The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they happen.
US House approves impeachment articles against Biden’s top border official
WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives narrowly votes to impeach Democratic President Joe Biden’s top border official, accusing him of lax policies that encouraged illegal immigration.
By a vote of 214-213, the House approves two articles of impeachment accusing Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of not enforcing US immigration laws, which Republicans argue led to record flows of migrants across the US-Mexico border, and making false statements to Congress.
It caomes a week after a similar vote failed in a legislative defeat for Speaker Mike Johnson. Republican Representative Steve Scalise, who had been receiving treatment for cancer, was not present for last week’s vote, but returned to Washington this week, providing a crucial vote.
But it is highly unlikely that the Democratic-majority Senate will vote to oust Mayorkas.
A record number of migrants have illegally crossed the border from Mexico since Biden took office in 2021, and former President Donald Trump has made it a major focus of his campaign against Biden.
Mayorkas has said he does not bear responsibility for the border situation, blaming it instead on a broken US immigration system that Congress has not been able to fix.
Kushner defends business dealings with Saudis, says not seeking White House role if Trump wins
NEW YORK — Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s former White House adviser and his son-in-law, defendes his business dealings after leaving government with the Saudi crown prince who was implicated in the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Kushner worked on a wide range of issues and policies in the Trump administration, including Middle East peace efforts, and developed a relationship with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has overseen social and economic reforms and a far-reaching crackdown on dissent in the kingdom.
After Kushner left the White House, he started a private equity firm that received a reported $2 billion investment from the sovereign wealth fund controlled by Prince Mohammed, drawing scrutiny from Democrats.
Kushner, speaking at a summit in Miami sponsored by media company Axios, says he followed every law and ethics rule. He dismisses the idea of there being any concerns about the appearance of a conflict of interest in his business deal.
“If you ask me about the work that that we did in the White House, for my critics, what I say is point to a single decision we made that wasn’t in the interest of America,” Kushner says.
He says the sovereign wealth fund, which has significant stakes in companies such as Uber, Nintendo and Microsoft, is one of the most prestigious investors in the world.
He also defends Prince Mohammed when asked if he believes US intelligence reports that the prince approved the 2018 killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist. The prince has denied any involvement.
“Are we really still doing this?” Kushner at first says when he was asked if he believes the conclusions from US intelligence.
Kushner says he has not seen the intelligence report released in 2021 that concluded the crown prince likely approved Khashoggi’s killing inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
“I know the person who I dealt with. I think he’s a visionary leader. I think what he’s done in that region is transformational,” Kushner says.
He stands by the Trump administration’s policies and calls it “one of the greatest compliments” that US President Joe Biden backed away from his initial stance to shun Saudis for human rights violations to instead work with the crown prince on issues like oil production and security in the region.
“I understand why people, you know, are upset about that,” Kushner says of Khashoggi’s killing. “I think that what happened there was absolutely horrific. But again, our job was to represent America, and to try to push forward things in America.”
Kushner also says he is not interested in rejoining the White House if Trump wins the 2024 presidential election, saying he was focused on his investment business and his living with his family in Florida out of the public eye.
Polish PM accuses last government of widespread illegal use of Pegasus
WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s new prime minister says he has documentation proving that state authorities under the previous government used the powerful Pegasus spyware illegally and targeted a “very long” list of hacking victims.
Donald Tusk makes the announcement during a news briefing alongside President Andrzej Duda, a political opponent aligned with the previous ruling party. The use of Pegasus is alleged to have occurred under the government led by the right-wing Law and Justice party.
Pegasus gives operators complete access to a mobile device, allowing them to extract passwords, photos, messages, contacts and browsing histories, and to activate the microphone and camera for real-time eavesdropping.
Tusk says he’s sharing information with Duda that showed wide use of the spyware in Poland.
“This is only a sample of the documents that are at your disposal, Mr. President,” he says at the start of a meeting of the Cabinet Council, a consultation format between the president and the government. Duda called the meeting to discuss other matters.
The prime minister says he asked the justice minister and prosecutor general to provide Duda with documents which “confirm 100% the purchase and use of Pegasus in a legal and illegal manner.”
The president has not publicly responded.
Tusk took power in December following an October election which he won as the head of a broad centrist alliance. It marked the end of eight years of rule by Law and Justice, a populist party that the European Union accused of eroding democratic norms.
The new parliament has set up a special commission to investigate who used Pegasus and against whom during Law and Justice’s years in government.
“The list of victims of these practices is unfortunately very long,” Tusk says. That list has not been publicly released.
Several Polish opponents of the previous government were targeted with Pegasus, a spyware program made by Israel’s NSO Group, according to findings by the University of Toronto’s nonprofit Citizen Lab that were exclusively reported by The Associated Press.
UN atomic chief warns of increasingly ‘loose talk about nuclear weapons’ in Iran
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog warns that Iran is “not entirely transparent” regarding its atomic program, particularly after an official who once led Tehran’s program announced the Islamic Republic has all the pieces for a weapon “in our hands.”
Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, just across the Persian Gulf, Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, alludes to remarks made this weekend by Ali Akbar Salehi. Grossi noted “an accumulation of complexities” in the wider Middle East amid Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Iran is “presenting a face which is not entirely transparent when it comes to its nuclear activities. Of course this increases dangers,” Grossi says. “There’s loose talk about nuclear weapons more and more, including in Iran recently. A very high official said, in fact, we have everything, it’s disassembled. Well, please let me know what you have.”
Grossi does not identify the Iranian official who made the comment. However, in an Iranian state television show late Sunday, Salehi said that the country had all it needed to build a weapon.
“We have all the (pieces) of nuclear science and technology. Let me give an example,” Salehi said. “What does a car need? It needs a chassis, it needs an engine, it needs a steering wheel, it needs a gearbox. Have you made a gearbox? I say yes. An engine? But each one is for its own purpose.”
Salehi made a similar comment Saturday.
“We have it in our hands,” he said then.
Hundreds of Islamic Jihad operatives fighting in Hezbollah’s Radwan force — report
Since the start of skirmishes on the northern border, Israeli forces have identified hundreds of Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives fighting in the ranks of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
According to the report, Palestinians in both Syria and Lebanon — most of them Islamic Jihad members — have been incorporated into Radwan as an “organic” unit. Similar to Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad is backed by Iran.
The broadcaster notes that unlike with its own fighters, Hezbollah has not announced the deaths of Palestinian operatives in Lebanon, and says the Palestinians have been used in attempts to infiltrate into Israel.
The report comes a day after Islamic Jihad chief Ziad Nakhaleh met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon.
Pentagon says Austin released from hospital, has resumed full duties
WASHINGTON — US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been released from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and resumed his full duties, the Pentagon says.
Austin, 70, has had ongoing health issues since undergoing surgery in December to treat prostate cancer. He was taken back to Walter Reed on Sunday for a bladder issue and admitted to intensive care for the second time since the surgery. He underwent a non-surgical procedure under general anesthesia on Monday.
He is expected on Wednesday to host a virtual meeting of about 50 countries who meet monthly to coordinate military aid for Ukraine.
He had been scheduled to travel to Brussels on Tuesday for the Ukraine meeting, followed by a quarterly meeting with NATO defense ministers on Thursday. The US ambassador to NATO, Julie Smith, will represent Austin at that meeting instead.
In January, Austin was hospitalized for two weeks at Walter Reed after he experienced complications from the surgery.
His Walter Reed doctors had said they did not anticipate he would be in the hospital this time for a prolonged period.
State Department reviewing reports of civilian harm by Israeli forces in Gaza
WASHINGTON — The United States is reviewing reports that Israel has harmed civilians in its war in Gaza under a set of guidelines aimed at ensuring countries receiving US arms conduct military operations in line with international humanitarian law, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says.
“We do seek to thoroughly assess reports of civilian harm by authorized recipients of US-provided defense articles around the world,” Miller says at a press briefing, adding that a process under the State Department’s Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance (CHIRG) is assessing incidents in the current conflict.
CHIRG was established in August last year, just weeks before Palestinian terror group Hamas killed some 1,200 people and took 253 hostages during a devastating attack in southern Israel on October 7. In response, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza aimed at toppling Hamas and returning the hostages. According to Hamas health authorities, more than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 68,000 wounded in the Israeli military campaign, a figure that doesn’t differentiate between combatants and civilians.
The guidance sets out a process by which State Department officials investigate specific incidents where civilians may have been harmed by US weapons.
Miller does not specify when the CHIRG process was initiated or say how many incidents were being reviewed. But a source familiar with the process says the department is looking at least 50 reported incidents of civilian harm.
“That process is not intended to function as a rapid response mechanism,” Miller says.
“Rather, it is designed to systematically assess civilian harm incidents and develop appropriate policy responses to reduce the risk of such incidents recurring in the future and to drive partners to conduct military operations in accordance with international humanitarian law.”