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      Senator Bob Menendez charged with acting as foreign agent of Egypt

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      Federal prosecutors on Thursday filed a superseding indictment against the Democratic senator Bob Menendez, charging him with being an unregistered agent of the Egyptian government, a court filing showed.The New Jersey senator has thus far resisted calls for his resignation. His trial on corruption charges will begin next May.The superseding indictment, filed in Manhattan federal court, accuses Menendez of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people to register with the US government if they are acting as “an agent of a foreign principal”. As a member of Congress, Menendez was prohibited from being an agent of a foreign government, even if he did register as one.Messages left with Menendez’s Senate staff and attorney were not immediately answered.The indictment says the conspiracy occurred from January 2018 to June 2022. It alleges that in May 2019, Menendez, his wife and a business associate, Wael Hana, met an Egyptian intelligence official in Menendez’s Senate office in Washington.During the meeting, they allegedly discussed a US citizen who was seriously injured in a 2015 airstrike by the Egyptian military using a US-made Apache helicopter, the indictment says.Some members of Congress objected to awarding certain military aid to Egypt over that episode and the perception that the Egyptian government was not willing to fairly compensate the injured American, according to the indictment.Shortly after the meeting in Washington, the Egyptian official texted Hana that if Menendez helped resolve the matter, “he will sit very comfortably”.Hana, the indictment says, replied: “Orders, consider it done.”The new charge comes weeks after Menendez and his wife were accused of accepting bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car from three New Jersey businessmen who wanted the senator to help and influence over foreign affairs. The couple have pleaded not guilty.Hana, the business associate, pleaded not guilty last month to charges including conspiracy to commit bribery.The indictments said that while Menendez was chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, he took several steps to secretly aid Egyptian officials. They included ghostwriting a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to lift a hold on $300m in aid. He was also accused of passing along information about employees at the US embassy in Egypt and transmitting nonpublic information to Egyptian officials about military aid.Menendez, 69, has insisted that he did nothing unusual to assist Egypt and that prosecutors misunderstood the work of a senator involved in foreign affairs.Authorities who searched Menendez’s home last year said they found more than $100,000 worth of gold bars and over $480,000 in cash – much of it hidden in closets, clothing and a safe.More than 30 Senate Democrats – including his home state colleague, Cory Booker – have called on Menendez to resign. Menendez has remained defiant, telling his colleagues in a closed-door luncheon two weeks ago he will not leave the Senate.Menendez has not said if he will run for reelection next year. The congressman Andy Kim has jumped into the primary, and the head of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, Gary Peters of Michigan, has called on Menendez to resign, signaling that he may not receive campaign assistance. More

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      Biden under pressure to refreeze $6bn in Iranian oil money after Hamas attack

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      Joe Biden is under pressure from fellow Democrats to refreeze $6bn of Iranian oil revenues released last month as part of a prisoner exchange deal amid accusations that Iran played a key role in last weekend’s deadly attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas.Five Democratic senators up for re-election next year have joined Republican calls for the US president to effectively renege on the agreement that led to the release of five Americans held captive by Iran unless it is proved that the country’s theocratic regime was not involved in Saturday’s assault, which killed more than 1,000 Israelis.The clamor comes even as US intelligence sources have sought to dampen speculation of close Iranian involvement.Although the White House has accused Tehran of being “broadly complicit” due to its long-term financial and logistical support for Hamas, US officials have said multiple pieces of intelligence indicate that Iran’s leadership had no prior knowledge of the devastating onslaught launched from Gaza, and that it may have caught them by surprise.That has failed to reassure some Democrats gearing up for tough challenges from Republicans in 2024.“Until I have full confidence that Iran did not play a role in these barbaric terrorist attacks on the Israeli people, the United States should freeze the $6bn dollars in Iranian assets,” wrote Tammy Baldwin, a senator for Wisconsin, on X, the platform formerly called Twitter.Four other Democrats in the Senate so far have echoed the call. They are Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana, Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Bob Casey, the senator from Pennsylvania.“I wasn’t supportive of the initial $6bn transfer,” Manchin, a known moderate with a track record of mirroring Republican positions, told reporters. “We should absolutely freeze these Iranian assets while we also consider additional sanctions.”Last month’s unfreezing of revenues from oil sold by Iran to South Korea – originally frozen by the Trump administration in 2019 due to sanctions imposed under its “maximum pressure” policy towards Tehran – had already been fiercely criticized by Republicans, who claimed it projected weakness and said the funds could be diverted to finance terrorism.After Saturday’s attack, Donald Trump, the former president and 2024 Republican frontrunner, intensified that criticism by falsely portraying the money freed in exchange for releasing the five prisoners as “US taxpayers’ dollars”, which he said had helped fund the Hamas assault.The White House dismissed the claim as “total lies” and “disinformation”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAdministration officials say the funds, which were released to a bank account in Qatar, have not been touched since they were unfrozen. They were released on condition that they were used only for humanitarian purposes, such as buying medicines and medical equipment.Janet Yellen, the US treasury secretary, speaking at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh, said the administration could reverse the decision to unfreeze the money if evidence of Iran’s involvement emerged.Republicans have voiced skepticism over the intelligence notes of caution about an Iranian hand, even though they have been echoed in some Israeli quarters.Don Bacon, a Republican senator for Nebraska, accused the Biden administration of being “in denial” about Iran’s role, while the South Carolina senator Tim Scott, a candidate for the Republican presidential nominee, said Biden had “blood on his hands”. More

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      Jim Jordan will vote for Steve Scalise to be House speaker, source says – live

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      From 3h agoJim Jordan, defeated in the Republican vote to decide a nominee for House speaker, plans to vote for the man who beat him, Steve Scalise, when the question comes to the House floor and is encouraging his colleagues to do the same, a source with direct knowledge tells the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell.Scalise will only be able to lose four Republican votes if he is to be confirmed as speaker, presuming all Democrats in the closely divided chamber vote no.Matt Gaetz, the Florida hardliner who orchestrated the brutal ejection of the last speaker, Kevin McCarthy, has said today he will vote for Scalise. But other Republicans – the familiar contraversialists Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert among them – have said they will not back Scalise.The Washington Post points to the biggest problem facing House Republican leaders, causing them to recess the chamber without a vote: too many members of the caucus are currently set to vote for McCarthy.“I think Jim Jordan is the fighter we need,” said Marjorie Taylor Greene following House Republican’s vote to nominate Steve Scalise as the next House speaker.“The speaker of the House is the hardest job in Congress, one of the hardest jobs in the country, it is extremely demanding and it’s very personal to me and I say this with the most compassion.My father died in April of 2021 with cancer and I like Steve Scalise…so much that I want to see him put all his time and energy into defeating cancer,” she added.Steve Scalise is short of the 217 votes required to win the speaker election, several Republican sources told CNN.According to one of the sources, there is broad skepticism towards Scalise as a result of an overall lack of trust throughout the GOP leadership.Scalise is reported to be meeting individually with Republicans in attempts to convince them to support him on the House floor.Bernie Sanders has issued a statement on the ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza, calling on the international community to focus on reducing the humanitarian suffering as a result of the war. “The United States has rightly offered solidarity and support to Israel in responding to Hamas’ attack. But we must also insist on restraint from Israeli forces attacking Gaza and work to secure UN humanitarian access,” he said.He went on to add:
      “Israel’s blanket denial of food, water, and other necessities to Gaza is a serious violation of international law and will do nothing but harm innocent cvilians…
      Let us not forget that half of the two million people in Gaza are children. Children and innocent people do not deserve to be punished for the acts of Hamas.”
      A Tennessee mayoral candidate has been accused by members the Franklin city council of refusing to condemn “actual, literal Nazis”.The Guardian’s Erum Salam reports:Gabrielle Hanson was at a candidates’ forum on 2 October when she received a visit by members of the Tennessee Active Club, a hate group known for promoting white nationalism. Members of the council, referred to as aldermen in Franklin, rebuked Hanson for enabling such hate groups, according to local news station WTVF.“I’m not going to denounce anybody their right to be whatever it is they want to be – whether I agree with what they do in their personal life or not,” Hanson said in response to her critics.Hanson told her colleagues “you reap what you sow”, in reference to the divisions within the community. She also noted that these were “spiritual repercussions”.On social media, Hanson emphasized that she did not invite the group to the debate and is “categorically” not a Nazi, nor does she support nazism.For the full story, click here:Maryland’s Democratic representative Jamie Raskin asked on Wednesday whether the next House speaker will take a House vote to revive former House speaker Kevin McCarthy’s impeachment inquiry into president Joe Biden.Last month, McCarthy announced that he was directing the House to launch an impeachment inquiry into Biden over unproven allegations surrounding his family’s business dealings.“House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into president Biden’s conduct. Taken together, these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption,” McCarthy said at the time.Michigan’s Democratic representative Rashida Tlaib said that she does not support “targeting and killing of civilians, whether in Israel or Palestine.”Speaking to Michigan Adance, Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, said, “Fact that some have suggested otherwise is offensive and rooted in bigoted assumptions about my faith and ethnicity.”Earlier this week, Tlaib released a statement saying that the “path to that future must include lifting the [Gaza] blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance.”She went on to denounce the Israeli government and the US’s continued support for it, saying, “As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.”Tennessee Republican representative Tim Burchett, one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust former House speaker Kevin McCarthy from his seat, said he will vote for Steve Scalise.“Absolutely,” Burchett said in response to a question from a CBS reporter on whether he would vote for Scalise on the House floor.Meanwhile, the curious case of George Santos, the Republican congressman, fabulist and 23-times charged alleged fraudster from New York, continues.In response to a move to expel him from Congress, mounted by his fellow New York Republicans, Santos has issued a long-winded statement.Republicans, he says, seemingly reaching for statesmanlike prose, “must remain steadfast in our commitment to upholding due process and respecting the constitution … the cornerstone of our democracy and the guiding light that ensures justice and fairness for all”.Santos adds:
      An expulsion of myself as a member of Congress before being found guilty from a criminal investigation will set a dangerous precedent. This will do nothing other than erase the voices of the electorate. Let us not succumb to the distractions and let the political games take precedence over the people’s welfare. We must stay focused on the task at hand, working diligently to address the pressing issues that affect the lives of our constituents.
      “Stay strong my fellow Americans, and trust that the process will unfold as it should.”
      In a much briefer statement, the leader of the move to expel Santos, Anthony D’Esposito, said his fellow Republican’s “many deceptions coupled with the ever-expanding legal case against him further strengthen my long-held belief that he is unfit to serve in Congress”.More:Jim Jordan, defeated in the Republican vote to decide a nominee for House speaker, plans to vote for the man who beat him, Steve Scalise, when the question comes to the House floor and is encouraging his colleagues to do the same, a source with direct knowledge tells the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell.Scalise will only be able to lose four Republican votes if he is to be confirmed as speaker, presuming all Democrats in the closely divided chamber vote no.Matt Gaetz, the Florida hardliner who orchestrated the brutal ejection of the last speaker, Kevin McCarthy, has said today he will vote for Scalise. But other Republicans – the familiar contraversialists Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert among them – have said they will not back Scalise.The Washington Post points to the biggest problem facing House Republican leaders, causing them to recess the chamber without a vote: too many members of the caucus are currently set to vote for McCarthy.Some choice selections from the limpid prose of Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, newly announced candidate for the position of House majority leader, in his letter to Republican colleagues:
      When my dear friend Steve [Scalise] is sworn in as speaker … we need a majority leader who will work alongside our speaker to help move this conference past the events of the last 10 days.
      I believe that my experience outside of Congress makes me uniquely qualified to lead our majority. We need leaders who listen twice as much as they speak, who are conservative because they’ve seen the impact of Democrat [sic] policies firsthand, and who aren’t afraid to change the way things have been done around here.
      … I spent 35 years in leadership outside of Washington DC, working with Americans across every aisle and background. The nameplate on my desk said “Head Excuse Eliminator” because I learned through years in business that empowering the people on my team to do their jobs was the most effective way to lead.
      … My whole life, I’ve been told I couldn’t be successful, couldn’t go to college, couldn’t become an engineer. I learned at an early age that the harder you work, the luckier you are. I paid my way through college, became an engineer, and got my dream job in aerospace. No one believed in me, but I proved them wrong.
      Key fact: Hern made his millions through an empire of McDonald’s franchises, thereby becoming the “McCongressman”, a nickname, Roll Call points out, he has eagerly embraced.Georgia’s Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has announced that she will not vote for Steve Scalise on the House floor, citing her concerns about his cancer.In a tweet on Wednesday, Greene said that she voted for Jim Jordan as House speaker on a private ballot and will continue to vote for Jordan on the House floor.“I like Steve Scalise, and I like him so much that I want to see him defeat cancer more than sacrifice his health in the most difficult position in Congress. I lost my father to cancer and it’s a very serious battle,” said Greene.“We need a speaker who is able to put their full efforts into defeating the communist democrats and save America,” she added.Jim Jordan has offered to give Steve Scalise a nominating speech on his behalf, per a person with direct knowledge. Additionally, the House will not vote on electing a speaker today, CNN reports.“I hope that the House Republicans get their affairs in order so they can stop the chaos and select the speaker of their choosing so that we can move forward and do the people’s business,” the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.“We’re not part of the process, we’re not going to comment on the process … but we want to see the chaos be done with,” she added.Speaking to reporters, national security council spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday that the “sooner there is a speaker of the House, the more comfortable we’ll all be in terms of being able to support Israel and Ukraine right now”.
      That position is critical in terms of bringing legislation to the floor and moving things forward … Because of existing appropriations and existing authorities, we’ve been OK but that’s not going to last forever.
      In the immediate term right now, we can continue to support, with the authorities and appropriations we have, Israel and Ukraine, but we’re certainly running out of runway. More

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      The Israel crisis is horrific. Republicans say it’s a ‘great opportunity’ to attack Biden | Andrew Gawthorpe

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      This week the eyes of the world have been fixed on the horrific panorama of violence in the Middle East. Once all of the dead are counted, it is likely that nearly as many Israelis will have died in a single day as in the entire second intifada, which lasted from 2000 to 2005. The death toll is also growing in Gaza, with no telling how high it may reach. The United States has dispatched naval forces to the region amid fears that the conflict may spiral to include Hezbollah or even Iran, an eventuality which could see the US join the fighting directly. The region is a tinderbox – and one wrong move could set it ablaze.In the US, steady and sober leadership is needed. Americans may be among those held hostage in Gaza, and the risk of a wider war is ever present. Now is not the time for partisan point-scoring. Unity shouldn’t mean a stifling consensus – there’s plenty of room for discussion about what the best American response to the situation should be – but it should mean agreement around basic norms of constructive debate and decision-making. This should also be a time in which everyone can agree that it’s important that the US government is able to perform its basic functions smoothly, both to ensure good decisions are made and that lives are protected.Unfortunately, Republicans seem incapable of rising to the occasion. From the first hours in which the world began to learn of the horrific events unfolding in southern Israel, prominent Republican figures have seemed just as interested in blaming Joe Biden as they have Hamas.One of the party’s first reactions came from Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, who greeted news of the greatest atrocity in Israeli history by calling it a “great opportunity” for Republican presidential candidates to criticize Democrats. The candidates themselves seemed to agree, with many leaping into the fray to pin the blame for the attack on Biden’s supposed “weakness”.Perhaps most disgusting and divisive has been the spectacle of Republicans telling outright lies in order to claim that the Biden administration is directly “complicit” in the attack, as Senator Tim Scott has claimed. Donald Trump and others say that the Biden administration helped finance the attack with a recent deal in which $6bn in Iranian oil revenue was unfrozen in exchange for the release of five American hostages. But this money – not a cent of which has yet been spent – is controlled by Qatar and can only be used by Tehran to purchase humanitarian supplies. Meanwhile, it’s clear that this attack has been in the work for months – far before the deal was even struck.Cheap and partisan attacks not only make it difficult to have a serious discussion about American foreign policy – they also allow Republicans to avoid talking about the ways in which their own actions have made the US less prepared for a serious international crisis. The Republican senator Tommy Tuberville is single-handedly blocking 300 routine military appointments, including many top posts in the Middle East, in protest of the Pentagon’s abortion policy. And he’s signaled he has no intention of changing his mind.Senators Rand Paul and JD Vance have also placed blanket holds on confirming nominees to the state department – in one case because Vance wanted them to fill in a “wokeness questionnaire” first. Among the positions that remain unfilled with a permanent appointments are the state department coordinator for counter-terrorism and ambassadors to both Israel and Egypt. Meanwhile, thanks to Republican dysfunction, there is currently no speaker of the House, making it unclear how additional US aid might be made available to Israel or Palestinian civilians if it is needed.In order to avoid the sort of partisan point-scoring that Republicans are engaging in, it should be made clear that these facts almost certainly had nothing to do with the decision by Hamas to launch its attack. The attack is not in any way the fault of the Republican party. But what is the fault of the Republican party is the fact that the US government is lacking crucial personnel at a time of grave international crisis.Hamstringing the ability of the Biden administration to act might even be a feature rather than a bug of the Republican response. If the party recognizes the unfolding horror primarily as a “great opportunity” to hammer the Democrats, then that opportunity can be maximized by making it as difficult as possible for the Biden administration to respond effectively. This is a grave charge, not to be made lightly. But how else to explain a party which refuses, in a time of possible war, to let the military appoint the officers it wants to their posts in the war zone?It is a perilous sign that Republicans would rather engage in partisan criticism rather than a constructive discussion over the best and most humane policies for the US to adopt. The party no longer believes in the basic idea of a functioning, competent government, even in the face of a regional war. As the Biden administration makes tough decisions about how to save American lives and stop the war from spreading, it can expect little help from across the aisle.Republicans have made the choice to put their own narrow interests over those of the nation. They could at least have the decency to stop pretending otherwise.
      Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States and the creator of America Explained, a podcast and newsletter More

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      AOC decries ‘bigotry and callousness’ at pro-Palestinian rally in New York

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      Criticising a pro-Palestinian rally held in Times Square in New York City in the aftermath of Hamas attacks on Israel which left hundreds dead, the progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said: “It should not be hard to shut down hatred and antisemitism where we see it.”The attacks, including the killing of at least 260 concertgoers and the taking of hostages, sparked a new war between Israel and Hamas. In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes killed hundreds. By Tuesday, the Israeli death toll approached 1,000.The Sunday rally in New York, endorsed by members of the Democratic Socialists of America and promoted by the group’s New York chapter, attracted a crowd of more than 1,000. Some chanted “resistance is justified when people are occupied” and there were reports of a Nazi emblem being shown and Israeli flags burned and trodden on.Amid attacks from Republicans, Ocasio-Cortez, a New York representative popularly known as AOC, was among Democrats to condemn the rally.Speaking to Politico, she said shutting down hatred and antisemitism was “a core tenet of solidarity”.“The bigotry and callousness expressed in Times Square on Sunday were unacceptable and harmful in this devastating moment,” she said.“It also did not speak for the thousands of New Yorkers who are capable of rejecting Hamas’s horrifying attacks against innocent civilians as well as the grave injustices and violence Palestinians face under occupation.”Earlier, Ocasio-Cortez was among leading congressional progressives to call for a ceasefire. In a statement, she said: “I condemn Hamas’s attack in the strongest possible terms.“No child and family should ever endure this kind of violence and fear, and this violence will not solve the ongoing oppression and occupation in the region. An immediate ceasefire and de-escalation is urgently needed to save lives.”Cori Bush, a progressive congresswoman from Missouri, said that while she “condemn[ed] the targeting of civilians”, to “achieve a just and lasting peace” in the Middle East, “US government support for Israeli military occupations and apartheid” should be ended. More

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      Biden says Americans among hostages in Gaza and reaffirms support for Israel – as it happened

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      From 3h agoBiden opened his remarks by saying that the attacks were done by “the bloody hands of the terrorist organization Hamas.”“This was an act of sheer evil”, said Biden, adding that more than 1,000 civilians were “slaughtered” in Israel.Biden confirmed that at 14 American citizens were killed. He also said Americans were among the hostages in Gaza.Biden added: “In this moment, we must be crystal clear. We stand with Israel. We stand with Israel.”It’s been a tense day in Washington, the terrible conflict in Israel casting a shadow over national politics, and House Republicans getting ready to try to elect a new speaker – a gap in Congress made to look ever more gaping by the Middle East tumult.This blog is closing now. It will resume on Wednesday morning US time. The Israel-Gaza global live blog continues here.Here’s how the day went:
      The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will travel to Israel on Wednesday, arriving Thursday, to meet with Israeli officials show US solidarity following attacks from Hamas.
      At least 20 Americans are missing in Israel amid ongoing fighting, in addition to the 14 Americans known to have been killed so far, according to the White House.
      Joe Biden confirmed that Americans are among the people being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas militants.
      Biden called the attacks by Hamas on southern Israel an act of “sheer evil” and reiterated in a speech from the White House that “we stand with Israel”.
      The special counsel for the federal January 6 election subversion case against Donald Trump has requested that the former president be restricted from doing juror research and publishing the identities of jurors in the case.
      The special counsel also filed a request asking that Donald Trump be required to say if he will advance an “advice of counsel” defense.
      House Republicans supporting Kevin McCarthy plan to nominate the former House speaker, who was ousted from the post just days ago, for the position again during the upcoming election on Wednesday.
      Republicans are under pressure to elect a new House speaker ASAP this week, amid the Hamas-Israel crisis reverberating across the globe.
      Until last weekend, the Biden administration was counting on the Middle East to remain relatively calm while it quietly pursued its main policy goals there: brokering the Israeli-Saudi detente and containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Reuters writes.Those hopes were shattered when Palestinian Hamas militants infiltrated Israel from Gaza and rampaged through towns on Saturday, killing hundreds and abducting scores more. Israeli forces have retaliated by pounding the coastal enclave, killing hundreds and imposing a total blockade there.After keeping the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict at arm’s length, Joe Biden now finds himself thrust into a crisis likely to reshape his Middle East policy, and into an uneasy alliance with the far-right Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. He is dispatching the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, to meet with Israeli leaders this week.It is a politically risky situation for a president seeking re-election in 2024, one that could have significant implications for world oil prices and pull US resources and attention away from what until now has been his defining foreign policy challenge – Russia’s war in Ukraine.The surprise Hamas attack has dealt a blow to US efforts to broker a landmark normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia and complicated Washington’s approach toward Iran, Hamas’s longtime benefactor.While US officials insist that their bid to establish ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, longtime foes, can survive the crisis, many experts take a more pessimistic view.
      Quite simply, all efforts at normalization are on hold for the foreseeable future,” said Jon Alterman, head of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, contradicting the official US government line.
      Khaled Elgindy, a former Palestinian negotiations adviser, accused the Biden administration of leading an Israeli-Saudi normalization process that mostly bypassed the Palestinians and their hopes of ending Israeli occupation.
      That sort of neglect is part of why we’re seeing what we’re seeing,” he said.
      Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, will travel to Israel this week to show US solidarity following attacks from Hamas, the Associated Press reports.The state department confirmed Blinken’s visit on Tuesday.Blinken will talk with Israeli officials about “what additional resources we can give them”, said the state department spokesperson Matthew Miller, the AP reported.Blinken will leave for Israel on Wednesday and arrive on Thursday.At least 20 Americans are missing in Israel amid ongoing fighting, according to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.14 Americans have also been killed in Israel, in addition to the 20 who are unaccounted for.During a press briefing on Tuesday, Sullivan confirmed that more than a dozen Americans have not been accounted for as fighting escalates between Israel and Hamas.“We believe that there are 20 or more Americans that are missing. I want to underscore that does not mean 20 or more are being held hostage. That is the number unaccounted for… We do not know how many hostages we have at this time,” said Sullivan, reported the Guardian’s David Smith.Biden ended his remarks with a stark message of support for Israel:“We’re with Israel. Let’s make no mistake.”Biden, accompanied by Vice president Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony, left without taking any questions from the press.Biden added that the police departments of several US cities have beefed up security around centers of Jewish life.Biden added that national security officials are working to identify and disrupt domestic threats that “could emerge in connection with these horrific attacks”.Biden added: “There’s no place for hate in America, not against Jews, not against Muslims, not against anyone.”Biden also confirmed that Americans are among the people being held hostage in Gaza.Similar news came on Monday from the Israeli ambassador to the UN.From CNN’s Kaitlan Collins:At least 100 people have been taken captive by Hamas, said Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen on Monday.Biden has made it clear that the US is committed to supporting Israel materially.“We will make sure Israel has what it needs,” said Biden.Biden added: “There is no justification for terrorism. Hamas doesn’t stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity…they use Palestinian civilians as human shields.”Biden also noted that Congress has been asked to “take urgent action” to fund the “national security requirements of our critical partners.”Biden added that the “Israel has a duty to respond to these vicious attacks.”Biden compared the actions of Hamas to the “worst acts” of the terrorist group ISIS, specifically naming reports that Hamas is raping individuals and killing children.Biden opened his remarks by saying that the attacks were done by “the bloody hands of the terrorist organization Hamas.”“This was an act of sheer evil”, said Biden, adding that more than 1,000 civilians were “slaughtered” in Israel.Biden confirmed that at 14 American citizens were killed. He also said Americans were among the hostages in Gaza.Biden added: “In this moment, we must be crystal clear. We stand with Israel. We stand with Israel.”Biden posted a snapshot from his meeting with Netanyahu to X, formerly known as Twitter.From the official President of the United States’ account:
      [The Vice president] and I sat down with our teams to receive a situation update on the terrorist attack in Israel and to direct next steps.
      We connected with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss coordination to support Israel, deter hostile actors, and protect innocent people.
      Biden and Harris wrapped up a phone call about a half hour ago with Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss US support of Israel. Biden is expected to give remarks shortly on escalating fighting in Israel.From the Wall Street Journal’s Catherine Lucey:Biden has yet to make remarks from the White House about escalating fighting between Israel and Hamas. In other news, Republican Steve Garvey has entered the California Senate race.The former Dodgers baseball player will be running for the Senate seat left by the late senator Dianne Feinstein, the Los Angeles Times reports.“In those 20 years that I played for the Dodgers and the Padres, played up in cold Candlestick Park, I never played for Democrats or Republicans or independents,” Garvey said to the Times. “I played for all the fans, and I’m running for all the people.”Garvey, 74, is a relative political newcomer, but brings some celebrity to the upcoming election.Garvey told the Times he was inspired to run after witnessing dysfunction in Washington DC and being told by a Dodgers fan that they would vote for Garvey.Garvey faces several top Democrats for the position, including California representatives Barbara Lee, Katie Porter, and Adam Schiff.Joe Biden is due to make remarks from the White House at the top of the hour and it’s expected that the US president will slam Hamas and reiterate unswerving US support for Israel.We’ll expect to have a live feed of his speech in this blog and will report highlights of his remarks. For all the wider developments in the conflict in Israel, we have our global blog on the situation running here, with our Léonie Chao-Fong at the helm at the moment as part of our worldwide team.From the White House, Biden will express concern about the potential that some Americans are being held hostage by Hamas, an Iranian-backed Islamist group, a senior White House official said, and Reuters reports.Israel pounded the Gaza Strip on Tuesday with the fiercest air strikes in its 75-year-old conflict with the Palestinians, razing whole districts to dust despite a threat from Hamas militants to execute a captive for each home hit.Biden will speak after holding his third phone call in four days with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He will outline in his remarks the US military assistance being sent to help Israel in its fight, the official said.A second White House official said Biden will strongly condemn Hamas* attacks and provide an overview of the actions the United States is taking with allies around the world to support Israel. More

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      Robert F Kennedy Jr announces independent run for 2024 US election

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      Robert F Kennedy Jr, the scion of the Kennedy political family who has spent the last six months running for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, announced on Monday he would continue his long-shot pursuit of the White House as an independent.The 69-year-old conspiracy theorist and vaccination opponent gave a fiery speech from Philadelphia, declaring his “independence from the Democratic party and all other parties”, and telling a gathering of several hundred supporters of his “pain” at leaving the party of his uncle and father, John F Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy.“I’m here to declare myself an independent candidate for president for the United States. I’m here to join you in making a new declaration of independence for our entire nation,” he said, in a lengthy and often rambling speech taking aim at Wall Street, big pharma, military contractors, the “mercenary media”, and the “two-party establishment” he said was “leading us all over a cliff”.“A rising tide of discontent is swamping our country. There’s a danger in this discontent but there’s also opportunity and promise,” he added, in what appeared to be a reference to the leading Republican candidate, Donald Trump.“We seem to be cycling from despair to rage and back to despair. This country is ready for a history making change. They are ready to reclaim their freedom, their independence.”The launch, however, was glitchy, with Kennedy leaving the stage briefly as soon as he was introduced, complaining he could not see his speech on the autocue, then struggling to find his stride.And his campaign was immediately assailed as “perilous” for the US in a tweet by prominent Kennedy family members.“Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment. Today’s announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country,” sisters Rory Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend; and brother Joseph P Kennedy II said in the message.Kennedy, who announced that he was running against Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination in April, has been polling at an average of 15% among Democrats nationwide. Other polls show he is more popular among Republicans than Democratic party supporters.But while his chances of winning the election are close to non-existent, his candidacy could still play a significant role as a spoiler. Analysts are divided on whether Kennedy running as an independent would harm the Republicans or Democrats more.“The Democrats are frightened I’m going to spoil the election for President Biden, and the Republicans are frightened that I’m gonna spoil it for President Trump,” he said. “The truth is, they’re both right. My intention is to spoil it for both of them.”Over the past six months, Kennedy, who has a track record of promoting conspiracy theories and a long history of opposing vaccines, has struggled to make inroads into Biden’s support.The nephew of John F Kennedy, and son of Robert F Kennedy, both Democrats who were assassinated, has drawn ire for false comments about wifi causing “leaky brain” and chemicals in water causing gender dysphoria.In July he was accused of antisemitism after he claimed that Covid had been targeted to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people from the worst impacts of the disease; the same month, the Congressional Integrity Project, a political watchdog, released a report that details Kennedy’s meetings with and promotion of racists, antisemites and extremist conspiracy theorists.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSince launching his campaign Kennedy has repeatedly appeared on Fox News, the rightwing news channel, and has also featured in podcasts of Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser, and Alex Jones, a rightwing conspiracy theorist.Kennedy was introduced in Philadelphia by a procession of speakers, including his wife, the actor Cheryl Hines, and his campaign manager Dennis Kucinich, a Democratic congressman for Ohio from 1997 to 2013.Another speaker was Lewis Grassrope, an elder of the South Dakota’s Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, who said he was using indigenous people’s day to call for a healing of political division. “The left wing and right wing are always fighting. If they are always fighting, how are we to become one?” he said, before delivering a prayer in a native American language.Monday’s announcement was also streamed live on YouTube, the broadcast reaching barely 23,000 viewers at its peak.Republicans immediately attempted to distance themselves from Kennedy, insisting in a talking points memo there was “very little daylight between RFK Jr and a typical Democratic politician”.The memo from the Republican National Committee (RNC) listed 23 reasons for Republican voters to reject him, including Kennedy’s previous support for Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and support for Democratic positions over the climate emergency, the economy and abortion.“RFK Jr knows full well he’ll ‘take more votes’ from the Republican nominee; that’s why he’s running,” the RNC memo said. More

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      RFK Jr is poised for a 2024 run as an independent. Which side should be worried?

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      For months, Republicans have been reveling in Robert F Kennedy Jr’s presidential bid.Running in the Democratic primary against Joe Biden, the hope has been that Kennedy could weaken the president ahead of a presumed Biden-Trump match-up in 2024.But with Kennedy expected to announce that he will ditch the Democratic party and run as an independent, some commentators are suggesting that conservatives’ schadenfreude could come back to haunt them.That’s because of the curious case of Kennedy’s political appeal.It turns out that the son of Robert F Kennedy and nephew of John F Kennedy, Democratic giants who maintain widespread admiration in the party, is actually more popular among Republicans – including some of the most influential rightwing voices in the US.Kennedy, Steve Bannon said on his War Room podcast in April, would be “an excellent choice” for Trump’s running mate.Charlie Kirk, founder of the rightwing Turning Point USA, has praised Kennedy. So has Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor and QAnon enthusiast.The noted rightwing crank Alex Jones added his endorsement on his InfoWars show.“I don’t agree with Robert F Kennedy Jr on some topics, but he’s a man of integrity that fights fluoride and poison shots and fentanyl and everything else. He’s a good man,” said Jones, who last year was ordered to pay nearly $1bn to relatives of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting victims, after he falsely claimed the shooting was a hoax.The support for Kennedy from fluoridated-water-lowers-IQ-and-or-causes-cancer Republicans makes sense. Kennedy, 69, is a man who never met a conspiracy theory he didn’t like.In the last few months alone, the former environmental lawyer has said that wifi causes “leaky brain”, and linked antidepressants to school shootings. In June Kennedy said chemicals in water are making kids transgender and and declared that US support for Ukraine to be “a setup by the neocons and the CIA”. He also has longstanding, and wrong, beliefs about apparently any and all vaccines.Kennedy first announced he was considering a run for the Democratic nomination in March, in a speech that, true to form, was banned from YouTube for violating the platform’s “medical misinformation” policies.In April, he announced his candidacy for real, in a video that has not yet been removed from YouTube, and soon some polls showed that up to 20% of Democratic primary voters would pledge for Kennedy.If, as expected, Kennedy is to run as an independent, those numbers would suggest he could strip votes from Biden.Not so, said Steffen Schmidt, professor emeritus in the department of political science at Iowa State University.“Kennedy is an IED – we don’t know [when] he’s going to blow and on whom,” Schmidt said.Schmidt said there may have been early “sentimental” appeal for Kennedy among Democrats, given his family’s history. Biden’s age – a recent poll showed a majority of Democrats believe the president is too old to be effective for four more years – might have also been a factor in liberals considering a different candidate.“And then they began to hear the menu of things, his conspiracy theories and all that, and they began to see him on Fox News and all kinds of other conservative media, and the honeymoon was over,” Schmidt said.That slew of appearances on conservative media, and at rightwing events – Kennedy has previously appeared at a show hosted by ReAwaken America, described by PBS as “a petri dish for Christian nationalism” – have made him popular among Republican voters, many of whom are still in thrall to Donald Trump, another noted conspiracy theorist.A FiveThirtyEight review of eight polls on Kennedy’s popularity in both parties found that he was actually better liked among Republicans than Democrats, which Schmidt attributed to his conspiratorial beliefs. (Kennedy has also said that 5G towers could “control our behavior” and suggested HIV is not the cause of Aids. He has been accused of racism and antisemitism over claims – partly withdrawn – that Covid-19 was “ethnically targeted” at Caucasians and Black people, while sparing Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people, while in July the Congressional Integrity Project, a political watchdog, released a report that details Kennedy’s meetings with and promotion of racists, antisemites and extremist conspiracy theorists.“He has conspiracy theories, including his anti-vaccine position, which is very popular among conservative Republicans,” Schmidt said. “There’s a pretty formidable list of things that would appeal to a more fringy group on the Republican side.”Kennedy is already attracting Republican donors: in July Axios reported that a “small but growing number” of donors had given heavily to the presidential campaigns of both Kennedy – when he was still running as a Democrat – and Republican candidates.“Republicans put a lot of effort and money into getting visibility because they thought that was going to hurt Joe Biden and now it looks more like it’s going to backfire on them. I’m not a gambling man. But if I had to put $1,000 on the table in Las Vegas, I would put it on Republicans losing some votes in some states to him and not the Democrats,” Schmidt said.“Although with RFK Jr, there will be people who will lose some sleep on both sides. Biden supporters and staffers, as well as some of the Trump campaign people will be worried as to what’s going to happen.”For all the talk of Kennedy’s potential effect, there is near universal agreement that, as an independent, he will not win the presidential election.“Independent candidates typically will carve away support from one of the major parties,” said Emmitt Y Riley III, associate professor of political science and Africana studies at DePauw University and president of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.“But the problem is most voters in the US will claim that they are independents, when in actuality they’re more partisan than people who identify with political parties. And people like the label ‘independent’, but their politics isn’t independent at all.”There is some precedent for independent and third-party candidates having an effect in presidential elections, including Ross Perot, who won 19% of the popular vote in the 1992 race between George HW Bush and Bill Clinton.In 2000, George W Bush beat Al Gore by 537 votes in Florida, which clinched Bush the presidency. Ralph Nader, running on the Green party ticket, won 97,421 votes in the state, and Democrats – including Joe Biden – blamed him for Gore’s loss.“Ralph Nader is not going to be welcome anywhere near the corridors [of Congress]. Nader cost us the election,” Biden told the Guardian at the time.Similarly, a CNN analysis of Trump’s 2016 win found that Jill Stein, the Green party presidential candidate and Gary Johnson representing the Libertarian party, did well enough “in several states arguably to help elect Donald Trump”.The financial might of the Democratic and Republican parties, however, means independents or third party candidates will always face an uphill battle. The electoral college system, in which a successful candidate must win the vote in numerous states, is another obstacle.And while exposure hasn’t been a problem for Kennedy, at least among rightwing media, he will face difficulties making it into the presidential debates, which are watched by millions.Kennedy could also face an Icarus moment, should he be seen as drawing too much support from either of the main parties.“If he wants to run, run. Fine,” a source close to the Trump campaign told the Daily Beast after rumors of Kennedy’s independent effort began to circulate.“But if he chooses to run as an independent, then he’s our opponent.”Not everyone agrees that Kennedy’s campaign will be most damaging to Trump, however. Riley said that given the lack of enthusiasm for Biden at large – his public approval rating has been below 50% for more than two years – and continuing concerns over the economy, plus the enthusiasm of Trump’s base, Democrats should be more worried.“I’m not convinced that he will threaten Trump. I think the core supporters who support Donald Trump are typically rich white conservatives, and conservatives who have negative racial attitudes.“And as a result, the way in which he’s been able to prime support among these particular voters, I think Trump has a solid core of voters who will support him. I don’t think any of the voters who are voting for Trump are swing voters, or voters that are on the fence.”On Kennedy’s side, so far is a demonstrated ability to bring in lots of money, including $5m given to an affiliated Super Pac by a Trump donor. He’s not young, but he’s younger than Biden and Trump, in an election where age may become a factor.While Kennedy and his novel beliefs are mostly a benign fascination at the moment, the consequences of him forging a strong independent run could be serious.“I think if Trump wins the election, we’re gonna see the nation move more towards authoritarianism,” Riley said.“We’re going to see more erosion of our democratic norms, I think we’re going to be in trouble. America can no longer sell itself as a republic, or even as a democratic form of government – with a president who disrespects our democratic institutions.“I think that this is one of the most consequential inventions of our time.” More