Friday briefing: a new plan for Gaza aid
The US plans to build a new aid route to Gaza
President Biden is expected to announce during his State of the Union address that the US military will build a floating pier off the coast of Gaza to allow ships to deliver food and other aid to Gazans, US officials said.
Construction of the pier will involve hundreds or thousands of U.S. troops on ships just off the coast, and it will be built in cooperation with other countries in the region. It was unclear whether Israel would join the effort. Currently, aid can only enter Gaza through two land crossings in the south. Officials said yesterday that a third land crossing in the north could open soon.
Yet delivering aid by sea does not immediately solve the central problem: aid trucks have been unable to move freely amid heavy Israeli shelling and ground fighting, which remains fierce in the South. It would also not provide a solution to the chaos associated with deliveries. An aid convoy was overrun by desperate Gazans last week, leading to more than a hundred deaths when Israeli soldiers opened fire and many people were trampled in the chaos.
At the International Court of Justice: South Africa asked the UN’s highest court to issue emergency orders to Israel to end what it called the “genocidal starvation” of Palestinians.
Negotiations: Hamas negotiators left Cairo yesterday without a breakthrough in Gaza ceasefire talks, the group said. Hopes of an impending ceasefire with Israel continue to diminish.
Biden to make State of the Union a reality
President Biden will deliver the State of the Union address in a few hours, which will most likely be his best opportunity to address Americans before the general election. It’s not technically a campaign speech, but for U.S. presidents in the final year of their first terms, the annual speech kicks off their re-election efforts.
“The biggest question for many voters remains whether, at age 81, he can handle another four years in this job,” said Reid Epstein, who covers politics for The Times. “This is probably his biggest audience of the year until and if he debates Donald Trump in the fall. The Democrats hope for a strong and energetic president.”
Biden’s overarching message is expected to be that Trump, his likely rival, poses a serious threat to democracy. Biden is also expected to lay out plans for a second term and try to convince Americans that the economy is not that bad. Inflation is falling, unemployment is low and the stock market is doing well. Yet roughly half of registered voters believe the economy is in “poor” shape, according to a recent Times/Siena College poll.
History: The State of the Union has become a portrait of division. That wasn’t the case in the past.
The warmest February ever recorded
Last month was the warmest February ever recorded worldwide and the ninth month in a row in which a heat record was set. An analysis found that the warm weather in many places was caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
Even more surprising, global ocean temperatures in February were at their highest level on record all year, the EU’s climate monitoring agency found. The two sets of figures offer a portrait of a decidedly warming world.
Charles Lindbergh Jr. was kidnapped and murdered in New Jersey almost 100 years ago. But new speculation about the kidnapping and pressure to force DNA testing of evidence have revived the investigation into what was known as the “crime of the century.”
Lives lived: Josette Molland, a member of the French Resistance, painted grim scenes of what she saw and experienced in Nazi camps. She died at the age of 100. View her paintings here.
An Oscar preview
The Academy Awards, which start Sunday evening in Los Angeles, are the biggest night in American cinema. For a sneak peek, we spoke to Kyle Buchanan, who covers the film industry for The Times.
What should we know about the awards this year?
Kyle: The Oscars always dream of a situation where the biggest films of the year are also the most nominated, and this year they got their wish twice.
They’re pitting ‘Oppenheimer’ against ‘Barbie’, last year’s two huge blockbusters that were so big we came up with the ‘Barbenheimer’ portmanteau to honor them.
Is the industry as obsessed with that confrontation as the rest of us?
They are absolutely obsessed and encouraged by it. Those films brought many people back to the cinema. They reminded them why they care about movies.
So it’s all good to see the ultimate reward body showing so much interest in them too. There is a match in sensibilities between the populist bent of the multiplex audience and the sometimes more esoteric bent of the Academy.
I mean, you even had people like Hillary Clinton getting involved in the Barbie snaps. So suffice it to say, if ever people were going to tune in to the Oscars and feel personally involved, it seems to be this year.
Do you have any predictions for us?
You wouldn’t lose much if you voted for “Oppenheimer” almost across the board.
That said, the main race with the most drama is for Best Actress: Emma Stone from ‘Poor Things’ and Lily Gladstone from ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ have been strong all season and have traded major industry prizes . That could absolutely go either way.
For more: Learn about Kyle’s predictions and deconstruct key scenes from all ten of the Best Picture nominees.