U.S. warns Israel over Rafah ground offensive; Netanyahu rejects Hamas’ demands
Israel’s plans for a ground offensive in Rafah have received criticism from the international community, as displaced Palestinians sheltering in the area say they are preparing for the worst.
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have said the U.S. can’t support a ground invasion without a plan to ensure the safety of the people sheltering there.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was no point in truce talks until Hamas changes what he described as “delusional demands.”
Israel’s war is broadly popular in the country, but there are still strong divisions over the Cabinet’s handling of the hostage crisis, and thousands gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to call for fresh elections as Netanyahu’s popularity continues to plummet.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said on Sunday that Biden “feels about the way I feel” that Netanyahu’s leadership “is not good for Israel.”
Follow NBC News’ live coverage here.
Alexei Navalny’s family calls for the immediate return of his body
The death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny was confirmed by his team on Saturday, and they have demanded his body be turned over to his family immediately.
Over 400 people were detained in Russia while paying tribute to Navalny through ad hoc memorials and floral displays. Across a dozen cities, police detained 401 people by Saturday night, according to the OVD-Info rights group that tracks political arrests and provides legal aid.
Russia, meanwhile, took control of the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka on Saturday, after Ukraine’s troops withdrew from the battered town.
The news came as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy drummed up international support at the Munich Security Conference, where Vice President Kamala Harris said at a joint press conference the U.S. will continue to stand behind Ukraine.
In an exclusive interview with NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell, Harris said this is a “moment of reckoning for the United States” and urged Congress to act.
Biden allies vouch for him amid age questions
In the days since special counsel Robert Hur released a report that described Biden’s memory as “significantly limited,” presidential appointees and friendly lawmakers have been stepping forward one by one to attest to the president's acuity.
He asks “pertinent questions” and cares about “minute details,” they’ve told news outlets. But some prominent Democrats aren’t persuaded that the approach will ease concerns, with one former Democratic House member saying, “The special counsel said the quiet part out loud.”
On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., responded to Hur’s report by saying, “My reaction is, as someone who ran against Joe Biden, as someone who has spent significant amount of time with Joe Biden, that he is up for this job.”
Beyond Hur’s conclusions about the president’s memory, some national security experts were troubled by what his report said about Biden’s handling of classified documents.
The young adults living on a financial cliff
Many young adults are pulling in bigger paychecks, but their spending power is fueling short-term purchases like groceries and vacations, not savings.
The net worth of Americans ages 18-39 surged by 80% from the start of 2019 to the third quarter of last year, Federal Reserve Bank of New York research shows, blowing past the rates for older generations.
But while many millennials and Gen Zers are getting paid more, they’re still pumping that cash into pricier everyday expenses, from essentials like rent to luxuries like leisure travel.
“We’re the generations that got stuck between a rock and a hard place,” said Hala Easmael, a 32-year-old pharmacy technician in Philadelphia. After her cohort came of age between two recessions, a pandemic and crushing student loan debt, “we want to enjoy our lives, but we’re always waiting for the shoe to drop,” she said.
Meet the Press
Rep. Mike Turner said on “Meet the Press” Sunday he sounded the alarm about Russia’s plan to put nuclear weapons in space out of fear that the Biden administration was “sleepwalking into an international crisis.”
Last Wednesday, Turner put out a statement informing the public that the House Intelligence Committee has “made available to all members of Congress information concerning a serious national security threat.”
Later, NBC News confirmed that the intelligence was related to Russia developing a space-based nuclear program to attack satellites.
“My concern is that this is kind of like the Chinese spy balloon and the administration is kind of hiding perhaps, you know, some inaction,” Turner told “Meet the Press.”
You can watch the full interview here.
Politics in brief
- Trump world rift: Right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk was key to the successful effort to oust RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, but his own conduct is now under the microscope from some Trump allies.
- Golden shoes: Former President Donald Trump launched his own shoe brand on Saturday called Trump Sneakers. The priciest option is the golden “Never Surrender High Top Sneakers” for $399.
- Primary pushback: Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., is urging Democrats in Dearborn, Michigan, to vote “uncommitted” in the state’s upcoming primary instead of voting for Biden.
- Cameo lawsuit: Former Rep. George Santos filed a civil lawsuit against Jimmy Kimmel on Saturday accusing the late-night host of using fake names to request Cameo videos from the ex-lawmaker and then misusing them on his show.
Measles outbreaks rise around the world
There’s a massive resurgence of measles cases, attributed to pandemic-related declines in immunizations and rising rates of vaccine hesitancy, and experts warn it could lead to more serious complications and deaths.
Cases have been reported in several U.S. states, and although two doses of the measles vaccine protect 97% of children, the airborne virus spreads so quickly that 95% of children in a community need to be vaccinated in order to stop outbreaks.
And infections pose more risks than people realize. Measles also causes “immune amnesia,” in which the immune system loses its ability to fight infections that a patient was previously immune to, said Dr. James Cherry, a professor of pediatrics and an infectious disease expert at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
An NBA and WNBA faceoff
Two of the best 3-point shooters in basketball history, the NBA’s Stephen Curry and the WNBA’s Sabrina Ionescu, went head-to-head during the NBA All-Star weekend in Indianapolis to determine who is really the best on the court right now.
Ionescu shot first and scored 26 points, before Curry surpassed her with 29.
“If you can shoot, you can shoot,” Ionescu said after the contest. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a girl or boy. I think it just matters the heart that you have and wanting to be the best that you can be.”
Curry said Ionescu “set the bar” and that “it was unbelievable to watch.”
In case you missed it
- Two police officers and a firefighter were killed in Burnsville, Minnesota, while responding to a domestic violence call Sunday.
- Joel Osteen preached about living without fear in the first Sunday service at his Lakewood Church since the shooting there last week.
- Five women who were sexually assaulted by a New York gynecologist spoke to NBC News about the long road to justice, after he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
- The 19-year-old son of former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki was found dead at the University of California, Berkeley, on Tuesday, his grandmother said in a Facebook post.
- A Pennsylvania judge who allegedly shot her ex-boyfriend in the head and then tried to convince him that he shot himself was charged with first-degree attempted murder and aggravated assault.
- A popular gun influencer may get a prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to federal crimes including a conspiracy to import illegal machine guns. But Larry Vickers’ admissions of guilt have done relatively little to dent his profile on the internet platforms that helped make him famous.
- It took more than a decade and a change in network backing for “Masters of the Air,” Apple TV+’s World War II miniseries backed by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, to finally get onto TV screens. But how to bring the air war to life in a convincing way was the biggest challenge.