The Up First newsletter: Towards a Better Future for the Defense, Non-defense, and Security Problems in the 21st Century
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Congressional leaders reached an agreement yesterday that would fund the government through the end of the fiscal year and avoid a government shutdown. Congress must pass the bills before the January deadline if they want the text to be finalized. The top-line figure includes $886 billion for defense and $704 billion for non-defense spending.
The Israeli army has traded fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon since the Hamas attack. The killing of a Hamas leader in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, has given rise to fears of a full-scale war. Israel has not admitted involvement.
Art and politics of the post-Obama terrorist attack: a touching tribute to the late Lloyd Austin and the rest of the world
Senior White House and Pentagon officials are demanding answers after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin failed to inform them and the president for days about his Jan. 1 hospitalization for complications from a recent elective surgery. Austin is a patient at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
An Alaska Airlines plane was forced to make an emergency landing after it experienced a mid-flight malfunction on the Boeing Max 9 plane. The plane was forced to land after the door plug blew out, leaving a hole in the tarmac.
Respiratory illnesses like the flu, RSV and COVID have climbed after the holidays — though COVID levels are still far below what they were at the height of the pandemic. Many wonder how they’ve been able to avoid these infections while in close contact with friends and family. The science behind the spread is shown here.
Art is used in Israel and the Palestinian community. Many artists have had to deal with heavy emotions in their craft since the October 7 attacks. Six Israeli and Palestinian artists share stories of fear, anger, sadness and pain with NPR as they reflect on how the war in Gaza has affected their lives. Look at the photos of what they’ve been working on.
In Israel, Blinken looks to planning for a post-war Gaza as bombardments rage on: On Tuesday, Israeli drones target an Israeli army in Safed
Blinken did not offer specifics on potential contributions. Any plan could be helped by financial and in-kind support from the USA and Saudi Arabia.
At least seven Arab countries have agreed to plan for rebuilding Gaza once the war between Israel and Hamas ends, said Tony Blinken on Monday. Those countries had previously resisted U.S. calls for post-war planning to begin, insisting that there must first be a cease-fire and a sharp reduction in the civilian suffering in Gaza.
U.S. officials have said they expect Blinken’s discussions with Netanyahu, the War Cabinet and other officials to be some of the most difficult on his current Mideast tour, his fourth since the war began,
Tuesday morning, an Israeli drone hit a car in southern Lebanon, killing three people inside, security officials in the area and the state news agency said. There was no immediate word on the identities of the three.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah said its exploding drones targeted the Israeli army northern command in the town of Safed — deeper into Israel than previous fire by the group. The Israeli military said that a drone fell at a base in the north but it didn’t cause any damage. It did not say who the base was.
Hezbollah and Israel continued to exchange messages as one of the two arrived in Israel.
The Gazan Crisis in the Light of Operation Suppressed by Israeli Forces During the 1948 July 11 War: U.N. Relief, Food and Water Deliveries
The World Health Organization was unable to deliver supplies to the north for two weeks. OCHA said the military rejected five attempted aid convoys to the north over that period, including planned deliveries of medical supplies and fuel for water and sanitation facilities.
The situation in northern Gaza is worse than it’s been before, because Israeli forces cut off the territory in late October. There is a number of people who remain there who are not supplied with food or water.
The U.N. humanitarian office, known as OCHA, warned that the fighting was severely hampering aid deliveries. The military’s order to evacuate has affected many warehouses, distribution centers and health facilities. Some bakeries in the central city of Deir al-Balah have been forced to shut down. The UN warehouse was hit last week, killing a staffer and five other staffers were taken into custody by the military.
Families in Nuseirat’s northern neighborhoods were fleeing to other parts of the camp, Moustafa said by phone, with the sound of sporadic gunfire in the background. Some people tried to get to the south on the Gaza’s main north-south road but were turned back by Israeli tanks, he said. In leaflets, the military had told people evacuating to use another road, along the coast.
The Nuseirat camp was built for Palestinians who were forced out of their homes during the 1948 war with Israel, and has been used to house refugees and their descendants over the years.
More than 23,200 Palestinians have been killed and more than 58,000 wounded since the beginning of the war in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. The death toll does not indicate which side of the debate it is. Nearly 85% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes by the fighting, and a quarter of its residents face starvation, with only a trickle of food, water, medicine and other supplies entering through an Israeli siege.
The Israeli military says it has dismantled the infrastructure of Hamas in northern Gaza. But fighting continues there against what Israel says are pockets of militants. The offensive’s focus has shifted to the southern city of Khan Younis, where ground troops have been fighting militants for weeks, and a number of urban refugee camps in central Gaza.
When Hamas is defeated, the U.S. and Israel are divided on how Gaza will be run. American officials have called for the Palestinian Authority, which currently governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to take the reins in Gaza. Israeli leaders have rejected that idea but haven’t put forward a concrete plan beyond military control.