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      Biden hails job creation and mocks Lauren Boebert for dismissing investment as ‘massive failure’ – US politics live

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      Joe Biden just took the stage in Pueblo, Colorado, where he’s speaking about how his administration has helped businesses like CS Wind, a turbine manufacturer, shift jobs back to the United States.“People seeing this on television may not be certain they used to make all their wind towers abroad,” the president said. “Then they decided to make them here in America as well. Today the CS Wing factory in Colorado is the largest wind turbine manufacturer in the entire world … has over 170 employees. As I said for a long time when I think climate, I mean this sincerely, I think jobs, jobs.”Hello, US politics live blog readers, it’s been a lively day – and week so far – for news and there will be more action on Thursday as the House is due to vote on whether to expel New York Republican congressman George Santos. Do join us again then but, for now, this blog is closing. The Guardian’s global live blog on the war between Israel and Hamas continues, meanwhile, and you can follow it here.How the day went:
      Joe Biden attacked rightwing Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert as one of the “leaders of this extreme Maga movement”, upon visiting her district in Colorado to promote a factory there building equipment for offshore wind energy plants.
      The president spoke in Pueblo about how his administration has helped businesses like CS Wind, a turbine manufacturer, shift jobs back to the United States.
      Marjorie Taylor Greene, a leader of the far-right GOP bloc in the House, proposed once again that Congress should impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, homeland security secretary, for his handling of the US-Mexico border and migration.
      Republican House speaker Mike Johnson said the chamber will vote on whether to expel George Santos on Thursday, and he is leaving it up to lawmakers to decide whether the New York congressman should be removed from office for embellishing his résumé and allegedly breaking federal law.
      George Santos struck a defiant tone after House Democrats introduced a motion on Tuesday to expel him from Congress, insisting in a speech that he would not resign and saying to reporters “I don’t care” about the campaign against him.
      Joe Biden said that raising $440bn over 10 years through his billionaire’s tax policy would strengthen programs such as social security and Medicare.“Just by paying 25% instead of 8%. Imagine what we could do if we made billionaires pay their taxes like everyone else,” he said, during his speech in Colorado moments ago.“We could strengthen the social security and Medicare systems, instead of cutting them like … Trump and Boebert want to do,” he said.He said the extra revenue would help with government subsidies for childcare and senior care costs.“This is not about help for poor folks, this is about smart economics,” he said. And such assistance allowed more carers to go out to work, generating economic growth, he said.The president closed out his speech without any further digs at his Republican thorns, and has now departed the stage.Joe Biden is touting his billionaire’s minimum tax policy and decrying that rightwing congresswoman Lauren Boebert, whose district he’s visiting in Colorado, and her ilk only want to cut taxes for the richest.He said that prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, there were 750 billionaires in the US and “now there are 1,000” and typically, the president said, they pay income tax at 8%.“Raise your hands if you pay more than 8%” Biden told the crowd, as a sea of hands were raised.“That’s less than firefighters and teachers pay,” he said.Biden said he wants a 25% tax for billionaires, projecting that would raise $440bn in revenue for the US over a decade.He also complained about giant corporations paying no taxes on huge profits. “If anyone thinks the tax code is fair, raise your hand,” he said.As he promoted the Inflation Reduction Act and other policies he said are helping communities across the country, Joe Biden singled out for criticsm Lauren Boebert, the rightwing congresswoman who represents the district containing Pueblo, Colorado, where he’s speaking.“The historic investments we’re celebrating today is in Congresswoman Boebert’s district,” the president said.“She’s one of the leaders of this extreme Maga movement. She, along with every single Republican colleague, voted against the law that made these investments in jobs possible. That’s not hyperbole. It’s a fact. And then she voted to repeal key parts of this loan. And she called this law, ‘a massive failure’. You all know you’re part of a massive failure?”He then took credit for companies in Colorado hiring thanks to his administration, and asked the audience: “None of that sounds like a massive failure to me. How about you?”Joe Biden just took the stage in Pueblo, Colorado, where he’s speaking about how his administration has helped businesses like CS Wind, a turbine manufacturer, shift jobs back to the United States.“People seeing this on television may not be certain they used to make all their wind towers abroad,” the president said. “Then they decided to make them here in America as well. Today the CS Wing factory in Colorado is the largest wind turbine manufacturer in the entire world … has over 170 employees. As I said for a long time when I think climate, I mean this sincerely, I think jobs, jobs.”Speaking of international engagements, US prosecutors have accused an agent of India’s government of directing an attempted assassination of a Sikh activist on US soil. A similar accusation by Canada has led to a diplomatic spat with New Delhi, and the indictment from US prosecutors could complicate the Biden administration’s resolve to work with Narendra Modi’s government to build alliances against China. The Guardian’s Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Leyland Cecco are on the story:US prosecutors have accused an agent of the Indian government of directing the attempted assassination of an American citizen on US soil, according to a superseding indictment released by the Department of Justice, which revealed new details about India’s alleged targeting of Sikh activists around the world.The indictment made public on Wednesday also provided new evidence that the Indian agent – who is not named – ordered the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh activist who was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia in June.The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, announced in September that there were “credible allegations” that agents of the Indian government had carried out the assassination of Nijjar. The allegations were denied by India, which called the claim “absurd” and politically motivated.The US indictment now appears to confirm, however, evidence of a global plot allegedly orchestrated in India to silence and kill vocal critics of the Indian government who support the creation of an independent Sikh state.Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the target of the alleged assassination plot, told the Guardian that the indictment revealed a “blatant case of India’s transnational terrorism” – adding that the attempt on his life had only galvanized his efforts to pursue a symbolic referendum on an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan.“If death is the cost for running the Khalistan referendum, I am willing to pay that price,” he said in a statement. “First by assassinating Nijjar in Canada and then attempting to assassinate me on US soil, India under [prime minister Narendra Modi] has extended to the foreign soils its policy of violently crushing the Sikhs movement for right to self-determination.”The White House has meanwhile confirmed that Kamala Harris will travel to Dubai on 1 and 2 December to represent the United States at the Cop28 conference on fighting climate change.“Throughout her engagements, the vice-president will underscore the Biden-Harris Administration’s success in delivering on the most ambitious climate agenda in history, both at home and abroad. The vice-president will be joined by dozens of senior US officials representing more than 20 US departments and agencies,” Harris’s press secretary Kirsten Allen said in a statement.Biden was expected to go, but canceled his travel plans earlier this week:The man who nearly booted Lauren Boebert from office last year – and could succeed next year – is Adam Frisch, a Democrat and former council member in resort town Aspen. The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly spoke to him last October about why he thinks voters in his western Colorado district are ready for change:Adam Frisch is in his second congressional campaign, crossing and re-crossing Colorado’s third US House district, a space bigger than Pennsylvania. Thirteen months out from election day, time is one thing he does not lack. But Frisch has a unique way of counting it anyway: before and after Beetlejuice.“Before Beetlejuice,” the Democrat says, of polling in his Republican-leaning district, “we were up by two points, Trump was up five.”After Beetlejuice, the thinking goes, Frisch’s position may well improve further.Frisch, 56 and a former banker who now lives in Aspen, is the Democratic candidate to challenge Lauren Boebert next year. Boebert, a former restaurant owner and proud grandmother at 36, is the far-right Republican who won the seat in 2020 and has proven relentlessly controversial since – so much so that last year, even in a conservative district, she survived Frisch’s first challenge by the skin of her teeth.Boebert won after a recount, by just 546 votes, then went back to Washington DC to stoke the usual fires.But last month a bigger blaze flared up, when the congresswoman was shown to have behaved outrageously during a performance of the musical Beetlejuice in Denver.On security footage, Boebert sang and danced, took selfies, vaped and even appeared to grope her date as he fondled her in return. Both were ejected. For once, Boebert voiced something close to contrition. But to Frisch, the episode was just further proof that Boebert is there to be beaten.“We’re resonating with a lot of people,” he said, by phone, during another day of meeting and greeting.“In February of 22, when I first launched, there were two themes I started to work on. The Republicans laughed at me, the Democrats laughed at me, the media and the donor class laughed. But the themes are the people want the circus to stop, and they want someone to focus on the district.“And every day since then, [Boebert] has just been one of the national leaders of the circus. And obviously, it’s just gotten worse and worse … it’s just a mess and people are sick and tired.”Joe Biden arrived in Colorado yesterday, and spoke at a campaign reception where he made a point to criticize Lauren Boebert, the far-right Republican whose district he is visiting today.The president’s itinerary will bring him to a wind turbine factory and see him tout his administration’s renewable energy investments, but its also a direct confrontation to Boebert, who barely won re-election in her district last year despite its Republican tilt, and is expected to face a tough race next year.“With the progress we’ve made, we haven’t gotten a whole lot of help from the other side. Tomorrow, we’re going to be in … Congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s district … one of the leaders of the extreme right, the Maga movement,” Biden told guests at the fundraiser.He continued:
      We’re going to a wind energy company that plans to invest an additional $200m to expand the facility in Colorado, double its production, add 850 new jobs – good-paying jobs, the governor will tell you. But the congresswoman, along with every single one of her Republican colleagues, voted against the law I signed that made these investments possible. And then she vowed to repeal it. And she voted to repeal it, and she called it a massive failure. It’s in her district. She called it a massive failure.
      And she went on and voted against the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. She called it garbage. It’s building bridges, roads, Internet, et cetera. And she called it a scam. I find it pretty unbelievable.
      Joe Biden will promote his economic and clean energy policies this afternoon in Colorado, while taking on rightwing Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert, a close ally of former president Donald Trump, Reuters reports.Biden, who blamed Trump at a fundraising event in Denver on Tuesday for taking away US women’s right to an abortion, will visit a wind tower manufacturer in Pueblo, part of Boebert’s congressional district.Biden has presided over a stronger-than-expected US economy and big federal investments in infrastructure and clean energy, but the clean energy industry is now struggling with high costs.Facing weak opinion polls, Biden has turned in his re-election campaign to more directly taking on Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, as unfit for the presidency and a threat to American democracy.Boebert, whom the White House calls a “self-described Maga Republican”, referencing Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda, is expected to become a default target for those attacks today.Boebert faces a tough re-election battle herself against Democrat Adam Frisch, who has out-raised her in donations.During his visit, Biden will speak about clean energy investments and “highlight how self-described Maga Republicans like Representative Lauren Boebert are threatening those investments, jobs, and opportunities,” the White House said.Biden set a goal of deploying 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind along US coastlines this decade to fight climate change.That may be unattainable due to soaring costs and supply chain delays, Reuters reported in September.Former president Donald Trump’s lawyers have suggested their strategy in his election interference case in Washington involves distancing him from the horde of US Capitol rioters, whom he has embraced on the campaign trail, the Associated Press reports.Special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal investigation team has signaled it will make the case Trump is responsible for the chaos that unfolded on January 6, 2021, and point to the Republican ex-president’s continued support of the rioters, in order to help establish his criminal intent.The competing arguments highlight the extent to which the insurrection will inevitably form the backdrop in a landmark trial set to begin March 4 in a courthouse just blocks from the Capitol.Trump’s defense attorneys failed in an effort to strike references to that day’s violence from the indictment but have made clear their strategy involves distancing the former president from the horde of rioters, whom they describe as “independent actors at the Capitol”.While Trump’s glorification of January 6 defendants, who have been arrested and charged by the hundreds, may boost him politically as he vies to retake the White House in 2024, his lawyers’ approach lays bare a concern that arguments linking him to the rioters could harm him in front of a jury.Much may depend as well on the evidence permitted by federal judge Tanya Chutkan.It’s impeachment season among House Republicans. Their leadership is pressing forward with their campaign to impeach Joe Biden for alleged corruption, while rightwing lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene has proposed a resolution to impeach homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, though the chamber turned down a similar attempt just a few weeks ago. The clock is also ticking down for George Santos, the New York congressman and admitted fabulist. House speaker Mike Johnson said the chamber will vote tomorrow on expelling him, and reports indicate the support is there to kick him out of office.Here’s what else is going on today:
      House Democrats say the GOP is doing Donald Trump’s bidding with its impeachment inquiry into Biden.
      Mourners gathered in Plains, Georgia for the funeral of former first Rosalynn Carter. Her husband Jimmy Carter was in attendance.
      Mike Pence’s son played a role in convincing his father to stand up to Trump on January 6, according to a report.
      In Georgia, mourners are attending the funeral of former first lady Rosalynn Carter, including her husband Jimmy Carter:Joe and Jill Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Melania Trump and Michelle Obama were among the dignitaries who traveled to Atlanta yesterday for a tribute to Carter, a noted advocate for mental health and the eradication of diseases worldwide:On the House floor, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a leader of the far-right GOP bloc, again proposed impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas for his handling of security at the southern border and the inflow of migrants into the United States:Republicans have made Mayorkas into the public face of what they call the “Biden Border Crisis”, and earlier this year were mulling impeaching the secretary. However, impeachments of cabinet secretaries are exceedingly rare – the last time one happened was 1876 – and party leaders appear to be focusing instead on their slow-moving impeachment inquiry of Biden for alleged and thus far unproved corruption.Last month, a small group of Republicans joined with Democrats to halt an earlier attempt by Greene to impeach Mayorkas, who would likely be acquitted in the Democratic-controlled Senate anyway. Tom McClintock, one of the eight GOP lawmakers who opposed the attempt, said he did so because it could backfire on the party:
      If Greene is successful in redefining impeachment, then the next time Democrats have the majority, we can expect this new definition to be turned against the conservatives on the Supreme Court and any future Republican administration. And there will be nobody to stop them, because Republicans will have signed off on this new and unconstitutional abuse of power.
      One of the reasons Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election failed was because of the resistance of Mike Pence, his vice-president who recently abandoned his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. As the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports, Pence’s son played a role in convincing his father to say no to Trump:Mike Pence reportedly decided to skip the congressional certification process for Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, because to preside over it as required by the constitution would be “too hurtful” to his “friend”, Donald Trump. He was then shamed into standing up to Trump by his son, a US marine.“Dad, you took the same oath I took,” the then vice-president’s son Michael Pence said, according to ABC News, adding that it was “an oath to support and defend the constitution”.Ultimately, Pence did supervise certification, even as it was delayed by the deadly January 6 attack on Congress.Trump incited the attack by telling supporters to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell” in his cause – the lie that Biden’s win was the result of electoral fraud.Some chanted for Pence to be hanged. Nine deaths have been linked to the riot, more than a thousand arrests made and hundreds of convictions secured.Throughout the investigation of January 6 by a House committee, Pence was praised for standing up to Trump and fulfilling his constitutional duty. He later released a memoir, So Help Me God, about his time as Trump’s No 2.But according to ABC, which on Tuesday cited sources familiar with Pence’s testimony to the special counsel Jack Smith, investigating Trump’s election subversion, Pence offered details not included in his book, including how he had to be prodded into doing his duty.Before he was House speaker, Mike Johnson was the architect of a brief signed by dozens of Republican lawmakers that supported Donald Trump’s failed attempt to convince the courts to disrupt Joe Biden’s election win. The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports that in her new book, Liz Cheney, the Wyoming congresswoman who lost her seat last year in large part due to opposing the former president, accuses Johnson of duping his allies about the effort:In a new book, the anti-Trump Republican Liz Cheney accuses the US House speaker, Mike Johnson, of dishonesty over both the authorship of a supreme court brief in support of Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election and the document’s contents, saying Johnson duped his party with a “bait and switch”.“As I read the amicus brief – which was poorly written – it became clear Mike was being less than honest,” Cheney writes. “He was playing bait and switch, assuring members that the brief made no claims about specific allegations of [electoral] fraud when, in fact, it was full of such claims.”Cheney also says Johnson was neither the author of the brief nor a “constitutional law expert”, as he was “telling colleagues he was”. Pro-Trump lawyers actually wrote the document, Cheney writes.As Trump’s attempts to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden progressed towards the deadly January 6 attack on Congress, Cheney was a House Republican leader. Turning against Trump, she sat on the House January 6 committee and was ostracised by her party, losing her Wyoming seat last year. More

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      in Elections

      Pence’s son reportedly convinced him to stand up to Trump over January 6

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      Mike Pence reportedly decided to skip the congressional certification process for Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, because to preside over it as required by the constitution would be “too hurtful” to his “friend”, Donald Trump. He was then shamed into standing up to Trump by his son, a US marine.“Dad, you took the same oath I took,” the then vice-president’s son Michael Pence said, according to ABC News, adding that it was “an oath to support and defend the constitution”.Ultimately, Pence did supervise certification, even as it was delayed by the deadly January 6 attack on Congress.Trump incited the attack by telling supporters to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell” in his cause – the lie that Biden’s win was the result of electoral fraud.Some chanted for Pence to be hanged. Nine deaths have been linked to the riot, more than a thousand arrests made and hundreds of convictions secured.Throughout the investigation of January 6 by a House committee, Pence was praised for standing up to Trump and fulfilling his constitutional duty. He later released a memoir, So Help Me God, about his time as Trump’s No 2.But according to ABC, which on Tuesday cited sources familiar with Pence’s testimony to the special counsel Jack Smith, investigating Trump’s election subversion, Pence offered details not included in his book, including how he had to be prodded into doing his duty.“Not feeling like I should attend electoral count,” Pence reportedly wrote in contemporaneous notes in late December 2020, as Trump pressured him to help overturn Biden’s win.“Too many questions, too many doubts, too hurtful to my friend. Therefore I’m not going to participate in certification of election.”ABC reported that Pence told investigators, “Then, sitting across the table from his son, a [US] marine, while on vacation in Colorado, his son said to him, ‘Dad, you took the same oath I took’ – it was ‘an oath to support and defend the constitution’.“That’s when Pence decided he would be at the Capitol on 6 January after all.”Trump now faces four federal criminal counts regarding election subversion. He also faces 13 counts relating to election subversion in Georgia, 40 from Smith regarding his retention of classified information, and 34 in New York regarding hush-money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels. He also faces civil threats, including a defamation suit arising from a rape allegation a judge said was “substantially true”.Nonetheless, Trump is the clear frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination next year.Pence also described to investigators an Oval Office meeting on 21 December 2020, “as the campaign’s legal challenges across the country were failing but Trump was continuing to claim the election was stolen and had begun urging supporters to gather in Washington DC for a ‘big protest’ on 6 January”, per ABC.Trump reportedly asked what he should do. Pence, according to ABC, said he “should simply accept the result … should take a bow”, should “travel the country to thank supporters … and then run again if you want”.“And I’ll never forget, he pointed at me … as if to say, ‘That’s worth thinking about.’ And he walked” away.Nearly three years on, Trump has not walked away. But Pence has. Last month, long before the first vote of a primary in which he and others grappled with how to oppose Trump without alienating his supporters, Pence dropped out of the Republican race. More

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      in US Politics

      Rosalynn Carter memorial service: Jimmy Carter joins mourners at Atlanta church – as it happened

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      Former president Jimmy Carter was in attendance at the tribute service for his wife, Rosalynn Carter:Carter turned 99 in October, and has been in hospice in his home town of Plains, Georgia, since February.Here’s the moment he arrived at the church for the ceremony:Mourners including Joe and Jill Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Melania Trump and Georgia’s two Democratic senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock paid tribute to former first lady Rosalynn Carter at a ceremony in Atlanta. Back in Washington DC, House Democrats called up a resolution to expel fraudster George Santos from the chamber that must be voted on within two days, while the chamber’s Republican leaders are reportedly considering holding a vote on a separate resolution Thursday.Here’s what else has been happening today:
      Jimmy Carter was in attendance at the memorial service in Atlanta. The 99-year-old former president has been receiving hospice care since February.
      Amy Carter spoke about her parents’ love for each other, and read from a letter her father wrote to Rosalynn while he was serving in the navy.
      Nikki Haley received the endorsement of Koch-affiliated Super Pac Americans for Prosperity Action, in a potential boost for her quest to overtake Donald Trump in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
      Santos insists he will not resign, while the House resolution to expel him needs two-thirds majority support to pass.
      Trump and Santos aren’t so different, a biographer of the New York congressman says.
      Back in Congress, Punchbowl News reports that the House’s Republican leadership is considering taking up GOP lawmaker Michael Guest’s resolution to expel George Santos on Thursday:Passing Guest’s resolution would make the separate motion proposed by Democrat Robert Garcia moot. It remains to be seen if either proposal has the two-thirds majority support necessary to pass.Here are a few photos as the tribute to Rosalynn Carter wrapped up in Atlanta:Pallbearers have loaded Rosalynn Carter’s casket into a hearse, which is now departing the tribute ceremony.Her funeral is scheduled for tomorrow in Plains, Georgia, the Carters’s hometown. That ceremony and her burial at the family residence are restricted to family and friends, according to the Carter Center.The tribute to Rosalynn Carter is nearing its conclusion in Atlanta.The closing benediction was given by Tony Lowden, a pastor at the church the Carters attended in Plains, Georgia, who made a point to acknowledge the work of the Secret Service agents who guarded the former president and his family during his time in office, and in the decades since:
      Oftentimes, Mr. President, we don’t acknowledge those who keep us safe. Rosalynn Carter is in heaven, and she did the work of the Lord and the kingdom all around the world. And Don and all the directors for 46 years got her and her family home safe. And I say thank each and every one of you, those that are standing post and those that are listening on the radios right now. Thank you and she loves you and a nothing you can do about it.
      Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter’s grandson Jason, a former Georgia state senator, spoke about his grandmother’s work fighting Guinea worm disease, as well as advocating for better mental health care.“Her advocacy for mental health was a 50-year climb that is as remarkable as any other and has been mentioned already. But if you imagine just how far our society has come in the last five years on issues of mental health, and you think that she decided in 1970 to tackle the anxious and stigma associated with mental illness, it is remarkable how far she could see and how far she was willing to walk,” Carter said. “And that effort changed lives and it saved lives, including in my own family. She was made for these long journeys.”Jason Carter continued:
      John Lewis once said that in all of his marches, he only really learned one thing: Don’t let them turn you around. That was my grandmother to a tee. One of my last memories of her was in a hospital. We were there for my grandfather, but she had her own physical limitations that made it hard for her to walk. She had to practice. She was ready to go for one of these walks and she picked up this cane and I looked at the cane. She looked at me and she said, ‘you know it’s not a cane … it’s a trekking pole’ She said, ‘the exact same kind that those women use when they go to the South Pole.’
      I watched her walk down that hall with that trekking pole. I followed her and I just pray that we never lose sight of that path.
      Back in Georgia, Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter’s daughter Amy Carter spoke about the importance of love in their relationship:“My mom spent most of her life in love with my dad,” she said. “Their partnership and love story was a defining feature of her life. Because he is unable to speak to you today, I’m going to share some of his words about loving and missing. This is from a letter he wrote 75 years ago while he was serving in the navy”:
      My darling, every time I have ever been away from you, I had been thrilled when I returned to discover just how wonderful you are. While I’m away I tried to convince myself that you really are not could not be as sweet and beautiful as I remember. But when I see you I fall in love with you all over again. Does that seem strange to you? It doesn’t to me. Goodbye darling. Until tomorrow, Jimmy.
      Two House Democratic lawmakers have moved to force a vote within 48 hours on a resolution to expel Republican congressman and admitted fabulist George Santos from the chamber.California’s Robert Garcia introduced the resolution earlier this year, and together with New York’s Dan Goldman have called it up as a privileged resolution, meaning it must be voted on within the next two days. While it will need a two-thirds majority vote of the chamber to pass, momentum to oust Santos has increased in the past weeks following the release of an ethics committee report that found “grave and pervasive campaign finance violations and fraudulent activity” by the New York Republican.“The time has finally come to remove George Santos from Congress. If we’re going to restore faith in government, we must start with restoring integrity in the U.S. House of Representatives,” Garcia said in a statement.Added Goldman: “George Santos is an admitted liar, fraud, and cheat, and the recent Ethics Committee report confirms what we’ve long known: George Santos is wholly unfit for public office.”Former president Jimmy Carter was in attendance at the tribute service for his wife, Rosalynn Carter:Carter turned 99 in October, and has been in hospice in his home town of Plains, Georgia, since February.Here’s the moment he arrived at the church for the ceremony:Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s son, James “Chip” Carter is speaking now at his mother’s memorial service.He called Rosalynn the glue that held the family together “through the ups and downs and thicks and thins” of family life and politics.Chip Carter, 73, recalled that when he was 14 he used to get beaten up for wearing a sticker supporting Lyndon Johnson for president.But he said his mother would mend his shirt torn in the fight and replace the sticker for him, as he supported the Democratic Party cause.He also said that Rosalynn Carter “was influential in getting me into rehab for drug and alcohol addiction. She saved my life.”He called Jimmy Carter’s loss in the 1980 election to the Republican ticket of Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush “devastating to us all.”Chip Carter just mentioned that his mother was “racked with dementia” prior to her death last month.The memorial service for first lady Rosalynn Carter is now under way, with the call to worship and invocation.The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus just gave the patient congregation a stirring rendition of America the Beautiful, as Carter’s casket entered the church.The setting is the Glenn Memorial United Methodist church on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.The sunlight is streaming through the windows and illuminating many on the left-hand side of the congregation.The front row in the church is now occupied with the leadership names of the day.Jimmy Carter, 99, has just entered, semi-recumbent on a sort of wheeled chair-bed. He is at one end of the row. Joe Biden is close by with, to the president’s right, Jill Biden, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama and Melania Trump.The choir is now singing America the Beautiful, as Rosalynn Carter’s casket has been brought in and placed at the front of the church.The hearse has pulled up to the steps of the church and the military guard is marching forward to lift the coffin and take it in to the service.Rosalynn Carter’s flower-decorated coffin is now being carried. The political leaders past and present are now in the church. More details shortly.Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia, a Republican, has just entered the church and taken a pew.Georgia’s Democratic US Senators, Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff have also entered and found a seat.We await the biggest names of the day. It’s a brilliantly sunny day with a cloudless, bright blue sky above the church on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta.Things are clearly running a little behind schedule before the start of the memorial service for Rosalynn Carter.It’s due to start at 1pm ET but there are still at least five rows at the front of the church in Atlanta empty and clearly waiting for their VIP occupants.The congregation that’s there so far was just treated to some Elgar from the orchestra and now something of a hush has descended upon the church, apart from a bit of hold music. We await the arrival of the courtege.Guests are filing in to the Glenn Memorial church in Atlanta for the tribute service to former first lady Rosalynn Carter. Her husband Jimmy Carter will attend, as will Joe and Jill Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Melania Trump and Georgia’s two Democratic senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. None of the group is scheduled to speak at the event, which will instead feature eulogies from Carter family members and people who knew the former first lady. Back in Washington DC, House Democrats are expected to propose a resolution to expel fraudster George Santos from the chamber that must be brought up for consideration within two days. We’ll be watching for signs of if the resolution has the support to pass.Here’s what else has been happening today:
      Nikki Haley received the endorsement of Koch-affiliated Super Pac Americans for Prosperity Action, in a potential boost for her quest to overtake Donald Trump in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
      Santos insists he will not resign, while the House resolution to expel him needs two-thirds majority support to pass.
      Trump and Santos aren’t so different, a biographer of the New York congressman says.
      Reporters traveling with Joe Biden say the president and first lady have arrived at Glenn Memorial church in Atlanta ahead of the tribute service for Rosalynn Carter.Traveling with them are a number of current and former elected officials, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Georgia’s two Democratic senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Jimmy Carter is also expected to attend, though is not reported to be traveling with the president, as is former first lady Melania Trump.As guests are filing in, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is running through some of Rosalynn Carter’s favorite songs, including compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach.In Atlanta, guests are arriving for this afternoon’s tribute service to former first lady Rosalynn Carter. Here are some photos ahead of the event, which begins at 1pm: More

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      in US Politics

      Hunter Biden willing to testify before House committee if hearing is public

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      Hunter Biden’s lawyers have told a Republican-led congressional committee that he is prepared to be questioned at his father Joe Biden’s impeachment inquiry next month – but the Democratic president’s son will only appear before lawmakers if the hearings are held in public.The conditional agreement to appear before the House oversight committee comes after committee chairman James Comer issued a subpoena to depose Hunter Biden, his former business associate Rob Walker, and the president’s brother James Biden earlier in the month.“We have seen you use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public,” Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell wrote in a letter to Comer.Lowell added: “We therefore propose opening the door. If, as you claim, your efforts are important and involve issues that Americans should know about, then let the light shine on these proceedings.”The subpoenas demanding depositions from the three men come in addition to requests for transcribed interviews with Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen; his brother’s widow Hallie Biden and her sister; James Biden’s wife, Sara; Elizabeth Secundy, the older sister of Hallie Biden; and Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter Biden.In the response to the committee’s subpoena, Lowell accused Comer of letting the investigation drag on. “Your empty investigation has gone on too long wasting too many better-used resources. It should come to an end,” Lowell wrote.“Consequently, Mr Biden will appear at such a public hearing on the date you noticed, [13 December], or any date in December that we can arrange.”Hunter Biden’s agreement to testify appears to mark a change in legal strategy. After deal to pleaded guilty to weapons and tax charges dramatically collapsed in July when a broad immunity deal was rejected by a Delaware judge, the president’s son has taken a tougher legal approach.In August, Aattorney General Merrick Garland appointed the same prosecutor who had made the collapsed Delaware immunity deal, David Weiss, as special counsel to bring charges against Hunter Biden.Weeks later, a federal grand jury indictment was brought against Hunter Biden on three gun-related charges, including illegally owning a firearm as a drug user and lying on a form when he allegedly bought the gun. If convicted, Biden could face up to 25 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. But such sentences and penalties are not typical.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionMany Republicans felt that Weiss was giving Hunter Biden a pass on potential foreign lobbying and campaign finance violations and are now gambling that an ongoing justice department investigation into his affairs – coupled with their own House investigation into his business affairs, including serving on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company – will in turn squeeze his father going into the 2024 election.But Hunter Biden, with a new legal team, is hitting back. He has sued former New York mayor and Donald Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani for allegedly hacking and distributing data from Biden’s infamous laptop. He also sued the Internal Revenue Service for allegedly failing to keep his tax information from becoming public and sued a businessman for suggesting he had solicited a bribe from Iran.Earlier in November, Hunter Biden’s legal team went further – alleging that the gun charges against the first son may represent a “vindictive or selective prosecution”. And they are attempting to subpoena Trump, the Trump White House’s former attorney general Bill Barr and other justice officials to help expose – as his lawyers argue – a “sustained, almost-nonstop public pressure campaign” against him. More

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      Joe Biden and first lady ‘horrified’ by Vermont shooting of three Palestinian students – as it happened

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      Joe and Jill Biden as well as Vermont’s congressional delegation condemned the weekend shooting of three Palestinian students in the northeastern state’s most-populous city Burlington, while police announced an arrest was made in the case yesterday. It was an otherwise quiet day in Washington DC, but it won’t stay that way for long. The House will perhaps as soon as Wednesday vote on kicking admitted fabulist George Santos out of the chamber after a damning report from its ethics panel, while the Senate is gearing up to consider Biden’s request for more than $100b to fund border security and military assistance to Ukraine and Israel.Here’s what else happened today:
      Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, reportedly said he discussed “options” with Santos ahead of the expected expulsion vote.
      A rift is emerging among Democrats over Biden’s request for military assistance to Israel in the wake of Hamas’s 7 October terrorist attack.
      Merrick Garland said federal authorities are looking into whether the Vermont shooting was a hate crime.
      Donald Trump is making it very clear that a priority of his second presidential term will be retaliating against his enemies.
      The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said they believe the three students were targeted in Vermont because of their ethnicity.
      In a new statement, Joe Biden condemned the shooting of three Palestinian students, two of whom were US citizens, in Vermont this weekend, saying the White House would support the investigation into the attack:
      Jill and I were horrified to learn that three college students of Palestinian descent, two of whom are American citizens, were shot Saturday in Burlington, Vermont. They were simply spending Thanksgiving gathered with family and loved ones.
      We join Americans across the country in praying for their full recovery, and we send our deepest condolences to their families. While we are waiting for more facts, we know this: there is absolutely no place for violence or hate in America. Period. No person should worry about being shot at while going about their daily lives. And far too many Americans know a family member injured or killed as a result of gun violence. We cannot and we will not accept that.
      Earlier today, I spoke to Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger to offer my support. We are grateful to the Burlington Police Department – as well as the FBI, ATF, and other law enforcement partners – for their swift work identifying and arresting a suspect. Our Administration will provide any additional federal resources needed to assist in the investigation.
      Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said that members of both political parties discussed government funding over the Thanksgiving break ahead of a January deadline to avoid a shutdown.From Politico’s Burgess Everett:Here’s more background on Biden’s use of the the Defense Production Act, from the Guardian’s Edward Helmore.
      …The Defense Production Act of 1950, which was passed to streamline production during the Korean war, was last used in early 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic to accelerate and expand the availability of ventilators and personal protective equipment.
      The supply chain council is set to address issues ranging from improved data sharing between government agencies, supplying renewable energy resources and freight logistics…
      Monday’s announcement arrived as the US economy appears to be doing well on paper. But the White House has acknowledged that improving economic picture is not shared by consumers, and the administration has explicitly tied the economy to the president by calling it Bidenomics.
      A recent Economist/YouGov poll found that only 39% of voters approve of Biden’s handling of jobs and the economy. And a separate Reuters/Ipsos poll puts the economy as the most important issue to Americans for the past two years.
      Even as the pace of inflation has slowed, consumers are shouldering an economic burden they had not experienced in years. Prices have risen as much in the past three years as they had in the previous decade, according to a report by Bloomberg, and it now costs almost $120 to buy the same goods and services a family could afford with $100 before the pandemic.
      Read the full article here.Biden is currently speaking in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building about strengthening US supply chains and his Bidenomics policy, as the burden of high inflation costs remain a priority for many US voters.During today’s event, Biden announced that he would be evoking the Defense Production Act to boost production of “essential medicine”.The 1950s law will allow Biden to strength the domestic manufacturing of medicines that is seen as crucial for national security, improving US supply chains that the Biden administration believes will address the higher price of goods and services.Biden also flagged falling inflation rates and that wages for families were increasing as wins for the US economy under his Bidenomics plan.Biden added that “costs went down” in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.“As a share of earnings, dinner was the fourth cheapest ever on record. I want you all to know that,” Biden said, referring to the cost to produce the Thanksgiving feast.From the Guardian’s David Smith:In an appearance in Florida, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson said he had talked to George Santos about “his options” as the chamber gears up to vote on an effort to expel the New York congressman for his lies and ethics breaches, Politico reports:The vote on the expulsion resolution proposed by ethics committee chair Michael Guest is expected to come as soon as Wednesday, but Johnson’s comment is an sign that he may be looking for another solution to Santos’s ethical lapses that does not involve voting him out of the chamber.Joe Biden is due to right about now hold an event at the White House on his administration’s actions to strengthen supply chains.That event is late in starting, perhaps due to the fact that he was on the phone with Miro Weinberger, the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, where three Palestinian students were shot over the weekend. Here’s what Weinberger had to say about the call:The police have not yet said if they consider the shooting of three Palestinian students in Vermont as a hate crime, but advocacy group the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said they believe it was:Joe and Jill Biden as well as Vermont’s congressional delegation have condemned the weekend shooting of three Palestinian students in the northeastern state’s most-populous city Burlington, while police announced an arrest was made in the case yesterday. It’s an otherwise quiet day in Washington DC, but it won’t stay that way for long. The House will perhaps as soon as Wednesday vote on kicking admitted fabulist George Santos out of the chamber after a damning report from its ethics panel, while the Senate is gearing up to consider Biden’s request for more than $100b to fund border security and military assistance to Ukraine and Israel.Here’s what else has happened today:
      A rift is emerging among Democrats over Biden’s request for military assistance to Israel in the wake of Hamas’s 7 October terrorist attack.
      Merrick Garland said federal authorities are looking into whether the Vermont shooting was a hate crime.
      Donald Trump is making it very clear that a priority of his second presidential term will be retaliating against his enemies.
      Also attending today’s White House press briefing was John Kirby, the spokesman for the National Security Council.He offered details of the agreement reached for Hamas to release more of the hostages taken in the 7 October terrorist attack:Follow our live blog for the latest on the conflict between Israel and Hamas:At her briefing today, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Joe and Jill Biden were “horrified” by the shootings of three Palestinian students in Vermont:Here’s footage of the arraignment of Jason Eaton, the suspect in the shooting of three Palestinian students in Vermont: More

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      Biden plans to use cold-war era law in attempt to lower US prices

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      The White House has announced it plans to use a cold-war era law to ease supply chain issues that the administration argues are contributing to higher inflation – a key electoral challenge to Joe Biden’s re-election chances next year as polling consistently suggests voters are not buying his Bidenomics pitch.In a statement, the White House said Biden will use the Defense Production Act to improve the domestic manufacturing of medicines deemed crucial for national security and will convene the first meeting of the president’s supply chain resilience council to announce other measures tied to the production and shipment of goods.“We’re determined to keep working to bring down prices for American consumers and ensure the resilience of our supply chains for the future,” said Lael Brainard, director of the White House national economic council and a co-chair of the new supply chain council, in a separate statement.The Defense Production Act of 1950, which was passed to streamline production during the Korean war, was last used in early 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic to accelerate and expand the availability of ventilators and personal protective equipment.The supply chain council is set to address issues ranging from improved data sharing between government agencies, supplying renewable energy resources and freight logistics.Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, will be co-chair of the council, which includes the heads of cabinet departments, the administration’s council of economic advisers, the US director of national intelligence, the Office of Management and Budget, and other agencies.Monday’s announcement arrived as the US economy appears to be doing well on paper. But the White House has acknowledged that improving economic picture is not shared by consumers, and the administration has explicitly tied the economy to the president by calling it Bidenomics.A recent Economist/YouGov poll found that only 39% of voters approve of Biden’s handling of jobs and the economy. And a separate Reuters/Ipsos poll puts the economy as the most important issue to Americans for the past two years.Even as the pace of inflation has slowed, consumers are shouldering an economic burden they had not experienced in years. Prices have risen as much in the past three years as they had in the previous decade, according to a report by Bloomberg, and it now costs almost $120 to buy the same goods and services a family could afford with $100 before the pandemic.According to Bloomberg, groceries and electricity are up 25%, used car prices have climbed 35%, auto insurance 33% and rent roughly 20% since January 2020. Housing affordability is at its worst on record. Auto-loan rates and credit card interest rates are also at a peak.As a result, many Democrats say it is time for Biden to adjust the economic message ahead of the 2024 election.In a statement, the White House said that “robust supply chains are fundamental to a strong economy”.“When supply chains are smooth, prices fall for goods, food, and equipment, putting more money in the pockets of American families, workers, farmers, and entrepreneurs,” the statement added.“Supply chain stress has eased measurably over the past year and the Biden administration’s announcement is another step in the right direction,” the Moody’s economist Jesse Rogers said.Rogers added: “While unlikely to resolve some of the more complex issues plaguing supply chains in one go, measures targeting pharmaceuticals, climate infrastructure, data security and logistics will bolster resilience and get the ball rolling on smart infrastructure and global cooperation.”In addition to domestic production measures, the administration said it will work to strengthen global supply chains internationally, including by developing early warning systems with allies and partners to detect and respond to supply chain disruptions in critical areas.Those include measures “to improve the weather, water, and climate observing capabilities and data-sharing” with countries “needed to produce global climate information and minimize impacts upon infrastructure, water, health, and food security”. More

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      There’s a big reason Biden is losing younger voters: Israel-Palestine | Moira Donegan

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      The 2024 presidential contest should not be close. Joe Biden’s opponent, Donald Trump, is a bigot, a liar and a crook, with dozens of credible sexual assault allegations, a disastrous track record of enabling sadistic racism in both his policy and his rhetoric, a frank admission of his own authoritarian ambitions, and 92 pending felony charges.The Republican party that the former president leads has become beholden to a small but extremely powerful base of voters with wildly unpopular social views, particularly regarding abortion – views that have driven the Republicans to election losses in virtually all major contests since the summer of 2022. Voters hate them, and reject their vision for the US; few politicians have ever been so unpopular as Trump is, and few political platforms have ever seemed so determined to alienate and anger voters as the Republican party’s.Yet Joe Biden could lose. If the election were held today, it’s likely that he would. Much was made of a New York Times/Siena poll, published earlier this month, that showed the US president losing to Trump in five key swing states. The Biden campaign largely downplayed the numbers, shrugging that the election is far away.Now, a new NBC poll also shows Biden in dire straits, with his approval rating falling to the lowest it has ever been: 40%. The poll found that he was faring especially poorly with Democrats and young voters, large numbers of whom are dissatisfied with his handling of an issue that is exposing a growing divide within the party: Israel’s assault on Palestinians in Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attack.From nearly the first moments of Israel’s war, the Biden administration has staunchly supported its Middle East ally, and allowed little public daylight between their own official statements and those of Israel’s rightwing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The aid and arms deals continue to flow to Israel unconditioned, even as Israeli bombings have now killed more than 14,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 5,000 children and displaced upwards of a million people.The hawkish support for Israel’s war has been intense, with rhetoric from the White House often appearing indifferent or outright hostile to concerns about the deaths of Palestinian civilians. On 10 October, Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described calls for a ceasefire as “wrong”, “repugnant” and “disgraceful”. “There are not two sides here,” Jean-Pierre said, signaling that the White House would not brook any concern for Palestinian lives.In an especially disturbing moment, Biden himself cast doubt on the official death toll from the Gaza health ministry – saying on 27 October that he had “no confidence in the number the Palestinians are using” – even though figures from this agency have been previously deemed reliable by the United Nations and international human rights agencies. The implication seemed to be that the Palestinians were cynically overstating the number of their dead, and that the real number was some smaller, supposedly more acceptable figure.Since he made that comment, the Palestinian casualties in Gaza are said to have nearly doubled. It’s unclear whether Biden believes it.As the corpses pile up and Gaza’s buildings tumble down, the Biden administration has seemed to hedge on this unqualified pro-Israel, pro-war stance, at least at the margins. People identified as “administration officials” have given off-the-record quotes expressing “frustration” and “concern” with the Israelis’ determination to press forward with a Gaza invasion without any long-term plan for the region. Asked if the Israelis were making any real effort to minimize civilian casualties, the US national security council spokesman, John Kirby, said: “We have seen some indications that there are efforts being applied in certain situations to try to minimize, but I don’t want to overstate that.”Alon Pinkas of Haaretz interpreted those remarks as a signal of a growing distaste for the Israeli operation within the Biden US security state. This is what amounts to distancing from the Biden administration when it comes to Israel’s operation in Gaza: hedged off-the-record statements about long-term strategy, and a single response to a question of whether Israel is acting as if it cares about preserving innocent Palestinian lives that amounts to a coded and heavily euphemistic “no”.That’s the official line. But there are growing indications that the Democratic party is heading for a revolt over the issue. Young voters are not the only ones who are angry. Arab and Muslim American voters are voicing outrage at Biden’s stance, endangering his re-election prospects nationwide but especially in the crucial battleground state of Michigan, which is home to a large Muslim American voting bloc.Even within the party bureaucracy itself, there are signs of trouble. The state department has fielded an unusual number of internal complaint memos about US policy over the issue; large numbers of Democratic congressional staffers joined a Washington DC protest calling for a ceasefire.The House voted to censure representative Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan, the only Palestinian American in Congress, over her calls for Palestinian liberation – particularly her use of the phrase “from the river to the sea”, which Tlaib explained was a call for peace, freedom, dignity and equality for all in the region, but which her detractors alleged was an antisemitic call for Jewish elimination. (Such has been the nature of much of the debate around the conflict in the halls of US power: arguments over rhetoric have frequently distracted from substantive issues of policy.)But that did not stop a growing number of her fellow Democratic members of Congress from joining her in calls for a ceasefire. The White House may be calling them “repugnant”, but the pro-ceasefire camp in Congress looks more and more like the future of the Democratic party: it is younger, it is further to the left, and it is majority non-white.Handwringing about Biden’s age and its relevance is overstated. But few issues have done more to highlight the problem of gerontocracy within the Democratic party, and of the growing generational gap in US politics, than this internal dispute over Israel-Palestine. In a way, the divide between Biden and his loyalists on the one hand, and the pro-ceasefire left and Democratic base on the other, might be a matter of historical references.Biden comes from a generation that came of age much closer in time to the Holocaust; he is in that sense perhaps more acutely aware of Jewish vulnerability – and certainly more convinced that Zionism’s nationalist project can mitigate it – than younger people are. The younger staffers, state department functionaries, members of Congress, and voters, meanwhile, are not thinking of the second world War, but of the war on terror; of September 11, and the disastrous, brutal and ultimately futile wars of revenge that the US fought in its aftermath.Each side is proceeding from what they feel are the definitive lessons of their era – the 20th century for Biden, and the 21st century for the pro-ceasefire camp. The results of the next election may well depend on whether they can find each other in time.
      Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist More

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      A lasting peace in Gaza is now within reach – here’s how it can be achieved | Roee Kibrik

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      With a deal on the release of hostages and a pause in the fighting, the war in Gaza is entering a new stage. This four-day truce will see the handing over of dozens of hostages, but the pause also gives the international community an opportunity to promote stable and sustainable peace in Israel and the Palestinian territories. We are at a crossroads – and before us lies either a continuation of the conflict, or the impetus to find a permanent resolution.Hamas’s murderous attack on 7 October shattered many longstanding convictions. It brought the Palestinian issue back to centre stage; challenged the notion that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be managed at a low cost; and undermined the belief that Israel could pursue integration in the Middle East while ignoring Palestinian demands. In its place, there is now a commonly held view across Israeli society that “managing the conflict” hasn’t worked, and that there instead must be a permanent resolution.At the same time, there are reasons why management of the conflict, rather than a protracted attempt at a resolution, would suit some of the main players. The US and UK governments both face elections in 2024, and are preoccupied with the war in Ukraine due to the need for stability and lower energy prices. Meanwhile, Arab leaderships are dealing with a range of internal challenges, and relative calm in the Palestinian arena may be enough to appease them. Hamas would be happy to continue to struggle with Israel without facing a diplomatic process that could provide legitimacy to the Palestinian Authority, strengthen moderate politicians and ultimately undermine its power.Netanyahu would also be content with managing the conflict, as any attempt to solve it would threaten the stability of his coalition and the continuation of his rule. His coalition, and consequently his leadership, relies on the support of the extremist settler movement. This faction adamantly opposes any compromises with the Palestinians and viewed Hamas as an “asset”, because its existence hinders the possibility of a peace process.It is therefore easy to imagine both sides sliding back into managing a low-intensity conflict. Under this scenario, the IDF would remain in Gaza for an extended period, continuing the fight against Hamas. The conflict would be confined to the Gaza Strip. The public would adjust to it. It would no longer be news, and the world would move its attention elsewhere – until the next eruption occurs in Gaza, the West Bank or in Lebanon.Alternatively, absent the will or the ability of the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to bring about meaningful change, the international community, led by the US, could push toward a resolution of the conflict. To achieve that, the international community needs to promote several key steps.First and foremost, it must define the ultimate goal – which should be to commit to the implementation of the two-state solution and an embrace of the Arab Peace Initiative – and a timeline within which to achieve it. This can be done by via a resolution of the UN security council (UNSC). To overcome the tension between the US and Russia, it may require a representative of the Arab world such as the UAE to champion the proposal in the UNSC. If this path is blocked, a regional peace summit convened by the US would be a satisfactory alternative.Secondly, and of utmost importance, it is vital that Joe Biden leads the recognition of a Palestinian state by the US and other major countries, as part of a comprehensive diplomatic process. Such a step will ensure that there is no turning back. It will change the dynamic in Gaza and in the West Bank, making it difficult for Israel to continue its creeping annexation, and strengthen the Palestinian Authority against Hamas. Furthermore, such a move could boost Biden electorally, helping him to potentially regain support that he lost when backing Israel’s operation in Gaza.Knowing that the creation of a Palestinian state is the endgame will enable the third critical step to be taken by the international community: the formulation of an interim international-Palestinian regime. With a clear and recognised goal of achieving the two-state solution, an international force drawn from Arab and western countries could then be recruited to gradually replace the IDF in Gaza and take responsibility for security and development efforts. If the path to a two-state solution is defined, European and Arab countries will agree to invest in building the physical and institutional infrastructure of what Biden called a “revitalised Palestinian Authority”, leading the way to a Palestinian state. No one wants to continue pouring money into Gaza if the strategy of managing the conflict continues and its infrastructure needs to be rebuilt every few years after another round of war.The absence of worthy leadership in Israel and the Palestinian territories means that securing peace falls on the shoulders of Biden and the international community. He must step up and deliver.
      Roee Kibrik is director of research at Mitvim – the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, and a lecturer at Yezreel Valley College
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