US able to avoid UN diplomatic crisis over settlements in Israel
UNITED NATIONS — The Biden administration has averted a potential diplomatic crisis over Israeli settlements at the United Nations that had threatened to overshadow U.S. efforts for the world body to focus on Russia’s war with Ukraine ahead of this week’s one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion.
Multiple diplomats familiar with the situation said Sunday that the U.S. had successfully managed to forestall a contentious U.N. Security Council resolution pushed by the Palestinians that would have condemned Israel for settlement expansion and demanded a halt to future activity.
To avoid a vote and a likely U.S. veto of such a resolution, the diplomats said the administration managed to convince both Israel and the Palestinians to agree in principle to a six-month freeze in any unilateral action they might take.
On the Israeli side, that would mean a commitment to not expanding settlements until at least August, according to the diplomats.
On the Palestinian side, the diplomats said it would mean a commitment until August not to pursue action against Israel at the U.N. and other international bodies such as the World Court, the International Criminal Court and the U.N. Human Rights Council.
The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the highly sensitive negotiations.
The tentative agreement means the U.S. will not have to go ahead with a planned veto of the resolution that would have been a political headache for President Joe Biden as he approaches the 2024 presidential election.
Biden is struggling to balance his opposition to Israeli settlements and his support for a two-state resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict with moves to improve ties with the Palestinians that have wide backing among his progressive supporters.
And, although the administration has already denounced Israel’s latest settlement expansion and called the Palestinian resolution “unhelpful,” top congressional Republicans have warned Biden that a veto would have severe consequences for his legislative agenda.
On Thursday, the 193-member General Assembly is expected to vote on a resolution condemning the Russian invasion, reiterating its demand for a withdrawal of all Russian military forces from Ukraine and a cessation of hostilities.
Texas shooting: Authorities say three teenage girls, including one who was pregnant, were fatally shot by a man who also sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl who later escaped before fatally shooting himself. No names have been released.
The killings occurred at the home of the gunman’s girlfriend in the Houston suburb of Galena Park around 10:30 p.m. Saturday.
The girls who were killed were 19, 14 and 13, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
The 38-year-old man then attacked the 12-year-old and then told her to run out of the house, Gonzalez said. She grabbed a 1-year-old baby girl and fled.
Gonzalez said the man’s girlfriend was the mother of the 12-year-old and the 19-year-old. The older victim was the mother of the baby and was pregnant. The
sheriff said the girlfriend was not at home at the time of the shootings.
Election 2024: Marianne Williamson, a best-selling self-help author, appears to be throwing her hat in the U.S. presidential race once again, this time facing slimmer odds than she did in her first try.
Williamson said she’s exploring running for president as a Democrat and plans to make “an important announcement” March 4 in Washington.
If she runs, Williamson would be the first known challenger to President Joe Biden, who is widely expected to seek reelection.
Part of her motivation is “the economic injustices endured by millions of Americans due to the influence of corporate money on our political system,” Williamson said in an emailed statement Saturday.
Williamson was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2020,.
Calif. bishop slain: A Roman Catholic bishop in Southern California was shot and killed Saturday just blocks from a church, a slaying of a longtime priest hailed as a “peacemaker” that’s stunned the Los Angeles religious community, authorities said.
Detectives are investigating the death of Bishop David O’Connell as a homicide, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Authorities have not said whether the bishop was targeted in the shooting or if his religion was a factor in the killing.
The sheriff ’s department would not say how or where his body was discovered. The shooter — or shooters — remain at-large.
O’Connell, 69, had been a priest for 45 years and was a native of Ireland, according to Angelus News, the archdiocese’s news outlet.
He was found in Hacienda Heights, about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles,
around 1 p.m. Saturday with a gunshot wound.
Moldova protests: Several thousand protesters rallied in Moldova’s capital Sunday to demand that the country’s new pro-Western government fully cover citizens’ winter heating bills amid a cost-of-living crisis and skyrocketing inflation.
The protest was organized by a recently formed group called Movement for the People and supported by members of Moldova’s Russia-friendly Shor Party, which holds six seats in the former Soviet republic’s 101-seat legislature.
Some demonstrators in Chisinau called for the resignation of the country’s president, chanting “Down with Maia Sandu!” Others held placards with the faces of some Moldova’s leaders and politicians placed next to photographs of large homes and fancy cars.
Sandu on Feb. 13 outlined what she claimed was an alleged plot by Moscow to
overthrow the government in order to put the nation “at the disposal of Russia,” and to derail it from its course to one day join the European Union.
Panda’s send-off: Thousands of Japanese fans, some wiping away tears, bid farewell to a beloved Japanese-born giant panda that made her final public appearance Sunday before flying to her home country of China.
Fans gathered at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo for one last look at Xiang Xiang, the park’s idol since her 2017 birth.
Sunday’s viewing was limited to 2,600 who won their tickets in a lottery.
But many others who didn’t win came anyway to say their goodbyes from outside of the panda house.
Though the panda was born and grew up at the Tokyo zoo, Xiang Xiang, whose parents Ri Ri and Shin Shin are on loan from China, must return to that country.