Palestinians flee southward along Salah al-Din Street in Bureij, the Gaza Strip, Thursday.
FILE - Palestinians carry a wounded girl after being rescued from under the rubble of buildings that were destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Nov. 1, 2023. The White House says Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in northern Gaza
FILE - Palestinians work among debris of buildings that were targeted by Israeli airstrikes in Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Nov. 1, 2023. The White House says Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in northern Gaza.
FILE - Fire and smoke rise following Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza Strip, Nov. 4, 2023. The White House says Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in northern Gaza.
FILE - Israeli forces' flares light up the night sky in northern Gaza Strip, Nov. 4, 2023. The White House says Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in northern Gaza.
FILE - A man sits on the rubble overlooking the debris of buildings that were targeted by Israeli airstrikes in the Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Nov. 1, 2023. The White House says Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in northern Gaza.
FILE - Palestinians look for survivors among the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Jabaliya refugee camp on the outskirts of Gaza City, Oct. 31, 2023. The White House says Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in northern Gaza.
WASHINGTON — Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in northern Gaza, the White House said Thursday, as President Joe Biden pressed Israelis for a multi-day stoppage in the fighting in a bid to negotiate the release of hostages held by the militant group.
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 hostage negotiations.
“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.”
He added 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.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said a 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 past 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.
The U.S. has pressed Israelis to take greater steps to protect civilians in Gaza.
Asked in a Fox News interview that aired Thursday about the prospect of a daily humanitarian pause, Netanyahu replied that “the fighting continues against the Hamas enemy, the Hamas terrorists, but in specific locations for a given period, a few hours here, a few hours there, we want to facilitate a safe passage of civilians away from the zone of fighting. And we’re doing that.”
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 people killed in Israel. U.S. officials say fewer than 10 Americans are among those held captive. More than 10,800 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Kirby told reporters Thursday that pauses could be useful for “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 for talks with the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, according to a U.S. official. The official spoke with 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.
Sen. Ben Cardin, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the AP that several issues need to be resolved in the negotiations, including whether a more extended pause in fighting or the hostage release would come first, and whether it would be possible to access all the hostages to know how many there were and the state of their health,
Cardin, D-Md., returned to Washington this week after helping lead a congressional delegation to the Middle East for talks with leaders from Egypt, Israel and Saudi Arabia. He and fellow lawmakers met with Biden on Wednesday night to brief him on their talks in the region.
“We have been told in the last several weeks that progress is imminent ... and then nothing happens,” he said. He added, “I hope we’ll see some progress, but we’ve been disappointed in the past.”
Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, said there had been no shift in Israeli tactics. ’There’s no cease-fire,” he told reporters. ”‘These are tactical local pauses for humanitarian aid, which are limited in time and area.”
“These evacuation corridors are for civilians to move south to safer areas where they can receive humanitarian aid.” Asked about Kirby’s announcement, he said: “It’s not a shift,” though he said Israel would try to expand these humanitarian corridors.
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 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.
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.
Satterfield on Thursday described improving aid delivery for central and southern Gaza, but described no such effort in the northern battle zone other than to help civilians flee the intensifying Israeli assault.
He told reporters via an online briefing that the international community had been able to get fuel to turn back on water desalination plants in the south, and that aid into the south was averaging 100 trucks a day. Two pipelines supplying clean drinking water to the south from Israel have been turned back on.
“We do see the ability in the coming days, we hope, to meet the minimum requirements of the population in the south,” he said. “And I’m speaking of the south and the center, not of the north, which remains a kinetic area.”
President Joe Biden walks after arriving on Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023, in Washington. Biden is returning to Washington after meeting with United Auto Workers and attending a campaign reception in Illinois.
Keith Brown, commander of the West Virginia American Legion, and Dr. Corrina Boggess, commander of the West Virginia VFW, participate in the wreath-laying ceremony during the 2022 Clarksburg Veterans Day celebration. The laying of the wreath honors service members who died in the line of duty.
Residents of all ages came out to downtown Clarksburg to watch the 2022 Veterans Day Parade.
The Clarksburg Police Honor Guard takes the lead in the 2022 Veterans Day Parade.
The Harrison County Honor Guard performs a 21 gun salute at the end of the 2022 Clarksburg Veterans Day ceremony.
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WV News) — For longer than the United States has been a sovereign nation, Americans have had a reason to thank the men and women who stand guard for our nation’s freedom and the ideologies that keep it that way.
Following World War I, also known as “The War to End All Wars,” Armistice Day was celebrated on Nov. 11 each year to remember the truce that led to the end of The Great War, which resulted in the deaths of nearly half a million Americans, 292,000 of whom perished in battle.
To honor the lives lost, the body of an unknown soldier was given the highest military honors and entombed at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was established in 1921.
As years ticked on and more wars were fought, the bodies of unknown soldiers from more recent conflicts were interred at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. An unidentified veteran from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War were each given the highest military honors and entombed in Arlington.
An Honor Guard from the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division stands watch perpetually at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
All across America, veterans and their organizations march in Veterans Day parades to honor the sacrifices of all service members, living and dead.
“When a service member joins the military, they are writing a blank check worth everything up to and including their life,” said VFW Post 573 Commander Josh Cunningham.
It is a sacrifice that veterans don’t take for granted, Cunningham said. It is no small gesture, as many have paid that ultimate sacrifice.
“All gave some, but some gave all,” Cunningham said.
Ron Seftick of the Harrison County Honor Guard is a Vietnam veteran who also received a Purple Heart medal for being wounded in combat. During his time in Vietnam, Seftick sustained shrapnel to his back and the side of his torso, which caused him to be kept in a hospital in Saigon, Vietnam, for two weeks, he said.
Seftick considers himself “fortunate” though, as there were others who lost arms and legs, plus many more who never came home.
But sacrifices are made not just by those in uniform, but also by their families and loved ones who say goodbye not knowing if they will ever see them again.
As a 19-year-old, Cunningham and his unit were given orders to report to Kuwait in preparation for the then upcoming invasion of Iraq.
“You don’t have the foresight to process it at the time, but your mother and your father put their son on a bus knowing full well he may not come home,” Cunningham said.
And not everyone who fights in wars is childless. Many men leave their pregnant wives when they deploy to another part of the world, only to meet their 6-month-old child after a lifetime spent in another land, Cunningham said.
When a service member is deployed, all household responsibilities fall upon their spouse, said Jim Talerico of the Harrison County Honor Guard.
And children of service members can spend up to a year and more waiting for their parent to return home, Talerico said.
Service members are often absent for holidays when families get to come together and celebrate with each other, said West Virginia Army National Guard Col. Robert Kincaid.
The children and spouses of service members are also forced to pack up and move or change schools when that service member’s duty station changes, Talerico said.
When Harrison County Honor Guard member Michael Elliott was deployed to Iceland, it was up to his wife to take care of their three young children while he was away.
“At military ceremonies of change of command, retirement, and promotion, I always tell the families ‘none of this could happen without you,’” Kincaid said.
Service members also sacrifice time with their families to ensure their brothers and sisters in arms are caring for themselves mentally and emotionally. As members of the military community have a high rate of suicidal ideation, many service members are provided counseling and their brothers and sisters stay with them while they heal and work through a troubling time, Kincaid said, whether that contact be in person or via telephone.
Service members often form tighter bonds with their brothers in arms than even their own family. It can be hard to talk about the things service members see and do with their families, Kincaid said, but they are bonded to other service members through the trauma and tragedy that they share.
“To someone thinking about a career in the military, I would say the same thing I’d say to any man in my life: ‘My service reinforced what it takes to be successful.’
“Be honest, work hard, and don’t ever quit,” Cunningham said.
“While in boot camp, everyone gets to a point where they think they can’t go any further. Look over at the person next to you and see that they aren’t quitting yet, and you don’t quit yet either,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham has met many disabled veterans, but none has said their sacrifice was too great or that they wish they could take it back.
In the past, Clarksburg’s Veterans Day parades have included C-130 flyovers by the West Virginia Air National Guard, but this year the Army’s 459th Engineer Company, which helped lead the U.S. invasion of Iraq through Kuwait, will be in attendance at the city’s Veterans Day parade, Cunningham said.
This year’s Veterans Day festivities in Clarksburg will begin Friday at 11 a.m. at Jackson’s Square with opening ceremonies, including an honor guard. The annual Veterans Day Parade will begin shortly after noon in downtown Clarksburg.
Later, the VFW will offer free soup beans and cornbread to veterans and the public.
Throughout the evening, the VFW will be open to recruit new members and will be set up to speak about veterans’ suicide prevention with a cheesecake giveaway for veterans.
At 2 p.m., a dedication ceremony will be held for a new granite memorial near the Freedom Shelter at Veterans Memorial Park.
On Saturday, the VFW will hold a Flag Retirement Ceremony at 5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
"Residents of the facility cannot wait for the celebration Friday evening," said Sherri Reed, administrator at the West Virginia Veterans Nursing Facility.
Reed
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WV News) — Residents at the West Virginia Veterans Nursing Facility in Clarksburg are anticipating this year’s Veterans Day celebration.
Despite coming from different military and life backgrounds, veterans at the facility come together to celebrate Veterans Day.
“Our activities department is pretty involved in the Veterans Day celebration,” said Sherri Reed, the facility’s administrator. “They will take the veterans who want to go to the flag ceremony and the parade Friday morning. Saturday night, we will take them out to dinner; this year they picked Texas Roadhouse.”
Friday night is when the real fun starts, Reed said.
“The chaplain based in our facility works hand-in-hand with our activities department to celebrate our residents’ service to our country,” she said. “They will be having a dinner dedicated to them, with guest speakers and singing. The residents look forward to this every year.”
While Wade Sherman, a U.S. Navy Veteran, has only been a resident of the facility for four months, he has heard good things about the Veterans Day events.
“I am a recent resident of this facility and have not experienced a Veterans Day here yet,” he said. “From what I have heard from the different residents the Veterans Day celebration they do is really good.”
Sherman joined the military at just 23 years old.
“I was in the Navy during the 1980s, during Reagan’s administration,” he said. “During my time in the service it was a time of peace. I worked on the ship mainly with the planes.”
Charles Nallen, a U.S. Army Veteran at the facility, has seen the Veterans Day program twice.
“I have witnessed the program Pastor Rob, our chaplain, puts on,” he said. “Every year we have a dinner with guest speakers, sometimes they are fellow veterans and other times they are currently enlisted soldiers. We always have music and prayer during the event.”
He exited military service 58 years ago, Nallen said.
“While I was in the service I was stationed in Germany at an ammunition supply point,” he said, “We supplied tanks with ammunition alongside regular ammunition. For the majority of my time in the military I was in Germany.”
After his time in the military he resumed his old job, Nallen said.
“I worked at a Youth Development Center in Philadelphia for 32 years,” he said. “I was the one who worked with the troubled youth and helped them out any way I could. I worked there for another two years and got promoted. From there I worked my way up the ladder and became the executive director of Youth Development Center, Cornwells Heights in Buck County.”
Quincy Wyatt, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, said he had a good time at last year’s event.
“I have been here for about a year now,” he said. “I was here for last year’s Veterans Day program, and it was great. The food was good, the guest speakers did an amazing job and I am happy that we were recognized for our service.”
He joined the military between the Korean War and Vietnam, Wyatt said.
“I never saw any action. I was stationed here in the U.S.; I mainly worked on the base,” he said. “I mainly did carpentry and worked with the chaplain when needed.”
The coal mines were calling his name after the service, Wyatt said.
“After I got out I came back home and worked in the mines,” he said. “I worked in the coal mines in Webster Springs. The union asked some of the miners to leave so I did. I moved my family to Philippi and began working in the mines there. I worked in those mines until I retired.”
WASHINGTON (WV News) — Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., will not seek re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2024.
Manchin, who has for months remained undecided about his future political plans, released a video on social media Thursday afternoon saying he had reached a decision.
“After months of deliberation and long conversations with my family, I believe in my heart of hearts that I have accomplished what I set out to do for West Virginia,” he said. “I have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that I will not be running for re-election to the United States Senate.”
Manchin, who has been linked to a potential presidential run under the third-party No Labels banner, said he plans to see if “there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together.”
Gov. Jim Justice thanked Manchin for his service to the state.
“I wish him the very, very best,” Justice said.
Justice
Back in April, just hours before Justice was set to announce his 2024 campaign for the GOP nomination for Manchin’s current Senate seat, Manchin released a statement vowing to “win any race I enter.”
“I am laser focused on doing the job West Virginians elected me to do — lowering health care costs, protecting Social Security and Medicare, shoring up American energy security and getting our fiscal house in order,” Manchin said. “But make no mistake, I will win any race I enter.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., released a statement shortly after Manchin’s announcement thanking Manchin and his wife Gayle for “your years of service to our beloved West Virginia.”
“I’ve enjoyed serving alongside you — our senior senator,” Capito said. “And as you said, we still have much work ahead of us. Thank you for your friendship, Joe. I look forward to that continuing.”
During an interview with WV News earlier this year, Manchin said he didn’t plan to make an announcement about his future intentions until early 2024.
Manchin also expressed his interest in fostering a new political “movement.”
“There needs to be another movement, forget about another party,” he said. “The system is set up with 270 electoral votes. If you get three parties, it would be almost impossible for any one party, if you had three strong candidates, to get 270.”
Regardless of their party affiliation, a successful presidential candidate would need the backing of ideologically aligned donors, Manchin said.
“I’m more concerned about a movement. Is there a movement, can we create a movement? Can I talk to enough people who have been funding — what I call rewarding — bad behavior on both sides, Democrat and Republican?” he said. “The more outrageous they are, the more destruction that they cause, they get rewarded for that.”
Manchin was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010. He served as governor from 2005 to 2010 and as West Virginia Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., chairs a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on the health of the electrical power grid, at the Capitol in Washington, June 1, 2023. Manchin announced he won't seek reelection in 2024, giving Republicans a prime opportunity to pick up a seat in the heavily GOP state.
FAIRMONT, W.Va. (WV News) — With Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., announcing Thursday that he will not seek re-election to his seat in the U.S. Senate, Marion County officials are saddened, with many stating that Manchin’s shoes will be difficult to fill.
Former state Sen. Roman Prezioso, a childhood friend of Manchin’s, said he hated to hear the news, noting that Manchin has been a “tremendous” senator and voice of reason for West Virginia.
Prezioso
“I think the Senate is going to miss him,” Prezioso said. “He never voted down party lines, but he always researched the issue and made the best decision predicated on what’s best for West Virginia, and I think West Virginia is going to miss him. ... He served the state well and Congress well. We need more people like him, and not just the polarized political system that we have now.”
State Sen. Mike Caputo, who himself is retiring after a storied career at the end of his term, said that he didn’t see the news as a huge surprise, wishing Manchin the best in whatever he chooses for the future.
Caputo
“Joe has been a good public servant for West Virginia,” Caputo said. “I had the pleasure of serving with him for my whole legislative career, from him being secretary of state to governor to senator. There are many things that we agreed on, like his fight for coal mine pensions and lifetime healthcare, and of course, there were things we disagreed on, often. But, we always did it in a very respectful and courteous manner, and neither of us took any disagreement personally. I wish Joe and Gayle well in whatever the future brings to them, and I hope that he spends some time with his family and enjoys a little bit of what he’s missed in all these years of public service.”
Former West Virginia Democratic Party Chairwoman Belinda Biafore, who has known Manchin for decades, felt similarly to Prezioso and Caputo. She that while Manchin may have ruffled some feathers over the years, he has been invaluable to West Virginia.
Biafore
“I don’t know if sad is the right word, because I’m sure we’re not done seeing him, but it’s disappointing that he’s not going to run again, because I think he’s done a lot of good things for the state, as well as the country,” Biafore said. “Him and his commonsense approach have carried us a long way. I know there are a lot of Democrats who have been aggravated with him, but it’s going to be a tough seat to fill without him. ...
“I respect his decision. He’s worked hard for a long, long time. He worked his way up through the channels, and he’s done it right in my books. I appreciate his friendship and everything he’s done for Marion County and West Virginia.”
Former Marion County commissioner Randy Elliott noted that no matter which position Manchin held over the last few decades, he believes the senator has always done right by West Virginians, and like the other Marion County officials, Elliott said Manchin’s presence in Washington will be missed.
Elliott
“He was absolutely wonderful to the people of West Virginia,” Elliott said. “I supported him in all of his elections. He’s very smart, effective and was very successful in his political career. ... He was good for West Virginia. I can’t speak highly enough of him and what he’s done for the people of West Virginia. ...
“He’s worked tirelessly for working class people. He never let West Virginia down, no matter what success he had. ... I’ve always admired his ability to reason and look at things logically. I don’t know of anybody from West Virginia that’s done any better than him in politics.”
Capito
WASHINGTON (WV News) — Once again, the federal government is on the verge of a shutdown unless lawmakers can forge a compromise ahead of the deadline.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., during her weekly press briefing Thursday, said she is opposed to an idea that’s been circulating on Capitol Hill, originating with recently elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, which involves a “laddered” continuing resolution.
“Which means Agriculture [funding] would expire on one day, and then like two weeks later, Homeland Security and then two weeks later Defense,” she said. “To me, that sounds very confusing. I don’t know much more about it then that, and I don’t know what the rationale behind it is.”
Government funding is set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 18, just over a week away.
“I don’t know why we’re waiting to the very end, again, because it creates undue pressure,” Capito said.
Instead of this “laddered” approach, Capito said she favors a normal continuing resolution that would push the funding deadline to December.
“I think our best bet is just to continue funding until December so that we could try to work out some of the things and give the speaker a chance to figure out exactly the way he thinks the House can manage this,” she said. “If they send a laddered approach over, they’re going to have a lot of explaining to do.”
“We ran the numbers and we have 32 different locations in West Virginia that have federal offices with over 16,000 federal employees; that doesn’t count contractors,” she said.
Social Security checks and benefits for military veterans would not be affected by a shutdown, Capito said.
The federal government shut down twice during the administration of former President Donald Trump, first in January 2018 and again from December 2018 to Jan. 2019.
The second shutdown, which lasted for 35 days to become the longest in U.S. history, came after Democrats refused to support Trump’s demand to include $5.7 billion to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2019 appropriations bill.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the 2018-19 shutdown delayed $18 billion in federal spending compensation and purchases of goods and services, as well as suspending some federal services.
As a result of reduced economic activity, CBO estimated, real gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of 2018 was reduced by $3 billion in relation to what it would have been otherwise.
In the first quarter of 2019, the level of real GDP was estimated to be $8 billion lower than what it would have been — an effect reflecting both the five-week partial shutdown and the resumption in economic activity once funding resumed.
