Joe Biden confirms plans to build temporary port on Gaza coast but insists there will be ‘no US boots on the ground’

Published

3 months ago

March 8, 2024

admin

The US military will establish a temporary port on the Gaza coast to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to the beleaguered territory, Joe Biden has said.

In his State of the Union address, the US president said the “temporary pier” will be able to “receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters”.

And he insisted “no US boots will be on the ground”.

“This temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day,” he said.

“But Israel must also do its part.

“Israel must allow more aid into Gaza and ensure that humanitarian workers aren’t caught in the cross fire.”

An Israeli government spokesperson told Sky’s The World with Yalda Hakim they welcomed their “allies’ support in getting more aid to the people that need it” and insisted there were “no limits on the amount of aid that can go into Gaza”.

Israel-Hamas war latest: Warnings of imminent famine in Gaza

The port is expected to take a number of weeks to plan and execute.

A desperate policy decision that Biden hoped never to have to make

This is a significant announcement but details are scant. The timing reflects the urgency of the humanitarian situation but it’s also about politics.

‘Port’ is a somewhat misleading word to describe what the Americans intend to construct. It will take the form of a temporary pier or causeway that will allow aid to be offloaded from ships to trucks for distribution.

Importantly, American officials tell us that US boots will not be on the ground in Gaza but that the causeway can be installed from offshore. No more detail has been revealed.

All of this leaves plenty of unanswered questions and exposes deep failures in diplomatic leverage that the United States has over Israel.

Who will build the infrastructure that will be needed on the land end of the pier? Who will distribute the aid once it is offloaded?

Who will manage crowd control and prevent stampedes which will be inevitable without considerable policing of the mass of people. How long will all this take?

Like the airdrop announcement last week, the port announcement represents a desperate policy decision that President Biden hoped never to have to make.

Read more of Mark’s analysis here

Shipments will come via Cyprus enabled by the US military and a coalition of partners and allies, US officials told Sky News’ partner network NBC News.

Earlier this week, EU officials were in Cyprus to discuss the establishment of a maritime aid corridor with a platform at Larnaca on the island.

Avi Hyman, a spokesman for the Israeli government, told Sky’s Yalda Hakim that “the problem isn’t getting aid into Gaza, it’s the distribution of aid once it’s in Gaza”.

He claimed that this week a record 277 trucks went through into the Palestinian territory in one day and “we’re doing our utmost to get the supplies in”, but Hamas was “doing their utmost to steal them”.

The UK’s Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron has called for 500 aid trucks a day to prevent famine in Gaza.

Mr Hyman said there was a “humanitarian crisis of sorts” in the territory and “we’re getting better at distribution”, adding if Israel’s allies bring the aid “we will ship it in”.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas attacked the country on 7 October, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250.

More than 100 hostages were released in November in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

The number of Palestinians killed has reached more than 30,700, according to the Hamas-led health ministry in Gaza.

The territory is facing a worsening humanitarian catastrophe, with aid groups warning that it has become nearly impossible to deliver supplies within most of Gaza.

Analysis from the US:
The desperate decision Biden hoped to avoid

Many Palestinians, especially in the devastated north, are scrambling for food to survive.

Sir Mark Lowcock, former head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has told Sky News that without far more aid, there will be an “explosion” in the number of people dying.

“The death toll from starvation and related diseases is going to be larger than the 30,000 people who are estimated to have been killed already by the bombs and the bullets,” he said.

US

Hunter Biden wipes away tears as daughter testifies in his gun trial

Published

6 hours ago

June 8, 2024

admin

Hunter Biden wipes away tears as daughter testifies in his gun trial

Hunter Biden wiped away tears as his daughter gave evidence in a trial where he is accused of lying about his drug use when buying a gun.

It was the most emotion the US president’s son has shown publicly during his trial in Wilmington, Delaware.

After Naomi Biden hugged him, she appeared to wipe away a tear as she left the courtroom.

Joe Biden’s son is accused of not disclosing his crack cocaine problem when completing forms to purchase the weapon in October 2018.

Ms Biden, 30, said her father seemed “really great” when she saw him in New York in the weeks before he bought the gun.

She said she did not see any evidence of drug use, and that she also visited him in a California rehab centre.

“I hadn’t seen my dad in a long time, and I knew he was in a rehab facility there. He reached out,” she told the court.

She said they met at a coffee shop – along with his “sober coach” – adding she sent him a text saying she was “so proud” of him.

However, prosecutors also asked about messages and calls where she seemed unable to reach him.

“I can’t take this,” she texted several days after he purchased the gun. “I miss you so much and I just want to hang out.”

Prosecutors put forward evidence and prior testimony which they said claimed Mr Biden was arranging to buy crack during this time.

Hunter Biden was allegedly using crack before and after he bought the gun in October 2018 and is accused of lying when he selected ‘no’ to a question about drug use on a screening form.

He has pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to disclose his addiction and illegally possessing the Colt Cobra revolver for 11 days.

His lawyers have said he was not being dishonest as he did not consider himself an addict when he bought the gun.

The 54-year-old’s ex-wife and former girlfriend also testified earlier this week about his crack use, describing unsuccessful efforts to help him get clean.

Graphic images, including Mr Biden half-naked holding a crack pipe, have also been shown – as has a video of the drug being weighed on a scale.

First lady flies in from D-Day events

His sister-in-law Hallie Biden told the court on Thursday she found the gun and threw it away out of concern for Mr Biden and her own children.

Prosecutors ended their case on Friday and the defence took the stage, with the owner of the gun shop and an employee among witnesses.

Lawyer Abbe Lowell raised what he said were inconsistencies on the screening form, and asked the owner why he approved the sale when Mr Biden’s passport did not show his car registration number as required.

First Lady Jill Biden was among family members in court after flying back from D-Day events in France.

She was seen holding her son’s hand as he prepared to leave the court for a lunch break.

President Biden has also pledged support for his son but said he would accept the jury’s verdict and ruled out using his presidential pardon.

“I am the president, but I am also a dad. Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today,” he said in a statement this week.

The defence is now deciding whether to call Hunter Biden on Monday as the last witness.

It is not the only case he faces. In September, just two months before the US election, he is set to go on trial in California on charges of failing to pay $1.4m (£1.1m) in tax.

US

Murder suspect to face trial accused of leaving boyfriend to die in zipped suitcase

Published

6 hours ago

June 8, 2024

admin

Murder suspect to face trial accused of leaving boyfriend to die in zipped suitcase

A woman charged with murdering her boyfriend after allegedly leaving him to die in a zipped suitcase at their US home is to go on trial in October.

Sarah Boone initially told detectives she and her boyfriend Jorge Torres, 42, had been playing hide and seek at their property in Winter Park, Florida, when he got into the suitcase.

Boone claimed they had been drinking and she decided to go to sleep, thinking he would be able to get out of the suitcase on his own.

When she woke up the next morning, on 25 February 2020, she could not find Mr Torres but remembered he was in the suitcase.

When she unzipped it, she found Mr Torres unresponsive, the arrest report said, and she rang 911. She was then arrested.

Boone denies second-degree murder but detectives charged her after they found videos on her phone showing Mr Torres trapped in the suitcase, yelling that he could not breathe and calling out her name, the arrest report said.

After a hearing on Friday, the 46-year-old faces a trial starting on 7 October.

In one of the videos, Boone responded: “Yeah, that’s what you do when you choke me,” according to the report. She added: “Oh, that’s what I feel like when you cheat on me.”

A post-mortem found that Mr Torres had scratches on his back and neck, and contusions on his shoulder, skull and forehead from blunt force trauma as well as a cut near his busted lip.

Since her arrest, Boone has had several lawyers which has contributed to the delay in her trial.

US

Donald Trump in breach of £300,000 legal costs ruling after losing UK dossier case against former MI6 spy

Published

24 hours ago

June 7, 2024

admin

Donald Trump in breach of £300,000 legal costs ruling after losing UK dossier case against former MI6 spy

Donald Trump is in breach of a British High Court order to pay £300,000 in legal costs to the former spy who compiled a salacious dossier alleging Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

Sky News can reveal Trump has failed to comply with the costs order and thus far ignored a formal offer to settle with Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who compiled the infamous document.

Trump was ordered to pay costs in February after the High Court threw out his attempt to sue Mr Steele’s company Orbis Business Intelligence.

The former president claimed the report, which included unsubstantiated allegations of bribery and that he used sex workers while on a trip to Moscow, contained inaccuracies and breached his rights under the Data Protection Act.

The judge, Mrs Justice Steyn, did not make any judgment on the allegations but ruled the claim was invalid because it was filed after the six-year limitation period. Trump was subsequently also denied leave to appeal.

On the judge’s order, Trump did pay £10,000 to the court as security against costs ahead of the hearing, which was transferred to Mr Steele in February.

In March, Orbis made a formal offer to settle using the civil court Part 36 procedure, but Trump’s lawyers have not responded.

“The fact is we were awarded a £300,000 initial cost order in February, which was confirmed when his right of appeal was turned down at the end of March. And so he’s been in breach of that order for two months now,” Mr Steele told Sky News.

“Cost is the key issue in all litigation, and particularly in what we call lawfare, which we think this is. It is an attempt to take vengeance against us or to keep us quiet,” he said.

Mr Steele, a former head of MI6’s Russia desk, was commissioned to produce the document by Trump’s political opponents including Hillary Clinton’s Democratic Party.

It collated what he says was a “running commentary” on the Russian view of Trump and the election campaign, drawn from multiple intelligence sources.

Much of the information in the dossier was unverified and Mr Steele says it was never intended for publication.

👉 Click here to follow the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts👈

Following the election it was leaked to the media by a conservative politician with whom it had been shared. Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations.

“We stand by the sources we were running and the work we did and the way we handled it,” Mr Steele said. “It’s important to underline that it wasn’t meant for publication. It was leaked by an American Republican who we’d entrusted with it without our permission or our knowledge, and we’ve been involved in litigation as a result ever since.”

The revelation that Trump is in breach of a UK court order comes after he became the first US president to be convicted of a felony. He was found guilty of charges relating to hush money paid to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels last week.

He is appealing that verdict and faces three other live legal proceedings in the US in the build-up to November’s election.

Were he to be elected, it raises the prospect of his returning to the UK as president in defiance of a British court.

Mr Steele says he has no means of recouping his costs from UK assets owned by Trump, because the golf courses that bear his name in Scotland are held in trust structures.

If Trump does not settle, Mr Steele’s only option would be to seek repayment in the US, incurring further costs.

“We’re talking about perhaps the next president of the US here, who is running for office and claims to love and respect the UK, and in fact is treating our legal system with contempt,” he said.

“I think he’s trying to put off a lot of these legal cases and these fines and these costs until after what he thinks will be his re-election in November, in which case he will just tell us all to go and jump, basically.”

Trump’s press secretary and his private office failed to respond to Sky News’ request for comment.

Following the initial judgment, a spokesman for the former president told the BBC he would “continue to fight for the truth and against falsehoods such as the ones promulgated by Steele and his cohorts”.

“The High Court in London has found that there was not even an attempt by Christopher Steele, or his group, to justify or try to prove, which they absolutely cannot, their false and defamatory allegations in the fake ‘dossier,” he added.