US President Joe Biden said people in Rafah, Gaza are crowded and in danger. They need to be kept safe.
Israel needs to try really hard to keep the more than one million Palestinians safe in the southern Gazan city.
Rafah is getting hit a lot by Israel’s planes. People are getting hurt.
A doctor from Palestine said people in Rafah are scared.
Last week, the leader of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he told soldiers to get ready to go into Rafah. He promised to win against the Hamas fighters who are hiding in the city.
The leader of the UN’s human rights group said that any attack would be very scary and a lot of innocent people would probably die.
More than half of the 2. 3 million people in Gaza Strip are now living in the city on the border with Egypt. There used to be only 250,000 people there before the war between Israel and Hamas started in October.
Many people who have nowhere to live are staying in temporary shelters or tents in dirty conditions, with little access to clean water or food.
On Sunday, Israel’s army saved two men who were being held captive in Rafah.
President Biden once more asked for the safety of the people in Rafah after talking with King Abdullah of Jordan in Washington on Monday.
He said if the military wants to do a big operation in the city, they need to make sure that the people living there will be safe.
“Many people have been forced to leave their homes several times because of the violence. Now they are crowded into Rafah, which makes them easy targets and at risk. ”
“They must be kept safe. ” We have always said that we are against making Palestinians leave Gaza against their will.
Last week, the White House said it would not approve big Israeli actions in Rafah without thinking about the people who live there.
A lot of people have left the area of the Gaza Strip in Israel because of the fighting. Gaza Strip is run by Hamas, a Palestinian group.
Many countries and global groups have told Israel not to start its attack as planned.
UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron said on Monday that Israel should think carefully before doing more in Rafah.
Josep Borrell, who is in charge of the EU’s foreign policy, told friends of Israel to stop sending weapons because too many people were getting killed in Gaza.
Saudi Arabia said there would be big problems if Rafah was attacked.
At the same time, the leaders of Hamas in Gaza said that many people could get hurt if there is a fight, and it could also make it harder to talk about getting Israeli hostages back from Gaza.
Rafah is the only place where humanitarian aid can come into Gaza from Egypt.
Israel’s army started attacking Gaza Strip because 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel on October 7 by gunmen from Hamas. The gunmen also took 253 people as hostages.
Some of the hostages were let go, but Israel says they still don’t know where 134 of them are.
On Monday, the health ministry in Gaza, run by Hamas, reported that 164 people were killed and 200 were injured in Gaza in the past day. 28,340 people in Gaza have died and almost 68,000 have been injured since October 7th, according to the ministry.
Tag: Biden
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Biden asks Israel to protect those who are weak in Rafah
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Biden report puts prosecutor under political scrutiny
Special Investigator Robert Hur brought attention to the fact that US President Joe Biden is old and has a bad memory. He had trouble remembering important events in his own life.
On Friday, the president’s team attacked Mr. Hur’s report, which looked into how Mr. Biden handled classified files for a year. Vice-President Kamala Harris said the special counsel’s motives were clearly political.
A spokesperson from the White House said the report was not okay and legal experts agreed with that.
Some ex-federal lawyers told the media that it’s not usual for prosecutors to include very personal information in these types of cases.
Some people thought it was okay for Mr. Hur, a Republican chosen for the job by Mr. Biden’s attorney general, to talk about the president’s memory and age when explaining why he didn’t prosecute him for keeping classified documents.
Many said that special counsels have a difficult job investigating important issues and then explaining their findings to the public. This is especially challenging when the president who is running for re-election is involved.
Mr Hur’s report, which came out on Thursday, says that Mr. Biden, who is 81 years old, knowingly kept secret files after he stopped being vice president in 2017.
He said it would be hard to prove that Mr. Biden committed the crime because of how old and calm he appears to the jury.
Mr Hur said that Mr. Biden has trouble remembering certain events. In another instance, he gave a clear example by writing that Mr. Biden doesn’t remember when his son Beau died, even though it was just a few years ago.
Steven Tyrell, a lawyer who used to be in charge of catching people who commit fraud for the government, said he thinks that Mr. Hur was right to put a lot of information in his report.
“He said it’s really important for a special counsel to explain why they make a decision to charge someone with a crime. ”
It’s good that Special Counsel Hur considered the president’s mental state and sharpness when trying to figure out his intent.
Unfortunately, the specific information was sometimes harmful for a political candidate who is already facing criticism for being old.
Some experts said to the media that some of these details, especially the mentions of his son’s death, were not really needed.
“Ty Cobb, who worked for Donald Trump, said that some examples were telling and rightfully included. ”
“But some of them made me stop and think. ”
Mr Cobb, along with other lawyers who talked to the media, said that he really respects Mr Hur.
“But I think it would have been better to just say that the president would have been a supportive defendant instead of going into the memory issues as much as they did,” he said.
Former US assistant prosecutor Renato Mariotti said that the amount of detail about Mr. Biden’s memory showed “bad decision making”.
“He Hur] didn’t treat the people he was investigating fairly, and that’s not right,” he said.
The people who talked to the media think that special counsels know how their report could affect politics, but it shouldn’t change what they find.
This was especially true for Mr. Hur, who shared the results of this investigation just nine months before the presidential election in November. Biden wants to be president for another four years.
Seth DuCharme, who worked in the justice department during the Trump administration, said it was a very difficult job.
“You see it and you might feel frustrated and think, ‘No matter what I do, someone will get upset about it,’ ” he said.
“It could have important political outcomes. ” “Do I still believe what I said. “ -
Democrats support Biden as age concerns raised by article
Democrats are standing up for President Joe Biden after a report about how he handles secret papers made people worried about his age and mental abilities.
Mr Biden will not be in trouble for keeping secret documents, but the report said he is an old man who means well but has a bad memory.
Vice-President Kamala Harris criticized the description as unnecessary, wrong, and not suitable.
She also said the prosecutor was doing it for political reasons.
Robert Hur, who was chosen by Donald Trump and had worked for two conservative judges, was chosen last year to investigate classified documents for Biden.
Prosecutor in trouble because of report about Biden.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland chose him in January when the justice department was getting backlash from Republicans for appointing a special counsel to investigate Donald Trump’s handling of secret files.
Mr Hur’s report that was made available to the public had a letter from the White House. The letter asked for the comments about the president’s memory to be changed in a way that fits with Mr. Hur’s expertise and job responsibilities.
Ms Harris, who used to work as a prosecutor, repeated the same criticism at a news conference on Friday.
She said that the way the president was described in the report was completely inaccurate and was clearly done for political reasons.
“We should expect the prosecutor to have a strong sense of honesty and fairness when dealing with a case like this. ”
Democratic friends in Congress also told the media that they thought Mr. Hur’s comments were not part of the investigation.
Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon said that he thinks it was completely wrong for the special counsel to handle the task the way they did.
“Too bad it went into the wrong place. ”
Minnesota’s Tina Smith said that Mr. Hur’s comments were really bad and terrible. She accused him of using his position for political reasons.
Ever since Mr. Biden started running for president again, people have been worried about how old he is and if he can think clearly.
He is 81 years old, only a little older than the leading Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump, who is 77.
This report hasn’t eased voters’ worries much. It is claimed that Mr. Biden couldn’t remember when his son Beau died from cancer or when he worked as vice-president when talking to investigators.
However, Democrats who talked to the media on Friday said they are not worried about the president’s mental abilities.
Senator Jon Ossoff from Georgia said: “No one is being charged as a result of the report. ” Unexpected comments that are different from what one would usually expect in a detailed and meaningful report. Just a bunch of annoying sounds.
The youngest person in the Senate, Mr. Ossoff, said he has spent a lot of time with the president in the last few months.
“I think he is smart, focused, very impressive and capable,” he said.
MrOssoff’s friends agreed, including Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who said the president is “smart and has a lot of experience” at a news conference on Friday.
The Democrats still believe strongly in the president, he said. “We want to stay with someone who knows what this country needs. ”
“Caption on the media”
But some people on the other side said that Mr. Hur’s comments make it seem like Mr. Biden is not capable of being president.
“Thom Tillis, a Senator from North Carolina, said that he’s starting to worry about the effort of someone who is doing their best. ”
“I believe that whoever becomes the leader of our country should be fully prepared and capable, no matter their age. ” This is what the moderate Republican said.
Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told the media that people are worried about Mr. Biden’s age and it could affect his chances of getting re-elected.
Experts have found that polls show people aren’t as bothered by Mr. Trump’s age as they are by Mr. Biden’s, even though both men make similar mistakes while campaigning.
In the past few months, both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump have made mistakes when speaking in public, like mixing up the names of world leaders and US politicians.
But Trump’s loud and aggressive way of speaking and always being on the attack may make people see him as a more lively candidate, said Chris Borick, the director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion. -
Egyptians make fun of Biden for referring to Sisi as “president of Mexico”
The US President Joe Biden made a funny mistake by calling the Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi “the president of Mexico“.
President Biden said that at first, the president of Mexico, Sisi, did not want to let humanitarian materials go into Gaza. He said this during a press conference on Thursday when talking about the fighting between Israel and Gaza.
The president of Mexico is named Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Egyptians have given President al-Sisi the nickname “El Meksiki” which means “The Mexican” to avoid censorship.
“You can’t freely say negative things about the president in Egypt. That’s why some people started calling him ‘El Meksiki’ (‘the Mexican’ in Arabic) because it sounds like ‘al-Sisi’ and this way they can criticize him without getting censored,” one person explained on X (formerly Twitter).
In the US, people are worried about President Biden’s health and ability to think clearly. But the President says he is fit to do his job. -
Biden assures his memory is fine after forgetting son’s death claim
US President Biden expressed frustration and defiance in response to an investigation into his handling of classified files, which raised questions about his memory.
During an unexpected news briefing on Thursday evening, he emphatically stated, “My memory is fine.”
Biden addressed a specific allegation suggesting he struggled to recall when his son died, rebuking it by saying, “How dare he raise that?” Special Counsel Robert Hur ultimately chose not to pursue charges against Biden for mishandling files.
However, the report contained several critical remarks, including suggestions of “significant limitations” in the president’s memory.
It said that it would be difficult to convict the president of improper handling of files because “at trial, Mr Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.
Mr Biden responded that despite his age, he was the most qualified person to be president.
Referring to interviews he gave the special counsel late last year, he said: “I was very occupied. I was in the middle of handling an international crisis,” – referring to the 7 October attacks by Hamas in Israel which occurred a day before.
Concerns about Mr. Biden’s age have emerged as a prominent issue among voters leading up to November’s presidential election. During a Thursday evening news conference, when asked to comment on the latest developments in the Gaza war, he inadvertently mixed up the presidents of Mexico and Egypt.
“I think as you know initially, the president of Mexico, Sisi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in. I talked to him. I convinced him,” he said.
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Biden in the spotlight over his age
It was a big report about politics that caused a lot of controversy.
The fireworks came out on Thursday when special counsel Robert Hur revealed his investigation findings about how Joe Biden handled secret documents after he stopped being vice president in 2017.
The main finding was that the president won’t be charged with a crime even though there’s proof that he knowingly kept and shared secret information. when he was not working for the government.
The end result was worse. Hur decided not to take the 81-year-old president to court because he thought a jury would feel sorry for him. They might see him as a kind old man with a bad memory.
Concerns about Joe Biden’s age and ability to serve another four years as president have been around for as long as he has been in the White House. This new discovery will give the Republican party more reasons to criticize him and will also worry some Democrats who think he may not be capable of doing the job.
Chris Borick, the director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion, said that the Biden campaign is really trying hard to deal with this story.
“Repeated polling shows that many voters believe he is too old to run, which could be his biggest problem in this election,” he says.
So, the Hur report made the White House very angry. The president had a sudden press conference to say that his memory is still good.
“He said he knows what he’s doing. ”
Additionally, the special counsel showed proof to support this claim. He said that in two days of interviews, Mr. Biden often couldn’t remember important details related to the investigation. Mr Hur also said that he had a hard time remembering when he was vice-president and when his oldest son, Beau Biden, passed away from cancer.
The president got mad during his press conference on Thursday evening because of this claim.
The president said, “Why does he have the nerve to raise that. ”
The press conference could make the attacks on Mr. Biden stronger This is because the president made a mistake and called the Egyptian President the president of Mexico when he was asked about the Gaza War.
That mistake, like other mistakes Mr. Biden has made recently, shows how hard it will be for him to win re-election. The president can show that he is still energetic and capable by working really hard during his campaign and being seen by the public more often. But trying to solve the problem might make it worse.
The White House has tried other ways to make the Hur report less powerful. Joe Biden’s lawyer, Richard Sauber, asked the special counsel to remove any mention of Biden’s mental sharpness and mistakes because he believed it was not true or suitable.
Mr Biden said he talked to the special lawyer for two days shortly after the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel, even though he was busy with an international crisis at the time.
Other people who support Biden are questioning if Mr. Hur can be fair because he was chosen for his job by Donald Trump in 2017. Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland chose Mr Hur to be the special counsel.
The Biden team has been fast to criticize the mistakes Donald Trump makes when he speaks. The old president got mixed up and thought his main competitor Nikki Haley was actually former Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He also mistakenly thought Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was the leader of Turkey.
The White House may be lucky that this problem happened in February, nine months before the election.
Larry Sabato, who leads the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, says people are worried about how old Mr. Biden is, but it won’t ruin his chances of winning. The report is bad, but not too terrible.
He says people will see it and raise one eyebrow, not both. “Because people already kind of knew this. He says that even if you only watch a little bit of his speech, you can still understand what he is talking about.
When American voters finally vote, they will care more about the economy and abortion than the special report that said Mr. Biden didn’t do anything wrong.
The worst thing that could happen is that this is just the beginning of a lot of proof that makes the president look bad in an area where he is not very good. Time goes forward in only one direction.
The president is getting older. -
Biden faces electoral dangers following fatal drone strike
The Biden administration was very worried about the deaths of three American soldiers in a drone attack in Jordan on Sunday. Two women and a man from Georgia were killed.
This means the White House has to make a very hard choice about what to do next.
President Biden met with his national security team on Monday, and he has made a decision about what to do after thinking about his options. He had the option to attack places that are friendly with Iran, attack Iran itself, or not attack at all.
Every choice has a lot of danger, especially in a year when the president has to appear powerful but also needs to make sure things don’t get worse.
“We don’t want a big fight with Iran,” said John Kirby, who speaks for the National Security Council, to reporters. “We don’t want the fighting to spread to more countries in the area, but we have to take necessary actions. ”
The Biden administration must think about how to deal with Iran while Israel and Hamas are fighting.
Since October 7th, the most important thing for the US has been to prevent the fighting in Gaza from spreading to other areas. This is what led to the careful American reactions to the earlier attacks on its troops in the area.
This serious attack has made the US feel like it has to hit back hard. However, it is still important to find the right balance.
President Biden needs to figure out a way to send a strong message that will stop bad behavior, without making the situation worse.
Mr Biden’s opponents in politics don’t have to deal with this problem because they are not in power.
Donald Trump, who is ahead in the race to become the Republican presidential candidate, made a strong statement on social media on Sunday night, blaming the president for the situation.
“Another terrible attack on the United States happened because Joe Biden is weak and gives up too easily,” said Mr.
The old president didn’t say what he would do if he was still in charge. He also hasn’t said anything else about it. Other Republicans have also spoken their mind.
Senator Tom Cotton said that we need to strongly fight back with military force against these attacks. He said that if the president did anything less, it would show that he was a coward.
Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, said that Iran should face serious and damaging consequences. Senator Lindsay Graham said America should attack important places inside Iran.
However, most important members of the Democratic party did not take extreme action. They wanted those responsible to be punished and for the US to target groups supported by Iran instead of attacking Iran directly.
Senator Ben Cardin, who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that we cannot ignore this attack. “I am in favor of President Biden’s careful and fair reaction. ”
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said the same thing, writing on X that it is very important to have a strong and precise response against forces backed by Iran.
The Biden government has stated that they will not make their decision on how to act based on polls or the upcoming election. “He’s not thinking about politics,” John Kirby told the news.
In an election year, decisions about foreign policy are always influenced by politics within the country. How will American voters see the military’s actions or lack of actions.
Many people think that voters don’t care much about a president’s foreign policy when they decide who to vote for. With problems in the Middle East and Ukraine, more voters think it’s important this year.
By November, people may forget about the specific attack, but they still care about how their country is seen by the world.
I’ve heard people all over the US say they are worried that our country looks weak right now. They like that Donald Trump promises to be a strong leader who will make sure no other country can bully America.
Talking about military strategy and global diplomacy is easier on the campaign trail than in the White House situation room.
Joe Biden has to make a very important decision that could have big effects in the Middle East. However, his answer could also have consequences in a very important election year for our country. -
US soldier death increases pressure on Biden
The killing of three American soldiers and hurting many more makes the situation worse in a region where tensions are already high. It also adds to the pressure on President Joe Biden.
This is the first time that American soldiers have been killed by enemy fire since the Israel-Gaza war started.
This is the first time that Washington has to make a difficult decision during the crisis. They need to decide where and how to attack Iran.
Washington will want to send a very clear message to Tehran because it thinks Tehran is responsible for the fires in many countries, like Lebanon and Yemen. However, it will also try to prevent making the situation worse by starting a cycle of attacks and counterattacks.
This moment feels like it was bound to happen. From middle of October, US army bases in Iraq and Syria keep getting attacked by groups supported by Iran. More and more US soldiers are getting hurt. The US has struck back at least eight times by attacking places in both countries. It was just a matter of time before American people died in this risky battlefield.
In his first reply, President Biden clearly stated who is responsible this time. The drone attack on Tower 22, a small post near Jordan’s border with Syria, was done by “extreme groups supported by Iran, who are active in Syria and Iraq. ”
Iran says it did not do it. The foreign ministry spokesman said that the groups Iran supports do not follow Iran’s orders when they make decisions about helping Palestine.
Iran’s friends in this area have all learned and been given weapons by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) or been told how to get weapons for themselves.
In recent years, a group of radical organizations in the “axis of resistance” have become closer, and the Israel-Gaza conflict has made this group stronger.
But every actor has its own power and ability to act, and its own goals and desires. In Iraq, a lot of the attacks seem to have been done by a group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. Counterattacks are made harder because some of the people involved are also in Iraq’s military.
In the last few months, the US has attacked Iranian buildings in the area, like a training base in Syria and a place where they keep weapons.
This time, the goal is to target something that will hurt Iran a lot, to show that the US is strong in this area and at home.
During an election year, President Biden’s opponents are using this crisis to say he is not strong against Iran.
“It’s very hard and complicated,” said Fawaz Gerges, a professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, when talking to the BBC. “Every situation has results. ”
Out of all the options, attacking Iran directly is the most dangerous choice. This would be the first time Iran was attacked since a failed attempt in 1980 to rescue American hostages taken during the Iranian revolution.
The US last did something very serious against Iran four years ago. They used a drone to attack and kill top IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. He was said to have planned to kill American diplomats and soldiers in the region and was an important leader in creating this “axis of resistance”.
Joel Rayburn, a former US Special Envoy to Syria, said on the BBC’s Newshour programme that there needs to be something that will stop people from doing bad things, like the attack on Soleimani. If the person behind the attacks in Iran is not punished, the attacks will continue.
Iran has not attacked Israeli or American sites in response to the killing of its senior military leaders. They blame Israel for the assassinations. Iran is also facing pressure at home.
Earlier this month, for the first time, it attacked a place in Iraqi Kurdistan that it said was a base for Israel’s Mossad agency.
The US understands that it needs to show that it is taking action, and even more importantly, it needs to show that it is successful in its efforts.
Washington and its friends are in a difficult situation as the long and destructive war between Israel and Gaza continues, harming many innocent people and causing a lot of pain. Iran’s friends say they will keep fighting until there’s peace in Gaza, but Israel is still at war and won’t stop until Hamas is defeated and hostages are released.
Ain Al Asad air base is a military base for airplanes. Picture of something that was taken before.
Problems in the important shipping areas of the Red Sea are a warning sign. The US, with support from the UK and other countries, is leading a military campaign against the Houthis in Yemen. However, the Houthis are still attacking ships in a very important sea passage for global trade.
It has made the Houthi rebels more determined and brought them to the focus of the whole world.
A new report from Western intelligence says that the Houthi group has lost about 30% of their weapons. However, the Houthis, who are very good at unconventional warfare and have been able to survive nearly 10 years of airstrikes led by Saudi Arabia, think that they are winning more than they are losing.
The Houthis and their Iran-backed friends are using this crisis to make themselves look good by supporting the Palestinians in their fight against Israel. The US is trying hard to put out many problems at the same time while there is fighting in Gaza. -
Biden prevails in New Hampshire despite not being on ballot
Joe Biden won the Democratic primary in New Hampshire even though he wasn’t listed on the ballot.
Many people voted for him, so he did not have to feel embarrassed about losing to Dean Phillips, a Democratic congressman.
Mr Biden didn’t take part in the primary election because New Hampshire didn’t change its voting date, as the Democratic National Committee (DNC) had asked them to.
In the primary race, South Carolina will be the first state to vote next month.
As New Hampshire and the national party couldn’t agree, Mr. Biden’s supporters in the state started a campaign for voters to write his name on the ballot.
On Tuesday, it looked like Mr. Biden got 67% of the vote, which is much more than Mr. Phillips who only got 19%.
Marianne Williamson, who is 71 years old, is an author and speaker who got 4% of the vote based on some early results.
The fight between Donald Trump and Nikki Haley during the Republican primary was really intense.
The DNC chose South Carolina to be the first state to vote because it has a diverse population that better represents the whole country.
However, New Hampshire couldn’t change the date of its primary election because its state law says it must be the first primary.
The DNC took away the state’s 24 delegates and Mr. Biden didn’t sign up to run for president. Primary voting decides how many delegates will choose the party’s nominee at the national convention in August.
The US president had to deal with a challenge from Mr. Phillips, who is a congressman from Minnesota.
Mr Phillips promised to keep going with his campaign. “I’m worried that Democrats are heading towards a disaster without realizing it,” said Mr. Phillips, 55, in an interview with the media.
We accomplished it in 2016. Doing the same thing on purpose this year is not okay and embarrassing.
A normal guy, Mr Phillips started working in 2019. He is one of the richest members of Congress because he inherited his stepfather’s company that makes schnapps and liquor. According to AdImpact, he spent over $5 million on ads in the state.
Mr Biden used $156,000. -
Israel-Gaza: Netanyahu challenges Biden regarding state of Palestine
Israel’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, said no to the idea of making a Palestinian country once more.
He made these comments a few hours after talking on the phone with US President Joe Biden. The US leader said that Mr. Netanyahu might agree with the idea.
Mr Netanyahu’s comments seemed to make the differences between the US and Israel even bigger.
The US thinks it’s important for there to be a Palestinian country next to Israel for things to be stable in the long run. It’s called a “two-state solution. ”
However, the White House admitted that the US and Israeli governments have different views.
Talking to reporters after the two leaders talked for the first time in almost a month, Mr. Biden said that he still thinks it’s possible for there to be two separate countries in that area even with Mr. Netanyahu as the leader.
“There are several ways to solve a problem with two options. ” Several countries are part of the UN and. “He said some countries don’t have their own armies. ”
On Saturday, Mr. Netanyahu stuck to his position, which he has had for a long time and repeated earlier this week.
A message from his office said that Prime Minister Netanyahu told President Biden that Israel wants to keep control of Gaza after Hamas is defeated, to make sure it won’t be a danger to Israel anymore. But this goes against the Palestinians’ request to have their own country.
On Saturday, he said that Israel should have control over the area west of the Jordan River for security reasons. This area includes the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was not happy with what Mr. Netanyahu said on Sunday. He said it was not a surprise, but still disappointing.
Some people may feel less hopeful that the Gaza crisis will lead to Israeli and Palestinian leaders talking and starting the peace process again.
Mr Netanyahu is getting more and more alone in other countries. At home, people still support the war, but there are also protests about the 130 hostages in Gaza held by Hamas.
Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October and killed about 1,300 people, mostly civilians. They also took 240 hostages.
Many people protested in Tel Aviv, asking Mr. Netanyahu to make a peace agreement to bring back the missing people.
Dear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, My cousin was captured on 7 October. We believe that you can bring them back. From, Gil Dickmann We trust in you.
We believe you can agree to this agreement and help win for all the people in Israel. Just go ahead and do it, Bibi. Just go ahead and do whatever it is. “Bring the people who were taken captive, back to their homes. ”
Israeli soldiers are still moving into the southern part of Gaza. They are looking for important members of Hamas who they think are hiding in Khan Younis, which is the second largest city in the area.
The Israel army went into a tunnel in Khan Younis and found out that it was used to keep hostages, but the hostages were not there when they looked.
The fighting is mainly in southern Gaza, but there have also been new fights in the northern town of Jabalia. Palestinian fighters moved forward while Israel tried to move its soldiers and tanks south.
It’s been almost three months since Israel started sending troops into Gaza. Even though Israel’s army is much stronger than Hamas, they are still meeting strong resistance in Gaza.
The health ministry in Gaza, controlled by Hamas, said on Sunday that 25,105 people had died in the area since 7 October. More than 60,000 people were also hurt, according to the report. -
America remains dedicated to Africa – Blinken
The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, is visiting four countries in Africa. He started in Cape Verde and said that it is a very stable country in a region that has a lot of problems. He thinks it is a good example for other countries.
Mr Blinken will also travel to Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Angola.
In 2022, US President Joe Biden wanted to show how much he cares about Africa by inviting African leaders to a summit in the US.
He said he would go to Africa in 2023 but he never went.
Mr Blinken visited the continent last March. He has been dealing with the conflict in the Middle East.
President Biden said in Cape Verde that he supports Africa, according to the AFP news agency.
“We are all connected in our futures and our success, and African people are now playing a bigger role in leading and influencing global discussions,” he said. -
US strikes have not halted Houthi Red Sea attack – Biden
Houthi fighters fired another missile at a ship owned by the US on Thursday, even though President Joe Biden had previously stated that US attacks had not stopped the group’s attacks in the Red Sea.
The Pentagon said that no one was hurt and the ship was not damaged when the Houthis shot two missiles at the MV Chem Ranger.
The attack happened after the US bombed Yemen for the fifth time on Thursday.
The White House said that American forces stopped a bunch of Houthi missiles from being launched into the Red Sea.
After the US attacks, reporters in Washington DC asked Mr. Biden if the hits on Houthi targets were having an effect.
“He said they’re not stopping the Houthis when they say they’re working. ”
“Will they keep going. Yes”
The US military in charge of the Middle East said it attacked two Houthi missiles in the Southern Red Sea that were going to be launched.
The US military found the missiles in areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthi group. They found them around 3:40pm local time and said they were a threat to ships in the area.
“The US military later attacked and destroyed the missiles to protect themselves. ”
Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said to reporters: “We do not want war. ”
We are not fighting the Houthis. We are doing things to defend ourselves.
Centcom also said that there was a try to attack the MV Chem Ranger. Authorities reported that two missiles designed to attack ships were launched at a ship owned by the US and flagged by the Marshall Islands, but neither of them hit the ship.
The military spokesperson of Yemen said that the ship was hit directly.
A ship owned by the US was hit on Wednesday, shortly after the US labeled the Houthis as a terrorist group.
On Thursday, the leader of the Houthis said it was a great honor to directly confront Israel, the US, and the UK. He spoke with a lot of energy.
Abdul Malik al-Houthi said that the attack on our people is a violation of our country’s rights and a direct attack on our people.
The Houthis started attacking ships in November because they said it was in response to Israel’s military action in Gaza. Since then, the group has carried out many attacks on large ships traveling through the Red Sea, which is a very busy route for ships.
The US and UK attacked many Houthi targets with air strikes on January 11th. The attacks started because Houthi forces did not stop attacking despite being warned to stop by Australia, Bahrain, the Netherlands and Canada. -
Trump mimics Biden’s stuttering over anniversary of January 6
Former President Donald Trump didn’t talk about the third anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot and made fun of President Joe Biden, who had called him a ‘loser’ in a speech earlier that day.
Trump had an event in Sioux Center, Iowa, on Friday. A few hours later, Biden gave a speech in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, criticizing his predecessor for his part in the deadly insurrection.
Trump spoke for almost two hours, saying the words ‘insurrection’ and ‘J6’, but he did not talk about the anniversary directly on Saturday.
Trump criticized Biden, saying that he stumbled over his words when he tried to call him a danger to democracy in Pennsylvania.
“Did you watch him. He was having trouble speaking the whole time. ” “He’s a danger to democracy. They are using the government as a weapon. ” “He’s a danger to democracy,” exclaimed Trump.
He said Biden can’t read or say ‘democracy’ and then he imitated the president, which got a reaction from his fans.
Trump copied Biden by pretending to have trouble finding the way out after a speech, and saying ‘he can’t walk off the stage’.
Besides not talking about the third anniversary of January 6, Trump only briefly mentioned related issues. Trump said his enemies are accusing him of causing a rebellion, he believes the crowd at the J6 event was the largest, and he thinks that no one in history has been treated as badly as the people who were arrested for the rebellion.
Trump talked mostly about his enemies and told his supporters to vote for him in the Iowa Caucus on January 15 during his rally.
In a brief speech in the afternoon, Biden strongly criticized Trump and compared his own campaign to General George Washington leading troops to win in the Revolutionary War.
Biden said Trump wants to attack democracy now and in the future.
Biden said that the first rally for the 2024 campaign had started with a group of people who were involved in the January 6 riot singing from prison on a phone, while videos of the riot played on a big screen behind him. -
Biden criticises Trump for inciting Capitol riot in 2024 campaign speech
In his first speech to get elected in 2024, President Joe Biden said that he thinks Donald Trump could be a big problem for American democracy.
Mr Biden said that the most important question right now is whether democracy is still very important to America.
“He said that’s what the 2024 election is all about. ”
Mr Trump said the speech was filled with scary lies and called Mr. Biden a danger to democracy.
The former president said at a rally in Iowa that Biden has a consistent history of being weak, not able to do his job well, being dishonest and not succeeding.
Mr Biden’s speech talked about something he has been talking about a lot in recent years.
This time, he clearly connected the US Capitol attack on 6 January 2021 to support his argument.
That day, people who support Mr Trump went into Congress and used violence to try to stop the lawmakers from officially saying that Mr Biden won the election. This happened just a few weeks before Mr Biden was supposed to start as president.
Mr Trump keeps saying the wrong thing that he won the 2020 election, even though it’s not true.
The ex-president has tried to change how people see the attack on January 6th, calling it a “beautiful day. ” He has praised the people who were involved as “patriots” and “political prisoners” and said he would forgive them if he becomes president again.
Mr Biden said that Mr Trump is trying to twist history and kept criticizing Mr Trump by name.
Mr Biden said that the mob with Trump was not a peaceful protest, it was a violent attack. “They were rebels, not loyal citizens. ” They did not want to protect the Constitution, they wanted to ruin the Constitution.
“He calls people who disagree with him vermin. ” He said that Americans’ blood is being poisoned, using the same language as Nazi Germany.
The Trump campaign did not answer a request for comment right away.
Jason Miller, a top adviser for Donald Trump’s election campaign, said that Mr. Biden is not focusing on important topics for the 2024 election.
Mr Miller said that instead of helping the people hurt by Biden’s economic policies or the weak border, Biden wants to use the government against his main political opponent.
Mr Biden keeps talking about protecting democracy many times.
In 2020, he ran for office promising to make America normal again. Before the 2022 midterms, Mr. Biden said the election was very important for our country.
On Friday, Mr Biden chose Valley Forge, Pennsylvania as the location to talk about important themes related to the American Revolutionary War.
The music added to the mood as Mr. Biden walked to the stage. They played a song from Hamilton, a musical about the Founding Fathers, on the speakers.
After trying for a year to make Mr. Biden look better in the polls by talking about his economic plans, his campaign is now focusing on democracy and pointing out the big differences between him and Mr.
Mr Biden has used this strategy before and it has worked well.
Democrats did better than expected in the 2022 midterms by defeating Republican opponents who supported Trump and doubted the fairness of US elections.
Ashley Etienne, who used to work for Biden’s campaign, said that this issue is really important to Democratic supporters.
Ms Etienne said that democracy is really important to who we are as people. “But it works and helps you win. ” It’s a message that says we won. And it helped bring together a large group of voters.
Mr Biden’s friends in the Democratic party were happy that he chose to emphasize the importance of democratic values.
“I’m happy the president is speaking out today to support democracy, freedom, and to show that Trump is a threat to all of that,” said Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who is a member of the Democratic Party, to reporters.
New polls show that Americans’ opinions about the January 6 attack are very different depending on their political party. Republicans are now less likely to think it was a violent attack compared to three years ago. One out of four Americans think the FBI, not Mr. Trump’s supporters, caused the riot, according to a poll by the Washington Post and the University of Maryland. -
Republicans criticise help despite Zelensky’s visit
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Washington DC to try and keep a $61 billion US defense package for Kyiv.
Republican members of Congress have stopped the aid package and say we need to do more to make the US-Mexico border stronger.
Zelensky will talk privately with different senators and the new House Speaker, Mike Johnson, to ask for help with his situation.
The president of Ukraine will meet with President Joe Biden, who wants US lawmakers to approve the money quickly.
The First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, told the media that Ukrainians would be at great risk if Western countries did not keep helping them.
Russia attacked Ukraine without permission 22 months ago. The White House says they might stop giving money to Ukraine if an agreement isn’t made.More update on this story soon…
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White House contest heated up with calls for dictatorship
In American politics this week, people have been talking a lot about dictatorship, or the possibility of it happening.
Donald Trump is getting closer to being chosen as the Republican presidential candidate. People who disagree with him are criticizing him more.
Neoconservative writer Robert Kagan wrote an essay in the Washington Post saying that the chances of the United States becoming a dictatorship have increased a lot. Former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, who has been critical of Mr. Trump, said on CBS that the US is heading towards a dictatorship without realizing it.
The old president ignored these warnings and called them more proof of people being obsessed with criticizing Trump.
Then, during a meeting in Iowa on Tuesday night, Trump, who often speaks highly of powerful leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, made the situation worse by behaving recklessly.
Some US news headlines said that Trump made his critics’ worst fears seem true. They were worried he would become a “dictator” if he got re-elected as US president.
But, the trade was more complicated than that.
Fox News host Sean Hannity tried to get the ex-president to say he won’t use his power to hurt his enemies if he gets elected again next year. Trump has hinted at this in the past.
“Are you promising America tonight that you won’t use your power to get back at anyone. ” Hannity asked
“Other than the first day” of his next term in office.
He said he will take action by himself to make the border safe and to get more energy out of the ground. He will also do more drilling for energy, as Trump said.
“He said he’s not a dictator after that. ”
These incomplete promises haven’t made Trump’s critics feel any better.
They believe that democracy will face challenges in a second term because there will be fewer protections in place.
They say the ex-president has talked about using the justice department as a weapon and replacing civil servants with loyal supporters. And they say this time he won’t have people in his group who will disagree with the extreme ideas.
A Trump political action committee (PAC) said the real person with a lot of power is in the White House now.
“Joe Biden is using his power to go after journalists, politicians, activists, and worried parents,” Make America Great Again Inc said in an email on Wednesday.One of Trump’s opponents, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, told the BBC that a second term for Trump could be dangerously controlling, even though Trump may not openly admit to being a dictator.
Hutchinson says that when an authoritarian president takes more power and ignores Congress and the court, it means that all the power is held by one part of the government. “Our country wasn’t meant to be run like this, and it’s too controlled by one person. ”
This is what Hutchinson said next, and it might worry Joe Biden’s campaign for president. If Trump and Biden are the main candidates in 2024, the former Arkansas governor would search for a different choice.
“I won’t choose Biden over Trump,” Hutchinson said. I will find other ways to help if that happens.
In 2020 and at the start of his 2024 campaign, Biden wanted to appeal to Republicans who were unhappy, as well as people who are not affiliated with any political party, and his own party members.
However, even though there are concerns about a possibly controlling candidate in the Republican party – someone who doesn’t take the term dictator seriously – Hutchinson still won’t consider supporting the current Democrat in office.
One year before the election, polls may not be very accurate. But the most recent polls show that the race between Trump and Biden will be very tight. And if Hutchinson, who is not a fan of Trump, is looking for someone else to vote for in the presidential election, he is likely not alone.
The new political group No Labels might choose a centrist candidate, and Liz Cheney and others are thinking about running for office on their own. This could give unhappy voters more choices when they vote.
In an election where every vote counts, it’s not a good position for Biden to be in. According to Trump’s strongest critics on the right, it’s a risky situation for the country.
In his essay in the Washington Post, Kagan says that Trump has a good chance of winning the presidency because of support from the Republicans and the mood of the country. He also thinks that Trump would be more dangerous if he became president.
He says Trump and his friends will try to hurt people they don’t like, while many Americans do nothing to stop them.
Many Americans, including a lot of people who support Trump, don’t see it that way, of course. And in November, most people might vote for the previous president again, even though experts like Kagan have advised against it.
It’s starting to become clear that Biden and the Democrats will say this election is about protecting democracy. Trump is trying to provoke them with his strong and forceful language, whether he is joking or being serious. -
Winning second term is about stopping Trump – Biden
Since the war started in February 2022, the US Congress has agreed to give more than $110 billion in military and economic help to Ukraine. The Biden administration has been saying for months that most of the money has already been given out.
Frederick Kagan, who works at the American Enterprise Institute and used to teach at the US Military Academy, says that the delays in funding are causing actual problems for Ukraine in the war. The plan to fight back against Russia is being reduced and there is uncertainty about future actions to get back the land that has been lost.
“He said that the people from Ukraine have to make a difficult decision here. ” “If they don’t think they’ll get more from the United States, then they need to save what they already have. ”
He said that the Ukrainian military needs tanks, vehicles, planes, drones, and long-range weapons. The US is the only country that can give them these things quickly and in the amounts they need in the next year.
Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress still mostly agree on giving more help to Ukraine, even if it’s not as much as the White House wanted. Converting the approval from Congress into laws that the president can approve has been very difficult.
The Republican and Democratic senators in the US are talking about a big $106 billion spending plan. It will help Ukraine and give military help to Israel and Taiwan. It will also give more money for security at the US-Mexico border.
However, it is this part of the package that has caused the most political upset. Democrats are hesitating to agree to new immigration rules. These changes include how people seeking asylum at the border are handled and making it harder to qualify to enter the US.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas said on TV that if we give more money to Ukraine, they have to make big changes to their border rules.
Chuck Schumer says he will try to pass a bill for military aid this week, but it’s not clear if enough Republicans will vote for it without agreeing on immigration issues.
The US media says that there was a big argument on Tuesday at a secret meeting about the help the Biden administration is giving. Senate Republicans said Democrats are not listening to their request for money to keep the border safe.
Even if the Senate approves aid to Ukraine, it’s not clear if the House of Representatives will also approve it. Speaker Johnson said he’s for giving Ukraine more money, but he voted with 117 other Republicans to stop $300 million in extra help for Ukraine.
If he brings a large aid package for a vote in the Senate and relies on Democrats to pass it, he could split the Republicans and risk losing power before budget negotiations next year.
A lady walks past a picture of a Ukrainian soldier shooting a Javelin anti-tank missile made in the US.
“The United States is expected to have a deficit of over $2. 5 trillion this year,” said Republican Congressman Matt Rosendale of Montana in an interview with BBC World Tonight’s James Coomarasamy on Tuesday.
“Why should the US take money from China and give it to Ukraine. That’s not good for us. ”
The White House is trying to get more support from Congress by offering more aid to Ukraine for its economy and national security. Ms Young wrote to Congress saying she needed money to make weapons in different factories all over the country.
“We will update important weapons and gear like Javelins made in Alabama, Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems made in West Virginia, Arkansas and Texas. ” “Also, there are artillery shells made in Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Iowa, and many other states,” she writes.
As the election gets closer, the White House may want members of Congress to talk about how their work is helping the economies in their districts.
Mr Kagan said he was not surprised that the US is arguing more about giving money to Ukraine as the conflict there continues for three years.
He says the American people should have their representatives talk about what America’s interests are and have a real debate about how to spend the large amount of money.
But eventually, he said the situation was obvious.
“The result of this war will mainly depend on what the Ukrainians do, but also on what the United States decides to do. “ -
South China Sea: US will protect the Philippines in event that China launches an attack – Biden
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, said that if China tries to attack the Philippines in the disputed South China Sea, the US will protect them.
The remarks were made a few days after two crashes happened between ships from the Philippines and China in the disputed areas of the ocean.
Mr Biden strongly stated that he is fully committed to defending the Philippines and that this commitment is very strong.
Manila disagrees with China’s claims to the waters and has removed obstructions in the water and invited the media to film China’s unsafe actions at sea.
Mr Biden made a very strong statement about the South China Sea on Wednesday. This is his strongest statement so far since tensions between Beijing and Manila have been getting worse in the past few months.
I want to make it clear – I really want to make it clear: The United States’ promise to protect the Philippines is very strong. He said that the defense agreement between the United States and the Philippines is very strong and cannot be broken.
The Mutual Defense Treaty was signed in 1951. It makes the US and the Philippines promise to protect each other if there is an attack. The Philippines used to be a colony of the US.
“If someone attacks the airplanes, ships, or military of the Philippines, our agreement to help and protect each other will come into effect,” he said during his speech at the White House on Wednesday, while greeting the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.
On Sunday, the Philippines accused China of doing risky moves that caused a crash between a China coast guard ship and a Filipino supply boat. This incident happened in an area that belongs to the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone. In another incident, Manila said that a Chinese militia boat hit a Philippine coast guard vessel.
The Filipino boats were going towards an old navy warship that Manila had left at the Second Thomas Shoal to show that it is theirs.
The defense minister of the Philippines, Gilberto Teodoro Jr, said that the Chinese boats purposely hit the Philippine vessels. He also accused China of changing the story to benefit themselves.
Mr Biden agreed with these claims, stating that the Chinese ships had acted in a dangerous and unlawful manner during the collisions.
The Philippines is a crucial friend of the US because it is near two possibly dangerous areas in the Pacific – the South China Sea and Taiwan.
Ever since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr became the leader in June 2022 and brought back the Philippines’ alliance with the US, the Filipino government has been more forceful in challenging China’s actions in the South China Sea.
Mr Marcos has a different approach to foreign policy compared to his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte. Duterte was criticized for not taking strong action against China’s aggressive behavior in the South China Sea.
Duterte said no to using Manila’s legal win against China in a global court, which stated that China’s large claims over most of the South China Sea are not valid. -
Biden’s remarks towards Putin deemed inappropriate – Kremlin
The Kremlin is upset about comments made by US President Joe Biden comparing Russia to Hamas and calling Vladimir Putin a “tyrant”. They think these remarks are not okay.
Biden spoke from the Oval Office and stated that the United States needs to support Israel and Ukraine against Russia and Hamas. He emphasized that we must not allow terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like Putin to succeed.
The spokesperson for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, said that we do not like the way people talk about Russia and our president.
He said that using that kind of language is not appropriate for leaders of countries, and we cannot accept it. -
Sunak’s remarks diverge significantly from Biden’s caution
Benjamin Netanyahu made very clear comments. He labeled Hamas as the “new Nazis”, the “new Isis” and “monstrous barbarians”, and presented the conflict as a fight between Western civilization and the “axis of evil” led by Iran.
He also said that the war will last for a long time and emphasized the importance of ongoing support. He also implied that Western governments should not be hesitant or uncomfortable when Israel’s retaliation becomes more intense.
The UK PM Rishi Sunak believed it was important to show support for Israel.
However, there were some clever and careful things in his speech – he told Israel to try their best to avoid hurting innocent people, even though he said it in a positive way because he was sure that Israel would do it, unlike Hamas.
He also talked about the rules that countries agree to follow and emphasized the importance of help for people in need.
However, the message from the US President to not let anger control us was not as serious.
And as many Western leaders visited Israel one after another, Sunak also played his role in showing Iran that if a bigger conflict were to happen in the region, there would be negative outcomes. -
Hundreds detained during protest near US Capitol
More than 300 individuals were taken into custody close to the US Capitol following a demonstration against the Israel-Hamas conflict.
More people may be arrested soon, so the number could go up. The police mentioned that they have already charged three individuals with attacking a police officer.
Many people were caught by the police in the Cannon House Office Building. This is a place where protests are not allowed.
The people protesting asked President Joe Biden and Congress to work towards stopping the fighting in Gaza.
The protest in Washington DC was planned by two smaller, left-leaning Jewish organizations, Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now. These groups are against the State of Israel.
The police blocked off streets near the Capitol building on Wednesday because a lot of protesters were walking in the road.
Some of the group then went inside a building called the Cannon House Office Building, where congressional staff work. Hundreds of additional people gathered outside the building. They sang in both Hebrew and English.
The people inside were wearing black T-shirts with the words “Jews say stop fighting now” and “Not in our name”. Some people held signs that said “Stop fighting” and sang songs while sitting on the ground in the rotunda.
The Capitol police told the protesters to stop their demonstration and when they didn’t listen, we started arresting them.
Some people were seen getting their hands tied with plastic handcuffs and being taken away in vans by the police. Three people who were taken into custody were later accused of attacking a police officer.
A person leading a protest at the Capitol used a loudspeaker to ask for “fairness, fairness, and the ability to do what we want”.
“The woman said that the only way to be truly safe is to calm down and deal with the main reasons behind this terrible violence. ”
The protest happened when President Biden arrived in Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his team.
Mr Biden said that Israel had the right to retaliate for the Hamas attack on October 7th, which resulted in the deaths of 1,400 people.
Palestinian health officials say that around 3,000 people have died in Israeli attacks on Gaza as revenge. -
Biden signs agreement with Egypt to permit help
US President Joe Biden has made an agreement with Egypt to provide some assistance to Gaza in order to help with a serious problem related to the well-being of people, during the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
While visiting Tel Aviv, Mr. Biden stated that Israel has the right to retaliate for the Hamas attack that caused the fighting.
The president of the United States said that Israel had been treated very unfairly, but he also mentioned that it is important not to let anger control us.
He also supported Israel’s claim that an explosion at a Gaza hospital on Tuesday was not caused by an air attack from Israel.
Palestinian officials are saying that a big explosion happened at Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, and it caused the death of 471 people. They believe that Israel is responsible for this tragic event. The incident has made the conflicts in the area even worse.
During a short visit to Tel Aviv, lasting less than eight hours, Mr. Biden agreed with the Israeli claim that the explosion was likely caused by a Palestinian rocket that went off course.
The president of America expressed his strong feelings of sadness and anger about the explosion.
Israel has blamed Islamic Jihad, a group in Gaza that carries out violent actions. Islamic Jihad said they did not cause the explosion.
Israel and Palestine have conflicting reports about the number of people who have died. A spokesperson from the foreign ministry, named Lior Haiat, mentioned on a social media site called X that a number of people, approximately “several dozen,” seemed to have been killed.
While on his way back home, Mr. Biden had a phone conversation with the Egyptian President, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, to talk about providing assistance to Gaza.
Mr Biden said that Mr. Sisi agreed to open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza so that around 20 trucks carrying help for people in need can go into Gaza.
Egypt said that their president and Mr. Biden agreed to give aid to Gaza in a way that will last for a long time.
Mr Biden did not say when the border crossing will open, but White House spokesperson John Kirby said it will happen in a few days once the roads are fixed.
Mr Biden also said that $100 million in US funding will be provided to support Palestinian civilians.
According to someone who knows about this, the US president is thinking about asking Congress for $10 billion to help Israel. This may happen on Friday.
Many people are in great need of food, water, fuel, medicine, and other important things because Israel put up a blockade in the area 10 days ago.
Israel responded after the Palestinian group Hamas attacked and killed 1,400 people in a surprise attack from Gaza on October 7th.
According to Palestinian health officials, around 3,000 people have died in the Israeli attacks on Gaza as revenge. Over one million Palestinians have left their houses in Gaza – approximately half of the people.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Israel will not stop food and other things from going into southern Gaza from Egypt.Israel said that it will not let any help pass through its land until Hamas releases the people it is holding hostage.
MrBiden is going to talk on TV to the whole country from the White House on Thursday at 8:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (12:00 AM Greenwich Mean Time).
According to White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre, Mr. Biden will talk about how we are dealing with Hamas’s attacks on Israel and Russia’s ongoing cruel war on Ukraine in his speech.
On Thursday, the Prime Minister of Britain, Rishi Sunak, is scheduled to go to Israel.
The US president visited Tel Aviv and was warmly welcomed by Mr Netanyahu. They held a joint press conference together.
MrBiden compared the Hamas attack on Israel to the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
MrBiden said that even though the scale may vary, he is confident that the horrors experienced in Israel have stirred up a deep and instinctual emotion, much like they did in the United States. But I want to warn you: even though you may feel that rage, try not to let it completely overwhelm you.
After the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, we were very angry in the United States. And while we looked for fairness and achieved fairness, we also made errors.
Referring to the explosion at the hospital, Mr. Biden said to Mr. Netanyahu that it seems like the other group, not him, is responsible based on what he has seen.
Reporters asked Mr. Biden why he thought Israel was not responsible, and he answered that he saw evidence from his defense department.
A high-ranking American official told CBS, who works closely with the BBC in the US, that the US has its own intelligence separate from Israel’s. This intelligence includes intercepted communications and satellite photos, which strongly suggest that Israel did not carry out the strike with a high level of certainty.
The person in charge said there were signs that the rocket may have been mistakenly fired by a group in Gaza.
MrBiden wanted to go from Israel to Jordan to meet with King Abdullah, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Egypt’s President Sisi. However, he canceled this part of his trip after the hospital explosion.
Jordan cancelled the meeting and strongly criticized what they called “a terrible disaster and a horrible crime of war”.
The White House said that both parties agreed to cancel that part of the visit. -
Arab world fumes at Gaza hospital explosion as Biden scorned by Middle Eastern friends
Some Arab countries that are usually friendly to the United States were not very receptive to President Joe Biden and his diplomats when they traveled to the Middle East to try and stop the conflict between Israel and Hamas from spreading to other countries.
Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority decided not to meet with Biden just a day before they were supposed to have a meeting together in the city of Amman, Jordan. The cancellation happened after a big explosion at a hospital in Gaza called Al-Ahli Baptist. It was said that this explosion caused the death of many Palestinians. Palestinian officials said Israel caused the explosion in the hospital, but Israeli officials said it happened because an Islamic Jihad rocket went off accidentally.
“The meeting cannot end the war, which is our goal,” said Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in an interview with Al Jazeera on Wednesday. He referred to the explosion at the hospital as a war crime. “So, we chose not to have it,” he said.
Biden came to Tel Aviv on Wednesday. He met with Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the Prime Minister of Israel, and also with some people from the Israeli war cabinet. The president promised to support Israel and told Netanyahu that the explosion at the hospital seems like it was caused by someone else, not Israel. The National Security Council said on Wednesday that the government currently thinks that Israel is not responsible for the blast.
CNN is unable to confirm on its own what caused the explosion and how many people were hurt.
Arab leaders are worried and upset because the United States is heavily supporting Israel in the war. They are now trying to distance themselves from the Biden administration because people in the Arab countries are getting angrier at Israel. More than 3,478 people have died in Gaza since the attack on Israel by Hamas. The attack in Israel caused the deaths of at least 1,400 people.
After the explosion in the hospital was reported on Tuesday, people in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Iran, and Turkey, as well as in Ramallah in the West Bank, started protesting against Israel.Arab leaders might be cautious about protests happening in their own countries as they see constant coverage of the Gaza war on Arabic news channels, including distressing images of Palestinians who have died. Protests in Jordan are more likely to happen because many of its people have Palestinian roots.
Egypt announced that it will mourn the victims of the Gaza hospital for three days.
Abdul Khaleq Abdulla, a commentator from the United Arab Emirates, who knows about official opinions, said that Biden has shown a unique emotional connection to Israel, unlike any past US president. Arab countries are very surprised and unhappy that Biden is not criticizing Israel or stopping the violence.
“He told CNN that people now believe he is equally responsible for the crime against Palestinians. Arab countries are now avoiding him and not giving him attention. ”
Egypt and Jordan, countries next to Israel and the Palestinian territories, are against a plan by the US to create a safe path for Palestinians escaping Gaza into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, which is next to Gaza.
Jordan’s King Abdullah said on Tuesday that it is not acceptable for Palestinians to be forced to leave their homes and move to Jordan or Egypt. He also made it clear that neither Jordan nor Egypt will allow refugees from Gaza to come into their countries. He said that suggesting that the two countries should accept Gazan refugees is a plan “by some people who always do this to cause problems on the ground. ” This suggests that the refugees may not be allowed to go back to their homes.
The proposal from the US has made people in the Arab world very angry. The media in the Arab world believes that the suggestion would benefit Israel by removing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, and possibly even taking control of it again. This would leave the Palestinians without homes and with no chance of returning. Israel controlled Gaza from 1967 to 2005 and moved Jewish people to live there during that time.
Egyptian newspapers have strongly criticized the idea of forcing Palestinians to leave their homes. They believe that this would be a devastating event similar to the 1948 Nakba, which resulted in around 700,000 Palestinians being forced to flee or leave their homes during the Arab-Israeli war that led to the establishment of Israel. Many people living in Gaza were forced to leave their homes and became refugees because their families originally came from parts of Israel.
During a press conference, the Egyptian President strongly expressed his opinion that Israel, not Egypt, should be responsible for accepting Palestinian refugees.
Sisi said that if Israel has a plan to force out Gazans, they can move them to the Naqab desert in Israel until Israel finishes their operation to destroy the resistance groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza.
He said that if people from Gaza go to Sinai, it could become a place for people trying to harm Israel. This could make Israel attack Egypt.
Timothy Kaldas, who works at a policy institute in Washington, DC, said that Arab leaders don’t want to appear like they are helping in removing people from Gaza.
Sisi is trying very hard to put some distance between himself and his Western partners on this matter. He wants to protect himself from the possibility of facing a lot of public criticism and anger.
Sisi said this after his foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, talked about how Europe and the US worry about many refugees coming in, and Egypt feels the same way.
Egypt is already home to nine million refugees. Should we expect them to welcome another one or two million people. That’s what Shoukry, an Egyptian official, asked during an interview with CNN on Tuesday. He said he didn’t know why the Palestinians were being moved, and he thought it might be on purpose.
Kaldas said that Western governments, who have become friends with Arab rulers, often see it as an advantage to ignore what the general public thinks. He said it might not be true, especially at this time.
Kaldas said that even in autocracies, the people living there still have their own thoughts, feelings, and limits which should be recognized. “And this is definitely something that has made everyone in Egypt very angry. ” -
Biden supports Israel’s version of Gaza hospital attack
US President Joe Biden said that a dangerous explosion at a hospital in Gaza seems to have been caused by Palestinian militants. He supports Israel’s explanation of what happened while he is visiting the country.
Mr Biden arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. He expressed feeling very sad and angry about the explosion.
Israel’s army stated that the explosion happened because a rocket fired by the Palestinians went off course.
However, officials from Palestine claimed that an attack by Israel’s air force directly hit the hospital.
The BBC is trying to confirm the number of people who have died, which is expected to be in the hundreds, and also find out what caused the explosion.
Mr Biden’s important visit has been affected by the explosion at Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital on Tuesday evening. This worsened the already tense situation and caused protests in the area.
He arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday where he was warmly welcomed by Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, before they held a press conference together.
Mr Biden felt very sad and angry about the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday.
“He said that from what he saw, it looks like the other team did it, not you,” he told Mr. Netanyahu “But there are many people who are unsure, so we need to face and conquer many challenges. ”
The US president said once again that he supports Israel and disapproves of the Palestinian group Hamas. Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on 7 October, resulting in the deaths of 1,300 people, which was a very unusual and severe attack.
According to Palestinian health officials, about 3,000 people have died in Israeli attacks on Gaza in response to previous attacks.
Mr Biden had planned to go from Israel to Jordan to meet King Abdullah, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. However, he had to cancel that part of his trip because of the explosion at the hospital on Tuesday.
Jordan cancelled the meeting and strongly criticized what they called “a terrible disaster and a very terrible crime committed during a war”. The White House said that the decision was made together and President Biden will talk to Mr. Abbas and Mr. Sisi when he flies back to the US.
The President of the United States is planning to meet with the group of people in charge of making decisions about war in Israel later today.
John Kirby, a spokesperson for the US National Security Council, said that he will ask difficult questions to gain a better understanding of Israel’s goals and objectives in the war in Gaza.
“He will ask difficult questions, but he will ask them in a friendly way,” Mr Kirby said to the reporters. He also mentioned that the US will emphasize the importance of providing humanitarian assistance to Gaza and the responsibility to prevent harm to civilians.Officials said that Mr. Biden will meet with emergency workers who helped during the Hamas attack, and also with people who lost loved ones or have family members held hostage.
Israel has requested $10 billion in urgent military assistance from the United States. This request was reported by CBS News, a partner of the BBC, who cited sources familiar with the matter.
Officials in Gaza, a place controlled by Hamas, claim that 500 individuals lost their lives in the explosion that occurred at the hospital. A doctor described the tragic event as a “massacre. ”
Hamas accused Israel of committing a “war crime”. A person speaking for Mr. Abbas, who lives in the occupied West Bank, accused Israel of committing a very terrible crime.
However, the Israeli military claimed that they have evidence proving that their forces did not cause the explosion. They believe that it happened because the rockets launched by Palestinian Islamic Jihad misfired.
The spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said that according to their information, Hamas looked at the reports and realized that it was actually an Islamic Jihad rocket that went off course. However, they made the choice to start a big media campaign to cover up what actually happened. “They exaggerated the number of people who were hurt. ” -
Angry outbursts over Gaza hospital explosion in Middle East as Biden visits Israel
There were protests in the Middle East after a big explosion happened at a hospital in Gaza. People from Israel and Palestine blamed each other for the explosion. This happened not long before US President Joe Biden is expected to come to Tel Aviv.
The explosion on Tuesday caused many people to die at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City. The hospital was filled with thousands of people trying to hide from Israeli attacks. The Palestinian Health Ministry made this announcement.
But the explosion marks a risky new stage in Israel’s conflict with Hamas, which has the potential to spread throughout the region. Israeli people are sad about the people who were killed in Hamas’ attacks on Israel. Families are asking for their loved ones who were taken as hostages to be returned. On the other hand, in Gaza, millions of innocent people are in danger of getting hurt, dying, or starving because important things they need are not being given to them. Also, they cannot leave because Israel is bombarding heavily.
Palestinian officials said that the deadly incident happened because of the ongoing Israeli airstrikes. Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral (rank in the navy) Israel’s armed forces’ (military’s) representative who gives information and statements to the public. Daniel Hagari said that the Israel Defense Forces did not attack the area when the explosion happened. He claims to have information suggesting that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group is responsible for the blast. This group is an enemy of Hamas, another militant group in Gaza.
Dris a shortened version of the word “doctor. ” Ashraf Al-Qudra, a person who speaks for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, talked about scenes that were shocking and impossible to describe after the explosion.
“According to Al-Qudra, ambulance crews are still taking out body parts because most of the victims are children and women. ” “Surgeries were being done by doctors on the floor and in the hallways, and some of them did not use anesthesia. ”A video filmed by CNN inside the al-Shifa Hospital shows a lot of confusion. There are many injured people squeezed into the overcrowded hospital, doctors are treating the wounded on the hospital floor, and an emergency worker shouts as he carries a hurt child.
Pictures depict women crying and scared children covered in dark dust, huddled together on the hospital floor.
UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk expressed strong disapproval of the horrific hospital explosion, stating that hospitals are supposed to be safe and protected, and the acts of killing and violence need to cease.
I can’t find the right words to express myself. Tonight, a lot of people were brutally killed in a big attack. This includes sick people, healthcare workers, and families who were hiding in and near the hospital for safety. Once again, the people who are at the highest risk,” Turk said in a statement.
President Biden is on his way to Tel Aviv to visit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He expressed his strong shock and sadness about the explosion.
However, the aftermath of the explosion is putting at risk the US’s attempts to help alleviate the suffering of the people in Gaza. There is growing worry about Israel’s actions, which involve preventing the population in the area from having access to food, fuel, and electricity.
Jordan decided to cancel a meeting that was supposed to happen on Wednesday with Biden, as well as the leaders of Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. Authority President Mahmoud Abbas decided not to attend the meeting right after the explosion happened.
Biden was planning to go to Amman after visiting Tel Aviv, but a White House official said the trip was delayed.
“According to Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, it doesn’t make sense to do anything right now except for putting an end to this war. ” “There is no advantage for anyone in having a meeting right now. ”
The explosion has made people in the area even more mad about what Israel has been doing in Gaza.
The Israeli military has surrounded the area controlled by Hamas, a group of fighters, along the coast. This happened because Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th and killed around 1,400 people. They also took over 150 hostages, including children and old people.
Protests have broken out in many cities in the Middle East and North Africa, such as Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Tunisia, to show their anger and disapproval of the hospital explosion. Protests happened in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. People clashed with the Palestinian security forces.
In Amman, the capital of Jordan, people who were upset tried to come together close to the Israeli Embassy in the Rabieh neighborhood. However, the security forces forced them to leave the area. Two people who campaign for change told CNN on Tuesday that the police in Jordan used a type of gas called tear gas to make a large group of people leave or go away.
In Beirut, Lebanon, a large group of people gathered near the US Embassy on Tuesday. They tried to break through the security barriers, as reported by a team from CNN who was present at the scene.
Hamas reported that over 500 individuals lost their lives in the bombing. The Palestinian Health Ministry said that around 200 to 300 people died in the explosion, according to their initial estimates.
The hospital tragedy happened because the health services in Gaza are almost at a breaking point. They do not have enough fuel to power electricity or pump water for important life-saving functions. International organizations have raised concerns that stores will have no more food in less than a week, and the only seawater desalination plant in Gaza has stopped working. This poses a serious danger of more deaths, dehydration, and waterborne diseases.
Although the IDF claims that it does not intentionally attack hospitals, the UN and Doctors Without Borders have reported that Israeli airstrikes have damaged medical facilities, such as hospitals and ambulances.
Israel says it did not bomb the hospital.
The IDF showed pictures on Wednesday that they say prove the hospital was not damaged by an airstrike.In a short video, the IDF said that a fire started at the hospital because a rocket launched by Islamic Jihad did not work properly. The pictures showed that some cars in the hospital parking lot were badly destroyed by fire. The Israeli military said they did not see any holes or major damage to buildings that would happen after a bombing.
The IDF spokesperson,Lieutenant(Lt. )[person’s name], is a military official who communicates information to the public. Colis short for Colonel, which is a high-ranking military officer. Jonathan Conricus,speaking to CNN on Wednesday, said that the initial information strongly suggests that the Israeli bomb was not responsible.
Islamic Jihad has said that Israel’s claim about a rocket launch causing many people to get hurt at the hospital is not true.
The group said that the accusations made by Israel are not true and without evidence. They also said that they do not use places like hospitals for military purposes.
Understatements is reviewing information shared by Israel about the explosion. This includes various types of data, like intercepted communications and intelligence from signals.
Many countries have criticized Israel after the explosion. Pakistan described it as cruel and unjustifiable,while the Palestinian observer at the UN, Riyad Man sour,accused Israeli officials of being dishonest by blaming Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The United Nations Security Council will have a meeting on Wednesday morning to discuss what is happening in the Middle East. They will talk about the bombing of a hospital and representatives from both Israel and Palestine will give speeches.
Israeli airstrikes for more than a week have led to the death of at least 3,000 individuals in Gaza, including 1,032 girls and 940 boys. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that around 12,500 people have also been injured. In the past 10 days,more people have been injured or killed in Gaza than during the conflict between Gaza and Israel in 2014, which lasted for 51 days.
The situation is very bad for the 2. 2 million people who are stuck in Gaza. They are experiencing a worsening crisis and are not safe from Israeli airstrikes. The humanitarian situation is also getting worse.
More and more people are asking for help and diplomatic attempts to create a safe way for people to leave Gaza have increased in the past few days.
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, has been working hard in the Middle East. He announced on Tuesday that the US and Israel have agreed to create a plan to deliver help to the people in Gaza. This help will come from nations and organizations that want to provide aid.
However, the officials have warned that the Rafah border crossing, which is the only way for people to enter or leave Gaza without Israel’s control, is stillvery risky.
The Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, said on CNN that there is a long line of humanitarian aid waiting to enter Gaza on the Egyptian side of the crossing.
“Sofar, there is no safe way for the convoys to enter without approval or clear routes. This means they are at risk of being targeted. “
He said that the crossing was attacked with bombs four times recently. -
Israel must combat Hamas – Biden
US President Joe Biden said that Israel has a responsibility to retaliate against Hamas’ attacks, which he described as a very cruel action.
He strongly stated that the US would support Israel and give them any help they needed.
Mr Biden said that at least 14 Americans were killed in the attacks and some other US citizens were captured and held against their will.
A national security spokesperson said on Tuesday that at least 20 Americans were missing in a later update.
The exact number of people captured by Hamas is not currently known, according to Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor.
Members of a group, considered a terrorist organization by the US, broke through the border fence in multiple locations in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, initiating the most significant attack on Israel from across the border in a long time.
Around 1,200 people have died in Israel since Saturday. Over 950 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza as a response.
Mr Biden stood with Vice President Harris and Secretary of State Blinken at the White House. He stated that there was no good reason for the violent actions carried out by Hamas militants.
Mr Biden said that there are times when extremely evil things happen in the world without any good in them. The people of Israel experienced an important moment this weekend.
He strongly disapproved of horrifying reports of parents being killed and whole families being murdered.
“We will work hour by hour to figure out if we can find any of those Americans, or to confirm the exact number of Americans being held hostage. ”
The US is giving information to Israel, said Mr. They have also sent specialists to help Israel with rescuing hostages.
This week, the US said that they will move their naval forces, including a big ship called an aircraft carrier, to the eastern Mediterranean. The US Air Force is adding more combat aircraft to their squadrons in the area.
Mr Biden said he will ask Congress to quickly take action and give more help. The White House is thinking about asking Congress for more help in the form of military aid to Ukraine and Israel, according to a source who talked to Reuters.
On Tuesday, Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris talked to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They promised to give new ammunition to Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
Mr Blinken will go to Israel on Wednesday to meet important Israeli people.
Israel has gathered many soldiers, tanks, and other heavy weapons near Gaza. People think they might be getting ready to invade on the ground, while their airstrikes keep going.
While the FBI doesn’t have detailed information about threats in the US related to the conflict, Mr. Biden mentioned that the police in the country have increased security around Jewish places to find and stop any potential danger connected to these terrible attacks.
In America, there should be no room for hate. “He said that he is not against Jews, he is not against Muslims, and he is not against anyone. ”
A US Democrat believes that we should be helping Israel by providing military and diplomatic assistance. -
Biden trapped in Trump’s shadow on border problem
President Joe Biden is facing a tough situation because a lot of people are coming from Mexico to the US.
Democratic leaders at the state and local level, who are supposed to be his biggest supporters before the next presidential election, are strongly criticizing the way he is dealing with immigration. His likely opponent in the 2024 Republican race, Donald Trump, is intensifying his criticisms on an issue that has been an important part of his political message for almost ten years. And fewer people are supporting Mr. Biden in this situation.
Although the voting will take place in more than a year, the increasing immigration crisis is causing problems even far away from the US-Mexico border. Republican governors have been sending newly arrived migrants to cities run by Democrats, which could negatively affect Mr. Biden’s popularity and his chances of being re-elected.
The numbers show that things are getting worse. Based on early data from the US Department of Homeland Security, around 210,000 people who didn’t have the proper documents were caught by US Border Patrol when they were trying to enter the country in September. This is the best score of the year, and it almost reaches the highest number of arrests in a month which happened at the end of 2022.
If the Biden administration believed that the border crisis was getting better and the attention of the country was shifting to other problems after making changes to government policies earlier this year, the latest rise in the situation should remove that idea.
Furthermore, the way the number of immigrants is increasing indicates that there might not be a solution to this problem anytime soon. Around 25% of the people caught crossing the border last month were from Venezuela, a country in South America. Venezuela has been going through difficult times because of its ruler, Nicolas Maduro, who has a socialist dictatorship.
The situation in Venezuela has caused a lot of people to leave their country and seek refuge in other places, including the United States. Over seven million people have already fled Venezuela, and this has led to a crisis in the region. The effects of this crisis are now becoming more noticeable in the United States.
Over the past two months, more than 150,000 Venezuelans have traveled north to the US through Central America, crossing the Darian Gap.
“People don’t abruptly leave their homes just for no reason,” said Janet Napolitano, who was in charge of protecting the country during President Obama’s time, speaking to the BBC. “They are usually in a difficult situation – very poor, without a job, experiencing lots of crime, violence, and their home countries lack basic institutions. ”
A border guard in the United States sees people coming into the country who are not from there.
On Thursday, President Biden’s team shared two new actions they will take to deal with the major rise in something. These measures have made the president vulnerable to criticism from all sides of the political spectrum. The president allowed exceptions to environmental and planning rules and provided money to construct more parts of a wall on the border between the US and Mexico.
He also said that the US would start sending Venezuelan citizens back to their country directly. This practice had been stopped before because the two countries had difficult relations.
These new rules were quickly criticized. Some people who strongly oppose immigration said the rules were not enough, while some left-wing immigration activists said they were too strict. The president’s confusing explanations made things worse. He said he still thinks walls don’t work and that Congress made him spend money on it.
The Venezuelan announcement shows that the government has changed its attitude. Before, they allowed around 500,000 Venezuelan refugees in the US to apply for work permits and not be sent back to their country for 18 months.
In an attempt to calm fears that he is not taking enough action to handle the increase in people crossing the border, while also keeping his liberal followers satisfied, he seems to be satisfying neither group. This has been a difficult problem that has occurred several times regarding border policies during Biden’s presidency.
Immigration has become a very divided topic. This is partly because of Mr Trump’s strong “build the wall” words and sometimes harsh policies while he was president. This has greatly limited Mr. Biden’s ability to handle the crises.While President Barack Obama was able to increase the number of deportations and make the border stronger without facing backlash from liberal activists, Mr. Biden doesn’t have the same advantage. Now, every action he does regarding immigration is seen within the ongoing political battles between Mr. Trump and the Republicans, and the Democrats on the opposite side.
Now, the latest surveys show that during the argument between different political parties, the people are starting to become less supportive of the president.
In a recent poll by Marquette University, registered voters were asked to pick who they thought was doing a better job on immigration and border security: the current president or the previous one. More than half of the people (52%) said they liked Mr Trump better, while only 28% chose Mr Biden.
This is the equal biggest difference between the two candidates, along with the economy. It is opposite to subjects like abortion and climate change, where Mr Biden is clearly ahead.
The NBC News poll showed that 45% of Americans believed that Republicans were better at handling immigration, while only 27% thought Democrats were better. This is a big change from when most American people liked the Democrats during the time Trump was president.
“Caption that accompanies a media file,”
Why hasn’t Trump received money like other presidents did for a border barrier.
The ongoing alarming news from the border, along with the pressure on public services in big US cities where the migrants are going, is impacting people’s thoughts and feelings.
If the crisis doesn’t improve before the serious campaigning for the 2024 general election starts, the president will have a disadvantage in competing against his Republican opponent.
Ms Napolitano says that fixing the immigration problem will require the Biden team to work together.
“She says that it calls for diplomatic communication. ” We need to invest in other countries to reduce the reasons why people want to migrate. And it needs to have a strong and secure border, as well as effectively enforcing our immigration laws that should be changed and improved.
Ultimately, what really matters is whether or not the new immigration policies implemented by Mr. Biden are effective, rather than the criticism he may face for his actions this week. If they cannot stop the flow of migrants from Venezuela and other places, it becomes harder for Biden to get re-elected. -
Biden gets more criticism for new border wall
People are angry at President Joe Biden because he decided to build a new border wall in Texas. Both Republicans and Democrats are upset about this.
Mr Biden said he couldn’t stop the work because the money for it was approved when Donald Trump was president.
People in his political party said that building walls is not effective, while the opposing party accused him of being hypocritical.
They will build about 20 miles (32km) of walls in a area where there are not many people near the Rio Grande Valley.
When Mr Biden was running for president in 2020, he said he wouldn’t make any new wall if he won. He said it was not a good solution to the problem.
But on Wednesday, his administration used its broad authority to exempt over 25 federal laws, including laws that protect animals, to permit the construction of additional barriers along the US-Mexico border in southern Texas.
In a message explaining these exceptions, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said there was a pressing and urgent requirement for the building work.
This made both major parties, environmental activists, and human rights groups criticize it quickly.
I attempted to convince them to use the money in a different way. Biden said that they did not do it and they would not do it. “I am unable to prevent it. ”
He said again that he doesn’t believe border walls work.
Mr Mayorkas said no to the idea that the government had changed its border policy by approving the new construction.
“He said that the government doesn’t think a border wall is the solution. ” “We still believe the same thing and we have never changed our mind. ”
However, the comments did not help stop the criticism from any point of view.On Thursday, the government said it would start sending back about 50,000 people from Venezuela who crossed the border between the US and Mexico illegally.
More and more people moving to cities like New York has become a problem for the president. He has been criticized a lot for how he has dealt with the border.
US authorities have captured and held over 2. 2 million people who crossed the US-Mexico border since last October.
Donald Trump, the ex-president, really wanted to make a wall at the border. But Mr Biden and other Democrats really didn’t like the idea.
Donald Trump himself stated that the new building project serves as evidence supporting his previous claims of being correct.
“Will Joe Biden say sorry to me and America for being slow to get started. ” he said in a message on his Truth Social website on Thursday.
Republicans were also upset with Mr. Biden because they believe he suddenly changed his positions on certain policies that he had campaigned against.
“He believed that walls are ineffective, which is completely crazy,” said North Carolina Republican Representative Ralph Norman in an interview with the BBC. “What’s different now. Let me explain what’s different – the American people are not happy and fed up with their cities being taken over. ”
Democrats, on the other hand, criticized the president.
Representative Henry Cuellar, who represents Starr County where the new building will happen, told the BBC that he does not think the people he represents will be pleased with the news.
He said he is still against using an old solution from the 14th century, which is called “the wall”, to solve a problem in the 21st century. “I would like to have more people and better technology. ”
Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the policy was mean and asked President Biden to change his mind.
The Biden administration is receiving criticism from organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for its decision, which they consider a significant failure. -
Biden approves new border wall segment as Mexico crossings increase
The current US President, Joe Biden, plans to construct a part of a wall along the southern border of Texas. This is being done in order to prevent an increase in the number of people immigrating to the US.
They will build a road in Starr County along its border with Mexico. Officials say lots of people are crossing the border there.
Making a border wall was a very important policy of Donald Trump when he was president. Democrats strongly disagreed with it.
In 2020, Mr Biden said he would not construct any more wall if he won the election.
His government made a statement shortly after starting that said building a wall on the southern border is not a good solution.
In a statement to Associated News on Wednesday night, the US Customs and Border Protection explained that they are using funds that were already set aside for a border barrier.
The Congress gave money for building a border wall in the Rio Grande Valley. The Department of Homeland Security must use that money for building the wall as intended.
The president is very worried because there are more and more people crossing the border illegally, and this is a big problem.
Government data shows that over 245,000 crossings have been made this year. It is predicted that September will be a month with the highest number of crossings ever recorded.
Many cities in the US are saying that they are struggling because of the increase in people coming in.
The Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, said that it will cost $12 billion in the next three years to provide housing for over 100,000 new people who have come to the city since last year.
This week, Mr. Adams is going to Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador. He wants to convince people not to leave their countries to go to other places. “We don’t have any more room,” he said on Tuesday.
President Biden’s secretary in charge of protecting the country wants to quickly build a new part of the wall to stop people from entering the country illegally.
The problem at the US border explained with just four graphs.
Cities in the United States that are geographically distant from the border are struggling with the issue of migrants coming into the country.
The Texas town is stuck in a conflict over America’s border.
Many important laws, such as the Clean Air Act and Safe Drinking Water Act, were set aside in order to allow its construction to happen.
Environmentalists are upset and angry about this action because they believe that building these structures will damage and disrupt the living spaces of plants and animals that are at risk of dying out.
Laiken Jordahl, a person who supports conservation at the Center for Biological Diversity, expressed disappointment in President Biden’s decision to disregard important environmental laws in order to construct border walls that harm wildlife without achieving their intended purpose.
US Customs and Border Protection plans to build barriers that are made up of big poles attached to a solid base, alongside gates, cameras, and CCTV equipment.
The Department of Homeland Security said they will use money that was set aside during Donald Trump’s time as president to construct the new part.
This is the first time the Biden administration has allowed the building of new walls. The previous administration, under Mr. Trump, frequently approved the construction of walls and built 450 miles of them.
MrTrump spoke to Fox News and said that the crisis was caused by the president repealing his tough border policies and now needing to bring them back.
“He said that he has to do all the things that we were doing. ”
MrBiden is getting more and more criticism for his immigration rules after a sudden increase in migrants coming into the US.
In August, the US Border Patrol caught 181,059 people at the southern border, which is more than the 132,648 people caught in July, according to the latest information.
Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, stated that in just one week, 10,000 individuals came to the border each day. -
Another Secret Service officer attacked and bitten by Biden’s dog
President Joe Biden’s pet dog, a German shepherd that is two years old, has apparently bitten another agent from the Secret Service.
Commander, the younger dog of Biden, got into a fight and bit a security agent at the White House on Monday evening. This was the 11th time it happened.
Yesterday, at around 8pm, a police officer from the Secret Service Uniformed Division was bitten by a pet belonging to the First Family, according to Anthony Guglielmi, the Chief of Communication for the USSS, who spoke to CNN on Tuesday.
The officer was taken care of by doctors and nurses at the hospital.
Guglielmi said that the agent who got hurt talked to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle the next day and was doing well.
Commander has bitten people 11 times at the White House and the president’s personal home in Delaware. In the span of four months from October 2022 to January 2023, there were ten of such incidents. This information was found in Homeland Security records, which were obtained and shared by a group called Judicial Watch in July.
After the events, officials from the White House said in July that the Bidens were training and putting a leash on a dog called Commander.
Jill Biden’s communications director, Elizabeth Alexander, told CNN that the Biden family is finding ways to help their dog, Commander, adjust to the inconsistent nature of the White House grounds.
The President and First Lady are very thankful to the Secret Service and staff for everything they do to keep them, their family, and the country safe, Alexander said.
Commander is the second dog belonging to the Bidens that has problems with biting. The Bidens had to find a new home for their German shepherd Major because it bit many Secret Service agents and White House staffers. They gave him to their family friends. They accepted the Commander in December 2021.
In early November 2022, Commander, the dog, attacked an officer by biting them two times. The first bite was on the officer’s upper right arm, and the second bite was on their thigh. This information comes from records shared by a group that watches out for these types of incidents. -
Biden issues warning about risks of artificial intelligence
Biden says that artificial intelligence must be “safe” before it is made available to people. He says that governments should control this technology and not let the technology control the governments.
“He says we should use these tools as chances instead of using them to control others. ” Please simplify this text: “Rewrite this text in simple words. ”
Last week, important people in the technology industry, like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, had a meeting with Congress to discuss rules and laws related to technology. -
Biden’s statement represents NATO’s position – Stoltenberg
NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg left a meeting at the UN to talk with the BBC about what Joe Biden said in his speech.
He says he agrees with what the president said.
He says it is very important for other countries to keep criticizing Russia and helping Ukraine in the war.
Stoltenberg said to the BBC that if we don’t support Ukraine, then no country will be safe.
He says that nobody knows how long this war will continue, but Ukraine has been able to make progress in fighting against Russia with the help of NATO and the international community.
Stoltenberg agrees with Biden about how we should deal with China. He says that China wasn’t an enemy to NATO, but because it’s getting closer to Russia, it’s important to make sure NATO remains powerful. -
Biden calls on UN officials to unite against Russia
US President Joe Biden has urged international leaders to unite against Russia at the annual UN General Assembly in New York.
He also told the delegates, “Today we have to stand up to this naked aggression and deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow.”
At the gathering of almost 200 nations is Ukrainian President Zelensky, who will speak later.The world needs to lessen its reliance on fossil fuels, according to President Biden, who views climate change as an existential threat.
There is also a chance for leaders to arrange meetings off-site with so many influential people congregating in one location.
But none of them are present: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, or French President Emmanuel Macron. -
Mitt Romney asks Trump and Biden to ‘stand aside’ for 2024
Mitt Romney, a US senator and someone who previously wanted to be president, has said that Donald Trump and Joe Biden should step aside and allow younger politicians to have a chance.
He said these things when talking to the media about his own intentions to stop working.
He said he was deciding not to run again because he believed it was time for younger leaders to take over.
MrRomney, who is 76 years old, has been involved in US politics for the past 20 years. He also served as the governor of Massachusetts for a period of time.
Lately, the important Republican has started speaking out against both Mr Biden and Mr Trump.
He will continue to be in the position until January 2025, which is when his senate term ends.
MrRomney made a video where he said he will not run again. He said that his age influenced his decision.
By the time another term ends, I would be in my mid-80s. He said that it’s time for new leaders. Even though I am not running for re-election, I am still going to continue fighting.
He said that he wants young people to join the Republican party, become candidates for office, and vote. He believes that both parties would benefit from having more choices of candidates from younger generations.
When asked by the BBC, Mr. Romney said it would be good if both President Biden and Mr. Trump step down and let new people from the younger generation lead their parties.
Mr Biden, who is 80 years old, and Mr Trump, who is 77 years old, are the leading candidates for the Democrats and Republicans in the 2024 presidential race, correspondingly.
MrRomney also pointed out differences between himself and some other Republicans. He believes that he represents a smaller and more thoughtful faction of the party that is focused on policy objectives.
According to him, Republican lawmakers who back Mr. Trump are mainly interested in getting revenge and settling perceived wrongdoings.
MrRomney ran for president as the Republican candidate in 2012, but he didn’t win. Barack Obama, who was already the president, ended up winning again.
Six years later, he became one of Utah’s two senators after being chosen in an election. He tried to become the Republican candidate in 2008 but it didn’t work out. He was also the governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007.
In 2020, he chose to find Mr. Trump guilty during his initial impeachment trial, which was the first time a senator voted to find a member of his own party guilty. He was the only person from the Republican party who did it.
He voted to find the former president guilty again in his second impeachment trial after the riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Ever since that time, Mr. Romney has been against the former president. Trump was happy about the news and expressed his excitement on Truth Social, using all capital letters. He said that Mr. Romney did not serve well and considered his retirement to be great news.
IfRomney isn’t there, his seat in the senate will most likely be given to one of the Trump-supporting candidates who are considered as potential options. -
Biden’s impeachment investigation to begin in the House of Representatives
The highest-ranking Republican in the US House of Representatives has announced that they will begin a formal investigation into President Joe Biden, which could lead to his removal from office.
Kevin McCarthy said the investigation will concentrate on “claims of misuse of authority, obstruction, and corruption” by Mr.
Republicans have been looking into the actions of the president ever since they gained control of the House in January.
The investigations did not find any clear proof that Mr Biden did anything wrong.
They have provided more information about the business transactions of Hunter Biden, the son of the president, which Republicans believe are suspicious. They have also revealed details about Mr. Biden’s knowledge of his son’s actions.
Mr McCarthy spoke briefly at the US Capitol and said that there were serious and believable allegations about the president’s behavior.
“He said that when all of these accusations are considered together, they indicate that there is a lot of corruption happening within the group. ”
The White House was fast to criticize Mr McCarthy’s choice.
“House Republicans have been looking into the President’s actions for nine months, and they haven’t found any proof of him doing something wrong,” said White House spokesperson Ian Sams in a social media message.
The politics are really bad and extreme.
Hunter Biden is being investigated by the government for potentially breaking tax laws in connection to his business dealings with other countries.
Mr McCarthy, who is a lawmaker from California, also claimed that the president’s family has been treated differently by officials from the Biden administration who are looking into accusations of wrongdoing.
This investigation will give government investigators more power to look into the president by allowing them to ask for certain documents and testimony. These requests will be easier to enforce in court.
“Title: Media Explanation” Media refers to various forms of communication, such as television, radio, newspapers, and the internet. It is how people share information and entertainment with each other.
McCarthy is saying that President Biden told lies to the American people.
The US Constitution says that a president can be removed from office if they commit acts like betraying the country, taking bribes, or doing other serious illegal things.
The announcement on Tuesday is the initial step in a series of actions that might lead to a vote for impeachment in the House. The Republicans currently have a slim majority of 222-212 in the House.
After that, it would go to a Senate trial – which is a political process, not a criminal one.
If the Senate chooses guilty, the president is taken out of office. If they vote that the person is not guilty, they can keep doing their job.
Democrats are in control of the Senate, and if it reaches that point, they will most likely reject the proceedings.
Mr Trump, who is the only US president to have been impeached twice, was declared not guilty on both occasions by his fellow Republicans.
Mr McCarthy is the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives. He has been approached by right-wing members for many weeks to begin an impeachment investigation.
Congressman Matt Gaetz, who is a friend of former President Donald Trump, thinks that the announcement is only a small step forward. This is because there has been a lot of pressure from conservative members of the House for more action to be taken. He warned that he would take action to remove Mr McCarthy from his leadership role if the Speaker did not begin an impeachment investigation.
Mr McCarthy has had a weak hold on power in the House since he became the top leader in January, after going through 15 rounds of voting. This was a modern record. As a condition for becoming the leader, he promised to give one member of Congress the authority to start a vote to remove him from his position.
Mr McCarthy is currently working hard to guide a series of spending bills through the House. Congress needs to approve these actions before the end of September to prevent the US government from partially shutting down.
Mr McCarthy’s decision to support impeachment could be seen as an effort to gain favor from conservative House Republicans before important debates about the budget.
However, there are dangers involved in using this plan. Republican politicians in areas with tough competition have expressed concern about a strong push for impeachment. They worry that this approach might distance them from independent and moderate voters who helped them win elections.
The Democrats are saying that Mr. McCarthy strongly criticized Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, in 2019. This happened when she started an investigation to impeach Mr. Trump without officially voting on it.
Mr McCarthy has agreed to investigate whether to impeach someone. But there will be more pressure for a vote in the House to officially authorize the impeachment hearings and establish the rules.
This vote will make the centrists publicly known for their decision and give the Democrats something to criticize during the November 2024 election.
But that is a problem for Mr McCarthy next year. Right now, he is attempting to prevent rebellious conservative members of Congress from openly rebelling – and making a vote to remove him from his position.
The process of removing a president from office, known as impeachment, or at least the start of that process, could give him enough time and space to survive the next few months politically. -
Biden’s ‘ghost gun’ rules reinstated by the US Supreme Court
While the White House’s appeal is pending, the US Supreme Court has permitted limits on untraceable “ghost guns” to remain in place.
A Texas judge stopped a 2022 rule requiring serial numbers on self-assembled “ghost gun” kits, which would have made them legally a firearm, in July.
To stop the new restriction, gun rights organisations and gun owners filed lawsuits.
The choice is being made as pressure mounts on the White House to do more to combat gun violence.
The policy will remain in effect while the White House challenges the Texas verdict, according to the 5–4 opinion of the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The Supreme Court might eventually hear that appeal again.
Ghost weapons can be self-assembled and occasionally 3D printed, therefore they might not have a serial number and might be hard to track down. The purchase of the assembly kits has not previously been subject to background checks.
The new regulations introduced by the Biden administration in August to control the spread of “ghost guns” went into force. The regulations mandated that “buy build shoot” kit producers obtain licences, stamp serial numbers on the kits’ frames or receivers, and require retailers of these kits to hold federal licences as well.
However, US District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas concluded that when the Biden administration classed “buy build shoot” kits as guns, it exceeded its legal power under the 1968 Gun Control Act.
According to the White House, there were 20,000 suspected ghost guns discovered during criminal investigations in 2021, a ten-fold increase from five years earlier, and urgent action must be made against unregistered weapons.
More guns are in civilian hands than there are US inhabitants, making Americans the nation with the highest per capita gun ownership in the world.
In 2021, the most recent year for which complete statistics are available, more than 48,800 Americans died as a result of gun injuries, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Supreme Court decisions in recent years have primarily increased individual gun rights. The US Constitution protects a person’s right to carry a weapon in public for self-defense, the nation’s top court said last year.
The court will hear a case in its upcoming session, which begins in October, regarding the issue of whether or not those who are the targets of domestic violence restraining orders are permitted to keep their firearms.
Mr. Biden and Democrats are attempting to enhance gun regulations through methods other than establishing federal laws because to the intense partisanship on the subject in Congress.
These include decisions made by the executive branch, such as the ghost gun regulations, and laws passed at the state and municipal levels, typically in districts with majorities of Democratic Party legislators.
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Biden shares inspiring tale of insulin’s invention
President Joe Biden addressed a room filled with supporters in Hallandale Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, emphasizing the importance of accessible healthcare.
During his speech, he shared a meaningful anecdote about his conversation with the person credited with “inventing” insulin, revealing that this life-saving treatment was never patented intentionally, so it could be accessible to all.
To illustrate the administration’s commitment to affordable healthcare, Biden mentioned the Inflation Reduction Act, highlighting its potential benefits for individuals on Social Security and Medicare.
One significant aspect of this act is capping the cost of insulin at a mere $35, ensuring that this vital diabetes treatment remains affordable for everyone.
In an effort to connect with the audience, the President asked them if they knew anyone with diabetes who relies on insulin.
He further emphasized the significance of the medication, explaining that its creator deliberately chose not to patent it, prioritizing its availability for the well-being of all individuals who need it.
The heartwarming touch of Biden sharing his personal conversation with this innovator made the message even more resonant with the crowd.
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Trump charged with attempt to erase CCTV in new allegations involving secret documents
A revised indictment in the case involving the classified materials claims that former President Donald Trump tried to erase Mar-a-Lago security footage.
In a superseding indictment, Justice Department prosecutors claim that Trump directed a staff member to erase security camera footage to thwart a federal investigation into the secret materials he carried from the White House to his Florida home.
New counts of obstruction as well as willful retention of national defence records are included in the indictment that was made public on Thursday. The Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira is listed as a third defendant.
De Oliveira is charged with conspiring to conceal video evidence from investigators with Trump and his valet Walt Nauta, who has already been charged.
The latest accusations were described by the Trump campaign as “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their Department of Justice to harass President Trump and those around him.”
The campaign claimed that “Deranged Jack Smith knows they have no case” and “is looking for any way to salvage their illegal witch hunt and to get someone other than Donald Trump to run against Crooked Joe Biden.”
In June 2022, De Oliveira allegedly invited another Mar-a-Lago employee to a “audio closet” and instructed them that the talk could not be disclosed with anyone else, according to the new indictment from Special Counsel Smith’s office.
The employee claimed that De Oliveira asked how many days’ worth of surveillance footage were on the server and then told that “the boss” wanted it deleted, apparently referring to Trump.
De Oliveira is accused of saying the “boss” demanded it be done and, “What are we going to do?” after the employee expressed doubt that he could execute the request.
Trump is also accused of allegedly presenting a document about military activity in another nation to a writer and publisher of a memoir for his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, which is connected to the new offence of deliberately retaining national defence information. In July 2021, the gathering took place at Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
To criminal allegations in the investigation into sensitive documents, Trump and Nauta have entered a not guilty plea. The trial date, set for May by US District Judge Aileen Cannon, may change if a third defendant in the case is found. Trump’s legal team has said that a fair trial won’t be granted to him until after the 2024 presidential race.
The revised indictment was released at a time when attention was largely on Trump’s legal team’s Thursday meeting with prosecutors. Trump denied a claim that Smith’s probe into his and his associates’ attempts to rig the 2020 election would result in an indictment being given to his lawyers.
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Biden worried over few companies dominating stock market
Just seven stocks – Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Nvidia (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA) and Meta Platforms (META) – make up close to $11 trillion in market value and contributed about 75% of returns of the S&P 500 in the first half of 2023, according to a recent Bank of America report.
Big Tech is soaring to new heights – largely by quickly gobbling up any potential competition.
That worries the Federal Trade Commission and the Biden administration. The so-called “magnificent seven,” they fear, could become monopolies that buy and squash any new innovation so they can remain on top.
The question is whether the FTC and White House have the power to stop that.
What’s happening: Two years ago, Lina Khan, 34, became the youngest and perhaps most progressive leader of the FTC’s 100-plus year history.
Khan’s tenure was heralded as the start of a new era of antitrust governance in the US that would challenge decades of loose policy towards mergers and acquisitions, which allowed tech titans to swallow up their competition and emerge as companies with trillion-plus dollar market caps.
So far, those challenges haven’t made a huge impact.
Apple is now worth $3 trillion, the only company ever to reach that milestone. Khan, meanwhile, was unable to successfully block Microsoft from closing its $69 billion purchase of videogame publisher Activision Blizzard last week. The FTC is appealing, but lost a similar case earlier this year when it was unable to prevent Meta Platforms from purchasing virtual reality startup Within Unlimited.
Earlier this month, Khan sat before Congress for more than three hours while facing a barrage of criticism from Republican policymakers who accused her of “harassing” businesses during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.
“You are now zero for four in merger trials,” Representative Kevin Kiley, a Republican from California, said to her. “Why are you losing so much?”
But Khan appears undeterred, and late last week, the FTC and President Joe Biden released a set of long-anticipated draft updates to the nation’s merger guidelines, introducing potentially comprehensive changes to the way the US government reviews mergers and acquisitions for the first time in more than a decade.
The proposed changes could lead to major shifts in how the US government identifies — and tries to block or alter — deals it believes are anticompetitive, reports my colleague Brian Fung.
Some members of the business community aren’t happy about that.
But on Monday, Khan defended her record and actions at The Economic Club of New York.
“In federal court, we have lost two merger cases. We have brought somewhere between 13 and 20, depending on how you count,” Khan said. “In the scheme of our merger enforcement program, losing two is OK.”
The FTC, she said, doesn’t have any specificity about how big or small a business should be. “Congress, when passing the antitrust statutes, was setting out a policy preference, in many cases, for competition over monopoly,” Khan said. “That said, the statutes don’t prohibit being a monopoly. They only prohibit becoming a monopoly through illegal tactics. And so that’s the sort of thing that we look at.”
What’s next: Khan, who first garnered attention when she wrote a 98-page article about Amazon’s anticompetitive behavior for the Yale Law Journal, is undeterred. She’s preparing to take on Amazon headfirst in the coming months with a big antitrust suit.
Khan’s FTC has already put forward three cases against Amazon, but according to a Bloomberg report, they are getting ready to take them on once again. The suit, reported Bloomberg, will focus on Amazon’s core marketplace business – alleging that Amazon uses its power to reward merchants that use its logistics services and punishes merchants that don’t.
Tech earnings also begin this week. Alphabet and Microsoft report on Tuesday afternoon followed by Meta on Wednesday.
From CNN’s Samantha Delouya
Lazarus Limo usually starts his day at 10 a.m. ET, driving passengers and delivering food for Uber around Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
“I tend to set a minimum target of how much I should get by the end of the day. As soon as I get my target, that’s it; I’m done for the day,” he said. His goal is usually to make between $200 and $300 and, depending on the day, achieving it may take him between 8 and 10 hours, he told CNN.
But that’s just his weekday job.
On weekends, Limo, who is 28 years old, works as a “Dasher,” delivering food orders for DoorDash.
He is one of millions of people in the United States who participate in the so-called “gig economy,” a term that has grown in popularity over the last decade to describe the rise in freelancing work through apps like Uber, Lyft, Doordash and Instacart.
Government data on this group of workers is elusive. The last time the Bureau of Labor Statistics officially tracked workers with alternate job arrangements was 2017. But workplace experts say the number of gig workers is growing, and their impact is being felt throughout the economy. It could even be distorting government economic data, they say. For example, easy-to-access work through mobile phones may be keeping the national unemployment rate lower than it would be without the rise of these workers. It may also be a factor helping more people avoid bankruptcies, providing a fallback option for those who have been laid off from work in recent years, they say.
“People who have access to the gig economy borrow less money than people who don’t. You can think of it as an alternative to debt for some people — as a way to get through volatile times,” said Louis Hyman, a professor of labor and business at Cornell University. “Society needs to account for these different kinds of experiences.”
Read more here.
Have you tried to get tickets to go see the Barbie movie? I have and it’s nearly impossible – there are only front row tickets available for more than a week out.
That’s something I haven’t seen in a while, since well before the pandemic began. Insiders are hoping that this isn’t a fluke and that after years of declining box office profits, cinema is staging a comeback.
Summer blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” have given the troubled film industry a big shot in the arm, reports my colleague Anna Cooban.
The films raked in a combined $511 million in box office sales over their opening weekend, according to Boxoffice.com, which cited data from Warner Bros., the producers of “Barbie,” and Universal Studios, which is behind “Oppenheimer.”
It was “Barbie” that came out on top, earning $337 million globally, compared with “Oppenheimer’s” $174 million. That gave the pink-drenched film the largest opening weekend of 2023 so far and the biggest-ever debut for a female director. (Warner Bros., is owned by CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.)
The unlikely pairing seems only to have fueled interest in both. AMC, the world’s largest movie theater chain, said last week that 60,000 people had bought tickets to see both films on the same day.
“The Barbenheimer phenomenon was the catalyst to something we hadn’t seen for years in this industry: rather than driving the cultural conversation around seeing a movie, it became a global viral campaign around going to the movies,” Daniel Loria, editorial director at Boxoffice.com, told CNN.
But whether the success of both films will translate into a sustained revival of the movie industry remains to be seen. Big budget films like DC’s “The Flash” and Disney’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” have underperformed this summer, and an ongoing strike by Hollywood actors and writers over pay and working conditions has temporarily stopped production on most films.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
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Lisa Franchetti, first woman nominated by Biden to lead US Navy
For the first time in history, US President Biden has selected a female admiral to lead the US Navy, marking a significant milestone for gender representation in Pentagon military service branches.
The nominee, Lisa Franchetti, brings with her a remarkable background as a former head of the US 6th Fleet and US naval forces in South Korea. She has also served as an aircraft carrier strike commander during her distinguished career.
However, her appointment as Chief of Naval Operations still awaits confirmation from the US Senate, as per the customary procedure.
Presently, the confirmation process faces an obstacle, with one lawmaker blocking the Senate from confirming military leaders in protest against a military abortion policy.
If Adm. Franchetti is confirmed, she will achieve another groundbreaking feat by becoming the first woman to join the prestigious group of senior military officers known as the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
With 38 years of dedicated service, Adm. Franchetti is only the second woman to reach the esteemed rank of four-star admiral.
President Biden lauded her extensive expertise in both operational and policy matters, expressing confidence that she will create history once more when confirmed for the role.
Interestingly, there were reports in the US media suggesting that Adm. Franchetti was not the first choice of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Instead, he recommended Samuel Paparo, a TOPGUN graduate, for the position of Navy chief. In response, President Biden promoted Adm. Paparo and nominated him to lead the US military forces in the Pacific.
It is worth noting that the US Coast Guard, another significant military branch, is currently led by Admiral Linda Fagan, who is also a woman. However, this branch operates under the Department of Homeland Security, distinct from the Department of Defense.
Assuming her role in the fall, Adm. Franchetti will initially serve in an acting capacity, as confirmation by the divided Senate may take time.
The confirmation process has been hindered by Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville, who is blocking more than 270 military promotions in response to a Pentagon policy covering the travel expenses of service members who require out-of-state abortions.
In his statement, Mr Biden criticised the senator, saying “what Senator Tuberville is doing is not only wrong—it is dangerous”.
He added: “He is risking our ability to ensure that the United States Armed Forces remain the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. And his Republican colleagues in the Senate know it.”
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Biden cancels $39b debt in US student loan
The Education Department said on Friday that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden will forgive $39 billion in student loans for more than 804,000 students.
The department attributed the relief to a “fix” to income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.
According to the agency, borrowers will be qualified for forgiveness after 20 or 25 years of consistent IDR payments.
Lower-income borrowers’ monthly payments are capped under the IDR scheme, and after a certain period of time, the remaining sum is forgiven.
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Biden describes China’s Xi as a dictator after Beijing talks
During a fundraising event in California, US President Joe Biden made comments referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping as an authoritarian leader. T
hese remarks followed a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Xi in Beijing, which aimed to alleviate tensions between the United States and China.
Additionally, President Biden mentioned that President Xi appeared to be embarrassed following an incident where an alleged Chinese spy balloon was reportedly shot down by the US.
China said it “firmly opposes” Mr Biden’s comments.
“The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset, in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two box cars full of spy equipment in it, was he didn’t know it was there,” Mr Biden said at the event on Tuesday.
“That’s a great embarrassment for dictators. When they didn’t know what happened,” he added.
The balloon, which China says was monitoring weather, drifted across the continental US before being destroyed by American military aircraft in February.
Washington later said it was part of a sprawling Chinese intelligence collection programme. Mr Blinken, who was meant to visit Beijing at the time, postponed the trip in the wake of the incident.
China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning called Mr Biden’s remarks “extremely absurd and irresponsible”. Speaking at a regularly scheduled press conference on Wednesday, she said that the comments were “an open political provocation” that violated diplomatic etiquette.
Mr Blinken’s visit over the weekend, the first by a US secretary of state in almost five years, restarted high-level communications between the two countries.
Mr Xi said some progress had been made in Beijing, while Mr Blinken indicated both sides were open to more talks. Major differences, however, remain between the two countries.
Relations have plummeted in the wake of a Trump-era trade war, Beijing’s assertive claims over Taiwan and the shooting down of the alleged spy balloon.
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Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to tax and gun-related offences
The Justice Department announced on Tuesday that Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, had agreed to plead guilty to three criminal offences.
Due to his failure to file taxes in 2017 and 2018, Biden, 53, consented to enter a guilty plea to two misdemeanour counts. He will also enter a guilty plea to one count of drug user possessing a firearm.
According to Hunter’s lawyer Christopher Clark, “I know Hunter believes it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life.” He anticipates advancing and completing his recuperation.
The agreement marks the end of a Justice Department investigation into Biden’s business dealings and finances.
‘The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life,’ White House spokesperson Ian Sams said.
This is a breaking story, check back for updates…
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I am innocent in the classified documents probe – Trump
Donald Trump, a former president, announced that he has been indicted in a review into how he handled confidential data. This is his second indictment in around two months.
On Thursday night, Trump announced the information in a vehement post on his Truth Social website.
In his letter, Trump said, “The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, allegedly over the Boxes Hoax.”
Trump said he had been summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday at 3pm.
Trump: ‘I am an innocent man’
‘I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting President in the History of our Country, and is currently leading, by far, all Candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in Polls of the 2024 Presidential Election,’ Trump wrote in another post.
‘I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!’
It comes after Trump on March 30 became the first former president to be indicted, in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into his role in a hush payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on April 4.
Shortly after 7.30pm on Thursday, Trump sent out a fundraising email with the indictment news and asked his supporters to ‘make a contribution to peacefully stand’ with him.
‘We are watching our Republic DIE before our very eyes,’ stated the email.
‘The Biden-appointed Special Counsel has INDICTED me in yet another witch hunt regarding documents that I had the RIGHT to declassify as President of the United States.
‘This witch hunt began when the FBI RAIDED my home and then staged it to look like a made-for-TV crime scene with police sirens and flashing red and blue lights.’
The investigation, overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, centers on boxes of records that the FBI seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on August 8. They included 184 documents that were marked as classified. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and repeatedly called Smith’s probe a witch hunt.
On Thursday, a federal grand jury reportedly met in Florida in Smith’s probe.
The indictment is under seal, a source told NBC News.
A spokesperson for Smith declined to comment.
Trump shared a four-minute-long video on Truth Social in which he asserted he is innocent and slammed the Biden administration.
‘They can’t stop, because it’s election interference at the highest level,’ said Trump. ‘There’s never been anything like what’s happened. I’m an innocent man. I’m an innocent person.’
In another post, he wrote that ‘this is indeed a DARK DAY for the United States of America’.
Trump’s new indictment comes six days after the Justice Department said it would not file charges against his former vice president Mike Pence for classified documents found in his Indiana home. Pence filed to run for president on Monday.
Despite growing legal troubles, Trump remains the clear frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination.
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Congress inches closer to US debt ceiling deal
US President Joe Biden has expressed optimism regarding the ongoing discussions with top Republican Kevin McCarthy concerning the US debt ceiling, despite Congress going on a holiday weekend recess.
Their objective is to strike a deal to raise the government borrowing limit for a two-year period, ensuring that the nation can continue meeting its financial obligations.
The urgency stems from the approaching 1 June deadline for a potential US debt default, which would have severe repercussions on the economy and create a global impact.
President Biden mentioned “several productive conversations” with McCarthy, highlighting the positive momentum in their negotiations.
If an agreement is reached, both parties could claim victories. Republicans could secure spending curbs, while Democrats could protect important domestic programs.
Speaking at a White House event on Thursday, President Biden affirmed that his team was maintaining communication with McCarthy’s team, emphasizing that progress was being made in the discussions.
He added: “I made clear time and again defaulting on our nation debt is not an option.” He said Americans deserved certainty over issues such as social security payments.
The debt ceiling is a spending limit set by Congress which determines how much money the government can borrow – an issue on which Democrats and Republicans disagree.
With no deal yet struck, the Treasury has warned that the US will not have enough money to pay all of its bills as soon as 1 June.
Analysts say there could be severe economic consequences if the US fails to honour its obligations.
‘Two-year deal’
A US official told Reuters that the White House was considering scaling back an increase of the Internal Revenue Service to hire more auditors, which was intended to target wealthy Americans.
The Times reported negotiators were closing in on a deal that would raise the debt limit for two years while imposing strict caps on spending, with the military and veterans’ budgets protected from caps.
Republicans are seeking spending cuts in exchange for raising the $31.4tn (£25tn) cap on government borrowing.
Mr McCarthy – who leads Republicans in the House and has been the most high-profile public face of the talks for his party – earlier said Democrats and Republicans had worked past midnight on Wednesday and would continue to negotiate.
“There’s a couple of issues still hanging out there that we’ve got to get done,” he said. “We’re gonna work 24/7 to try to make that happen.”
Another key Republican said he believed a deal to raise the nation’s debt-ceiling deal was “likely” by Friday afternoon.
“We are inching closer to a deal. I think it’s some of the finer points they are working on right now,” Rep Kevin Hern told Reuters news agency. “You are likely to see a deal by tomorrow afternoon.”
“Neither side is going to get exactly what they want,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were trading higher at midday on Thursday, lifted by positive updates on earnings from some companies, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down about 0.6%.
That followed several days of declines. Any agreement formed between the two sides will need to be turned into a legislative text to be approved by Congress.
Mr McCarthy has promised to give lawmakers 72 hours to review the bill, and at least 24 hours’ notice if they have to return to Washington early. If a deal is reached this week, a vote could happen early next week.
There is little wiggle room for objections to be raised, as the Senate would also have to vote on the bill, which would then go to the White House for signing.
Lawmakers could also temporarily lift the debt cap to give the talks more time.
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Biden in Irish parliament ahead of speech
Joe Biden has arrived at Leinster House in Dublin and he paused for a picture in front of the structure.
Speaker of the Dail Sean O Fearghail and Chair of the Seanad Jerry Buttimer welcomed him.
In a moment, Mr. Biden will address the Irish parliament.
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“America is going hell” – Donald Trump
In a combative speech following his arraignment, Donald Trump blasted the criminal accusations brought against him and declared that “our country is going to hell.”
Hours after having his fingerprints taken in a Manhattan courthouse, the former US president said: “God bless you all” while speaking from the ballroom of his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.
Godspeed to you all.
And I never, ever imagined that something similar might occur in the United States.‘The only crime that I have ever committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.’
Trump slammed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into a hush money payment to a porn star, and called the presiding Justice Juan Merchan a ‘Trump-hating judge’.
He also ripped other probes on him including Georgia’s investigation into whether he and his allies tried to overturn the state election, and a federal investigation into his handling of classified documents that wound up at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump called special counsel Jack Smith – who is overseeing the federal probes into the classified materials and his actions around the January 6 Capitol riot – a ‘lunatic’.
The ex-president also brought up the Hunter Biden laptop scandal and blamed the country’s problems including an economic slowdown on the Biden administration and Democrats.
Some TV news stations did not air Trump’s full speech, even though it ran for less than 30 minutes. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow explained that it was ‘basically a campaign speech in which he is repeating his same lies and allegations against his perceived enemies’.
Meanwhile, ABC News cut it off as Trump claimed that President Joe Biden would provoke an ‘all-out nuclear World War 3’.
Trump walked into his Florida resort to cheers from fans wearing MAGA hats.
His family members who entered Mar-a-Lago smiling included his son Eric Trump and wife Lara Trump, and his youngest daughter Tiffany Trump. Walking behind them was Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who appeared for a speech outside Manhattan Criminal Court before being swarmed by protesters and escorted away by police.
What is Trump charged with and what’s next?
WHAT’S THIS CASE ABOUT?
The grand jury spent weeks investigating money paid during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to two women who alleged that they had extramarital sexual encounters with him.
Trump has denied the allegations.
His former lawyer Michael Cohen, who testified as a key prosecution witness, paid Daniels $130,000 through a shell company he set up and was then reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the repayments as legal expenses.
Earlier in 2016, Cohen also arranged for former Playboy model Karen McDougal to be paid $150,000 by the publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer, which squelched her story in a journalistically dubious practice known as ‘catch and kill’.
WHAT’S AN INDICTMENT?
An indictment is the formal charge brought against someone after a grand jury — which is made up of members of the community — votes and enough members agree there’s sufficient evidence to charge someone with a crime.
The indictment against Trump remains sealed, as is standard in New York before an arraignment. But once the document is made public, it will lay out the crime or crimes that Trump is accused of committing.
Sometimes indictments include a lengthy narrative with lots of details about the allegations, while others are more basic and just outline the charges a defendant is facing.
WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?
Trump is facing multiple charges of falsifying business records, including at least one felony offense, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information that isn’t yet public.
Under the law, prosecutors must prove there was an ‘intent to defraud’.
The felony falsifying business records offense requires prosecutors to prove that the records were falsified with the intention of committing, aiding or concealing a second crime.
It’s not clear yet what prosecutors allege the second crime to be, but experts have said it is probably some kind of campaign finance violation.
WHAT’S AN ARRAIGNMENT?
An arraignment is generally the first time a defendant appears in court after being charged.
The judge will tell Trump the charges against him and advise him of his right to go to trial and other things.
Trump will enter a plea of not guilty — as is standard for defendants to do at arraignment. The indictment is expected to be unsealed upon his arraignment.
Trump is expected to walk out of the courtroom because the charges against him don’t require that bail be set in New York.
It’s possible — but unlikely — that Judge Juan Merchan could decide that Trump is a flight risk and order him held, with or without bail, though Trump’s lawyers would vigorously fight that.
WHAT WILL TRUMP’S DEFENSE BE?
Trump’s lawyers have vowed to ‘vigorously fight this political prosecution in court’.
Defense attorney Joe Tacopina has described Trump as a victim of extortion who had to pay the money because the allegations were going to be embarrassing to him. But he says it had nothing to do with the campaign.
Trump will no doubt try to fight the case on multiple fronts. He may try to have the case moved out of Manhattan or New York City entirely — arguing he can’t get a fair trial there — though it’s rare for judges to agree to do that.
Trump may also argue that the statute of limitations has passed.
He has complained that the statute of limitations ‘long ago expired’ because the hush money payments and Cohen’s reimbursements happened more than six years ago.
New York’s statute of limitations for most felonies is five years. For misdemeanors, it’s just two years. But in New York, the clock can stop on the statute of limitations when a potential defendant is continuously outside the state.
Trump visited New York rarely over the four years of his presidency and now lives mostly in Florida and New Jersey.
WHAT ARE THE POLITICAL RAMIFICATIONS FOR TRUMP?
Neither the indictment itself nor a conviction would prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.
Already, the charges have been a boon to his fundraising. The campaign announced Friday evening that it had raised over $4 million in the 24 hours after the indictment became public, far smashing its previous record after the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Trump’s team over the weekend blasted out emails full of supportive comments from dozens of top Republicans, many of whom had already been supportive of him leading up to the indictment.
Those likely to be facing off with Trump in next year’s GOP primary contests have also slammed the prosecution.
Former Vice President Mike Pence called the indictment ‘an outrage’ and ‘nothing more than a political prosecution’.
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said on Twitter that the indictment ‘is more about revenge than it is about justice’.
Biotech investor Vivek Ramaswamy, who is also seeking the GOP presidential nomination, called the indictment ‘a dark moment in American history’.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Saturday accused District Attorney Alvin Bragg of weaponizing the law ‘for political purposes’ to bring a case against a former president, never mentioning Trump by name.
Trump finished his remarks with his familiar campaign slogan.
‘With a very dark cloud over our beloved country,’ he said, ‘I have no doubt that we will make America great again.’
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Biden supports ICC’s war crimes accusations and calls for Putin’s arrest
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, and US Vice President Joe Biden has applauded this.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) charged President Putin with war crimes in Ukraine, which President Biden stated the Russian president had “obviously” committed.
The allegations center on the forcible removal of kids from Ukraine to Russia following Moscow’s incursion in 2022.
Moscow has denied the allegations and denounced the warrants as “outrageous”.
It is highly unlikely that much will come of the move, as the ICC has no powers to arrest suspects without the co-operation of a country’s government.
Russia is not an ICC member country, meaning the court, located in The Hague, has no authority there.
However, it could affect Mr Putin in other ways, such as being unable to travel internationally. He could now be arrested if he sets foot in any of the court’s 123 member states.
Mr Putin is only the third president to be issued with an ICC arrest warrant.
President Biden said that, while the court also held no sway in the US, the issuing of the warrant “makes a very strong point”.
“He’s clearly committed war crimes,” he told reporters.
His administration had earlier “formally determined” that Russia had committed war crimes during the conflict in Ukraine, with Vice-President Kamala Harris saying in February that those involved would “be held to account”.
The United Nations also released a report earlier this week that found Moscow’s forced removal of Ukrainian children to areas under its control amounted to a war crime.
In a statement on Friday, the ICC said it had reasonable grounds to believe Mr Putin committed the criminal acts directly, as well as working with others. It also accused him of failing to use his presidential powers to stop children being deported.
Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, is also wanted by the ICC for the same crimes.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has said the warrants were “based upon forensic evidence, scrutiny and what’s been said by those two individuals”.
The court had initially considered keeping the arrest warrants a secret, but decided to make them public to try and stop further crimes being committed.
“Children can’t be treated as the spoils of war, they can’t be deported,” Mr Khan told the BBC.
“This type of crime doesn’t need one to be a lawyer, one needs to be a human being to know how egregious it is.”
https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.47.3/iframe.htmlMedia caption,
WATCH: Can Vladimir Putin actually be arrested?
Mr Khan also pointed out that nobody thought that Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader who went on trial for war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, would end up in The Hague to face justice.
“Those that feel that you can commit a crime in the daytime, and sleep well at night, should perhaps look at history,” Mr Khan said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any of the court’s decisions were “null and void” and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev compared the warrant to toilet paper.
Russian opposition activists have welcomed the announcement. Ivan Zhdanov, a close ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has tweeted that it was “a symbolic step” but an important one.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his thanks to Mr Khan and the ICC for their decision to press charges against “state evil”.
Source: BBC
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Additional classified Biden documents are discovered
A new set of secret federal documents have been discovered by the aides to US Vice President Joe Biden at a second location, adding to the White House’s mounting political embarrassment.
The first cache was found at a private office in Washington DC that Mr Biden used after his vice-presidency.
The matter is under review by the US Department of Justice.
Former President Donald Trump is facing a criminal investigation for allegedly mishandling classified files.
It was not yet clear on Wednesday when or where the additional tranche of files was found by Biden aides.
The original batch of about 10 documents was discovered in November at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank near the White House, but only came to light this week.
Those papers reportedly include US intelligence memos and briefing materials related to Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom.
The White House has not yet commented on the newly discovered batch. However, the find has been confirmed by the BBC’s US partner CBS and other US media.
During her daily press briefing on Wednesday, Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to answer questions about the first cache of files.
“This is under review by the Department of Justice,” she said. “I’m not going to go beyond what the president shared yesterday.”
Mr Biden said on Tuesday he was “surprised” by the discovery of the records and was “co-operating” with the justice department’s review.
The controversy comes as the Democratic president faces scrutiny from a new Republican majority in the US House of Representatives.
“Now that Democrats no longer have one-party rule in Washington, oversight and accountability are coming,” James Comer, the new chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said on Wednesday.
The committee is launching inquiries into the president and his family, including a request for the White House to turn over documents and communications related to the classified files.
The law requires that all White House records, including classified ones, be turned over to the US National Archives after an administration’s time in office.Media caption,
Watch: Trump supporters upset with FBI search
The White House has said Mr Biden’s lawyers alerted the archives as soon as they recovered the classified materials at the think tank, and the agency retrieved them the next morning.
Last August, FBI agents searched the Florida home of Mr Biden’s predecessor and seized more than 10,000 files that Mr Trump had not turned over to the National Archives.
The justice department had issued a subpoena for the return of the sensitive files before the FBI showed up at Mar-a-Lago.
More than 300 documents with classified markings, including 18 marked top secret, were recovered by federal agents from the golf club in Palm Beach.
Source: BBC
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Russia can’t erase sovereign state from map – Biden
United States President Joe Biden said the United Nations resolution against Russia’s annexations in Ukraine, passed with a historic majority, was a message to Moscow that it could not erase a sovereign state from the map.
“Today, the overwhelming majority of the world nations from every region, large and small, representing a wide array of ideologies and governments voted to defend the UN Charter.
“It condemns Russia’s illegal attempt to annex Ukrainian territory by force,” Biden said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The stakes of this conflict are clear to all and the world has sent a clear message in response: Russia cannot erase a sovereign state from the map.
“Russia cannot change borders by force. Russia cannot seize another country’s territory as its own,” Biden said.
“Nearly eight months into this war, the world has just demonstrated that it is more united, and more determined than ever to hold Russia accountable for its violations,” the US leader added.
The UN General Assembly on Wednesday condemned Russia’s recent move to annex the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya, by a vote of 143-5, with 35 countries abstaining.
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