Biden Travels To Middle East, Gaza Humanitarian Crisis Worsens, House Speaker Vote
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President biden leaves today on a war time trip to the middle east.

Visit is real, which continues to repair for a ground defensive against in gaza. What does the White house hope to achieve with this trip?

I'm Stephen skip with a Martinez, and this is up first from npr news. The humAnitary arian crisis in gaza grows worse as supplies are running low. Aid organizations say hundreds of thousands of people are in desperate need of shelter, food, medicine, even water. Why is aid not getting to the people who need them?

And the house of representatives is expected to vote on its next speaker today. Oh, high or republican in jim Jordan is his party's. But will he get the necessary votes to take over that? G stay, we ve all news.

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President biden leaves this afternoon for a trip to the middle east. Here's White house national security council spokesperson john corby.

IT will be a quick trip h over the course uh of a single day. Uh but IT IT comes at a very critical time and there is an off a lot on the agenda.

Indeed there is the White house says biden wants to reaffirm U. S. Solidity with israel. Israelis, of course, in a war against to mos, which escalated with this months attack from gaza into israel. In meetings with israel leaders, the president also plans to emphasize the need to get humAnitary arian assistance to civilians in gaza. Israeli cut off food, water and electricity to more than two million people were join now by M.

P. R. Senior White house correspondent tamer key will be travelling with the president attended, going who he sing.

President biden will go to television and meet with israeli prime minister bench of a nettin yahoo. And there is a lot for him to discuss, starting with israel's military strategy, as they respond to those brutal attacks from hamas. And that also includes plans to secure the safe return of hostages, including americans being held by hamas.

They will also talk about what israeli needs from the us. In terms of military assistance, and biden also wants to talk about the situation for civilians trapped in gaza. Corby was asked whether biden might require assurances on that front in exchange for military aid.

We are not putting conditions on the military systems that we are providing to israel. They have a right to defend themselves. They have a right to go after this terror threat. Um and we're going to continue to do, uh, everything we can to help them do that.

Curb did emphasize that avoiding civilian casualties remains a top us priority. And I know the .

president has been talked about establish a cord for manitous an aid for few days now. Any any signs at all that .

that might be happening? Yes, the administration has been pushing for this humAnitarian quarter to get eight in and to help people get out, including U. S.

citizens. Biden will be talking about this on his second stop in a moon, Jordan. There he'll meet with Jordan, king of dollar president lcc of egypt and palestinian authority president mock mood of s.

Egypt controls a key part of the gaza border, but has been reluctant to open IT. So vide meeting with the egyptian president is significant. And last night, when secretary of state Anthony blinkin announced the president tripped to television, he had just come out of hours of meetings with netta. Yahoo and lincoln said that the united states and israel had agreed on aid to gaza. Still a lot of details missing there.

Yeah, lots missing. I remember back in february when president biden went ukraine. IT was a surprise. I mean, no one know about IT is IT unusual for the president to announce this trip, considering israel at war?

Yet Normally when a president visits the war zone, IT is done in secrecy. And as you say, when biden went to ukraine, he took a ten hour train ride to get to keep with virtually knowing in the world, knowing about IT until he was there. But this trip is very much out in the open.

The White house says that cave is and was under a risk of bombarding in a way that israel and television or not, we expect biden will only be on the ground for a few hours, but IT will be long enough for him who believes in the value of face to face meetings, to have these conversations about difficult issues. Obviously, there are political benefits at home. Americans are behind the idea of showing strong support for israel. Also all note, the bill's tripped to key has already been featured in a campaign head .

for his real election that mpr tama, chive tama.

you're welcome.

Eight groups in gaza are warning that the enclave is near complete collapse.

Hundreds of thousands of people need food, water and medicine and a minimum. Many people have fled their homes, and hospitals say they will soon be unable to care for people.

Mp r. Peter kenyon joins us from jerusalem. Ter, so let's start with what's happening with getting that aid into gaza.

Well, that is, of course, a huge issue of getting humAnitary age from egypt through the rough of border crossing to the gaza strip. Trucks have headed from the site, told the crossing loaded with age replenished the rapidly dwindling supplies in gaza. But there are reports this morning that israeli forces bombed the raf.

A crossing again. There had been some questions about who was holding up this. A delivery this morning strike makes clear who, at least one of the parties is.

There have been intense diplomatic efforts on this front, as we heard, and those are expected to continue. One israeli concern, according to summer reports, is that all the aid drugs have to be searched for here. They might be Carrying weapons into the gaza trip.

Other reports say that could be one if he was not clear if that's the only one. Aid workers are warning that time is running out before a huge humAnitarian crisis unfolds. In gaza, they say people are drinking unsafe water and virtually everything they need is in short supply OK.

So that's the, what about the world self?

Well, the israeli military, the f says its forces killed osama mazie, who is real, says was a key official responsible for prisoners taken by hamas and also, quote, directed terrorist activities against israel. On a more general level, the idea says it's been launching strikes both in the gaza strip and against hesba targets and infrastructure in lebanon in response to hezbollah fire targeting israel. Now on the palestinian inside, the ministry of health continues to report on dead and wounded from the israeli strikes. The latest report says dozens were killed, dozens more wounded by strikes at the rough, a crossing and at honey is also IT reports some twelve hundred h reports of people trapped under the rubble of homes hit by air strikes the ministry says, quote, we hoped that some of them are still alive .

any word from a israeli prime minister, Benjamin.

in yahoo? Well, yes, he was addressing lawmakers yesterday in the connected that he was told the musician in a warning to homos, and particularly hezb law in lebanon. He said, quote, don't test us in the north.

Don't make the mistake of the past. That's a reference to the two thousand six conflict between illan hezb lah today that yahoo warned the Price you will pay will be far heavier. He was then erupted by air ID sions and had to leave for a shelter. Along with the set members.

iran is believed to be a prime benefit to both homos and hezbollah if they said.

well, of course, the retaliation from iranian officials has been steadily escalating. Just today's supreme leader, I had told the alhama a is quoted as saying those living in israeli settlements in occupied palestine are not civilians, he said. He said they're mostly armed.

He also called for israeli officials to be, quote, tried for their crimes. Separately, iran's foreign minister is warning that, quote, preemptive action is possible. If israel does appear to be launching a ground Operation, is not clear what that premiums direction would be constituted of.

Iran has been seen for years as a main benefactor of both hamas and hezbollah. Hanan says its supplying funds, not weapons, but there's little doubt that's what most of the money is used for. And of course, the ability of homos and hesba w both groups to receive cashes of weapons has long been a point of great frustration for both israel in the west as m.

Peter kenyon in jerusalem. Thanks for sorting this out.

Peter. thanks. say.

Right back in washington, the house is on track to vote later today to possibly like a new speaker.

The republican nominee is now ohio congressman jim Jordan, who is popular with the republican party base for his inflaming retarding. And he has Donald trumps endorsement is yesterday talking with reporters.

I feel really good about the moments we have, and I think we're real close going to be tomorrow.

It's unclear that you can lock down that majority since only republicans would vote for him.

M, P, R, political correspondent dance Susan Davis joins us now. So if all members are present and voting later today, James Jordan, two hundred seven votes to become speakers of how close easy to getting those votes.

he appears to be closing the gap. They're still clearly some hold outs, but the vote seems to be moving in his direction. As of friday, fifty five republicans had said in a secret ballot they did not want to support him for speaker. But since then, enorme ments have been trickling in. Just one example. And wagners, or republican from missouri last week, he saw that he would quote, absolutely not support him jorn for speaker SHE put out a statement yesterday saying SHE would in fact support him Jordan for speaker um but the math is severely tight. He can only lose four republicans tes and still get the gavel even Jordan's closest allies conceded going into the likely vote today, IT could take multiple ballots to get on there.

So what are the main holds up stand among republicans about having jim Jordan or speaker?

A lot of the resistance comes from appropriators and defense talks. Appropriators, of course, are the ones that write the annual toll spending bills. They're worried about a shutdown.

And Jordan has a history of opposing the very spending bills that you need to pass in order to avoid doing that. He's also always been sort of been different to spending cuts, and that makes defense hawks get a little nervous. He's also been skeptical of ukraine ae, which is a big priority for those, those lawmakers in particular.

The aid has been delayed getting through the house because of conservative opposition from people like jm Jordan. And there's a lot of frustration among defense socks because a lot of the ukraine aid money is actually money that would be spent here in the us. That goes to defense manual, factual s to replenish weapons systems because the U. S. Is donating a lot of its old weapons and equipment over to ukraine.

And it's as democrats go. How in line will they be on a boat today?

Democrat also met last week that unanimously agreed, or who came jewels of new york would be their nominee, and they are all expected to vote for him on the floor. So no democratic support expected today.

Okay, it's been two weeks, two weeks without a speaker. No legislation, nothing can move through the house until there is a speaker. If he is elected to they, what would jim Jordan first or our business be?

Well the hootch on israel has obviously screamed LED the legislature of agenda um there at the top of the would be israel related items, there's a resolution condemning homos for the attack that both chAmbers would like to pass relatively quickly. The question of whether he would allow israeli aid to be linked to ukraine aid is a question that jim Jordan has not answered.

Even those been asked him repeatedly, although he is publicly saying that he would support moving fast on israeli and would like to keep those two issues separate. And of course, i've heard this before. There's a government shutt down deadline looming. The current stepped up runs through november seventeenth s none of the annual twelve spending bills have been approved yet. So jim Jordan is going to have to very quickly go from being the lawmaker that tends to oppose any any bills to being a lead negotiator in fighting consensus to pass by partisan spending bills to keep the government .

open that mp r political correspondence. Susan Davis, Susan, thanks. You're welcome. And that's a first for tuesday, october seventeen that .

a Martini's and i'm Steven skip. Todays up first was edited by Roberta rampton, Peter grantors, Kelsey snow and hj mine IT was produced by monthly colonic kd cline and Linda tony. And we get engineering support from Stacy abbott. Our technical director is carly range tome.

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