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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the past 24 hours. Here’s today’s news
DAMASCUS CONSULATE STRIKE
The senior U.S. military commander in charge of the Middle East is expected to travel to Israel today to coordinate around a possible attack on Israel by Iran and its proxies, two Israeli officials said. Iranian officials have publicly threatened to retaliate against Israel for its attack on an Iranian consulate building in Syria, and Israeli officials say they are preparing for a possible unprecedented direct attack from Iranian soil. A senior Israeli official said Israel asked the United States if it could help limit Iran’s response by sending private and public warnings and projecting its force in the region. Barak Ravid reports for Axios.
The German airline Lufthansa today extended the suspension of flights to Tehran due to the situation in the Middle East, which is on alert for a reprisal by Iran following the Damascus consulate strike. An Iranian news agency had published an Arabic report on X saying all airspace over Tehran had been closed for military drills, but later removed the report and denied publishing such news. Reuters reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
A senior Hamas official said yesterday that Hamas did not have 40 living hostages in Gaza who meet the criteria for an exchange under a proposed ceasefire agreement currently being negotiated with Israel. A senior Israeli official said Israel has been made aware of Hamas’s claim, and the senior Hamas official said the group had informed mediators facilitating the negotiations. The assertion raised fears that more hostages held in Gaza might be dead than previously believed. Israeli officials believe there are about 130 hostages remaining, and Israeli intelligence officers have concluded at least 30 of them have died in captivity. Adam Rasgon and Remy Tumin report for the New York Times.
Three sons of Hamas’s top political leader Ismail Haniyeh were killed yesterday by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. They were among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. It was not immediately clear how their deaths might affect ongoing ceasefire negotiations, though Haniyeh said the killings would not pressure Hamas to change its stance. “Anyone who believes that targeting my sons will push Hamas to change its position is delusional,” Haniyeh said in an interview with Al Jazeera. Senior Israeli officials told Walla news agency that neither Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had been told in advance of the strike, which was coordinated by the Israeli military and the Shin Bet intelligence service. NBC News reports.
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — U.S. RESPONSE
President Biden yesterday promised Israel “ironclad” U.S. support amid fears of an Iranian reprisal for the Damascus consulate strike. “We’re going to do all we can to protect Israel’s security,” Biden said. “As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad — let me say it again, ironclad.” Biden’s comments come a day after he called for a ceasefire in Gaza and described Netanyahu’s approach to the war a “mistake.” Max Matza and Will Vernon report for BBC News.
Israeli authorities have improved aid delivery to Gaza but still “need to do more,” Biden said yesterday. “It’s not enough. They need to do more, and there’s one more opening that has to take place in the north. So we’ll see what he does in terms of meeting the commitments he [Netanyahu] made to me.” Biden has left vague what action he will take if Israel does not meet his demands, and at a news conference yesterday with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, did not respond to a question about whether he would condition future U.S. arms transfers on how Israel responds. Peter Baker reports for the New York Times.
U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power told House and Senate lawmakers yesterday that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is “a famine, fundamentally.” Power also told a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that “one in three” children in northern Gaza are suffering from malnutrition, and there is a “massive catch-up to do” if the enclave is to “avoid the worst form of famine imaginable.” “Let me just say that the conditions are as dire as any I have seen in my career,” she said. Abigail Hauslohner reports for the Washington Post.
U.S. Central Command conducted an airdrop of humanitarian assistance into Northern Gaza yesterday, dropping “over 50,680 U.S. meal equivalents.” CENTCOM said that “one of the bundles landed in the shallow water near shore,” adding it “does not assess civilian harm or damage to infrastructure at this time but continues to monitor the situation.”
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR — INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
Russia’s Foreign Ministry told its citizens they should refrain from traveling to the Middle East, especially to Israel, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories. The United States and its allies believe a major attack by Iran or its proxies against military and government targets in Israel is imminent, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing U.S. and Israeli security sources. The Times of Israel reports via Reuters.
Israel’s foreign ministry criticized new Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris for not mentioning the hostages held by Hamas during his inaugural speech. “Simon Harris, the new Taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland, chose to refer to the war in Gaza in his inaugural address but ‘forgot’ to mention the 133 Israeli hostages who have been rotting in Hamas tunnels for the past six months,” a ministry statement said. The Times of Israel reports.
Israel and Indonesia have been holding talks over the past three months on normalizing bilateral relations, according to an unsourced Ynet news site. The report says that in exchange for establishing ties with Israel, Jerusalem will stop blocking Indonesia from joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the organization including the world’s 38 leading economies. An Israeli official confirmed the report to The Times of Israel.
MILITARY CONFLICT WITH THE HOUTHIS
CENTCOM said yesterday its “forces successfully engaged three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.” “Two UAVs were launched over the Gulf of Aden and one UAV was launched over the Red Sea,” it said, adding that no injuries or damage was reported by U.S., coalition, or commercial ships.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE DEVELOPMENTS
Ukraine’s parliament passed a controversial law today that will govern how the country recruits new conscripts. Lawmakers have been slow to pass the law, which was spurred by a request from Ukraine’s military in December and is expected to be unpopular. The law affects changes to the current system by increasing the powers of Ukrainian authorities to issue draft notices using an electronic system. Samya Kullab and Illia Novikov report for AP News.
Russian missiles and drones struck Ukrainian power facilities across five regions in a major attack today, officials said, adding pressure to the embattled energy system as Kyiv’s air defenses run low. The strikes damaged facilities from the Lviv region on the Polish border to the northeastern Kharkiv region, causing 200,000 people to lose electricity. Tom Balmforth reports for Reuters.
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
Biden said yesterday he is “considering” a request from Australia for the United States to end the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. “We’re considering it,” Biden said to a reporter during a meeting with Kishida at the White House. Assange is currently on temporary reprieve from extradition to Washington following London’s High Court ruling last month. Tara Prindiville and Summer Concepcion report for NBC News.
Biden yesterday pledged closer relations with Japan and the Philippines to counter China’s rising influence in the Pacific. Biden and Kishida announced new military, economic, and other agreements ahead of a trilateral summit today with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “This is the most significant upgrade of our alliance since it was first established,” Biden said yesterday, adding, “For the first time, Japan and the United States and Australia will create a networked system of air, missile, and defense architecture.” Rebecca Falconer reports for Axios.
Real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced to death today in Vietnam’s largest ever financial fraud case. Lan, 67, was accused of fraud amounting to $12.5 billion. Aniruddha Ghosal reports for AP News.
The French navy is preparing for naval warfare against enemies who want “to destroy us,” the commander of France’s carrier battle group said yesterday. “Naval combat is becoming increasingly likely … We now train for other missions, in particular what we call high-intensity warfare,” Rear Admiral Jacques Mallard said. Mallard stressed that France does not view China as an immediate threat, but added that Western navies must adapt to a maritime environment with “increasingly uninhibited competitors.” Laura Kayali reports for POLITICO.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended his government’s efforts to ensure election integrity at a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada. Trudeau claimed the last two elections in 2019 and 2021 had been “free and fair” and decided only by Canadians. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service has said China “clandestinely and deceptively” interfered in the last two federal elections. Brandon Drenon and Nadine Yousif report for BBC News.
A landmark bill set to overhaul migration policy across the European Union cleared its final hurdle yesterday after it was approved by the European Parliament. The bill, which had taken about a decade to negotiate, aims to make it easier for member states to deport failed asylum seekers and limits the entry of migrants into the bloc. Matina Stevis-Gridneff reports for the New York Times.
South Korea’s liberal opposition party, the Democratic Party, won a landslide majority in the country’s general election to retain control of parliament. The vote is a crushing defeat for President Yoon Suk Yeol, who heads the People Power Party. His party leader and Prime Minister both offered resignations following the vote. Christy Cooney and Jean Mackenzie report for BBC News.
A representative of Reporters Without Borders was deported from Hong Kong upon arrival yesterday, the advocacy group said, in what it called a “new decline” in press freedom in the territory. It follows Hong Kong enacting a local national security law last month that builds on a broader national security law Beijing imposed in 2020 targeting foreign interference. Jennifer Jett reports for NBC News.
DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENTS
The FBI is concerned about the possibility of an organized attack in the United States similar to last month’s concert hall massacre in Moscow, the bureau’s director plans to tell a House of Representatives panel today. “Looking back over my career in law enforcement, I’d be hard pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once,” Christopher Wray is set to tell lawmakers. Of increasing concern is the “potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia Concert Hall a couple weeks ago,” Wray will say. Andrew Goudsward reports for Reuters.
TRUMP-LEGAL MATTERS
For the third day in a row, a New York appeals court yesterday denied a request from former President Trump’s lawyers to delay his upcoming hush money trial. The rejection adds to Trump’s legal losses and increases the likelihood that the trial will start as scheduled on April 15. Jacob Knutson reports for Axios.
Former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg was sentenced to five months in jail yesterday for lying under oath during his testimony in Trump’s civil fraud trial and the investigation that preceded it. Weisselberg pled guilty last month to two felony counts of perjury, with prosecutors alleging he lied about his role in valuing Trump’s Fifth Avenue triplex apartment at three times its actual size. Aaron Katersky and Peter Charalambous report for ABC News.