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Biden didn’t make Israeli-Palestinian talks a priority. Arab leaders say region now paying the price

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — From its first months in office, the Biden administration made a distinctive decision on its Middle East policy: It would deprioritize a half-century of high-profile efforts by past U.S. presidents, particularly Democratic ones, to broker a broad and lasting peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. Since Richard Nixon, successive U.S. administrations have tried their hands at Camp David summits, shuttle diplomacy and other big-picture tries at coaxing Israeli and Palestinian leaders into talks to settle the disputes that underlie 75 years of Middle East tensions. More than other recent presidents, Joe Biden notably has not.Instead, administration officials early on sketched out what they called Biden’s policy of quiet diplomacy. They advocated for more modest improvements in Palestinian freedoms and living conditions under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government, which has encouraged settlement in the Israeli-occupied West...

Israeli video compilation shows the savagery and ease of Hamas’ attack

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A grisly montage of video and photographs of Hamas’s massacre of hundreds of civilians across southern Israel last week highlights the savagery of the attack and the ease with which the militant group appeared to operate inside Israel. The footage that the Israeli military showed foreign correspondents Monday included a photo of a burnt baby. It showed gunmen shooting the dead bodies of civilians in cars, militants in the process of beheading a body with a hoe, burnt corpses thrown in a dumpster.The briefing with reporters came as Israel cut off vital supplies to the Gaza Strip and pounded the territory with airstrikes. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers massed outside the territory ready to invade in response to the Hamas assault in which more than 1,400 people were killed. In Gaza, meanwhile, the death toll rose to more than 2,700 people, many of them civilians, according to health authorities there. On Monday, an Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. ...

The House is set to vote on a new speaker. Here’s what to know

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are heading to the House Tuesday for the second time this Congress to try and elect a speaker, marking what they hope will be a unifying moment for a party that has been in turmoil for weeks.GOP lawmakers are expected to rally their votes behind Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to be the next speaker despite reluctance from some who are wary of his hardline approach. Conservatives have been mounting an intense pressure campaign to persuade the final holdouts to support him.Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, won the GOP’s nomination for speaker in a secret ballot on Friday. But a second round of voting showed that more than 50 Republicans would oppose Jordan on the floor, leaving him well short of the 217 votes needed to win the gavel. Since then, with the help of former President Donald Trump and some in conservative media, Jordan has managed to flip a substantial number of detractors in his favor. But he’ll need the backing of n...

Defeated New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will remain leader of his Labour Party

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Defeated New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said Tuesday he will continue to lead his liberal Labour Party — for now, at least — despite its big election loss over the weekend.“I’ve still got a bit of fight left in me,” Hipkins told reporters.Hipkins made the comments after a meeting with his party’s caucus, during which there was no immediate move to oust him. Still, Hipkins acknowledged that he and others in the party would be reflecting on their futures over the coming months and figuring out what would be best for the party going forward.“Obviously the election result was one that was very disappointing to us as a team,” Hipkins said.Former businessman Christopher Luxon will be the nation’s next prime minister after his conservative National Party won 39% of the vote during the election, by far the largest share of any single party. Under New Zealand’s proportional system, National plans to form a coalition with the li...

What to know about Elijah McClain’s death and the cases against police and paramedics

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

DENVER (AP) — Opening statements are set for Tuesday in the trial of a police officer charged in the death of a Black man who was put in a neck hold and injected by paramedics with the sedative ketamine after he was stopped while walking home in suburban Denver in 2019.The presentations in the trial of Aurora officer Nathan Woodyard come just days after jurors delivered a split verdict against two other officers indicted in the death of Elijah McClain. One of those officers was convicted and the other was cleared of charges.Paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Lt. Peter Cichuniec are scheduled to be prosecuted in the final trial in the case next month.Here’s what you need to know about McClain’s death:WHY WAS ONLY ONE OFFICER CONVICTED IN THE FIRST TRIAL?McClain’s death was one of several that were revisited after the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd, and his name became a rallying cry at the ensuing social justice protests. The jury convicted Aurora Officer Randy Roedema on Thursday...

Berkeley woman survives Hamas attack in Israel

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

BERKELEY, Calif. (KRON) – Gabriel Gliksman’s mother is 81 years old. He was on the phone with her in Israel when they both heard missiles in the distance.  “I said ‘Mom are you ok?’ And there was nothing,” Gliksman recalled to KRON4. Gliksman says for hours after the attack he could not reach his mother in Israel. He thought she was dead.   DA Jenkins deletes tweet regarding anti-Semitic graffiti found on SF’s Market Street The Berkeley resident says he called around, trying to find out any information about her. He said he didn’t sleep at all, but then in the morning, around 6 a.m., he got word she was alive and shared how she survived the brutal attack on her home.“They came to her house, took her electronics then told her to stay inside, they put out fuel. She prayed and then jumped through a window with her flip-flops on,” he said. Gliksman says as she was running she saw gunned-down neighbors and homes burning.“Her neighbor's home was set on fire, our friend, and she was...

DA Jenkins deletes tweet regarding anti-Semitic graffiti found on SF's Market Street

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – Antisemitic graffiti was found in San Francisco after a pro-Palestine rally Saturday. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins tweeted Sunday saying the suspects were unknown but assumed to have been associated with the protest. That statement did not sit well with protest organizers.The DA deleted that tweet on Monday after she said she received several concerns from the Muslim and Arab communities about how the tweet could be interpreted. 5 accused of SF Walgreens wagon heist plead not guilty Words such as “Death 2 Israel” and “Kill a Settler” were spray-painted across a Bank Of America building in San Francisco. The graffiti was found after thousands marched down Market Street calling for the freeing of Palestinians along the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been at war with the terrorist group Hamas for more than a week.“There’s a genocide happening in Gaza right now. Over 1,000 children, 2,700 civilians have been confirmed killed by the Israeli military,” said Wass...

Guns found in motel room of stabbing suspect involved in SWAT standoff

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

SPRING VALLEY, Calif. -- A stabbing suspect was arrested after barricading himself inside a Spring Valley motel room on Monday, prompting a five-hour SWAT standoff. Authorities say they also found three handguns and numerous parts and tools to build AR-15 rifles in the motel room.Roger Bell, 38, was booked on multiple charges including assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment, Detective Guadalupe Catano with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.A stabbing suspect involved in a SWAT standoff is facing multiple charges including assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment, (San Diego County Sheriff's Department)A stabbing suspect involved in a SWAT standoff is facing multiple charges including assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment, (San Diego County Sheriff's Department)Around 11 a.m., authorities received a call about a stabbing at Crown Inn & Suites in the 9600 block of Campo Road, San Diego County Sheriff's Department said to FOX 5. When la...

Palestinians report heavy shelling in south Gaza towns where civilians are seeking refuge

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians in Gaza reported intense bombardments near the southern towns of Khan Younis and Rafah, where Israel ordered civilians to seek refuge, early Tuesday. Details of causalities were not immediately available.Israeli bombs hit areas west and southeast of Khan Younis and west of Rafah, according to local reports. Thousands of people trying to escape Gaza are gathered in Rafah, which contains the territory’s only border crossing to Egypt, as international mediators press for a deal to allow aid in and refugees with foreign passports out. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The U.S. hoped to break a deadlock over delivering aid to increasingly desperate civilians in besieged Gaza following a brutal attack by Hamas militants, as President Joe Biden was set to head to Israel and Jordan on Wednesday.Aid workers warned that life in Gaza was near complete collapse because of the Israeli siege, with ...

Chinese search engine company Baidu unveils Ernie 4.0 AI model, claims that it rivals GPT-4

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:53:43 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese search engine and artificial intelligence firm Baidu on Tuesday unveiled a new version of its artificial intelligence model, Ernie 4.0, claiming that it rivals models such as GPT-4 in the U.S.Baidu’s CEO Robin Li demonstrated Ernie 4.0 at the company’s annual Baidu World conference in Beijing. He said the model has achieved comprehension, reasoning, memory and generation, which uses algorithms to produce and create new content.Li said that Ernie 4.0 was able to understand complex questions and instructions and apply reasoning and logic to generate answers to questions.“It is not inferior in any aspect to GPT-4,” Li said, stating that the latest model was “significantly improved” compared to its original Ernie Bot model.In a live demonstration, Li prompted Ernie 4.0 to generate advertising materials including advertising posters and a marketing video. He also asked Ernie 4.0 to come up with a martial arts novel complete with characters with variou...