1 UNITED STATES
House Democrats urge Biden to halt arms to Israel
More than three dozen Congress Democrats – including representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker and a key Joe Biden ally – signed a letter to the president and the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, urging a halt to weapons transfers to Israel.
“In light of the recent strike against aid workers and the ever-worsening humanitarian crisis, we believe it is unjustifiable to approve these weapons transfers,” the letter said. It was signed by Pelosi and 36 other Democrats, including Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The letter also calls on the US to withhold future arms transfers pending a US investigation into the airstrike on the World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers or if Israel “fails to sufficiently mitigate harm to innocent civilians in Gaza”. A spokesperson for Pelosi later said the congresswoman was encouraged at early steps Biden’s administration had taken to investigate the strike on the WCK staffers “and respects his judgment on how to proceed”.
Last Thursday Biden told Israel to take concrete steps to protect civilians and aid workers in Gaza or risk losing US military support.
The big story Page 10 →
2 ECUADOR
Mexico suspends ties after police raid embassy in Quito
Mexico suspended diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police forcibly broke into the country’s embassy in Quito to detain former Ecuadorian vice-president Jorge Glas, deepening a diplomatic rift between the two countries.
Glas, convicted twice for corruption, has been in the embassy since
