The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s events as they unfold.
Biden: Rebuilding from LA fires will take ‘tens of billions of dollars’
Rebuilding after the fires that left some Los Angeles neighborhoods in smoldering ruins over the past week will carry a staggering cost in the billions of dollars, US President Joe Biden says Monday in a briefing with emergency officials.
“It’s going to cost tens of billions of dollars to get Los Angeles back where it was,” the outgoing president says, as California’s largest city braced for a return of fierce winds that threaten to fan the flames that have already claimed at least 24 lives.
Biden announces aircraft carriers will be named for Clinton, Bush
US President Joe Biden announces that two of the Navy’s future aircraft carriers will be named for former commanders-in-chief Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
“The future USS William J. Clinton (CVN 82) and the future USS George W. Bush (CVN 83) will begin construction in the years ahead,” Biden says in a statement issued just a week before he is replaced in office by Donald Trump.
“When complete, they will join the most capable, flexible, and professional Navy that has ever put to sea,” Biden says.
The United States has a long tradition of naming some of its aircraft carriers — massive warships that are crewed by thousands of sailors and carry dozens of planes — after former presidents.
The latest line of US carriers is named for Gerald R. Ford, and another of the multi-billion-dollar ships bears John F. Kennedy’s name — the second time he has been honored in that way.
Clinton — who did not serve in the military — was president from 1993 to 2001, a period that saw US warplanes carry out strikes in Iraq and Yugoslavia, and American troops battle Somali militiamen in the infamous Black Hawk Down incident, among other conflicts.
Bush, who served as a pilot in the Air National Guard, held America’s highest office from 2001 to 2009.
His presidency was defined by the so-called “War on Terror” that he launched in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, a military effort that spanned the globe and included the devastating, long-running wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that left tens of thousands of people dead.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hails the choice of the names, saying that the ships “will serve as lasting tributes to each leader’s legacy in service of the United States.”
“Like their namesakes, these two future carriers, and the crews who sail them, will work to safeguard our national security, remind us of our history, and inspire others to serve our great republic,” Austin says in a statement.
Head of hostage NGO believes US journalist Tice still in Syria
The head of an American organization focused on hostage releases says he believes US journalist Austin Tice is still being held in Syria by people loyal to toppled leader Bashar al-Assad.
Speaking to Reuters in Damascus, Nizar Zakka says he believed Tice was being held by “very few people in a safe house in order to do an exchange or a deal.”
Zakka, a Lebanese businessman with US permanent residency who was held in Iran for four years until 2019 on charges of spying, is the president of Hostage Aid Worldwide.
He has traveled to Syria multiple times following Assad’s ouster by rebels on Dec. 8 in a bid to track down Tice, a former US Marine and a freelance journalist who was abducted in 2012 while reporting in Damascus on the uprising against Assad.
Zakka says his group’s own investigation had revealed Tice was still in Syria, and that “a lot of progress” had been made in his hunt in recent weeks. But he adds that Syria’s new rulers, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), had not provided much assistance.
“We were hoping that HTS would help us more, but unfortunately HTS did not help us because they had their own concerns,” he says.
Zakka says he had no information on Tice’s precise location but suspected that a deal, possibly involving pressure from Assad’s ally Russia, could see the American journalist released.
Tice was detained at a checkpoint in Daraya, near Damascus, in August 2012. Reuters was first to report that Tice managed to slip out of his cell in 2013 and was seen moving between houses in the streets of Damascus’ upscale Mazzeh neighborhood.
He was recaptured soon after his escape, likely by forces who answered directly to Assad, current and former U.S. officials said.
Tice’s mother Debra has voiced hope that upheaval in Syria will lead to freedom for her son and has expressed gratitude for efforts by journalists and other civilians searching for him, including from Hostage Aid Worldwide.
Zakka says he was in regular touch with Debra.
“She gave us all the power and the support for us to make it happen, to find Austin and to work for Austin,” he says.
Report: PM slated to meet with hostage families on Tuesday as deal appears near
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet tomorrow with the families of the hostages in Gaza as negotiations for their release appear to be reaching a conclusion, Channel 12 reports.
‘It won’t happen. Period’: Israeli official says Sinwar’s body won’t be returned as part of hostage deal
Israeli diplomatic reporters are sent a statement to be attributed to an “Israeli official” asserting that Jerusalem will not return slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s body as part of a hostage deal.
“It will not happen. Period,” the statement reads.
Earlier today, the Saudi outlet Al-Hadath published an unconfirmed report that Hamas is demanding the body of Sinwar in the first stage of the hostage deal.
Blinken: Important to have Trump people involved in hostage talks because they’ll have to enforce deal
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said it was important to include President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, in the latest round of talks because if a ceasefire can be reached, it will be up to the Trump team in part to ensure it survives beyond Inauguration Day.
“I think Steve Witkoff has been a terrific partner in this, and also President-elect Trump in making clear that he wants to see this deal go forward, and go forward before January 20th,” Blinken says in an interview with MSNBC.
“Everyone wants to know – and it’s very useful as well to have Steve a part of this – they want to make sure that the deal that the president’s put on the table and that we’ve negotiated, the Trump administration will continue to back,” Blinken said. “So creating that confidence by having Steve Witkoff’s participation, I think, has been critical.”
Under the terms of the agreement being discussed, the US is one of several guarantors and will have a key role in making sure that its first phase — which would see a halt in hostilities and the release of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian security prisoners held by Israel — is followed by the successful implementation of its second phase, which aims to prepare for Gaza’s post-conflict future, including security, reconstruction and governance.
Netanyahu to meet Ben Gvir ahead of possible hostage deal
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet this evening with far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir to gauge his reaction to a possible hostage-ceasefire deal, Hebrew media report.
Ben Gvir has been one of the most steadfast opponents of a deal with Hamas and has repeatedly threatened to bolt the coalition.
Ben Gvir is also reportedly convening his Otzma Yehudit faction later this evening in a bid to formulate a response to the emerging deal.