US to Provide $6B for Weapons Contracts04/26 06:11
US to Provide $6B for Weapons Contracts04/26 06:11 The U.S. is expected to announce Friday that it will provide about $6 billion in long-term military aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials said, adding that it will include much sought after munitions for Patriot air defense systems. WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. is expected to announce Friday that it will provide about $6 billion in long-term military aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials said, adding that it will include much sought after munitions for Patriot air defense systems. The officials said the aid package will be funded through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays for longer-term contracts with the defense industry and means that it could take many months or years for the weapons to arrive. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public. The new funding -- the largest tranche of USAI aid sent to date - will include a wide array of munitions for air defense, such as the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System (NASAM) and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), as well as the Patriot munitions, Switchblade and Puma drones, counter drone systems and artillery. The announcement is expected to come as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin convenes a virtual meeting on Friday of defense officials from Europe and around the world to discuss international aid for Ukraine. The gathering -- created by Austin and known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group -- has been meeting about monthly for the past two years, and is the primary forum for weapons contributions to Kyiv for the war. It follows the White House decision earlier this week to approve the delivery of $1 billion in weapons and equipment to Ukraine. Those weapons include a variety of ammunition, including air defense munitions and large amounts of artillery rounds that are much in demand by Ukrainian forces, as well as armored vehicles and other weapons. That aid, however, will get to Ukraine quickly because it is being pulled off Pentagon shelves, including in warehouses in Europe. The large back-to-back packages are the result of the new infusion of about $61 billion in funding for Ukraine that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on Wednesday. And they provide weapons Kyiv desperately needs to stall gains being made by Russian forces in the war. Bitterly divided members of Congress deadlocked over the funding for months, forcing House Speaker Mike Johnson to cobble together a bipartisan coalition to pass the bill. The $95 billion foreign aid package, which also included billions for Israel and Taiwan, passed the House on Saturday, and the Senate approved it Tuesday. Senior U.S. officials have described dire battlefield conditions in Ukraine, as troops run low on munitions and Russian forces make gains. Since Russia's February 2022 invasion, the U.S. has sent more than $44 billion worth of weapons, maintenance, training and spare parts to Ukraine. Among the weapons provided to Ukraine were Abrams M1A1 battle tanks. But Ukraine has now sidelined them in part because Russian drone warfare has made it too difficult for them to operate without detection or coming under attack, two U.S. military officials told The Associated Press.
US Effort to Bring Aid to Gaza by Sea 04/26 06:18
US Effort to Bring Aid to Gaza by Sea 04/26 06:18 JERUSALEM (AP) -- The construction of a new port in Gaza and an accompanying U.S. military-built pier offshore are underway, but the complex plan to bring more desperately needed food to Palestinian civilians is still mired in fears over security and how the humanitarian aid will be delivered. The Israeli-developed port, for example, has already been attacked by mortar fire, sending high-ranking U.N. officials scrambling for shelter this week, and there is still no solid decision on when the aid deliveries will actually begin. While satellite photos show major port construction along the shore near Gaza City, aid groups are making it clear that they have broad concerns about their safety and reservations about how Israeli forces will handle security. Sonali Korde, an official with the U.S. Agency for International Development, said key agreements for security and handling the aid deliveries are still being negotiated. Those include how Israeli forces will operate in Gaza to ensure that aid workers are not harmed. "We need to see steps implemented. And the humanitarian community and IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) continue to talk and engage and iterate and improve the system so that everyone feels safe and secure in this very difficult operating environment," Korde said. A senior U.S. military official said Thursday the U.S. is on track to begin delivering aid using the new port and pier by early May. The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public, said deliveries through the sea route initially will total about 90 trucks a day and could quickly increase to about 150 trucks daily. The senior official acknowledged, however, that the final installation of the U.S.-built causeway onto the beach at the port will be governed by the security situation, which is assessed daily. The Israeli Defense Force has a brigade -- thousands of soldiers -- as well as ships and aircraft dedicated to protecting the deliveries, the official said. Asked about the recent mortar attack, the miliary official said the U.S. assesses that it had nothing to do with the humanitarian mission, adding that security around the port will be "far more robust" when the deliveries start. In addition, the U.S. has rehearsed offensive and defensive measures to ensure U.S. troops working at the pier and those on the floating platform several miles off shore are all protected. Aid groups have been shaken by the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in an Israeli airstrike on April 1 as they traveled in clearly marked vehicles on a delivery mission authorized by Israel. The killings have hardened sentiment among some aid groups that the international community should focus instead on pushing Israel to ease obstacles to the delivery of aid on land routes by truck. The World Central Kitchen staff, who were honored at a memorial service Thursday in Washington, are among more than 200 humanitarian workers killed in Gaza, a toll the U.N. says is three times higher than any previous number for aid workers in a single year of any war. Development of the port and pier comes as Israel faces widespread international criticism over the slow trickle of aid into the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations says at least a quarter of the population sits on the brink of starvation. This is how the sea route will work: -- Pallets of aid will be inspected and loaded onto mainly commercial ships in Cyprus, which then will sail about 200 miles to the large floating platform being built by the U.S. military. -- The pallets will be transferred onto trucks, driven onto smaller Army vessels and then taken several miles to the causeway, which will be roughly 1,800 feet, or 550 meters, long and anchored to the shoreline by the Israeli military. -- The trucks will then go down the causeway to a secure drop-off area, where pallets will be distributed to aid agencies. That mission could last several months, the U.S. military official said. A U.N. official said the port will likely have three zones -- one controlled by the Israelis where aid from the pier is dropped off, another where the aid will be transferred, and a third where Palestinian drivers contracted by the U.N. will wait to pick up the aid before bringing it to distribution points. The construction of the new port in the Gaza Strip appears to have been moving quickly over the last two weeks, according to satellite images analyzed Thursday by The Associated Press. Offshore, U.S. Navy and Army vessels have started the construction of the large pier, or floating platform. The port sits just southwest of Gaza City, a bit north of a road bisecting Gaza that the Israeli military built during the fighting. The area once was the territory's most-populous region, before the Israeli ground offensive rolled through, pushing over 1 million people south toward the town of Rafah on the Egyptian border. No militant group immediately claimed responsibility for Wednesday's mortar attack at the port site, and no one was hurt of killed. But it reflected ongoing threats from Hamas, which has said it would reject the presence of any non-Palestinians in Gaza. High-ranking Hamas political official Khalil al-Hayya told the AP that the group would consider Israeli forces -- or forces from any other country -- stationed by the pier to guard it as "an occupying force and aggression," and that they would resist it. The U.N.'s World Food Program has agreed to lead the aid delivery effort. Carl Skau, WFP's deputy executive director, speaking Thursday at the U.N., said it's "necessary for us to be able to operate, reach communities, have access to needs, and to do so in a safe and secure way." He also said the port mission must be just one part of a broader Israeli effort to improve sustainable, land-based deliveries of aid to avert a famine. The U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes deliberations, said several sticking points remain around how the Israelis would handle the port's security. The military is reportedly seeking to install remote-controlled gun positions, which the U.N. opposes, said the official, although it was not clear what weapons were being described. In a statement Thursday, the IDF said it "will act to provide security and logistical support for the initiative," including the construction of the dock and the transfer of aid from the sea to the Gaza Strip. The port will provide critical extra aid as getting more supplies into Gaza through land crossings has proven challenging, with long backups of trucks awaiting Israeli inspections. Past efforts to get land in by sea faltered after the World Central Kitchen attack. Countries have even tried airdropping aid from the sky -- a tactic that aid groups say is a last-ditch resort because it can't deliver aid in large quantities and also has led to deaths. "The more time we spend talking about JLOTS," said Bob Kitchen, vice president for emergencies with the International Rescue Committee, using the U.S. military acronym for the U.S.-built pier, "the more we talk about air drops -- all of this is massively expensive, comparatively low-scale and is a side-show. It's a distraction."
Blinken, Xi Meet Amid Ongoing Issues 04/26 06:20
Blinken, Xi Meet Amid Ongoing Issues 04/26 06:20 U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of "responsibly managing" the differences between the United States and China as the two sides butted heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues. BEIJING (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of "responsibly managing" the differences between the United States and China as the two sides butted heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues. Talks between the two sides have increased in recent months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about China's support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues including Taiwan and the South China Sea, human rights and the production and export of synthetic opioid precursors. Blinken sounded a positive note on recent progress made in bilateral cooperation, including in military communications, counternarcotics and artificial intelligence. "We are committed to maintaining and strengthening lines of communication to advance that agenda, and again deal responsibly with our differences so we avoid any miscommunications, any misperceptions, any miscalculations," he said. But he said he made clear to Xi ongoing concerns about Beijing's supply of materials, including machine tools and micro electronics, to Moscow that President Vladimir Putin is using to boost Russia's defenses and its war on Ukraine. "Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China's support," Blinken told reporters after his meeting with Xi. "Fueling Russia's defense industrial base not only threatens Ukrainian security, it threatens European security," he added. "As we've told China for some time, ensuring transatlantic security is a core U.S. interest. In our discussions today. I made clear that China does not address this problem." Blinken also said he urged China to use its influence "to discourage Iran and its proxies from expanding the conflict in the Middle East " and convince North Korea "to end its dangerous behavior and engage in dialogue." Blinken also discussed with Xi China's maritime maneuvers in the disputed South China Sea, and reiterated "ironclad" American support for the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia. Xi stressed that China and the U.S. must seek common ground "rather than engage in vicious competition." "China is happy to see a confident, open, prosperous and thriving United States," the Chinese leader said. "We hope the U.S. can also look at China's development in a positive light. This is a fundamental issue that must be addressed." Earlier, Blinken held lengthy talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong. He and Wang underscored the importance of keeping lines of communication open as they lamented persistent and deepening divisions that threaten global security. Those divisions were highlighted earlier this week when U.S. President Joe Biden signed a massive foreign aid bill that contains several elements that the Chinese see as problematic. "Overall, the China-U.S. relationship is beginning to stabilize," Wang told Blinken at the start of about 5 1/2 hours of talks. "But at the same time, the negative factors in the relationship are still increasing and building and the relationship is facing all kinds of disruptions." "Should China and the United States keep to the right direction of moving forward with stability or return to a downward spiral?" he asked. "This is a major question before our two countries and tests our sincerity and ability." Wang also outlined, without being specific, well-known Chinese complaints about U.S. policies and positions on the South China Sea, Taiwan, human rights and China's right to conduct relations with countries it deems fit. "China's legitimate development rights have been unreasonably suppressed and our core interests are facing challenges," he said. "China's concerns are consistent. We have always called for respect of each other's core interests and urge the United States not to interfere in China's internal affairs, not to hold China's development back, and not to step on China's red lines on China's sovereignty, security, and development interests." Blinken responded by saying that the Biden administration places a premium on U.S.-China dialogue even on issues of dispute. He noted there had been some progress in the past year but suggested that talks would continue to be difficult. The State Department said later that Blinken and Wang had "in-depth, substantive, and constructive discussions about areas of difference as well as areas of cooperation" and made clear that Blinken had stood his ground on U.S. concerns. Blinken "emphasized that the U.S. will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners, including on human rights and economic issues," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. Blinken arrived in China on Wednesday, visiting Shanghai shortly before Biden signed the $95 billion foreign aid package that has several elements likely to anger Beijing, including $8 billion to counter China's growing aggressiveness toward Taiwan and in the South China Sea. It also seeks to force TikTok's China-based parent company to sell the social media platform. China and the United States are the major players in the Indo-Pacific. Washington has become increasingly alarmed by Beijing's growing aggressiveness in recent years toward Taiwan and its smaller Southeast Asian neighbors with which it has significant territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea. China has railed against U.S. assistance to Taiwan and immediately condemned the aid as a dangerous provocation. It also strongly opposes efforts to force TikTok's sale. The bill also allots $61 billion for Ukraine to defend itself from Russia's invasion. The Biden administration has complained loudly that Chinese support for Russia's military-industrial sector has allowed Moscow to subvert western sanctions and ramp up attacks on Ukraine. U.S. officials have said China's ties with Russia would be a primary topic of conversation during Blinken's visit, and just before Friday's meetings began, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he would visit China in May.
Ukraine Pulls US Tanks on Drone Threats04/26 06:22
Ukraine Pulls US Tanks on Drone Threats04/26 06:22 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ukraine has sidelined U.S.-provided Abrams M1A1 battle tanks for now in its fight against Russia, in part because Russian drone warfare has made it too difficult for them to operate without detection or coming under attack, two U.S. military officials told The Associated Press. The U.S. agreed to send 31 Abrams to Ukraine in January 2023 after an aggressive monthslong campaign by Kyiv arguing that the tanks, which cost about $10 million apiece, were vital to its ability to breach Russian lines. But the battlefield has changed substantially since then, notably by the ubiquitous use of Russian surveillance drones and hunter-killer drones. Those weapons have made it more difficult for Ukraine to protect the tanks when they are quickly detected and hunted by Russian drones or rounds. Five of the 31 tanks have already been lost to Russian attacks. The proliferation of drones on the Ukrainian battlefield means "there isn't open ground that you can just drive across without fear of detection," a senior defense official told reporters Thursday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide an update on U.S. weapons support for Ukraine before Friday's Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting. For now, the tanks have been moved from the front lines, and the U.S. will work with the Ukrainians to reset tactics, said Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman Adm. Christopher Grady and a third defense official who confirmed the move on the condition of anonymity. "When you think about the way the fight has evolved, massed armor in an environment where unmanned aerial systems are ubiquitous can be at risk," Grady told the AP in an interview this week, adding that tanks are still important. "Now, there is a way to do it," he said. "We'll work with our Ukrainian partners, and other partners on the ground, to help them think through how they might use that, in that kind of changed environment now, where everything is seen immediately." News of the sidelined tanks comes as the U.S. marks the two-year anniversary of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of about 50 countries that meets monthly to assess Ukraine's battlefield needs and identify where to find needed ammunition, weapons or maintenance to keep Ukraine's troops equipped. Recent aid packages, including the $1 billion military assistance package signed by President Joe Biden on Wednesday, also reflect a wider reset for Ukrainian forces in the evolving fight. The U.S. is expected to announce Friday that it also will provide about $6 billion in long-term military aid to Ukraine, U.S. officials said, adding that it will include much sought after munitions for Patriot air defense systems. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public. The $1 billion package emphasized counter-drone capabilities, including .50-caliber rounds specifically modified to counter drone systems; additional air defenses and ammunition; and a host of alternative, and cheaper, vehicles, including Humvees, Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles. The U.S. also confirmed for the first time that it is providing long-range ballistic missiles known as ATACMs, which allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russian-occupied areas without having to advance and be further exposed to either drone detection or fortified Russian defenses. While drones are a significant threat, the Ukrainians also have not adopted tactics that could have made the tanks more effective, one of the U.S. defense officials said. After announcing it would provide Ukraine the Abrams tanks in January 2023, the U.S. began training Ukrainians at Grafenwoehr Army base in Germany that spring on how to maintain and operate them. They also taught the Ukrainians how to use them in combined arms warfare -- where the tanks operate as part of a system of advancing armored forces, coordinating movements with overhead offensive fires, infantry troops and air assets. As the spring progressed and Ukraine's highly anticipated counteroffensive stalled, shifting from tank training in Germany to getting Abrams on the battlefield was seen as an imperative to breach fortified Russian lines. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on his Telegram channel in September that the Abrams had arrived in Ukraine. Since then, however, Ukraine has only employed them in a limited fashion and has not made combined arms warfare part of its operations, the defense official said. During its recent withdrawal from Avdiivka, a city in eastern Ukraine that was the focus of intense fighting for months, several tanks were lost to Russian attacks, the official said. A long delay by Congress in passing new funding for Ukraine meant its forces had to ration ammunition, and in some cases they were only able to shoot back once for every five or more times they were targeted by Russian forces. In Avdiivka, Ukrainian forces were badly outgunned and fighting back against Russian glide bombs and hunter-killer drones with whatever ammunition they had left.
SCOTUS Skeptical of Trump Immunity 04/26 06:24
SCOTUS Skeptical of Trump Immunity 04/26 06:24 WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday appeared likely to reject former President Donald Trump's claim of absolute immunity from prosecution over election interference, but several justices signaled reservations about the charges that could cause a lengthy delay, possibly beyond November's election. A majority of the justices did not appear to embrace the claim of absolute immunity that would stop special counsel Jack Smith's prosecution of Trump on charges he conspired to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. But in arguments lasting more than 2 1/2 hours in the court's first consideration of criminal charges against a former president, several conservative justices indicated they could limit when former presidents might be prosecuted, suggesting that the case might have to be sent back to lower courts before any trial could begin. Justice Samuel Alito said that "whatever we decide is going to apply to all future presidents." The timing of the Supreme Court's decision could be as important as the outcome. Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has been pushing to delay the trial until after the election, and the later the justices issue their decision, the more likely he is to succeed. If Trump regains the presidency, he could order the Justice Department to dismiss the case or, as two justices suggested, pardon himself if convicted. Since conservatives on the court gained a supermajority with the confirmation of three Trump appointees, they have cast aside decades-old precedent on abortion and affirmation action. Now Trump is asking them to rule that one of the fundamental tenets of the American system of government -- that no person is above the law -- should be rejected as well, at least as it applies to him. The active questioning of all nine justices left the strong impression that the court was not headed for the sort of speedy, consensus decision that would allow a trial to begin quickly. Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, two of Trump's three high court appointees, and Alito said their concern was not the case against Trump, but rather the effect of their ruling on future presidencies. Each time Justice Department lawyer Michael Dreeben sought to focus on Trump's actions, these justices jumped in. "This case has huge implications for the presidency, for the future of the presidency, for the future of the country," Kavanaugh said. The court is writing a decision "for the ages," Gorsuch said. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the other Trump appointee, seemed less open to arguments advanced by Trump lawyer D. John Sauer, searching for a way a trial could take place. Smith's team is asking for a speedy resolution. The court typically issues its last opinions by the end of June, about four months before the election. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who would preside over the trial, said pre-trial issues could take up to three months. The court has moved very quickly in prior cases involving presidential power, deciding the Watergate tapes case against President Richard Nixon just 16 days after arguments. Earlier this year, it took the justices less than a month to rule unanimously that states couldn't kick Trump off the ballot. Trump, the first former president charged with crimes, had said he wanted to be at the Supreme Court on Thursday. Instead, he was in a courtroom in New York, where he is standing trial on charges that he falsified business records to keep damaging information from voters when he directed hush money payments to a former porn star to keep quiet her claims that they had a sexual encounter. Sauer argued that former presidents are entitled to absolute immunity for their official acts. Otherwise, he said, politically motivated prosecutions of former occupants of the Oval Office would become routine and presidents couldn't function as the commander in chief if they had to worry about criminal charges. Lower courts have rejected those arguments, including a unanimous three-judge panel on an appeals court in Washington, D.C. Several justices drilled down on trying to come up with a definition of what constituted an official act, and whether charges based on one should be thrown out. Justice Elena Kagan at one pointed wondered whether a former president could escape prosecution even if he ordered a coup or sold nuclear secrets. Sauer said prosecutions might not be allowed if those were determined to be official acts. "That sure sounds bad, doesn't it?" Kagan asked. Chief Justice John Roberts conjured up a president being indicted for receiving a bribe in exchange for an ambassadorial appointment. How could the indictment go forward if prosecutors had to remove the official act, the appointment? "That's like a one-legged stool, right?" Roberts asked. The election interference conspiracy case brought by Smith in Washington is just one of four criminal cases confronting Trump. Smith was in the courtroom Thursday, seated at the table for lawyers taking part in the case. Smith's team says the men who wrote Constitution never intended for presidents to be above the law and that, in any event, the acts Trump is charged with -- including participating in a scheme to enlist fake electors in battleground states won by Biden -- aren't in any way part of a president's official duties. Dreeben said that even if some of the acts are considered part of the president's powers, like talking to Justice Department officials, they still should be kept in the indictment. Trump's conversations with then-Vice President Mike Pence, urging him to reject some electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021, might also fall under official acts. Barrett asked Dreeben whether Smith's team could "just proceed based on the private conduct and drop the official conduct." Dreeben said that might be possible, especially if prosecutors could, for example, use the conversations with Justice Department officials and Pence to make their case. Nearly four years ago, all nine justices rejected Trump's claim of absolute immunity from a district attorney's subpoena for his financial records. That case played out during Trump's presidency and involved a criminal investigation, but no charges. Justice Clarence Thomas, who would have prevented the enforcement of the subpoena because of Trump's responsibilities as president, still rejected Trump's claim of absolute immunity and pointed to the text of the Constitution and how it was understood by the people who ratified it. "The text of the Constitution ... does not afford the President absolute immunity," Thomas wrote in 2020. Commentators had speculated about why the court took up the case in the first place. Phillip Bobbitt, a constitutional scholar at Columbia University's law school, said he worries about the delay, but sees value in a decision that amounts to "a definitive expression by the Supreme Court that we are a government of laws and not of men." The court also may be more concerned with how its decision could affect future presidencies, Harvard law school professor Jack Goldsmith wrote on the Lawfare blog. But Kermit Roosevelt, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said the court never should have taken the case because an ideologically diverse panel of the federal appeals court in Washington adequately addressed the issues. "If it was going to take the case, it should have proceeded faster, because now, it will most likely prevent the trial from being completed before the election," Roosevelt said. "Even Richard Nixon said that the American people deserve to know whether their president is a crook. The Supreme Court seems to disagree." The court has several options for deciding the case, though something between a complete win for Trump or prosecutors seemed most likely. The court might spell out when former presidents are shielded from prosecution. It could then either declare that Trump's alleged conduct easily crossed the line or return the case to Chutkan so she can decide whether Trump should have to stand trial.
FCC to Regulate Internet Providers 04/26 06:28
FCC to Regulate Internet Providers 04/26 06:28 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday voted to restore "net neutrality" rules that prevent broadband internet providers such as Comcast and Verizon from favoring some sites and apps over others. The move effectively reinstates a net neutrality order the commission first issued in 2015 during the Obama administration. In 2017, under then-President Donald Trump, the FCC repealed those rules. The measure passed Thursday on a 3-2 vote split along party lines, with Democratic commissioners in favor and Republicans opposed. Net neutrality effectively requires providers of internet service to treat all traffic equally, eliminating any incentive they might face to favor business partners or to hobble competitors. The public interest group Public Knowledge describes net neutrality as "the principle that the company that connects you to the internet does not get to control what you do on the internet." The rules, for instance, ban practices that throttle or block certain sites or apps, or that reserve higher speeds for the services or customers willing to pay more for them. "In our post-pandemic world, we know that broadband is a necessity, not a luxury," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement ahead of the vote. While it's been almost seven years since the FCC killed the previous net neutrality rules, their reinstatement isn't expected to noticeably change users' online experience. Public Knowledge legal director John Bergmayer credits that to several states having passed their own net neutrality measures prior to 2015, all of which remained in force when the FCC reversed course two years later following Trump's election. "Some of the absolute worst excesses from (internet providers) were kept in check by state level oversight," Bergmayer said. States like California went even further than the FCC did -- for instance, by banning a practice called "zero rating." That's where, for instance, a mobile provider might strike a business deal to steer users toward a particular streaming service by zeroing out any related data charges. Other states with strong net neutrality rules include Colorado, Maine, Oregon, Vermont and Washington, according to Bergmayer. The telecommunications industry opposed the reintroduction of the federal rules, as it has before, declaring them an example of unnecessary government interference in business decisions.
Egypt Cease-Fire Delegation to Israel 04/26 06:30
Egypt Cease-Fire Delegation to Israel 04/26 06:30 Egypt sent a high-level delegation to Israel on Friday with the hope of brokering a cease-fire agreement with Hamas in Gaza, two officials said. At the same time, it warned that a possible Israeli offensive focused on Gaza's city of Rafah -- on the border with Egypt -- could have catastrophic consequences for regional stability. CAIRO (AP) -- Egypt sent a high-level delegation to Israel on Friday with the hope of brokering a cease-fire agreement with Hamas in Gaza, two officials said. At the same time, it warned that a possible Israeli offensive focused on Gaza's city of Rafah -- on the border with Egypt -- could have catastrophic consequences for regional stability. Egypt's top intelligence official, Abbas Kamel, is leading the delegation and plans to discuss with Israel a "new vision" for a prolonged cease-fire in Gaza, an Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the mission freely. As the war drags on and casualties mount, there has been growing international pressure for Hamas and Israel to reach an agreement on a cease fire. Friday's talks will focus at first on a limited exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners, and the return of a significant number of displaced Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza "with minimum restrictions," the Egyptian official said. The hope is that negotiations will then continue, with the goal of a larger deal to end the war, he said. The official said mediators are working on a compromise that will answer most of both parties' main demands. Hamas has said it will not back down from its demands for a permanent cease-fire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops, both of which Israel has rejected. Israel says it will continue military operations until Hamas is defeated and that it will retain a security presence in Gaza afterwards. Ahead of the talks, senior Hamas official Basem Naim told The Associated Press "there is nothing new from our side," when asked about the negotiations. Overnight, Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group fired anti-tank missiles and artillery shells at an Israeli military convoy in a disputed border area, killing an Israeli civilian. Hezbollah said its fighters ambushed the convoy shortly before midnight Thursday, destroying two vehicles. The Israeli military said the ambush wounded an Israeli civilian doing infrastructure work, and that he later died of his wounds. Low-intensity fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border has repeatedly threatened to boil over as Israel has targeted senior Hezbollah militants in recent months. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border. On the Israeli side, the cross-border fighting has killed 10 civilians and 12 soldiers, while in Lebanon, more than 350 people have been killed, including 50 civilians and 271 Hezbollah members. Meantime, Israel has been conducting near-daily raids on Rafah, a city in which more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people have sought refuge. The Israeli military has massed dozens of tanks and armored vehicles in an area of southern Israel that is close to Rafah, in apparent preparations for an invasion of the city. Rafah also abuts the Gaza-Egypt border. While in Israel, Kamel, who heads Egypt's General Intelligence Service, plans to make clear that Egypt "will not tolerate" Israel's deployments of troops along that border, the Egyptian official said. The official said Egypt shared intelligence with the United States and European countries showing that a Rafah offensive would inflame the entire region. A Western diplomat in Cairo also said that Egypt has intensified its efforts in recent days to reach a compromise and establish a short cease-fire in Gaza that will help negotiate a longer truce and avert a Rafah offensive. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the developments. On Wednesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi cautioned that an Israeli attack on Rafah would have "catastrophic consequences on the humanitarian situation in the strip, as well as the regional peace and security." El-Sissi's comments came in a phone call with Prime Minister Mark Rutte of The Netherlands, the Egyptian leader's office said. Egypt has also said an attack on Rafah would violate the decades-old peace deal between Egypt and Israel. The Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the Hamas' Oct. 7 raid into southern Israel, in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people as hostages. Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to local health officials, around two-thirds of them children and women.
Financial Markets 04/26 16:05
Financial Markets 04/26 16:05 NEW YORK (AP) -- The best week for U.S. stocks since November closed out with more gains thanks to Alphabet and Microsoft on Friday. The S&P 500 rallied 1% to finish its first winning week in the last four. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 153 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 2%. Alphabet leaped 10.2% after breezing past analysts' expectations for profit last quarter. The parent company of Google also said it will start paying a dividend to investors and authorized a program to buy back up to $70 billion of its stock, a signal of how much cash it's generating. Microsoft, meanwhile, climbed 1.8% after reporting stronger profit and revenue than expected. It cited strong growth in its cloud-computing business as it pushes artificial-intelligence technology to its customers. They helped offset a 9.2% drop for Intel. It reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected, but its revenue fell short of analysts' estimates. So did its forecast for profit in the current quarter. Stocks have broadly been under pressure this month after hopes withered for multiple cuts to interest rates this year by the Federal Reserve. A series of reports this year showing inflation remaining worse than forecast has traders expecting maybe one cut this year, down from forecasts for six or more at the start of the year. Yet another report on Friday showed inflation remaining stubbornly high. This time it was the measure of prices for March that the Federal Reserve prefers to use, but it wasn't much worse than forecasts. Financial markets took it much more in stride than a report from the day before that suggested the same measure of inflation rose quickly from January through March. Treasury yields largely eased in the bond market following Friday morning's report. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.66% from 4.71% late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, held steadier. It edged down to 4.99% from 5.00%. While inflation has remained hotter than forecast, EY Chief Economist Gregory Daco expects it to cool in coming months as shoppers pressured in part by slowing growth in wages tamp down their purchases, which is the fuel that gives inflation energy. "Consumers remain willing to spend, but not on anything, nor at any price," he said. Economists also said the weaker-than-expected reading on the overall U.S. economy from Thursday, which helped send stocks sliding, may not be as bad as it seemed on the surface. "The economy remains on solid footing," Bank of America economists said in a report, pointing to solid buying trends from U.S. customers. Such an interpretation calms worries that the U.S. economy could be heading for a toxic mix of stagnating growth and high inflation, something that the Federal Reserve doesn't have great tools to fix. Still, the higher-than-expected inflation readings will likely keep the Fed on hold at its next policy meeting on Wednesday. Its main interest rate has been sitting at the highest level since 2001 in hopes of undercutting inflation by putting downward pressure on the economy and financial markets. After earlier indicating that three cuts to interest rates could be on the way this year, top Fed officials have since said they could hold its main interest rate high for a while to ensure inflation heads down toward their 2% target. Friday's report on sticky inflation "underscores Vanguard's belief that the Federal Reserve may find it's unable to cut interest rates this year," according to the investment giant's global head of portfolio construction, Roger Aliaga-Diaz. If interest rates stay high, companies will need to produce stronger profits for their stock prices to rise. So far this reporting season, the trend has bene better than expected. Roughly three out of four companies have been topping analysts' forecasts for profit, according to FactSet. That includes ResMed, which reported healthier profit and revenue than expected late Thursday. Its stock jumped 18.9% for Friday's biggest gain in the S&P 500. All told, the S&P 500 rose 51.54 points to 5,099.96. The Dow added 153.86 to 38,239.66, and the Nasdaq gained 316.14 to 15,927.90. In stock markets abroad, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.8% after the Bank of Japan ended a policy meeting with no major changes to interest rates. Indexes also rose across much of the rest of Asia and Europe. ___ AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed. --------- itemid:4775e405f59a664add5dd9daf995dcd5
