Month: October 2023

President Joe Biden announced the U.S. has brokered an agreement during his one-day visit to Israel to send aid to Gaza, though agencies warned that the help could potentially come too late for the ravaged territory. Preparation was underway for an initial convoy of 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to pass through the Rafah crossing from Egypt to Gaza on Friday under a deal between the US, Israel and Egypt. Under conditions demanded by the Israelis, further consignments of relief supplies would be dependent on whether the first delivery was distributed without Hamas involvement.

Biden said he had also spoken to the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who had agreed to reopen the Rafah. Biden said roads near the border would need repairs after they were damaged in Israeli strikes, but that aid could begin reaching the territory by Friday: “This has been a very blunt negotiation I’ve had. We want to get as many of the trucks out as possible. There’s, I guess, 150 or something there. Not all of them will go the first tranche. If there’s a second tranche – see how it goes.” He said Sisi had “agreed that what he would do is open the gate … to let up to 20 trucks through to begin with. They’re going to patch the road. They have to fill in potholes to get these trucks through. And that’s going to occur; they expect it’ll take about eight hours [on Thursday]. So, there may be nothing rolling through … probably until Friday. For this purpose. Not to allow a lot of people out, but to open it up for this purpose.” Biden added:“If Hamas diverts or steals the assistance, they will have demonstrated once again that they have no concern for the welfare of the Palestinian people, and as a practical matter it will stop the international community from being able to provide this aid.”

Humanitarian organisations have stockpiled life-saving supplies on the Egyptian side of the border, waiting for the crossing to open. UN aid chief Martin Griffiths, told the UN security council on Wednesday that the organization sought to bring aid deliveries to Gaza back to 100 trucks a day: “There is simply nowhere to go for civilians to escape the destruction and privation, both of which grow by the hour as missiles continue to fly and essential supplies, including fuel, food, medical items, water run low. Due to the scarcity of water, UNRWA [the UN relief agency] in some locations … is being forced to ration down to providing one litre of water per person per day. Bear in mind that the minimum by international standards should be 15 litres, and they’re getting one – and they’re the lucky ones.”

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Former Donald Trump attorney Sidney Powell pleaded guilty on Thursday to six misdemeanor counts in the Georgia election interference case. The 68-year-old Powell appeared in the Superior Court of Fulton County in Atlanta, where prosecutors laid out the terms of the plea deal — in exchange for her pleading guilty, Powell was sentenced to six years on probation and must pay a $6,000 fine and $2,700 in restitution to the state of Georgia. The judge overseeing the case signed off on the agreement at the hearing.

Powell was charged with violating the Georgia RICO Act, two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, conspiracy to commit computer trespass, conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy, and conspiracy to defraud the state. She ultimately pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor charges.

Per ABC News, Judge Scott McAfee said Powell must “testify truthfully about any co-defendants” involved in the case moving forward. As a condition of her guilty plea, Powell will pay a fine and be required to testify at future trials as well as write an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia. Seated beside her attorney Thursday, Powell said she understood the terms of the plea agreement and admitted to the facts laid out by the prosecutor.

Powell, a vocal Trump ally, was among the conservative lawyers who pushed baseless claims of widespread fraud after the 2020 election, endorsing outlandish theories of foreign interference and ballot manipulation to try to reverse the results. She often appeared alongside Rudy Giuliani regarding those conspiracy theories, including that voting systems in the U.S. actually had ties to the late Venezuelan autocrat Hugo Chavez and were in fact secretly capable of switching, creating and destroying massive amounts of votes. She participated in a contentious meeting at the White House in December 2020, during which White House lawyers confronted her and lawyer Rudy Giuliani about their election claims.

Powell and 18 others, including Trump, were charged by a grand jury in Fulton County in August. Others include his former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows; attorneys Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Bob Cheeley, Ray Smith III and Kenneth Chesebro; former assistant U.S. attorney general Jeffrey Clark; former Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer; and current Georgia state Sen. Shawn Still.

Powell is the second defendant to plead guilty in the sprawling case. Scott Hall, a bail bondsman, became the first when he changed pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor counts at the end of September. He was sentenced to five years probation, a $5,000 fine and 200 hours of community service.  Trump and the rest of the co-defendants have pleaded not guilty and denied all wrongdoing.  Powell’s guilty plea comes shortly before Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, another co-defendant, were set to go on trial. Chesebro has pleaded not guilty, and jury selection for his trial will begin as scheduled on Friday.

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Rep. Jim Jordan once again failed to secure enough votes on Wednesday to become House speaker, leaving the lower chamber without a leader to replace the recently-ousted Kevin McCarthy. After Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry declared “a speaker has not been elected,” he called the House into recess for an indefinite period.

22 Republicans voted against Jordan, who garnered a total of 199 votes. Compared to Tuesday’s first ballot, four more Republicans voted against him — and he picked up two Republicans, Reps. Doug LaMalfa of California and Victoria Spartz of Virginia.  GOP Reps. Kay Granger of Texas and Jen Kiggans of Virginia were among the Republicans who voted for someone other than Jordan during the two rounds of voting, but each said the pressure campaign being mounted by Jordan’s allies will not sway them. Granger, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, cast both of her votes for Steven Scalise: “Steve Scalise is an honorable man and has earned my vote for Speaker. This was a vote of conscience and I stayed true to my principles. Intimidation and threats will not change my position.”  Kiggans wrote on social media that “threats and intimidation tactics will not change my principles and values,” and expressed support for Kevin McCarthy on the first two ballots.

Some Republicans indicated they want the lower chamber to increase the power of Rep. Patrick McHenry, the speaker pro tempore, but that would also likely require support from House Democrats, with some saying they favor a vote to expand his authority to allow for consideration of a limited legislative agenda. Asked about a proposal to expand McHenry’s powers as speaker pro tempore, Jordan said “at some point, that question should be called,” but added that doing so will be up to McHenry as the interim speaker.

Jordan told reporters following the vote that he plans to remain in the race for speaker: “Speaker McCarthy, he had a two-month runway from when he got the conference nomination and when we got to that first week in January, so we’re right where he was in his numbers. We got 200 votes. You know, we picked up some today, a couple dropped off but they voted for me before, I think they can come back again. So we’ll keep talking to members, we’ll keep working on it.” Asked whether he is staying in the race, Jordan replied, “Yep,” but added that he is unsure whether the Republican conference will gather for a meeting, and that he plans to meet members individually.

Of the 22 Republican lawmakers who cast their votes for someone other than Jordan, Scalise received seven votes, McCarthy received five votes, and Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida, Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Mike Garcia of California, Kay Granger of Texas and Bruce Westerman of Arkansas all had one vote apiece in their name. Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressman, received three votes, while former Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and former Rep. Candice Miller of Michigan each received one vote.

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On Wednesday during his trip to Tel Aviv, President Joe Biden pledged his support for Israel, and expressed agreement with Israel that their military was not responsible for the deadly blast at a Christian-run hospital in Gaza City that is estimated to have killed hundreds.

Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike for the disaster at the Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital, which Gaza health officials said killed 500 people. However on Wednesday morning, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) published evidence that it claimed showed that a failed rocket launch from inside the enclave was to blame, with Biden saying U.S. intelligence led him to believe Israel was not at fault. Speaking alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden said: “based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” later adding that he’d drawn that conclusion based on “the data I was shown by my Defense Department.” Biden said in a second speech later that day: “Like the entire world, I was outraged and saddened by the enormous loss of life yesterday in the hospital in Gaza,” and reiterated that the blast “appears the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza. The United States unequivocally stands for the protection of civilian life during conflict.” Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, elaborated on X (Twitter) that the assessment was based on “analysis of overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information.”  According to two senior U.S. officials, the U.S. has an independent assessment that it was a Palestinian Islamic Jihad group rocket that misfired and hit the hospital in Gaza.

Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative, later slammed Biden for siding with Israel’s version of events, telling CNN: “Biden cares only about one thing, which is to be re-elected, and that’s why he’s taking the side of Israel. He’s believing Israeli lies like the lie of decapitation of children, which was never verified, or the lie of raping women, which was never verified and they continue—now this lie that Palestinians killed themselves.”

Biden also announced $100 million in new U.S. funding for humanitarian aid in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and stressed his support for Israel amid its ongoing war with Hamas: “State of Israel was born to be a safe place for the Jewish people in the world. Long said, if Israel didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it. While it may not feel that way today, Israel must again be a safe place for the Jewish people. I promise you, we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure there will be.”

The president also acknowledged that Palestinian people are suffering as well, and that he mourns the loss of “innocent Palestinian lives like the entire world … The vast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas. Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. Hamas uses innocent families in Gaza as human shields, putting their command centers or weapons or communications tunnels in residential areas.”

Biden landed in Tel Aviv on Wednesday to demonstrate U.S. solidarity with Israel; he was greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the tarmac at Ben Gurion International Airport, where the two leaders shook hands and embraced. Biden initially planned to meet with Arab leaders at a summit hosted by Jordan’s King Abdullah in Amman, but the event was canceled following the explosion.

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