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An Israeli tank near the border with Gaza. The United States paused an arms shipment to Israel last week out of concern that the weapons might be used in a threatened assault on Rafah, Gaza, officials said. Credit... Tsafrir Abayov/Associated Press
Persons: Tsafrir Organizations: United, Associated Locations: Gaza, United States, Israel, Rafah
The disclosure came as part of Hamas’s counteroffer to Israel’s latest proposal, which envisions a first-phase, six-week cease-fire in exchange for the return of some of the hostages taken during the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks. It was not clear whether Hamas revealed how many of the 33 are still alive and how many are dead. The Israelis initially wanted 40 to be released in the first phase but came to understand that Hamas did not hold that many who fit the criteria. Israeli and American officials have long assumed that some of the hostages may be dead. Protesters blocked major roads in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv late Monday after Hamas’s counteroffer.
Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu’s, Hamas’s counteroffer Locations: Israel, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv
President Biden traveled on Thursday to North Carolina, a possible swing state in the fall election, to promote his efforts to replace toxic lead pipes as part of his administration’s program to expand and upgrade the nation’s network of roads, airports and other critical infrastructure. “Until the United States of America, God love us, deals with this, how can we say we’re a leading nation in the world?” he told a crowd of supporters at the Wilmington Convention Center. “For God’s sake, we’re better than this.”Mr. Biden has committed to replacing all lead pipes across the nation within a decade. Lead exposure can affect brain development in children, damage kidneys and interfere with the production of red blood cells that carry oxygen. The administration estimates that more than nine million homes, schools, day care centers and businesses still receive water through lead pipes, particularly in communities of marginalized people.
Persons: Biden, Mr Organizations: Wilmington Convention Locations: North Carolina, Wilmington, United States of America
“No president has spoken more forcefully about combating antisemitism than this president,” she said. Since then, Mr. Biden has left it to aides to speak for him, trying to balance the free speech rights of protesters with rejection of violence and antisemitic statements. “Americans have the right to peacefully protest as long as it’s within the law and it’s peaceful,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said. “Forcibly taking over a building is not peaceful. “I hope the president speaks as boldly and as forcefully as this moment requires,” Mr. Deutch told Julie Mason on her Sirius/XM radio show.
Persons: Jean, Pierre, Mr, Biden, , , Ms, Pierre said, Ted Deutch, Deutch, Julie Mason, Donald J, Trump, Adolf Hitler Organizations: Columbia University, American Jewish Committee, Mr, Sirius, XM, Republicans, Jewish Locations: Florida
President Biden plans to speak with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Sunday to discuss the prospects of a possible cease-fire deal to obtain the release of some of the remaining hostages held since the Hamas-led terrorist attack of Oct. 7, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the plan. Mr. Biden’s call with the prime minister is set to come just hours after Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken left Washington for his latest trip to the Middle East. Mr. Blinken will start in Saudi Arabia, where he will see Egyptian and Qatari officials who have served as intermediaries with Hamas in the cease-fire and hostage talks, which have stalled in recent weeks. The call also comes three weeks after Mr. Biden told Mr. Netanyahu that he would rethink his support for Israel’s war unless the country did more to facilitate the delivery of food and other supplies to Gaza and limit civilian casualties. Since then, humanitarian aid to Gaza has increased substantially, and Biden advisers credit Israel with responding to the president’s demands, though U.S. officials acknowledge that the aid is still not as much as is needed.
Persons: Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Antony J, Blinken, Netanyahu Organizations: Israel, State Department, Saudi, Economic Locations: Washington, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Gaza, U.S
Israeli authorities have improved aid delivery to Gaza but still “need to do more,” President Biden said on Wednesday, offering a measured assessment of how well Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is living up to promises he made last week. Since then, Mr. Biden said, Israel has done more to provide access for food, medicine and other critical supplies, but added that he still expects additional action. Mr. Netanyahu committed to increasing the number of aid trucks entering Gaza, and to opening another border crossing into the territory. “It’s not enough,” Mr. Biden said. “We’ll get these hostages home where they belong but also bring back a six week cease-fire that we need now,” Mr. Biden said.
Persons: Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Netanyahu, Israel, “ It’s, Mr, Fumio Kishida, Kamala Harris, “ We’ll Organizations: , Hamas, United Nations Locations: Gaza, United, Israel, Japan, U.S, United States
President Biden signed a $460 billion spending package on Saturday to avert a shutdown of critical federal departments even as lawmakers continue to wrestle over a financing blueprint for many other agencies more than halfway into the current fiscal year. The president finalized the legislation before leaving his home in Wilmington, Del., to fly to Atlanta for a campaign rally. It will extend funding through the rest of the fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, for about half of the government, including the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Justice, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Veterans Affairs. In his short tenure, Speaker Mike Johnson has made clear his desire to avoid a shutdown, even to the point of relying on Democratic votes, but the path ahead remains tricky. “Thank you,” he wrote, naming the eight “for their leadership.”
Persons: Biden, Mike Johnson, Organizations: Agriculture, Energy, Justice, Transportation, Housing, Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, Pentagon, Homeland Security Department, Democratic, White Locations: Wilmington, Del, Atlanta
American forces have at times mounted retaliations, but in limited fashion to avoid instigating a full-fledged conflict. They privately say they may have no choice, however, if American troops are killed. “They don’t want to strike Iran directly for fear of escalation, which only widens the margin for pro-Iranian groups, including the Houthis, to strike at U.S. forces. On Sunday, U.S. Central Command said that the SEALs had died and it had ended its search. Critics of Mr. Biden have complained that he has been too passive, even after the United States launched six airstrikes in 10 days against Houthi forces.
Persons: Biden, , Aaron David Miller, they’ll, Mr Organizations: longtime, Carnegie Endowment, International, U.S, Navy, Sunday, U.S . Central Command, United States, Houthi Locations: Iran, Iranian, East, U.S, Yemen, Aden, Gaza
To be clear, no one in President Biden’s White House would ever root for Donald J. Trump. Mr. Biden’s best chance of winning re-election in the fall, in their view, is a rematch against Mr. Trump. None of them would cry if Mr. Trump were taken down by someone like former Gov. Whatever Ms. Haley’s flaws, and Democrats see many, they do not believe she would pose the same danger to democracy that Mr. Trump does. But if she won the Republican nomination, she might pose a bigger danger to Mr. Biden.
Persons: Biden’s, Donald J, Trump, Nikki Haley, Biden, Al Capone Organizations: Republican, Mr Locations: Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire
The U.S. government is making an intense effort to persuade Israel and Hamas to resume negotiations so they can once again pause hostilities and exchange more prisoners for hostages, a White House spokesman said on Sunday. Israel has since resumed its assault on Hamas, and Mr. Kirby urged it to avoid civilian casualties, while crediting its forces with making efforts to do so. “He’s so naïve; I mean I just lost all confidence in this guy,” Mr. Graham said. “I would go to Iran and say listen, you need to tell Hamas to let these hostages go,” he said. “We should have conditions on military aid in the same way that we do for every other country.”While the White House blamed Hamas for the breakdown in hostage talks, Ms. Jayapal faulted Israel.
Persons: Israel, , John F, , Kirby, There’s, Biden, Biden’s, Lindsey Graham, Lloyd J, Austin III, Austin, ” Mr, Graham, Mr, Al Qaeda, Pramila Jayapal, Jayapal Organizations: Kirby, White House National Security Council, Press, Hamas, Republican, West Bank, CNN’s, Union, Locations: Gaza, Israel, South Carolina, CNN’s “ State, Iraq, Al, we’d, Iran, Washington, United States, Qatar, Persian, “ Israel
When China’s leaders wanted to send a message to the Biden administration last summer, they did what came naturally. Mr. Kissinger was 100 years old by then and had left the government 46 years earlier. But for as long as anyone could remember, the Chinese had venerated him as the secretary of state who forged the landmark diplomatic opening to Beijing. And President Xi Jinping told Mr. Kissinger that his initial visits had led to 50 years of mostly stable relations and that he hoped this trip would usher in another 50 years. Mr. Kissinger returned home and dutifully filled in Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken by phone; met with William J. Burns, the C.I.A.
Persons: China’s, Biden, Henry A . Kissinger, Kissinger, Xi Jinping, Xi, Biden’s, Antony J, William J, Burns, Jake Sullivan Locations: Beijing, Washington, United States
It was inevitable that Liz Cheney’s new memoir would cause a splash. The memoir, “Oath and Honor,” arrives on bookshelves just as Mr. Trump is poised to reclaim the Republican presidential nomination in primaries beginning in a few weeks. But beyond its top-line arguments, the book offers a rare peek inside the Republican cloakroom at what Ms. Cheney, a former representative from Wyoming, heard from her colleagues about “the Orange Jesus,” as one wryly called Mr. Trump. Trump Republicans took Cheney’s stand personally. After Ms. Cheney spoke out against Mr. Trump and voted to impeach him, she faced a backlash from fellow Republicans accusing her of disloyalty.
Persons: Liz Cheney’s, Donald J, Trump, , Cheney, Jesus, Brown, Cheney’s Organizations: Republican, New York Times, Company, Trump Republicans, Mr, Republican Conference Locations: American, Wyoming
Mr. McCarthy, the California congressman who was then the House Republican leader, had condemned Mr. Trump for fueling the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol and even suggested that he resign, only to turn around and effectively absolve the former president by embracing him again. In her new book, Ms. Cheney, perhaps the country’s most vocal anti-Trump Republican, reports that Mr. McCarthy justified the Jan. 28 visit as an act of compassion for a beaten ally. Ms. Cheney wrote that she was so shocked when she first saw the photograph of Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Trump standing side by side with grins on their faces that she thought it was a fake. “Not even Kevin McCarthy could be this craven, I thought,” she wrote. “I was wrong.” She went to see Mr. McCarthy to confront him about rehabilitating the twice-impeached former president who had just tried to overturn an election he lost.
Persons: Donald J, Trump, Kevin McCarthy, Liz Cheney, Trump’s, McCarthy, Cheney, Mr, Ms, craven, , Organizations: Republican, Capitol, Trump Republican Locations: Lago, Florida, California, grins
In seeking to extend the pause and hostage releases, Mr. Biden has American interests to consider as well as those of Israel. Mr. Biden hopes an extension of the pause in exchange for the release of more hostages will result in the rest of the Americans being freed. “We’ll continue to remain personally engaged to see that this deal is fully implemented and work to extend the deal as well,” Mr. Biden told reporters. The release of Avigail gave Mr. Biden a small but emotionally powerful victory amid all the tumult in the region. “She’s been through a terrible trauma,” Mr. Biden said.
Persons: Biden, Idan, Mr, Benjamin Netanyahu, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, “ He’s, ” Jake Sullivan, Abigail, “ We’ll, Netanyahu, , , Sullivan, Israel, ” Mr, Biden’s, Chris Christie, Christie, can’t, Tom Cotton, Cotton, Avigail, “ She’s, God she’s Organizations: Sunday, Hamas, Israel, , NBC, Mr, , CNN, Republicans, Republican, “ Fox, European Union Locations: Israel, Gaza, Nantucket, Massachusetts, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al, Thani, Qatar, United States, “ State, New Jersey, Arkansas
President Biden on Sunday hailed the release of Avigail Idan, a 4-year-old American citizen who has been held hostage by Hamas for seven weeks, and vowed to keep working to secure freedom for others in captivity and extend the pause in the fighting. “Thank God she’s home,” Mr. Biden told reporters in Nantucket, Mass., where he has been marking the Thanksgiving holiday. Her case has been the focus of widespread international attention and concern as she marked her fourth birthday on Friday. “More is needed but this deal is delivering lifesaving results,” Mr. Biden said. This deal is structured so that it can be extended to keep building on these results.
Persons: Biden, Avigail, God she’s, ” Mr, , ” Avigail, Abigail, Organizations: Sunday Locations: Nantucket, Israel, Gaza
The Israelis were insisting that it was not enough to free just 50 of the roughly 240 hostages. Mr. Biden told the emir of Qatar, who was serving as the intermediary with Hamas, that four was all they would get for now. The path to the hostage deal was painful and painstaking, one marked by fitful progress, deep mistrust, terrible choices and moments when the whole thing was on the verge of unraveling. Mr. McGurk, who has wide contacts in the region, held early morning phone calls each day with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and then briefed Mr. Sullivan, who kept Mr. Biden informed. Mr. Sullivan stayed in touch with Ron Dermer and Tzachi Hanegbi, two of Mr. Netanyahu’s closest advisers.
Persons: Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, ” Mr, Jake Sullivan, Brett McGurk, Joshua Geltzer, McGurk, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, Sullivan, Ron Dermer, Tzachi Hanegbi, Netanyahu’s Organizations: Hamas, United, Biden, White, National Security Council Locations: Qatar, United States, Thani
Some two decades after leaving the White House, Rosalynn Carter reflected on the criticism she generated for expanding the role of a first lady. “You can’t let it stop you,” she told an interviewer. “The first lady role has changed,” she observed. “I don’t think there will ever be another first lady who will be just a hostess and pour tea.”If that is true, Mrs. Carter will have been one of the primary reasons. “It was a time in the country of profound change for women, and she wanted to seize the opportunities before her.”
Persons: Rosalynn Carter, , , Carter, Anita B, McBride, Laura Bush, Organizations: White Locations: Plains , Ga
And that’s for people who are not even running for president. For President Biden, who turns 81 on Monday, another birthday may bring more liability than revelry, offering one more reminder of his age to an already skeptical electorate. Unlike other presidents who have celebrated birthdays with lavish political events, Mr. Biden plans to observe his milestone privately with family in Nantucket later this week. The best birthday gift the oldest president in American history could hope for would be a strategy for assuaging voters’ concerns, but that has been hard to come by. If Mr. Trump wins next year and serves out four years, he would take over the status as the country’s oldest president.
Persons: Biden, Mr, Donald J, Trump, Barack Obama, Obama Organizations: Republican Locations: Nantucket, Hungary, Turkey
Rosalynn Carter, the former first lady, has entered hospice care at her home in Georgia alongside her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, who has been in hospice since February, the family announced on Friday. Mrs. Carter, 96, revealed in May that she has dementia, but Friday’s statement offered no further details about her condition or any other ailments she might be suffering. “She and President Carter are spending time with each other and their family,” the Carter Center said in a statement on behalf of Jason Carter, the center’s chairman and a grandson of the former first couple. It is meant for patients not expected to live more than six months, although Mr. Carter’s experience defying that timetable has demonstrated that the duration of hospice care can vary. Mr. Carter turned 99 last month and is the longest-living president in American history.
Persons: Rosalynn Carter, Jimmy Carter, Carter, Jason Carter, Carter’s Organizations: Carter Locations: Georgia,
Several aides said privately that the mood in the West Wing was upbeat and they expressed a sense of validation that their theory of the case was still valid. Coming after the survey by The New York Times and Siena College, which found Mr. Biden losing to former President Donald J. Trump in five swing states that Mr. Biden won in 2020, the off-year elections were well timed. The results, Biden advisers stressed, reaffirmed that Democrats have outperformed in every election since the Supreme Court’s decision overturning a constitutional right to abortion. It is also true that Mr. Beshear spent much of the campaign distancing himself from Mr. Biden. But Biden advisers noted that two-thirds of the 23 Democratic candidates for the state legislature in Virginia endorsed by the president and Vice President Kamala Harris won.
Persons: Biden, Donald J, Trump, Mr, , Beshear’s, Daniel Cameron, Beshear, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, ” Jim Messina, Barack Obama’s Organizations: The New York Times, Siena College, Republican, Democratic Locations: Virginia
It doesn’t come with a ring, but this week was still special for former First Fan George W. Bush. Nearly three decades after he sold the Texas Rangers, the team that propelled him into politics finally brought home its first World Series title. For the onetime Rangers managing partner, it was an enervating finale to a championship that eluded him when he was signing the checks. “I think he’s loving it,” said Tom Bernstein, a longtime friend and fellow partner in the Rangers ownership back in the day. “And, of course, I congratulate the players of this awesome team on winning the first World Series in our club’s history.
Persons: George W, Bush, , Tom Bernstein, , Laura Organizations: Texas Rangers, onetime Rangers, Rangers Locations: Dallas, Phoenix
Of all of them, he said Mr. Biden’s ties to Israel appeared strongest. Recalling that day in 2002 when Mr. Biden made a point of showing up during the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, Mr. Ross said, “It was so poignant. But Mr. Biden’s “rock solid and unwavering support” for Israel, as he has described it, is born of a different era of politics. Aides said Mr. Biden’s public embrace of Mr. Netanyahu gives him the ability to influence him in private. But Mr. Biden traces his interest to childhood conversations with his father, who described the horrors of the Holocaust over dinner.
Persons: , , Ross, Biden’s, Biden, Mr, Blinken, Israel —, ” Mr, I’ve, ” Shalom Lipner, Lipner, “ He’s, Benjamin Netanyahu, Rashida Tlaib, Netanyahu, it’s, Jonah Blank, he’s, Tony Soprano, Eddie Jacobson, Harry Truman, Israel “, Valerie Biden Owens Organizations: Mr, Israel, West Bank, Congressional Democrats Locations: Israel, Tel Aviv, Gaza, Michigan, Delaware
As much of a struggle as it was for Mr. Biden to work across party lines with Kevin McCarthy when he was speaker, a Jordan speakership would be a nightmare in the view of the president’s aides. Mr. Jordan, dubbed a “legislative terrorist” by former Speaker John A. Boehner, a fellow Republican, has long preferred bomb throwing to deal making and could push for Mr. Biden’s impeachment, government shutdowns and other moves at odds with the White House. Mr. Biden has resolutely refused to comment at any length about the chaos in the House, sticking by the old view that it is up to Congress to determine its own leadership, not the executive branch. When Mr. Jordan jumped into the speakership race a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Biden said he would work with whoever won. “They have the majority in the House,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Air Force One on the way to Israel on Tuesday.
Persons: Biden, Kevin McCarthy, Jordan, John A, Boehner, Mr, , I’ll, ” Karine Jean, Pierre, White Organizations: Republican, White, White House, Air Force, House Republicans Locations: Israel
One by one, he gave each of them a hug and talked about his own experiences with loss. In a way, Mr. Biden flew to Israel on Wednesday to give the whole country a hug, to say how much America grieves with Israel and stands by Israel and has Israel’s back. “Shock, pain, rage — an all-consuming rage,” Mr. Biden said later in a speech to the Israeli nation. But I caution this — while you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States.
Persons: Biden, , Mr, Israel, Organizations: Locations: Israel, America, United States, Iraq
Mr. Biden has been planning to use the visit to show solidarity with America’s closest ally in the Middle East and to urge Israel to avoid civilian casualties. “The timing and optics of such a significant visit couldn’t be any worse,” said Charles Lister, the director of counterterrorism at the Middle East Institute. “Whatever the circumstances behind this strike at the hospital in Gaza, it doesn’t really matter at this point. They also said he believed an in-person visit could help him better understand Israel’s strategy as a ground invasion of Gaza loomed. “The failure to have an actual major strategy, I think, is the long-term biggest risk here,” Jonathan Panikoff, the director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Program, said in an interview.
Persons: Biden, , Charles Lister, we’ve, Mr, ” Jonathan Panikoff, ” John F, Kirby Organizations: Middle East Institute, Security Initiative, NBC’s Locations: Israel, Gaza, U.S
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