Wednesday morning news: December 6, 2023

AUDIO: [Demonstrators outside the Knesset]

Israel - Hamas update » Crowds of Israeli demonstrators gathered outside parliament in Jerusalem last night, calling for the safe release of the remaining hostages held by the terror group Hamas.

The IDF announced yesterday that its special forces recovered the bodies of two hostages, Eden Zecharya and Sergeant Major Ziv Dado, during an operation in Gaza.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden is pressuring Israel to pull back on its offensive in Gaza. The president said yesterday that Israel was losing international support because of “indiscriminate bombing.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showing no signs of backing down, however saying Israel and the United States have differing visions for Gaza after the war.

The U.S. has expressed support for a two-state solution, but…

NETANYAHU: [IN HEBREW] I want to clarify my position: I will not let Israel repeat the Oslo mistake. I will not allow that.

The prime minister saying there that he will not let Israel repeat what he calls the Oslo mistake.

That’s a reference to the 1993 Oslo Accords that granted limited Palestinian authority in the West Bank and Gaza.

U.N. cease-fire vote » And last night the United Nations General Assembly stepping into the fray, passing a resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza.

Speaking before the vote Israeli ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan denounced the measure as woefully one-sided.

ERDAN: This resolution does not even condemn Hamas! It doesn’t even mentions Hamas! I honestly don’t know how can someone look in the mirror and support a resolution that doesn’t condemn Hamas and doesn’t even mention Hamas by name.

More than three-quarters of the 193-member assembly backed the move.

The United States voted against the resolution along with Israel and eight other countries.

BIDEN: It’s great to be at your side once again. We’re gonna stay at your side.

Zelenskyy in D.C. » President Biden hosted a special fireside guest in the Oval Office yesterday: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy was in Washington to personally urge lawmakers to pass Biden’s $110 billion aid package including funding for Ukraine, Israel, and U.S. national security needs.

ZELENSKY: We are fighting for our country and freedom and also in Europe we say for our freedom and yours.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer saying without that aid Ukraine could lose the war.

SCHUMER: If Ukraine falls, it will be a historic colossal tragedy. Historians will look back on this, not two weeks from now, but years from now and say that this was one of the turning points where Western civilization took a dramatic turn downward.

But some Republicans saying the proposal amounts to a blank check for Ukraine.

House Speaker Mike Johnson among them:

JOHNSON: I’ve made this very clear, again, from the very beginning when I was handed the gavel: We needed clarity on what we’re doing in Ukraine and how we’ll have proper oversight of the spending of precious taxpayer dollars of the American citizens. And we needed transformative change at the border. Thus far, we’ve gotten neither.

Biden Impeachment Inquiry/Hunter Hearing » The House is scheduled to vote today on whether to formalize an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

House Republicans want to investigate further whether the president and his family of profited from policy decisions when Biden was Vice President under Barack Obama. Republicans also accuse the president of inappropriate involvement in the foreign business deals of his son, Hunter Biden.

House Speaker Mike Johnson says the decision is not fueled by partisanship.

JOHNSON: We have no choice to fulfill our constitutional responsibility, we have to take the next step. We're not making a political decision, it's a legal decision.

The GOP-led House has called Hunter Biden to testify in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill today. They say if he doesn’t show, they will hold him in contempt of Congress.

His legal team wants him to testify in public. Attorney Abbe Lowell told MSNBC that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer originally gave witnesses a choice .

LOWELL: We want to bring them down, we want to hear what they have to say. And they can testify by a way of deposition or a public hearing. It is their choice.

Hunter Biden was indicted a week ago on nine new federal charges accusing him of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes.

U.S. Coast Guard Academy sexual assault » Four women testified before a Senate subcommittee yesterday about an alleged cover-up of sexual assaults at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

Retired Coast Guard Lieutenant Melissa McCafferty testified she was assaulted in two separate incidents.

McCAFFERTY: He told me that he had booked separate hotel rooms, but when I arrived, I discovered only one. It was then that I realized this person was not my friend. Over the course of three days, he repeatedly raped me in that room.

Caitlin Maro told lawmakers she dropped out of the academy after several instances of sexual assault. She said when she reluctantly told her company commander about one such incident, he asked her if it was really worth investigating.

MARO: In a later meeting, after an investigation was forced the same company commander admitted that he didn't start an investigation because, “he figured that it happened on a date. You do have blonde hair and you wear makeup.”

Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan has ordered a review of the service’s sexual assault policies.

Abortion funding » Insurance providers in Michigan are now required to cover abortion procedures. WORLD’s Lauren Canterberry has more.

LAUREN CANTERBERRY: Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Monday signed a bill repealing a law that let insurance companies opt out of covering abortions.

Now state tax dollars can be used to fund the procedure. Michigan voters last year approved a constitutional amendment to remove protections for unborn babies.

Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office published a report yesterday, detailing that abortion groups received nearly $2 billion in federal funding from 2019 to 21.

In its first year, the Biden administration more than quadrupled federal obligations to Planned Parenthood.

The abortion provider also received more than $90 million dollars in Covid relief loans, all of which the federal government forgave.

For WORLD, I’m Lauren Canterberry.

Haley Endorsement » New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu is officially throwing his support behind GOP candidate Nikki Haley in her 2024 run for the White House.

Sununu made the highly anticipated endorsement last night at a town hall in Manchester.

Haley is battling Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to be the party’s alternative candidate to front-runner former President Donald Trump.

New Hampshire has one of the earliest primary elections scheduled for January 23.

I'm Kristen Flavin.

Straight ahead: The likelihood of a Biden-Trump rematch in 2024 on Washington Wednesday. Plus, World Tour.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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