Blinken seeks to contain Israel-Hamas war; meets with Middle East leaders in Jordan
CBSN
Amman - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Jordan on Saturday to meet with key Middle East leaders in an effort to contain escalation of the Israel-Hamas war. Blinken has been in the region since Friday, trying to find ways to ease the plight of the civilians caught in the fighting.
Blinken is scheduled to meet with Lebanese Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and members of the UN Relief and Works Agency on Saturday. Later in the afternoon, he will meet with Jordan's King Abdullah II, and regional partners, including Jordanian Foreign Minister Aymam Safadi and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
Blinken started his trip on Friday with a stop in Israel. This is his third trip to Israel since the war broke out after Hamas' bloody terror attacks on Oct. 7 left hundreds dead. He reiterated the United States' support for Israel, saying that the country the right to defend itself. But he said a "humanitarian pause" was needed to boost aid deliveries to Palestinian civilians amid growing alarm over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Tel Aviv — After more than a year of bombing and homelessness, Gazans are looking to a new administration in Washington for help. President-elect Donald Trump's election victory has raised hopes and fears among the five million residents of the Palestinian territories — the warn-torn Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
President Biden has given the OK to lift restrictions that will allow Ukraine to use U.S.-provided long-range weapons to strike deep into Russian territory, a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News on Sunday. The move is a significant change to U.S. policy in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Tropical Storm Sara was downgraded to a tropical depression after it made landfall in Belize on Sunday as forecasters expect heavy rain to continue and cause life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides.
The main spokesman for Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on central Beirut on Sunday, an official with the militant group said.
Eight people were killed and 17 others wounded Saturday in a knife attack at a vocational school in eastern China, and the suspect — a former student — has been arrested, police said.
A fire tore through a neonatal intensive care unit in a hospital in northern India, killing 10 newborn babies and injuring 16 others, authorities said.
Johannesburg — It's often called the forgotten conflict, but the civil war that has torn Sudan apart for 19 months is fueling the world's biggest humanitarian crisis. In just over a year and a half, 13 million people have been displaced from their homes. At least one overcrowded camp for displaced civilians is already dealing with famine, while other parts of the country are suffering though famine-like conditions.
British jets were scrambled to monitor a Russian reconnaissance aircraft flying close to U.K. airspace, the defense minister in London said on Friday, just days after NATO jets were mobilized when Russian aircraft were spotted over the Baltic Sea and off the coast of Norway.
A German soccer club is leaving X because of the increase in hate speech and disinformation on the social media platform that it claims could undermine the snap elections in the country.
Tropical Storm Sara formed in the Caribbean on Thursday, becoming the 18th named storm of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season. The system, previously called Tropical Depression 19, developed in the western Caribbean earlier this week and intensified while traveling westward on a path toward Central America.
Paris — Security forces were on high alert Thursday in Paris ahead of a soccer match between France's national soccer team and the visiting Israeli side. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators held protests in the city Wednesday night, and there has been fear of a possible repeat of last week's violence and antisemitic attacks against Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam.