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| The rubble of a building this month after Israeli strikes in Rafah. Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
Israel’s invasion of Rafah seems inevitable
After weeks of delays, negotiations and distractions, Israel appeared to hint this week that its assault of Rafah was all but inevitable.
Israeli warplanes bombed Rafah this week, and an Israeli official said that if an invasion began, civilians would be relocated to a safe zone on the Mediterranean coast.
Israel insists that invading Rafah, a southern city where more than a million Gazans are sheltering, is necessary to eliminate the militants hiding in a network of tunnels there and to ensure the release of hostages. The U.S. has pushed back against Israel conducting a major military operation there without a detailed plan to protect civilians.
At the moment, Hamas is bottled up in southern Gaza, heavy fighting has mostly subsided, a cease-fire remains possible and delaying helps placate American officials who are against the invasion. Some analysts have even suggested that Israel may never invade Rafah and that the threat is merely leverage against Hamas during negotiations.
But most officials and analysts said that an assault on the city was not a matter of if, but of when.
UNRWA: Germany said it would resume funding for the main U.N. agency aiding Gazans after an independent review found that Israel had not provided evidence that members of the agency were tied to Hamas.
Hostage: Hamas released a video showing Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli American dual citizen held hostage by the group. Goldberg-Polin was badly wounded during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
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| “In the end we did what America always does,” President Biden said. “We rose to the moment.” Doug Mills/The New York Times |
Biden said weapons will flow to Ukraine ‘within hours’
President Biden signed a long-delayed $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan yesterday, saying that weapons would be bound for Ukraine “within hours.”
“It’s going to make the world safer,” Biden said. “And it continues America’s leadership in the world.”
Senator Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky who is the chamber’s minority leader, was crucial to helping the aid pass after months of congressional gridlock because of isolationist Republicans.
The package also includes $1 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza and $15 billion in military aid for Israel. Biden reiterated that his commitment to Israel was “ironclad,” even though there is a growing backlash to American support for Israeli forces in Gaza.
More Ukraine news:
| Here’s how the aid could help Ukraine.The U.S. last week secretly shipped a new long-range missile system to Ukraine.Life continues in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, despite a devastating bombing campaign. |
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| Rudy Giuliani was among those indicted in an election interference case in Arizona. Sophie Park for The New York Times |
Arizona charged Trump allies in an election interference case
Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Boris Epshteyn and several others who advised Donald Trump during the 2020 election, as well as the fake electors who tried to keep him in power after he lost, were indicted in Arizona yesterday.
The indictment includes conspiracy, fraud and forgery charges, related to alleged attempts by those charged to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump, who is on trial in Manhattan, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator.Continue reading the main story
| MORE TOP NEWS |
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| BBC, via Reuters |
| London: Several runaway military horses galloped through the streets yesterday, turning an ordinary rush hour into a spectacle.U.S.: Tense scenes of protest against the war in Gaza continued at universities across the country. Mike Johnson, the House speaker, said during a visit to Columbia University in New York that “there is an appropriate time for the National Guard” to end protests. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described pro-Palestinian protesters as “antisemitic mobs.”Myanmar: The country’s military junta recaptured the town of Myawaddy, an important trading hub on the border with Thailand, reversing a victory from resistance soldiers.Diplomacy: Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, began a three-day trip to China as tensions over trade, territorial disputes and national security threaten to derail relations.NATO: About 90,000 NATO troops have been training in Europe this spring to prepare for a clash between Russia and the West that they hope will never come.Spain: Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, said that he was considering resigning after a judge opened an investigation into whether his wife, Begoña Gomez, had abused her position. |
Tech
| TikTok: U.S. lawmakers and aides spent nearly a year secretly drafting and bulletproofing a bill to force the sale of the social media company.Meta: Profits for Facebook and Instagram’s parent company more than doubled in the first quarter of 2024. The company said it planned to spend billions of dollars more on its artificial intelligence efforts. |
British Soccer
| Premier League: Luton Town F.C. jumped into the highest level of English soccer, revamping its town’s image.Undefeated: The Queens Park Ladies, an under-12 girls’ soccer team in Bournemouth, England, won all 22 of its matches, all against boys’ teams. |
| MORNING READ |
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| Illustration by Cari Vander Yacht |
A growing crew of virtual-assistant apps combine artificial intelligence and human labor to help parents manage their family lives.
These apps are styled like cutesy helpmates, with names like Yohana, Ohai and Milo. My colleague Amanda Hess tried Yohana, finding “that the busywork I might delegate to a machine is actually more human, and valuable, than I realized.”
Continue reading the main story
| SPORTS NEWS |
The UEFA Youth League: So much more than a teenage Champions League.
Proposal to change tennis: The Grand Slams present their premium tour plan.
Formula 1 safety cars: How they work and ideas for improvements.
| ARTS AND IDEAS |
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| Republic Records, via Associated Press |
Debating ‘Tortured Poets’
“The Tortured Poets Department,” Taylor Swift’s lengthy excavation of her recent relationships, is not as universally loved as some of her other albums. Our pop music critics discussed the album’s sound, themes and reception.
“This feels like an album designed for her top 5 percent of listeners — the ride-or-dies who will defend her every move and pore over her every lyrical clue,” said Lindsay Zoladz, who reviewed the album. “Everyone else seems either puzzled or underwhelmed by it as a whole. But Swift is someone who thrives off feeling underestimated and misunderstood, so maybe the mixed reception of this album will be the creative rocket fuel that launches her into her next era.”
Here’s the rest of our critics’ conversation.
| RECOMMENDATIONS |
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| Linda Xiao for The New York Times. |
Cook: A simple miso roasted salmon can be both sustenance and self-care.
