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The American strikes on two Iranian military munitions stockpiles in Syria on Friday were carefully designed, President Biden’s aides said, to send two distinct messages to Tehran. It is the latest gamble by the United States to modify Iran’s behavior, few of which have worked in the past. He quickly added that the United States “has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities” if the Iranian-backed attacks stop. But the Iranians wanted to do something to pressure the United States to rein in Israel and to remind the Americans of Tehran’s power, U.S. officials said. When Mr. Biden came into office, he tried to restore the nuclear deal, which had largely contained Iran’s nuclear activity, international nuclear inspectors said, until Mr. Trump pulled out of it.

Persons: Biden’s, Biden, John F, Kirby, ” Mr, Qassem, Lloyd J, Austin III, United States “, Mr, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Khamenei, Barack Obama, Donald J, Trump Organizations: Air Force, Pentagon, Iran’s Quds Force, U.S, ”, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Democratic Locations: Syria, Tehran, United States, Iran, East, U.S, Iraq, Iran’s Quds, Iranian, Israel, Lebanon, China

Earlier on Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu said the Israeli military was still preparing for a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. American officials say it will take them a few more days to get many of those new antimissile batteries in place. The Financial Times reported earlier on the request to delay the ground invasion to give time to get the air defense assets in place. The American officials have urged Mr. Netanyahu’s war cabinet to give Washington more time to place antimissile batteries to protect both Israel and American troops in the region, according to several American officials. But the United States also believes that Israel may not have the capability to respond to a two-front war.

Persons: Biden, Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Netanyahu, ”, “, ” Biden, Mick Mulroy, Antony J, Blinken, —, ” Israel, Julian E, Barnes, Aaron Boxerman Organizations: U.S, Financial Times, U.S . Navy, Pentagon, Lebanese, Hezbollah, American, ”, United Nations, Health Ministry Locations: Gaza, United States, U.S, Israel, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Iraq, Tehran, Washington

American intelligence officials said Tuesday they now had “high confidence” that the blast at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza last week was the result of a Palestinian rocket that broke up mid-flight, and that no Israeli weapon was involved in the explosion. Those include how many people were killed or injured when, by the U.S. account, the warhead of a Palestinian rocket landed in the parking lot of the hospital. Last week, U.S. officials said their early intelligence showed that the blast was caused by an armed Palestinian group, rebutting Palestinian claims that an Israeli strike caused the explosion. The evaluation reflected a higher degree of certainty by U.S. intelligence officials that Israel was not responsible for the blast. The declassified assessment provides no specific information on where U.S. intelligence officials think a rocket causing the blast was launched from inside Gaza.

Persons: Israel, Biden, ’, Rishi Sunak, ” Mr, Sunak Organizations: Ahli Arab Hospital, Hamas, New York Times, Palestinian, United States Locations: Al, Ahli, Gaza, U.S, Palestinian, Israel, Jihad, Israeli, United, “, Gaza City

In the 12 months after the Dobbs decision in June 2022, there were on average 82,298 abortions a month, compared with 82,115 in the two months before Dobbs, WeCount found. The new data, released Tuesday, included 83 percent of known providers, and researchers estimated the remainder based on historical trends and abortion data from states. The report does not include abortions outside the U.S. medical system — such as ordering abortion pills from abroad or traveling across the border. The biggest increases in legal abortions occurred in states that border those with bans, suggesting that many patients traveled across state lines. In Florida, which bars abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy but is surrounded by states with stricter bans, abortions were up 28 percent, to 7,705.

Persons: Dobbs, WeCount, Abigail Aiken, Alexia Rice, Henry Organizations: Society of Family, Guttmacher, University of Texas, ARC Locations: Austin, New Mexico, Illinois, Florida

☆ Biden’s Moment: A President Convinced of America’s Role in the World
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( David E. Sanger | More About David E. Sanger | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

President Biden could very well go down in history as the last American president born during World War II and shaped by a view of American power nurtured in the Cold War. To Mr. Biden’s mind, this has been the moment he has trained for his entire political career, a point he often makes when challenged about his age. In the past eight months, he has visited two countries in the midst of active wars. He has married his public embraces with private cautions, and kept American troops out of both conflicts — so far. Whether Mr. Biden can bring the American population along, however, is a more unsettled question than at any moment in his presidency, and the backdrop of his rare Oval Office address on Thursday night.

Persons: Biden, Golda Meir, Mikhail Gorbachev, Hamas —, “, ”, Michael Beschloss, Vladimir V, Putin, Peter the Great, Republicans —, Donald J, Trump Organizations: States —, Hamas, Ukraine, Republicans, Republican Party Locations: States, Ukraine, Israel, United States, America

☆ Inside Biden’s Reversal on Sending Long-Range Missiles to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( David E. Sanger | More About David E. Sanger | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The story of how that happened, as described by several administration officials, is more complex than a caricature circulating in Washington that Mr. Biden is cautious to a fault, and says no until the pressure is insurmountable. In this case, there was plenty of pressure. In July, Mr. Biden’s aides said, they came to see what one called a “clear use case” for ATACMS. It was the one Mr. Crow had identified, using the ATACMS to target supply lines and air bases that Ukraine could not reach. At a July 14 meeting in the office of Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, he and Jon Finer, his primary deputy, talked with a small group of officials about developing options.

Persons: Biden, Jason Crow, Mr, Crow, Zelensky, Olaf Scholz of, “, Biden’s, Jake Sullivan, Jon Organizations: Colorado Democrat, Army, House, Mr, NATO Locations: Washington, Colorado, Ukraine, Vilnius, Olaf Scholz of Germany

Ukraine’s forces struck two air bases in Russian-held territory on Tuesday with American-supplied long-range missiles that were one of the last major weapons systems that Kyiv had sought from the United States, according to two American officials and a Ukrainian parliamentarian who posted about the attack on social media. They were the first strikes with a weapon known as ATACMS — for advanced, long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems — that President Biden was long reluctant to provide for fear it could escalate the conflict with Russia. But Mr. Biden told President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine during a visit to the White House in September that he had agreed to provide the missiles, albeit a version limited in range, according to officials familiar with the conversation. “ATACMS is already with us,” a Ukrainian lawmaker, Oleksiy Goncharenko, wrote Tuesday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. He said that an airfield in the Russian-controlled city of Berdiansk “was hit by them.”

Persons: Biden, Volodymyr Zelensky, ATACMS, ”, Oleksiy Goncharenko, Berdiansk “ Organizations: Tactical Missile Systems, White House, Twitter Locations: Russian, United States, Ukrainian, Russia, Ukraine, Berdiansk

Here's how to get identity protection and what to look for in an identity protection service. If you have children, an identity theft protection service with a family plan or additional features to prevent child identity theft can be useful. Signs of a good identity theft protection serviceWhat you need from an identity theft protection service will vary based on your assets and needs, but the basics are relatively uniform. Red flags in identity theft protection servicesThere's no clear outline of solutions: The last thing you want from the company you're paying for identity theft protection is a lot of talking in circles. Getting identity theft protection frequently asked questionsWhat is the best identity theft protection service?

Persons: Kurt Sanger, Batten, Sanger, Michael Scheumack, Rebecca Morris, —, Morris, it's Organizations: Research, US Cyber Command, Credit Monitoring, Chevron, Social Locations: United States, Chevron

The suit targeted a large doctors’ group that operates anesthesia practices in several states, claiming the group and the private equity firm advising and financing it were consolidating doctors’ groups in Texas so they could raise prices and increase their profits. The agency brought the civil lawsuit in federal court against U.S. Anesthesia Partners and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a private-equity firm in New York. “These tactics enabled USAP and Welsh Carson to raise prices for anesthesia services — raking in tens of millions of extra dollars for these executives at the expense of Texas patients and businesses,” said Lina M. Kahn, the chair of the F.T.C., in a statement. “The F.T.C. will continue to scrutinize and challenge serial acquisitions, roll-ups and other stealth consolidation schemes that unlawfully undermine fair competition and harm the American public.”

Persons: Anderson, Anderson & Stowe, Welsh Carson, ”, Lina M, Kahn Organizations: Federal Trade Commission, U.S, Anesthesia Partners, Anderson & Locations: Texas, Carson, New York

When wildfires swept across Maui last month with destructive fury, China’s increasingly resourceful information warriors pounced. The disaster was not natural, they said in a flurry of false posts that spread across the internet, but was the result of a secret “weather weapon” being tested by the United States. For China — which largely stood on the sidelines of the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections while Russia ran hacking operations and disinformation campaigns — the effort to cast the wildfires as a deliberate act by American intelligence agencies and the military was a rapid change of tactics. Until now, China’s influence campaigns have been focused on amplifying propaganda defending its policies on Taiwan and other subjects. The most recent effort, revealed by researchers from Microsoft and a range of other organizations, suggests that Beijing is making more direct attempts to sow discord in the United States.

Persons: China’s Organizations: China, Microsoft Locations: Maui, United States, Russia, Taiwan, Beijing

Medicare may just be the budget buster that wasn’t. Somehow, after decades of nonstop growth, its spending per person has flattened over the past dozen years, saving taxpayers roughly $3.9 trillion since 2011, according to an Upshot analysis. But the reasons for the slowdown — and its duration — are not well understood. reduced the payments Medicare made to hospitals and to the insurance companies that administer private Medicare Advantage plans. Those changes alone are responsible for more than a trillion dollars in spending reductions, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, or about a quarter of the savings attributable to the recent flat spending trend.

Persons: ” — Stephen Organizations: Affordable Care, Congressional, Office Locations: Columbus , Ohio

A Huge Threat to the U.S. Budget Has Receded. For decades, runaway Medicare spending was the story of the federal budget. Budget news often sounds apocalyptic, but the Medicare trend has been unexpectedly good for federal spending, saving taxpayers a huge amount relative to projections. In a recent letter to the Senate Budget Committee, economists at the Congressional Budget Office described the huge reductions in its Medicare forecasts between 2010 and 2020. Medicare is growing more slowly than ever, but still more quickly than the rest of the federal budget.

Persons: Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, that’s, ”, David Cutler, Cutler, haven’t, I’ve, Melinda Buntin, Buntin, Simpson, Bowles, aren’t, Trump, Joshua Gordon, Mitt Romney’s, “, Sherry Glied Organizations: Medicare, ”, U.S, Budget, Harvard, Obama, Affordable, Senate, Congressional, New York Times, Office, White, Office of Management, Johns Hopkins, Social Security, Congress, Federal, Veterans, NASA, Wagner School Locations: Iraq, Afghanistan, N.Y.U, Washington

When President Biden meets with the leaders of Japan and South Korea at Camp David on Friday, the allies will have another nation in mind: China. Japan, South Korea and the United States share the common interest of competing with an increasingly assertive China and ensuring peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. Just last week, Mr. Biden banned new American investment in key technological industries that could be used to enhance Beijing’s military capabilities. Washington has also kept a large military presence in both South Korea and Japan in part to counterbalance China’s influence in the region. But China’s economic growth also puts South Korea and Japan in an awkward position.

Persons: Biden, Camp David, Xi, ”, ” Jake Sullivan Organizations: Beijing, Huawei, United States, United, South, U.S Locations: Japan, South Korea, Camp, China, Beijing, United States, Taiwan Strait, U.S, Washington, United, Ukraine, Taiwan, Korea’s belligerence . Washington, Seoul, Pacific

President Biden escalated his confrontation with China on Wednesday by signing an executive order banning American investments in key technology industries that could be used to enhance Beijing’s military capabilities, the latest in a series of moves putting further distance between the world’s two largest economies. The order will prohibit venture capital and private equity firms from pumping money into Chinese efforts to develop semiconductors and other microelectronics, quantum computers and certain artificial intelligence applications. Administration officials stressed that the move was tailored to guard national security, but China is likely to see it as part of a wider campaign to contain its rise. “The Biden administration is committed to keeping America safe and defending America’s national security through appropriately protecting technologies that are critical to the next generation of military innovation,” the Treasury Department said in a statement. A series of expanding export controls on key technologies to China has already triggered retaliation from Beijing, which recently announced the cutoff of metals like gallium that are critical for the Pentagon’s own supply chain.

Persons: Biden, “, Richard M, Nixon, Henry Kissinger Organizations: Treasury Department, U.S . Locations: China, U.S, Beijing

☆ How 4 Countries Are Preparing to Bring Stolen Treasures Home
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Catherine Hickley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The discussion about returning wrongfully acquired heritage to countries in the global south has, until now, largely focused on the steps taken by Western museums and governments. But away from the spotlight, in countries like Cameroon and Indonesia, heritage workers, government officials and activists are laying the groundwork to reclaim long lost treasures, a process most expect will take decades. Challenges include establishing who will own and take care of the artifacts, upgrading museum infrastructure, involving communities and awakening public interest. “We have an enormous mission,” said Placide Mumbembele Sanger, a professor at the University of Kinshasa who is advising the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government. “It will be a long process.”

Persons: ”, Placide Mumbembele Sanger Organizations: University of, Democratic Locations: Cameroon, Indonesia, University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo’s

The Biden administration is hunting for malicious computer code it believes China has hidden deep inside the networks controlling power grids, communications systems and water supplies that feed military bases in the United States and around the world, according to American military, intelligence and national security officials. The discovery of the malware has raised fears that Chinese hackers, probably working for the People’s Liberation Army, have inserted code designed to disrupt U.S. military operations in the event of a conflict, including if Beijing moves against Taiwan in coming years. The malware, one congressional official said, was essentially “a ticking time bomb” that could give China the power to interrupt or slow American military deployments or resupply operations by cutting off power, water and communications to U.S. military bases. But its impact could be far broader, because that same infrastructure often supplies the houses and businesses of ordinary Americans, according to U.S. officials. The first public hints of the malware campaign began to emerge in late May, when Microsoft said it had detected mysterious computer code in telecommunications systems in Guam, the Pacific island with a vast American air base, and elsewhere in the United States.

Persons: Biden Organizations: People’s Liberation Army, Taiwan, Microsoft Locations: China, United States, Beijing, U.S, Guam

Seven leading A.I. companies in the United States have agreed to voluntary safeguards on the technology’s development, the White House announced on Friday, pledging to manage the risks of the new tools even as they compete over the potential of artificial intelligence. The seven companies — Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI — will formally announce their commitment to new standards in the areas of safety, security and trust at a meeting with President Biden at the White House on Friday afternoon. The announcement comes as the companies are racing to outdo each other with versions of A.I. The voluntary safeguards are only an early, tentative step as Washington and governments across the world rush to put in place legal and regulatory frameworks for the development of artificial intelligence.

Persons: —, Biden Organizations: White, Google, Microsoft Locations: United States, Washington

In the most detailed public account yet given by a U.S. official, the director of the C.I.A. offered a biting assessment on Thursday of the damage done to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia by the mutiny of the Wagner mercenary group, saying the rebellion had revived questions about his judgment and detachment from events. Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, an annual national security conference, William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, said that for much of the 36 hours of the rebellion last month, Russian security services, the military and decision makers “appeared to be adrift.”“For a lot of Russians watching this, used to this image of Putin as the arbiter of order, the question was ‘Does the emperor have no clothes?’” Mr. Burns said, adding, “Or at least ‘Why is it taking so long for him to get dressed?’”Mr. Burns’s remarks on the Kremlin’s paralysis during the uprising carried out by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin and his mercenary group built on comments a day earlier from his British counterpart, Richard Moore, the chief of MI6, who said the rebellion showed cracks in Mr. Putin’s rule.

Persons: Vladimir V, Putin, Wagner, William J, Burns, “, Mr, Burns’s, Yevgeny V, Prigozhin, Richard Moore, Putin’s Organizations: U.S, Aspen Security Forum Locations: Russia

☆ How Barbie made a surprising comeback
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Vanessa Yurkevich | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

And now she is getting new life in “Barbie” the movie, distributed by CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. And at HomBom Toys in New York City, ‘movie Barbie’ is sold out. I thought of every child who played with a Barbie doll as my child. She’s thrilled to see Barbie break out of Barbie Land and out of her heels, a sign Barbie may be keeping up with the times. And that introduced a lot of fun and introduced I think people into the world of Barbie that hadn’t been there before,” she said.

Persons: Barbara Millicent Roberts ”, — Barbie —, Barbie, “ Barbie, Margot Robbie, ’ ”, Ricard Dickson, Mattel, There’s, ”, Katie Mancini, Landor, Landor & Fitch, Ken, they’ve, Oppenheimer, ’, Ilene Gayer, “, Patty Steffen, Fort, She’s, Barbie Carol Sanger, she’s, Sanger, Barbies, hadn’t Organizations: CNN, Mattel, Warner Bros ., Landor &, AMC, Barbies Locations: New York City, Fort Wayne , Indiana, Los Angeles

☆ ‘As Long as It Takes’: Biden Adds to Talk of a New Cold War
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( David E. Sanger | More About David E. Sanger | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden and his national security team have contended since he took office that all the easy, tempting comparisons between this era and the Cold War are misleading, a vast oversimplification of a complex geopolitical moment. The differences are, indeed, stark: The United States never had the kind of technological and financial interdependence with its Cold War adversary, the Soviet Union, that so complicates the increasingly bitter and dangerous downward spiral in the relationship with China. And Mr. Biden’s advisers often argue that Russia is not the Soviet Union. And in Soviet times, the United States felt compelled to fight an ideological battle around the world. In the new era, it is fighting China’s efforts to use its economic and technological power to spread its influence.

Persons: Biden Organizations: United Locations: United States, Soviet Union, China, Russia, Ukraine

News analysisPresident Biden and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, with G7 leaders at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Wednesday. Mr. Zelensky has never pushed for Ukrainian NATO membership while the war is raging, nor has anyone else. Mr. Zelensky has never pushed for Ukrainian NATO membership while the war is raging. “I think the win here for Ukraine is the sort of cultural acceptance that Ukraine belongs in NATO,” he said. Image French President Emmanuel Macron has moved from opposition to Ukrainian membership in NATO to strong support for it.

Persons: Biden, Volodymyr Zelensky, ”, Zelensky, Mauricio Lima, John Kornblum, Mr, Kornblum, “, Emmanuel Macron, Michal Baranowski, François Heisbourg, ” Ben Wallace, Macron, Ludovic Marin, Jens Stoltenberg, Russia —, Olaf Scholz, Germany, Doug Mills, Camille Grand, Heisbourg, Ukraine can’t, ” Lara Jakes Organizations: NATO, Lithuania — NATO, Kyiv, Ukraine, Central, Ukrainian NATO, Grad, The New York Times, Ukraine Council, German Marshall Fund, “, ”, Washington, Agence France, Russia, New York Times, Ukraine —, European Council, Foreign Relations Locations: Vilnius, Lithuania, VILNIUS, Turkey, Ukraine, NATO, Ukrainian, American, Germany, France, Warsaw, “ Ukraine, Bucharest, French, United States, Bratislava, Central Europe, Russia

President Biden concluded a meeting of NATO allies on Wednesday in Vilnius, Lithuania, with an address to that country, and the world, comparing the battle to expel Russia from Ukraine with the Cold War struggle for freedom in Europe, and promising “we will not waver” no matter how long the war continues. His speech seemed to be preparing Americans and NATO countries for a confrontation that could go on for years, putting it in the context of momentous conflicts in Europe’s war-torn past. “Putin still wrongly believes that he can outlast Ukraine,” Mr. Biden said, describing the Russian leader as a man who made a huge strategic mistake in invading a neighboring country and now is doubling down. “After all this time Putin still doubts our staying power. He is making a bad bet.”The speech, at Vilnius University, came after a series of important victories for Mr. Biden as NATO’s de facto leader, at a time of rapid change for the alliance.

Persons: Biden, Vladimir V, Putin, “ Putin, ” Mr, Mr Organizations: NATO, Vilnius University Locations: Vilnius, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Europe

NATO declared on Tuesday that Ukraine would be invited to join the alliance, but did not say how or when, disappointing its president but reflecting the resolve by President Biden and other leaders not to be drawn directly into Ukraine’s war with Russia. The wording means that Mr. Biden, who declared last week that “Ukraine isn’t ready for NATO membership,” and like-minded allies had prevailed over Poland and Baltic nations that wanted a formal invitation for Ukraine to join the alliance as soon as the war ends. NATO leaders released the document, a compromise product after weeks of argument, at a summit meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania. Hours earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, apparently aware of what it would say, issued a blast at the NATO leadership. “It’s unprecedented and absurd when a time frame is not set, neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership,” he wrote on Twitter before landing in Vilnius.

Persons: Biden, Volodymyr Zelensky, “, ” Organizations: NATO, Russia, Twitter Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Baltic, Vilnius, Lithuania

For months, President Biden has been wrestling with one of the most vexing questions in the war in Ukraine: whether to risk letting Ukrainian forces run out of the artillery rounds they desperately need to fight Russia, or agree to ship them cluster munitions — widely banned weapons known to cause grievous injury to civilians, especially children. On Friday, the Biden administration announced that it would send the weapons, which have been outlawed by many of Washington’s closest allies. David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times, tells the story behind the president’s contentious decision.

Persons: Biden, Washington’s, David E, Sanger Organizations: The New York Times Locations: Ukraine, Russia

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