Biden says Harris ‘not going to’ distance herself from his economic policies
President Biden claims Vice President Kamala Harris is not going to distance herself from his economic policy agenda. Reports have circulated that the Democratic presidential nominee is seeking to stand apart from the policies of the Biden administration, which insiders say are too unpopular and could prove to be a liability. “How much does it bother you that Vice President Harris might soon, for political reasons, start to distance herself from your economic plan?” Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Biden during a press conference on Thursday. TRUMP CAMP THANKS WH FOR CONFIRMING THERE’S ‘NO DAYLIGHT’ BETWEEN HARRIS, BIDEN: ‘KAMALA CREATED THIS MESS’ “She’s not going to,” Biden replied, before walking away from the reporter. The comment shows surprising confidence in the face of recent reports that Harris is not in lockstep with the administration. An Axios report published Wednesday claimed the Harris-Walz campaign is consciously seeking to disentangle the vice president from the Biden administration’s unpopular economic policies. FORMER BIDEN ADVISER SUSAN RICE SAYS HARRIS HAS BEEN AN ‘INTEGRAL ARCHITECT’ OF THE ADMINISTRATION’S AGENDA Key positions Harris is looking to pivot away from Biden include fracking, decriminalization of illegal immigration into the country and health care – according to the Axios report. The vice president is reportedly most concerned with tackling inflation in new, more direct ways in order to free herself from the negative baggage that over three years of rapid inflation has created for the Democratic Party. Harris announced on Thursday her intention to ban “price gouging” on groceries, which have seen a cost increase of over 20% over the last three years. Conversely, the White House has been keen to emphasize unity between Biden and Harris, claiming there is “no daylight” between their individual agendas. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday during the White House press briefing that Biden and Harris have been “aligned” throughout the administration. “[Harris is] going to lay out her vision. But again, they’ve been aligned, you know, they’ve been aligned for the last three and a half years. There’s not been any daylight,” Jean-Pierre said.
Who is Sampat Meena, CBI Additional Director, heading probe in Kolkata doctor murder-rape case?
Meena was also at the helm of the high-profile investigation of the sensational Unnao rape case and Hathras gangrape.
Vance says media acted like Biden was ‘Einstein,’ aim to make Harris into ‘second coming of Abraham Lincoln’
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance accused the mainstream media of attempting to turn Harris into the “second coming of Abraham Lincoln.” The senator from Ohio made the remarks while speaking at a rally in New Kensington, Pennsylvania on Thursday. “I just can’t quite get over how dishonest the American media is about Kamala Harris. Isn’t it the craziest thing,” Vance said at the rally. “Now we have to remember for three and a half years […] Democratic leaders all across the country would say things and the American media would back ’em up. That President Biden, for three and a half years — he’s as sharp as he’s ever been, sharp as a tack. Remember that?” JD VANCE SAYS HE WANTS A ‘REAL’ DEBATE WITH OPPONENT TIM WALZ, NOT A ‘FAKE NEWS MEDIA GARBAGE’ ONE He continued, “The American media acted for three and a half years like this guy was Albert Einstein — and now they would tell us that Kamala Harris is the second coming of Abraham Lincoln. We don’t buy it. We don’t believe it.” Vance has made frequent comments about his deep distrust of the mainstream news media since being chosen by former President Donald Trump to be his running mate. Speaking with Fox News on Wednesday, Vance said he wanted multiple debates with his vice-presidential opponent Tim Walz — but drew a distinction between “real” and “fake” debates. CNN’S BRIANNA KEILAR WALKS BACK JD VANCE SWIPE FOLLOWING BACKLASH: HE ‘SERVED HONORABLY IN IRAQ’ Vance said he is “not going to do one of these fake debates where they don’t actually have an audience there, where they don’t actually set the parameters in a way where we can have a good exchange of ideas.” “In other words, we’re not going to walk into a fake news media garbage debate. We’re going to do a real debate, and if CBS agrees to it, then certainly we’ll do it,” he added. Vance got into a public feud with CNN’s Brianna Keilar after the anchor questioned his military bona fides on air. “Because we have, as you introduced him, as a combat correspondent, which is what [Vance’s] title was,” Keilar told her CNN colleague Dana Bash Thursday. “But when you dig a little deeper into that, he was a public affairs specialist, someone who did not see combat, which certainly the title ‘combat correspondent,’ kind of gives you a different impression. So he may be the imperfect messenger on that.” “Brianna this is disgusting, and you and your entire network should be ashamed of yourselves,” Vance wrote on X. “When I got the call to go to Iraq, I went. Tim Walz said he carried a gun in a war. Did he? No. It was a lie.” Keilar later appeared to walk back her remarks, acknowledging in a monologue that Vance “served honorably in Iraq.” Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
Trump flips script on Harris’ ‘duck and hide’ media strategy with second press conference in a week
Donald Trump will take questions from reporters Thursday at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, the second straight week that the former president has grabbed headlines by holding a news conference. The move is partially to try and blunt the momentum of Vice President Kamala Harris heading into next week’s Democratic National Convention. Harris has been riding a wave of energy and enthusiasm since replacing President Biden at the top of the Democrats’ 2024 ticket three and a half weeks ago. But it also appears to be another move to try and put pressure on Harris for not holding a news conference or a major interview since Biden bowed out and backed his vice president. “It has been 24 days and Kamala Harris continues to duck and hide from the media – no interviews and no press conferences since she announced,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung emphasized on Wednesday. VANCE SAYS TRUMP’S ‘OFF THE CUFF’ COMMENTS ‘PART OF HIS APPEAL’ Trump, at his news conference last week at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, continued to insult Harris’ intelligence, arguing that “she hasn’t done an interview – she can’t do an interview.” The former president’s 2024 running mate, Sen. JD Vance, has also been criticizing the Democrats’ standard-bearer for her lack of engagement with the media. TRUMP CAMPAIGN PLANS COUNTER-PROGRAMMING DURING DEMOCRATS’ CONVENTION “She doesn’t’ have any ability to be unscripted,” Vance charged as he answered reporters’ questions following a campaign event in southwestern Michigan. “She sure as hell isn’t giving interviews. She’s not standing before the American people answering questions.” And he argued that “it is scandalous that Kamala Harris is running from the media. But more importantly, she’s running from the American people. That’s a disgrace.” Harris, who to date has briefly taken a few questions from the traveling press, has said she’ll sit for a major interview before the end of the month. “We will commit to directly engage with the voters that are actually gonna decide this election and that is gonna be complete with rallies, with sit-down interviews, with press conferences, with all the digital assets we have at our disposal,” Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler told CNN yesterday. While Trump took questions for over an hour at last week’s news conference, he used some of his uneven answers to push unproven claims on a bunch of topics, including his repeated years-long charge that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and the size of the crowd at his Jan. 6, 2021, rally ahead of the attack on the U.S. Capitol. WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLL IN THE HARRIS-TRUMP FACE-OFF SHOWS Hours before Thursday’s news conference, the Harris campaign put out mock email advisory titled “Donald Trump To Ramble Incoherently and Spread Dangerous Lies in Public, but at Different Home.” And Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer told Fox News that “Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are talking to voters, laying out a vision of the middle class, and letting Americans know they will fight for their freedoms.” He argued that “Donald Trump can talk to whoever he wants, but he can’t explain away his toxic Project 2025 agenda, speak in coherent thoughts, or offer anything but insults and higher prices to the middle class.” While criticizing Harris over key issues such as border security, crime and inflation, Trump in the past couple of weeks has also continuously slammed the vice president and insulted her during speeches, news conferences and in social media posts. Sources in Trump’s political orbit tell Fox News that top advisers to the former president are quietly aiming to persuade him to tamp down the insults to Harris and the questioning of the vice president’s racial identity and instead focus on branding her an ultra-liberal and spotlighting her stance on the border, crime and inflation TRUMP ARGUES HARRIS IS MORE LIBERAL THAN BERNIE SANDERS — HERE’S WHAT THE VERMONT SENATOR TOLD FOX NEWS Trump allies are also publicly pitching the former president to refocus his attention. “You’ve got to make this race not on personalities,” former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Monday in an interview on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.” “Stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position.” McCarthy emphasized that Trump has “a short time frame to do it, so don’t sit back. Get out there and start making the case.” During an interview Tuesday with Bret Baier on Fox News’ “Special Report,” former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – Trump’s top rival from the Republican presidential primaries earlier this year – also had some unsolicited advice for her former boss. Haley, who reiterated that she wants Trump to win the presidential election, emphasized that “the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. It’s not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It’s not going to win talking about whether she’s dumb. It’s not. You can’t win on those things. The American people are smart. Treat them like they’re smart.” Vance, in an interview with Fox News Digital ahead of his campaign event in Michigan, responded to the blunt advice from fellow Republicans. “I think one of the things people actually love about Donald Trump in politics is he’s not unwilling to speak off the cuff. He says what’s actually on his mind. He’s not always filtered. I think that’s a good thing and part of his appeal,” the GOP vice presidential nominee said. But Vance also emphasized that “if you look at this race, we’re talking about policy. That’s 90% of what we’re doing. And I think that’s going to keep on happening.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
How Lubbock artists pushed back after the city ended funding for its popular art walk
The City Council did approve $5,000 for security, about one-fifth of the money it withheld over last month.
‘Pregnant persons’: Ohio Sen Sherrod Brown scrubbed ‘women’ from bill on pregnancy
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, quietly erased the words “women” and “woman” from a bill relating to insurance enrollment periods for pregnant women. In 2015, the Ohio Democrat introduced the first iteration of the Healthy Maternity and Obstetric Medicine Act. It featured the word “women” 22 times, “maternity” 19 times, and “woman” twice. By last year, he had scrubbed it of references to women before the bill’s re-introduction. The 2023 version doesn’t make any mention of “women” or “woman.” It also reduced references to “maternity” to only four. ‘PATH TO JUSTICE’: DURBIN URGES AUSTIN TO RETHINK REVOKING 9/11 MASTERMINDS’ PLEA DEALS The measure itself seeks to establish a special health insurance enrollment period for pregnant women by amending the Public Health Service Act to require it by law. Introduced several times, including in 2015, 2019, 2021 and 2023, the bill once featured a section titled, “Findings and Purpose.” Within that section, “women” were referenced 19 times in 2015 and 20 times in 2019. According to the section, “Pregnancy is a significant life event for millions of women in the United States each year.” Brown even referred to “sex-based discrimination,” claiming that federal law has determined that “treating pregnancy differently than other conditions” qualifies as such. KAMALA HARRIS LED DEMS IN 2018 CALL TO REJECT MORE FUNDING FOR BORDER PATROL, ICE The lengthy section was then inexplicably removed from both the 2021 and 2023 versions of the measure. The later iterations of the bill solely rely on the descriptors “pregnant person” and “pregnant individual,” rather than “woman.” When contacted by Fox News Digital, neither Brown’s office nor his campaign answered why the bill was scrubbed of references to women, despite being on the topic of pregnancy. Brown’s campaign and office also did not respond to questions from Fox News Digital on whether he believes that anyone other than women can become pregnant or if he could cite an occasion when a man had given birth to a child. The senator did not provide any comment to Fox News Digital in time for publication. GOOGLE EXECS PRESSED TO TESTIFY AFTER ADMITTING TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT SEARCH OMISSIONS WERE BY DESIGN Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, who is endorsed by former President Trump, is running to unseat Brown in November. In a statement to Fox News Digital, Moreno spokesperson Reagan McCarthy said, “By erasing women from a bill centered around women’s health care during pregnancy, Sherrod Brown is saying the quiet part out loud: he doesn’t believe that only women can get pregnant and wants to erase biological women’s unique abilities.” “Brown isn’t just a far-left extremist, he’s also a bonafide weirdo.” Brown is running for re-election in Ohio, a red state which has voted for Trump in the past two presidential elections. His race is rated a “Toss Up” by non-partisan political handicapper the Cook Political Report, alongside Senate match-ups in Montana and Michigan. BIDEN REPEATS DEBUNKED CLAIM HE TRAVELED 17,000 MILES WITH CHINA’S XI JINPING The vulnerable Ohio senator’s removal of “women” from the measure comes as a national debate on gender identity continues, with specific areas of contention in language, women’s sports, and school appropriate content. The decision to omit mention of women follows a trend among Democrats to include transgender individuals, who may be biologically a man or woman but say they identify as something else, in discussions on policy. While only biological women can become pregnant, a woman might say she is transgender and identify as a man. Republicans have sought to point out their Democratic counterparts’ ambiguity on inherently gendered subjects. GOP politicians and pundits have often questioned Democrats on the definition of a woman, frequently showcasing their opponents’ unwillingness to put the term in precise words. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
‘Election interference’: Trump lawyers call for delayed sentencing in Bragg case
Lawyers for former President Trump are requesting his sentencing hearing in New York v. Trump be delayed until after the November presidential election, citing “naked election-interference objectives.” Trump was found guilty in an unprecedented criminal trial on all counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, following a six-week trial stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation. Trump has moved to overturn his criminal conviction in the Manhattan case after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a former president has substantial immunity for official acts committed while in office. TRUMP’S APPEAL TO LIFT REMAINING PARTS OF NY GAG ORDER DENIED His initial sentencing was set for July 11 — just days before the Republican National Convention, where he was set to be formally nominated as the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, but Judge Juan Merchan agreed to delay that until Sept. 18. Trump attorney Todd Blanche on Thursday moved to further delay that sentencing hearing. “The Court should adjourn any sentencing in this case, though one should not be necessary because dismissal and vacatur of the jury’s verdicts are required based on Presidential immunity, until after the 2024 Presidential election,” Blanche wrote in a letter to Merchan. Blanche argued that the case “should be dismissed” and pointed to the fact that Vice President Kamala Harris, in her capacity as the Democratic presidential nominee, and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in his capacity as the Democratic vice presidential nominee, “wrongly referred to this case in a public speech.” Blanche also pointed to Merchan’s daughter’s work at Authentic Campaigns, which represents top Democratic candidates. TRUMP TOUTS SUPREME COURT’S PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY RULING AS ‘BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND FOR DEMOCRACY’ “Sentencing is currently scheduled to occur after the commencement of early voting in the Presidential election,” Blanche wrote. “By adjourning sentencing until after the election — which is of paramount importance to the entire nation, including tens of millions of people who do not share the views of Authentic, its executives, and its clients — the Court would reduce, even if not eliminate, issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings.” Blanche stressed that there is no need “to rush.” “Setting aside naked election-interference objectives, there is no valid countervailing reason for the Court to keep the current sentencing date on the calendar,” Blanche wrote. “There is no basis for continuing to rush.” NEW YORK V. TRUMP: MERCHAN DELAYS SENTENCING HEARING UNTIL SEPTEMBER He added, “Accordingly, we respectfully request that any sentencing, if one is needed, be adjourned until after the Presidential election.” In his arguments for dismissal, Blanche argued that Bragg offered official acts evidence during the six-week-long unprecedented criminal trial. Blanche said that included official White House communications with staffers like Hope Hicks, Madeleine Westerhout and others. The Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts in office but not for unofficial acts. The high court said Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for “official acts” but left it to the lower court to determine exactly where the line between official and unofficial is.
Harris does about-face on several far-left policies, distances herself from Biden
Vice President Harris is doing an about-face on several far-left policies as she distances herself from President Biden and attempts to make a name of her own as the Democratic presidential nominee. In her first policy speech in North Carolina later this week and then next week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Harris plans to present to Americans who she is and how she will govern essentially for the first time since Biden backed out of the race and endorsed her presidential campaign. In recent weeks, Harris has shifted on at least five major policy stances: mandatory assault rifle buybacks, fracking, immigration, health care and a federal jobs guarantee. While campaigning for president in 2019, she endorsed a mandatory buyback program for assault rifles. “We have to have a buyback program, and I support a mandatory gun buyback program,” Harris said in October 2019, according to NBC News. “It’s got to be smart, we got to do it the right way. But there are 5 million [assault weapons] at least, some estimate as many as 10 million, and we’re going to have to have smart public policy that’s about taking those off the streets, but doing it the right way.” In 2024, a Harris spokesperson says she wouldn’t push a mandatory buyback program for assault rifles. TRACKING KAMALA HARRIS’ POLICY REVERSALS: A COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF KEY ISSUE FLIP-FLOPS Harris also now contradicts what she stated during a September 2019 CNN Town Hall on fracking. An audience member asked at the time, “From contaminated groundwater to poisonous emissions – will you commit to implementing a federal ban on fracking your first day in office, adding the United States to the list of countries who have banned this devastating practice?” “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking, so yes,” Harris said then. “And starting – and starting with what we can do on day one around public lands, right? And then there has to be legislation, but yes – and this is something I’ve taken on in California. I have a history of working on this issue.” In 2024, Harris’ campaign says the vice president “does not support a total ban on fracking.” Five years ago, Harris called for decriminalizing border crossings and reconfiguring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). She also raised her hand on the NBC News debate stage on June 27, 2019, when host Jose Diaz-Balart asked, “We had a very spirited debate on this stage last night on the topic of decriminalization of the border. If you’d be so kind, raise your hand if you think it should be a civil offense rather than a crime to cross the border without documentation? Can we keep the hands up so we could see them?” Now she calls for “strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship.” Harris said she would eliminate private insurance and institute a single-payer health care program in 2019. She famously changed her “answer” the morning after the June 27, 2019, debated hosted by NBC News, saying she misunderstood the question and favored keeping supplemental private health insurance. She lost support from some progressives after the switch. Harris and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had raised their hands when host Lester Holt asked debate participants, “Many people watching at home have health insurance through their employer. Who here would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan?” In 2024, the Harris campaign says she no longer supports a single-payer health insurance program. The Biden administration has not pursued a federal jobs guarantee. However, there were two instances of Harris at the debates in 2019 supporting the Green New Deal, which included a federal jobs guarantee. And in one of the clips, CNN host Dana Bash goes on to note that right after her answer. “We currently have a president in the White House who obviously does not understand the science. He’s been pushing science fiction instead of science fact. The guy thinks that wind turbines cause cancer, but what in fact they cause is jobs,” Harris said during the July 31, 2019, Democratic Debate hosted by CNN. “And the reality is that I would take any Democrat on this stage over the current President of the United States, who is rolling it back to our collective peril. We must have and adopt a Green New Deal. On day one as president.” KAMALA HARRIS PANNED FOR REQUIRING ID TO ENTER ARIZONA RALLY AFTER PREVIOUSLY PAINTING VOTER ID LAWS AS RACIST Harris, short for time, added she would re-enter the Paris Agreement and aim to be carbon-neutral by 2030. “Thank you, Senator,” Bash interjects. “I want to talk about that with Senator Gillibrand. You’re a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, which includes the guarantee of a job with medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security for everyone in America. Explain how that’s realistic.” Harris’ advisers privately told Axios this week that she wants to break with Biden’s unpopularity on the economy and rising prices. In Raleigh on Friday, she will propose how to tackle lowering costs on health care, housing and food for middle-class consumers, as well as how she’ll “take on corporate price-gouging.” Harris reportedly wants to present clearer, more urgent solutions on inflation, considered one of the largest domestic policy issues of her campaign. In their first joint trip since Biden discontinued his re-election campaign, he and Harris will make an appearance together in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The event is slated to discuss lowering costs for Americans. While campaigning for president in 2019, Harris said she was against fracking, supported decriminalizing illegal border crossings and was in favor of single-payer health care, known as Medicare for All. Now, during her short, three-month window bid for the White House in 2024, she backtracked on all three. She also copied Republican presidential nominee and former President Trump’s “no tax on tips” campaign promise after calculating how well it appealed in the swing state of Nevada to a key
RFK asked Harris for Cabinet post in exchange for dropping out, endorsing her: report
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss the possibility of him dropping out of the race and endorsing her in exchange for a position in her administration. Kennedy, whose long-shot bid for president took a hit earlier this week when a judge ruled his name should not appear on New York’s ballot, sought out the meeting with Harris in hopes of landing a potential Cabinet secretary position in her future administration, according to a report from the Washington Post. Harris and her campaign have yet to respond with an offer to meet the independent candidate, the report notes, nor have they shown any interest in entertaining his proposal. RFK JR. DISQUALIFIED FROM NEW YORK BALLOT, USED ‘SHAM’ ADDRESS FOR RESIDENCY, JUDGE RULES The longshot contender’s outreach was made through intermediaries, and comes after Kennedy made similar overtures to former President Trump during a meeting at last month’s convention in Milwaukee, which also resulted in no agreement between the two sides. Kennedy, who polling has shown as one of the most disruptive independent candidates in decades, could be looking to leverage his position and drop out of the race, throwing his weight and considerable pull with his supporters behind the candidate who will allow him to continue having an influence past the election. Nevertheless, Kennedy has continued to campaign and make regular media appearances with the expectation that he can win the election, the report notes, though he has left open the possibility of meeting with or getting out of the way of either Harris or Trump if they share an openness for his vision for the country. “From the beginning of this campaign, we were saying people should be talking to each other,” Kennedy told the Washington Post. “That is the only way of unifying the country.” Kennedy also expressed hope that Harris would reconsider his offer to meet, arguing that it is a “strategic mistake” for the Democrat’s campaign. JFK’S ASSASSINATION CUT SHORT MY UNCLE’S VISION BUT WE MUST REVIVE IT, NOT FORGET IT “That’s my perspective,” Kennedy said. “I think they ought to be looking at every opportunity. I think it is going to be a very close race.” The independent candidate would later take to social media, saying in a post on X Thursday that he has no intention of endorsing Harris. “VP Harris’s Democratic Party would be unrecognizable to my father and uncle and I cannot reconcile it with my values,” Kennedy said in the post. “I have no plans to endorse Kamala Harris for President. I do have a plan to defeat her.” Meanwhile, speculation continues that Kennedy and the Trump campaign could come to an agreement to bring the independent candidate into the fold. According to the Washington Post, the independent candidate was spotted at a hotel not far from Trump’s florida home and campaign headquarters. Speaking to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity, Trump campaign advisers said that they are in touch with Kennedy’s senior team and that there is an expectation he will drop out and throw his support behind the former president. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment. Kennedy also noted he has had no contact with the Democratic Party since launching his independent campaign, which sparked a legal battle with the Democratic National Committee in an attempt to derail his and other third party campaigns. CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “The only contact I have with the DNC is them suing me through intermediaries,” Kennedy told the Washington Post. Reached for comment, the Kennedy campaign referred Fox News Digital to his Thursday post. The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks: A timeline of obstruction
Ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel are dragging on with few signs of a breakthrough that would bring relief to Gaza. Attempts at talks started in November with Hamas pushing for an end to all hostilities, the release of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails and the return of displaced people to their homes in northern Gaza. Israel is baulking at those demands. In June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted he wants a “partial” deal to return Israeli captives but not end a devastating war that has killed more than 40,000 people, uprooted nearly all of Gaza’s population and created mass famine and outbreaks of fatal yet preventable diseases. Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been meditating, but Israel’s reluctance to stop its war on Gaza has obstructed a deal, according to experts and Israeli officials. Here’s a timeline of the ceasefire talks – successful and otherwise – since October 7. November 22 After more than six weeks of fighting, a brief breakthrough is achieved. An initial four-day ceasefire starts, with Hamas releasing 50 Israeli captives – mostly women and children – in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons. Israel says it would extend the truce if Hamas releases 10 more captives per day. Humanitarian aid is also allowed in during the pause in fighting. But Netanyahu does not want a permanent ceasefire, insisting that Israel’s aim is to “dismantle” Hamas completely – a goal US and Israeli officials have since declared impossible. December 2 Although the ceasefire was eventually extended to a week, with 110 captives freed from Gaza and 240 Palestinians freed from Israeli prisons, talks to extend the truce collapse. The dispute centres around whether Hamas should release women soldiers as part of the same deal, and Hamas’s insistence that all Palestinian prisoners be released. Israel outright refuses that demand. The war, which United Nations experts say may amount to genocide, resumes. December 10 The US, Israel’s biggest ally, vetoes a UN Security Council (UNSC) proposal to stop the war. The deputy US ambassador to the UN says an immediate halt to hostilities would only “plant the seeds for the next war”, alleging Hamas’s refusal to accept a two-state solution. But Hamas has accepted a two-state solution for nearly 20 years. In 2017, its new charter officially stated that. Then-leader of Hamas’s political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, says he is reviewing a three-stage ceasefire proposal hammered out by Egyptian, Israeli, Qatari and US negotiators in Paris. It has three phases: Phase 1: A permanent halt in the fighting, the release of some Israeli captives and a ramping-up of humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave Phase 2: More Israeli captives released, including female soldiers, in exchange for more aid and a restoration of major services Phase 3: A return of deceased Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners Netanyahu’s right-wing allies in Israel’s government warn they will collapse the fragile coalition if a permanent ceasefire happens. Netanyahu rejects the proposal, saying Hamas’s conditions are “delusional”. Experts say Netanyahu is afraid his coalition partners will leave and early elections would be called at a time when his popularity is at an all-time low. February 20 For a third time, the US vetoes a UNSC resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The US ambassador to the UN says the veto was over concerns the resolution would jeopardise talks between the US, Egypt, Israel and Qatar Netanyahu welcomes the US veto. March 26 The US finally abstains rather than vetoes a UNSC ceasefire proposal, which passes with 14 of the council’s 15 members in favour. However, the US later says the resolution is “nonbinding”, undermining the rules of the UN system and signalling its commitment to keep backing Israel’s war on Gaza. May 7 Hamas accepts a ceasefire proposed by Qatar and Egypt that follows the three-phase framework. It stipulates that all Israeli captives – civilian and military – would be released in exchange for an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners. It calls on Israel to scale up aid, gradually withdraw from Gaza and permit reconstruction as well as lift the siege it imposed on the enclave since 2007. But, experts say, Israel is unlikely to agree to the terms because it doesn’t want a lasting ceasefire. “Israel wants to reserve the right to continue operations in Gaza,” said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel-Palestine for the International Crisis Group. Two days later, Israel ignores mounting calls for a ceasefire and launches an offensive on Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, where 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are seeking refuge. July 31 Haniyeh is assassinated in Tehran while attending the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Iranian and US officials believe Israel is responsible. Israel neither officially confirms nor denies it. Fears rise that negotiations could stop after the assassination, not least because Haniyeh was Hamas’s main interlocutor. Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’s political bureau, was the Palestinian group’s pointman in ceasefire talks with Israel [File: Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu] August 15 Netanyahu is still being accused of blocking a deal. He reportedly hardens his negotiating team’s position, insisting that Israeli forces must remain in control of Gaza’s southern border, a stipulation that was not included before. He also says security checkpoints be set up to search Palestinians hoping to return to their homes in northern Gaza, stipulations the negotiating team fears will torpedo a ceasefire as a new round of talks gets under way. Israel does send a team to attend ceasefire talks in Doha called for by the US, Egypt and Qatar. Reports suggest that Hamas will not send representatives, but has told mediators that it is willing to meet after the discussions to determine if the Israelis are serious about the truce proposals. Adblock test (Why?)