Hello, from CNN, I'm Joe Beck, with the five things you need to know for Thursday, November 14th.

We start with some news just in as we were recording. Wholesale inflation heated up again last month

by more than economists predicted, reversing recent progress. The producer price index rose 0.2% month on month in October, and was up 2.4%

over the last 12 months. We'll have more on this in our noon episode of Five Things.

President-elect Donald Trump's controversial string of picks for his upcoming administration

is setting up a potentially provocative

confirmation process by the Senate. Some House Republicans gasped as they found out the selection

of Matt Gates as Attorney General, someone who's been both a critic and a target of the Justice

Department. But as CNN's Jeff Zellini explains, incoming Senate majority leader John Thune has said

the Senate would vet all of Trump's nominees.

Hey Joe, there's no doubt Donald Trump holds considerable sway over the Republican Party.

It's his party in so many ways.

That does not change the fact the U.S. Senate is a separate branch of government.

How separate is the question? Most nominees are likely to sail through, like Marco Rubio

is Secretary of State. But Matt Gates as Attorney General, and even Tulsi Gabbard as the

Director of National Intelligence, are two key examples of nominees who will get considerable scrutiny

from the Senate confirmation process.

Israel has expanded its ground offensive in Lebanon.

The country's defense minister announced the action yesterday, but didn't say when the decision

was made or give any details about what the expansion will look like.

And he indicated the war likely wouldn't be ending any time soon.

We will not make any ceasefires and we will not stop and will not take our foot off the pedal,

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