CNN visited a Gaza hospital. This is what we saw
CNN’s Clarissa Ward witnessed the horror and humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza during a visit to a field hospital in Rafah operated by the United Arab Emirates.
‘He’s worried’: Hunter Biden’s legal woes take a heavy toll on his father. Maybe it’s time to bow out
Politico reports: Some days it’s with a text. On others, it’s a call, even just to leave a message. President Joe Biden reaches out to his son Hunter regularly to check on him. And increasingly, those messages have taken on a fresh sense of urgency. The younger Biden is facing new criminal charges and could soon be held in contempt of Congress after refusing to testify in a Republican-led hearing meant to impugn the reputations of both him and his…
Moms for Liberty is tearing itself apart
Wired reports: Moms for Liberty, the extremist “parental rights group,” was supposed to help the Republican Party regain the White House. In July, former president Donald Trump called the anti-LGBTQ group with 300 active chapters across the county a “grassroots juggernaut.” They are credited with forcing schools to lift mask mandates, banning books featuring LGBTQ characters, and supporting anti-trans laws and policies across the country. The group was on track to be instrumental to the GOP in the 2024 election….
Lawmakers pass bill that makes it all but impossible for Trump to leave NATO
Business Insider reports: A brief provision in the massive $886 billion bill funding the Pentagon will likely kill former President Donald Trump or any potential future president’s ambitions to withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Sens. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, teamed up to muscle their bill — which would require an act of Congress or Senate approval to leave NATO — into what is often deemed a must-pass bill…
Oil companies are fine with call to transition away from fossil fuels
The New York Times reports: Oil industry executives on Wednesday said they more or less backed the agreement coming out of the United National climate summit in Dubai, despite its language calling for “transitioning away from fossil fuels.” “We support the outcome of COP28,” said a spokesman for Shell, Europe’s largest energy company. Eni, the Italian energy giant, praised the “great pragmatism” of the meeting. Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of OPEC, which had raised objections to an early…
Biden administration will continue supplying Israel with arms for indiscriminate destruction of Gaza
On Tuesday, Biden said Israel was carrying out "indiscriminate bombing" in Gaza. On Wednesday, administration officials told CNN Biden has "no plans to shift its position and draw any red lines around the transfer of weapons and munitions to Israel." https://t.co/LTOTyvOmLE — Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) December 13, 2023 CNN reports: The Biden administration currently has no plans to place conditions on the military aid it is providing to Israel, officials told CNN, despite growing calls by Democratic lawmakers and human…
Two-state solution not a possibility, Israeli ambassador to the UK tells Sky News
Israel’s ambassador to the UK has told Sky News’ Mark Austin that her country would not accept a two-state solution when the war with Gaza ends. When pressed on the question of the Palestinians having their own state, Tzipi Hotovely said: “Absolutely no.” Asked how there can be peace without a Palestinian state, she added: “Israel knows today and the world should know now… that the Palestinians never wanted to have a state next to Israel.”
The conversation we can’t avoid about pro-Palestinian campus protests
Wendy Pearlman writes: The aftermath of last week’s congressional hearing on antisemitism with presidents from three elite universities saw the resignation this week of University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill. Although the others, Harvard’s Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sally Kornbluth, have survived calls for their ousters, the outcry continues. I’ve been paying close attention to what’s being discussed during this uproar — and what isn’t. As a graduate student two decades ago, I was president of the Students…
Trump’s meme team serves as a shadow online ad agency
The New York Times reports: The video, called “Let’s Get Ready to Bumble,” is a slick mash-up of President Biden’s verbal slip-ups and his stumbles set to a thumping 1990s dance track. And when it was played on a big screen at Trump rallies late last year, it consistently drew laughs and jeers from the crowd. But Donald J. Trump thought he could improve it. So the former president asked an adviser to pass along a few notes to one…
The new face of the ‘Great Replacement’
Adam Serwer writes: Midway through last week’s Republican presidential-primary debate, the entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy started running through conspiracy theories like a frustrated child mashing buttons on Street Fighter, alleging that the Capitol riot was an “inside job” and that the so-called “Great Replacement” theory “is not some grand right-wing conspiracy theory, but a basic statement of the Democratic Party’s platform.” Right-wing apologism for January 6 is no longer shocking, not even from Republican presidential candidates. Trumpists often vacillate between denying…
House speaker did little to fight toxic ‘burn pit’ his father campaigned against
The Guardian reports: Mike Johnson was a few months away from assuming elected office in late 2014 when he was confronted with an impassioned appeal by the man he would later pay tribute to in his first speech as House speaker: his father Patrick. The elder Johnson, a former firefighter in the Louisiana city of Shreveport, had survived a near fatal industrial explosion when Mike was 12 years old, a defining event in both men’s lives. He had just joined…
Biden says Netanyahu must change, Israel losing global support
Reuters reports: U.S. President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that Israel is losing support over its “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza and that Benjamin Netanyahu should change, exposing a new rift in relations with the Israeli prime minister. Biden’s remarks, made to donors to his 2024 re-election campaign, were his most critical to date of Netanyahu’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza. They are a stark contrast to his literal and political embrace of the Israeli leader days after Hamas militants’…
Gaza after nine weeks of relentless Israeli bombing
The New York Times reports: Nine weeks ago, the Gaza Strip was a bustling home to more than two million people. Today, neighborhoods have been flattened by Israeli airstrikes and farming communities have been bulldozed by invading Israeli tanks. Video and satellite imagery captured in late November and early December reveals a devastating transformation in much of northern Gaza. The Port of Gaza used to be a lifeline for the Gazan fishing industry, with a fish market next to the…
Fiona Hill on what happens if Putin wins in Ukraine and Congress
Maura Reynolds writes: It was nearly two years ago that Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and in recent months, the fighting appears to have ground to a stalemate. Aid from the United States has helped Ukraine get this far — but now Americans are asking, how long should they continue to support Ukraine in its war against Russia? At this point, just what are the stakes for the United States? Since the war began, I’ve turned to Fiona…
Russia has suffered staggeringly high losses in Ukraine, U.S. report says
The New York Times reports: The Russian push in eastern Ukraine this fall and winter was designed to sap Western support for Ukraine, according to a newly declassified American intelligence assessment. The drive has resulted in heavy losses but has not led to strategic gains on the battlefield for Russia, said Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council. Since the beginning of the war Russia has suffered from a staggeringly high number of losses, according to another newly…
The history behind Jack Smith’s Trump-Supreme Court gambit
Aaron Blake writes: The question of Donald Trump’s criminal jeopardy could be headed to the Supreme Court sooner rather than later. That’s after special counsel Jack Smith on Monday requested that the court conduct an expedited review of Trump’s claims to “absolute” immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct in office. The court quickly signaled it will consider the petition and asked Trump’s team to respond by next week. One way to read that request is that Smith felt this issue…