Thursday morning news: May 9, 2024

Israel latest » President Biden says he will withhold bombs and artillery shells from Israel if it launches a ground invasion in the city of Rafah.

In an interview that aired last night, the president told CNN’s Erin Burnett:

BIDEN: It’s just wrong. We’re not going to supply the weapons and the artillery shells that have been used …
BURNETT: Artillery shells as well?
BIDEN: Yeah, artillery shells.

Biden opposes a large-scale operation in Rafah where more than a million civilians are sheltering.

His remarks came just hours after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that the U.S. had already paused a shipment of bombs to Israel.

Austin said the United States will continue to supply defensive weapons.

AUSTIN: Uh, but that said, we are currently reviewing some near term security assistance shipments in the context of unfolding events in Rafah.

The paused shipment was to include heavy 2,000-pound bombs which Austin said could cause too much collateral damage in an urban area.

Israel says Rafah is the last remaining Hamas stronghold, and there is no way to defeat the terror group without going into Rafah.

Some Republicans on Capitol Hill responded strongly to Biden’s stance accusing him of turning his back on one of America’s closest allies.

PROTESTERS: Why are you in riot gear?

Latest on protests » Pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli demonstrators at George Washington University taunting police Wednesday in the nation’s capital just before officers cleared out the encampment where they’d been squatting for two weeks.

Some Democrats, like Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, denounced the police:

TLAIB: It is outrageous that police are now entering college campuses across our nation with their guns drawn.

But GOP Senator Josh Hawley says it’s the protesters in the wrong.

HAWLEY: They’re out there calling for death to Israel, death to Jewish Americans – I mean these are people that are advocating for genocide.

Officers arrested 30 demonstrators who refused to leave the encampment.

Greene vacate push fails » The latest uprising in the House of Representatives did not last long. GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green made her pitch:

GREENE: Mike Johnson is ill equipped to handle the rigors of the job of Speaker of the House and has allowed a uniparty, one that fuels foreign wars, tramples on civil liberties.

And against the advice of top Republicans, including presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump, she took her shot, making good on her vow to try and oust the speaker.

GREENE: The form of the resolution is as follows: Declaring the office of Speaker of the House Representatives to be vacant ... [boos]

But no sooner did she trigger the vote, than Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise countered by calling first for a vote to table it.

AUDIO: The yeas are 359, the nays are 43, with 7 answering present. The motion is adopted.

And with that, Greene’s push to vacate the speaker quickly faltered.

Speaker Johnson said after the vote:

JOHNSON:  Hopefully, this is the end of the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined the 118th Congress. It's regrettable. It's not who we are as Americans, and we're better than this.

Johnson said it’s time now to move forward.

Midwest storms » Severe storms have ripped through the central and southeastern United States over the past couple of days, producing major hail and spawning violent tornadoes.

RESIDENT: A disaster … Um, like, your whole, everything you worked for was gone. Um, just, I don't know, just a lot of sadness. It was just bad.

A resident of Kalamazoo County, Michigan heard there, where Sheriff Richard Fuller said after one tornado tore through another twister took almost exactly the same path.

FULLER: We're looking at homes throughout this community that are totally gone. They've been demolished. We know people were in some of those homes. We found homes on their side and upside down.

And officials say at least eight tornadoes touched down in Ohio.

The storms are also blamed for at least two deaths in the southeast where trees toppled onto vehicles.

Brazil flooding » Meantime, residents in southern Brazil are dealing with a historic catastrophe.

Massive flooding there has killed at least a hundred people, with a hundred others still missing. And the floods have left more than 200,000 people homeless.

One survivor, living under makeshift plastic sheeting, says she doesn’t know how her family will rebuild.

SURVIVOR: Everything is gone, starting with our homes. If the water goes down, we will thank God and return to our house. Even then, we will have to struggle to get our lives back.

And there could be more heavy rain on the way.

Authorities warn that floodwaters could rise further with more downpours in the weekend forecast.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: American military aid for Israel on hold. Plus, big changes for the United Methodist Church.

This is The World and Everything in It.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.