Politics
U.S. will allow Israeli travelers into the country without visas

The United States has agreed to admit Israel into the elite category of countries whose citizens can travel to the U.S. without visas, despite questions over whether Israel meets a core U.S. requirement for the special status: that Israel allow Palestinian Americans to travel freely in its territory.
U.S. officials Wednesday are expected to announce the decision to grant Israel admission to the visa-waiver program, to which around 40 mostly European countries already belong.
The decision comes after a two-month test period in which Israel was to prove its eligibility by eliminating long-standing restrictions on Palestinian Americans who attempt to travel in Israel and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
If traveling to the West Bank from abroad, they have generally not been allowed to transit through the only international airport in the area, near Tel Aviv, but must instead go overland from neighboring Jordan. And travel within Israel, the West Bank and Gaza is complicated for Palestinian Americans, as for most Palestinians, by Israeli military checkpoints that often block their passage.
But Biden administration officials said late Tuesday, as the deadline for Israel’s compliance approached with the end of the U.S. government fiscal year, that it believed the requirements for easing travel restrictions to the U.S. had been met.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “is designating a key U.S. partner and ally in the visa-waiver program,” a spokesman for the agency said in a briefing with reporters, speaking anonymously ahead of the formal announcement.
The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security alleging that Israel had failed to meet the program’s visa-waiver requirements. Anecdotally, a number of Palestinian Americans have reported the same harassment and prolonged questioning at Israeli military checkpoints or border crossings that have gone on for years. Others, though, have said travel was easier.
The State Department, working with the DHS, said it set up a system to monitor how Palestinian Americans were being treated by Israel in their efforts to transit by inviting their comments.
“We launched a program … to monitor conditions, to ensure that Palestinian Americans are able to travel freely, to make sure that they are not discriminated against,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. “That includes talking to people who have traveled in and out of Israel and understanding their experience. And we take all that data and look at it, and it’s part of the determination” by the two agencies to determine Israel’s eligibility.
Miller would not characterize the tone of the assessment.
The no-visa travel for Israelis will likely go into effect within eight weeks, U.S. officials said.

Politics
Gold bars stashed in Dem senator’s home recovered after 2013 violent robbery

Several gold bars discovered by federal agents in Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s residence as part of a high-profile bribery investigation can be traced to a violent robbery a decade ago.
According to a sprawling indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors in September, Menendez and his wife allegedly played a role in a years-long bribery scheme that involved the Egyptian government and local businessmen including Fred Daibes, a wealthy New Jersey real estate developer. Prosecutors revealed they retrieved multiple gold bars from Menendez’s home which were allegedly used as payment in the scheme.
At least four of the gold bars discovered by investigators can be linked to Daibes, both because of their unique engraved serial numbers and thanks to court documents related to a 2013 robbery which Daibes was a victim of, an NBC New York investigation revealed Monday. In November 2013, four assailants beat and robbed Daibes at gunpoint in his Edgewater, New Jersey, apartment, stealing 22 gold bars, jewelry and cash.
“Each gold bar has its own serial number,” Daibes told local investigators in a 2014 transcript obtained by NBC New York. “They’re all stamped … you’ll never see two stamped the same way.”
5 EXPLOSIVE REVELATIONS FROM DEM SEN BOB MENENDEZ’S BOMBSHELL FEDERAL INDICTMENT
An evidence photo published in the September federal indictment of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., shows a gold bar with the serial number “590005.” The same gold bar was stolen in a 2013 robbery. (United States District Court )
Photographs released by the Department of Justice in September showing the gold bars discovered at Menendez’s home, for example, reveal one of the bars has a serial number of “590005.” Daibes reported a gold bar with that same serial number stolen during the 2013 heist, NBC New York reported.
And the federal indictment notes that the serial numbers on the gold bars indicate they had previously been possessed by Daibes.
MSNBC’S ALICIA MENENDEZ ADDRESSES FATHER’S INDICTMENT: COLLEAGUES HAVE ‘AGGRESSIVELY’ COVERED
“A court-authorized search of the residence of Robert Menendez and Nadine Menendez, a/k/a ‘Nadine Arslanian,’ the defendants, revealed, among other things, approximately two one-kilogram gold bars and nine one-ounce gold bars that had serial numbers indicating they had previously been possessed by Fred Daibes, the defendant,” the indictment states.
In addition, when Daibes reported the robbery to police in 2013, he said 22 gold bars had been taken. Similarly, the September indictment states that Daibes sold 22 gold bars to Wael Hana, another defendant allegedly implicated in the bribery scheme.

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was indicted on bribery charges in September. He has since repeatedly claimed he is innocent of any wrongdoing. (Getty Images | United States District Court for the Southern District of New York)
Police ultimately arrested and charged four individuals for robbing Daibes in 2013, according to local media reports. Then, in September 2015, the suspects all pled guilty and were ultimately sentenced to several months in prison.
Meanwhile, since the federal bribery indictment was unsealed earlier this year, Menendez has repeatedly asserted his innocence and remained in the Senate.
CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“The allegations leveled against me are just that, allegations,” Menendez said Sept. 25. “For anyone who has known me throughout my 50 years of public service, they know I have always fought for what is right. My advocacy has always been grounded. And what I learned from growing up as the son of Cuban refugees, especially my mom, my hero, Evangelina Menendez. Everything I accomplished, I worked for despite the nay sayers and everyone who has underestimated me.
“I firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will I be exonerated, but I still will be New Jersey’s senior senator,” he added. “The court of public opinion is no substitute for our revered justice system. We cannot set aside the presumption of innocence for political expediency when the harm is irrevocable.”
Politics
George Santos movie in development at HBO from the makers of ‘Veep’ and ‘Succession’

Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) is getting the movie treatment at HBO after getting booted from Congress last week.
The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned premium cable giant confirmed Monday that it has optioned the rights to author Mark Chiusano’s nonfiction book “The Fabulist: The Lying, Hustling, Stealing, and Very American Legend of George Santos.”
Frank Rich, known for his work as an executive producer on the Emmy-winning TV satires “Veep” and “Succession,” is executive producing the film adaptation, but in a non-writing capacity, according to the company.
The studio has tapped “Bad Education” screenwriter Mike Makowsky to write and executive produce the picture.
HBO’s announcement comes less than a week after Santos was expelled from the House of Representatives, becoming the sixth lawmaker ever to be forced out of the legislative chamber.
The politician was ousted by his colleagues after a House Ethics Committee report determined that he had lied about his background, defrauded donors and used campaign money to fund an extravagant lifestyle that included Botox injections, personal travel and subscriptions on OnlyFans.
The ex-lawmaker has also been indicted on felony counts of wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making materially false statements to the House of Representatives. He has denied wrongdoing and criticized the move to expel him before his case goes to trial.
Billed as a “forensic and darkly comic” dramatization of Santos’ bid for Congress, the HBO film will chronicle “the Gatsby-esque journey of a man from nowhere who exploited the system, waged war on truth and swindled one of the wealthiest districts in the country to achieve his American dream,” according to the project’s official logline.
This isn’t the first time Hollywood has mined Santos’ highly publicized saga for entertainment. The latest installment of “Saturday Night Live” opened with a humorous farewell to Santos — or rather, to cast member Bowen Yang’s beloved portrayal of him.
“This entire country has been bullying me just because I’m a proud, gay thief,” Yang’s Santos said during the sketch. “But what else is new? America hates to see a Latina queen winning.”
Times staff writer Erin B. Logan contributed to this report.
Politics
Video: White House Urges Congress to Approve More Funding for Ukraine

new video loaded: White House Urges Congress to Approve More Funding for Ukraine
transcript
transcript
White House Urges Congress to Approve More Funding for Ukraine
Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said that improper funding would jeopardize Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia.
-
Without congressional action, the administration will run out of resources by the end of the year to procure more weapons and equipment for Ukraine, and to provide equipment from U.S. military stocks without impacting our own military readiness. The resources Congress has provided for Ukraine and other national security needs have halted Russia’s advances in Ukraine, helped Ukraine achieve significant military victories, including taking back more than 50 percent of the territory that Russia had previously occupied. And by revitalizing our own defense industrial base, jumpstarting and expanding production lines and supporting good-paying jobs across the country. Now it’s up to Congress. Congress has to decide whether to continue to support the fight for freedom in Ukraine as part of the 50-nation coalition that President Biden has built, or whether Congress will ignore the lessons we’ve learned from history and let Putin prevail. It is that simple. It is that stark a choice. And we hope that Congress on a bipartisan basis, will make the right choice.
Recent episodes in Ukraine Crisis
-
Culture1 week ago
Finding a Moral Center in This Era of War
-
Technology1 week ago
The best Black Friday deals you can still get for under $25
-
Politics1 week ago
Trudeau blames ‘right-wing, American MAGA’ after Canadian Conservative Party votes against Ukraine bill
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago
‘Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé’ Review: An Intimate Yet Extravagant Exploration Of Beyoncé’s Latest World Tour
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago
Dream Scenario movie review: (un)likely boogeyman – FlickFilosopher.com
-
Politics1 week ago
Senator presses Army over backpay, religious freedoms for soldiers discharged for COVID vaccine refusal
-
Politics1 week ago
Biden tries to hide away in Nantucket but can’t escape pro-Palestinian protesters
-
Science7 days ago
Backlash to affirmative action hits pioneering maternal health program for Black women