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US President Biden to give State of the Union speech in February
United States President Joe Biden has introduced he’ll ship the annual State of the Union deal with on February 7, giving him an opportunity to current his legislative agenda earlier than each chambers of Congress.
As per custom, Republican Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy issued a proper invitation on Friday for the president to talk, which Biden accepted later that day.
“The brand new yr brings a brand new Congress, and with it, a duty to work in direction of an economic system that’s sturdy, a nation that’s protected, a future that’s constructed on freedom, and a authorities that’s accountable,” McCarthy wrote in his invitation.
The speech would be the first time Biden addresses a joint session of Congress since Republicans took management of the US Home of Representatives within the new yr.
The outcomes of the November midterm elections left the US with a break up Congress: The Home is now in Republican arms, whereas Biden’s Democratic occasion retains management of the Senate.
The Republican-controlled Home is anticipated to dam progress on Biden’s legislative agenda for the rest of his first time period in workplace, which ends in 2024. Biden, nonetheless, has expressed hope that legislators will work in direction of options to a number of the issues dealing with the nation.
Earlier this yr, Biden appealed for bipartisanship in an look with Senate minority chief Mitch McConnell, a Republican, in Kentucky.
“We disagree on lots of issues,” Biden stated of his relationship with McConnell. However, he added, their collaboration on infrastructure spending “sends an vital message to all the nation: we will work collectively”.
These hopes for bipartisanship face an more and more empowered proper flank of the Republican Get together, which has signalled a confrontational stance in direction of the Democratic president.
McCarthy’s election to the speakership earlier this month, when he turn out to be the presiding officer within the Home, got here at the price of quite a few concessions to far-right voices in his occasion.
After a historic 15 votes, McCarthy earned the gavel. And within the days since, the Home has proceeded to vote on priorities outlined through the speakership negotiations.
On Wednesday, the Home launched a long-promised investigation into Biden and his household, zeroing in on monetary transactions and questions on his son, Hunter Biden.
Biden has additionally confronted scrutiny over his dealing with of categorised paperwork, with McCarthy calling for a congressional investigation. The US Justice Division has already appointed a particular counsel to conduct a probe.
Immigration has likewise confirmed to be a flashpoint between the Biden administration and the Republican occasion, with Biden making his first go to to the US-Mexico border on Sunday amid criticism over a rise in undocumented refugee crossings.
And within the coming months, Biden faces a confrontation with Home Republicans over will increase to the debt ceiling, the restrict set on federal borrowing.
Because it approaches that debt restrict, the US authorities might must droop its features and providers. The Bipartisan Coverage Heart estimates that the Treasury Division may cease investments in some federal pension funds as quickly as this week.
Some Home Republicans have already promised to oppose any improve to the debt ceiling, with South Carolina’s Ralph Norman calling it a “non-negotiable merchandise”.
However Biden’s White Home has taken a powerful line on future haggling. “Makes an attempt to take advantage of the debt ceiling as leverage is not going to work. There can be no hostage-taking,” White Home Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated.
As he heads into February’s State of the Union, Biden additionally faces stress from inside his occasion, for instance within the wake of latest restrictions for asylum seekers.
With extra formidable coverage objectives like expanded gun management and local weather change motion prone to stall within the divided Congress, the president might use February’s speech to focus on key victories throughout his first years in workplace.
They embrace giant spending payments that, amongst different issues, lowered the worth of prescribed drugs for some individuals on authorities healthcare, poured cash into updating the nation’s infrastructure and made investments in renewable power to fight local weather change.
The State of the Union is held annually within the US Home of Representatives.
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Israel targets Hezbollah leader Nasrallah in strike on Beirut headquarters
The Israeli Defense Forces targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan Hasrallah in a “precise strike” Friday on the central headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon.
IDF spokesperson Rear admiral Daniel Hagari said the headquarters were intentionally built in the heart of the Dahieh in Beirut under residential buildings “as part of Hezbollah’s strategy of using Lebanese people as human shields.”
Video and images show plumes of smoke rising over Beirut following the Israeli strikes. Witnesses say they heard multiple strikes. It is unclear if Nasrallah was struck.
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Hezbollah’s al-Manar television reported that four buildings were destroyed and there were many casualties in the multiple strikes, which marked an escalation of Israel’s conflict with the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Security sources in Lebanon said the attack targeted an area where top Hezbollah officials are usually based. It was the heaviest attack in Beirut in almost a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.
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“On Oct. 8, Hezbollah started attacking Israel after almost a year of Hezbollah firing rockets, missiles and suicide drones at Israeli civilians,” Hagari said.
“After almost a year of Israel warning the world and telling them that Hezbollah must be stopped, Israel is doing what every sovereign state in the world would do if they had a terror organization that seeks their destruction on their border, taking the necessary action to protect our people so that Israeli families can leave their homes safely and securely.”
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh says the U.S. was not involved in this operation and had no advance warning.
“Minister [Yoav] Gallant spoke with Secretary Austin as the operation was already underway,” Singh said. “This operation has happened within the last few hours. We are still assessing the event.”
The Pentagon also declined to speculate on whether the Hezbollah leader was still alive.
A White House official says that President Biden has been briefed on the operation.
The strikes hit Beirut shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue Israel’s attacks on Iranian-backed fighters in Lebanon in a closely watched United Nations speech, as hopes faded for a cease-fire that could head off an all-out regional war.
Netanyahu will cut short his stay in the U.S. and will depart for Israel Friday, Fox News sources say. This is understood to be a rare move by an Israeli prime minister, as Shabbat is a day of rest for Jews.
WATCH: SMOKE FROM STRIKE RISES OVER BEIRUT
The fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has drastically escalated over the last month as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has begun targeting the terrorist network’s hot spots and military storage units, all of which are strategically embedded within civilian villages.
Reuters contributed to this report.
World
Several explosions in Beirut as Israel says it attacked Hezbollah HQ
Israel says the attack targeted ‘the central headquarters’ of Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital.
Israel has carried out several air raids in Lebanon’s capital Beirut that it said targeted the headquarters of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
The series of massive explosions sent huge clouds of smoke soaring above the densely populated Haret Hreik neighbourhood in Dahiyeh, southern Beirut, around dusk on Friday.
The Israeli military said the attack targeted the Iran-aligned group’s “central headquarters”, which it said were “embedded under residential buildings in the heart of the Dahiyeh in Beirut”.
Several buildings in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood of Dahiyeh were reduced to rubble, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV reported. The blast rattled windows and shook houses some 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Beirut. Ambulances were seen heading to the scene, sirens wailing.
At least two people were killed and 76 others were wounded in the attack, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said, noting that this was a preliminary toll.
“The attack in Beirut’s Haret Hreik suburb has erased a complete block close to the international airport of Beirut, and around six to nine buildings were either completely or partially destroyed,” said Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Tyre in southern Lebanon.
“Israel has been working deliberately for the past weeks on hitting the southern suburb of Beirut, targeting Hezbollah commanders in different areas to dismantle the command chain of the group,” he added.
Israel has previously attacked targets in Dahiyeh four times over the last week, killing at least three senior Hezbollah military commanders.
But Friday’s attack was far more powerful, with multiple blasts shaking windows across the city, recalling Israeli air raids during the war it fought with Hezbollah in 2006.
The bombing came moments after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concluded his address to UN General Assembly delegates in New York, in which he pledged to keep up attacks against Hezbollah and fight until “total victory” in Gaza.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the attack showed Israel did not care about global calls for a Lebanon ceasefire.
Iran’s embassy in Lebanon said the attack represented a “serious escalation” and that the “perpetrator will be punished appropriately”.
A spokesperson for the Pentagon said the United States had no advance warning of the strike and that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as the operation was under way.
“The United States was not involved in this operation and we had no advanced warning,” spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.
It appeared to be the most powerful attack in almost a year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which have traded near-daily cross-border fire since October, when the Lebanese group said it would carry out attacks on Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid Israel’s war on the territory.
The fighting has sent tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border.
The Israeli military has escalated the conflict dramatically in recent days. At least 25 people were killed in Israeli attacks early on Friday, Health Minister Firass Abiad said, bringing the death toll in Lebanon this week to more than 720. He said the dead included dozens of women and children.
In his address to the UN General Assembly, Netanyahu said that operations against Hezbollah would “continue until we meet our objectives”.
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