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Air India Express terminated on Wednesday the contract of some senior cabin crew members who “reported sick” a day ago, even as the carrier continued to reel from flight cancellations 24 hours since the crisis began and said in a fresh statement that it was making efforts to mitigate the situation.

While there is no immediate clarification on the number of employees served the termination notice by the airlines, news agency PTI reported that at least 25 senior crew members were terminated from the service. However, other publications have mentioned that the number of employees laid off might go up to as many as 30.

In a letter of termination sent to one of its employees, the airline stated that an overwhelming number of airline crew members reported to be sick at the eleventh hour. “This clearly points to a pre-meditated and concerted abstention from work without any justifiable reason,” the letter read.

According to CNBC, Air India Express further stated that the action of crew members resulted in the cancellation of a large number of flights, affecting the airline’s schedule and causing inconvenience to passengers. Hence, it terminated the contracts of the concerned employees with immediate effect.

In the termination letter to its employees, the company added, “Your act is not only subversive of public interest, but has also caused embarrassment, severe reputational damage and serious monetary loss to the company.”

AIR INDIA EXPRESS TO OPERATE 292 FLIGHTS TODAY
Amid the ongoing disruptions in Air India Express’ flight operations, the airline’s spokesperson informed that the carrier will operate 292 flights on Thursday with the help of Air India, however, 74 flights of the company stands cancelled.

“Air India Express is making every possible effort to minimise the inconvenience caused to our guests by this unexpected situation. We will be operating 292 flights today. We have mobilised all resources and Air India will support us by operating on 20 of our routes,” the spokesperson said.

“However, 74 of our flights stand cancelled and we urge our guests booked to fly with us to check if their flight is affected by the disruption before heading to the airport. If their flight is cancelled, or delayed beyond 3 hours, they may opt for a full refund or reschedule to a later date without any fees on Tia on WhatsApp (+91 6360012345) or on airindiaexpress.com,” he added.

Source: https://www.news18.com/auto/pre-meditated-air-india-express-lays-off-employees-after-mass-sick-leave-caused-over-80-flights-cancellations-8883382.html

Notably, India has historically enjoyed close ties with Russia in terms of defence but is now improving relations with the US in that sector.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that the US is making accusations against India to unbalance its internal political situation and complicate the Lok Sabha elections.

Zakharova, in a speech shared by RT News said that Washington lacks the simple understanding of India’s national mentality and history, and continues to make ‘unfounded accusations’ about religious freedoms. The spokesperson dubbed it disrespectful to India.

Source: https://www.deccanherald.com/world/us-aims-to-destabilise-india-during-lok-sabha-polls-russia-amid-allegations-new-delhi-involved-in-pannun-killing-plot-3014885

U.S. President Joe Biden vowed publicly for the first time to withhold weapons from Israel if its forces make a major invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza while negotiations in Cairo on a ceasefire plan for the enclave were set to continue on Thursday.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah, … I’m not supplying the weapons,” Biden, whose administration has repeatedly asked Israel for its plan to protect civilians in Rafah, told CNN in an interview on Wednesday.

Biden acknowledged that U.S. bombs provided to Israel have killed Gaza civilians in the seven-month-old offensive aimed at annihilating Hamas.
The comments, Biden’s starkest yet, increase the pressure on Israel to refrain from a full-scale assault on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge after fleeing combat farther north in Gaza.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on Biden’s remarks, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Rafah operation would go ahead. Israel says it must hit Rafah to defeat thousands of Hamas fighters it says are there.

Israel kept up tank and aerial strikes on southern Gaza after moving in via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, cutting off a vital aid route.
Biden has been under pressure from his fellow Democrats and growing campus protests to deter Israel from invading Rafah. His support of Israel has become a political liability as the president runs for re-election.
The United States is by far the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel, and it accelerated deliveries after the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 that triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

Biden said U.S. weapons for Israel’s defense, such as for its Iron Dome anti-missile system, would continue.
On Wednesday, U.S. officials confirmed that Washington paused delivery of an arms shipment of 1,800 2,000-pound (907-kg) bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs to Israel because of the risk to civilians in Gaza.
Four sources said the shipments, delayed for at least two weeks, involved Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which convert dumb bombs into precision-guided ones, as well as Small Diameter Bombs (SDB-1).

They were part of an earlier approved shipment to Israel, not the recent $95-billion supplemental aid package the U.S. Congress passed in April.
Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Gilad Erdan, called that decision “very disappointing” but said he did not believe the U.S. would stop supplying arms to Israel.
TALKS IN CAIRO
Palestinian militant group Hamas said late on Wednesday it would not make more concessions to Israel in the truce talks.
In Cairo, delegations from Hamas, Israel, the U.S., Egypt and Qatar have been meeting since Tuesday.
Citing a source familiar with the matter, Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera TV said early on Thursday that areas of disagreement were being resolved and there were signs an agreement will be reached, without giving details.
But Izzat El-Reshiq, a member of Hamas’ political office in Qatar, said in a statement late on Wednesday the group would not go beyond a ceasefire proposal it accepted on Monday.
That would also entail the release of some Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinian women and children detained in Israel.
“Israel isn’t serious about reaching an agreement and it is using the negotiation as a cover to invade Rafah and occupy the crossing,” said Reshiq.
On Monday Israel declared that the three-phase truce proposal approved by Hamas was unacceptable because terms had been watered down. It did not respond immediately to the Hamas statement.
The U.S. said on Tuesday that Hamas had revised its ceasefire proposal and the revision could overcome an impasse in negotiations. Just a few hours before Hamas’ latest statement, Washington continued to say the two sides were not far apart.
“We believe there is a pathway to a deal … The two sides are close enough they should do what they can to get to a deal,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-warns-israel-that-rafah-invasion-will-jeopardise-weapons-supply-assault-2024-05-09/

Vladimir Putin could surpass Joseph Stalin as Russia’s longest-serving leader since Catherine the Great if he completes this latest term as president.

Vladimir Putin began his fifth term as Russian president at a palace in Moscow in front of a crowd of faces – including actor Steven Seagal and the leader of a biker gang.

“We are a united and great people and together we will overcome all obstacles, realise all our plans, together we will win,” he said after being sworn in on Tuesday.

At the ceremony in the gilded Grand Kremlin Palace, Mr Putin placed his hand on the Russian Constitution and vowed to defend it as a crowd of hand-picked dignitaries looked on.

A number of famous faces were in the crowd waiting to see the Kremlin leader sworn in once again. They included:

American actor (and now Russian citizen) Steven Seagal

The US actor, known for films such as Under Siege and On Deadly Ground, is an ally of Mr Putin.

In 2018 he was appointed as Russia’s special envoy to the US.

Head of the Chechen Republic, and Putin ally, Ramzan Kadyrov

Ramzan Kadyrov has ruled Chechnya, a federal republic of Russia, since 2007 and enjoys considerable leeway from Mr Putin in return for ensuring the region’s stability.

He has sent thousands of his fighters to Ukraine.

Biker gang leader Alexander Zaldostanov

Known as ‘the surgeon’, Alexander Zaldostanov is a leader of the Night Wolves biker gang and has been accused by the US of involvement in the annexation of Crimea.

Actor Ivan Okhlobystin

A former priest, Ivan Okhlobystin is a Russian actor and director.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/vladimir-putin-inauguration-steven-seagal-and-other-famous-faces-spotted-at-kremlin-palace-13131109

With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president’s hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.

Jurors appeared riveted as Daniels offered a detailed and at times graphic account of the encounter Trump has denied. Trump stared straight ahead when Daniels entered the courtroom, later whispering to his lawyers and shaking his head as she testified.

The testimony was by far the most-awaited spectacle in a trial that has toggled between tabloidesque elements and dry record-keeping details. A courtroom appearance by a porn actor who says she had an intimate encounter with a former American president added to the long list of historic firsts in a landmark case laden with claims of sex, payoffs and cover-ups and unfolding as the presumptive Republican nominee makes another bid for the White House.

Daniels veered into salacious details despite the repeated objections of defense lawyers, who demanded a mistrial over what they said were prejudicial and irrelevant comments.

“This is the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from,” attorney Todd Blanche said. “How can we come back from this in a way that’s fair to President Trump?”

The judge rejected the request and said defense lawyers should have raised more objections during the testimony. The Trump team later in the day used its opportunity to question Daniels to paint her as motivated by personal animus and profiting off her claims against Trump.

“Am I correct that you hate President Trump?” defense lawyer Susan Necheles asked Daniels.

“Yes,” she acknowledged.

Daniels’ statements are central to the case because in the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign, his then-lawyer and personal fixer, Michael Cohen, paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about what she says was an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter with Trump in July 2006 at a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Led by a prosecutor’s questioning, Daniels described how an initial meeting at a golf tournament, where they discussed the adult film industry, progressed to a “brief” sexual encounter that she said Trump initiated after inviting her to dinner and back to his hotel suite.

She said she didn’t feel physically or verbally threatened, though she knew his bodyguard was outside the suite. There was also what she perceived as an imbalance of power: Trump “was bigger and blocking the way,” she said.

At the time, Trump was married to his wife, Melania, who has not been in court for the trial. Daniels said Trump told her they did not sleep in the same room, prompting him to shake his head at the defense table.

After it ended, Daniels said, “It was really hard to get my shoes because my hands were shaking so hard.”

“He said: ‘Oh, it was great. Let’s get together again, honey bunch,’” Daniels said. “I just wanted to leave.”

Source: https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-hush-money-gag-order-d853768fff5fafbdee55623579889140

The judge in Donald Trump’s criminal trial fined him $1,000 and held him in contempt of court for a 10th time on Monday for violating a gag order and warned that further violations could land the former president in jail.

Justice Juan Merchan said the nine $1,000 fines he had imposed previously did not seem to be deterring the wealthy business mogul from violating the order, which bars him from speaking publicly about the jurors and witnesses in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.

“I do not want to impose a jail sanction and have done everything I can to avoid doing so. But I will if necessary,” Merchan said at the start of the trial’s 12th day before the jury entered.

Imprisonment would be an unprecedented step in the historic trial, which stems from a hush money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 election.

After Merchan’s ruling, jurors heard testimony from former Trump employees that could bolster prosecutors’ case that Trump falsified business records to cover up the hush money payment.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies wrongdoing.
As he imposed the fine, Merchan said he considered jail time “truly the last resort” as it would disrupt the trial, pose extraordinary security challenges and complicate the 2024 presidential election, in which the Republican Trump seeks to win the White House back from Democratic President Joe Biden.

But the judge said Trump’s “continued, willful” violations of the gag order amounted to a “direct attack on the rule of law.”

Merchan imposed the 10th $1,000 fine on Monday for an April 22 broadcast interview in which the former president said: “That jury was picked so fast – 95% Democrats. The area’s mostly all Democrat.”

Merchan found that other statements flagged by prosecutors that mentioned witnesses Michael Cohen and David Pecker did not violate the gag order.

The order prevents Trump from making statements about jurors, witnesses and families of the judge and prosecutors if meant to interfere with the case. Violations are punishable by fines of up to $1,000 or jail time of up to 30 days.
Last week Merchan fined Trump $9,000 for nine social media posts that he ruled had violated the gag order.

Trump complains frequently that the gag order limits his ability to make his case to voters in his comeback White House bid.

He’s taken away my constitutional right to speak,” Trump told reporters outside the courtroom, before the judge fined him.Prosecutors on Monday later showed jurors business records that documented payments totaling $420,000 from Trump to Cohen, his former fixer and personal lawyer.
Those payments were listed as legal fees, but prosecutors say they were actually meant to reimburse Cohen for paying $130,000 to Daniels to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006.
Trump denies ever having had sex with Daniels.
Prosecutors say the $420,000 paid by Trump was meant to cover the $130,000 Cohen paid to Daniels, along with $50,000 in other expenses he had incurred. Trump doubled that total to account for taxes and also included a $60,000 year-end bonus, they say.
A former controller in Trump’s organization, Jeffrey McConney, testified that he was not aware of any other instance in which the Trump Organization reimbursed someone so generously.
McConney said he never spoke with Trump about the payments but was told by the company’s top finance official Allen Weisselberg that they were reimbursements.

Another former Trump employee, Deborah Tarasoff, walked the jury through the 34 invoices, ledger entries and checks stemming from the payments to Cohen, which were made on a monthly basis after Trump won the election. Each represents one of the 34 counts in the indictment against Trump.

Most of the checks were signed by Trump personally, and prosecutors highlighted his tall, looping signature in thick ink for the jury.

Prosecutors say the payment to Daniels corrupted the 2016 election by keeping the news from voters, at a time when Trump’s treatment of women was a central issue in his campaign against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
They say the altered business records covered up election-law and tax-law violations that elevate the 34 counts Trump faces from misdemeanors to felonies punishable by up to four years in prison.

If found guilty, Trump could face up to four years in prison, though defendants typically face fines and probation.
The main players in the case have yet to testify, including Cohen and Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-return-new-york-courtroom-criminal-hush-money-trial-2024-05-06/

Palestinian militant group Hamas on Monday agreed to a Gaza ceasefire proposal from mediators, but Israel said the terms did not meet its demands and pressed ahead with strikes in Rafah while planning to continue negotiations on a deal.

The developments in the seven-month-old war came as Israeli forces struck Rafah on Gaza’s southern edge from the air and ground and ordered residents to leave parts of the city, which has been a refuge for more than a million displaced Palestinians.

Hamas said in a brief statement that its chief, Ismail Haniyeh, had informed Qatari and Egyptian mediators that the group accepted their proposal for a ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said later that the truce proposal fell short of Israel’s demands but Israel would send a delegation to meet with negotiators to try to reach an agreement.

Qatar’s foreign ministry said its delegation will head to Cairo on Tuesday to resume indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

In a statement, Netanyahu’s office added that his war cabinet approved continuing an operation in Rafah. Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on social media site X that Netanyahu was jeopardizing a ceasefire by bombing Rafah.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the proposal that Hamas approved was a watered-down version of an Egyptian offer and included elements that Israel could not accept.

“This would appear to be a ruse intended to make Israel look like the side refusing a deal,” said the Israeli official.
Another official briefed on the agreement said Hamas had agreed to the phased ceasefire and hostage release deal Israel proposed on April 27 with only minor changes that did not affect the main parts of the proposal.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington would discuss the Hamas response with its allies in the coming hours, and a deal was “absolutely achievable”.

More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, according to Gaza health officials. The U.N. has said famine is imminent in the enclave.

The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and abducting 252 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

RAFAH HIT BY STRIKES

Any truce would be the first pause in fighting since a week-long ceasefire in November, during which Hamas freed around half of the hostages.

Since then, all efforts to reach a new truce have foundered over Hamas’ refusal to free more hostages without a promise of a permanent end to the conflict, and Israel’s insistence that it would discuss only a temporary pause.
Taher Al-Nono, a Hamas official and adviser to Haniyeh, told Reuters the proposal met the group’s demands for reconstruction efforts in Gaza, return of displaced Palestinians and a swap of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The Hamas deputy chief in Gaza, Khalil Al-Hayya, told Al Jazeera television the proposal comprised three phases of six weeks each, with Israel to pull its troops out of Gaza in the second phase.

Earlier on Monday, Israel ordered the evacuation of parts of Rafah, the city on the Egyptian border that has served as the last sanctuary for around half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.

An Israeli strike on a house in Rafah killed five Palestinians, including a woman and a girl, medics said.
Israel believes that a significant number of Hamas fighters, along with potentially dozens of hostages, are in Rafah and has said that victory requires taking the key city.

Source :https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/wrapup1-israel-begins-evacuating-part-rafah-ahead-threatened-assault-2024-05-06/

Mr Netanyahu says current proposals would allow the group to rebuild and possibly launch another attack in future.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected ceasefire proposals because he says Hamas’s call for a withdrawal of all troops from Gaza and an end to the war is unacceptable.

Mr Netanyahu said agreeing such proposals would “leave Hamas intact” and leave the possibility of another attack in future.

“Surrendering to the demands of Hamas would be a terrible defeat for the State of Israel,” he said in a video statement.

Gaza latest: Major aid crossing shuts after ‘rocket barrage from Gaza’

Mediated negotiations for a pause in the fighting in return for the release of hostages held by Hamas have been going on in Egypt, but a deal appears some way off.

Mr Netanyahu said Hamas was “entrenched in its extreme positions, first among them the demand to remove all our forces from the Gaza Strip, end the war, and leave Hamas in power”.

He said it would allow more “massacres, rapes and kidnapping”.

Hamas said in a statement it was “still keen to reach a comprehensive, interconnected agreement that ends the aggression, guarantees withdrawal, and achieves a serious prisoner exchange deal”.

The group’s chief, Ismail Haniyeh, blamed Mr Netanyahu of “sabotaging the efforts made through the mediators”.

The impasse comes after Egyptian media reported “noticeable progress” in ceasefire talks on Saturday.

The proposal put to Hamas had set out a three-stage process for an immediate, six-week ceasefire and partial release of Israeli hostages, with some sort of Israeli pull-out in exchange.

There was a brief ceasefire and prisoner and hostage swap last year, but it did not turn into a longer-term truce.

Intense pressure is on Israel’s government domestically to achieve a deal and get more hostages released, with families holding regular vigils and campaigning.

‘Dangerous and ridiculous lie’

Mr Netanyahu also said on Sunday his cabinet had voted to close the local office of Qatar’s state-owned news broadcaster Al Jazeera.

Israel claims the channel has collaborated with Hamas.

“Al Jazeera reporters harmed Israel’s security and incited against soldiers,” Mr Netanyahu said. “It’s time to remove the Hamas mouthpiece from our country.”

The channel called the claims a “dangerous and ridiculous lie” that threatens its reporters’ safety and said it would pursue “every legal step”.

“The background of this (shutdown) decision is not professional or journalistic… it’s political,” said Waleed Omari, bureau chief of Al Jazeera in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

As well as closing offices, an Israeli statement said it could also include blocking its broadcasts and website and confiscating equipment.

It comes after a law was passed last month allowing Israel to act against foreign channels that “harm” the country.

It’s understood it allows for an initial 45-day closure which could then be renewed.

The move is likely to worsen relations between Israel and Qatar – whose government has been playing a key role in negotiations to end the war.

One of the channel’s reporters, Shireen Abu Akleh, was killed in an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank two years ago.

It also says Israel has deliberately killed several of its staff who died in Gaza. Israel denies it targets journalists.

More than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed and more than 77,000 wounded in Israel’s current military operation, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry.

Israel has said it remains committed to a ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million have fled in search of safety, as it tries to wipe out Hamas.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/israels-benjamin-netanyahu-rejects-ceasefire-deal-that-would-leave-hamas-intact-13129727

External affairs minister S Jaishankar said that India will wait for the Canadian police to share more information about the three men arrested and charged with the murder of Khalistani separatist terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

S Jaishankar said on Saturday that the probe into Nijjar’s death is Canada’s internal matter and has nothing to do with India.

Canadian police charged Karan Brar, 22, Kamalpreet Singh, 22, and Karanpreet Singh, 28, all Indian nationals residing in Edmonton, with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

“(They are) apparently Indians of some kind of gang background… we’ll have to wait for the police to tell us,” Jaishankar said, adding he had seen news of the arrests, according to news outlet Reuters.

“But, as I said, one of our concerns which we have been telling them is that, you know, they have allowed organised crime from India, specifically from Punjab, to operate in Canada,” he further added.

Jaishankar’s responses came during an interaction with journalists in Odisha capital Bhubaneswar.

The ties between India and Canada came under severe strain following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations in September last year of the “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Nijjar. India has dismissed Trudeau’s charges as “absurd” and “motivated.”

Jaishankar repeated India’s stance when journalists asked him why Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau thought India was responsible for Nijjar’s murder.

“Canada did not give any proof. They do not share any evidence with us in certain cases, police agencies also do not cooperate with us. It is their political compulsion in Canada to blame India. As elections are coming in Canada, they indulge in vote bank politics,” the external affairs minister said.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/canadas-internal-matter-jaishankar-on-arrest-of-three-charged-with-khalistani-separatist-nijjars-murder-8878358.html

Just a few months short of a quarter-century as Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin on Tuesday will put his hand on a copy of the constitution and begin another six-year term as president wielding extraordinary power.

Since becoming acting president on the last day of 1999, Putin has shaped Russia into a monolith — crushing political opposition, running independent-minded journalists out of the country and promoting an increasing devotion to prudish “traditional values” that pushes many in society into the margins.

His influence is so dominant that other officials could only stand submissively on the sidelines as he launched a war in Ukraine despite expectations the invasion would bring international opprobrium and harsh economic sanctions, as well as cost Russia dearly in the blood of its soldiers.

With that level of power, what Putin will do with his next term is a daunting question at home and abroad.

The war in Ukraine, where Russia is making incremental though consistent battlefield gains, is the top concern, and he is showing no indication of changing course.

“The war in Ukraine is central to his current political project, and I don’t see anything to suggest that that will change. And that affects everything else,” Brian Taylor, a Syracuse University professor and author of “The Code of Putinism,” said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“It affects who’s in what positions, it affects what resources are available and it affects the economy, affects the level of repression internally,” he said.

In his state of the nation address in February, Putin vowed to fulfill Moscow’s goals in Ukraine, and do whatever it takes to “defend our sovereignty and security of our citizens.” He claimed the Russian military has “gained a huge combat experience” and is “firmly holding the initiative and waging offensives in a number of sectors.”

That will come at huge expense, which could drain money available for the extensive domestic projects and reforms in education, welfare and poverty-fighting that Putin used much of the two-hour address to detail.

Taylor suggested such projects were included in the address as much for show as for indicating real intent to put them into action.

Putin “thinks of himself in the grand historical terms of Russian lands, bringing Ukraine back to where it belongs, those sorts of ideas. And I think those trump any kind of more socioeconomic-type programs,” Taylor said.

If the war were to end in less than total defeat for either side, with Russia retaining some of the territory it has already captured, European countries fear that Putin could be encouraged toward further military adventurism in the Baltics or in Poland.

“It’s possible that Putin does have vast ambitions and will try to follow a costly success in Ukraine with a new attack somewhere else,” Harvard international relations professor Stephen Walt wrote in the journal Foreign Policy. “But it is also entirely possible that his ambitions do not extend beyond what Russia has won — at enormous cost and that he has no need or desire to gamble for more.”

But, Walt added, “Russia will be in no shape to launch new wars of aggression when the war in Ukraine is finally over.”

Such a rational concern might not prevail, others say. Maksim Samorukov, of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said that “driven by Putin’s whims and delusions, Moscow is likely to commit self-defeating blunders.”

In a commentary in Foreign Affairs, Samorukov suggested that Putin’s age could affect his judgment.

“At 71 … his awareness of his own mortality surely impinges on his decision-making. A growing sense of his limited time undoubtedly contributed to his fateful decision to invade Ukraine.”

Overall, Putin may be heading into his new term with a weaker grip on power than he appears to have.

Russia’s “vulnerabilities are hidden in plain sight. Now more than ever, the Kremlin makes decisions in a personalized and arbitrary way that lacks even basic controls,” Samorukov wrote.

“The Russian political elite have grown more pliant in implementing Putin’s orders and more obsequious to his paranoid worldview,” he wrote. The regime “is at permanent risk of crumbling overnight, as its Soviet predecessor did three decades ago.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/putin-russia-inauguration-president-cdb0f25dd8a5f2b53b9ea8d106d4b035

Donald Trump’s former top aide Hope Hicks broke down on the witness stand Friday at his hush money trial, during testimony where she also defended the former president’s relationship with wife Melania.

Hicks, 35 — former press secretary then top White House spokesperson to the ex-president — began crying after the first few questions by Emil Bove, a lawyer for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

During the emotional moment Hicks dabbed her eyes with a tissue as Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan offered her a short break, which she accepted.

Althought it is not clear why she started to cry, Hicks had first become visibly flustered at the end of questioning by the prosecution, while answering questions about the $130,000 payment to porn star Stromy Daniels which is at the center of the trial.

She had testified she thought Trump thought felt “it was better to be dealing” with the situation in 2018 than before the 2016 presidential election.

Hicks also choked up when she got back on the witness stand while recalling her time working for the Trump Organization.

Hicks had been on the stand for roughly four hours displaying composure while prosecutors grilled her on her time working for the ex-president beginning in 2015 and ending in 2022 — which she said is the last time she saw him.

Earlier, Hicks told jurors how Trump tried to ensure a Wall Street Journal article from Nov. 4, 2016 detailing allegations of an affair with Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal wouldn’t be seen by Melania.

“He was concerned about the story. He was concerned how it would be viewed by his wife,” Hicks said. “And he wanted to make sure the newspapers weren’t delivered to his residence that morning.”

Later, during follow-up by Bove, Hicks explained the reason Trump didn’t want Melania to see the McDougal article was because of how much he cares and respects her.

“President Trump really values Mrs. Trump’s opinion and she doesn’t weigh in all the time but when she does it’s really meaningful to him,” Hicks said.

“He really, really respects what she has to say. I think he was really concerned about what the perception of this would be and, yeah, I know that was weighing on him.”

Hicks added Trump didn’t want anyone from his family to “be hurt” by stories that were “going on in his campaign.”

Trump wished Melania a happy birthday from the courthouse last week while she was in Florida. She has not attended the first two weeks of trial.

Hicks — a former teen model, who admitted to having no experience before coming onto Trump’s team — also took a jab at Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who is expected to be the star prosecution witness against his longtime boss.

“He liked to call himself a fixer, or Mr. Fix It,” Hicks said.

Source: https://nypost.com/2024/05/03/us-news/hope-hicks-breaks-down-on-witness-stand-at-trump-trial/

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau sparked outrage in India when he said there were “credible allegations” Narendra Modi’s government was involved in the murder of a Canadian citizen.

Three suspects have been charged by Canadian police over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in Vancouver last June, in an incident that sparked a diplomatic spat between Ottawa and New Delhi.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside a temple by masked gunmen in Surrey, outside Vancouver, on 18 June 2023.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police assistant commissioner David Teboul said police could not comment on the nature of the evidence or the motive.

“This matter is very much under active investigation,” Teboul said.

The three suspects – Indian nationals Kamalpreet Singh, Karan Brar and Karampreet Singh – were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

Superintendent Mandeep Mooker said: “This investigation does not end here. We are aware that others may have played a role in this homicide and we remain dedicated to finding and arresting each one of these individuals.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sparked a diplomatic feud with India when he said in September that there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the killing. India angrily denied involvement.

Mr Nijjar, an Indian-born citizen of Canada, was a leader in what remains of the Khalistan movement – a once-strong group calling for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland.

He was organising an unofficial referendum in India for an independent Sikh nation at the time of this death and had denied allegations of ties to terrorism.

The Khalistan movement has lost much of its power but is still supported by some in the Punjab state in northwestern India and in the Sikh diaspora overseas.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/three-charged-over-killing-of-sikh-separatist-leader-in-canada-in-incident-which-sparked-diplomatic-spat-with-india-13128488

Student protests have popped up at many college and university campuses across the US over the last two weeks. Some have led to agreements with administrators to consider the protesters’ demands.

At least 2,000 people have so far been arrested in connection with the protests on college campuses against the Israel-Hamas war. According to the Associated Press, the arrests have been made across 35 campuses, since a tent encampment began at Columbia University on April 17. Meanwhile, a police officer involved with clearing protesters from a Columbia University building fired his gun inside the hall. However, no one was injured.

The demonstrators had seized Hamilton Hall on April 30, ramping up their presence on the campus from a tent encampment that had been there. Tensions on college campuses have been building for days as administrators turned to police to clear demonstrators by force, leading to clashes that have seized widespread attention.

PROTESTS AT US UNIVERSITIES: THE LATEST

1. The number of people arrested in connection with protests on college campuses against the Israel-Hamas war has now topped 2,000. These arrests were made across 35 schools. Meanwhile, the University of Minnesota officials announced an agreement with pro-Palestinian protesters on Thursday to end their encampment on the Minneapolis campus. In exchange, representatives of the coalition of student organisations involved will get to address the university’s Board of Regent.
2. President Joe Biden on Thursday rejected calls from student protesters to change his approach to the war in Gaza while insisting that “order must prevail” as college campuses across the country face a wave of violence, outrage and fear. At the White House, Biden said, “Dissent is essential for democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder.” Biden also said that he did not want the National Guard to be deployed to campuses
3. A police officer who was involved in clearing protesters from a Columbia University administration building earlier this week fired his gun inside the hall. No one was injured as there were no students in the immediate vicinity. The gunfire came as police officers stormed Hamilton Hall late Tuesday. Pro-Palestinian protesters had been barricaded inside for more than 20 hours.
4. Columbia University has come under fire for hiring a Modern Arab Studies professor who voiced support for Hamas and other terror groups. Hired as the Arcapita visiting professor in Modern Arab Studies on January 16, Mohamed Abdou had lauded Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel. Later, Columbia University president Nemat (Minouche) Shafik said that Abdou had been terminated, The Times of Israel reported.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/us-universities-protests-columbia-university-campus-protests-arrests-hamilton-hall-israel-hamas-war-2534646-2024-05-03

The United States is a country of immigrants, the White House has said, defending President Joe Biden’s remarks calling two of his QUAD partners — India and Japan — as well as Russia and China ‘xenophobic’ nations, asserting that none of these countries, unlike the US, welcome immigrants.

Responding to a question about the remarks made by Biden at an election fundraiser on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the president was making a ‘broader point’.

“He was making a broader point. Our allies and partners know very well that — how much this president respects them,’ Jean-Pierre told reporters at her daily news conference on Thursday.

‘As you know, in regard to Japan, they were just here for the state visit. The US-Japan relationship is an important relationship. It’s a deep, enduring alliance,” she said.

‘He (Biden) was making a more broad comment, speaking about this country and speaking about how important it is to be a country of immigrants and how it makes our country stronger. And so, that’s what he was talking about,” she said.

“It relates to our relationship with our allies, that continues. Obviously, we have a strong relationship with India (and) with Japan. And the President, if you just look at the last three years, has certainly focused on those diplomatic relationships,’ Jean-Pierre said.

“He was talking about who we are as a country. He was talking about the importance of being in a country of immigrants, especially as you see the attacks that we have seen very recently, in the last couple of years, those attacks on immigrants, in particular,” the White House Press Secretary said, defending the president.

Source : https://www.deccanherald.com/world/remark-made-in-a-broader-point-us-defends-bidens-statement-calling-india-china-russia-japan-xenophobic-3005893

Protests over the Israel-Hamas war have reached boiling point at universities on both sides of the United States, with hundreds of arrests made and classes cancelled.

About 300 people have been arrested during police crackdowns on protests at US universities.

In the early hours of Wednesday, police were called into Columbia University in New York, and also broke up protests at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as demos over the Israel-Hamas war reached boiling point.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said about 300 people were arrested at Columbia and nearby City College.

Columbia’s Hamilton Hall was occupied by protesters and Mayor Adams said this particular group was “led by individuals who were not affiliated with the university”.

“There is a movement to radicalize young people,” he said. “And I’m not going to wait until it is done to acknowledge the existence of it.”

On the west coast, all classes at UCLA were cancelled on Wednesday due to “distress” caused by the overnight violence, according to a notice on its website.

Students and staff have been advised to avoid Royce Quad, the area where clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters resulted in police wielding pepper spray being drafted in.

Pro-Palestinian protesters had erected barricades and plywood for protection, which counter-protesters tried to pull down.

The protesters shoved and kicked one another, sometimes beating people with sticks or throwing chairs.

Sky News US correspondent Martha Kelner, reporting from UCLA, said: “Just look at this scene on a US university campus – California highway patrol wearing riot shields, riot masks, gas masks underneath their helmets.”

She said they were wearing gas masks “because throughout the course of the evening from inside this encampment, or at least the vicinity, a substance was released, I think, probably, pepper spray”.

“But the police here are not taking any chances, wearing gas masks – preparing, I guess, potentially to access this encampment.”

She said a protester appeared to pray at the feet of officers, adding: “She’s a pro-Palestinian protester. She’s refusing to move for the California Highway Patrol.

“She appears to be kneeling down, perhaps in prayer, at the feet of the patrol.

“It is a remarkable sight to see. These are scarcely fathomable scenes on a US university campus.”

By 5am local time, Kelner said the “volatile” situation at the campus had calmed down.

Source : https://news.sky.com/story/us-university-gaza-protests-300-arrested-as-police-in-riot-gear-break-up-clashes-at-two-campuses-13126641

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial fined the former U.S. president $9,000 for contempt of court on Tuesday and said he would consider jailing him if he continued to violate a gag order.
In a written order, Justice Juan Merchan said the fine may not be enough to serve as a deterrent for the wealthy businessman-turned-politician and lamented he did not have the authority to impose a higher penalty.

“Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment,” Merchan wrote.
Merchan had imposed the gag order to prevent Trump from criticizing witnesses and others involved in the case.
The judge fined Trump $1,000 for each of nine online statements that he said violated his order not to criticize witnesses or other participants in the trial. Prosecutors had flagged 10 posts as possible violations.

The posts, made between April 10 and April 17, included an article calling his former lawyer Michael Cohen a “serial liar.” Cohen is expected to be a prominent witness in the trial.
Another post quoted a Fox News pundit who claimed “undercover liberal activists” were trying to sneak onto the jury. Merchan rejected Trump’s argument that he could not be held liable for “reposts” of material he did not write himself.

Merchan will consider whether to impose further penalties for other statements at a hearing on Thursday. The judge also ordered Trump to remove the statements from his Truth Social account and his campaign website on Tuesday.
Trump said Merchan had taken away his free speech rights. “I am the only Presidential Candidate in History to be GAGGED. This whole ‘Trial’ is RIGGED,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche has argued that the statements at issue were responses to political attacks, but Merchan noted that Blanche was unable to provide any evidence that the expected witnesses had attacked Trump before he insulted them.
The $9,000 fine, due by Friday, is a relatively small penalty for Trump, who has already posted $266.6 million in bonds as he appeals civil judgments in two other cases.
Imprisonment, however, would be an unprecedented twist in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.

If that happened, it is unclear whether Trump would be sent to New York City’s jail on Rikers Island or whether security concerns would require more lenient treatment, such as home confinement in his Trump Tower triplex. As a former president, he remains under Secret Service protection.
Trump, the Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election is charged with falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump in 2006.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied having sex with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
DANCING WITH THE STARS
Lawyer Keith Davidson, who worked with Daniels to sell her story, said interest picked up in 2016 after audio from the “Access Hollywood” TV show was released that portrayed Trump making crude remarks about women.
Davidson had previously sold the story of another woman who claimed to have had an affair with Trump, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, to the National Enquirer tabloid.
He said he leveraged an offer from the ABC television network, which he said promised efforts to feature her as a contestant on the “Dancing With the Stars” show.
The Enquirer never ran McDougal’s story, in a practice known as “catch and kill” that Davidson said was meant to protect Trump.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-nyc-hush-money-trial-resume-with-bankers-testimony-2024-04-30/

The leader of Canada’s main opposition party was ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday after he called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “a wacko”, in the latest clash between two men set to fight an election next year.
The official opposition right-of-center Conservatives are well ahead in the polls. The incident started when party leader Pierre Poilievre criticised what he called Trudeau’s refusal to crack down on drug overdoses.

“When will we put an end to this wacko policy by this wacko prime minister?” he asked Trudeau in the House of Commons elected lower chamber.
Speaker Greg Fergus, a Liberal, told Poilievre the comment was both unparliamentary and unacceptable and asked him four times to withdraw it. Poilievre declined on each occasion, saying instead he would use the word extremist or radical.
Fergus told Poilievre he was disregarding the speaker’s authority and, in an unusual move, said: “I order to you to withdraw from the House … for the remainder of this day’s sitting.”

Poilievre, who left the chamber with his legislators, later repeated his attack on Trudeau’s stance on drugs.
“This is a wacko policy from a wacko PM that’s destroying lives,” he said in a social media post.
Liberal parliamentarian Steven MacKinnon, in charge of government business in the House, told reporters the incident had been a disgrace and showed a disrespect for institutions.
Trudeau has a testy relationship with Poilievre, who he accuses of being an extremist and a supporter of the Make America Great Again movement of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-opposition-leader-calls-trudeau-wacko-is-ejected-chamber-2024-04-30/

Columbia University on Monday began suspending pro-Palestinian student activists who refused to dismantle a protest camp on the New York City campus after the Ivy League school declared a stalemate in talks seeking to end the polarizing demonstration.

University President Nemat Minouche Shafik said in a statement that days of negotiations between student organizers and academic leaders had failed to persuade demonstrators to remove the dozens of tents set up to express opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza.

The crackdown at Columbia, at the center of Gaza-related protests roiling university campuses across the U.S. in recent weeks, occurred as police at the University of Texas at Austin arrested dozens of students whom they doused with pepper spray at a pro-Palestinian rally.

Columbia sent a letter on Monday morning warning that students who did not vacate the encampment by 2 p.m. ET and sign a form promising to abide by university policies would face suspension and become ineligible to complete the semester in good standing.

“We have begun suspending students as part of this next phase of our efforts to ensure safety on our campus,” said Ben Chang, a university spokesperson, at a briefing on Monday evening.

“The encampment has created an unwelcoming environment for many of our Jewish students and faculty and a noisy distraction that interferes with the teaching, learning and preparing for final exams,” Chang said.

Earlier, Shafik said Columbia would not divest from finances in Israel, a key demand of the protesters. Instead, she offered to invest in health and education in Gaza and make Columbia’s direct investment holdings more transparent.

Protesters have vowed to keep their encampment on the Manhattan campus until Columbia meets three demands: divestment, transparency in university finances, and amnesty for students and faculty disciplined for their part in the protests.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/columbia-university-urges-pro-palestinian-protesters-disperse-after-failed-talks-2024-04-29

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday in Riyadh, where they discussed the urgent need to reduce tensions in the region, the U.S. Department of State said in a statement.

Blinken also underscored the need for sustaining an increase in humanitarian assistance to Gaza, reaching an immediate ceasefire that secures the release of hostages and preventing the possible further spread of the conflict, the State Department said.

Blinken is in Saudi Arabia as part of a broader trip to the Middle East aimed at discussing with Arab partners post-war Gaza and to press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take steps U.S. President Joe Biden demanded this month to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/blinken-saudi-crown-prince-discuss-achieving-peace-security-gaza-us-says-2024-04-29

Former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis met Sunday morning in Miami, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

Why it matters: DeSantis is a prodigious fundraiser. Trump badly needs the cash in the general election against President Biden.

• The Washington Post was first to report on the meeting.
• DeSantis endorsed Trump in January after exiting the GOP primaries.

But just a few days later, DeSantis offered a string of criticisms of the former president, including:

• Hammered Trump’s handling of COVID.
• Said he’d spoken to many Iowa conservatives who couldn’t bring themselves to vote again for Trump.
• Said the media had propped up the “juggernaut” Trump in the primary and would flip on him.

Neither side immediately commented on the news.

Source : https://www.axios.com/2024/04/28/trump-desantis-meeting-miami-florida

Hamas said Saturday it was reviewing a new Israeli proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza, as Egypt intensified efforts to broker a deal to end the months-long war and stave off a planned Israeli ground offensive into the southern city of Rafah.

Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya gave no details of Israel’s offer, but said it was in response to a Hamas proposal two weeks ago. Negotiations earlier this month centered on a six-week cease-fire proposal and the release of 40 civilian and sick hostages in exchange for freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

A separate Hamas statement said leaders from the three main militant groups active in Gaza discussed attempts to end the war. It didn’t mention the Israeli proposal.

The statements came hours after an Egyptian delegation ended a visit to Israel where it discussed a “new vision” for a prolonged cease-fire in Gaza, according to an Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the developments.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Israel’s proposal was directly related to the visit.

The discussions between Egyptian and Israeli officials focused on the first stage of a plan that would include a limited exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners, and the return of a significant number of displaced Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza “with minimum restrictions,” the Egyptian official said.

Mediators are working on a compromise that will answer most of both parties’ main demands, which could pave the way to continued negotiations with the goal of a deal to end the war, the official said.

Hamas has said it won’t back down from demands for a permanent cease-fire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops. Israel has rejected both and said it will continue military operations until Hamas is defeated and that it will retain a security presence in Gaza.

There is growing international pressure for Hamas and Israel to reach a cease-fire deal and avert an Israeli attack on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge.

Israel has insisted for months it plans a ground offensive into Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where it says many remaining Hamas militants remain, despite calls for restraint including from Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States.

Egypt has cautioned an offensive into Rafah could have “catastrophic consequences” on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where famine is feared, and on regional peace and security.

The Israeli military has massed dozens of tanks and armored vehicles in southern Israel close to Rafah and hit locations in the city in near-daily airstrikes.

Early Saturday, an airstrike hit a house in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood, killing a man, his wife and their sons, ages 12, 10 and 8, according to records of the Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital’s morgue. A neighbor’s 4-month-old girl was also killed.

Ahmed Omar rushed with other neighbors after the 1:30 a.m. strike to look for survivors, but said they only found bodies and body parts.

“It’s a tragedy,” he said.

An Israeli airstrike later Saturday on a building in Rafah killed seven people, including six members of the Ashour family, according to the morgue.

Five people were killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza overnight when an Israeli strike hit a house, according to officials at the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Elsewhere, Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian men at a checkpoint in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the military said. It said the men had opened fire at troops stationed at Salem checkpoint near the city of Jenin.

Violence in the West Bank has flared since the war. The Ramallah-based Health Ministry says 491 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire.

Washington has been critical of Israeli policies in the West Bank. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is expected in Israel on Tuesday, recently determined an army unit committed rights abuses there before the war in Gaza.

But Blinken said in an undated letter to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, that he’s postponing a decision on blocking aid to the unit to give Israel more time to right the wrongdoing. Blinken stressed that overall U.S. military support for Israel’s defense wouldn’t be affected.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-04-27-2024-7ea816cac94138492f7dddf2865c1d2f

Hamas has published a video showing the first proof of life of two more hostages being held in Gaza.

In undated footage filmed under duress, Omri Miran says he has been held for 202 days and Keith Siegel mentions this week’s Passover holiday, indicating the clips were filmed recently.

Both were captured when Hamas launched its deadly attacks on 7 October.

Responding to the video, their families said they would keep fighting for the men’s return.

They also urged the Israeli government to secure a new hostage release deal.

The new video comes as Hamas said it was studying Israel’s latest proposal for a truce. Media reports said mediator Egypt had sent a delegation to Israel to give fresh impetus to stalled negotiations.

Such a deal that included an agreement to free the remaining hostages could stop Israel’s planned ground assault in the southern city of Rafah, Israel’s foreign minister said on Saturday.

‘I thought just kill me quickly’: Gaza hostage’s 54 days in captivity
Mr Siegel, a US citizen, was kidnapped with his wife Aviva, though she was freed in November during a brief truce.

In a video statement Keith’s wife Aviva said: “Keith, I love you, we will fight until you return.” Earlier this month, she told the BBC how the couple had at one point been left in a tunnel by their captors as they were moved from place to place. At the time of the interview, she said she did not know if Keith was still alive.

His daughter Ilan said: “Seeing my father today only emphasises to all of us how much we must reach a deal as soon as possible and bring everyone home. I demand that the leaders of this country watch this video and see their father crying out for help.”

His other daughter Shir said: “If you watched the video, you saw that my father knows we are all coming to the rally every week and fighting for him and all the captives.”

Steven Spielberg is working with President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign to provide strategy for the Democratic National Convention, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News on Friday.

Spielberg, a longtime supporter of Biden, has already actively participated in meetings with convention organizers for the August event, the source said. He does not currently have plans to create a film portion for this summer’s events, according to the source, though he did produce a film for then-President Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008.

Puck first reported on Spielberg’s involvement.

The famed director previously appeared at a Biden campaign fundraiser in the Los Angeles area in December that included Barbra Streisand, director Rob Reiner, recording industry magnate David Geffen and others.

Spielberg’s friend and former DreamWorks business partner Jeffrey Katzenberg is also a co-chair of the Biden campaign. Katzenberg also hosted a fundraising meeting at his home during the campaign’s December push in the greater Los Angeles area.

The Biden campaign is separately in discussions with Obama about appearing alongside his former running mate at a Los Angeles fundraiser in mid-June, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News.

The fundraiser, first reported by Axios, is expected to feature Katzenberg and George Clooney as hosts, that source said.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/steven-spielberg-providing-strategy-biden-campaign-rcna149612

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday (Apr 26) that any decisions by the International Criminal Court, which is investigating Hamas’ Oct 7 attacks and Israel’s military assault on Gaza, would not affect Israel’s actions but would set a dangerous precedent.

This week, one presidential candidate has called the other a loser, made fun of him for selling Bibles, and even poked fun at his hair.

That kind of taunting is generally more within the purview of former President Donald J. Trump, whose insults are so voluminous and so often absurd that they have been cataloged by the hundreds. But lately, the barbs have been coming from President Biden, who once would only refer to Mr. Trump as “the former guy.”

Gone are the days of calling Mr. Trump “my predecessor.”

“We’ll never forget lying about Covid and telling the American people to inject bleach in their arms,” Mr. Biden said at a fund-raiser on Thursday evening, referring to Mr. Trump’s suggestion as president that Americans should try using disinfectant internally to combat the coronavirus.

“He injected it in his hair,” Mr. Biden said.

He is coming up with those lines himself: “This isn’t ‘S.N.L.,’” said James Singer, a spokesman and rapid response director for the Biden campaign, referring to “Saturday Night Live.” “We’re not writing jokes for him.”

The needling from Mr. Biden is designed to hit his opponent where it hurts, touching on everything from Mr. Trump’s hairstyle to his energy levels in court. Mr. Biden has also used policy arguments to get under Mr. Trump’s skin, mocking the former president’s track record on abortion, the coronavirus pandemic and the economy.

The president’s advisers say Mr. Trump’s legal problems have created an opening. As Mr. Trump faces felony charges that he falsified business records to pay off a porn actress ahead of the 2016 election, Mr. Biden and his aides have refrained from talking directly about the legal proceedings. Mr. Biden has made it a point to say he is too busy.

“I haven’t had a chance to watch the court proceedings because I’ve been campaigning,” Mr. Biden told a group of donors assembled at the actor Michael Douglas’s home in New York on Thursday.

But everyone in the Biden camp — from the president to the officials running his social media accounts — sees the moment as ripe for holding up a split screen between Mr. Trump’s current schedule and the president’s.

As Mr. Biden traveled aboard Air Force One to Florida this week, Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, told reporters to keep their eyes peeled for updates.

“Nobody fall asleep while we talk, please,” Mr. Bates said, an unsubtle reference to reports that Mr. Trump had dozed off in court.

Jennifer Mercieca, an associate professor at Texas A&M University who studies political rhetoric, said that Mr. Trump has often won supporters with his ability to present himself as a strong, authoritative leader, and that he “always tries to define Biden as sleepy, as old, as senile, the opposite of the strong man.”

She said that Mr. Biden was trying to flip the narrative. At a campaign reception in Dallas last month, Mr. Biden told a group of donors a story about a “defeated-looking” man who had complained to the president about a “crushing debt.”

“And I had to look at him and say, ‘Donald, I’m sorry. I can’t help you,’” Mr. Biden said. “I thought about it, but I just couldn’t do it.”

Still, it remains to be seen if this new approach can change the minds that have already been made up.

The former president may be stuck in a courtroom, but according to recent polls, he is still leading in battleground states. (The Biden campaign equates the polls to ambient noise during a turbulent election season.)

Mr. Biden has also been making comments that draw unwelcome attention to his own tendency to misspeak, exaggerate his past or make public gaffes.

This week he repeated a debunked claim that he used to drive an 18-wheeler truck. On Wednesday, he seemed to read instructions from a teleprompter out loud to his audience, asking them to imagine what the Biden administration and its supporters could do with the next “four more years … pause.”

Mr. Biden also told two campaign audiences that after being shot down during World War II, his uncle might have been eaten by cannibals in Papua New Guinea, angering the island nation’s leaders at a time when the president has been courting them as part of his Indo-Pacific strategy.

But, because it is now April of an election year, the president’s advisers waste no time on explaining the boss’s mistakes, instead throwing them back on his opponent.

“The president had an emotional and, I think, a symbolic moment,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said by way of explaining the cannibals comment. She went on to castigate Mr. Trump for calling military veterans “suckers” and “losers.”

Mr. Biden’s advisers say that they are not just making fun of Mr. Trump for their own amusement — they want to highlight policy differences and draw a contrast between the two candidates.

During a campaign speech in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, Mr. Biden stayed focused on tying Mr. Trump to laws that have restricted access to abortion and reproductive health care, an issue that is galvanizing for Democrats even as the party remains divided over a range of other matters, from the war in Gaza to border policy.

Source: https://dnyuz.com/2024/04/26/biden-taunts-trump-calling-him-a-loser-trying-to-get-under-his-skin/

China must stop supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine if it wants to enjoy good relations with the West, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, warning Beijing in unusually harsh words it cannot have it both ways.

During a visit to Berlin, the chief of the Western military alliance said Beijing’s help was vital to Moscow’s war effort as it was propping up Russia’s war economy by sharing high-end technology like semiconductors.

“Last year, Russia imported 90% of its microelectronics from China, used to produce missiles, tanks and aircraft. China is also working to provide Russia with improved satellite capabilities and imaging,” Stoltenberg said.
“China says it wants good relations with the West. At the same time, Beijing continues to fuel the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War Two. They cannot have it both ways,” he warned.

Stoltenberg cautioned Western allies against becoming as dependent on China as they had been on Russia.
“In the past, we made the mistake of becoming dependent on Russian oil and gas,” he said.
“We must not repeat that mistake with China. Depending on its money, its raw materials, its technologies – dependencies make us vulnerable.”
China has strengthened trade and military ties with Russia in recent years as the United States and its allies imposed sanctions on both, but particularly Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/china-must-stop-aiding-russia-if-it-seeks-good-relations-with-west-nato-says-2024-04-25/

The Supreme Court’s conservative justices signaled support on Thursday for U.S. presidents having some level of protection from criminal charges for certain acts taken in office as it tackled Donald Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution for trying to undo his 2020 election loss.
During about 2-1/2 hours of arguments in the case, most of the justices seemed unlikely to embrace Trump’s most far-reaching argument that presidents have “absolute immunity” for official acts – an assertion that appeared to wilt under hypothetical questions involving selling nuclear secrets, taking a bribe or ordering a coup or political assassination.

But the conservative justices, who hold a 6-3 majority on the nation’s top judicial body, indicated concern about presidents lacking any degree of immunity, especially for less egregious acts. The contours of such a ruling, though, were not clear after arguments probing the extent of presidential powers.
Trump, seeking this year to regain the White House, appealed after lower courts rejected his request to be shielded from four election-related criminal charges on the grounds that he was serving as president when he took the actions that led to the indictment obtained by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

The Supreme Court’s eventual ruling may narrow the special counsel’s allegations against Trump, but it appeared that at least parts of the indictment would survive. The decision could further delay Trump’s trial, however, if the Supreme Court instructs lower courts to determine how to apply its newly formulated view of immunity. Smith attended the arguments.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito said incumbent presidents who lose re-election would be in a “peculiarly precarious position” if they are vulnerable to vindictive prosecution by the next presidential administration.

“Will that not lead us into a cycle that destabilizes the functioning of our country as a democracy?” Alito asked Michael Dreeben, the lawyer representing Smith.
“We can look around the world and find countries where we have seen this process where the loser gets thrown in jail,” Alito added.
Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts signaled concern about abusive prosecutions of presidents, absent immunity.
“You know how easy it is in many cases for a prosecutor to get a grand jury to bring an indictment. And reliance on the good faith of the prosecutor may not be enough in some cases,” Roberts told Dreeben, while indicating he was not suggesting Trump’s indictment in this case was improper.
Trump, the Republican candidate challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election in a rematch from four years ago, is the first former U.S. president to be criminally prosecuted.
He has pleaded not guilty in this case and in three other criminal cases, including an ongoing trial on New York state charges related to hush money paid to a porn star shortly before the 2016 U.S. election that made him president. Trump did not attend the arguments because he was in a Manhattan courtroom in the hush money case.
‘WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT?’
D. John Sauer, the lawyer arguing for Trump, said that without presidential immunity from criminal prosecution, “there can be no presidency as we know it.”
“For 234 years of American history, no president was ever prosecuted for his official acts,” Sauer added.
Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pushed back on Sauer’s argument in a question about President Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon following Nixon’s 1974 resignation amid the Watergate political scandal.
“If everybody thought that presidents couldn’t be prosecuted,” Jackson asked, “then what was that about?”

Sauer was sharply questioned by the court’s liberals as he advanced his sweeping theory that presidents enjoy “absolute immunity” for acts taken in their official capacity.
Jackson suggested such blanket immunity risked “turning the Oval Office into the seat of criminal activity in this country.”
In response questions by liberal Justice Elena Kagan, Sauer said that if structured as official acts a president could not be prosecuted for selling nuclear secrets to a foreign adversary, or even if he ordered the military to stage a coup in order to retain power, unless first impeached and removed from office by Congress.
“That sure sounds bad, doesn’t it?” Kagan responded.
BACK TO LOWER COURTS
The conservative justices appeared to favor returning the case to lower courts to perform more analysis. They asked questions about which of Trump’s actions cited by the prosecution were taken in an official capacity, as opposed to a private one – and if an official capacity, which of those acts may deserve some immunity.
Such a ruling could further delay Trump’s trial if lower courts must perform a rigorous probe.
The Supreme Court’s decision to put off hearing arguments over immunity until this month, months after lower courts acted, already postponed Trump’s trial, which had been scheduled for March. Legal experts have said a ruling would be needed by about June 1 for Trump’s trial to be held before the election.
If Trump regains the presidency, he could try to force an end to the prosecution or potentially pardon himself for any federal crimes.
On his way into court in New York on Thursday, Trump told reporters, “If you don’t have immunity, you’re not going to do anything. You’re just going to become a ceremonial president.”
The court already this year has handed Trump one major victory. On March 4, it overturned a judicial decision that had excluded him from Colorado’s ballot under a constitutional provision involving insurrection for inciting and supporting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
Not since its landmark Bush v. Gore decision, which handed the disputed 2000 U.S. election to Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore, has the court played such an integral role in a presidential race.
Trump took numerous steps to try to reverse his 2020 loss to Biden. His false claims of widespread voting fraud helped inspire the Capitol rampage on the day Congress met to certify Biden’s victory. His supporters attacked police and stormed the Capitol, sending lawmakers and others fleeing. Trump and his allies also devised a plan to use false electors from key states to thwart certification.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-weighs-trumps-bid-immunity-prosecution-2024-04-25/

Extreme rainfall across east Africa has led to dozens of deaths in recent weeks, with Burundi pleading for international aid while in Kenya, streets in the capital were turned into rivers.

Devastating flooding has struck east Africa, with extreme rainfall wreaking havoc across several countries.

Recent weeks have seen dozens of deaths in the region related to torrential rainfall, which is set to peak in the coming days.

The situation has worsened so much that last week, Burundi – one of the world’s poorest countries – called for international help to try and grapple with the floods.

In Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, once busy streets were turned into rivers. 35 people have died since mid-March, according to the Kenya Red Cross Society.

The Nairobi River and the Athi River in Kenya have both burst their banks, leading to over 40,000 people having been displaced since March.

The most affected parts of Kenya are in Nairobi and Machakos County, which lies just east of the city.

While issues of extreme rainfall have been ongoing during this year’s March-to-May rainy season, they have taken a turn for the worse in recent days.

Edwin Sifuna, a member of the Kenyan senate, shared a video that shows an entire neighbourhood flooded.

He said: “The situation in Nairobi has escalated to extreme levels. The county government for all its efforts is clearly overwhelmed. We need all national emergency services mobilised to save lives.”

In the video, the water is almost up to the rooftops of some houses, while a group of Kenyans are seen to have sought refuge on top of one home.

Climate experts have linked the ongoing flooding across the region to the El Nino weather phenomenon.

Shocking pictures have emerged from Kenya, showing the severity of the developing situation.

Jean Marie Sabushimike, a geographer and disaster management expert who teaches at the University of Burundi, said: “It must be said directly that these floods are associated with climate changes that affect Burundi like other countries in the region.”

As well as climate change, the impact of the flooding is exacerbated by poor land-use, he added.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/devastating-flooding-in-east-africa-claims-dozens-of-lives160and-displaces-thousands-13122189

Rudy Giuliani, a former lawyer for Donald Trump, is among 18 people charged in Arizona with illegally seeking to claim the state’s 2020 electoral votes for the then-U.S. president, in an indictment that names Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator.
The indictment, reached on Tuesday and unsealed on Wednesday, stems from the attempt by Trump and his allies to pressure election officials in several states to overturn the presidential election won by Joe Biden, efforts for which Trump has been indicted in Georgia and in federal court.

The court papers list “a former U.S. president,” referring to Trump, as an unindicted co-conspirator.
The indictment in Maricopa County Superior Court names 11 defendants and redacts the names of seven others. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a press release announcing the charges that those names would be made public after all of the defendants had been served with the indictment.
Giuliani is among those whose names are redacted, a spokesperson for him, Ted Goodman, confirmed, criticizing the prosecution of the former New York mayor as political.

Another defendant whose name was redacted is described in the indictment as chief of staff in 2020, the position Mark Meadows held in the Trump White House at that time.
Representatives for Meadows did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the indictment.
INDICTMENT FOLLOWS GEORGIA, FEDERAL CASES
Trump, Giuliani and Meadows are co-defendants in the Georgia case, where they are charged with a racketeering conspiracy to overturn Biden’s victory in that state. They have pleaded not guilty there. Trump has also pleaded not guilty in the federal election-subversion case in Washington.

Trump, a Republican, says all the cases are a political “witch hunt” to prevent him from defeating Democrat Biden in this year’s presidential rematch.
Another defendant whose name is redacted is Trump lawyer Christina Bobb, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung confirmed, calling the Arizona indictment “another example of Democrats’ weaponization of the legal system.”
“Christina Bobb is a former Marine Corps officer, who served our nation and the President with distinction. The Democrat platform for 2024: if you can’t beat them, try to throw them in jail,” Cheung said.

Giuliani spokesperson Goodman also called the Arizona indictment an example of “the continued weaponization of our justice system,” saying it “should concern every American as it does permanent, irrevocable harm to the country.”
“Mayor Rudy Giuliani – one of the most effective prosecutors in American history who took down the Mafia, cleaned up the streets of New York and locked up corrupt public officials – is proud to stand up for the countless Americans who raised legitimate concerns surrounding the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election,” Goodman said.
The indictment alleges the defendants pressured the Maricopa Board of Supervisors, the Arizona Legislature and then-Governor Doug Ducey to change the election results.
FALSE ELECTORS SCHEME IN SEVERAL STATES
U.S. presidents are chosen by electors from each state, who cast votes in the Electoral College, where votes are allotted based on each state’s population.
In Arizona and almost all other states, the winner of the state’s popular vote receives all of that state’s electoral votes. To win the presidency a candidate needs 270 electoral votes – a majority of total 538.
Arizona has 11 electoral votes, and the 11 defendants named in the indictment would correspond to those people who purported to be electors for Trump.
Arizona is one of seven states where Biden won but Trump allies sought to award the electoral votes to Trump. Many of the races were close. Arizona was decided by little more than 10,000 votes or 0.3% of the ballots cast.
The charges include fraud, forgery and conspiracy, three classes of felony that with a conviction could have sentences ranging from 6 months to more than 12 years in prison.
Arizona is the fourth U.S. state where participants in the elector scheme have faced criminal charges.
Three people who held themselves out as Trump electors in Georgia were charged alongside Trump in the sweeping racketeering case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Sixteen people who falsely claimed to be legitimate Trump electors in Michigan were indicted in July 2023 by state Attorney General Dana Nessel. Authorities in Nevada charged six people, including the state Republican chair, with taking part in the scheme.
The so-called fake elector plan also plays a prominent role in the federal case against Trump brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, accusing the former president of a multi-part scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump will press his claim that he should be immune from those charges at the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/grand-jury-indicts-18-alleged-arizona-fake-elector-scheme-re-elect-trump-2024-04-24/

Pro-Palestinian students have set up tent encampments at more campuses across the U.S. to protest Israel’s incursion into Gaza, after mass arrests at similar demonstrations at a handful of mostly East Coast colleges in recent days.
The expanding protests include plans by a coalition of Jewish groups opposing Israel’s actions to close the Brooklyn street where U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer resides. That protest, on the second night of the week-long Jewish feast of Passover, is one of a dozen the coalition organized in cities around the country.

Since Friday, hundreds of students and others were arrested at Columbia, Yale, New York University and other schools.
Critics of the protests, including prominent Republican members of the U.S. Congress, have stepped up accusations of antisemitism and harassment by at least some protesters. Civil rights advocates, including the ACLU, have raised free speech concerns over the arrests.
Among the new encampments, students at the University of California, Berkeley – a school well known for its student activism during the 1960s – set up tents in solidarity with protesters at other schools.

Also in California, the campus of Cal Poly Humboldt, a public university in Arcata, was shut down after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied a campus building.
At the University of Minnesota campus in St. Paul, police cleared an encampment after the school asked them to take action, citing violations of university policy and trespassing law.
The new protests follow the arrest of more than 120 protesters on New York University’s campus late on Monday, a New York Police Department spokesperson said. Police said university authorities reached out for help, and protesters failed to clear by the deadline given by the university.

More than 100 students were arrested at Columbia last week, and the New York university canceled in-person classes on Monday in a bid to defuse tensions on campus and out of concern that Jewish students faced possible harassment.
On Tuesday, the school said classes for the rest of the year were hybrid – with students able to attend either online or in person.
Columbia administrators, along with state officials, some members of Congress, and the White House, have alleged that Jewish students have been subjected to antisemitism and harassment by some protesters.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pro-palestinian-seders-planned-new-york-other-cities-college-campuses-simmer-2024-04-23/

Donald Trump is the first former US president to face a criminal trial, accused of falsifying business records to pay hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up their alleged affair in the run-up to the 2016 election.

A newspaper chief was Donald Trump’s “eyes and ears” and killed unfavourable stories about him in the run-up to the 2016 election, a court has heard.

Trump has made history as the first former US president to face a criminal trial.

He stands accused of paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels in an effort to cover up their alleged affair and falsifying business records in order to do so.

David Pecker, the former boss of publisher AMI, took the stand as the first witness in the trial, as he described participating in a “catch and kill” scheme with Trump and Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen to bury unfavourable press coverage during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Manhattan’s criminal court also heard Mr Pecker, who signed a “non-prosecution” agreement with prosecutors after AMI admitted to making hush-money payments, describe his role as being the “eyes and ears” for Trump.

Mr Pecker said he would flag stories to Mr Cohen, who would check if they were true or not. This agreement was never put in writing but Mr Pecker divulged it to Dylan Howard, editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer, one of his publications.

Mr Pecker told the court of a meeting he attended in August 2015 with Trump, Mr Cohen, and Hope Hicks, the communications director for the former president.

‘I would be the eyes and ears’

He said: “At that meeting with Donald Trump, they asked me what can I do to help the campaign.

“I said what I would do is I would run or publish positive stories about Mr Trump, and I would publish negative stories about his opponents.

“I said that I would also be the eyes and ears.”

In particular, Mr Pecker said that he would notify Cohen if he heard any negative stories relating to Trump and alleged relations with any women “because Mr Trump was well known as the most eligible bachelor and dated the most beautiful women”.

He added: “It was clear that, based on my past experience, that when someone was running for public office like this, it is very common for these women to call up magazines like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories.”

The court heard of one such example where Mr Pecker paid $30,000 (£24,000) to buy a story about Trump allegedly fathering an illegitimate baby with a maid.

Mr Pecker said: “I immediately called Michael Cohen and told him exactly what I was told.

“I gave the name of the housekeeper in the penthouse and asked him to verify it first with the Trump Organisation payroll.”

Buying off negative press

Mr Pecker bought the story but said investigators found the story to be untrue and says Cohen told him it was “absolutely not true”.

He added: “I made the decision to buy the story because it could have been embarrassing to the campaign and Mr Trump.”

Hanging over today’s proceedings were allegations that Trump violated a gag order in social media posts and on his campaign website.

The gag order restricted Trump’s public speech on jurors, potential witnesses and some others involved in the case.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/newspaper-chief-was-donald-trumps-eyes-and-ears-and-killed-unfavourable-stories-about-him-court-hears-13121683

The UK government will also provide Ukraine with its largest munitions package since the war against Russia started in February 2022.

Rishi Sunak is to announce a £500m military aid package to Ukraine in its war against Russia alongside the UK’s largest provision of munitions so far.

Some 400 vehicles, 60 boats, 1,600 strike and air defence missiles, and four million rounds of ammunition are included in the package.

The announcement comes during a downswing for Ukraine as Russian forces have been gaining the upper hand in recent weeks.

Moscow took the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka on 17 February and has been progressing ever since, occupying other villages.

Last month, Russia launched an airstrike into Ukraine’s western region of Lviv, near Poland’s border, which saw one cruise missile briefly fly into Polish airspace, according to Warsaw.

The prime minister will travel to Poland on Tuesday to make the announcement, which takes the UK to £3bn in military aid to Ukraine this financial year.

Mr Sunak said: “Defending Ukraine against Russia’s brutal ambitions is vital for our security and for all of Europe. If Putin is allowed to succeed in this war of aggression, he will not stop at the Polish border.

“Ukraine’s armed forces continue to fight bravely, but they need our support – and they need it now.”

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps reiterated the UK was “the first” to provide NLAW anti-tank missiles, modern tanks and long-range missiles to Ukraine.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/rishi-sunak-announces-163500m-military-aid-package-to-ukraine-13121083

Thin with a boyish face and earrings in both ears, 23-year-old Isayah Turner does not look like a stereotypical Trump supporter, who tend to be middle aged or older.
Nevertheless, Turner drove two hours from his home outside Milwaukee on a recent Tuesday to see Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, one of a contingent of young voters there that some opinion polls suggest could be a growing and important demographic for Trump.

For Democratic incumbent Joe Biden, who overwhelmingly won the youth vote in 2020, an erosion of his support among young voters could potentially dampen his hopes of a second term.
Turner, who runs a dog breeding business with his mother, voted for Trump in 2020. He supports Trump’s pro-oil drilling stance, his opposition to gun control – Turner owns several firearms – and his pledge to crack down on illegal immigration.

“I cannot think of one thing that Trump did that upset me while he was in office. And now with Biden in office there are countless things I disagree with,” Turner told Reuters. “A lot of my friends are on the same page as me.”
A Reuters/Ipsos poll in March showed Americans age 18-29 favoring Biden over Trump by just 3 percentage points – 29% to 26% – with the rest favoring another candidate or unsure of who if anyone would get their vote.

“They’re more open to the way I think and more of my friends are becoming Republican,” she said.
‘MAKING ENDS MEET’
To be sure, a group of young people willing to brave inclement weather to see Trump are not a representative sample of the broader electorate, and polling this early in the cycle could prove off. Younger people vote less frequently than older Americans, making them especially difficult to predict.
Moreover, some opinion surveys indicate that Biden is holding on to his significant advantage with the youth.
An Economist/YouGov poll conducted last week showed 51% of voters under 30 picking Biden, versus 32% for Trump, while the Harvard Youth Poll, released Thursday, put Biden’s lead over Trump among likely young voters at 19 points.
“Donald Trump is not winning the youth vote,” John Della Volpe, director in charge of the Harvard poll, told Reuters.
The Biden campaign is not sitting still. In March it launched a $30 million ad buy across digital platforms and announced a project to reach students and recruit volunteers in high schools and on college campuses. It is working to inform younger people of the administration’s investments in green energy and efforts to protect abortion access.
“That’s why the campaign is working tirelessly to earn the votes of young voters — investing earlier than ever and leveraging every opportunity to connect with young voters,” said Eve Levenson, the campaign’s youth engagement director.
The latest Marist College poll was nevertheless a red flag for Biden. Conducted in March, it showed Trump 2 points ahead among Millennial and Gen-Z voters, with 61% of 18-29 year olds saying they disapprove of the job Biden is doing as president.
The Trump campaign sees young people as a demographic for potential gains in 2024, a campaign adviser told reporters last month. He said the economy and overseas conflicts — Trump often claims Russia’s attack on Ukraine would not have happened on his watch — were key topics to message about to this group.
“Like many Americans, young people can’t afford rent, gas, or groceries, and they’re struggling to buy a home because real wages have plummeted,” said Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee.
Kelly also pointed to a finding in the Harvard poll – that only 9% percent of young Americans think the U.S. is on the right track – as proof that some were turning to Trump.
Among young voters, Trump appears to be doing better with males. The Harvard poll put Biden’s lead among young men at just 6 percentage points, down 20 points from 4 years ago. Trump’s deficit with women was 33 points, largely unchanged.
Della Volpe says that gender gap likely reflects several factors. One is that young men feel they are losing the right to speak frankly due to progressive views they believe are imposed on them about political correctness and toxic masculinity. These concerns are reinforced by Trump and podcasters like Jordan Peterson, popular with young men.
Trump has attended several Ultimate Fighting Championship events this election cycle, which are favored by young men. He also showed up at a Philadelphia sneaker convention where he put his golden “Never Surrender High-Tops” up for sale.
It was the kind of campaign stop meant to resonate with voters like Turner, a sneaker aficionado who was wearing a $400 pair of Nikes when Reuters spent an afternoon with him at his dog business two days after the rally.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/chance-trump-youth-rally-see-him-answer-economic-woes-2024-04-21/

The Maldives’ ruling party is set to win a two-thirds majority in Sunday’s parliamentary election, local media said, a result likely to push the Indian Ocean island nation further towards China and away from its longtime ally India.
President Mohamed Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) is expected to win at least 62 of the 93 parliamentary seats, according to local media, while the main opposition Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) is projected to take 15 seats.

Beijing and New Delhi have both wooed the Maldives as they vie for influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
President Muizzu, elected last year, has pledged to end the country’s “India First” policy, putting relations with New Delhi under strain. His government has asked dozens of Indian military personnel to leave the country, a move critics say could accelerate the Maldives’ shift towards China.
Muizzu’s post as president is not affected by Sunday’s vote.

Ahead of the poll, the PNC had asked voters to elect a majority that would enable the president to swiftly fulfil his campaign pledges.
Opposition parties, who have criticised Muizzu’s government on areas including foreign policy and the economy, sought to hold his government accountable.
The PNC managed to grab key seats in former MDP strongholds including in the capital Male, Addu City and Kulhudhuffushi City in the north.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/maldives-votes-election-key-its-india-china-relations-2024-04-21/

The Manhattan trial of Donald Trump begins in earnest this week, but the verdict is already in: prosecutors and the judge are guilty of election interference.

I know that’s true because The New York Times said so.

Well, the Gray Lady didn’t put it exactly that way, but a Friday headline hinted at the injustice by declaring: “Trump on Trial vs. Biden on the Trail: An Unusual 2024 Stretch Begins.”

Calling the situation “Unusual” is one way to describe the fact that the incumbent is free to use Air Force One to hit the swing states while the challenger is effectively strapped to a chair during a ginned-up criminal trial.

Among other and better word choices The Times could have used are “outrageous” and “corrupt.”

Those get to the heart of Democrats’ effort to rig the election in Biden’s favor by weaponizing law enforcement and the courts.

The aim is any or all of the following: tie Trump down, dirty him up, bankrupt him and lock him up.

The only thing they’ve failed at is knocking him off election ballots, and only because the Supreme Court said no dice.

Biden milked his advantage during his trip to Pennsylvania, where he was unsparing in his attacks on his incapacitated rival.

He visited his version of Abe Lincoln’s log cabin by going to his childhood hometown of Scranton where, The Times dutifully reported, he argued that “voters faced a choice on the economy between ‘Scranton values or Mar-a-Lago values.’ ”

Hollow pitch to voters
You have to wonder what the good people of Scranton really think of the Big Guy’s family values, and whether they approve of the millions in dirty money the Bidens got from China and other adversaries.

The Times didn’t ask.

In Philadelphia, the newspaper said the president used the endorsements of members of the Kennedy family to link the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy to Trump’s vision of “anger, hate, revenge and retribution.”

That’s below the belt, but The Times didn’t scold Biden.

Imagine if Trump did that.

This is the stuff of banana republics, and it’s no longer over the horizon.

The kind of election meddling Americans associate with third-world kleptocracies is here and now.

With wars in Europe and the Mideast, the planet could use a stable, trusted democracy of the kind America used to have.

But the Trump cases prove we’ve entered a new, dark era where government power is openly abused for partisan purposes.

The Manhattan charges are so blatantly cooked up it’s hard to believe a trial is really happening.

In fact, until the indictment, I assumed the whole thing was an MSNBC fever dream that would never see the light of day.

Even after the charges were announced, I held out hope New York courts would be adults and blow the whistle.

After all, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg didn’t describe how he managed to turn a series of alleged bookkeeping misdemeanors in 2016 into alleged felonies now.

But hopes for a fairer court system disappeared when state Attorney General Letitia James got away with bringing her absurd civil case against the former president.

The fact that she had campaigned on a pledge to target Trump should have been enough to get the case thrown out.

Instead, she managed to steer it to a Gong Show judge who accepted her concocted claim of fraudulent damages, and gleefully added some of his own to raise the total to nearly $500 million — in a case where there were no victims!

Tish’s portfolio grab
While James lusted after which Trump properties she might seize first — maybe an office tower, maybe a golf course — a hint of sanity finally appeared when an appeals court reduced Trump’s bond from the full amount to $175 million.

Yet that sent James into a new jihad rage.

She’s now challenging the ability of the bond company to cover the $175 million and demanded a new insurer be found or default be declared so she could start seizing properties.

So at a time when New York is overrun with rampant violence that is chasing away taxpayers and businesses, two of its top prosecutors are chasing their white whale, who happens to be their party’s top opponent.

The judge in the Manhattan case is also suspect. Justice Juan M. Merchan, previously little known, is an instant celebrity on the left in part because his daughter is a Democratic activist who worked for California Rep. Adam Schiff, a Trump tormenter.

Like daughter, like father?

The obvious conflict of interest should have led Merchan to recuse himself, but he refused.

The media is fine with that because convicting Trump is more important than a fair trial and public trust in the courts.

None of this is especially new because we are in the eighth year of Dems going around voters to dirty up the opposition.

These are the only rules they abide by, while Republicans remain addicted to circular firing squads.

Although the left’s first big weaponization of politics, the 2016 phony Russia collusion story peddled by Hillary Clinton and amplified by The Times and other leftist outlets, failed to change the election, it sabotaged much of Trump’s term.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe went on so long, and involved so many damaging leaks, that it helped Dems win the House in the 2018 midterms.

After getting the gavel, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Schiff drummed up a phony impeachment over a Trump phone call with the president of Ukraine, further weakening his quest for a second term.

Having proved effective, the harassment hasn’t stopped, as illustrated by the sham Manhattan trial.

Three prosecutors, plus the Federal Election Commission, rejected the case as too weak, including Bragg before he caved into leftist pressure to bring it.

Source: https://nypost.com/2024/04/20/opinion/joe-bidens-sham-of-a-campaign-continues-while-donald-trump-is-on-trial/

UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron says the funding is “a vital step forward”, but Russia claims the passage of the bill will “further ruin” Ukraine and result in more deaths.

The US House of Representatives has approved sending $60.8bn (£49bn) in foreign aid to Ukraine.

Democrats and Republicans joined together after months of deadlock over renewed American support to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion.

Representatives could be seen waving small Ukrainian flags as it became clear the package was going to pass.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was “grateful” for the decision, which he said “keeps history on the right track”.

“Democracy and freedom will always have global significance and will never fail as long as America helps to protect it,” he said.

“The vital US aid bill passed today by the House will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives, and help both of our nations to become stronger.”

Representatives also approved bills to send foreign aid to Israel and provide humanitarian relief to Palestinians in Gaza, give security assistance to Taiwan and allies in the Indo-Pacific, and a measure containing several foreign policy proposals including a threat to ban Chinese-owned social media app TikTok.

The package will now go to the US Senate, where it is likely to be passed on Tuesday. President Joe Biden has then promised to sign it immediately.

“I urge the Senate to quickly send this package to my desk so that I can sign it into law and we can quickly send weapons and equipment to Ukraine to meet their urgent battlefield needs,” Mr Biden said.

Bill will ‘further ruin’ Ukraine, Russia warns

Moscow said the passage of the bill would “further ruin” Ukraine and result in more deaths.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the TASS news agency a provision allowing Washington to confiscate seized Russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine for reconstruction would tarnish the image of the US.

‘Ukraine can and will win’

UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said the funding was “a vital step forward”.

“If Putin ever doubted the West’s resolve to back Ukraine, this shows our collective will is undimmed,” he tweeted.

“With support, Ukraine can and will win.”

But Donald Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican representative who has opposed helping Ukraine in its war against Russia, said “people have been too obsessed with voting for foreign wars and the war industry”.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/crucial-60-8bn-ukraine-aid-package-approved-by-us-house-of-representatives-after-months-of-deadlock-13119287

French authorities Friday (Apr 19) detained a man suspected of entering the Iranian consulate in Paris and falsely claiming to be armed with an explosive vest, police and prosecutors said.

No explosives or arms were found on the man or the premises after he surrendered to police following the incident.

The man, born in 1963 in Iran, had already been convicted for setting fire to tyres in front of the entrance of the Iranian embassy in Paris in 2023, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

Police arrested the suspect, who has not been named when he exited of his own accord after appearing to have “threatened violent action” inside, it said. But “no explosive materials have been observed at this stage,” either on him, in his car or in the building.

According to a police source, who asked not to be named, he was wearing a vest with large pockets containing three fake grenades.

Police earlier told AFP that the consulate called in law enforcement after a witness saw “a man enter carrying a grenade or an explosive belt”.

An AFP journalist said the whole neighbourhood around the consulate in the capital’s 16th district had been closed off and a heavy police presence was in place.

Traffic was temporarily suspended on two metro lines that pass through stops close to the consulate, Paris transport company RATP said.

Iran’s embassy and consulate in the French capital share the same building but have two different entrances on separate streets.

The incident came with tensions running high in the Middle East and Israel launching an apparent strike on central Iran overnight.

There was however no suggestion of any link.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/iran-consulate-paris-man-threaten-blow-arrested-4278266

The Middle East is on the “precipice” of a broader war that can be averted with a two-state solution allowing Israel and Palestine to exist side-by-side with Jerusalem as a shared capital, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Thursday.

However, that solution won’t come from immediate U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state after the U.S. vetoed in the Security Council a draft resolution to that effect Thursday.

Guterres’ comments came as Tehran warned it has the ability to strike Israeli nuclear sites if Israel targets Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Guterres said a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis is the basis of U.N. resolutions, international law and previous agreements. The current Israeli government, however, has shown little interest in relinquishing control of the occupied territories.

“One miscalculation, one miscommunication, one mistake, could lead to the unthinkable – a full-scale regional conflict that would be devastating for all involved and for the rest of the world,” he said.

Guterres called on Israel as the “occupying power” to protect the Palestinian population in the West Bank against violence and intimidation and to allow safe passage for humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“Let me be clear − the risks are spiraling on many fronts,” he said. “We have a shared responsibility to address those risks and pull the region back from the precipice.”

Netanyahu on strike:Israel says it will make its ‘own decisions’ on retaliation

Developments:

∎The European Council said new sanctions would be imposed on Iran’s drone and missile programs as punishment for the weekend’s attack on Israel.

∎ The U.S. and Israel were to hold a virtual meeting Thursday about Israeli’s planned military operation in Rafah, Reuters reported, citing a U.S. official it did not name. The U.S. and most of the world has been urging Israel to drop plans for an invasion of the southern Gaza city that has been overwhelmed by Palestinians fleeing fighting elsewhere in the enclave.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would decide whether and how to respond to Iran’s major air assault earlier this week, brushing off calls for restraint from close allies.

Israel has vowed to respond to Iran’s unprecedented attack, leaving the region bracing for further escalation after months of fighting in Gaza. Israel’s allies have been urging Israel to hold back on any response to the attack that could spiral.

The diplomatic pressure came as Iran’s president warned that even the “tiniest” invasion of its territory would bring a “massive and harsh” response.

Over the weekend, Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel after an apparent Israeli strike killed two Iranian generals. Israel and Iran have waged a long shadow war, but the strike was Iran’s first direct military attack on Israel. Israel says it and its partners intercepted nearly all the missiles and drones.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi warned Israel against any retaliation as he addressed an annual army parade, which was moved from its usual route and not broadcast live on state TV — possibly to avoid being targeted. In remarks carried by Iran’s official IRNA news agency, Raisi said the weekend attack was limited, and that if Iran had wanted to carry out a bigger attack, “nothing would remain from the Zionist regime.”

Regional tensions have increased since the start of the latest Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that has caused widespread devastation and killed more than 33,800 people, according to local health officials.

Currently:

— Netanyahu brushes off calls for restraint as Iran warns against retaliation

— Lebanon says Israeli agents likely killed Hezbollah-linked currency exchanger

— EU leaders vow to impose tougher sanctions against Iran

— The G7 eyes targeted sanctions on Iran and a message of restraint

— US House’s Ukraine, Israel aid package gains Biden’s support. What’s inside the package?

U.S. AND 47 OTHER COUNTRIES CONDEMN IRANIAN ATTACK ON ISRAEL
UNITED NATIONS – The United States and 47 other countries issued a statement unequivocally condemning attacks on Israel by Iran “and its militant partners.”

The statement issued Wednesday night calls their “dangerous and destabilizing actions” an escalation “that poses a grave threat to international peace and security.”

The Iranian attack on Saturday marked the first time Tehran has launched a direct military assault on Israel. Israeli authorities said Iran lunched more than 300 drones and missiles, 99% of which were intercepted by air defenses in tandem with the U.S., Britain, France and Jordan.

The attack took place less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consulate building in Damascus.

The 48 mainly Western countries also condemned the fact that the ballistic and cruise missiles and attack drones “violated the airspace of several regional states, putting at risk the lives of innocent people in those countries, and appeared to traverse airspace near the holy sites in Jerusalem.”

The countries also condemned Iran’s seizure of a Portuguese-flagged commercial ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday and called for the immediate release of the ship and its crew.

“We welcome the efforts to avert a further immediate escalation of violence in the region following the successful coordinated efforts to defend against Iran’s attack,” the statement said. “We call on all regional parties to take steps to avert further escalation of the situation.”

UNRWA HEAD SAYS ISRAEL IS TRYING TO END ITS OPERATIONS IN GAZA
UNITED NATIONS – The head of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees is accusing Israel of trying to end its operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

Philippe Lazzarini is urging the U.N. Security Council to safeguard his agency’s critical role as the relief agency for Palestinians.

Lazzarini told the council Wednesday that Israel has banned the agency from delivering aid to Gaza. International experts have warned that faminine is imminent in the northern part of the territory.

Since the war began, Lazzarini said, 178 personnel from the agency known as UNRWA have been killed. More than 160 of the agency’s premises, which were mostly used to shelter Palestinians, have been damaged or destroyed, killing more than 400 people.

“We demand an independent investigation and accountability for the blatant disregard for the protected status of humanitarian workers, operations, and facilities under international law,” UNRWA’s commissioner general said.

Israel has alleged that 12 of UNRWA’s thousands of workers participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war. Lazzarini pledged to implement recommendations and strengthen safeguards to ensure UNRWA’s neutrality.

QATAR SAYS IT’S RETHINKING ITS MEDIATOR ROLE
DOHA, Qatar — Qatar’s prime minister said Wednesday the country is reevaluating its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas.

Qatar has been a key intermediary throughout the war in Gaza. It, along with the U.S. and Egypt, was instrumental in helping negotiate a brief halt to the fighting in November that led to the release of dozens of hostages.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdurrahman Al Thani said there had been an “abuse” of Qatar’s mediation for “narrow political interests.”

He did not name one side in his remarks. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticized Qatar and recently threatened to shutter Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera.

Top Hamas leaders live in exile in Qatar, which is seen as one of the only parties with influence over the militant group.

Al Thani said there were “limits” to the role of mediator and “to the ability to which we can contribute to these negotiations in a constructive manner.”

Mediators have been trying to push Hamas and Israel toward a cease-fire deal, but the sides remain far apart on key terms.

UN SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES `MAXIMUM RESTRAINT’
UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is reiterating his call for “maximum restraint” between Israel and Iran.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Wednesday that rhetoric in the Middle East is becoming “increasingly dangerous.” Dujarric said the world and the region “cannot afford another open conflict.”

The comments follow the Israeli prime minister’s vow to respond to Tehran’s first direct attack against his country and the Iranian’s president’s warning of a massive response if Israel does.

UN SECURITY COUNCIL TO VOTE ON PALESTINIAN STATE
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to vote this week on a resolution that would give a green light for a Palestinian state to join the United Nations as a full member, a move opposed by the United States.

The vote was scheduled for Friday afternoon. But Arab nations are pressing for a vote Thursday, when the council is holding a ministerial meeting on the Palestinian Authority’s request for full U.N. membership.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered the application in 2011. That bid failed because the Palestinians did not get the required minimum support of nine of the Security Council’s 15 members.

In early April, after years of failed on-and-off peace talks, the Palestinians turned to the United Nations again to fulfill their dream of an independent state, sending a letter to the Security Council that was supported by 140 countries.

The United States, Israel’s closest ally, had promised to veto any resolution endorsing Palestinian membership.

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood reiterated the longstanding position last week: “The issue of full Palestinian membership is a decision that should be negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Israel says such steps are an attempt to sidestep the negotiating process. Israel’s current right-wing government is dominated by hard-liners who oppose Palestinian statehood.

ISRAEL’S AIR FORCE REVIEWS ITS DEFENSE OF IRAN’S ATTACK
SDEROT, Israel — An Israeli military official says the air force is preparing for future attacks from Iran.

The official said Wednesday that the air force has been reviewing its successful defense against Iran’s missile attack over the weekend as it makes adjustments for potential additional fighting.

Israel has promised to respond against Iran, raising the possibility of a full-blown war, with Lebanon’s well-armed Hezbollah militant group almost certainly joining the fold.

Hezbollah, which has been locked in daily tit-for-tat fighting with Israel through the six-month Gaza war, is believed to have well over 100,000 rockets and missiles in its arsenal. Combined with Iran’s weapons, that could pose a major test for Israel’s air defense systems.

“We are preparing ourselves for the next time, debriefing the mission and seeing how could we prepare ourselves for the for the next attack,” said Brig. Gen. Doron Gavish, the former commander of Israel’s air defense who is now serving in reserves. He spoke to reporters at a military base in southern Israel.

Iran says its strike was a response to an alleged Israeli airstrike that killed two Iranian generals in Syria on April 1.

Israel says 99% of the more than 300 missiles and drones that Iran lauched were intercepted. It was assisted a coalition of international partners and the fact that Iran telegraphed its attack ahead of time.

ISRAEL SAYS IT ARRESTED AND KILLED MILITANTS IN BEIT HANOUN
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Wednesday that it arrested and killed militants in an operation in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun over the past week.

The announcement comes after Palestinians said troops conducted raids there and forced displaced people to leave their shelters.

The military said it was a “focused operation” meant to remove militants from a civilian area. It did not say how many people were killed or arrested.

It said it targeted two facilities used as schools after intelligence pointed to militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The military said forces told civilians to leave the building before raiding it.

Palestinians had reported heavy bombardment of Beit Hanoun. Witnesses said many people had been interrogated and some adults were detained and taken to unknown locations.

Palestinians have said the forces have left the town. The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the operation was over.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli raids in northern Gaza.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/israel-iran-hamas-latest-04-17-2024-7e4ba24fbb150f020a2d240dad9d462f

Biden calls for higher taxes on the rich on visit to Pennsylvania hometown

Kicking off a three-day tour of the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Biden sought to draw a distinction between his working-class roots and Trump’s privileged upbringing and lifestyle at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

“When I look at the economy, I don’t look at it through the eyes of Mar-a-Lago. I look at it through the eyes of Scranton,” Biden said during a visit to a community centre in the city of Scranton.

Biden contrasted his plan for a 25 percent minimum tax rate for billionaires with Trump’s pledge to maintain the corporate tax rate at 21 percent after slashing it from 35 percent.

“A fair tax code is how we invest in the things that make this country strong,” Biden said. “Health care, education, defence and so much more.”

Biden said he had learned the ethic of hard work and a sense of fairness while growing up in Scranton, while Trump learned that “the best way to get rich is to inherit it”.

“If Trump’s stock in Truth Social, his company, drops any lower, he might do better under my tax plan than his,” Biden said, taking aim at the falling value of Trump’s social media platform.

Biden did not reference Trump’s historic hush-money trial in New York, which is keeping the Republican away from campaigning.

During his visit to Scranton, Biden also visited his childhood home and drove down an expressway named in his honour.

The US president will continue to Pittsburgh on Wednesday and Philadelphia on Thursday.

Pennsylvania, which has 19 Electoral College votes, is seen as crucial to Biden’s reelection prospects in November.

Biden won Pennsylvania by about 80,000 votes in 2020, flipping it back to the Democratic column after Trump took the state in 2016.

Trump, who was the first Republican to win Pennsylvania since 1988, prevailed over Hillary Clinton by fewer than 45,000 votes.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/4/17/biden-calls-for-higher-taxes-on-the-rich-on-visit-to-pennsylvania-hometown

New Orleans-based photographer Bonnie Cash captured a photo of President Joe Biden holding a secret note while addressing the press for the first time since Iran’s April 13 attack on Israel, alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’a Al-Sudani at the Oval Office on Monday.

The partial photo of the note taken by Cash showed that there was specific instruction for the 81-year-old on when to pause and what to say at the press conference. According to a New York Post report, Biden looked at the note time to time while addressing the media at the Oval Office.

Al Sudani, who also addressed the media after Biden, did not rely on any notes or prompts and gave a brief set on remarks on the relations between the United States and Iraq.

“As you know, Iran launched an unprecedented aerial attack against Israel, and we mounted an unprecedented military effort to defend Israel,” President Biden said. “Together with our partners, we defeated that attack.”

The POTUS said that while the US is committed to defend Israel against any attack, it is also working “for a ceasefire that will bring the hostages home and prevent any conflict from spreading beyond what it already has.”

“We’re also committed to the security of our personnel and partners in the region, including Iraq. The partnership between Iraq and the United States is critical,” he added.

Al Sudani, on the other hand, refrained from making any specific reference to the conflict in the Middle East. Instead, he focused primarily on the relations between Iraq and the US.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/biden-was-advised-when-to-pause-for-iraq-pm-meeting-us-presidents-secret-notes-reveal-article-109325289

Israel’s war cabinet has met to discuss its response to Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile attack.

Israel did not make public whether a decision had been reached.

Its allies have strongly condemned Iran’s actions, but urged Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to show restraint.

While Iran has signalled it considers the matter closed, the Israeli military’s chief of staff said the attack would not go unanswered.

“Look, as we look forward, we weigh our steps, and this launch of so many missiles, cruise missiles, UAVs to the territory of the State of Israel will be met with a response,” Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said.

He did not specify a course of action, or give a timescale.

Former CIA head David Petraeus had told BBC Radio 4’s World Tonight programme that Washington does not want to risk the wellbeing of the global economy with any Israeli retaliation against Iran.

Gen Petraeus, who also commanded the international forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the Iranian attack was a “very big deal”, and that the West had to understand how significant this was for Israel.

“The challenge now, of course, is that there are somewhat different perspectives on what to do next. If for some reason the Brent crude prices spike, or if there is some kind of freedom of navigation issue in the Gulf. And there is already some concern over Iran taking an oil tanker the other day.”

Gen Petraeus, who is now retired now, said the debate inside the Israeli government was about how to formulate a response that would show Israeli deterrence without “ratcheting up the escalation any further”.

He added that Israel had a number of asymmetric options that could allow it to respond without increasing tension.

Lt Gen Halevi was speaking from Nevatim air base in southern Israel, which sustained damage in Saturday’s overnight attack but was said by Israel to be “still functioning”.

Tehran said the operation was retaliation for a 1 April strike on its consulate in Syria, which killed senior Iranian military commanders.

The Israeli military said more than 300 drones and missiles were launched at Israel. It said almost all were brought down by its forces, with support from the US, UK, France and other countries, before reaching their targets. No deaths were reported and Israel said the damage was limited.

World leaders have urged restraint amid concerns about a major escalation in tensions in the Middle East.

US President Joe Biden spoke to Mr Netanyahu following the launch of the Iranian attack and reaffirmed “America’s ironclad commitment to the security of Israel”.

But on Sunday the US told Israel it would not join in any counter-strike on Iran, according to a senior White House official.

“We’re committed to a ceasefire that will bring the hostages home and prevent the conflict spreading more than it already has,” Mr Biden said on Monday.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68820959

“We were attacked last night from four corners of the Middle East with proxies shooting at us, firing ballistic missiles, drones and cruise missiles,” Isaac Herzog tells Sky News.

Iran’s attack on Israel was a “declaration of war”, Israel’s president has told Sky News.

Isaac Herzog said it was “about time the world faces this empire of evil in Tehran”.

World leaders need to “make it clear” to the Iranian regime that its behaviour is “unacceptable”, Mr Herzog added.

“We should be looking lucidly at the phenomena called Tehran and Iran.”

Israel has not sought war since its creation in 1948, the president insisted.

“We are peace seekers. We went to peace with our neighbours time and time again. Unfortunately, it all started on the 7th of October when a proxy of Iran, Hamas, led an unbelievably brutal massacre against Israeli citizens and the rest is history. We know it. So we should put it in perspective.”

Follow live updates after Iran’s attack on Israel

He described Iran’s launch of more than 300 drones and missiles towards Israel on Saturday as “just another example of how [Tehran] has operated for years and years”.

“We were attacked last night from four corners of the Middle East with proxies shooting at us, firing ballistic missiles, drones and cruise missiles,” he told Sky News’s Middle East correspondent, Alistair Bunkall.

“This is like a real war. I mean, this is a declaration of war,” he said, before adding that Israel would exercise restraint.

Asked whether he agreed with Western allies who are calling for calm, Mr Herzog said: “The last thing that Israel is seeking in this region since its creation is to go to war – we are seeking peace.”

But Tehran has been “spreading havoc, terror and instability all over the world, and especially in our region”, he said.

Iran has proxies all over the Middle East and terror cells all around the world, Mr Herzog went on.

Damascus strike ‘wasn’t in Iranian consulate’

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its direct assault on Israel was in retaliation for an “attack on the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Damascus” on 1 April.

Two generals and seven members of the IRGC were killed in the strike, which Tehran blamed on Israel. Israel has not publicly commented.

Mr Herzog told Sky News the strike “wasn’t in the consulate” but in a “separate building nearby the consulate”.

He added that the most senior general assassinated had led operations from Lebanon and Syria.

There had been “terror attacks day in, day out, with the entire machine instructed from Tehran”, he said.

Mr Herzog said the “number one issue” for Israel was the release of hostages still being held in Gaza.

“We want them back as soon possible,” he said. “The entire world leadership is calling for that. But Hamas is adamantly refusing. Time and again. That’s the real situation at hand.”

Regarding aid deliveries to Gaza, he said: “We’ve opened up many crossings and passages. We’ve enabled an enormous amount of aid also to be parachuted down, and also coming from the sea and from terrestrial openings.”

Following last night’s attack, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said 99% of Iranian missiles and drones were intercepted.

Mr Herzog said he was “happy that we are part of an incredible coalition of nations that has been part and parcel in preventing most of these missiles and drones and weapons to come into Israel”.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/world-must-face-irans-evil-empire-israeli-president-says-13115263

Biden warns Netanyahu US will NOT support Israel’s counterattack on Iran amid fears of all-out war: President tells PM in late-night call ‘you got a win, take the win’ after IDF shot down ‘nearly all’ incoming drones and missiles

• President Biden has made it clear to Benjamin Netanyahu that US forces will not join offensive operations against Iran, according to reports
* The comments were made by Biden during a phone call between the two leaders after Iran unleashed a drone and missile attack on Israel
* Biden released a statement following the call between the two leaders saying it had reaffirmed America’s ‘ironclad commitment to the security of Israel’

President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US will not support any counterattack against Iran, sources have revealed.

Biden spoke with Netanyahu in a late-night phone call after Iran bombarded Israel with hundreds of missiles and drones on Saturday in response to a drone strike in Syria that killed 12 Iranians, including two top generals.

A senior White House official told Axios that Biden made it clear to Netanyahu that US forces would not participate in any further operations. Netanyahu said he understood.

Biden reportedly told the Israeli Prime Minister: ‘You got a win. Take the win’, amid fears amongst White House officials that an Iran attack will lead to a greater war in the region.

Officials told CNN that all in US forces managed to intercept more 70 drones and at least three ballistic missiles during the attack, but don’t have an appetite to take Iran head on.

Three senior administration officials have also told NBC News that Biden had privately expressed concern that Netanyahu is trying to pull the US into the conflict.

The White House believes the Israelis are not looking for a direct war with Iran but US officials can’t be certain, an official told the outlet.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13306161/Biden-warns-Netanyahu-NOT-support-Israels-counterattack-Iran-amid-fears-war-President-tells-PM-late-night-call-got-win-win-IDF-shot-nearly-incoming-drones-missiles.html

After reports surfaced of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seizing an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, government sources told CNN-News18 that there are 17 Indian nationals among the crew on board.

The sources further added that they are in contact with Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and New Delhi, to ensure the security, welfare, and early release of the Indian nationals.

Commandos from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard raided a ship near the Strait of Hormuz by helicopter as tensions between Iran and Israel grew following the latter’s alleged strike on the former’s consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus earlier this month.

Sources also informed CNN-News18 that the ship, MSC Aries, was en route to the port of Nhava Sheva in Mumbai, India and the expected arrival was on the night of April 15.

In response to the attack, Israel issued a warning, stating that Iran would face “consequences” for escalating the conflict in the region.

“Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further,” stated Israel’s military spokesman Daniel Hagari in a video statement.

US vows ‘ironclad commitment’ to Israel

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said he spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi, regarding the issue and and reiterated the United States’ “ironclad commitment” to the country.

“This morning, I spoke with my Israeli counterpart, National Security Advisor Hanegbi, to discuss events in the Middle East. During the call, I reiterated the United States’ ironclad commitment to the security of Israel,” stated Sullivan in a social media post on X.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/iranian-revolutionary-guards-raid-seize-vessel-headed-towards-india-near-strait-of-hormuz-8850434.html

Police say there is no continuing threat, adding that it was too early to determine the attacker’s motive.

Seven people are dead and others are in serious or critical condition after a stabbing rampage at a mall in Sydney, Australia, on Saturday, according to police. The attacker, who was shot by a lone officer, was among the dead, and a baby among those stabbed.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told a news conference that the attacker walked into the Westfield Bondi Junction mall at about 3:20 p.m. local time (1:20 a.m. ET) where he “caused harm” to about nine people “stabbing them with a weapon he was carrying.” The weapon “was most likely a knife,” he said.

A spokesperson for New South Wales Ambulance told NBC News that a 9-month-old baby was “transported to Sydney Children’s Hospital with a pediatric stab wound.”

Cooke said that an inspector near the scene was guided to the offender’s location by members of the public. As she pursued him from behind, Cooke said the offender turned and the officer shot him.

“She took the action, saving a range of people’s lives,” he added.

He said the offender’s motives were not clear, but he acted alone and that there was no continuing threat.

Speaking at the same news conference, NSW Ambulance Assistant Commissioner Brent Armitage said two other people had been transported to hospitals across Sydney. Their condition was not known.

Surveillance video showed a man running through the mall holding a long knife. Reports from local media described chaos, as some shoppers fled and others attempted to stop the man. Some shops reportedly pulled down their shutters, sequestering some people inside in order to keep them safe.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from the mall.

In a live interview with 9News Sydney, the local broadcaster, a man outside the mall said he helped a baby after a woman was stabbed. “The mum came over with the baby and threw it at me, with this hole in the baby, it looked pretty bad,” he said.

Roi Huberman, a sound engineer at ABC TV in Australia, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident.

“Suddenly we heard a shot or maybe two shots and we didn’t know what to do,” he said. “Then the very capable person in the store took us to the back where it can be locked.” She then locked the store and led them out through the back entrance.

Andrew Reid described helping some of the injured victims, including one woman who was “bleeding pretty badly.”

“That poor woman she there was a lot of blood,” Reid, who was shopping for a bed, told Sky News. “She lost a lot of blood and me and a couple of other bystanders helped with her.”

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the attack “a horrific act of violence that indiscriminately targeted innocent people.”

In a news conference, he said the nation “offers our deepest condolences and sympathies to all those who are grieving for someone they have lost. And we send our strength to those who have been injured.”

King Charles III said he and Queen Camilla “were utterly shocked and horrified to hear of the tragic stabbing incident in Bondi.”

“Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who have been so brutally killed during such a senseless attack,” he said in a statement. “While details of these shocking circumstances are still emerging, our thoughts are also with those who were involved in the response, and we give thanks for the bravery of the first responders and emergency services.”

Prince William and his wife Kate, the Princess of Wales, issued statement on X.

Source : https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/sydney-mall-shooting-australia-westfield-bondi-multiple-stabbings-rcna147686

Booms and air raid sirens sounded across Israel early Sunday after Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East closer to a regionwide war. In Washington, President Joe Biden said U.S. forces helped Israel down “nearly all” the drones and missiles and pledged to convene allies to develop a unified response.

The attack, less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria that killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building, marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Condemnation from the United Nations chief and others was swift, with France saying Iran “is risking a potential military escalation,” Britain calling the attack “reckless” and Germany saying Iran and its proxies “must stop it immediately.”

The Israeli military’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Iran fired scores of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles — with the vast majority intercepted outside Israel’s borders. He said warplanes intercepted over 10 cruise missiles alone, also outside Israeli airspace.

Hagari said a handful of missiles landed in Israel. Rescuers said a 7-year-old girl in a Bedouin Arab town was seriously wounded in southern Israel, apparently in a missile strike, though they said police were still investigating the circumstances of her injuries. Hagari said a missile struck an army base, causing light damage but no injuries.

“A wide-scale attack by Iran is a major escalation,” he said. Asked whether Israel would respond, Hagari said only that the army “does and will do whatever is required to protect the security of the state of Israel.” He said the incident was not over, and dozens of Israeli warplanes remained in the skies.

Israel’s military said its Arrow system, which shoots down ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, handled most interceptions and noted that “strategic partners” were involved.

“At my direction, to support the defense of Israel, the U.S. military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week,” Biden said in a statement. “Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our service members, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a separate statement that U.S. forces “intercepted dozens of missiles and UAVs en route to Israel, launched from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.”

Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke early Sunday, Israeli time, their governments said. Biden said in his statement that he reaffirmed “America’s ironclad commitment” to Israel’s security — a departure from his growing criticism of Israel’s conduct in its war on Hamas in Gaza.

Iran had vowed revenge since the April 1 airstrike in Syria, which Tehran accused Israel of being responsible for. Israel hasn’t commented on it.

Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israel’s six-month war against Hamas militants in Gaza. The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. An Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused widespread devastation and killed over 33,000 people, according to local health officials.

Almost immediately after the war erupted, Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, began attacking Israel’s northern border. The two sides have been involved in daily exchanges of fire, while Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have launched rockets and missiles toward Israel.

In a statement carried late Saturday by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged launching “dozens of drones and missiles towards the occupied territories and positions of the Zionist regime.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/strait-of-hormuz-vessel-33fcffde2d867380e98c89403776a8ac

The New York judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush money criminal case rejected the former U.S. president’s bid to delay Monday’s scheduled trial on the ground that substantial pre-trial publicity would make the proceedings unfair.
Trump had sought an indefinite delay, saying media coverage was prejudiced against him, and finding an acceptable jury in Manhattan would be tough because the borough was “overwhelmingly biased” against him.

But in a decision on Friday, Justice Juan Merchan said an indefinite adjournment was “not tenable.”
Merchan also said Trump himself generated much of the publicity surrounding his legal troubles, including through “unrelenting media posts” attacking people he blamed for them.
“The situation defendant finds himself in now is not new to him and (is) at least in part, of his own doing,” Merchan wrote.
Prosecutors argued the publicity was not likely to drop, and it would be “perverse” to reward Trump with a delay based on media attention he courted.

They also said thorough questioning of prospective jurors would likely find enough who could decide the case fairly.
Trump is the Republican presidential candidate in an expected Nov. 5 election rematch against Democratic incumbent Joe Biden, who beat him in 2020.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign, said in an email: “President Trump and his legal team will continue fighting against this Biden Trial and all of the other Witch Hunts.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/trumps-hush-money-trial-will-not-be-delayed-because-publicity-judge-rules-2024-04-12/

The White House said on Friday there is no reason for China to see a U.S. summit this week with Japan and the Philippines as a threat.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby spoke after China complained to Japan and the Philippines about some of the rhetoric emerging from President Joe Biden’s summit talks with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines this week.
“These meetings were not about any one other nation. This was about deepening and revitalizing existing alliances and partnerships and strengthening some new ones,” Kirby told reporters.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-sees-no-reason-china-see-us-meetings-with-japan-philippines-threat-2024-04-12/

US President Joe Biden has said he expects Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” in response to an airstrike in Syria that killed a senior officer. Meanwhile, several countries have warned their citizens against travel to the region.

Israel remains braced for an attack from Iran as the US moves “additional assets” to the Middle East.

Joe Biden said he expects an attack “sooner, rather than later” and simply told Tehran “don’t”, with warnings growing of retaliation for the killing last week of a senior officer in Iran’s embassy in Syria.

The White House said the threat of an imminent attack on Israel is real and viable, while at least three other countries have updated their travel advice, including France, Russia and India.

As Mr Biden pledges the US is “devoted” to Israel’s defence, an official has told Sky News “additional assets” are being moved to the region to boost “deterrence efforts” and protect American forces.

According to Sky’s US partner NBC News, most of the assets involved are already deployed in the area and are just being moved around.

Sky’s US correspondent Mark Stone said no further details have been provided.

“I think the consensus among experts is that the Iranians will respond, but they will almost certainly respond against Israel directly rather than any American military in the region,” Stone added.

“Nevertheless, what that response will look like and what it will mean in terms of an Israeli response, we don’t know yet.”

Israel did not claim responsibility for the airstrike on 1 April that killed Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ overseas Quds Force.

But Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Israel “must be punished and shall be” for an operation he said was equivalent to an attack on Iranian soil.

Six other officers were also killed as they attended a meeting in the Damascus embassy compound.

Iran has missiles capable of hitting Israel, which has in recent weeks bolstered its air defences.

The Israeli military has called back reservists in preparation for any escalation along its northern border, where it exchanges fire almost daily with Iran-backed militants Hezbollah.

While there have been no formal security instructions in Israel, some parents said their children have been told to take books home for the Passover school holidays in case of possible lesson disruptions.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/israel-braced-for-iranian-attack-as-us-moves-additional-assets-in-region-13113874

The leaders are expected to announce that their coast guards will hold a joint patrol in the Indo-Pacific this year, a follow-up on law enforcement drills carried out last year by the allies in waters near the disputed South China Sea

Russia fired more than 40 missiles and about 40 attack drones overnight as Moscow targeted energy infrastructure in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired veiled criticism at Kyiv’s Western allies as he calls for more support.

He suggested the West is “turning a blind eye” to what is happening in Ukraine after Russian forces launched strikes on five regions across Ukraine.

Zelensky said Russia fired more than 40 missiles and about 40 attack drones overnight, many of which hit energy infrastructure in Ukraine.

Posting on X, Zelensky said in full: “Overnight, Russia fired more than 40 missiles and about 40 drones at Ukraine.

“I thank everyone engaged in recovery efforts after the attack, as well as to every warrior of our air defense system who was on guard last night.

“Some missiles and ‘Shahed’ drones were successfully shot down. Unfortunately, only a part of them. Russian terrorists have once again targeted critical infrastructure.

“There was another heinous missile attack on Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region. They also targeted objects in Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, and Odesa regions.

“All of our European neighbors and other partners see Ukraine’s critical need for air defense systems. Right now, with our ability to overcome Russian terror, the world can demonstrate that all terror is treated equally as a crime.

“However, if Russia is allowed to continue doing so, if Russian missiles and ‘Shahed’ drones continue to strike not only Ukraine but also the resolve of our allies, this will amount to a global license for terror.

“We need air defense systems and other defense assistance, not just turning a blind eye and having lengthy discussions.

“I am grateful to everyone in the world who truly supports Ukraine’s struggle for life. I thank every leader who will not remain silent, who will continue to support us and condemn Russian terror.”

Ukraine is concerned that it is lacking in terms of both ammunition and manpower.

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1887464/zelensky-ukraine-russia-war

Major U.S. airlines and aviation unions on Thursday urged the Biden administration to pause approvals of additional flights between China and the United States, citing ongoing “anti-competitive policies of the Chinese government.”
In February, the U.S. Transportation Department said Chinese passenger airlines could boost weekly round-trip U.S. flights to 50 starting on March 31, up from the current 35, about a third of pre-pandemic levels. U.S. carriers were authorized as well to fly 50 flights per week but are currently not using all those flights.
Airlines for America, a trade group whose members include American Airlines (AAL.O), opens new tab, Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), opens new tab and United Airlines (UAL.O), opens new tab, and unions in a letter to the Transportation and State departments cited the “advantage Chinese airlines receive by continuing to access Russian airspace, while U.S. carriers stopped flying through Russian airspace at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March 2022.”
The letter, which was first reported by Reuters, was signed by the Air Line Pilots Association, Allied Pilots Association and Association of Flight Attendants. It called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to “pause additional passenger flights between the United States and the People’s Republic of China until U.S. workers and businesses are guaranteed equality of access in the marketplace, free from the existing harmful anti-competitive policies of the Chinese government.”
Flights between China and the United States – which were a point of contention during the COVID-19 pandemic – have emerged as a rare area of cooperation between the two super powers, but U.S. airlines have expressed concern about the rapid pace of increasing flights.
Airlines are worried the Biden administration could boost or even double to 100 the number of weekly flights permitted by Chinese carriers.
Separately, U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher, the chair of the House select committee on China, and the panel’s top Democrat, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, urged the Biden administration in a separate letter Wednesday not to approve more flights until China abides “by its existing bilateral agreement, and passenger demand begins to recover.”
The lawmakers said Chinese carriers “operate air
routes at an anticompetitive commercial advantage that must not be allowed to increase without reciprocal parity in the number of U.S. carrier operated routes” to China. It added that “American passengers must not be exposed to unnecessary security risks by traversing Russian airspace.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-airlines-unions-urge-biden-not-approve-more-china-flights-2024-04-11/

U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday unveiled plans for military cooperation and projects ranging from missiles to moon landings, strengthening their alliance with an eye on countering China and Russia.
A joint news conference at the White House reflected the growing importance of Japan on the world stage and to the United States, as the two leaders weighed in on Gaza and Israel, Ukraine and Russia, North Korea and other world flashpoints.

Biden and Kishida brushed off a dispute over Nippon Steel’s offer for U.S. Steel, saying the issue was not a major factor in their discussions on a day of White House pomp and pageantry that culminated in a lavish state dinner.
“This is the most significant upgrade in our alliance since it was first established,” Biden said after about two hours of talks that focused on the restive Indo-Pacific region and China’s actions.

The United States and its allies, including Japan, have been bolstering their militaries to counter what they see as a growing threat from China in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, and to deter any attempt to seize Taiwan, a self-ruled Island that Beijing considers its own.
Kishida said the two leaders discussed tense relations between Taiwan and China, and pledged to uphold international order based on the rule of law. Chinese leader Xi Jinping recently said outside interference could not stop the island’s “family reunion” with mainland China.

“Unilateral attempts to change status quo by force or coercion is absolutely unacceptable, wherever it may be,” Kishida said. The U.S. and Japan will continue to respond to such actions, including challenges from China, he said.
“Regarding Russia’s aggression of Ukraine … Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow,” Kishida said.
Biden also vowed to keep open lines of communication with China and said the U.S.- Japan alliance was defensive in nature. He spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping last week.
JOINT MILITARY STRUCTURE
The announcements from Biden and Kishida brought the two World War Two enemies into the closest collaboration they have had since they became allies decades ago.
Biden said their militaries will cooperate with a joint command structure and they will, together with Australia, develop a new air missile defense network. The two leaders also announced that Japanese astronauts will participate in NASA moon missions.
Overall, the U.S. and Japan have hammered out about 70 agreements on defense cooperation, including moves to upgrade the U.S. military command structure in Japan to make it better able to work with Japanese forces in a crisis.

Japan, often described as the U.S.’s most important Asian ally and its largest source of foreign direct investment, is taking on a stepped-up global role after a series of security law changes in the past decade that have transformed its pacifist constitution.
Kishida will address the U.S. Congress on Thursday and join Biden and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for a meeting expected to focus on Beijing’s South China Sea incursions.
The meeting took place as China steps up pressure on the Philippines in the South China Sea over areas Beijing claims but that international law says belong to the Philippines.
China is attempting to isolate Japan and the Philippines, a U.S. official said. By meeting the leaders of those two nations this week in Washington, Biden is aiming to “flip the script and isolate China.”
Fitch cut its outlook on China’s sovereign credit rating to negative on Wednesday, citing risks to public finances as the economy faces increasing uncertainty in its shift to new growth models.
On Thursday, Biden will also hold a bilateral meeting with Marcos, whom he welcomed in Washington just last year, before the pair join Kishida for a trilateral summit.
The visit may give a political boost to Kishida, whose popularity has waned at home.
He is being greeted with great fanfare, with Japanese flags on display throughout Washington ahead of the glitzy state dinner where guests included former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, actor Robert De Niro, Amazon.com’s (AMZN.O), opens new tab Jeff Bezos and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-welcomes-global-partner-japans-kishida-white-house-summit-2024-04-10/

US Ambassador Eric Garcetti praised India’s progress and developmental journey, and said that if people want to “see” and “feel the future”, they should come to the country.

US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, has praised India’s developmental journey, saying that if anyone wants to “see the future”, they should come to the country. Speaking at an event, he also mentioned his “great privilege” of being future-ready because of his position as the leader of the United States’s mission.

“If you want to see the future, come to India. If you want to feel the future, come to India. If you want to work on the future, come to India. I have the great privilege of being able to do that every single day as the leader of the US Mission,” he said at an event in India.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also commended the country’s ties with India, saying the partnership has “gone to new heights”.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Sulivan said, “The partnership between the US and India, a country in BRICs, has gone to new heights with an engagement across technology and security and so many other dimensions.”

The relationship between the two countries has been under the scanner lately after US prosecutors charged an Indian national, namely Nikhil Gupta, in November last year in connection with his involvement in an alleged foiled plot to assassinate Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on US soil.

America alleged that Nikhil Gupta was working with an Indian government employee and had agreed to pay an assassin $100,000 to kill Pannun, who lives in New York City.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/us-envoy-eric-garcetti-message-to-those-who-want-to-see-feel-future-come-to-india-2525365-2024-04-10

China Plays Tense Game of ‘Russian Roulette’ With U.S. Ally.

Chinese coast guard ships have slammed Philippine boats with water cannons, shattering a windshield and injuring Filipino crew

China is intensifying a dangerous game in the South China Sea, in ways that risk drawing the U.S. into its fight with the Philippines.

In early March, two Chinese coast guard ships slammed a Philippine boat with high-pressure blasts of water cannon, smashing its windshield and preventing it from delivering supplies to a military outpost.

Source: https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/china-plays-tense-game-of-russian-roulette-with-u-s-ally-580473a1

In an exclusive interview, the president of Ukraine talks about his outreach to Trump, stalled Ukraine aid and Russia’s growing influence in the U.S.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine warned in an interview that Russian influence had pierced the American political system and rejected the idea, backed by allies of Donald Trump, that Ukraine could swiftly end the war just by making massive territorial concessions.

But Zelenskyy said Tuesday that he had privately urged Trump through intermediaries to travel to Ukraine and that Trump had expressed interest but had not yet committed to making a trip. Zelenskyy said he was open to hearing Trump’s proposals for the war, while making clear he was highly skeptical.

“If the deal is that we just give up our territories, and that’s the idea behind it, then it’s a very primitive idea,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with Axel Springer media outlets. POLITICO is owned by Axel Springer.

Zelenskyy continued: “I need very strong arguments. I don’t need a fantastic idea, I need a real idea, because people’s lives are at stake.”

Any deal that merely gave up land to Russian President Vladimir Putin in exchange for an end to hostilities, Zelenskyy said, would just open the way for more Russian wars of conquest in the future. A negotiated peace, he said, had to leave the Russian despot “no room to carry out his plans.”

In the interview, Zelenskyy swerved at times between expressing impatience with Western allies that have not delivered military aid readily enough — he faulted Germany most explicitly — and admitting that Ukraine is under considerable pressure to show new progress in the war. The interview was conducted in a combination of English and Ukrainian, partially using translators.

Trump has been a consistent skeptic of the war effort and a critic of Zelenskyy, and he recently said he would encourage Russia to act with impunity against members of the NATO alliance who do not spend large sums of money on defense. President Joe Biden has attacked Trump in the campaign as a threat to world stability and a stooge of Putin and other foreign dictators.

Zelenskyy’s textured approach to Trump represents the latest effort by a major world leader to calibrate his handling of the former American president who is now the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for the 2024 election. While disagreeing with Trump emphatically on war policy, Zelenskyy spoke respectfully about Trump as a leader with whom he is eager to build a constructive partnership.

Those comments came a day after David Cameron, the British foreign secretary and former U.K. prime minister, met with Trump at his Florida estate, in part to plead the case for supporting Ukraine despite having denounced Trump in the past as a bigot.

The fate of Ukraine may well hang in the balance in the U.S. election. And as a massive aid package languishes in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, Zelenskyy predicted that Putin would demolish Ukrainian cities and butcher hundreds of thousands of people if the Russian military were to prevail in the war.

In recent weeks, two Republican lawmakers who support aiding Ukraine — Reps. Mike Turner of Ohio and Mike McCaul of Texas — have declared that pro-Russian propaganda has filtered into the thinking of some members of Congress.

Asked about that claim, Zelenskyy said it understated the problem of Russian influence in democracies like the United States.

“They have their lobbies everywhere: in the United States, in the EU countries, in Britain, in Latin America, in Africa,” Zelenskyy said of Russia. “When we talk about the Congress — do you notice how they work with society in the United States?”

Russia, he said, had succeeded in warping “the information field of the world.” Without naming names, Zelenskyy claimed that American citizens were effectively doing Russia’s work within the U.S. media.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/09/zelenskyy-invites-trump-ukraine-russia-00151310

A New York state appellate judge on Monday denied Donald Trump’s bid to delay his April 15 criminal trial on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star while the former U.S. president seeks to move the case out of Manhattan.
Associate Justice Lizbeth Gonzalez issued her decision shortly after a half-hour hearing at the Appellate Division in Manhattan, a mid-level state appeals court.
Emil Bove, a lawyer for Trump, said during the hearing that his client was seeking to stay the case pending the application to move the trial on the charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

A lawyer from Bragg’s office, Steven Wu, countered that Trump waited too long to object to being tried in Manhattan, where he once lived. The charges were brought in April 2023.
Trump, the Republican candidate challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election, has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Bove did not specify where Trump’s team would like the trial to be held. Bove said a survey taken by Trump’s legal team of residents in heavily Democratic Manhattan, one of New York City’s five boroughs, found that 61% of respondents thought Trump was guilty, and 70% had a negative opinion of him.

“There is real potential prejudice here to moving forward,” Bove said. “Jury selection cannot proceed in a fair manner starting next week in this county.”
Wu said biased jurors can be weeded out during the jury selection process, and that Trump cannot cite media attention as a reason to move the trial.
“He himself has been responsible for stoking that publicity,” Wu said.
A criminal trial would be the first for a former U.S. president.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/trump-files-appeal-hush-money-criminal-case-week-before-trial-2024-04-08/

Former U.S. President Donald Trump said it would be “my great honor” to go to jail for violating a gag order imposed by the judge who will hear his upcoming trial on charges stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn star.
“If this Partisan Hack wants to put me in the ‘clink’ for speaking the open and obvious TRUTH, I will gladly become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela – It will be my GREAT HONOR,” Trump posted on Saturday on his Truth Social platform.

Trump was referring to Justice Juan Merchan, who will preside over his trial in New York state court in Manhattan on criminal charges of covering up a $130,000 payment before the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about an alleged sexual encounter.
The trial begins on April 15.
The Republican, who is challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and denies an encounter with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Merchan on April 1 expanded an existing gag order that had barred Trump from publicly commenting about witnesses and court staff to make clear it also applies to family members. He did so after Trump disparaged Merchan’s daughter.
The looming hush-money trial is one of four criminal cases Trump is confronting ahead of the U.S. election. It could be the only one to reach trial before the election. He has pleaded not guilty to all and called them politically motivated.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-it-would-be-great-honor-go-jail-violating-gag-order-2024-04-07/

Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant says troops had been pulled out to prepare for future missions, including in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.

Israel has withdrawn almost all of its troops from southern Gaza.

Only one brigade remains in Khan Younis and is tasked with securing the Netzarim corridor that divides the Gaza Strip, according to The Times of Israel.

The move came six months since Hamas launched the October 7 attacks on Israel, which left more than 1,100 people dead.

It was the trigger for Israel’s ongoing military action in Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health authority.

The withdrawal of troops is linked to ongoing negotiations with Hamas over Israeli hostages and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “desperate” for a ceasefire deal, a senior source in the Israeli government told Sky’s Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall.

The killings of seven aid workers in Gaza in an Israeli airstrike “changed everything”, the source added.

Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant said troops had been pulled out of Gaza on Sunday to prepare for future missions, including in the enclave’s southern city of Rafah.

“We saw examples of such missions in the Shifa operation, and also of their coming mission in the Rafah area,” Mr Gallant said at a meeting with military officials, according to a statement from his office.

Israel had planned a ground invasion of the southern city of Rafah, claiming it is a hive of Hamas’s remaining strongholds. More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are taking refuge in the city.

Following the withdrawal of the troops, Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman told Sky News Mr Netanyahu would “absolutely” go ahead with a ground invasion of Rafah.

“If we don’t go ahead with Rafah, we lose the war,” he said.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/israel-withdraws-almost-all-troops-from-southern-gaza-as-iran-says-no-israeli-embassy-is-safe-13110075

A state of emergency has been imposed in a Russian city due to nuclear contamination.

The Russian authorities have not explained what is causing the alarming radiation in Khabarovsk.

A mystery radiation source was today ‘removed and placed in a protective container’ and ‘transported to a radioactive waste storage facility’ in the city, the largest in Russia’s far east and close to the border with China.

Yet a state of emergency is to remain for at least three more days in the Industrialny district of the city, as law enforcement agencies examine the origin of the leak.

It appears to have taken a week for the authorities to act.

A man wearing a nuclear protective mask is seen in darkness with a radiation reader that quickly rises as he walks over a ‘waste dump’.

His reader sounded an alarm at 0.45 microsieverts and the highest reading visible on screen is 5.99.

Yet on the video the man says there was a reading of 20, enough potentially to increase cancer risk, damage DNA, cause foetal damage, and threaten the health of children.

Astonishingly, the potentially lethal radiation leak in Khabarovsk was known for around one week before action was taken on it, or the public alerted, say reports.

A ‘boy’ who made an initial reading on 28 March had reported it to the Russian special services, yet it was only today that a state of emergency was called.

Andrey Kolchin, head civil defence in the city, said: ‘A source of increased radiation levels was discovered….the area was cordoned.

‘It was decided to introduce a state of emergency in Khabarovsk to carry out work faster.’

The authorities insisted there was no threat to life.

‘The radiation source was removed and placed in a protective container, transported to a radioactive waste storage facility,’ said a source at Radon nuclear agency.

Source : https://metro.co.uk/2024/04/05/mystery-nuclear-leak-sparks-state-emergency-russian-city-20593791

While the Israeli ambassador walked out of the plenary session in protest at the end of her speech, India was among 13 countries which abstained from voting for the resolution.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution on Friday, calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip at the end of the 55th Council session.

While the Israeli ambassador walked out of the plenary session in protest at the end of her speech at the UN, India was among 13 countries which abstained from voting for the resolution. Other countries which abstained were Albania, Benin, Cemeroon, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, France, Geogia, Japan, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands and Romania.

“Draft resolution A/HRC/55/L.30 on the Human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice was ADOPTED,” tweeted United Nations Human Rights Council.

In the resolution adopted on Friday, the UN condemned Israel for the war in Gaza but made no mention of Hamas or its crimes on October 7. The resolution equates the abductees with detainees suspected of terrorist activity, news agency ANI reported.

Furthermore, “the resolution provided legitimacy for Palestinian ‘resistance’ to the ‘occupation,’ calls for an arms embargo on Israel, and blatantly disregards the supply of weapons to Hamas by Iran and its allies”.

The resolution was passed with 28 of the council’s 47 member states voting in favour, six opposed and 13 abstaining. The United States voted against the anti-Israeli resolution, as did Germany, Argentina, Paraguay, Bulgaria and Malawi.

“There are 47 member states in the United Nations Human Rights Council, according to geographic distribution. Currently, its members include Malaysia, Kuwait, Qatar, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Algeria, South Africa, Somalia, Cuba, together with the United States, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Romania, Georgia, Bulgaria among other states,” the Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in its press release.

Source : https://www.livemint.com/news/world/unhrc-adopts-resolution-over-gaza-israel-war-india-among-13-countries-to-abstain-11712329524074.html

‘… as populations in India, South Korea, and the United States head to the polls, we are likely to see Chinese cyber and influence actors … work toward targeting these elections,’ the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) said in its report.

New York: China is likely to deploy Artificial Intelligence-generated content via social media to sway public opinion to boost its geopolitical interests during elections in countries like India, South Korea and the US, tech giant Microsoft has warned.

Voting for 543 Lok Sabha seats in India will take place between April 19 and June 4, spread across seven phases.

South Koreans will go to the polls in a general election on April 10 while the US will hold the Presidential election on November 5.

“With major elections taking place around the world this year, particularly in India, South Korea and the United States, we assess that China will, at a minimum, create and amplify AI-generated content to benefit its interests,” Clint Watts, General Manager, Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, said in a blog post.

Despite the chances of such content in affecting election results remaining low, China’s increasing experimentation in augmenting memes, videos, and audio will likely continue – and may prove more effective down the line, he said.

China will do it along with North Korea, he wrote.

These are among the Microsoft Threat Intelligence insights in the latest East Asia report published on Wednesday by the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC).

China is using fake social media accounts to poll voters on what divides them most to sow division and possibly influence the outcome of the US presidential election in its favour.

Source : https://www.deccanherald.com/world/china-may-misuse-ai-to-target-elections-in-india-us-to-boost-geopolitical-interests-microsoft-2967744

The US is on high alert and actively preparing for a “significant” attack that could come as soon as within the next week by Iran targeting Israeli or American assets in the region in response to Monday’s Israeli strike in Damascus that killed top Iranian commanders, a senior administration official tells CNN.

Senior US officials currently believe that an attack by Iran is “inevitable” – a view shared by their Israeli counterparts, that official said. The two governments are furiously working to get in position ahead of what is to come, as they anticipate that Iran’s attack could unfold in a number of different ways – and that both US and Israeli assets and personnel are at risk of being targeted.

A forthcoming Iranian attack was a major topic of discussion on President Joe Biden’s phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

As of Friday, the two governments did not know when or how Iran planned to strike back, the official said.

A direct strike on Israel by Iran is one of the worst-case scenarios that the Biden administration is bracing for, as it would guarantee rapid escalation of an already tumultuous situation in the Middle East. Such a strike could lead to the Israel-Hamas war broadening into a wider, regional conflict – something Biden has long sought to avoid.

It has been two months since Iranian proxies attacked US forces in Iraq and Syria, a period of relative stability after months of drone, rocket and missile launches targeting US facilities. The lone exception came on Tuesday, when US forces shot down a drone near al-Tanf garrison in Syria. The drone attack, which the Defense Department said was carried out by Iranian proxies, came after the Israeli strike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus.

“We asses that al-Tanf was not the target of the drone,” a defense official said Tuesday. “Since we were unable to immediately determine the target and out of safety for US and coalition partners, the drone was shot down.”

The incident came after the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus on Monday, though an Israel Defense Forces spokesman told CNN that their intelligence showed the building was not a consulate and is instead “a military building of Quds forces disguised as a civilian building.”

Israel has carried out numerous strikes on Iran-backed targets in Syria, often targeting weapons shipments intended for Hezbollah, a powerful Iranian proxy in Lebanon. But the targeting of the embassy itself marks a significant escalation, since embassies are considered the sovereign territory of the nations they represent.

Iran vowed to take revenge after Israel’s airstrike on Iran’s embassy complex in Syria, which killed at least seven officials. Mohammed Reza Zahedi, a top commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), and senior commander Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi were among those killed, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

At least six Syrian citizens were also killed, Iranian state television reported on Tuesday.

Zahedi, a former commander of the IRGC’s ground forces, air force, and the deputy commander of its operations, is the most high-profile Iranian target killed since then-US President Donald Trump ordered the assassination of IRGC Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020.

The US was quick to inform Iran that the Biden administration was not involved and had no advance knowledge of Monday’s strike on the embassy and has warned Iran against coming after American assets.

“The United States had no involvement in the strike and we did not know about it ahead of time,” a National Security Council spokesperson told CNN earlier this week.

The US has warned Iran not to use the Israeli strike in Damascus as “a pretext to attack US personnel and facilities,” a State Department spokesperson told CNN Friday.

The warning was sent in response to a message from Iran, the spokesperson said. Iran’s message to the US blamed the US for the Damascus attack, a senior administration official said, though it was not clear what, if anything else, Iran conveyed to the US in that initial message.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/05/politics/us-israel-iran-retaliation-strike/index.html

A rare earthquake rocked the New York City area Friday morning, swaying buildings and sending terrified residents into the streets — the strongest temblor to strike near the Big Apple in 140 years.

City officials quickly warned people of the danger of potential aftershocks — which began in the early afternoon in New Jersey, a report said.

The preliminary 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck near Lebanon, NJ, around 10:23 a.m. and was potentially felt by more than 42 million people, according to the US Geological Survey.

“I was doing my morning reporting, and this safe in my office, that’s a ton, starts shaking. The whole room is shaking,” said Monique Horton, who works at the Balmain store on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. “I was just freaked out. Scary, really scary. I’m a New Yorker, my whole life, 36 years, never seen anything like it.”

At the United Nations in Midtown Manhattan, a Security Council address on the Israel-Gaza conflict was interrupted as cameras began shuddering.

The Federal Aviation Administration told airlines to expect flight delays in and out of the Big Apple because of the quake. Some flights bound for New York had already diverted to other airports, according to FlightAware.

The US Geological Survey logged 160,000 reports on its website from panicked residents in the quake’s aftermath – a potential new record, officials said.

“This is one of the largest earthquakes on the East Coast in the last century,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

The last time an earthquake with a magnitude close to 5 struck near New York City was back in 1884, the USGS said. That quake appeared to have been centered in Brooklyn.

A stronger 5.8 quake was felt in the city in 2011, although that started in Virginia.

Friday’s temblor was the strongest to hit New Jersey in 240 years, according to the Fox Forecast Center.

USGS officials said at least two aftershocks had been recorded by Friday afternoon.

Both Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams said there were no initial reports of injuries or damage from Friday’s quake, however it later emerged that the walls of a gym at a Brooklyn middle school suffered several cracks.

Engineers with the city Department of Buildings were dispatched to J.H.S. 218 James P. Sinnott in East New York, where they ordered the gymnasium shut down until repairs are made, though the rest of the school can remain open, the agency said.

It was determined the bricks that make up the gym’s masonry walls could potentially break loose due to the cracks, according to the DOB. No other structural issues were found in the school.

Meanwhile, Hochul and Adams warned New Yorkers to be wary of the possible aftershocks.

“We are always concerned about aftershocks after an earthquake but New Yorkers should go about their normal day,” Hizzoner said.

“Earthquakes don’t happen every day in New York, so this can be extremely traumatic. I encourage New Yorkers to check on their loved ones to make sure that they are fine.”

City and state officials said there were no reported infrastructure issues as a result of the quake, noting that all major bridges and tunnels had been inspected.

Source: https://nypost.com/2024/04/05/us-news/earthquake-rocks-nyc-tri-state-area/

President Joe Biden threatened on Thursday to condition support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza on it taking concrete steps to protect aid workers and civilians, seeking for the first time to leverage U.S. aid to influence Israeli military behavior.
Biden’s warning, relayed in a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, followed a deadly Israeli attack on World Central Kitchen aid workers that spurred new calls from Biden’s fellow Democrats to place conditions on U.S. aid to Israel. Israel said the attack was a mistake.

The U.S. president, a lifelong supporter of Israel, has resisted pressure to withhold aid or halt the shipment of weapons to the country. His warning marked the first time he has threatened to potentially condition aid, a development that could change the dynamic of the nearly six-month-old war.
Biden “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers,” the White House said of the leaders’ phone call. It said the call lasted about 30 minutes.