But nonetheless, migration has become a

a more hot-button political issue. So Spain historically and with the current government still has been, generally speaking, quite welcoming to irregular migrants. But at the same time, the current government is trying to increase the number of deportation of migrants and is also trying to strengthen the relationship with certain West African countries in an attempt for them to better control their borders, so to reduce the number of boats that reach places like the Canary Islands.

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And for today's recommended read, a recommended taste from your friends across the pond. Pie and mash, a favourite of Cockney natives in East London. The pie used to be filled with eels from the River Thames. Now it's mincemeat or ground beef to our American friends. The mash is self-explanatory. All of it slathered in parsley liquor sauce. Delicious. And now there's a campaign to get this dish special protected status.

A link to the story is in the pod description. We'll be back on Monday with our daily headline show. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. And to make sure you never miss an episode, follow on your favorite podcast player or download the Reuters app.