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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Interest rates: “The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged Wednesday as it continues to track inflation and the health of the economy. The central bank voted unanimously to leave its primary interest rate in the range of 5.25% to 5.50%. U.S. interest rates are the highest they’ve been in 23 years.”
* The latest from Gaza: “Evacuations of people trapped in the Gaza Strip began through the Rafah border crossing for the first time since Israel imposed a siege on the Palestinian enclave after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. Some injured civilians crossed into Egypt, with hundreds of foreign passport-holders, including some Americans, also set to leave.”
* In Jordan: “Ayman Al-Safadi, Jordan’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, has recalled the Jordanian ambassador to Israel as an ‘expression of Jordan’s position rejecting and condemning the raging Israeli war on Gaza,’ according to a post by the Jordanian Foreign Ministry on Facebook.”
* On Capitol Hill: “Four senators sent a letter to President Joe Biden calling on the administration to provide Congress with more information about U.S. assessments of Israel’s long-term plans.”
* Also in Congress: “”The House is expected on Wednesday to consider resolutions that would punish two of its most polarizing members, Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, in a partisan tit-for-tat over inflammatory rhetoric.”
* In the Trump Organization’s civil trial in New York, Donald Trump Jr. took the stand today, and Eric Trump could testify today or tomorrow.
* Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote a Washington Post op-ed: “Some in Congress are making the case to fund only parts of the president’s request, including proposals to cut out all humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza. That would be a grave mistake. It will deepen the suffering of more than 2 million Palestinian civilians — including women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities and other vulnerable populations — who have nothing to do with Hamas’s deplorable attacks. It will undercut Israel’s security and regional stability. And it will worsen problems and risks that will end up costing American taxpayers many magnitudes more over time.”
See you tomorrow.