Day: May 31, 2024

Axios President Biden laid out a plan to reach a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas and end the war in Gaza in a speech on Friday, offering details of the Israeli proposal for the first time. Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas reached a deadlock three weeks ago. Biden, CIA Director Bill Burns, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other senior U.S. officials have been personally involved in efforts to reach a breakthrough, but a deal remains elusive. The White House sees a hostage deal as the only viable path to a ceasefire and the potential end to a war that has become a political problem for Biden ahead of the presidential election. READ THE FULL STORY                   

CBS News About one in three Americans know someone who has died of a drug overdose, according to a new survey.  More than 2,300 adults responded to the survey, which was conducted by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and published on Friday.  Thirty-two percent of responders said someone they knew died of a fatal drug overdose. For 18.9% of respondents, the person they knew who died “was a family member or close friend.”  READ THE FULL STORY             

Breitbart Vermont’s Republican governor has allowed the state to become the first to require oil companies to pay for “costs associated with climate change” without his signature, pushing the law through despite his hesitation about the policy. S.259, passed by Gov. Phil Scott (R) on Thursday, will establish a method to assess the responsibility for greenhouse gas-related costs of any entity that was engaged in extracting fossil fuel or refining crude oil between December 31, 2019, and January 1, 2000. The law will create the Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program at the Agency of Natural Resources, which will collect the money from the companies and allocate it to “climate change adaptive or resilient infrastructure projects in the state.” READ THE FULL STORY