# Browns kicker Hopkins 'unlikely' to play against Texans in playoff game because of hamstring injury
By **TOM WITHERS**
January 9, 2024. 8:42 PM EST

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**BEREA, Ohio (AP)** - Dustin Hopkins couldn't finish Cleveland's last game against Houston. The kicker won't even start the next one.

Hopkins is expected to sit out Saturday's wild-card playoff game against the Texans with a hamstring injury that hasn't healed since he hurt it while chasing a returner in Cleveland's win over the Texans on Dec. 24.

Coach Kevin Stefanksi said Tuesday that it was "unlikely" Hopkins will play. Hopkins, who was one of the NFL's most accurate kickers all season, missed the final two regular-season games with the injury.

Stefanski said Hopkins "is progressing, but I don't think he'll be ready for this week."

Hopkins injured his left, non-kicking leg while trying to run down Houston's Dameon Pierce, who returned a kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown. The Browns held off from placing him on injured reserve.

While Hopkins got hurt hustling, Stefanski said it would be hard to discourage any player in a similar situation.

"It's always that fine line, where you want to make a play for the team, you want to hustle, but you also don't want to put yourself in harm's way," he said. "So those are things we talk about, but you can't deny that our guys have great effort out there."

Losing Hopkins is a significant blow to the Browns. He's been one of Cleveland's most valuable players this season.

Hopkins is 33 of 36 on field-goal tries and made all eight attempts beyond 50 yards. Acquired just before the season in a trade with the Los Angeles Chargers, he's also made four game-winning kicks.

With Hopkins out, Riley Patterson will handle kicking duties for the Browns (11-6), who signed him to their practice squad on Dec. 25. Three days later, he made a 33-yard field goal as Cleveland clinched a playoff spot with a win over the New York Jets.

"I feel terrible for Dustin," Patterson said. "He has been amazing this year and could have very easily have gone to the Pro Bowl. I feel bad for him. I'm just here to fill in and help out any way that I can. So that's my main focus right now."

Patterson is 6 of 7 on extra points with Cleveland. He played in 13 games for Detroit, making 15 of 17 field goals and 35 of 37 PATs before being released.

Patterson kicked in two playoff games last season for Jacksonville and went 3 of 3 on field goals and 4 of 4 on extra points.

The 24-year-old said it was difficult being let go by the Lions, but he is grateful to land on a Browns team with high expectations.

"It's been enjoyable," Patterson said. "I was frustrated leaving Detroit, for sure, because I felt like I was a part of that team there. These guys have been so welcoming to me. Hopping on to a really great team with a bunch of really great guys in a fun locker room.

"I couldn't ask for anything more, so I feel like I'm a part of this team. I'm ready to help out with whatever they need, so I'm here."

Several other Browns players were kept out of practice Tuesday, including wide receiver Amari Cooper, who set a franchise record with 265 yards against the Texans last month. Cooper hurt his heel against the Texans and sat out the past two weeks.

Star defensive end Myles Garrett wasn't at practice for personal reasons.


# 2 boys who fell through ice on a Wisconsin pond last week have died, police say
January 9, 2024. 3:28 PM EST

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**SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. (AP)** - Two boys who were hospitalized last week after falling through the ice on a Madison-area pond have died, police said.

The boys, ages 8 and 6, were taken last Friday to a hospital in critical condition after first responders pulled them from a retention pond in Sun Prairie, police said.

Sun Prairie police Lt. Ryan Cox said Monday morning that one of the boys died over the weekend. Assistant Police Chief Shunta Boston said later Monday that the Dane County Medical Examiner's Office had confirmed that the second boy had died, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

Messages seeking information on whether autopsies had been completed on the boys and if they had been identified were left Tuesday with the medical examiner's office by The Associated Press.


# Tottenham signs Germany forward Timo Werner on loan from Leipzig
January 9, 2024. 7:19 PM EST

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**LONDON (AP)** - Tottenham signed Timo Werner on loan from Leipzig on Tuesday, giving the Germany forward another shot at the Premier League after his inconsistent stint with Chelsea.

The 27-year-old Werner joined Spurs on a six-month deal that included an option to make the transfer permanent this summer.

In the short term, Werner would plug a gap left by the departure of captain Son Heung-min to the Asian Cup with South Korea potentially until mid-February.

The move could also boost Werner's resumé ahead of the European Championship this summer in Germany.

Werner played for Chelsea from 2020-22 and helped the London club win the Champions League, but it was still an underwhelming stint in English soccer. He tallied 23 goals in 89 total appearances in his time at Stamford Bridge.

Werner returned to Leipzig in the summer of 2022 and scored 16 goals last season. But he's made only four starts under coach Marco Rose this campaign.

The speedy Werner said he was encouraged by his discussions with Spurs' Australian manager Ange Postecoglou.

"He gave me straight away the feeling that I need to join a club - what I want to feel when you talk to a manager - and also the tactics and the style, how he wants to play, how he lets the team play," he said. "For me, I thought straight away that it fits perfectly."

Financial details were not disclosed.


# Congressional leaders announce an agreement on spending levels, a key step to averting shutdown
By **KEVIN FREKING**
January 7, 2024. 7:08 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Congressional leaders have reached an agreement on overall spending levels for the current fiscal year that could help avoid a partial government shutdown later this month.

The agreement largely hews to spending caps for defense and domestic programs that Congress set as part of a bill to suspend the debt limit until 2025. But it does provide some concessions to House Republicans who viewed the spending restrictions in that agreement as insufficient.

In a letter to colleagues, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday the agreement would secure $16 billion in additional spending cuts from the previous agreement brokered by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden and is about $30 billion less than what the Senate was considering.

"This represents the most favorable budget agreement Republicans have achieved in over a decade," Johnson writes.

Biden said the agreement "moves us one step closer to preventing a needless government shutdown and protecting important national priorities."

"It reflects the funding levels that I negotiated with both parties and signed into law last spring," Biden said in a statement. "It rejects deep cuts to programs hardworking families count on, and provides a path to passing full-year funding bills that deliver for the American people and are free of any extreme policies."

The agreement speeds up the roughly $20 billion in cuts already agreed to for the Internal Revenue Service and rescinds about $6 billion in COVID relief money that had been approved but not yet spent, according to Johnson's letter.

"It's a good deal for Democrats and the country," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told colleagues in a briefing call.

Essentially, Democrats see the trade-offs they made as mild. In a description provided to reporters, they said the COVID savings would have "no significant impact on any current projects or activities in motion." And they said that moving all of the $20.2 billion in IRS cuts to this year instead of over two years would still leave the agency able to maintain "critical investments" that Congress provided in 2022. At the time, Congress provided the IRS with an additional $80 billion that could be spent over 10 years.

Overall, the agreement calls for $886 billion in defense funding. It would provide $772 billion in domestic, non-defense spending, when including $69 billion called for in a side deal to the debt ceiling bill that McCarthy had reached with the White House, Democrats said.

The most conservative House Republicans opposed the earlier debt ceiling agreement and even brought House proceedings to a halt for a few days to show their displeasure. Many were surely wanting additional concessions, but Democrats have been insistent on abiding by the debt ceiling agreement's spending caps, leaving Johnson in a difficult spot.

"It's even worse than we thought," the House Freedom Caucus said of the agreement in a tweet posted on X. "This is total failure."

Lawmakers needed an agreement on overall spending levels so that appropriators could write the bills that set line-by-line funding for agencies. Money is set to lapse Jan. 19 for some agencies and Feb. 2 for others.

The agreement is separate from the negotiations that are taking place to secure additional funding for Israel and Ukraine while also curbing restrictions on asylum claims at the U.S. border.

In a joint statement, Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries voiced their support for the agreement.

"It will also allow us to keep the investments for hardworking American families secured by the legislative achievements of President Biden and Congressional Democrats," Schumer and Jeffries said.

But they also warned House Republicans about trying to add conservative policy riders to the bills in the coming days, saying Democrats would not support "poison pill policy changes in any of the twelve appropriations bills put before the Congress."

Rep. Patrick McHenry, who helped lead the debt ceiling negotiations when McCarthy was speaker, noted that two-thirds of both parties in the House supported that agreement.

"This deal, which adheres to that framework, deserves equally as robust support," McHenry said.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tweeted that he was encouraged that leaders identified a "path toward completing" the spending bills. It was a cautious recognition that some obstacles could lie ahead.

"America faces serious national security challenges, and Congress must act quickly to deliver the full-year resources this moment requires," McConnell said.


# The Pentagon adds new details about Austin's secretive hospital stay and the delay in telling Biden
By **TARA COPP**, **COLLEEN LONG**, and **KEVIN FREKING**
January 7, 2024. 6:45 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - The Pentagon released new details Sunday about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's continued hospitalization, saying he had a medical procedure Dec. 22, went home a day later and was admitted to intensive care Jan. 1 when he began experiencing severe pain.

The latest information came as members of both parties in Congress expressed sharp concerns about the secrecy of Austin's hospital stay and the fact that the president and other senior leaders were kept in the dark about it for days.

The statement, released by Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, did not, however, provide any details about the medical procedure or what actually happened on Monday to require Austin to be in intensive care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Ryan said Austin was placed in the hospital's intensive care unit "due to his medical needs, but then remained in that location in part due to hospital space considerations and privacy."

The Pentagon's failure to disclose Austin's hospitalization, including to President Joe Biden, the National Security Council and top Pentagon leaders, for days reflects a stunning lack of transparency about his illness, how serious it was and when he may be released. Such secrecy, when the United States is juggling myriad national security crises, runs counter to normal practice with the president and other senior U.S. officials and Cabinet members.

Ryder said the National Security Council and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks were not notified until Thursday, Jan. 4, that Austin had been hospitalized since Jan. 1. Ryder said Austin's chief of staff, Kelly Magsamen, was ill and "unable to make notifications before then." He said she informed Hicks and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, on Thursday.

Once notified, Hicks began preparing statements to send to Congress and made plans to return to Washington. Hicks was in Puerto Rico on leave but had communications equipment with her to remain in contact and had already been tasked with some secretary-level duties on Tuesday.

The Pentagon did not say if Hicks was given an explanation on Tuesday for why she was assuming some of Austin's duties, but temporary transfers of authority are not unusual and are often done without detailed explanations. Hicks decided not to return after she was informed that Austin would resume full control on Friday.

Biden was told of Austin's medical stay on Thursday by Sullivan, according to three people with knowledge of the hospitalization who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

In a statement issued Saturday evening, Austin took responsibility for the delays in notification.

"I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better," he said, acknowledging the concerns about transparency. "But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure."

Austin, 70, remains hospitalized and officials have been unable to say how long he will be at Walter Reed. In his statement, Austin said he is on the mend and is looking forward to returning to the Pentagon soon, but he provided no other details about his ailment.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the episode erodes trust in the Biden administration and called on the department to provide lawmakers with a "full accounting of the facts immediately."

"I am glad to hear Secretary Austin is in improved condition and I wish him a speedy recovery," Wicker said in a statement. "However, the fact remains that the Department of Defense deliberately withheld the Secretary of Defense's medical condition for days. That is unacceptable."

It's not just Republicans expressing alarm. In a joint statement, Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Adam Smith, D-Wash., said they were "concerned with how the disclosure of the Secretary's condition was handled."

Among the questions they had were what the medical procedure was and what the resulting complications were, how and when the delegation of his responsibilities was made, and the reason for the delay in notification to the president and lawmakers. Rogers is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and Smith is the panel's top Democrat.

"Transparency is vitally important," said the two lawmakers. "Austin" must provide these additional details on his health and the decision-making process that occurred in the past week as soon as possible."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced support for Austin at a news conference in Qatar on Sunday.

"He is an extraordinary leader in this country, in uniform and now out of uniform," Blinken said. "And it's been a highlight of my service to be able to serve alongside him,." He added: "I'm very much looking forward to see him fully recovered and working side by side in the year ahead."

Ryder said Austin is able to do his full duties, has secure communications at Walter Reed, and is in contact with his senior team, getting updates and providing guidance. He said he doesn't know if Austin will do in-person briefings this coming week.

The Pentagon Press Association, which represents journalists who cover the Defense Department, sent a letter of protest on Friday evening, calling the delay in alerting the public "an outrage."

"At a time when there are growing threats to U.S. military service members in the Middle East and the U.S. is playing key national security roles in the wars in Israel and Ukraine, it is particularly critical for the American public to be informed about the health status and decision-making ability of its top defense leader," the group said in its letter.

Other senior U.S. leaders have been much more transparent about hospital stays. When Attorney General Merrick Garland went in for a routine medical procedure in 2022, his office informed the public a week in advance and outlined how long he was expected to be out and when he would return to work.


# The US sees a drop in illegal border crossings after Mexico increases enforcement
By **VALERIE GONZALEZ** and **ELLIOT SPAGAT**
January 7, 2024. 1:10 PM EST

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**EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP)** - Daniel Bermudez's family had fled Venezuela and was headed to the U.S. to seek asylum when the freight train they were riding through Mexico was stopped by immigration officials.

His wife tried to explain that her family had permission to go to the U.S. Instead, they flew her to Mexico's southern border as part of a surge of enforcement actions that U.S. officials say have contributed to a sharp drop in illegal border crossings.

In addition to forcing migrants from trains, Mexico also resumed flying and busing them to the southern part of the country and started flying some home to Venezuela.

Even if temporary, the decrease in illegal crossings is welcome news for the White House. President Joe Biden's administration is locked in talks with Senate negotiators over restricting asylum and $110 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel hangs in the balance.

Bermudez said his wife became separated from her family when she talked to authorities as he gathered his stepchild and their belongings. He wanted to run, but his wife said they shouldn't because they had followed procedure by making an appointment with U.S. immigration authorities.

"I told her, `Don't trust them. Let's go into the brush,'" Bermudez said, adding that other migrants had fled. He recalled her telling him, "Why are they sending us back if we have an appointment?"

Last week, Bermudez, his stepchild and two other relatives were waiting for her at a shelter in the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras as she took a bus back in hopes of still making the date.

Mexico's immigration agency sent at least 22 flights from its border region with the U.S. to southern cities during the last 10 days of December, according to Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data. Most were from Piedras Negras, which is across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas.

Mexico also ran two removal flights to Venezuela with 329 migrants. The stretch was punctuated by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Mexico City on Dec. 28 to confront unprecedented crossings to the United States.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said a financial shortfall that had led the immigration agency to suspend deportations and other operations was resolved. He did not offer details.

Arrests for illegal crossings into the U.S. from Mexico fell to about 2,500 on Monday, down from more than 10,000 on several days in December, according to U.S. authorities. In the Border Patrol's busiest area, arrests totaled 13,800 during the seven-day period ending Friday, down 29% from 19,400 two weeks earlier, according to Tucson, Arizona, sector chief John Modlin.

The drop led U.S. Customs and Border Protection to reopen the port of entry in Lukeville, Arizona, on Thursday after a monthlong closure on the most direct route from Phoenix to its nearest beaches. The U.S. also restored operations at Eagle Pass and three other locations.

Merchants in Eagle Pass, a city of about 30,000 people, saw sales take "a major hit" while a bridge was closed to vehicle traffic so border agents could be reassigned to help process migrants, Maverick County Judge Ramsey English Cantu said.

"We survive pretty much from everything that comes from the Mexican side," he said.

Last month, CBP resumed freight crossings in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, after a five-day shutdown that U.S. officials said was a response to as many as 1,000 migrants riding atop a single train through Mexico before trying to walk across the border.

In Piedras Negras on Thursday, Casa del Migrante housed about 200 migrants, down from as high as 1,500 recently.

Among them was Manuel Rodriguez, 40, who said his family will miss their appointment to seek asylum that was made through the U.S. government's CBP One app. He said the appointment was registered with his in-laws, who were deported to Venezuela after authorities boarded the bus they were riding.

"It was all under her name and she lost everything," Rodriguez said.

Proposals being discussed by the White House and Senate negotiators include a new expulsion authority that would deny rights to seek asylum if illegal border crossings reach a certain threshold. Any such authority would almost certainly depend on Mexico's willingness to take back non-Mexicans who enter the U.S illegally, something it does now on a limited scale.

Mexico's support was critical to defunct Trump-era policies that forced 70,000 asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court and to deny rights to seek asylum during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., cautioned against overstating Mexico's role in the recent drop in traffic. Panama reported that less than 25,000 migrants walked through the Darién jungle in December, about half of October's level and a sign that fewer people are leaving South America for the U.S. Migration usually drops in December amid holidays and cold weather.

"The U.S. is able to lean on Mexico for a short-term enforcement effect on migration at the border, but the long-term effects are not always clear," Selee said.


# Officers in Colorado are investigating an apparent altercation between Rep. Boebert and ex-husband
By **THE ASSOCIATED PRESS**
January 8, 2024. 3:59 PM EST

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**SILT, Colorado (AP)** - An investigation is being conducted into an apparent altercation between U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and her ex-husband Jayson Boebert at a restaurant, police in Silt, Colorado, confirmed Sunday.

It's unclear what happened on Saturday, but Boebert's campaign released a statement Sunday in which she said she "didn't punch Jayson in the face and no one was arrested. I will be consulting with my lawyer about the false claims he made against me and evaluate all of my legal options."

Police Chief Mike Kite confirmed the investigation, but declined to release details, including who called police.

Officers planned to talk with witnesses and ask the restaurant owners for any video that might have captured what happened, Kite said.

The Miner's Claim restaurant issued a statement Monday saying it was cooperating in the investigation.

"Since the beginning, the Miner's Claim has fully cooperated with law enforcement and intends to continue until this matter is resolved," it said.

Jayson Boebert did not respond to a Facebook message from The Associated Press seeking comment, but told The Denver Post that he called police on Sunday morning to say he didn't want to press charges.

"I don't want nothing to happen," Jayson Boebert said. "Her and I were working through a difficult conversation."

Kite declined to say whether Jayson Boebert made that call.

"This is a sad situation for all and another reason I'm moving," Lauren Boebert's statement said.

Boebert, a Republican who has served two terms in the U.S. House representing the western side of Colorado, announced on Dec. 27 that she was switching congressional districts this year to run for a seat representing the eastern side of the state. The seat is open with the retirement of Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck.

In her current district, Boebert probably would have faced a Democratic challenger who nearly defeated her in the 2022 general election and who has far outraised her.

In September, Boebert and a guest were kicked out of a musical performance of "Beetlejuice" in Denver after guests complained they were vaping, singing, using phones and causing a disturbance. She later apologized.

In her relatively short time in Washington, Boebert built a national profile and has aligned with the extreme right wing of the GOP. Her assertive style has grabbed headlines, most famously when she heckled President Joe Biden during his 2022 State of the Union address.


# Senior Biden leaders and Pentagon officials unaware for days that defense secretary was hospitalized
By **LOLITA C. BALDOR**
January 6, 2024. 8:56 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Senior Biden administration leaders, top Pentagon officials and members of Congress were unaware for days that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had been hospitalized since Monday, U.S. officials said Saturday, as questions swirled about his condition and the secrecy surrounding it.

The Pentagon did not inform the White House National Security Council or top adviser Jake Sullivan of Austin's hospitalization at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, until Thursday, according to two administration officials. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The Pentagon's failure to disclose Austin's hospitalization for days reflects a stunning lack of transparency about his illness, how serious it was and when he may be released. Such secrecy, at a time when the United States is juggling myriad national security crises, runs counter to normal practice with the president and other senior U.S. officials and Cabinet members.

Still, President Joe Biden spoke with Austin on Saturday, and expressed confidence in him, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly about internal discussions and spoke on condition of anonymity.

In a statement issued Saturday evening, Austin took responsibility for the delays in notification.

"I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed. I commit to doing better," said Austin, acknowledging the concerns about transparency. "But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure."

Austin, 70, remained hospitalized due to complications following a minor elective medical procedure, his press secretary said, as it became increasingly clear how closely the Pentagon held information about his stay at Walter Reed. In his statement, Austin said he is on the mend and is looking forward to returning to the Pentagon soon, but he provided no other details about his ailment.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said the White House and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were notified about Austin's hospitalization, but he would not confirm when that notice happened.

A number of U.S. officials said Saturday that many of the most senior Pentagon service leaders were unaware until Friday that Austin was in the hospital. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Politico was the first to report the White House learned of his condition on Thursday.

Ryder said members of Congress were told late Friday afternoon, and other officials said lawmakers were informed after 5 p.m. It was not clear when key senior members of Austin's staff were told, but across the Pentagon, many staff found out when the department released a statement about Austin's hospital stay just minutes after 5 p.m. Many believed Austin was out on vacation for the week.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, who took over when Austin was hospitalized, was also away. A U.S. official said she had a communications setup with her in Puerto Rico that allowed her to do the job while Austin, who spent 41 years in the military and retired as a four-star Army general in 2016, was incapacitated.

Ryder said Saturday that Austin is recovering well and resumed his full duties Friday evening from his hospital bed. Asked why the hospital stay was kept secret for so long, Ryder said on Friday that it was an "evolving situation," and that due to privacy and medical issues, the Pentagon did not make Austin's absence public. Ryder declined to provide any other details about Austin's medical procedure or health.

"The Department of Defense deliberately withheld the Secretary of Defense's medical condition for days. That is unacceptable," said Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. "We are learning more every hour about the Department's shocking defiance of the law."

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, also criticized the delayed notice.

"The Secretary of Defense is the key link in the chain of command between the president and the uniformed military, including the nuclear chain of command, when the weightiest of decisions must be made in minutes," said Cotton in a statement, adding that if Austin didn't immediately tell the White House, "there must be consequences for this shocking breakdown."

The Pentagon Press Association, which represents media members who cover the Defense Department, sent a letter of protest on Friday evening to Ryder and Chris Meagher, the assistant defense secretary for public affairs.

"The fact that he has been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for four days and the Pentagon is only now alerting the public late on a Friday evening is an outrage," the PPA said in its letter. "At a time when there are growing threats to U.S. military service members in the Middle East and the U.S. is playing key national security roles in the wars in Israel and Ukraine, it is particularly critical for the American public to be informed about the health status and decision-making ability of its top defense leader."

Other senior U.S. leaders have been much more transparent about hospital stays. When Attorney General Merrick Garland went in for a routine medical procedure in 2022, his office informed the public a week in advance and outlined how long he was expected to be out and when he would return to work.

Austin's hospitalization comes as Iranian-backed militias have repeatedly launched drones, missiles and rockets at bases where U.S. troops are stationed in Iraq and Syria, leading the Biden administration to strike back on a number of occasions. Those strikes often involve sensitive, top-level discussions and decisions by Austin and other key military leaders.

The U.S. is also the chief organizer behind a new international maritime coalition using ships and other assets to patrol the southern Red Sea to deter persistent attacks on commercial vessels by Houthi militants in Yemen.

In addition, the administration, particularly Austin, has been at the forefront of the effort to supply weapons and training to Ukraine, and he's also been communicating frequently with the Israelis on their war against Hamas.


# Biden will address State of the Union in a moment the House speaker calls a great challenge for the US
By **SEUNG MIN KIM**
January 6, 2024. 12:59 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - President Joe Biden will give his annual State of the Union address on March 7.

In a letter sent to the White House on Saturday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., extended the formal invitation for Biden to speak to a joint session of Congress. Johnson said he was inviting Biden "in this moment of great challenge for our country." On X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Biden accepted. "Looking forward to it, Mr. Speaker," the president said.

This will be the first State of the Union for Johnson as speaker, who traditionally sits behind the president and to his left during the address to Congress. This year's speech will offer an opportunity for Biden to detail his broader vision and policy priorities as he campaigns for reelection in November.

Notably, Biden's address is scheduled for after a pair of critical deadlines to avert a government shutdown.

Funding for federal agencies that oversee programs for veterans, and on transportation, housing, agriculture and energy, is set to expire Jan. 19. Funding for the rest of the federal government, including the Pentagon, State Department and Homeland Security, will run out Feb. 2.

The annual address from the president to Congress is usually scheduled for late January or February.

Biden's March 7 address would be the latest that a president has delivered the State of the Union since 1934, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt revived the practice of giving the annual speech in person. Before this year, the latest that a State of the Union had been given was in 2022, when Biden delivered it on March 1 of that year, according to the Congressional Research Service.

In last year's State of the Union, Biden repeatedly declared that he would "finish the job" on critical parts of his agenda that remained incomplete, such as capping insulin costs for all Americans, taking more aggressive actions on climate change, banning so-called assault-style weapons and pushing for higher taxes on corporations and the rich.

It was also his first State of the Union in front of a divided Congress, and some House Republicans interrupted and jeered at Biden, particularly when he spoke about efforts from some GOP lawmakers to cut Medicare and Social Security.


# On Jan. 6 many Republicans blamed Trump for the Capitol riot. Now they endorse his presidential bid
By **LISA MASCARO**
January 6, 2024. 10:00 AM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - In the follow-up to their 2018 bestseller "How Democracies Die," authors Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky write about three rules that political parties must follow: accept the results of fair elections, reject the use of violence to gain power and break ties to extremists.

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, they write, only one U.S. political party "violated all three."

Saturday marks the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and Donald Trump, the former president, is far-and-away the leading Republican candidate in 2024. He still refuses to acknowledge his earlier loss to President Joe Biden. Far from rejecting the rioters, he has suggested he would pardon some of those who have been convicted of violent crimes. Rather than distance himself from extremists, he welcomes them at his rallies and calls them patriots.

And Trump is now backed by many of the Republican leaders who fled for their lives and hid from the rioters, even some who had condemned Trump. Several top GOP leaders have endorsed his candidacy.

The support for Trump starkly highlights the divisions in the aftermath of the deadly storming of the Capitol and frames the question about whose definition of governance will prevail - or if democracy will prevail at all.

"If our political leaders do not stand up in defense of democracy, our democracy won't be defended," said Levitsky, one of the Harvard professors whose new book is "Tyranny of the Minority."

"There's no country in the world, no country on Earth in history, where the politicians abdicated democracy but the institutions held," he told The Associated Press. "People have to defend democracy."

The third anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack comes during the most convulsive period in American politics in at least a generation, with Congress barely able to keep up with the basics of governing, and the start of the presidential nominating contests just over a week away.

Trump's persistent false claims that the election of 2020 was stolen - which has been rejected in at least 60 court cases, every state election certification and by the former president's one-time attorney general - continue to animate the presidential race as he eyes a rematch with Biden.

Instead, Trump now faces more than 90 criminal charges in federal and state courts, including the federal indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith that accused Trump of conspiring to defraud the U.S. over the election.

Biden, speaking Friday near Pennsylvania's Valley Forge, commemorated Jan. 6, saying on that day "we nearly lost America - lost it all."

While the Congress returned that night to certify the election results and show the world democracy was still standing, Biden said Trump is now trying to revise the narrative of what happened that day - calling the rioters "patriots" and promising to pardon them. And he said some Republicans in Congress were complicit.

"When the attack on Jan. 6 happened there was no doubt about the truth," Biden said. "Now these MAGA voices - who know the truth about Trump and Jan. 6 - have abandoned the truth and abandoned the democracy."

At a quieter Capitol, without much ceremony planned for Saturday, it will be the last time the anniversary will pass before Congress is called upon again, on Jan. 6, 2025, to certify the results of the presidential election -- democracy once more put to the test.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat who led Trump's impeachment over the insurrection, said Biden's 306-232 electoral victory in 2020 remains "the hard, inescapable, irradicable fact that Donald Trump and his followers have not been able to accept - to this day."

Raskin envisions a time when there will be a Capitol exhibit, and tours for visitors, to commemorate what happened Jan. 6, 2021. Five people died during the riot and the immediate aftermath, including Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by police.

All told,140 police officers were injured in the Capitol siege, including U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick who died later. Several others died later by suicide.

One officer, Harry Dunn, has announced he is running for Congress to "ensure it never happens again."

Trump's decision to reject the results of the 2020 election was the only time Americans have not witnessed the peaceful transfer of presidential power, a hallmark of U.S. democracy.

A giant portrait of George Washington resigning his military commission hangs in the U.S. Capitol, a symbol of the voluntary relinquishing of power - a move that was considered breathtaking at the time. He later was elected the first U.S. president.

Trump opened his first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign with a popular recording of the J6 Prison Choir --- riot defendants singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" recorded over a phone line from jail, interspersed with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

More than 1,200 people have been charged in the riot, with nearly 900 convicted, including leaders of the extremist groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who are serving lengthy terms for seditious conspiracy.

Trump has called Jan. 6 defendants "hostages" and said there was so much love at the "Stop the Steal" rally he held near the White House that day before he encouraged the mob to march down Pennsylvania Avenue, assuring he would be with them at the Capitol, though he never did join.

Allies of Trump scoff at the narrative of Jan. 6 that has emerged. Mike Davis, a Trump ally sometimes mentioned as a future attorney general, has mocked the Democrats and others for turning Jan. 6 into a "religious holiday."

Republican Kevin McCarthy, who went on to become House speaker, had called Jan. 6 the "saddest day" he ever had in Congress. But McCarthy, R-Calif., retired last month he endorsed Trump for president and said he would consider joining his cabinet.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has said he would back whomever becomes the Republican Party nominee, despite a scathing speech at the time in which he called Trump's actions "disgraceful" and said the rioters "had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth because he was angry he lost an election."

Asked about Trump's second-term agenda, GOP lawmakers brushed off his admission that he would be a dictator on "day one."

"He's joking," said Trump ally Byron Donalds, R-Fla.

"Just bravado," said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn. "There's still checks and balances."

Levitsky said when he and his colleague wrote their earlier book, they believed that the Republicans in Congress would be a "bulwark against Trump."

But with so many of the Trump detractors having retired or been voted out of office, "We were much less pessimistic than we are today."


# Trump returns to Iowa 10 days before the caucuses with a commanding lead over the Republican field
By **HANNAH FINGERHUT**, **JILL COLVIN**, and **STEVE PEOPLES**
January 5, 2024. 11:14 PM EST

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**SIOUX CENTER, Iowa (AP)** - Former President Donald Trump urged his supporters Friday evening not to be complacent in the face of a commanding polling lead as he kicked off the sprint to the Iowa caucuses with his first events of the election year.

"Ten days from now, the people of this state are going to cast the most important vote of your entire lives," Trump told several hundred supporters gathered in Sioux Center. He implored them to turn out on caucus night, warning, "Bad things happen when you sit back."

Trump held a pair of commit-to-caucus events, one in the far northwest corner of the state on the border with South Dakota and one in north-central Mason City. He'll spend Saturday in Newton in central Iowa before heading to Clinton in the state's far east.

The visit came the day before the third anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021, when a violent mob of Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as part of a desperate bid to keep him in power after his 2020 election loss. Trump did not acknowledge the date Friday, but railed against the treatment of those who have been jailed for participating in the riot, labeling them "hostages" and saying it will "go down as one of the saddest things in the history of our country."

More than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes for their participation, including felonies like assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy.

Trump also asked at one point in Sioux Center whether there was anyone in the friendly room who wasn't planning to vote for him, but then quickly warned them not to raise their hands.

"They're going to say he incited an insurrection," he said to laughs.

And over and over, he repeated his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen - the same lies that motivated the rioters.

Trump also spent much of the night lashing out at President Joe Biden, who earlier Friday delivered a speech warning that Trump's efforts to retake the White House pose a grave threat to the country and democracy.

"We all know who Donald Trump is," Biden said near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where George Washington and the Continental Army spent a bleak winter nearly 250 years ago. "The question we have to answer is: Who are we?"

Biden said Jan. 6 marked a moment where "we nearly lost America - lost it all."

Trump, who faces 91 criminal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his loss to Biden and other state and federal cases, continued to argue that it is, instead, Biden who poses the threat.

"He is a danger to democracy," Trump charged in Mason City.

The former president and his campaign have spent months accusing Biden and other Democrats of using the justice system to damage their chief political rival. There is no evidence that Biden has influenced the investigations led by state officials or the Justice Department - which has also indicted his son, Hunter Biden, twice.

"Joe Biden's record is an unbroken streak of weakness, incompetence, corruption, and failure," Trump told the crowd in Sioux Center. "That's why Crooked Joe is staging his pathetic fearmongering campaign event in Pennsylvania today."

Trump's team is hoping for a knockout win in Iowa on Jan. 15 that will deny his rivals an opportunity to seize momentum and set the table for him to lock up the nomination by the spring. They also hope to turn out a wave of new voters who have never caucused before in a show of strength ahead of an increasingly likely general election rematch against Biden.

"You have to get out and vote because it sets the tone. It even sets the tone, frankly, for November," Trump said in Mason City.

While he remains far ahead in Iowa and other early state and national polls, Trump also continued to lash out at his top Republican rivals, unleashing some of his most pointed attacks to date against former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has seen growing support in recent months following a series of well-reviewed debate performances.

Trump tried to cast both her and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was once the only rival he criticized, as "establishment pawns," alleging they would "sell" voters "out." DeSantis, who has staked his campaign on Iowa, entered the race with sky-high expectations but has struggled to gain traction against Trump.

"Sadly, the establishment losers and sellouts lagging far behind us in the Republican primary cannot be trusted on taxes, on trade, or anything else," Trump charged. "They'll betray you just like they betrayed me."

Haley's campaign has been celebrating Trump's recent attention - including a new attack ad - arguing it reflects his growing concern that she is gaining on him.

DeSantis and Haley needled each other at their own events in Iowa Friday, with DeSantis leaning into his opponent's flippant comment about the role of Iowa among the early-voting states. DeSantis, appearing with Texas Rep. Chip Roy and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, hounded Haley for "insulting" Iowans by suggesting New Hampshire voters could "correct" the caucus results.

Haley, who held morning and evening events in Des Moines, described the comment as good-natured ribbing among early-voting states. She is the former governor of South Carolina, which will vote third.

DeSantis, campaigning across central and northeastern parts of the state, also repeatedly told his crowds of about 100 people that Trump failed to follow through with his previous campaign promises and accused the former president of running a campaign all about himself.

While Trump last visited Iowa before Christmas, his allies have been fanning out across the state, holding their own events on his behalf. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who are both considered potential vice presidential picks, have been working to get out the vote in recent days, as has his son Eric Trump.

Trump's team has repeatedly argued that any margin of victory larger than 12 percentage points would be a historic win in an open caucus. Trump lost the state in 2016 to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz but ultimately won the nomination and the presidency.

This time, Trump is facing criminal charges across four separate jurisdictions. But those charges have only solidified his support.

Michael Grevengoed, 34, from Doon, Iowa, is planning to caucus for Trump on Jan. 15 and said he isn't concerned about Trump's legal woes.

"They're brought against him, yes, and he may be indicted for them, but I don't think they're legitimate reasons for him not to be president," he said.

In addition to his criminal charges, Trump is also facing efforts to remove him from the ballot over his attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss. The Supreme Court said Friday it would take up the question of whether states can bar him from the ballot.

Marj Wichers, who lives in Sioux Center and said her backseat was full of Trump gear she bought for her grandchildren outside the venue, criticized efforts to disqualify him.

"He's got to get back in there," said Wichers, after standing in line for four hours to attend the first event. "If they don't want to put him on the ballot, I'll write his name down."

Wichers, 58, said she works the night shift so she might not be able to caucus on Jan. 15.

"I think he's going to get in anyway, so I'm not too worried about it," she said.


# Blaine Luetkemeyer, longtime Missouri Republican congressman, won't seek reelection
By **JIM SALTER**
January 5, 2024. 11:45 AM EST

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Missouri Republican U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer will not seek reelection, though his departure in what is considered a safe Republican district is unlikely to impact the balance of power after the 2024 election.

Luetkemeyer, 71, announced his decision Thursday. He joins a growing list of House members who plan to retire or seek other office.

"It has been an honor to serve the great people of the Third Congressional District and state of Missouri for these past several years," Luetkemeyer said in a statement. "However, after a lot of thoughtful discussion with my family, I have decided to not file for re-election and retire at the end of my term in December."

Luetkemeyer, who was first elected in 2008, represents a large geographic area that stretches from the western suburbs of St. Louis to Jefferson City and Columbia in central Missouri. Luetkemeyer narrowly defeated Democrat Judy Baker in 2008, but in every subsequent election has won the general election by more than 30 percentage points.

The Cook Political Report lists the 3rd District as solid Republican.

Missouri politics have moved decidedly to the right over the past two decades. Six of the state's eight members of the U.S. House are Republicans, as are all of the statewide officeholders.

Nationally, about two dozen Democrats have indicated they won't seek reelection, with half running for another elected office. Luetkemeyer is among about 15 Republicans have said they are not seeking another term, with three seeking elected office elsewhere.

Republican exits have involved higher-profile lawmakers.

Rep. George Santos of New York became only the third lawmaker to be expelled by colleagues since the Civil War. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California was the first speaker to be removed from that office by his colleagues. He opted to leave effective Dec. 31 rather than serve among the rank-and-file.

But the departure of a handful of Democrats in competitive districts has Republicans optimistic that they have the early edge in determining which party controls the House after the 2024 elections.


# Florida man charged with threatening to kill US Rep Eric Swalwell and his children
January 4, 2024. 3:45 PM EST

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**WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP)** - A South Florida man threatened to kill U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell and his children in a series of voicemails left at the California Democrat's Washington office last month, federal prosecutors said.

Michael Shapiro, 72, of Greenacres, Florida, was arrested Wednesday morning on a charge of transmitting a threatening communication, according to court records. He made his initial appearance in West Palm Beach federal court, where a bond of $250,000 was set.

According to a criminal complaint, Shapiro left five voicemail messages at Swalwell's office D.C. office on Dec. 19. The complaint doesn't name the member of Congress, but Swalwell confirmed that the messages were left for him in a social media post on Wednesday.

"No threat is going to stop me from representing my constituents," Swalwell said. "MAGA Republicans have chosen violence over voting and this is what it looks like."

In one of the messages, Shapiro stated that he was going to "come after you and kill you," according to the complaint. In another message, he stated that he was going to "come and kill your children," officials said.

Shapiro also accused Swalwell of being a Chinese spy, despite multiple investigations revealing no evidence of such activity. Suspected spy, Christine Fang, came into contact with Swalwell's campaign as he was first running for Congress in 2012 and participated in fundraising for his 2014 campaign.

Federal investigators alerted Swalwell to their concerns and briefed Congress about Fang in 2015, at which point Swalwell says he cut off contact with her. The House Ethics Committee began a probe of Swalwell's connection to Fang in 2021, but the probe ended last year without finding any wrongdoing.

Shapiro placed the threatening calls from his home in South Florida, investigators said. The complaint also noted that Shapiro pleaded guilty in federal court in 2019 for making threatening communications to another victim.

A defense attorney for Shapiro didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment from The Associated Press.


# Speaker Johnson demands hard-line policies during a border visit as Ukraine aid hangs in the balance
By **VALERIE GONZALEZ** and **STEPHEN GROVES**
January 3, 2024. 6:44 PM EST

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**EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP)** - U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson led about 60 fellow Republicans in Congress on a visit Wednesday to the Mexican border to demand hard-line immigration policies in exchange for backing President Joe Biden's emergency wartime funding request for Ukraine. He expressed serious doubts about whether he would support a bipartisan compromise.

The trip to Eagle Pass, Texas, came as the Senate engages in delicate negotiations in hopes of striking a deal on border policies that could unlock Senate GOP support for Biden's $110 billion package for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. security priorities.

But Johnson, R-La., told The Associated Press during the border tour that he was holding firmly to the policies of a bill passed by House Republicans in May without a single Democratic vote. The bill, H.R. 2, would revive many of the policies pursued by former President Donald Trump, build more of the border wall and impose new restrictions on asylum seekers. Democrats called the legislation "cruel" and "anti-immigrant," and Biden promised a veto.

"If it looks like H.R. 2, we'll talk about it," Johnson said of any border legislation that emerges from the Senate.

With the number of illegal crossings into the United States topping 10,000 on several days last month, Eagle Pass has been at the center of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's Operation Lone Star, his nearly $10 billion initiative that has tested the federal government's authority over immigration and elevated the political fight over the issue.

The GOP House members touted their event as the largest congressional border trip ever. They traveled in two large buses beneath an international bridge in Eagle Pass where just two weeks ago illegal crossings prompted a large federal response that included closing railroad traffic and creating a large field for processing migrants. By Wednesday, the field sat empty with only stakes in the ground and orange fencing.

At a news conference, Johnson suggested he could use a looming government funding deadline as further leverage.

"If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin with defending America's national security," he said. Johnson added: "We want to get the border closed and secured first."

Biden has expressed willingness to make policy compromises as the historic number of migrants crossing the border is an increasing challenge for his 2024 reelection campaign. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House staff have been involved in the Senate negotiations.

"We've got to do something," Biden told reporters Tuesday night. He said Congress should approve his national security proposal because it also includes money for managing the influx of migrants. "They ought to give me the money I need to protect the border," he said.

Administration officials have criticized Johnson's trip as a political ploy that will do little to solve the problem. White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said Republicans were compromising national security by threatening to shut down the government and delaying approval of funding for additional border security.

"When they're at the border, they're going to see the magnitude of the problem and why we have said now for about three decades, their broken immigration system is in desperate need of legislative reform," Mayorkas told CNN on Wednesday. "So we are focused on the solutions, and we hope that they will return to Washington and focus on the solutions as well."

House Republicans also contend that Mayorkas' management of the border has amounted to a dereliction of his duties and they are moving ahead with rare impeachment proceedings against a Cabinet member, with a first committee hearing on the matter scheduled for next week. Mayorkas told MSNBC he would cooperate with an inquiry.

During parts of December, border crossings in Eagle Pass, as well as other locations, swamped the resources of Customs and Border Protection officials. Authorities closed cargo rail crossings in Eagle Pass and El Paso for five days and shut down border crossings in the Arizona city of Lukeville.

Authorities say the numbers of migrants eased over the December holidays as part of a seasonal pattern. The border crossings are reopening, and arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico fell to about 2,500 on Monday, from more than 10,000 on several days in December, officials said.

"We need to fix the border. There's virtually unanimous agreement among Democrats and Republicans about that," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. He added: "Everyone's going to have to give something to get this done."

Republicans are pressuring Biden and Democrats to accept strict border measures, and they see the high number of migrants arriving at the border as a political weakness for the president.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters in Kentucky on Tuesday that in a conversation with 81-year-old Biden, he made the case: "You can't do anything about how old you are, you can't do anything about inflation, but this is something that's measurable that you could claim credit for."

McConnell also said he was approaching the talks with "optimism that somehow we will get this all together and we're giving it our best shot."

Sen. James Lankford, the Oklahoma Republican negotiating the Senate agreement, called H.R. 2 "a great bill," but said it was not realistic to expect the president or Senate Democrats to support the measures.

Senate negotiators have focused on tougher asylum protocols for migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, bolstering border enforcement with more personnel and high-tech systems, and enforcement measures that would kick in if the number of daily crossings passed a certain threshold.

Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz, Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Lankford met Wednesday afternoon and said they were trying to agree on legislative text they could present to their colleagues. Sinema said the group was "closing in" on an agreement, but technical work remained before Congress returns to Washington next week.

"We're going to work out a bill, if we're successful, that will have Republican and Democratic votes," said Murphy, the chief Democratic negotiator.

Murphy has raised concern that the longer the talks draw out, the longer it leaves Ukraine's defenses hanging without assured support from the U.S. in the war with Russia.

The Pentagon in late December announced what officials say could be the final package of military aid for Ukraine if Congress does not approve Biden's funding request. The weapons, worth up to $250 million, include air munitions and other missiles, artillery, anti-armor systems, ammunition, demolition and medical equipment and parts.

Russia has unleashed a flurry of missile and drone strikes on Ukraine in the new year.


# The Supreme Court is allowing Idaho to enforce its strict abortion ban, even in medical emergencies
By **MARK SHERMAN**
January 5, 2024. 9:40 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - The Supreme Court on Friday allowed Idaho to enforce its strict abortion ban, even in medical emergencies, while a legal fight continues.

The justices said they would hear arguments in April and put on hold a lower court ruling that had blocked the Idaho law in hospital emergencies, based on a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration.

The Idaho case gives the court its second major abortion dispute since the justices in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to severely restrict or ban abortion. The court also in the coming months is hearing a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration's rules for obtaining mifepristone, one of two medications used in the most common method of abortion in the United States.

In the case over hospital emergencies, the Biden administration has argued that hospitals that receive Medicare funds are required by federal law to provide emergency care, potentially including abortion, no matter if there's a state law banning abortion.

The administration issued guidance about the federal law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, two weeks after the high court ruling in 2022. The Democratic administration sued Idaho a month later.

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Idaho agreed with the administration. But in a separate case in Texas, a judge sided with the state.

In a statement Friday night, President Joe Biden objected to the high court's decision and said his administration "will continue to defend a woman's ability to access emergency care under federal law."

Idaho makes it a crime with a prison term of up to five years for anyone who performs or assists in an abortion.

The administration argues that EMTALA requires health care providers to perform abortions for emergency room patients when needed to treat an emergency medical condition, even if doing so might conflict with a state's abortion restrictions.

Those conditions include severe bleeding, preeclampsia and certain pregnancy-related infections.

"For certain medical emergencies, abortion care is the necessary stabilizing treatment," Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in an administration filing at the Supreme Court.

The state argued that the administration was misusing a law intended to prevent hospitals from dumping patients and imposing "a federal abortion mandate" on states. "EMTALA says nothing about abortion," Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador told the court in a brief.

Just Tuesday, the federal appeals court in New Orleans came to the same conclusion as Labrador. A three-judge panel ruled that the administration cannot use EMTALA to require hospitals in Texas to provide abortions for women whose lives are at risk due to pregnancy. Two of the three judges are appointees of President Donald Trump, and the other was appointed by another Republican president, George W. Bush.

The appeals court affirmed a ruling by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, also a Trump appointee. Hendrix wrote that adopting the Biden administration's view would force physicians to place the health of the pregnant person over that of the fetus or embryo even though EMTALA "is silent as to abortion."

After Winmill, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, issued his ruling, Idaho lawmakers won an order allowing the law to be fully enforced from an all-Republican, Trump-appointed panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But a larger contingent of 9th Circuit judges threw out the panel's ruling and had set arguments in the case for late January.

The justices' order Friday takes the case away from the appeals court. A decision is expected by early summer.

Friday's development is just one of several legal battles currently making their way through the courts in Idaho.

Separately, four women and several physicians have filed a lawsuit asking an Idaho court to clarify the circumstances that qualify patients to legally receive an abortion. That lawsuit was recently granted the greenlight to move forward despite attempts by the Attorney General's office to dismiss the case.

Meanwhile, a federal judge in November temporarily blocked Idaho's "abortion trafficking" law from being enforced while a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality is underway. That law, which Idaho lawmakers passed last year, was designed to prevent minors from getting abortions in states where the procedure is legal if they don't have their parents' permission.


# The Supreme Court will decide if Donald Trump can be kept off 2024 presidential ballots
By **MARK SHERMAN** and **NICHOLAS RICCARDI**
January 5, 2024. 7:43 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - The Supreme Court said Friday it will decide whether former President Donald Trump can be kept off the ballot because of his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, inserting the court squarely in the 2024 presidential campaign.

The justices acknowledged the need to reach a decision quickly, as voters will soon begin casting presidential primary ballots across the country. The court agreed to take up Trump's appeal of a case from Colorado stemming from his role in the events that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Underscoring the urgency, arguments will be held on Feb. 8, during what is normally a nearly monthlong winter break for the justices. The compressed timeframe could allow the court to produce a decision before Super Tuesday on March 5, when the largest number of delegates are up for grabs in a single day, including in Colorado.

Trump, speaking at a campaign event in Iowa, said: "All I want is fair. I just hope that they're going to be fair."

The court will be considering for the first time the meaning and reach of a provision of the 14th Amendment barring some people who "engaged in insurrection" from holding public office. The amendment was adopted in 1868, following the Civil War. It has been so rarely used that the nation's highest court had no previous occasion to interpret it.

Colorado's Supreme Court, by a 4-3 vote, ruled last month that Trump should not be on the Republican primary ballot. The decision was the first time the 14th Amendment was used to bar a presidential contender from the ballot.

Trump is separately appealing to state court a ruling by Maine's Democratic secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, that he was ineligible to appear on that state's ballot over his role in the Capitol attack. Both the Colorado Supreme Court and the Maine secretary of state's rulings are on hold until the appeals play out.

The high court's decision to intervene, which both sides called for, is the most direct involvement in a presidential election since Bush v. Gore in 2000, when a conservative majority effectively decided the election for Republican George W. Bush. Only Justice Clarence Thomas remains from that court.

Three of the nine Supreme Court justices were appointed by Trump, though they have repeatedly ruled against him in 2020 election-related lawsuits, as well as his efforts to keep documents related to Jan. 6 and his tax returns from being turned over to congressional committees.

At the same time, Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh have been in the majority of conservative-driven decisions that overturned the five-decade-old constitutional right to abortion, expanded gun rights and struck down affirmative action in college admissions.

Some Democratic lawmakers have called on Thomas to step aside from the case because of his wife's support for Trump's effort to overturn the results of the election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Thomas is unlikely to agree, and there was every indication Friday that all the justices are participating. Thomas has recused himself from only one other case related to the 2020 election, involving former law clerk John Eastman, and so far the people trying to disqualify Trump haven't asked him to recuse.

The 4-3 Colorado decision cites a ruling by Gorsuch when he was a federal judge in that state. That Gorsuch decision upheld Colorado's move to strike a naturalized citizen from the state's presidential ballot because he was born in Guyana and didn't meet the constitutional requirements to run for office. The court found that Trump likewise doesn't meet the qualifications due to his role in the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021. That day, the Republican president had held a rally outside the White House and exhorted his supporters to "fight like hell" before they walked to the Capitol.

The two-sentence provision in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states that anyone who swore an oath to uphold the constitution and then "engaged in insurrection" against it is no longer eligible for state or federal office. After Congress passed an amnesty for most of the former confederates the measure targeted in 1872, the provision fell into disuse until dozens of suits were filed to keep Trump off the ballot this year. Only the one in Colorado was successful.

Trump had asked the court to overturn the Colorado ruling without even hearing arguments. "The Colorado Supreme Court decision would unconstitutionally disenfranchise millions of voters in Colorado and likely be used as a template to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters nationwide," Trump's lawyers wrote.

They argue that Trump should win on many grounds, including that the events of Jan. 6 did not constitute an insurrection. Even if it did, they wrote, Trump himself had not engaged in insurrection. They also contend that the insurrection clause does not apply to the president and that Congress must act, not individual states.

Critics of the former president who sued in Colorado agreed that the justices should step in now and resolve the issue, as do many election law experts.

"This case is of utmost national importance. And given the upcoming presidential primary schedule, there is no time to wait for the issues to percolate further. The Court should resolve this case on an expedited timetable, so that voters in Colorado and elsewhere will know whether Trump is indeed constitutionally ineligible when they cast their primary ballots," lawyers for the Colorado plaintiffs told the Supreme Court.

The issue of whether Trump can be on the ballot is not the only matter related to the former president or Jan. 6 that has reached the high court. The justices last month declined a request from special counsel Jack Smith to swiftly take up and rule on Trump's claims that he is immune from prosecution in a case charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, though the issue could be back before the court soon depending on the ruling of a Washington-based appeals court.

And the court has said that it intends to hear an appeal that could upend hundreds of charges stemming from the Capitol riot, including against Trump.


# Chief Justice Roberts casts a wary eye on the uses of artificial intelligence in the federal courts
By **MARK SHERMAN**
December 31, 2023. 6:23 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Chief Justice John Roberts on Sunday turned his focus to the promise, and shortcomings, of artificial intelligence in the federal courts, in an annual report that made no mention of Supreme Court ethics or legal controversies involving Donald Trump.

Describing artificial intelligence as the "latest technological frontier," Roberts discussed the pros and cons of computer-generated content in the legal profession. His remarks come just a few days after the latest instance of AI-generated fake legal citations making their way into official court records, in a case involving ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

"Always a bad idea," Roberts wrote in his year-end report, noting that "any use of AI requires caution and humility."

At the same time, though, the chief justice acknowledged that AI can make it much easier for people without much money to access the courts. "These tools have the welcome potential to smooth out any mismatch between available resources and urgent needs in our court system," Roberts wrote.

The report came at the end of a year in which a series of stories questioned the ethical practices of the justices and the court responded to critics by adopting its first code of conduct. Many of those stories focused on Justice Clarence Thomas and his failure to disclose travel, other hospitality and additional financial ties with wealthy conservative donors including Harlan Crow and the Koch brothers. But Justices Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor also have been under scrutiny.

The country also is entering an the beginning of an election year that seems likely to enmesh the court in some way in the ongoing criminal cases against Trump and efforts to keep the Republican former president off the 2024 ballot.

Along with his eight colleagues, Roberts almost never discusses cases that are before the Supreme Court or seem likely to get there. In past reports, he has advocated for enhanced security and salary increases for federal judges, praised judges and their aides for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and highlighted other aspects of technological changes in the courts.

Roberts once famously compared judges to umpires who call balls and strikes, but don't make the rules. In his latest report, he turned to a different sport, tennis, to make the point that technology won't soon replace judges.

At many tennis tournaments, optical technology, rather than human line judges, now determines "whether 130 mile per hour serves are in or out. These decisions involve precision to the millimeter. And there is no discretion; the ball either did or did not hit the line. By contrast, legal determinations often involve gray areas that still require application of human judgment," Roberts wrote.

Looking ahead warily to the growing use of artificial intelligence in the courts, Roberts wrote: "I predict that human judges will be around for a while. But with equal confidence I predict that judicial work - particularly at the trial level - will be significantly affected by AI."


# Supreme Court rejects prosecutor's push to fast-track ruling in Trump election subversion case
By **MARK SHERMAN** and **ERIC TUCKER**
December 22, 2023. 6:14 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - The Supreme Court said Friday it will not immediately take up a plea by special counsel Jack Smith to rule on whether former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted for his actions to overturn the 2020 election results.

The ruling is a scheduling win for Trump and his lawyers, who have sought repeatedly to delay the criminal cases against him as he campaigns to reclaim the White House in 2024. It averts a swift ruling from the nation's highest court that could have definitively turned aside his claims of immunity, and it further throws into doubt the possibility of the landmark trial proceeding as scheduled on March 4.

The issue will now be decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which has signaled it will act quickly to decide the case. Special counsel Jack Smith had cautioned that even a rapid appellate decision might not get to the Supreme Court in time for review and final word before the court's traditional summer break.

Smith had pressed the Supreme Court to intervene, citing significant public interest in a prompt resolution to the case. The request to leapfrog the appeals court, which Smith himself acknowledged was "extraordinary," also underscored prosecutors' concerns that the fight over the issue could delay the start of Trump's trial beyond next year's presidential election.

The justices turned down Smith's request in a single-sentence order Friday. As is customary, the court gave no explanation for the decision.

With the justices remaining out of the dispute for now, additional appeals are likely that could delay the case. If the appeals court, which is set to hear arguments on Jan. 9, turns down Trump's immunity claims, he could then ask for the Supreme Court to get involved - giving the justices another opportunity to decide if they want to weigh in.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has already put the case on hold while Trump pursues his claim that he is immune from prosecution. Chutkan has raised the possibility of keeping the March trial date if the case promptly returns to her court.

She earlier rejected the Trump team's arguments that an ex-president could not be prosecuted over acts that fall within the official duties of the job.

"Former presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability," Chutkan wrote in a Dec. 1 ruling. "Defendant may be subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction, and punishment for any criminal acts undertaken while in office."

In a statement Friday, Trump insisted anew that he was "entitled to presidential immunity" and was looking forward to having his case heard before the appeals court.

There are still more Trump-related cases that the Supreme Court, which includes three justices appointed by him, is poised to grapple with.

Trump's lawyers plan to ask the court t to overturn a decision by the Colorado Supreme Court barring him from that state's ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone who swore an oath to support the Constitution and then "engaged in insurrection" against it from holding office.

And the court separately has agreed to hear a case over the charge of obstruction of an official proceeding that has been brought against Trump and more than 300 of his supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In the current immunity case, Smith had tried to persuade the justices to take up the matter directly, bypassing the appeals court.

"This case presents a fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: whether a former president is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin," prosecutors wrote.

Underscoring the urgency for prosecutors, Smith and his team wrote: "It is of imperative public importance that respondent's claims of immunity be resolved by this Court and that respondent's trial proceed as promptly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected."

Trump's lawyers have for months signaled that they would ultimately ask the Supreme Court to take up the immunity question. But they urged the justices this week to stand down for now, saying there was no reason to rush a decision.

"Importance does not automatically necessitate speed. If anything, the opposite is usually true. Novel, complex, sensitive and historic issues - such as the existence of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts - call for more careful deliberation, not less," Trump's lawyers wrote.

Justice Department policy prohibits the indictment of a sitting president. Though there's no such bar against prosecution for a former commander in chief, lawyers for Trump say that he cannot be charged for actions that fell within his official duties as president - a claim that prosecutors have vigorously rejected.

Trump faces charges accusing him of working to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden before the violent riot at the Capitol. He has denied any wrongdoing.

The high court still could act quickly once the appeals court issues its decision. A Supreme Court case usually lasts several months, but on rare occasions, the justices shift into high gear.

Nearly 50 years ago, the justices acted within two months of being asked to force President Richard Nixon to turn over Oval Office recordings in the Watergate scandal. The tapes were then used later in 1974 in the corruption prosecutions of Nixon's former aides.

It took the high court just a few days to effectively decide the 2000 presidential election for Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore.

The case in Washington is one of four he faces.

He's also been charged by Smith with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, a case set for trial next May, and is accused by state prosecutors in Georgia of scheming to subvert that state's presidential election and in New York in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actress.


# Trump downplays Jan. 6 on the anniversary of the Capitol siege and calls jailed rioters 'hostages'
By **MICHELLE L. PRICE**, **JILL COLVIN**, and **THOMAS BEAUMONT**
January 6, 2024. 10:25 PM EST

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**NEWTON, Iowa (AP)** - Former President Donald Trump, campaigning in Iowa Saturday, marked the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol by casting the migrant surge on the southern border as the "real" insurrection.

Just over a week before the Republican nomination process begins with Iowa's kickoff caucuses, Trump did not explicitly acknowledge the date. But he continued to claim that countries have been emptying jails and mental institutions to fuel a record number of migrant crossings, even though there is no evidence that is the case.

"When you talk about insurrection, what they're doing, that's the real deal. That's the real deal. Not patriotically and peacefully - peacefully and patriotically," Trump said, quoting from his speech on Jan. 6, before a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol as part of a desperate bid to keep him in power after his 2020 election loss.

Trump's remarks in Newton in central Iowa came a day after Biden delivered a speech near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where he cast Trump as a grave threat to democracy and called Jan. 6 a day when "we nearly lost America - lost it all."

With a likely rematch of the 2020 election looming, both Biden and Trump have frequently invoked Jan. 6 on the campaign trail. Trump, who is under federal indictment for his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden, has consistently downplayed or spread conspiracy theories about a riot in which his supporters - spurred by his lies about election fraud - tried to disrupt the certification of Biden's win.

Trump also continued to bemoan the treatment of those who have been jailed for participating in the riot, again labeling them "hostages." More than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes connected to the violence, including assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy.

"They ought to release the J6 hostages. They've suffered enough," he said in Clinton, in the state's far east. "Release the J6 hostages, Joe. Release 'em, Joe. You can do it real easy, Joe," he said.

Trump was holding the commit-to-caucus events just over a week before voting will begin on Jan. 15. He arrived at his last event nearly three-and-a-half hours late due to what he said was a mechanical issue with a rented plane.

After Trump spoke in Newton, he signed hats and other items people in the crowd passed to him, including a copy of a Playboy magazine that featured him on the cover.

One man in the crowd, Dick Green, was standing about 15 feet away, weeping after the former president autographed his white "Trump Country" hat and shook his hand.

"It'll never get sold. It will be in my family," Green said of the hat.

A caucus captain and a pastor in Brighton, Iowa, Green said he had prayed for four years to meet Trump.

"I'll never forget it," he said. "It's just the beginning of his next presidency."

Trump spent much of the day assailing Biden, casting him as incompetent and the real threat to democracy. But he also attacked fellow Republicans, including the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona, whose "no" vote derailed GOP efforts to repeal former President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.

"John McCain, for some reason, couldn't get his arm up that day," said Trump of McCain, who was shot down over Vietnam in 1967 and spent 5½ years as a prisoner of war. The injuries he suffered left him unable to lift his arms over his head for the rest of his life. His daughter, Meghan McCain, responded on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, calling Trump an expletive and her father an "American hero."

Earlier Saturday, Trump courted young conservative activists in Des Moines, speaking to members of Run GenZ, an organization that encourages young conservatives to run for office.

Trump's campaign is hoping to turn out thousands of supporters who have never caucused before as part of a show of force aimed at denying his rivals momentum and demonstrating his organizing prowess heading into the general election.

His chief rivals, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, were also campaigning in the state as they battle for second place in hopes of emerging as the most viable alternative to Trump, who is leading by wide margins in early state and national polls.

Trump has used the trip to step up his attacks against Haley, who has been gaining ground. He again cast her Saturday as insufficiently conservative and a "globalist' beholden to Wall Street donors, and accused her of being disloyal for running against him.

"Nikki will sell you out just like she sold me out," he charged.

On Friday, Trump had highlighted several recent Haley statements that drew criticism, including her comment that voters in New Hampshire correct Iowa's mistakes ("You don't have to be corrected," he said) and her failure to mention slavery when asked what had caused the Civil War.

"I don't know if it's going to have an impact, but you know like ... slavery's sort of the obvious answer as opposed to her three paragraphs of bulls---," he told a crowd Friday.

In Newton, he said that he was fascinated by the "horrible" war, which he suggested he could have prevented.

"It's so fascinating," he said. "It's just different. I just find it... I'm so attracted to seeing it... So many mistakes were made. See that was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you."

Haley's campaign has pointed to his escalating attention, including a new attack ad, as evidence Trump is worried about her momentum.

"God bless President Trump, he's been on a temper tantrum every day about me ... and everything he's saying is not true," Haley told a crowd Saturday in North Liberty, Iowa.


# Liz Cheney urges New Hampshire primary voters to take a stand against GOP 'cowardice'
By **HOLLY RAMER**
January 5, 2024. 11:20 PM EST

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**HANOVER, N.H. (AP)** - On a mission to keep former President Donald Trump from returning to the White House, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney implored New Hampshire voters Friday to use their upcoming presidential primary to send a message to the world.

"Speak for us all. Tell the world who we are with your vote. Tell them that we are a good and a great nation," she said at Dartmouth College a little over two weeks before the Jan. 23 primary. "But make sure they know that we do not bend, we do not break and we do not yield in the defense of our freedom. Show the world that we will defeat the plague of cowardice sweeping through the Republican party."

Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, had been a leading Republican voice for years. But she parted with many of her colleagues over Trump's false claims of voting fraud and her position as vice chair of the Congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

On Friday, the Supreme Court said it will decide whether Trump can be kept off ballots because of his role in the attack. Cheney said she agrees with those who believe he should be disqualified under a provision of the 14th Amendment barring some people who "engaged in insurrection" from holding public office.

"This is a process that will go through the courts and we'll see how that unfolds. But here's no question in my mind that his actions clearly constituted an offense that is within the language of the 14th Amendment," she said. "There's not a requirement that you be convicted in the Senate or in a court of law, and so I believe in the plain language of the constitution."

Cheney, who was soundly defeated in her 2022 primary, said she disagrees with many of President Joe Biden's policies but said conservative Republicans should recognize "The threat posed by Donald Trump and the threat posed by Joe Biden are not even remotely similar."

"Our nation can survive and recover from policy mistakes. We cannot recover from a president willing to torch the Constitution," she said.

As for her political future, Cheney demurred when asked if she is planning a third-party run for president.

"I'm going to do whatever the most effective thing is to ensure that Donald Trump is not elected," she said. "I'll make a decision about what that is in the coming months as we see what happens in the Republican primaries."


# Hezbollah, Israel trade heavy cross-border fire as Blinken seeks to prevent regional escalation
By **BASSEM MROUE**, **SAMY MAGDY**, and **NAJIB JOBAIN**
January 6, 2024. 6:09 PM EST

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**BEIRUT (AP)** - Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah traded fire Saturday in one of the heaviest days of cross-border fighting in recent weeks, a day after the militia's leader urged retaliation for the targeted killing, presumably by Israel, of a top Hamas leader in Lebanon's capital.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said that if his group didn't strike back for the killing Tuesday of Saleh Arouri, Hamas' deputy political leader, all of Lebanon would be vulnerable to Israeli attacks.

With the risk of regional escalation, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken kicked off an urgent Middle East diplomatic tour, his fourth since the Israel-Hamas war erupted three months ago.

"It is absolutely necessary to avoid Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict," the European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in Beirut during his own Middle East tour.

Hezbollah said it launched 62 rockets toward an Israeli air surveillance base on Mount Meron and scored direct hits in its "initial response" to Arouri's killing. It said rockets also struck two army posts near the border. The Israeli military said about 40 rockets were fired toward Meron and that a base was targeted. The army's chief spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the rockets caused no casualties in Israel.

Hagari said the military struck the Hezbollah squads that fired the rockets and also attacked Hezbollah military sites. Hezbollah said six of its fighters were killed Saturday, raising the toll since the fighting began to 150.

Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon hit the outskirts of Kouthariyeh al-Siyad, a village about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said, adding that there were casualties. Such strikes deeper inside Lebanon have been rare since the border fighting started nearly three months ago. NNA also said Israeli forces shelled border areas including the town of Khiam.

Separately, the armed wing of the Islamic Group in Lebanon, the country's branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and a close ally of Hamas, said it fired two volleys of rockets toward the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona on Friday night. Two of the group's members were killed in the strike that killed Arouri.

The war in Gaza was triggered by a deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages.

In recent weeks, Israel has been scaling back its military assault in northern Gaza and pressing its offensive in the territory's south, where most of Gaza's 2.3 million Palestinians are being squeezed into smaller areas in a humanitarian disaster while being pounded by Israeli airstrikes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a video statement reiterated that "the war must not be stopped" until the objectives of eliminating Hamas, getting Israel's hostages returned and ensuring that Gaza won't be a threat to Israel are met.

On Saturday, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 122 Palestinians had been killed over the past 24 hours, bringing the total since the start of the war to 22,722. The count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians. The ministry has said two-thirds of those killed have been women or children. The overall wounded rose to 58,166, the ministry said.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the central city of Deir al-Balah received at least 46 bodies overnight, according to hospital records seen by The Associated Press. Many were men who apparently had been shot. The dead also included five members of a family who were killed in an airstrike.

The latest Israeli-dropped leaflets urged Palestinians in some areas near the hospital to evacuate, citing "dangerous fighting."

In the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the focus of Israel's ground offensive, the European Hospital received the bodies of 18 people killed in an overnight airstrike on a house, said Saleh al-Hamms, head of the hospital's nursing department. Citing witnesses, he said more than three dozen people had been sheltering in the house, including some who had been displaced.

Israel has held Hamas responsible for civilian casualties, saying the group embeds itself within Gaza's civilian infrastructure. Still, international criticism of Israel's conduct has grown because of the rising civilian death toll. The United States has urged Israel to do more to prevent harm to civilians, even as it sends weapons and munitions while shielding its close ally against international censure.

The U.S. also has pressed Israel to let much more aid into Gaza. Two U.S. senators who visited Egypt's Rafah border crossing described lines of hundreds of trucks that have been waiting for weeks to enter.

Blinken began his latest Mideast trip in Turkey, which the Biden administration believes can exert influence, particularly on Iran and its proxies, to tamp down fears of a regional conflagration.

Those fears have spiked in recent days with incidents in the Red Sea, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. On Saturday, a drone launched from an area of Yemen controlled by the Houthi militant group was shot down by the U.S. destroyer Laboon near multiple commercial vessels in the Red Sea, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement, adding there were no casualties or damage reported.

In talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Blinken sought support for nascent plans for post-war Gaza that could include monetary or in-kind contributions to reconstruction efforts and some form of participation in a proposed multinational force that could operate in or adjacent to the territory.

Blinken then traveled to Turkish rival and fellow NATO ally Greece to meet Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who has been supportive of U.S. efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spreading.

Other stops include Jordan, followed by Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Sunday and Monday. Blinken will visit Israel and the West Bank next week before wrapping up the trip in Egypt.

The EU's foreign policy chief also will visit Saudi Arabia on Sunday. He said he aims to jump-start a European-Arab initiative to revive a peace process that would result in a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.