Author: CNN

Washington
CNN
 — 

President Joe Biden on Friday spoke with the families of the Americans who remain unaccounted for in Israel after promising to speak with family members of those who are held hostage by Hamas.

During a speech in Philadelphia Friday afternoon, Biden recounted the conversation.

“They’re going through agony not knowing what the status of their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, children are,” he said. “You know, it’s gut wrenching. I assured them my personal commitment to do everything possible, everything possible” to ensure the Americans’ return.

National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby told reporters that Biden “conveyed directly to these families that they have been in his prayers and we affirmed for them that the United States government is doing everything possible to locate and bring home their loved ones.”

The call was led by special presidential envoy for hostage affairs Roger Carstens, Kirby said.

“Several of the family members shared information about their loved ones – personal stories and experiences that they have gone through as they endure this, quite frankly, unimaginable ordeal,” Kirby said.

In a clip of an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired Friday, Biden promised to speak with the families.

“I think they have to know that the president of the United States of America cares deeply about what’s happening. Deeply. We have to communicate to the world (that) this is critical. This is not even human behavior. It’s pure barbarism,” Biden told CBS’ Scott Pelley in a clip of a “60 Minutes” interview that was released Friday morning.

He added: “We’re going to do everything in our power to get them home if we can find them.”

Fourteen Americans remain unaccounted for, and the White House believes “less than a handful” are being held hostage by Hamas following this weekend’s attacks, Kirby has said.

The US is in “direct communication” with Israeli counterparts and the families, Kirby told CNN’s Poppy Harlow on Friday morning.

“The families have been a good source of information because some of them, you know, they saw their loved one being abducted or they know they’ve seen images of their loved one being abducted. So they have been a significant and an important source of information as well,” Kirby said Friday.

But, he added, “We just don’t have enough information to develop any specific policy options one way or the other.”

The US is offering Israel hostage recovery expertise, with FBI and Pentagon personnel on the ground providing support.

Diplomatic efforts to recover the hostages are also underway, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken currently traveling in Qatar, which CNN has reported is among the countries in talks with Hamas over hostages.

Kirby noted to CNN on Thursday that it is a “common tactic in the Hamas playbook to break up hostages and move them in rounds in sometimes small groups,” though the US has not confirmed whether that is the case.

Biden called Hamas “pure evil” but said the majority of Palestinians were suffering as a result of the militant group’s terror. In some of his most direct public comments about the suffering inside Gaza, the president said he was working “urgently to address the humanitarian crisis” in the coastal Palestinian enclave.

“We can’t lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas,” Biden said, adding, “They’re suffering as a result as well.”

FBI hostage negotiators and agents, some working in Israel and others in field offices around the US, have been assisting in the efforts, according to US law enforcement officials involved in the matter.

These include members of the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group, which has extensive experience in helping to resolve hostage incidents, including in war zones from Afghanistan to Iraq and across the Middle East. Negotiators and agents are talking to family members, getting proof of life information that can be used in the investigation and for possible questions to be asked if hostage-takers reach out.

Earlier this week, Biden pledged the full force of his administration’s commitment to rescuing hostages, saying that while “we’re working on every aspect of the hostage crisis in Israel,” if he relayed in detail what steps the administration was taking, “I wouldn’t be able to get them home.”

“Folks, there’s a lot we’re doing – a lot we’re doing. I have not given up hope of bringing these folks home,” Biden said. “But the idea that I’m going to stand here before you and tell you what I’m doing is bizarre, so I hope you understand how bizarre I think it would be to try to answer that question.”

CNN
 — 

“Suits” has been highly rated on Netflix and now a new show is reportedly in the works.

Series creator Aaron Korsh is developing an offshoot of the popular series for NBCUniversal, according to Deadline.

CNN has reached out to representatives for the network to confirm.

“Suits” aired from 2011 to 2019 and starred Patrick J. Adams, Rick Hoffman, Gabriel Macht, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (then Markle), Sarah Rafferty and Gina Torres. Torres then starred in the spinoff “Pearson,” which ran for one season in 2019.

The new show reportedly won’t be a spinoff or a reboot, but rather part of the “Suits” universe.

Korsh shared a Deadline story about the show’s streaming success on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“I always thought we were underestimated, but it turns out, even I underestimated #Suits,” he wrote. “It’s good to be the King.”

Many have attributed the renewed popularity of “Suits” to it featuring Meghan before she married Prince Harry.

Washington, DC
CNN
 — 

Persistently high inflation took a toll on Americans’ attitudes this month as many began to pay back student loans following a three-year hiatus.

The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index fell 7% in October from the prior month, according to a preliminary reading released Friday. Sentiment in October was gloomy by historical standards, but well above the all-time low recorded in June 2022 when inflation was at a four-decade high.

“Nearly all demographic groups posted setbacks in sentiment, reflecting the continued weight of high prices,” said Joanne Hsu, director of the university’s Surveys of Consumers, in a release.

Americans’ moods toward the economy are influenced by current events, including the recently unfolding war between Israel and Hamas, a spike in bond yields and the stalled selection of a new congressional leader.

“There are lots of other headlines that might be worrying consumers,” wrote Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank, in an analyst note Friday. “The impasse over the next House Speaker could be adding to fears of a government shutdown in November; the UAW strike; the restart of student loan payments; and the recent uptick in long-term interest rates could be affecting sentiment, too.”

Overall inflation has picked up in recent months due to higher oil prices, which pushed up retail gasoline prices. The Consumer Price Index rose 3.7% in September from a year earlier, slightly hotter than economists’ expectations, as higher gasoline and rents kept prices elevated.

US consumers are extremely sensitive to changes in gas prices, but after a late-summer surge, the pain at the pump has eased recently. Easing gas prices could bode well for Americans already dealing with higher borrowing costs and inflation in other areas such as housing. But that could change depending on the trajectory of the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Investors are currently pricing in some geopolitical risk, focusing on how tensions between Israel and its arch-enemy Iran play out. If a clear link to Iran emerges, analysts say, some kind of an intervention by the United States cannot be ruled out. That would likely entail tighter enforcement of existing sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, which could compromise current flows to the global oil market.

“The tremendous degree of uncertainty around the Israel-Hamas war means it’s very difficult to predict the potential economic fallout,” wrote Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, in a statement provided to CNN.

A scenario in which the conflict broadens to include involvement from Iran and spillovers into Lebanon and Syria wouldn’t necessarily be of grave consequence for the United States, however.

“The inflation and growth consequences for the region and the rest of the world would likely be more significant than for the US,” Daco said. “A risk-off environment with falling yields and stock prices and rising volatility would further weigh on economic activity globally.”

He added that “a surge in oil prices in the current economic environment would likely lead to more demand destruction than in 2022 when the economy was fiscally stimulated.”

The survey’s index of personal finances plunged about 15%, “primarily on a substantial increase in concerns over inflation,” according to the release. October marks the first month of Americans paying back their student loans since the pandemic-related pause.

The pause gave relief to more than 43 million Americans who have student loans, with the vast majority owing less than $40,000 and nearly one-third owing less than $10,000. The resumption of student loan payments isn’t expected to have a major macroeconomic impact, but US consumers with student debt will still have to factor those payments in to their budgets.

The average monthly student loan payment is between $210 and $314, according to Wells Fargo.

Expectations for inflation in the year ahead rose to 3.8% this month from 3.2% in September, “the highest since May 2023” and “well above the 2.3-3.0% range seen in the two years prior to the pandemic,” according to the university. Expectations can worsen, the longer inflation remains elevated, so the upward pressure from higher gas prices on headline inflation can make Americans more pessimistic about inflation.

Federal Reserve officials pay close attention to longer-run inflation expectations. Americans’ outlook for inflation rates in the next five to 10 years edged up to 3% in October from 2.8% in September.

Minutes from the Fed’s policymaking meeting in September — when officials voted to hold rates at a 22-year high — said that “inflation expectations appeared to remain very well anchored.”

London
CNN
 — 

Global energy prices are finishing the week the way they started — shooting higher as a cocktail of risks to supply have put investors on edge.

The price of Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose more than 4% Friday to trade at nearly $90 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures, the US benchmark, jumped 4.2% to $86 a barrel.

The main driver, according to Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at Oanda, is the unfolding conflict in Israel, and fears that it could spill over into the wider oil-rich Middle East region.

“The oil market is very sensitive to developments with the Israel-Hamas war,” he told CNN. “There are fears that, even as we see US production hit record levels, we could see a major shock to supplies in the near future.”

Analysts told CNN earlier this week that the war — sparked by a deadly assault by Hamas militants over the weekend — had made investors wary of a potential escalation that could embroil Iran.

Israel has long accused Iran of engaging in a form of proxy war by backing groups — including Hamas — that have launched attacks against it. Tehran has denied involvement in the weekend’s attacks.

But if a clear link to Iran emerges, analysts said, some kind of an intervention by the United States cannot be ruled out. That would likely entail tighter enforcement of existing sanctions on Iran’s oil exports.

Israel has warned 1.1 million people in Hamas-controlled Gaza to move south, and has called up 300,000 reservists ahead of a potential ground invasion. The Israel Defense Forces have also sent more troops to the country’s northern border with Lebanon to counter any potential attack by militants of Hezbollah, another group Iran has backed.

“Difficult to assess how an escalation will unfold. I think that what’s really driving the fears is a direct conflict with Iran, and [those fears] seem to grow by the day,” Moya said.

Brent is on course to finish the week 1.7% higher, a notable turnaround after it fell 11.3% last week, logging its biggest weekly drop since March.

Price rises this week put Brent back on course to top $90 a barrel, a level it last breached in early September following months of strengthening mainly on the back of production cuts by Saudi Arabia and Russia.

“Geopolitical situations such as these can change direction at short notice and have the ability to rattle markets and energy prices in a big way. Investors are wary of the unknown,” Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, wrote in a note Friday.

New US measures, unveiled Thursday, aimed at making it harder for Russia to skirt a cap on the price of its oil set by the Group of Seven nations may also be driving oil prices higher as the effort could reduce supply.

The situation in Israel has also weighed heavily on the European natural gas market.

European benchmark gas futures jumped as much as 5.7% Friday to €56 ($59) per megawatt hour, before falling back slightly later in the day. Prices have risen 44% since Friday last week.

Massimo Di Odoardo, vice-president of gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) research at Wood Mackenzie, told CNN that the temporary shuttering Monday of an Israeli gas field supplying gas to Egypt and Jordan, as well as to Israel’s power market, posed a real risk to Europe.

Egypt produces a lot of its own natural gas in addition to imports and processes some of it into LNG for shipping abroad. The country exports about 3 million metric tons (3.3 million tons) of LNG over the winter, with the majority heading to Europe, Di Odoardo said. If Egypt can’t import its usual amount of gas from Israel, that may result in fewer — or no — LNG exports.

“There’s a real risk that Egypt would not be able to export any cargo through the winter and this would eventually result in less gas available to Europe,” he said.

An announcement by US energy giant Chevron (CVX) Tuesday that workers at two key Australian LNG facilities planned to strike has also unsettled investors, according to Di Odoardo. So has the temporary closure of the Balticconnector, a gas pipeline linking Finland and Estonia, he added.

Authorities are investigating whether damage to part of the pipeline running under the Baltic Sea was the result of sabotage.

Reports of suspected sabotage have raised questions about the vulnerability of Europe’s critical infrastructure, just a little over a year after a series of explosions forced the closure of the vital Nord Stream 1 pipeline which had once ferried gas from Russia to Germany.

“This has obviously created a lot of nervousness and heightened the geopolitical risk within the European gas market,” Tomas Marzec-Manser, head of gas analytics at ICIS, told CNN.

Still, prices are far below their levels this time last year, when they hit €156 ($165) per megawatt hour, as Europe was just emerging from an energy crisis sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine. And Marzec-Manser thinks Europe’s upcoming winter will be bearish for the gas market.

While demand is expected to rise as the weather turns colder, he said, “compared to historical rates, we expect consumption from the residential and industrial sector to remain quite muted” as gas prices remain high.

CNN
 — 

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a key figure in House GOP-led investigations, is again seeking the speaker’s gavel Friday as Republicans face a deepening leadership crisis and the chamber remains paralyzed without a speaker.

Jordan has made a name for himself as a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump and was endorsed by Trump in his bid for the speakership. The Ohio Republican serves as chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee.

Jordan has a longstanding reputation as a conservative agitator and helped found the hardline House Freedom Caucus. He has served in Congress since 2007.

Jordan initially ran against House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and was defeated in a closed-door vote by the conference. Scalise went on to become the GOP speaker nominee – but dropped out of the race abruptly Thursday evening after facing a bloc of hardened opposition.

Republicans must now select a new speaker nominee and Jordan has thrown his name back into the race. He may face the same math problems as Scalise, however.

In addition to chairing the Judiciary Committee, Jordan is also the chair of the select subcommittee on the “weaponization” of the federal government. When McCarthy announced a House GOP impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, he said House Oversight Chairman James Comer would lead the effort in coordination with Jordan as Judiciary chair and Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith.

While Republicans say their investigative work is critical to informing the American public and ensuring accountability, Democrats frequently criticize Jordan as a hyper-partisan Trump defender and have accused him of using his perch to shield the former president in the run up to the 2024 presidential election.

As Jordan oversees key House GOP investigations, Democrats also point to the fact that he stonewalled in response to a subpoena for his testimony from the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Jordan as well as Scalise both supported objections to electoral college results when Congress met to certify Joe Biden’s presidential win on January 6, 2021, the same day a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol seeking to overturn the election.

Jordan has downplayed concerns that he may be too conservative for some of the more moderate members of the GOP.

“I think we are a conservative-center-right party. I think I’m the guy who can help unite that. My politics are entirely consistent with where conservatives and Republicans are across the country,” Jordan told CNN’s Manu Raju.

CNN reported in 2020 that six former Ohio State University wrestlers said they were present when Jordan heard or responded to sexual misconduct complaints about team doctor Richard Strauss.

Jordan has emphatically denied that he knew anything about Strauss’ abuse during his own years working at OSU, between 1987 and 1995. “Congressman Jordan never saw any abuse, never heard about any abuse, and never had any abuse reported to him during his time as a coach at Ohio State,” his congressional office said in 2018.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

CNN
 — 

Here’s a look at the life of Michael Dukakis, three-term governor of Massachusetts.

Birth date: November 3, 1933

Birth place: Brookline, Massachusetts

Birth name: Michael Stanley Dukakis

Father: Panos Dukakis, an obstetrician

Mother: Euterpe (Boukis) Dukakis, a teacher

Marriage: Katharine “Kitty” (Dickson) Dukakis (June 20, 1963-present)

Children: Kara,1968; Andrea, 1965; Adopted: John, 1958, Kitty’s son from her first marriage

Education: Swarthmore College, Political Science, B.A., 1955; Harvard University, J.D., 1960

Military service: US Army, 1955-1957, Specialist Third Class

Religion: Greek Orthodox

First Greek-American to run for president.

His first cousin was Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis.

As a high school senior, he ran the Boston Marathon.

Michael and Kitty Dukakis’ first child, a daughter, was born anencephalic in 1964 and died shortly after birth.

October 1960 – Joins the Boston law firm Hill & Barlow as an associate.

November 6, 1962 – Dukakis is elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

1966 – Unsuccessful bid for Massachusetts attorney general.

1970 – Loses race for lieutenant governor.

1970 – Becomes a partner of Hill & Barlow.

October 1, 1973 – Announces candidacy for Massachusetts governor.

November 5, 1974 – Defeats incumbent Francis Sargent in the gubernatorial election.

January 2, 1975-January 4, 1979 – 65th Governor of Massachusetts.

September 19, 1978 – Loses the Democratic gubernatorial primary to Edward King, who goes on to win the general election.

1979-1982 – Dukakis teaches at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

January 1980 – His book,”State and Cities: The Massachusetts Experience,” is published.

January 1982 – Announces his campaign to take back his job as the governor of Massachusetts.

November 2, 1982 – Defeats John Sears in the gubernatorial election, with 60% of the vote.

January 6, 1983-1991 – Governor of Massachusetts.

June 1986 – His book, “Revenue Enforcement, Tax Amnesty and the Federal Deficit,” is published.

November 4, 1986 – Wins a third term as governor, defeating George Kariotis 69% to 31%.

April 29, 1987 – Formally declares his candidacy for president of the United States.

February 1988 – His book, “Creating the Future: The Massachusetts Comeback and its Promise for America,” with Rosabeth Kanter is published.

June 1988 – During the campaign, George H. W. Bush, the Republican nominee for president, paints Dukakis as soft on crime because of an incident involving Massachusetts’s weekend furlough program for prisoners. Inmate Willie Horton failed to return and later terrorized a Maryland couple before being captured.

July 12, 1988 – Names Senator Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX) as his running mate.

July 20, 1988 – Receives the nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.

October 13, 1988 – In the second presidential debate, moderator Bernard Shaw asks Dukakis if he would favor the death penalty if his wife, Kitty, was raped and murdered. Dukakis says no in an answer that many considered emotionless.

November 8, 1988 – Loses the election to Bush by roughly seven million votes, earning 111 electoral votes in the Electoral College to Bush’s 426.

1991-present – Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Northeastern University in Boston.

1991-2022 – Visiting professor at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA.

2000 – His book, “How to Get Into Politics and Why: A Reader,” with Paul Simon is published.

April 27, 2007 – Is awarded the city’s Medal of Honor in Athens, Greece.

July 7, 2008 – Is quoted in the Boston Herald as saying that the country should get rid of the Electoral College and elect presidents through a popular vote.

July 9, 2010 – “Leader-Managers in the Public Sector: Managing for Results,” with John H. Portz is published.

October 16, 2014 – Testifies for the defense in the trial of Robel Phillipos, a friend of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing. Phillipos is charged with lying to the FBI during its investigation.

November 13, 2016 – Dukakis again calls for an end to the Electoral College, Politico reports. Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump in the presidential election is because of “an anachronistic Electoral College system which should have been abolished 150 years ago.”

Washington
CNN
 — 

The Supreme Court on Friday added another case to its docket that asks the justices to overturn decades-old precedent to scale back the power of federal agencies, as well as a case that looks at “qualified immunity” for police officers.

The new case is a companion to a similar dispute involving herring fishermen that the justices have already agreed to hear his term. Although the court did not explain its thinking, it likely added the new case because Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is recused from the first case, having dealt with it as a lower court judge before her elevation to the high court.

The pair of cases represents a conservative attack on the so-called administrative state.

For decades, conservatives have argued that federal agencies are unaccountable to the public and have become too powerful in violation of the separation of powers. How the court decides the two cases could change the way the government tackles such issues as climate change, immigration, labor conditions and public health.

At issue in both appeals are herring fishermen in the Atlantic who say the National Marine Fisheries Service does not have the authority to require them to pay the salaries of government monitors who ride aboard the fishing vessels to make sure federal regulations are being followed.

In agreeing to hear the case, the justices signaled they will consider a 1984 decision – Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council – that sets forward factors to determine when courts should defer to a government agency’s interpretation of a law. First, they examine a statute to see whether Congress’ intent is clear. If it is, then the matter is settled. But if there is ambiguity, the court defers to the agency’s expertise.

The court will hear both cases, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce, in January.

The justices on Friday also agreed to hear the case of a city council member from Texas who says she was arrested in retaliation for calling for the removal of a police ally.

The case allows the court to revisit the scope of a legal doctrine called qualified immunity, which protects police officers from civil claims.

The case concerns Sylvia Gonzalez, a Castle Hills, Texas, city council member, who led an attempt to circulate a citizens’ petition to remove the city manager – an ally of the police – from office.

Gonzalez was arrested under a Texas tampering law that makes it a crime for concealing or removing a government record. She claims she inadvertently placed a copy of the document in her binder and admitted her mistake.

She spent a day in jail, handcuffed and wearing an orange jail shirt.

The district attorney dropped charges against her, and she later sued in federal court, alleging illegal retaliation in violation of the First Amendment, saying the that the city manager had engineered a plan to arrest her and remove her from office.

She argued in court papers that the tampering statute used against her was overly broad had never been used to charge someone for the “uneventful offense of putting a piece of paper in the wrong pile.”

Under normal circumstances, a person alleging retaliatory arrest must demonstrate that police had not proven probable cause to arrest her. But lawyers for Gonzalez argued that there is an exception to the rule in cases in which the law is not routinely enforced.

A district court denied qualified immunity to the officers, but Gonzalez lost her case at the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that there was probable cause to arrest her and that it “necessarily defeated” her retaliatory arrest claim.

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.

CNN
 — 

Egypt is facing mounting pressure to act as neighboring Gaza gets pummeled by Israeli airstrikes after last weekend’s brutal assault on Israel by Hamas.

In the wake of the Hamas attacks, Israel closed its two border crossings with Gaza and imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, blocking supplies of fuel, electricity and water.

That has left the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt as the only viable outlet to get people out of the enclave and supplies into it. But it’s unclear if even that crossing is operational.

The Egyptian side of the crossing is open, but the Palestinian side is “non-functional” following multiple Israeli airstrikes earlier this week, a senior Jordanian official told CNN Thursday, adding that “the Jordanians and Egyptians are waiting for security clearance from the Israelis to allow (aid) trucks to cross without threat of another airstrike.”

Egypt’s foreign ministry on Thursday denied reports of the crossing being closed, saying it has sustained damage due to repeated Israeli airstrikes on the Palestinian side. CNN could not independently verify whether the crossing is open.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the Biden administration is in talks with Israel and Egypt about creating a humanitarian corridor through which civilians can cross.

But Egypt is uneasy about the prospect of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees crossing into its territory. More than two million Palestinians live in the densely packed coastal enclave that is under intense Israeli bombardment.

Israel’s military overnight Thursday called for residents of northern Gaza to evacuate their homes and move southwards as it amassed 300,000 reservists on the border in apparent preparation for a ground incursion. That would amount to the mass displacement of 1.1 million people, the UN said, adding that it would be “impossible” to do in 24 hours.

Saturday’s attack on Israel killed 1,300 people, prompting retaliation against Hamas that has killed 1,799 in Gaza. As attacks intensify, rights groups have raised concerns about a potential humanitarian catastrophe.

Speaking at a military graduation ceremony Thursday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi compared the situation in his country to a lone house in a neighborhood that’s on fire. He said that rumors about Egypt not seeking to help its Palestinian neighbors are not true.

“We are making sure that aid, whether medical or humanitarian, at this difficult time, makes it to the strip,” Sisi said, adding that “we sympathize.”

But he warned that Egypt’s ability to help has limits.

“Of course we sympathize. But be careful, while we sympathize, we must always be using our minds in order to reach peace and safety in a manner that doesn’t cost us much,” he said, adding that Egypt hosts 9 million migrants already. The largest groups in the country’s migrant population are from Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Libya, according to a 2022 report by the UN’s International Organization for Migration.

Egypt’s foreign ministry warned Friday against Israel’s call for evacuation, calling it “a grave violation of international humanitarian law” that would put the lives of more than 1 million Palestinians in danger.

The Jordanian official told CNN Thursday that Jordanian and Egyptian officials are applying “diplomatic and political pressure on the Israeli government to allow for the safe passage of aid into Gaza through the Rafah crossing.”

A plane carrying medical aid for Gaza from Jordan arrived Thursday in the Egyptian city of Arish, approximately 45 kilometers (23 miles) away from Rafah, and aid was loaded onto Egyptian Red Crescent trucks that have not yet been able to advance towards the border, the official said.

But Egyptian media outlets have sounded alarms about the prospect of allowing Palestinian refugees into the country, warning that it may forcefully displace Gazans into Sinai.

Sisi echoed those sentiments on Thursday. “There is a danger” when it comes to Gaza, he said – “a danger so big because it means an end to this (Palestinian) cause… It is important that (Gaza’s) people remain standing and on their land.”

Jordan’s King Abdullah, who met with Blinken Friday, warned against “any attempt to displace Palestinians from any Palestinian territories or to cause their displacement.”

The vast majority of Gaza’s residents today are Palestinian refugees from areas that fell under Israeli control in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. That war marked Israel’s creation, but it is also lamented by Palestinians as the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” as more than 700,000 Palestinians were either expelled or forced to flee their homes in what is now Israel.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians took refuge in Gaza, which fell under Egyptian control after the war. Israel captured the territory from Egypt in the 1967 war and began settling Jews there, but it withdrew its troops and settlements in 2005.

Additional reporting by CNN’s Celine Alkhaldi and Caroline Faraj

CNN
 — 

One of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the classified documents case told a federal judge Thursday that he’s not concerned his defense lawyer previously represented three witnesses who could testify against him.

The court hearing in Fort Pierce, Florida, addressed concerns raised by prosecutors about the web of connections between the case’s defense lawyers and witnesses, many of whom work at Mar-a-Lago or for the former president.

Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Trump’s Florida estate, is represented by John Irving, who had been paid for by Trump’s political action committee. De Oliveira is accused of attempting to tamper with surveillance footage at the club during an investigation into the handling of classified documents and of lying to investigators. He and his co-defendants have pleaded not guilty and plan to contest the charges at trial.

Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the case, repeatedly asked De Oliveira, a Portuguese immigrant with little formal education, if he understood the potential ethical conflicts with his lawyer. He said multiple times that he did, but then struggled to articulate his understanding of the potential issues.

“If Mr. Irving was trying to cross other people – I don’t know how to say it,” he said.

Still, “I’m OK with it,” De Oliveira said. “I discussed it with my lawyers in previous days.”

“I would like to continue forward with Mr. Irving,” De Oliveira also said, adding that he had not been influenced or coerced into making that decision.

The two-hour hearing highlighted a bigger theme that has shaded the Mar-a-Lago documents case: The inter-connectedness of Trump’s legal universe. While it’s not atypical for an employer to assist employees in finding and paying for lawyers, a small group of attorneys have juggled many clients in Trump’s sphere, receiving compensation for at least some of their work from Trump’s Save America PAC and working closely with Trump’s own defense lawyers.

Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche also attended Thursday’s hearing.

Cannon accepted De Oliveira’s waiver of any issues that could arise with Irving. The Justice Department had raised the concern in part to eliminate possible grounds for appeal if the defendants are convicted at trial.

De Oliveira’s lawyer pledged not to question at trial the witnesses he previously represented, leaving that job to another lawyer.

Irving no longer witnesses who could testify about De Oliveira moving boxes at Mar-a-Lago and would have insight into him appearing to take photos of surveillance cameras. Irving said he may not even take issue with their testimony and believes it might not hurt De Oliveira.

RELATED: Trump’s access to classified information restricted as he heads to trial in documents case, federal judge rules

Another Trump co-defendant in the classified documents case, Walt Nauta, was set to have a similar hearing on Thursday regarding his attorney Stanley Woodward representing a key witness who will be called to testify against all three defendants.

But Cannon refused to go forward with that hearing because prosecutors with the special counsel’s office raised arguments they hadn’t previously put in writing.

Before abruptly ending Nauta’s proceeding less than a half hour after it began, Cannon admonished the government “for frankly wasting the court’s time.”

Woodward and other defense attorneys have repeatedly tried to delay aspects of the case and want the trial date to be much later than May, when it is currently set. It’s not clear yet if the derailment of Nauta’s hearing on Thursday would ultimately prompt other deadlines in the case to be pushed back.

The special counsel’s office asked to hold these hearings for Nauta and De Oliveira more than two months ago, telling Cannon that the multiple witnesses Woodward and Irving represented could cause “divided loyalties” at the trial, when they are defending Nauta and De Oliveira while questioning their former clients on the stand.

Irving no longer represents the three clients he had who may be called to testify against Trump and his co-defendants, but Woodward still represents several potential witnesses in addition to Nauta.

As of August, the Justice Department told the court Woodward had at least seven clients who had been questioned in the investigation, including a Mar-a-Lago IT director and two others who worked for Trump while he was president, according to a court filing.

The IT director Yuscil Taveras, who cut an agreement with prosecutors under which he won’t be prosecuted in exchange for his cooperation, has a different attorney now.

Woodward has maintained his work for Nauta hasn’t created clear conflicts of interest. He’s also said in filings the IT director testified to a grand jury that he wasn’t coached or influenced on what he said.

Bangkok
CNN
 — 

Like his father Chumporn and dozens of other able-bodied men from their village in northeast Thailand, Manee Jirachart moved to Israel in search of work, dreaming of a better life.

Jobs were hard to come by within his rural community so when Manee found a cleaning position at a government office in southern Israel near the Gaza it seemed like a real opportunity.

He’d been working that job for nearly five years when he was abducted and taken hostage last weekend by Hamas militants involved in last weekend’s murder and kidnapping rampage within Israel.

The 29-year-old was just one of the scores of foreigners who became caught up in the attack that has devastated families around the world.

Dozens came from countries like the United States, Canada, the UK and France, with many holding dual Israeli citizenship and living in the kibbutzim targeted by Hamas gunmen or had been partying at the music festival where so many were killed.

But among many of the foreigners killed and captured by Hamas were also migrant workers from Asia, without familial links to either Israel or the Palestinian Territories, who hail from mostly poor, rural families and work in the country’s agricultural, construction and healthcare sectors.

At least 10 Nepali agriculture students were killed when the Hamas militants stormed the Alumim kibbutz, an agrarian community near Gaza, and another Nepali is missing, the country’s ambassador to Israel told CNN.

Two Filipinos were also killed, according to the Philippines government.

But it is Thailand, which for decades has made up one of the biggest sources of migrant labor in Israel, that has suffered one of the highest tolls of any nation beyond Israel itself.

So far at least 21 Thai nationals have been killed as of Thursday, according to Thai authorities, with at least 14 others believed to have been captured by Hamas, their current whereabouts unknown, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin confirmed.

“Thailand has dominated the foreign migrant worker market in Israeli agriculture for the past decade,” said Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch.

“As many as 20,000 Thai workers were living on various remote farms and desert areas all over Israel, including areas close to the Gaza Strip so it isn’t surprising at all that many were right in harm’s way when Hamas fighters arrived.”

Each day this week the number has ticked up as more details become known, sparking fresh heartbreak for Thai families living thousands of miles from the Middle East’s latest conflict.

In an interview on Thai television, Labour Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said that around 5,000 Thais were employed in the “fighting zone.” Thousands of them are now hoping to return home to worried families, he added.

With Israel massing hundreds of thousands of troops on the Gaza border amid speculation there could be a ground invasion, many in Thailand fear they could yet become caught in the crossfire.

Manee had talked to his father Chumporn on the phone just hours before the attack.

“I had spoken with Manee in the morning and we were supposed to talk again in the evening,” Chumporn told CNN in a phone interview.

At the time, rockets were being fired toward Israel and this reminded the elder man of his own experiences living and working there. Aware of how quickly the dangers could escalate, the 50-year-old urged his son not to go outside, other than to find a bunker and hide if he needed to.

But hours later, he saw photos circulating on social media showing his son with his hands behind his back, sitting barefoot and cross-legged with other male hostages in front of an armed fighter pointing a rifle.

The photo, verified by Chumporn and seen by CNN, showed what looked like an underground room.

“I couldn’t believe it. I thought it was some kind of prank,” Chumporn said. “I called him several times but there was no answer – that was when I started to believe it was real.”

“We (Thais) are not involved in any of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. We are just there to work and earn money so we can have better lives,” he added.

“I am begging for my son’s release. I need to have him back, in good shape – like before he left Thailand.”

Migrant workers from Asia make up more than half of Israel’s foreign work force, often taking on jobs as caregivers and within the construction industry.

Construction workers from China, where multiple firms maintain lucrative contracts with real estate developers in Israel, have found themselves caught up the violence this week.

One of the Filipinos killed, Paul Castelvi, had been working in Israel for five years and was a major breadwinner for his family, who expressed disbelief over his death at the hands of Hamas fighters.

“He was among those employed taking care of elderly people when Hamas fighters entered their home,” Castelvi’s elderly father Nick told CNN affiliate CNN Philippines at their home in San Fernando city in the northwestern Pampanga province.

“They were heartless and did not show any mercy.”

“You can ask anyone and they will tell you how kind and good my son was. He (would have) put up a fight to defend his employer and was shot there while they (Hamas fighters) took his employer and left Paul there to die with a gunshot wound,” he said, breaking down in tears.

“We are left devastated by his loss. He was just there to earn a living so why would they do that to my son?”

Assia Ladizhinskaya, spokesperson for Kav LaOved, a non-profit advocating for labor rights in the region, said part of the reason for this was that an earlier “massive wave of terror acts in Israel” meant “Palestinian workers weren’t welcome anymore.”

“During the 1990s, migrant workers (began to) replace Palestinians working in construction sites and agriculture fields as Palestinians workers became unwelcome and ‘unreliable’ due to regular lock downs and security issues,” Ladizhinskaya added.

Now many have found themselves caught up in those same security issues as a seemingly intractable conflict that has festered for decades without resolution flares up once more.

Human Rights Watch called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of all hostages and said that Thai workers, along with Nepalese and Filipinos, “were simply there to earn money to support their families.

“Such targeting of civilians is clearly a war crime and inexcusable in any circumstance,” said Robertson.

Meanwhile, the first flight of 41 Thai landed in Bangkok on Thursday – many recounting harrowing escapes as they reunited with tearful family members. Agency photos and videos showed two were being through the airport in wheelchairs.

Migrant workers migrating to dangerous conflict zones in search of work, with little protection and legal enforcement, has been a “big issue for decades,” said British researcher and migrant worker rights specialist Andy Hall.

“It’s clear there is a strong market for them and little regulation by governments,” Hall told CNN. Many even pay massive amounts of money as part of high recruitment fees to take up jobs, he added.

Thailand itself is a major destination for migrant workers, mainly from poorer neighboring countries like Cambodia and Laos, as well as war-torn Myanmar.

“It only shows the desperation of the situation and stronger protocols are needed to protect people even before they migrate. There needs to be more risk assessments and detailed consideration (on the part of authorities).”

For now, many of those workers in Israel find themselves trapped in a region described by the UN as at a “tipping point” as tensions escalate and Israeli retaliation against Gaza accelerates.

Then there are those who, like Manee Jirachart, find themselves hostage in a foreign land they hoped would help them have a better life.

There are up to 150 hostages being held in Gaza, Israeli authorities believe. It is unclear how many are foreign nationals.

“Scores are being held captive, facing appalling threats to their lives,” said the UN’s top humanitarian official Martin Griffiths in a statement released this week.

“The violence must stop. Those held captive must be treated humanely. Hostages must be released without delay.”