SAN FRANCISCO — The man accused of bludgeoning former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer was caught up in conspiracies when he broke into her San Francisco home last year, his defense attorney said at his trial opened Thursday.

The attack on then-82-year-old Paul Pelosi in the early hours of Oct. 28, 2022, sent shockwaves through the political world just days before last year’s midterm elections.

Defense attorney Jodi Linker said Thursday she won’t dispute that her client David DePape attacked Paul Pelosi, an encounter caught on police body camera video. Instead, she will argue that he believed “with every ounce of his body” that he was taking action to stop corruption and the abuse of children by politicians and actors.

“This is not a ‘whodunit.’ But what the government fails to acknowledge is the ‘whydunit,’ and the why matters in this case,” she said.

DePape pleaded not guilty to attempted kidnapping of a federal official and assault on the immediate family member of a federal official with intent to retaliate against the official for performance of their duties. Paul Pelosi is expected to testify next week.

Federal prosecutor Laura Vartain Horn told jurors that DePape started planning the attack in August and that the evidence and FBI testimony will show he researched his targets online, collecting phone numbers and addresses, even paying for a public records service to find information about Nancy Pelosi and others.

During her opening statement, Vartain Horn showed a photo of Paul Pelosi lying in a pool of blood. She also played a call DePape made to a television station repeating conspiracy theories.

“The evidence in this case is going show that when the defendant used this hammer to break into the Pelosi’s home he intended to kidnap Nancy Pelosi,” Vartain Horn said, holding a hammer inside a plastic evidence bag.

DePape posted rants on a blog and an online forum about aliens, communists, religious minorities, and global elites. He questioned the results of the 2020 election and echoed the baseless, right-wing QAnon conspiracy theory that claims the U.S. government is run by a cabal of devil-worshipping pedophiles. The websites were taken down shortly after his arrest.

If convicted, DePape faces life in prison. He was also charged in state court with attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, elder abuse, residential burglary and other felonies. He pleaded not guilty to those charges. A state trial has not been scheduled.

In the courtroom Thursday were Christine Pelosi, one of the Pelosis’ daughters, as well as Gypsy Taub, DePape’s ex-girlfriend, and Taub’s and DePape’s two teenage sons. Taub called DePape’s name softly and blew a kiss, and he smiled and waved in return.

A Canadian citizen, DePape moved to the United States more than 20 years ago after falling in love with Taub, a Berkeley pro-nudity activist well-known in the Bay Area, his stepfather, Gene DePape said. In recent years, David DePape had been homeless and struggling with drug abuse and mental illness, Taub told local media.

Federal prosecutors say DePape smashed his shoulder through a glass panel on a door in the back of the Pelosis’ Pacific Heights mansion and confronted a sleeping Paul Pelosi, who was wearing boxer shorts and a pajama top.

“Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?” DePape asked, standing over Paul Pelosi around 2 a.m. holding a hammer and zip ties, according to court records. Nancy Pelosi was in Washington and under the protection of her security detail, which does not extend to family members.

Paul Pelosi called 911 and two police officers showed up and witnessed DePape strike Paul Pelosi in the head with a hammer, knocking him unconscious, court records showed.

Nancy Pelosi’s husband of 60 years later underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hands.

After his arrest, DePape, 43, allegedly told a San Francisco detective that he wanted to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage. He said that if she told him the truth, he would let her go and if she lied, he was going to “break her kneecaps” to show other members of Congress there were “consequences to actions,” according to prosecutors.

DePape, who lived in a garage in the Bay Area city of Richmond and had been doing odd carpentry jobs to support himself, allegedly told authorities he had other targets, including a women’s and queer studies professor, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, actor Tom Hanks and President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.

One of those targets is included in the defense’s short witness list, though their name has been redacted. Other possible witnesses are DePape, Nancy Pelosi’s chief of staff, Daniel Bernal, extremism and antisemitism researcher Elizabeth Yates, and federal public defender Catherine Goulet.

The prosecution’s list of potential witnesses contains 15 names, including the surgeon who operated on Paul Pelosi, federal agents, San Francisco police officers and several first responders.

U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley ruled last month that the jury can see footage that shows Paul Pelosi struggling to breathe and the police officers trying to stop the bleeding.

JERUSALEM — Fistfights break out in bread lines. Residents wait hours for a gallon of brackish water that makes them sick. Scabies, diarrhea and respiratory infections rip through overcrowded shelters. And some families have to choose who eats.

“My kids are crying because they are hungry and tired and can’t use the bathroom,” said Suzan Wahidi, an aid worker and mother of five at a U.N. shelter in the central town of Deir al-Balah, where hundreds of people share a single toilet. “I have nothing for them.”

With the Israel-Hamas war in its second month and more than 10,000 people killed in Gaza, trapped civilians are struggling to survive without electricity or running water. Palestinians who managed to flee Israel’s ground invasion in northern Gaza now encounter scarcity of food and medicine in the south, and there is no end in sight to the war sparked by Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack.

Over half a million displaced people have crammed into hospitals and U.N. schools-turned-shelters in the south. The schools — overcrowded, strewn with trash, swarmed by flies — have become a breeding ground for infectious diseases.

UPDATE: Israel agrees to 4-hour daily pauses in Gaza fighting to allow civilians to flee

Since the start of the war, several hundred trucks of aid have entered Gaza through the southern Rafah crossing, but aid organizations say that’s a drop in the ocean of need. For most people, each day has become a drudging cycle of searching for bread and water and waiting in lines.

The sense of desperation has strained Gaza’s close-knit society, which has endured decades of conflict, four wars with Israel and a 16-year blockade since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces.

Some Palestinians have even vented their anger against Hamas, shouting insults at officials or beating up policemen in scenes unimaginable just a month ago, witnesses say.

“Everywhere you go, you see tension in the eyes of people,” said Yousef Hammash, an aid worker with the Norwegian Refugee Council in the southern town of Khan Younis. “You can tell they are at a breaking point.”

Supermarket shelves are nearly empty. Bakeries have shut down because of lack of flour and fuel for the ovens. Gaza’s farmland is mostly inaccessible, and there’s little in produce markets beyond onions and oranges. Families cook lentils over small fires in the streets.

“You hear children crying in the night for sweets and hot food,” said Ahmad Kanj, 28, a photographer at a shelter in the southern town of Rafah. “I can’t sleep.”

Many people say they’ve gone weeks without meat, eggs or milk and now live on one meal a day.

“There is a real threat of malnutrition and people starving,” said Alia Zaki, spokesperson for the U.N.’s World Food Program. What aid workers call “food insecurity” is the new baseline for Gaza’s 2.3 million people, she said.

Famed Gazan dishes like jazar ahmar — juicy red carrots stuffed with ground lamb and rice — are a distant memory, replaced by dates and packaged biscuits. Even those are hard to find.

Each day families send their most assertive relative off before dawn to one of the few bakeries still functioning. Some take knives and sticks — they say they must prepare to defend themselves if attacked, with riots sporadically breaking out in bread and water lines.

“I send my sons to the bakeries and eight hours later, they’ve come back with bruises and sometimes not even bread,” said 59-year-old Etaf Jamala, who fled Gaza City for the southern town of Deir al-Balah, where she sleeps in the packed halls of a hospital with 15 family members.

One woman told The Associated Press that her nephew, a 27-year-old father of five in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya in northern Gaza, was stabbed in the back with a kitchen knife after being accused of cutting the line for water. He needed dozens of stitches, she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The violence has jarred the tiny territory, where family names are linked to community status and even small discretions can be magnified in the public eye.

“The social fabric for which Gaza was known is fraying due to the anxiety and uncertainty and loss,” said Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.

Israel cut off water to Gaza shortly after the Hamas attack, saying its complete siege would be lifted only after the militants released the roughly 240 hostages they captured. Israel has since turned on pipelines to the center and south, but there’s no fuel to pump or process the water. The taps run dry.

Those who can’t find or afford bottled water rely on salty, unfiltered well water, which doctors say causes diarrhea and serious gastrointestinal infections.

“I cannot recognize my own son,” said Fadi Ihjazi. The 3-year-old has lost 5 kilograms (11 pounds) in just two weeks, she said, and has been diagnosed with a chronic intestinal infection.

“Before the war he had the sweetest baby face,” Ihjazi said, but now his lips are chapped, his face yellowish, his eyes sunken.

At shelters, the lack of water makes it hard to maintain even basic hygiene, said Dr. Ali al-Uhisi, who treats patients at one in Deir al-Balah. Lice and chicken pox have spread, he said, and on Wednesday morning alone he treated four cases of meningitis. This week, he’s also seen 20 cases of the liver infection hepatitis A.

“What worries me is that I know I’m seeing a fraction of the total number of cases at the shelter,” he said.

For most ailments, there is no treatment — zinc tablets and oral rehydration salts vanished the first week of the war. Frustrated patients have assaulted doctors, said Al-Uhisi, who described being beaten this week by a patient who needed a syringe.

Sadeia Abu Harbeid, 44, said she missed a chemotherapy treatment for her breast cancer during the second week of the war and can’t find painkillers. Without regular treatments, she says, her chances of survival dim.

She hardly eats, choosing to give most of the little food she has to her 2-year-old. “This existence is a humiliation,” she said.

Across Gaza, rare scenes of dissent are playing out. Some Palestinians are openly challenging the authority of Hamas, which long has ruled the enclave with an iron fist. Four Palestinians across Gaza spoke to AP on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals about what they’ve seen.

A man who was told off by a Hamas officer for cutting the bread line took a chair and smashed it over his head, according to an aid worker in line. In another area, angry crowds hurled stones at Hamas police who cut in front of a water line and beat them with their fists until they scattered, according to a journalist there.

Over the past few night in Gaza City, Hamas rockets streaming overhead toward Israel have prompted outbursts of rage from a U.N. shelter. In the middle of the night, hundreds of people have shouted insults against Hamas and cried out that they wanted the war to end, according to a 28-year-old sleeping in a tent there with his family.

And during a televised press conference Tuesday, a young man with a dazed expression and bandaged wrist pushed his way through the crowd, disrupting a speech by Iyad Bozum, spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

“May God hold you to account, Hamas!” the man yelled, shaking his wounded hand.

Gaza’s future remains uncertain as Israeli tanks rumble down the ghostly streets of Gaza City with the goal of toppling Hamas. Palestinians say it will never be the same.

“The Gaza I know is just a memory now,” said 16-year-old Jehad Ghandour, who fled to Rafah. “There are no places or anything I know left.”

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Crowds of Palestinian families stretching as far as the eye could see walked out of Gaza City and surrounding areas toward the south Thursday to escape Israeli strikes and ground troops battling Hamas militants in dense urban neighborhoods. Others joined tens of thousands taking shelter at the city’s biggest hospital, not far from the fighting.

Gaza’s largest city is the focus of Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas following its deadly Oct. 7 incursion — and the Israeli military says Hamas’ main command center is located in and under the Shifa Hospital complex. The militant group and hospital staff deny that claim.

Growing numbers of people have been living in and around the hospital complex, hoping it will be safer than their homes or U.N. shelters in the north, several of which have been hit repeatedly. Israeli troops were around 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the hospital, according to its director.

The accelerating exodus to the south came as Israel agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses and to open a second route for people to flee the north, the White House said. The scope of the pauses was not immediately clear. The agreement came as Western and Arab officials gathered in Paris on Thursday to discuss ways of providing more aid to civilians in Gaza.

Separately, mediators worked on a possible deal for a three-day cease-fire in exchange for the release of around a dozen hostages held by Hamas, according to two Egyptian officials, a United Nations official and a Western diplomat.

Israeli ground forces battled near Gaza’s largest hospital, Shifa. Conditions are worsening for tens of thousands of people sheltering there, said three people who had left the hospital to go south in the past two days.

Families are sleeping in hospital rooms, even surgical theaters and the maternity ward, or on the streets outside. Daily food distributions helped a tiny number for a time, but there has been no bread for the past four days, they said. Water is scarce and usually polluted, and few people can bathe. They spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The Israeli military says the complex is a Hamas command center and senior militant leaders are hiding there. Hamas and hospital staff say the military is creating a pretext to strike it.

The hospital has also been overwhelmed with daily waves of wounded from airstrikes, while medical supplies have been running low and electricity has been shut off in large sections of the facility. The U.N. was able to deliver two truckloads of supplies Wednesday night, only the second delivery since the war began — enough to last a few hours, the director said.

Dozens of wounded were rushed to Shifa overnight, and a shell hit close to the hospital around dawn, thought it caused only a few minor injuries, the director Mohammed Abu Selmia told The Associated Press on Thursday.

“The conditions here are disastrous in every sense of the word,” he said. “We’re short on medicine and equipment, and the doctors and nurses are exhausted. … We’re unable to do much for the patients.”

International journalists who entered the north on a tour led by the Israeli military on Wednesday saw heavily damaged buildings, fields of rubble and toppled trees along the Mediterranean shoreline.

The trickle of aid entering Gaza from the south is largely barred from going north, which has been without running water for weeks. The U.N. aid office said all the bakeries there have shut down for lack of fuel, water and flour. Hospitals running low on supplies are performing surgeries without anesthesia.

More than two-thirds of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have fled their homes since the war began, with many heeding Israeli orders to flee to the southern part of the besieged enclave.

But the conditions there are also dire. Israel has continued to strike what it says are militant targets all across the territory. New arrivals from the north are squeezing into homes with extended family, or into U.N. schools-turned-shelters.

The World Health Organization said a lack of clean water and bathing facilities in shelters across Gaza has fueled the spread of infectious diseases, including scabies, lice, chickenpox, skin rash and respiratory illness. It has logged over 33,000 cases of diarrhea since mid-October — more than half among children under 5.

Still, the exodus from Gaza City and surrounding areas in the north has accelerated in recent days. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 50,000 people fled south on Gaza’s main highway on Wednesday during a daily, hourslong window announced by the Israeli military. There are clashes and shelling near the road, and evacuees reported seeing corpses alongside it, the U.N. office said.

Similar-sized crowds streamed out on Thursday, according to an Associated Pres reporter on the scene as they arrived out of the northern zone. Most are traveling on foot with only what they can carry, many holding children or pushing older relatives in carts.

“We’ve been expelled, we’ve been put through a catastrophe. And who knows what more is coming,” said Kamal Nusseir, a 28-year-old with his possessions tied to his back.

His use of the Arabic word “nakba,” — which literally means “catastophe” — is a reference to the expulsion or flight of some 700,000 Palestinians from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war around Israel’s creation. More than half of Gaza‘s residents are refugees from that war, or their descendants.

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry, which has urged Palestinians to stay in their homes, has told media outlets not to circulate footage of people fleeing.

A month of relentless bombardment in Gaza since the Hamas attack has killed more than 10,800 Palestinians — nearly two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory. More than 2,300 others are believed to have been buried by strikes that in some cases have demolished entire city blocks.

Israeli officials say thousands of Palestinian militants have been killed, and blame civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing it of operating in residential areas and using Palestinian civilians as human shields. Gaza’s Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its casualty reports.

The occupied West Bank has also seen a surge in violence, with Israel carrying out frequent arrest raids that often spark gunbattles. At least seven Palestinians were killed Thursday during a raid in Jenin, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The military says it has stepped up operations to prevent attacks.

More than 1,400 people have died in Israel since the start of the war, most of them civilians killed by Hamas militants during their initial incursion. Israel says 32 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began.

Palestinian militants have continued to fire rockets into Israel, and some 250,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate from communities near Gaza and along the northern border with Lebanon, where Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants have traded fire repeatedly.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Chehayeb from Beirut. Associated Press writers Amy Teibel and Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in northern Gaza starting on Thursday, the White House said, as President Joe Biden pressed Israelis for a multi-day stoppage in the fighting in a bid to release hostages held by the militant group.

Biden said Thursday that there was “no possibility” of a formal cease-fire at the moment, and said it had “taken a little longer” than he hoped for Israel to agree to the humanitarian pauses. Biden had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to institute the daily pauses during a Monday call and said he had also asked the Israelis for a pause of at least three days to allow for negotiations over the release of some hostages held by Hamas.

“Yes,” Biden said, when asked whether he had asked Israel for a three-day pause. “I’ve asked for even a longer pause for some of them.”

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the first daily humanitarian pause would be announced Thursday and that the Israelis had committed to announcing each four-hour window at least three hours in advance. Israel, he said, also was opening a second corridor for civilians to flee the areas that are the current focus of its military campaign against Hamas, with a coastal road joining the territory’s main north-south highway.

Similar short-term pauses have occurred over the last several days as tens of thousands of civilians have fled southward, but Thursday’s announcement appeared to be an effort to formalize and expand the process, as the U.S. has pressed Israelis to take greater steps to protect civilians in Gaza.

Biden’s push for an even longer pause comes as part of a renewed diplomatic push to free hostages taken by Hamas and other militant groups to the Gaza Strip during their Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel.

Israeli officials estimate that militants still hold 239 hostages, including children and the elderly, from the attack that also saw 1,400 Israelis killed. U.S. officials say it believes fewer than 10 Americans are among those held captive.

Kirby told reporters Thursday that pauses could be useful to “getting all 239 hostages back with their families to include the less than 10 Americans that we know are being held. So if we can get all the hostages out, that’s a nice finite goal.”

“Humanitarian pauses can be useful in the transfer process,” he added.

Indirect talks were taking place in Qatar — which also played a role in the freeing of four hostages by Hamas last month — about a larger release of hostages. CIA Director William Burns was in Doha on Thursday to discuss efforts to win the release of hostages in Gaza with the Qatari prime minister and the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, according to a U.S. official.

Burns met with Mossad chief David Barnea and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said the official, who talked to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Qatar is a frequent go-between in international dealings with Hamas, and some top Hamas political leaders make their home in the Gulf country. The U.S. official stressed Burns was not playing a lead role in the negotiations.

Kirby confirmed that the U.S. continues to have “active discussions with partners about trying to secure the release of hostages,” noting in particular Qatar’s help.

“We know they have lines of communication with Hamas that we don’t,” Kirby said of Qatar. “And we’re going to continue to work with them and regional partners to try to secure the release of all the hostages.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken had warned Israel last week that it risked destroying an eventual possibility for peace unless it acted swiftly to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza for Palestinian civilians as it intensifies its war against Hamas.

In a blunt call for Israel to pause military operations in the territory to allow for the immediate and increased delivery of assistance, Blinken said the situation would drive Palestinians toward further radicalism and effectively end prospects for any eventual resumption of peace talks to end the conflict.

French President Emmanuel Macron had opened a Gaza aid conference on Thursday with an appeal for Israel to protect civilians, saying that “all lives have equal worth” and that fighting terrorism “can never be carried out without rules.”

Kirby said Uzra Zeya, the State Department’s under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights; special envoy David Satterfield; and Sarah Charles, who leads the USAID’s bureau for humanitarian assistance, were representing the U.S. at the Paris conference. Israel has not been invited by France to the conference. Kirby demurred when asked about the decision to leave Israel out of the international talks.

“We’re focused on trying to have the most constructive conversation there that we can,” Kirby said.

AP writers Ellen Knickmeyer, Colleen Long and Michelle Price in Washington contributed.

The alarming gap between low incomes and high housing costs underscores an urgent need for creative, scalable, and sustainable housing solutions.

Responding to the need, philanthropists and entrepreneurs are busy developing innovative housing options. Many of these solutions promise shelter and a sense of dignity and community to those who need it most.

The root cause of homelessness isn’t necessarily the inability to pay for housing; it originates from the inability to locate affordable housing.

Creative solutions are available, but many are impractical or unaffordable. Consider five opportunities …

1. Tiny house villages

Tiny house villages are emerging as a promising, cost-effective solution to homelessness.

These communities consist of individual units equipped with essential amenities like a bed, a kitchenette, and a bathroom.

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Eden Village, a Missouri non-profit organization, emphasizes the high demand for affordable housing. To qualify for residency in its tiny home community, applicants must be chronically homeless, have a disabling condition, and be able to pay $300 each month for rent and utilities.

Cities like Seattle have embraced the cost-efficient tiny home model. Units in tiny house villages represent about 12.5% of all shelter beds and safe places supported by the city. However, they comprise less than 3% of its total homelessness response investments. Construction of the villages takes less than six months.

2. Micro apartments

In densely populated cities where space is a premium, micro apartments, or “micro-units,” are gaining traction.

These modular living spaces, typically less than 400 square feet, often come fully furnished. Micro apartments maximize the utility of limited urban space. Their location often provides easy access to public transportation and job opportunities.

• ECONOMIC NEWS: What’s the big trend? Should I be worried? CLICK HERE!

San Francisco firm Panoramic Interests designed a self-contained, stackable tiny apartment. Its MicroPAD modular homes boast a total floor space of just 160 square feet, including a kitchenette, sleeping area, and bathroom. The popular solution now includes 15 projects and more than 1,000 housing units.

Micro-apartments still have their challenges. Zoning laws in some cities have been a roadblock to their widespread adoption.

Despite obstacles, micro apartments represent a viable solution for single adults who need quick access to housing without the burden of high rent.

3. Shipping container housing

Repurposing shipping containers into livable spaces is an innovative approach to homelessness. The containers are durable, easy to modify, and relatively inexpensive to erect.

Cities including Los Angeles have transformed steel boxes into homes with insulation, plumbing, and other modern amenities.

Shipping container homes are cost-efficient to construct, and they meet urgent demands. The containers are converted into apartments off-site. That way, work can begin while laying the foundation and building a framework.

Confined living space represents the primary limitation of shipping container housing. It’s less than ideal for families with children, but the structures remain viable options for single adults or couples needing quick and affordable housing solutions.

4. 3D Printed Homes

The advent of 3D printing technology has opened new avenues in housing.

ICON, a firm in Austin, Texas, designed a 3D printer that creates entire homes in 24 hours.

• RENT TRENDS: What’s available – and what are landlords charging? CLICK HERE!

These homes are quick to construct, and they require fewer raw materials, reducing  both construction time and overall costs. The technology’s custom designs even cater to specific needs and preferences.

After showcasing its first 3D-printed home, ICON constructed a 3D-printed village serving the Austin-area homeless population. The Community First! Village features a cluster of 400-square-foot, one-bedroom houses made with the company’s second-generation printer.

The technology needed to construct these homes is still emerging, and may face regulatory challenges in the future, but that hasn’t stopped communities from adopting the solution. Despite potential hurdles, 3D-printed homes offer a futuristic solution to a longstanding problem.

5. Metal buildings

About 40% of America’s homeless are on the street each night. Opening additional homeless shelters provides immediate relief. Unfortunately, constructing such facilities generally requires substantial investments of time and money.

While initially designed for industrial use, metal buildings offer a more affordable and less time-consuming solution.

These structures can be repurposed into shelters. Metal buildings are durable and less expensive than traditional housing options. Considering steel buildings boast a lifespan of 50 to 100 years, the potential for a significant return on investment can’t be ignored.

One 23,000-square-foot shelter in San Francisco offers 200 beds plus additional community spaces.

Steel buildings can serve as community homeless shelters, but they also can be partitioned into affordable housing units. With proper insulation and interior modifications, these structures can be transformed into warm, inviting homes.

Crisis by numbers

• According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,  582,500 people in the United States face the harsh reality of homelessness every night.
• The Journal of Adolescent Health paints a grimmer picture. Children and youth are considered homeless if they lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. By that measure, one in every 30 adolescents aged 13-17 experience homelessness each year. Likewise, about a third of the U.S. homeless population comprises families with children.
• HUD’s 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress reveals that 28% of this vulnerable population comprises families with children.
• The issue is not confined to urban settings. Rural areas report a 6% increase in homelessness since 2020, indicating a nationwide crisis.
• The situation has reached a tipping point. With winter approaching, it demands both immediate attention and innovative solutions. Traditional shelters, after all, are bursting at the seams. Only 60% of the nation’s homeless spend their nights in shelters.
• Meanwhile, affordable housing has become a rare commodity. Without a viable remedy, it promises a larger homeless population in the future. The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports a shortage of 7.3 million rental homes that are affordable and available to extremely low-income renters.

This article was produced by Green Building Elements and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Wednesday for a united and Palestinian-led government for Gaza and the West Bank after the war ends, as a step toward Palestinian statehood. That vision sharpens U.S. differences with ally Israel on what the future should look like for the Palestinian territories once Israel’s military campaign against Hamas winds down.

Blinken’s outline of what Americans think should come next for Gaza also serves as a check on the postwar scenarios floated by officials of Israel’s hard-right government and its supporters. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement Monday that Israel’s military would likely maintain security control of Gaza for an “indefinite period” appears to have heightened U.S. concerns.

Any postwar governing plan for Gaza “must include Palestinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority,” Blinken told reporters in Japan.

APPEALING TO PRESIDENT: Democrats want Biden to protect Palestinians in US from being forced home

He and other top diplomats of the Group of Seven leading industrial democracies were gathered in Tokyo for a meeting focused on Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and on easing the suffering of the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza under Israel’s now month-old military offensive and blockade.

Blinken reinforced the Biden administration’s rejections of any return of lasting direct Israeli control in Gaza, as well as of a proposal — promoted in a policy report by Israel’s intelligence ministry — to push Gaza’s Palestinian residents into neighboring Egypt.

“We’re very clear on no reoccupation, just as we’re very clear on no displacement of the Palestinian population,” Blinken said. “And, as we’ve said before, we need to see and get to, in effect, unity of governance when it comes to Gaza and the West Bank, and ultimately to a Palestinian state.”

The U.S. diplomat’s remarks highlight the areas of widening daylight between Netanyahu’s government and its most important ally on how Israel conducts the war and its postwar relations with the Palestinians.

The U.S. and Israel agree that the Hamas militant group cannot return to its rule of the Gaza Strip. But none of the ideas that Israeli officials have raised for Gaza’s governance after the war have included independent Palestinian rule as a credible possibility.

The Palestinian Authority administers semiautonomous areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. While internationally recognized, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is widely unpopular among Palestinians even in the West Bank. Netanyahu long has depicted both Abbas and the Palestinian Authority as too incapable to be a credible partner in peace efforts with Israel.

A member of Israel’s decision-making War Cabinet on Wednesday acknowledged that Israel does not yet have a vision for the Gaza Strip after its war against Hamas ends, saying the battle plan is open-ended and will include a long-term Israeli security presence in the besieged territory.

The comments by Benny Gantz added new uncertainty to the Israeli campaign in Gaza, which has come under growing international scrutiny because of the heavy civilian death toll and widespread destruction. The Group of Seven, which includes many of Israel’s closest allies, called for Israel to do more to improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Speaking in Israel to international journalists, Gantz, a former defense minister and military chief of staff, said the only certainty in Israeli thinking is that Hamas can have no role in the future of Gaza. But he described a lengthy campaign in Gaza and linked the territory’s future to quiet along Israel’s northern front with Lebanon and eastern front with the West Bank.

“Once the Gaza area is safe, and the northern area will be safe, and the Judea and Samaria region will calm down, we will settle down and review an alternative mechanism for Gaza,” he said, using the biblical term for the West Bank. “I do not know what it will be.”

“We can come up with any mechanism we think is appropriate, but Hamas will not be part of it,” he added. “We need to replace the Hamas regime and ensure security superiority for us.”

Asked how long the war would last, Gantz said, “there are no limitations.”

Since Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, successive Israeli governments have pursued a policy of severing links between the West Bank and Gaza, the two territories that, along with east Jerusalem, were to make up a future Palestinian state. The isolation of Gaza deepened after Hamas drove out the forces of Abbas in 2007 and Israel, along with Egypt, imposed a blockade.

Hamas’ breakout from Gaza on Oct. 7 and Israel’s deepening military response have marked the bloodiest fighting by far in repeated wars. President Joe Biden, whose administration had made a policy of not publicly pushing Netanyahu’s coalition to return to long-abandoned talks to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from the first hours after the Hamas attack declared the U.S. would stand by Israel in its military response.

Biden rushed U.S. weapons to Israel and sent warships to the region. The American president flew on Oct. 18 to Israel, where he clasped Netanyahu and Israeli survivors of the Hamas raids, which killed more than 1,400 people, in tight hugs.

The past week, however, has seen increasing private and public U.S. pressure on Israel to alter how it conducts its air, ground and sea campaign against Hamas.

Deaths in Gaza under Israeli bombardment have soared past 10,000, alienating international governments that had endorsed Israel’s right of self- defense. Israel blames Hamas for the heavy death toll, accusing the group of using civilians as human shields.

Emerging U..S.-Israeli differences already included Americans pressing for what they call humanitarian pauses in the fighting to allow for greater delivery of aid to Gaza’s blockaded residents. Israeli officials have linked any cease-fires to Hamas releasing the more than 240 people it is believed to be holding hostage.

Blinken said Wednesday the time “is now to start the conversation about the future” for Gaza.

“Identifying the longer-term objectives and a pathway to get there will help shape our approach to addressing immediate needs,” he said.

Federman reported from Tel Aviv.

WASHINGTON — Dozens of Democratic lawmakers are urging President Joe Biden to take steps to protect Palestinians in the United States as Israeli forces continue to fight Hamas militants inside Gaza City and thousands flee the area amid increasingly dire humanitarian circumstances.

In a letter Wednesday to Biden, the Democrats call for enacting temporary protections for Palestinians through government programs that shield immigrants from returning to countries that are ravaged by natural disasters or war. The lawmakers cite the rising death toll in Gaza, especially among children, from the month-long Israel-Hamas war and the lack of food and water.

“In light of ongoing armed conflict, Palestinians already in the United States should not be forced to return to the Palestinian territories, consistent with President Biden’s stated commitment to protecting Palestinian civilians,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter, provided to The Associated Press in advance of its release.

The letter is a notable effort from Democrats to defend and protect Palestinians at a time when leading Republicans, including former President Donald Trump and others vying for the GOP presidential nomination, have called for the U.S. to bar Palestinians attempting to escape the war in Gaza.

Last month, while campaigning in Iowa, Trump threatened to expand a travel ban on Muslims that he issued through an executive order during his presidency. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the U.S. should not take in any Palestinian refugees trying to leave Gaza because, he insisted, they “are all antisemitic.”

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, has emphasized that America has “always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists,” which prompted DeSantis’s super PAC to attack Haley on the issue.

U.S. law gives authorities broad leeway to deny people entry if they present security risks. Cases of extremists crossing into the U.S. illegally are also virtually nonexistent.

The request from Democrats to Biden would apply only to Palestinians who are already in the United States.

The U.S. issued about 7,200 temporary visas to people with Palestinian Authority passports in 2022, according to the State Department. Pointing to that figure, the Democrats argued that “the number of beneficiaries would be small, while the benefit could be lifesaving.

The request, signed by just over 100 lawmakers, is led by Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which oversees immigration policy. It is also signed by Sens. Jack Reed, who leads the Armed Services Committee, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. About 70 House Democrats signed, including Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois.

Temporary Protected Status is a program through the Department of Homeland Security that provides provisional residency, including the ability to work, to non-U.S. citizens currently here whose home countries are deemed too dangerous for them to return. The lawmakers also ask Biden to use Deferred Enforced Departure, a program similar to TPS that is used at a president’s discretion.

Similar protections have been issued in the past, the lawmakers say. For instance, the U.S. offered temporary protected status for residents of Kosovo amid armed conflict in 1998. At the time, Kosovo was a province of Serbia and did not declare independence until 2008.

WASHINGTON — House Republicans issued subpoenas Wednesday to members of President Joe Biden’s family, taking their most aggressive step yet in an impeachment inquiry bitterly opposed by Democrats that is testing the reach of congressional oversight powers.

The long-awaited move by Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, to subpoena the president’s son Hunter and his brother James comes as Republicans look to gain ground in their nearly yearlong investigation. So far, they have failed to uncover evidence directly implicating the president in any wrongdoing.

But Republicans say the evidence trail they have uncovered paints a troubling picture of “influence peddling” by Biden’s family in their business dealings, particularly with clients overseas.

“Now, the House Oversight Committee is going to bring in members of the Biden family and their associates to question them on this record of evidence,” Comer, of Kentucky, said in a statement.

The stakes are exceedingly high, as the inquiry could result in Republicans bringing impeachment charges against Biden, the ultimate penalty for what the U.S. Constitution describes as “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The subpoenas demand that Hunter Biden and James Biden as well as former business associate Rob Walker appear before the Oversight Committee for a deposition by mid-December. Lawmakers also requested that James Biden’s wife, Sara Biden, and Hallie Biden, the wife of the president’s deceased son Beau, appear voluntarily for transcribed interviews.

Requests for comment from Hunter Biden and James Biden were not immediately returned.

Both the White House and the Biden family’s personal lawyers have dismissed the investigation as a political ploy aimed at hurting the Democratic president. They say the probe is a blatant attempt to help former President Donald Trump, the early front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, as he runs again for the White House.

Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said the investigation has been full of “worn-out, false, baseless, or debunked claims.”

“This is a yet another political stunt aimed at distracting from the glaring failure of Rep. Comer and his MAGA allies to prove a single one of their wild and now discredited conspiracies about the Biden family,” Lowell said in a statement, referencing the acronym for Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. “Nevertheless, Hunter is eager to have the opportunity, in a public forum and at the right time, to discuss these matters with the Committee.”

In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday morning, Lowell urged the new speaker to rein in the “partisan political games.”

The impeachment inquiry slowed down in early October after Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker by a handful of fellow Republicans, stalling much of the legislative business and congressional investigations as the conference spent exhaustive weeks deliberating his replacement before electing Johnson late last month.

Now settling into the speakership, Johnson, of Louisiana, has given his blessing to the inquiry and has hinted that a decision could come soon on whether to pursue articles of impeachment against Biden.

“I think we have a constitutional responsibility to follow this truth where it leads,” Johnson told Fox News Channel recently. He also said in a separate Fox interview that he would support Comer’s decision to subpoena the president’s son, saying “desperate times call for desperate measures, and that perhaps is overdue.”

Since January, Republicans have been investigating the Biden family for what they claim is a pattern of “influence peddling” spanning back to when Biden was Barack Obama’s vice president. Comer claims the committee had “uncovered a mountain of evidence” that he said would show how Biden abused his power and repeatedly lied about a “wall” between his political position and his son’s private business dealings.

Over the summer, Republicans expanded their investigation to include oversight of the ongoing Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden and allegations that the case was plagued with interference.

One focus of the congressional inquiry has been whether the now-special counsel overseeing the case, David Weiss, had full authority to bring charges against the president’s younger son. In an unprecedented interview on Tuesday, Weiss told lawmakers that he was the “decision-maker” in a yearslong case into Hunter Biden’s taxes and gun use.

No one at the Justice Department, including U.S. attorneys or the tax division, blocked or prevented him from pursuing charges or taking other necessary steps in the investigation, Weiss said.

The five-year investigation into Hunter Biden had been expected to end with a plea deal this summer, but it imploded during a July plea hearing. Weiss has now charged the president’s son with three firearms felonies related to the 2018 purchase of a gun during a period Hunter Biden has acknowledged being addicted to drugs. No new tax charges have been filed.

Associated Press writers Lindsay Whitehurst and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

The labor union representing tens of thousands of Las Vegas hospitality workers announced Wednesday that it has reached a tentative deal with casino giant Caesars Entertainment, a major breakthrough that could help avert an unprecedented strike at more than a dozen hotel casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.

The announcement came after months of tense negotiations and just days before the Culinary Workers Union’s deadline for a strike. The union said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the agreement toward a five-year contract for about 10,000 workers came after 20 straight hours of negotiations.

Also see: Thousands of striking hotel workers march through LA

A sweeping walkout could still happen if deals aren’t reached by 5 a.m. Friday with MGM Resorts International, the state’s largest private employer, and Wynn Resorts. But the tentative agreement with Caesars could provide the momentum needed for the union to win new deals for its remaining 25,000 members who are still without contracts.

“As soon as one company reaches a deal, the others just fall right in line,” said Bill Werner, an associate professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, whose research includes hospitality law and labor relations. But, he said, “I would say this is as close as we’ve come in a long time to an actual strike.”

Also see: LA district attorney investigating hotels hiring refugees amid strike

Negotiations with MGM Resorts were scheduled for Wednesday and Wynn Resorts on Thursday. Werner said he expects it won’t take nearly as long for deals with those companies to take shape because the union now has a blueprint with its pending Caesars contract.

Caesars said in a statement that it was excited to reach an agreement that “recognizes the integral contributions our Team Members have made to the success we have seen in Las Vegas over the last few years” with meaningful wage increases and opportunities for growth tied to plans to bring more union jobs to the Strip.

More strikes: Cal State University workers call for strike Nov. 14

The contract, which is pending approval by the union’s rank and file, would cover properties including the company’s flagship Caesars Palace and Flamingo, Harrah’s, Horseshoe, Paris Las Vegas, Planet Hollywood, Cromwell and Linq.

“We are confident that our UniteHere Team Members will see this agreement as a demonstration of our commitment to their success and as a solid platform from which to deliver the extraordinary service and experiences our guests have come to expect,” Caesars said.

Bethany Khan, the union’s spokesperson, said terms of its deal with Caesars would be made public once approved.

A strike would cut to the heart of the city’s economic backbone and significantly disrupt operations at some of the most recognizable Las Vegas hotel-casinos as they prepare to host hundreds of thousands of people for next week’s Formula 1 debut on the Strip.

It would also be the latest in a series of high-profile actions around the country in what has been a big year for labor unions, including walkouts in Hollywood and UPS’ contentious negotiations that threatened to disrupt the nation’s supply chain. It would also follow hospitality workers walking off the job last month at Detroit’s three casinos, including MGM Grand Detroit.

“No matter if you’re auto workers, if you’re teachers, if you’re writers, if you’re screenwriters, the whole concept is we just want a fair way of making a living,” said Leslie Lilla, a cocktail server at the Bellagio. “We want to provide for our families, so that is coming across loud and clear in America.”

The race course for the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix will feature sweeping views of many of the casinos at risk of walkouts, including the Bellagio, MGM Grand and the Aria.

The Wynn and Encore resorts could also be hit by a strike, as well as MGM Resorts International’s Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, New York-New York and Park MGM.

The hospitality workers say they are willing to strike for as long as it takes to get fair contracts — from the housekeepers and utility porters who work behind the scenes to keep the Strip’s mega-resorts humming, to the bartenders and cocktail servers who provide the customer service that has helped make Las Vegas famous.

Tiffany Thomas, a guest room attendant at MGM Resorts’ Mandalay Bay and Culinary Union member for 17 years, said she is fighting for her family and for future generations of hospitality workers.

“I am willing to go on strike because I have a 10-year-old daughter who comes to negotiations with me, and she is going to inherit all of this,” Thomas said. “I refuse to sit back and watch what we’ve built crumble. I want my daughter to look at me and know I fought for a better future.”

Bargaining has been underway since April over pay, benefits, job security and working conditions, but negotiations ramped up in recent months after an overwhelming majority of union members voted in September to authorize a strike.

The vote was followed by large-scale rallies on the Strip, including one last month that ended with the arrests of 58 workers who sat in the street and halted rush-hour traffic on one of the most recognizable stretches of the Strip. The workers called it a show of force ahead of any potential strike.

As that rally began, two visitors from Missouri, Cindy Hiatt and Michelle Shirley, told The Associated Press they won’t return to Las Vegas again during a strike.

“The hotels are going to have to realize that they’re not going to have people wanting to come to Vegas without these workers,” Hiatt said.

Members currently receive health insurance and earn about $26 hourly, including benefits, Khan said. The union hasn’t revealed what it has been seeking in pay raises because, Khan said, “we do not negotiate in public,” but the union has said it is negotiating the largest wage increases in its history.

The workers have also said they want better job security amid advancements in technology, as well as stronger security protections, including more safety buttons on casino floors.

The “Grey’s Anatomy” star and race car driver takes the mantle from “Captain America” star Chris Evans, who was 2022’s selection. The pick was revealed on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Tuesday night.

“I’ve always been the bridesmaid!” Dempsey, 57, told the magazine about his initial reaction. “I’d completely forgotten about it and never even contemplated being in this position. So my ego is good.”

The actor stars in the upcoming Michael Mann film “Ferrari.” He told The Associated Press last year that he did all the driving himself, calling it “the best role I’ve ever had.”

Dempsey has driven in several professional races, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and is part of the Wright Motorsports racing team, according to its website.

Dempsey said his three children are bound to tease him about his People magazine selection and “pick on me and figure out every reason why I shouldn’t be.”

The People edition with Dempsey’s cover story will be out Friday.

Dempsey achieved heartthrob status as Dr. Derek Shepherd — nicknamed “McDreamy” — on “Grey’s Anatomy,” appearing in more than 250 episodes.

He plays Italian race car driver Piero Taruffi in “Ferrari,” which arrives in theaters later this year. The film has received a waiver so that its stars can promote it without breaking rules in the ongoing actors strike.

Other Sexiest Man Alive recipients include Michael B. Jordan, John Legend, Paul Rudd, Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson, who was the magazine’s first recipient in 1985.