Tuesday morning news: March 26, 2024

Israel cancels delegation visit after resolution vote » Israel has called off high level meetings in Washington as a crack in the relationship between the U.S. and Israel has grown into chasm.

That follows a UN Security Council vote demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

CNN UN-RESOLUTION: The result of the voting is as follows: 14 votes in favor, zero vote against, one abstention.

That one abstention was the United States. The U.S. chose not to block the resolution. And that was a big departure from America’s stalwart defense of Israel at the UN.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with U.S. officials today. And with the White House over his left shoulder, he told reporters …

GALLANT (translated): We have no moral right to stop the war while there are still hostages held in Gaza. 

And he said anything less than the total defeat of Hamas puts Israel at greater risk.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in light of the Biden administration’s decision to sit out the crucial U.N. vote Israel is scrapping plans to send a delegation to Washington this week.

SCOTUS mifepristone » The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments today over the safety and availability of the abortion drug mifepristone. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: The FDA approved mifepristone for use back in 2000. It then greatly loosened safety rules surrounding the drug’s availability in 2016. And it did so once again three years ago.

Now, a group of pro-life doctors, called The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine say the FDA made a big mistake and that mifepristone is now far too easy to obtain. They’re challenging the agency on its lax safety standards surrounding the drug.

Justices will consider whether the FDA was right to roll back the safeguards and whether the pro-life doctors have standing to question the agency’s decisions.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Moscow theater gunmen » The four men charged with the massacre at a Moscow theater have been identified as citizens of Tajikistan, the poorest of the ex-Soviet states. The country is also rife with religious tensions.

Hard-line Islamists were one of the main forces opposing the government in a 1990s civil war that devastated the country.

The Moscow massacre killed roughly 140 people. The accused gunmen were loyal to ISIS in neighboring Afghanistan.

Trump bond » Monday was supposed to be the deadline for Donald Trump to fork over nearly half a billion dollars as part of a legal judgment in a New York civil fraud case.

But the former president got an extension.

TRUMP: I greatly respect the decision of the appellate division, and I will post either $175 million dollars in cash or bonds or security or whatever is necessary.

$175 million is the new amount of the bond he’ll have to pay within the next 10 days. As long as he does that, he can hold off on paying a nearly half-billion-dollar judgment while he appeals that judgment.

A five-judge appellate court panel issued that decision yesterday.

Trump thanked the court, but called the civil case against him a disgrace.

TRUMP: It’s a shame what’s happening to this country. This is election interference.

The former president strongly denies any wrongdoing.

Border record » Yet another record broken at the U.S.-Mexico border. Border officials reported roughly 190,000 migrant encounters there last month. That’s the highest number ever in the month of February.

That shattered the previous record of 166,000 set two years ago. And the new total does not include the untold thousands of migrants who evaded detection.

The White House says the blame lies with House Republicans for rejecting a Senate border bill. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre:

PIERRE: It would have been the toughest and fairest action on immigration in decades.

But GOP Sen. Bill Hagerty said President Biden didn’t need any help from Congress to create the border crisis. He asserts Biden did so with executive powers simply by reversing Donald Trump’s border policies.

HAGERTY: Biden is the one that did away with the migrant protection protocols. He did away with building the wall. Catch and release he’s brought back. It’s just amazing what he’s done.

Republicans say Biden could curb the border crisis immediately, but reinstalling the Trump-era policies he stamped out three years ago.

Nigeria kidnap victims returned » In Nigeria, security forces have rescued nearly half of the 280 students kidnapped two weeks ago just days before a ransom deadline.

Nigerian Army General MLD Saraso:

SARASO: The abducted Kuriga schoolchildren were safely rescued after spending about 16 days in captivity.

But government officials did not release details about the other missing students.

Authorities confirmed that one teacher died in captivity.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Analyzing Friday’s terror attack in Moscow. Plus, adopting from China in 2024.

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.