Ryder’s statement did not indicate whether US forces would attempt to resume operations; Some officials said it was still unclear. A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the military’s calculations, said commanders considered trying again Thursday but decided against it because of concerns about the state of the sea.

“The pier will soon cease operations, and more details on that process and timing will be available in the coming days,” Rider’s statement said.

Repeated, repeated work, at a cost of $230 million, A source of controversy in polarized Washington, administration officials have defended the initiative despite its flaws, and other Democrats say the plan underscores Biden’s failure to ensure Israel prioritizes the hunger crisis facing Palestinians as a result of its war with Hamas.

The operation has sent about 20 million pounds of food ashore since it began on May 17. This is in part because Israeli officials have resisted U.S. and international demands for more aid to Gaza by land, citing the need for humanitarian groups.

Many Republicans say the mission, announced by Biden in his State of the Union address in early March, puts the roughly 1,000 U.S. troops involved at risk of being attacked. Those fears did not materialize.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the ship’s mission had made a difference in “trying to deal with the heartbreaking humanitarian situation” resulting from the nine-month war. “Any decision that produces more food, more humanitarian goods, I see as a win for the people of Gaza,” he added.

Sullivan said the main focus now is to get aid across Gaza.

As the war’s shocking civilian casualties continue to rise, aid groups’ fears for the safety of their workers have challenged supplies from ships. Until recently, the arrivals were piled up in the beachside arena. A U.S. defense official familiar with the issue, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the latest developments, said a significant amount of that aid has been shifted elsewhere, making room for new supplies if the ship gets up and running again.

Late last month, U.S. personnel moved the structure to Ashdod, north of Gaza, citing concerns that rough waves, which had previously caused extensive damage to the structure, could once again put it at risk.

Defense officials have repeatedly said, however, that the ship’s deployment is temporary and depends on calm seas to enable aid deliveries. The floating system is connected to land by a steel causeway and is limited to operating in waves no higher than three feet, according to past estimates in US military journals.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, working in coordination with humanitarian groups working in Gaza, will continue to use all available means to get food and medicine to Palestinian citizens, an official there said this week. The official said the groups have begun using the port at Ashdod for additional aid supplies.

When the project was announced, administration officials said the ship would help provide 2 million meals a day to starving Palestinians. Biden said the scope of suffering in Gaza made the U.S. mission a moral imperative, and he insisted no U.S. troops would go ashore — trying to find a balance between putting Americans in harm’s way and standing idly by with hunger. The civilian population of the war.

Officials predict operations will begin in early May, but a recurring theme is strong tides Changed the plan, pushing back the initial anchoring of the pier until mid-month.

On May 25, days after the initial shipments began flowing, rough seas and strong winds tossed four military ships off the coast of Gaza, breaking the ship into pieces, prompting the suspension of operations. US officials have estimated at least $22 million in damage to the ship.

American troops reassembled it at Ashdod and towed it back into place on June 8. After six days it was removed – Again due to weather concerns. Before its most recent decommissioning in late June, the ship facilitated steady supplies for about a week, with 10 million pounds of aid taken ashore, the Pentagon said.

Missy Ryan contributed to this report.

Cervantes Suarez, after his own vehicle was submerged in water He said he was unable to open any of the doors and had to manually roll down the windows to escape. He said He scaled a concrete slab from the rubble and waited for rescuers.

One of the two survivors was Cervantes Suarez. He narrated the tragic incident In his first interview with NBC News. The show aired on Wednesday.

In the interview, Cervantes Suarez recalled looking for other workers.

“I started calling everyone by name,” he said in Spanish. “But nobody answered me.”

His son-in-law Carlos Daniel Hernandez, whom he considered a son, was the first to fall.

Cervantes Suarez told NBC He didn’t think so He will survive the fall.

“I thanked God [the] The family he gave me,” she said. “I asked him to take care of my wife and children and apologized for everything I had done.

Cervantes Suarez, who told NBC He said that he was still in physical pain and that he was really haunting him He told Hernandez to go to his car and rest.

“If I had asked him to come with me, it would have been different. Maybe he will be with us,” Cervantes told the Suárez network.

Federal investigators are still looking into the cause of the crash, which halted most trade at Baltimore Harbor and raised questions about whether federal and state officials are prepared to prevent similar disruptions. The FBI is conducting a separate, ongoing criminal investigation into whether Daly’s team was aware of serious system problems before they began.

Cervantes Suarez said he wants all responsible parties, including the family of his brother-in-law Hernández Fuentes, to pay “for the damage they have done.” But, he told NBC, nothing can bring back what his family and others lost overnight.

“Because I know money isn’t going to buy a hug from a father or a son,” he said.

In a surprisingly detailed composition Advice, agencies in the United States, the Netherlands, and Canada identified various software programs used to manage the network, including one named Melioter, which created fictitious users known as “ghosts” in various countries. The FBI won in court order The function allows us to capture the two web domains used to register the email addresses behind the accounts.

“Today’s actions are the first to disrupt a Russian-backed AI-enhanced social media bot farm,” said FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said. Report. “Russia intends to use this bot farm to spread AI-generated foreign disinformation to undermine our partners in Ukraine, influence geopolitical narratives favorable to the Russian government, and scale their mission with the help of AI.”

Automated accounts with more detailed biographies posted original content, while supporting actors from more generic accounts liked and reshared those posts. Officials did not respond to questions about how many actual users saw the posts and whether anyone spread the word further, so it’s unclear how effective the campaign was.

The system bypasses one of X’s techniques for verifying users’ authenticity by automatically copying one-time passwords sent to registered email addresses. References to Facebook and Instagram in the program’s code are intended to expand to those platforms, officials said.

The agency recommended that social media companies improve their methods to catch covert automated behavior.

X complied with the court order provided information about the accounts to the FBI, which later deleted them. The company did not respond to questions from The Washington Post.

The Justice Department thanked X for cooperating during the investigation, a sign of better communication between the government and major social media companies after the Supreme Court upheld the right of officials to point to foreign influence activities.

John Scott-Railton, a researcher at the Canadian non-profit Citizen Lab, said those countries have provided detailed information about the botnet’s inner workings to help other investigators and companies know what to look for.

“They don’t think this problem is going anywhere, so they’re sharing it widely,” Scott-Railton said.

The documents show that the AI’s large language models have helped Russian propagandists measure their activity and aid in translation, he said. It also helps them avoid detection software that looks for repeated use of the same Internet protocol addresses and other identifiers.

But many other systems are already in place, and depending on what they detect and what they get, they’ll get better, Scott-Railton said. “It’s not even the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “It’s the tip of the iceberg.”

Members of the media were not allowed to watch the entire scrimmage between the national team headed to the Paris Olympics, led by LeBron James and Stephen Curry, and the USA selection team, which consisted primarily of young NBA players and Flagg. A freshman at Duke this fall. According to USA Basketball officials, no official statistics are kept regarding the traditional varsity vs. junior varsity issue. Steve Kerr, the national team coach, declined to comment on Flagg’s sterling performance, citing NBA rules that prohibit public statements about players who have not yet qualified for the draft.

As the gym doors opened to reporters, Flock drew laughs and gasps by leading an elite team’s comeback with an 11-point buzzer beater. James, 39, who knows a bracelet when he sees one, resorted to a flag salute after the Nationals fell short in a 74-73 victory.

Flagg, a 6-foot-8 forward who became the first college player in more than a decade to earn a select team invitation, showed why he is projected as the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. The polished wing began his scoring outburst with a three-pointer from the left corner over Los Angeles Lakers center Anthony Davis and a rebound over Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday.

Then, to build momentum, the baby-faced flag brought the ball up the court, isolated against Davis and drilled a side-step three-pointer over the NBA’s best defender. After the Nationals tried to find Davis, Flack controlled the ball and quickly pushed the ball to Sacramento Kings forward Keegan Murray, who missed a three-pointer from the left corner. Leaped the length of the court during a flag shot, jumped to grab an offensive rebound with both hands in traffic and finished a put-back in midair when fouled by Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo.

The sequence – shot, pass, rebound and finish – is immediate It went viral on social media, received millions of views within an hour. Flagg scored six points in less than 20 seconds to set up a tense endgame. Davis prevented an embarrassing loss for the gold medalists by blocking a potential game-winning jumper by Golden State Warriors guard Brandin Potziemski at the buzzer.

Flagg’s game-changing performance was made even more remarkable by the fact that he was five years younger than the national team’s youngest player, Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards. When Flagg was born on December 21, 2006, James was in his fourth NBA season and about to make his third All-Star appearance.

“I’ve been competing and trying as hard as I can,” Flag said. “Giving 100 percent. I’m confident in my skills and abilities. I’m confident in who I am and what I can do. Sharing the court is a surreal feeling. [with the national team]. I am blessed to have this opportunity to be here. I have no worries. I don’t put any pressure on myself. I’m here for a reason. I know. “

Flagg as a prospect needs to do everything he can with his great motor, strong athletic tools and innate basketball intelligence, and he showed it on Monday in front of a few hundred spectators. He’s a skilled ball-handler, outside shooter, physical rebounder, above-the-rim finisher and multipositional defender who can handle assignments in the paint or on the perimeter — all rolled into one package.

If Flagg blossoms into a player capable of taking over American basketball, his fearless performance at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas will be remembered as the moment he first proved he could hold his own against the world’s best.

“The selection team was great,” said Kerr, who was artfully deceiving when commenting directly on the flag. “They challenged us. They were physical. They ran a lot of things that European teams run. It couldn’t have worked out better. “

One person who didn’t seem caught up in the excitement was Flagg, who chatted with a pair of Duke Blue Devils — Celtics forward Jayson Tatum and USA Basketball executive director Grant Hill. Although Flagg grew up a Celtics fan and shaped his offensive approach by studying Tatum, he said he was comfortable playing against a USA Basketball team that featured 12 All-Stars and nearly as many future Hall of Famers.

“[There was some awe] At first, we walked into the gym seeing all those players, but we didn’t start playing,” he said. “If the ball goes up, I’m a competitor. Being on the court with them is a bit of an adjustment, but at the same time I’m just trying to play basketball and win. [The national team players] All are well received. They tell me to keep working and stay grounded.

Flagg, who reclassified as a high school senior last fall and then led Montverde Academy (Fla.) to an undefeated season and national title, said he’s trying to earn a spot on USA Basketball’s 2027 FIBA ​​World Cup roster. in Qatar. At that point, he’ll be 20 years old and likely just finished a freshman year at Duke and two NBA seasons.

Meanwhile, Flagg expects the national team to win its fifth consecutive gold medal in Paris next month.

“They could be any team,” he said. “They have no weaknesses, no holes. They can play any style and dominate. This will be a dominant team that will assert their will on everyone they see.

Even as Xi embraced Orban in the Chinese capital, Russian missiles smashed into Kyiv, Dnipro and other Ukrainian cities on Monday — killing at least 31 people, including two at a children’s hospital in Kyiv, and highlighting the brutality of Putin’s war.

In response to the missile attack, but apparently new diplomatic maneuvers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for global pressure to stop Russia’s aggression. “The whole world must use all its determination to put a final end to the Russian strikes,” Zelensky posted on Telegram. “Killing is what Putin brings. Only together can we bring real peace and security.”

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed in a telegram that it had carried out a major missile strike on Ukraine on Monday, but insisted that the targets were “Ukrainian military industrial facilities” and “airbases”.

Orban’s visit to China follows visits to Kyiv and Moscow last week, just days after Hungary assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. His efforts to make peace have drawn criticism in the West, as has his attempt to pressure Kiev into surrendering territory that Moscow had forcibly seized.

In Brussels, officials rejected Orbán’s efforts, saying he did not have the authority to conduct diplomacy for the EU, and “it should be clear that he is only representing his own country,” an EU diplomat said, because they were not recognized. Talk to the media.

Eric Mamer, a spokesman for the European Commission, insisted that Orban was flying solo. “He has no mandate in these visits to represent the EU,” Maymer said.

But Putin, who welcomed Orban in Moscow last week, pointed to Hungary’s EU presidency. In a sign of a new multilateral dimension in geopolitics, the Hungarian prime minister’s visit to Beijing came hours before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Moscow for a state visit, his first since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In a statement before his departure from New Delhi on Monday, Modi praised “my friend Vladimir Putin” and the “special and privileged strategic partnership between India and Russia”. After he landed, Russian and Indian media showed Modi, dressed in a bright turquoise robe, arriving at his Moscow hotel, flanked by Indian dancers and well-wishers waving Indian flags.

Indian purchases of Russian oil, which have risen 20-fold since 2021, have helped Moscow withstand tough Western sanctions imposed in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

Modi, who was re-elected last month, was flaunting his autonomy with a visit to Moscow, despite the Biden administration’s hard work to court the Indian leader’s commitment.

“Mr. Putin will want to convey to the public: India is a friend, all this talk of isolating Russia is empty talk, not everyone is under the control of the US-led West, an asymmetrical but multilateral world has arrived,” said Nandan Unnikrishnan, at the Observer Research Foundation, a think tank in New Delhi. Director of the Eurasian Project “India will recognize that this is a multipolar world [India] It is slightly inclined towards the west.

Orban’s trip to China represented a diplomatic victory for Putin, who has long called for such a multilateral, non-Western world order. Putin has insisted that the West, particularly the United States and Britain, is responsible for the continuation of his war in Ukraine, not pressuring Kiev to capitulate to its territorial claims.

Upon landing in China, Orban Posted a photo Captioned himself on X: “Peacework 3.0 #Beijing.”

In a meeting with Orban in Beijing, Xi said he appreciated the Hungarian leader’s efforts to bring about a political solution to the war in Ukraine, which he described as a “conflict”.

“China and Hungary share the same basic positions and work in the same direction,” he said.

“Only if all major powers exert positive energy rather than negative energy will the dawn of a ceasefire appear soon in this conflict,” Xi said, according to Chinese broadcaster CCTV. China, Xi added, “seriously advocates peace and supports negotiations in its own way.”

In an interview with the German newspaper Bild, Orban insisted that Ukraine could never defeat Russia. “There is no solution to this conflict on the front line,” he added: “Putin can’t lose if you look at the soldiers, equipment and technology. Defeating Russia is hard to imagine. The probability of Russia actually being defeated is absolutely incalculable.

Meanwhile, with Russian forces occupying a fifth of its territory and missiles and bombs raining down on its cities, Ukraine has insisted it cannot agree to any ceasefire. At a “peace” summit in Switzerland last month, Zelensky called for the complete withdrawal of Russian troops, including China’s conspicuous absence. Russia was not invited.

Beijing has dismissed criticism from Ukraine, Europe and the United States over its decision to skip the Swiss-hosted peace conference, arguing that Russia cannot participate in the talks if it is excluded. China, along with Brazil, instead offered its own six-point proposal, which Chinese officials said had the support of dozens of countries in the developing world.

From Beijing’s perspective, the West has acted as an obstacle for Russia and Ukraine to sit down and negotiate directly, said Qi Hongjian, an international relations scholar at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Beijing “must have a voice, it must have a position,” Cui said.

China’s purported neutrality has seen China’s trade with Russia grow as the war drags into its third year – with mounting evidence that Chinese companies provide economic and indirect support to Russia’s military-industrial base.

In public statements and appearances, Putin and Xi have shown greater alignment in their shared ambition to reshape the global order and weaken US influence.

Xi and Putin met last week in Kazakhstan, where Putin spoke of progress toward a “fair, multilateral world order” during the annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

At that meeting, Putin suggested resuming talks in Istanbul in 2022, after Russia’s invasion, when Ukraine was in a fragile state. Over the years, each side has suffered tens of thousands of casualties, and Russia has made little progress in illegally annexing four southeastern Ukrainian regions, except for Crimea, which it seized by force in 2014.

In Moscow on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow supported diplomatic efforts.

“President Vladimir Putin is a firm supporter of prioritizing political and diplomatic efforts to resolve the Ukrainian conflict,” Peskov said.

Shepherd reported from Taipei, Taiwan and Shih from New Delhi. Serhii Korolchuk in Kiev, Kate Brady in Berlin, Emily Rauhala in Washington and Natalia Appakumova in Riga, Latvia contributed to this report.