Thursday Briefing: Biden pressures Israel
Good morning. We’re covering a U.S. decision to pause a weapons shipment to Israel and U.S.-China climate talks. Plus, pop and protests at Eurovision.
U.S. pushed Israel to reach a cease-fire dealPresident Biden turned up the pressure on Israel to limit its Rafah operation and to reach a cease-fire deal with Hamas. He made it public that he’d held up a delivery of heavy bombs to Israel, and dispatched his C.I.A. chief to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S. announced it had withheld the delivery of some military aid to Israel last week over concerns they would be used in a possible full-scale assault on Rafah. William Burns, the head of the C.I.A., met privately with Netanyahu. Israel downplayed the pause of the arms deliveries. But experts said the pause showed that the bond is facing new strains, with more ruptures possibly to come amid declining American public support for the Israeli war effort. They also acknowledged that such disagreements were unlikely to change the course of the conflict. Biden has made it clear that he remains deeply committed to Israel, even as he has signaled that there are limits to U.S. aid and patience. Details: The paused arms delivery included 2,000-pound bombs, which are among the most destructive in Israel’s arsenal. In the first six weeks of the war, the country routinely used weapons like these in areas of Gaza designated as safe for civilians, a Times investigation found. Talks: Negotiators from Israel and Hamas were in Cairo yesterday. Read about the major gaps in their positions. Analysis: Netanyahu wants to reassure domestic and international critics. My colleague Steven Erlanger explored his competing pressures.
U.S.-China climate talks beginJohn Podesta, the Biden administration’s top climate envoy, met for the first time with his counterpart from Beijing, Liu Zhenmin, in Washington yesterday. The talks continue today. And the stakes are high, Somini Sengupta, our international climate reporter, told me. The two countries are at odds on a range of geopolitical issues. They are also the world’s top polluters. “If they can’t get it together,” Somini said, “all of us are fried.” Trade tensions loom large over the talks. China dominates green-energy technology. That could “be a good thing because it makes things cheaper and can accelerate the energy transition,” Somini said. “But it also presents risks,” she added. “The White House doesn’t want Americans — or the rest of the world — to eat from China’s hands. It gives Beijing too much power. Whether anyone can truly compete with China at this point is unclear.” U.S. frustrations: A flood of cheap Chinese products have become a target for the Biden administration, which has warned that they pose a threat to U.S. factories.
Looking past France’s claims of a safely built OlympicsThe Olympic flame arrived in France yesterday to start a weekslong relay to Paris as the country gets ready for the Summer Games. And President Emmanuel Macron has declared that these Olympics were built safely, free of the construction hazards and migrant abuses of soccer’s 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Government data shows fewer than 200 injuries and zero deaths at Olympic sites over the four-year construction. But inspection records and other documents suggest a different story. Undocumented immigrants’ injuries were often handled off the books, workers and officials say, all but guaranteeing that they will not show up in government statistics. Even fatal accidents of laborers working legally were sometimes omitted from the Olympic count. |
