Politics

WASHINGTON —  The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear a second major case on social media and will decide whether the Biden White House violated the 1st Amendment when it urged platforms to take down “misinformation and disinformation” about COVID-19.Three conservatives dissented and said the court should have kept in place a judge’s order that barred administration officials from contacting social media sites.“Government censorship of private speech is antithetical to our democratic form of government,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch wrote, calling the court’s move to rule on the issue “highly disturbing.”The justices now have before them two contrasting views of how the 1st Amendment’s right to free speech applies to social media, bot...

WASHINGTON —  President Biden used a rare Oval Office address Thursday to urge Americans to support more military funding for Israel in the wake of a deadly Hamas attack and more aid for Ukraine in its protracted war against Russia, warning that both conflicts pose a threat to U.S. national security.“Our alliances are what keep us safe. And our values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with,” Biden said in only his second address from behind the Resolute Desk. “We put all of that at risk if we walk away from Ukraine or turn our back on Israel.”Biden said he planned to send an emergency funding request to Congress that would provide more assistance for U.S. allies. The request, which the White House is expected to unveil Friday, totals more than $100 billion. The pro...

Baseball players are often averse to voicing political stances or taking sides in conflicts that don’t take place on a diamond. Fans, after all, come in all stripes. Backing Israel in its bloody conflict against Hamas is proving different. Former MLB infielder and current Texas Rangers executive Ian Kinsler wore the jersey of the Israeli national team Wednesday when he threw the ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. Kinsler managed the Israel national team during the 2023 World Baseball Classic. On Thursday, Israel Baseball posted a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, that featured 19 current and former major leaguers stating they are Jewish and asking viewers to “stand up against antisemitism” and “support Israel.” Houston Astros All-Star thir...

RAMALLAH, West Bank —  With each passing day, clashing narratives put forth by Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas about their bloodiest war to date have diverged ever more dramatically.But a dozen days into the conflict, after a lethal conflagration in the Gaza Strip, these dueling realities presented the starkest contrast yet — and underscored the danger that an already chaotic and unpredictable war could widen regionally.In the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank and across the Arab world, furious condemnation of Israel erupted over the deadly blast Tuesday night on the grounds of a Gaza hospital packed with Palestinians driven from their homes. Hamas blamed an Israeli airstrike.In Tel Aviv on Wednesday, a visiting President Biden firmly backed Israel’s content...

WASHINGTON —  Major Arab allies of the United States say they do not support Hamas or its brutal assault on Israel but that they also oppose the U.S. agenda that unreservedly backs Israel in a massive counteroffensive likely to cost the lives of thousands of Palestinian civilians.In Cairo this week, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi told U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken that the Israeli response already “has gone beyond self-defense” and reached the level of the “collective punishment” — the punishment of a population for the crimes of a few and a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.As for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, in which its militants slaughtered more than 1,000 Israeli civilians and took scores of hostages, Sisi said: “We can unequivocally condemn it, but we need to u...

WASHINGTON —  The House on Tuesday failed to elect Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan as its next speaker, extending the uncertainty that followed the historic ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy earlier this month.Jordan, a Republican, fell short of the majority he needed to secure the top post, with 20 members of his own party voting against him.The entire Democratic caucus voted for their nominee, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Another vote is possible Tuesday. It is unclear if the tally will remain the same. California Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), who voted against Jordan, said afterward that he would support Jordan the next time around. He told reporters his first vote against Jordan was to protest McCarthy’s ouster. “What happened to him was wrong,” LaMalfa said.In the meantime, H...

In normal times domestic political fights over foreign policy break down more or less along a conventional left-right divide. These are not normal times.The right is largely united around the need to support Israel in its war with Hamas, but increasingly divided about backing Ukraine in its war with Russia. The left is largely united around the need to help Ukraine, but more divided about siding with Israel.It’s not perfectly symmetrical. Democrats are more unified on Israel, in part because of President Biden’s unequivocal support. But it’s early. After all, the history of the Democratic Party resisting campus radicals and the “antiwar” left is not a tale of heroic resolve. And that the response on campuses to a terrorist pogrom was to immediately express support for Palestinians does not...

WASHINGTON —  As then-Sen. Kamala Harris’ presidential bid was collapsing in late 2019 amid factional infighting, her campaign badly needed a trusted person who could close the operation down — pay off bills, terminate contracts and counsel staff members who needed jobs.Internal backbiting and lackluster support from voters had undone a two-year effort, and Harris, once seen as a top-tier contender, was now bowing out a full two months before the Iowa caucuses, the first contest of the Democratic primary season. Newly appointed Sen. Laphonza Butler attends a news conference after attending her first Senate Democratic policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 4, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) At that moment, one of the lowest in her political career, Harri...

WASHINGTON —  Ever since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel has waged an intermittent but limited military campaign to keep a lid on the violent Palestinian faction. Hamas fired missiles at Israeli cities, Israel bombed Gaza from the air or attacked on the ground, then negotiated a cease-fire.The goal was never to remove Hamas; that appeared too costly. It was merely to keep it under control. Israeli military officers gave their recurring Gaza offensives a sad, cynical name: “mowing the grass.”Last week, mowing the grass came to an end.Hamas’ murderous rampage through Israeli towns and villages, which deliberately targeted civilians, led Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to adopt a far more ambitious goal: regime change.“We will destroy Hamas,” Netanyahu said Fr...

Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered near the Israeli Consulate in West L.A. Saturday to condemn the country’s ongoing aerial bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’ attack one week ago.Demonstrators began gathering on Wilshire and Sepulveda boulevards around noon and by 3 p.m. the size of the crowd had grown to about several thousand. At one point, the southbound lanes of the nearby 405 Freeway were briefly shut down. Hundreds of people gather and march on Saturday in Westwood, in support of Palestinians caught in the Israel-Hamas war. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) Carrying signs that said “Free Palestine” and “End the Occupation,” the crowd marched from Wilshire Boulevard and Granville Avenue, where the consulate is located, to a feder...