Friday Briefing: A new plan for Gaza aid
Good morning. We’re covering a possible new way to get aid into Gaza and a high-stakes address from President Biden. Plus, a preview of the Oscars.
The U.S. plans to build a new aid path into GazaPresident Biden is expected to announce during his State of the Union address that the U.S. military will build a floating pier off Gaza to let ships deliver food and other aid to Gazans, U.S. officials said. Constructing the pier will involve hundreds or thousands of U.S. troops on ships just off shore, and will be built in cooperation with other countries in the region. It was unclear whether Israel would be joining the effort. Currently, aid can only enter Gaza through two land crossings in the south. Officials said yesterday that a third land crossing in the north could open soon. Yet delivering aid by sea does not directly solve the central problem: Aid trucks have been unable to move freely amid intense Israeli shelling and ground fighting, which remains fierce in the South. Nor would it address the chaos that has accompanied the deliveries. An aid convoy was overrun by desperate Gazans last week, leading to more than 100 deaths when Israeli soldiers opened fire and many people were trampled in the chaos. At the International Court of Justice: South Africa asked the U.N.’s highest court to issue emergency orders for Israel to stop what it called the “genocidal starvation” of Palestinians. Negotiations: Hamas negotiators left Cairo yesterday without a breakthrough in talks over a cease-fire in Gaza, the group said. Hopes for an imminent truce with Israel continue to dim.
Biden to deliver the State of the UnionPresident Biden is set to deliver the State of the Union speech in a few hours, which will most likely be his best opportunity to address Americans before the general election. It’s not technically a campaign speech, but for American presidents in the last year of their first terms, the annual address represents the kickoff to their re-election effort. “The biggest question for many voters remains whether, at age 81, he’s up to the job for another four years,” said Reid Epstein, who covers politics for The Times. “This is likely his biggest audience of the year until and if he debates Donald Trump in the fall. Democrats are hoping to see a vigorous and energetic president.” Biden’s overarching message is expected to be that Trump, his likely rival, is a dire threat to democracy. Biden is also expected to lay out plans for a second term and try to persuade Americans that the economy isn’t so bad. Inflation is falling, unemployment is low and the stock market is doing well. Yet, roughly half of registered voters believe the economy is in “poor” condition, according to a recent Times/Siena College poll. History: The State of the Union has become a portrait of disunity. It didn’t used to be that way.
The hottest February on recordLast month was the hottest February ever recorded worldwide and the ninth straight month to set a heat record. The warm weather was driven in many places by the burning of fossil fuels, an analysis found. Even more startling, global ocean temperatures in February were at an all-time high for any time of year, the E.U.’s climate monitoring organization found. The two sets of figures offer a portrait of an unequivocally warming world. |
