US special envoy Steve Witkoff arrives at aid distribution site in Rafah as starvation crisis deepens
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US envoy Witkoff visits Gaza aid distribution site as starvation crisis deepens
Steve Witkoff is the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East. He visited a controversial US-backed aid distribution site in Gaza on Friday. Hundreds of Palestinians have died in recent weeks trying to reach scarce food supplies. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food, according to the UN. The GHF was established in May after Israel complained that UN aid was reaching Hamas. But an internal US government review found no evidence of widespread theft by Hamas.
An Israeli source told CNN on Friday morning that Witkoff had arrived at the aid site in the southern city of Rafah that is run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The GHF was created to replace the United Nations’ aid role in Gaza and has been widely criticized for failing to improve conditions as the starvation crisis deepens. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food, hundreds of them near GHF sites, according to the UN. The GHF disputes this.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Witkoff and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee would travel to Gaza “to inspect the current distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground.”
Witkoff and Huckabee would “brief the president immediately after their visit to approve a final plan for food and aid distribution into the region,” she said, adding that the White House will provide more details “once that plan is approved and agreed on by the president of the United States.”
Friday’s visit marks Witkoff’s second trip to Gaza. Shortly after Trump took office in January, Witkoff visited the enclave, becoming the first US official to do so in more than a decade.
The GHF was established in May after Israel complained that UN aid was reaching Hamas. But an internal US government review found no evidence of widespread theft by Hamas of US-funded humanitarian aid in Gaza.
The analysis, conducted by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), looked into 156 incidents of waste, fraud, and abuse reported by partner organizations between October 2023 and May 2025. The review of the incidents “found no affiliations” with sanctioned groups or foreign terrorist organizations, according to a presentation seen by CNN.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
US envoy Witkoff visits Gaza aid distribution site as starvation crisis deepens
Steve Witkoff is the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East. He visited a controversial US-backed aid distribution site in Gaza on Friday. Hundreds of Palestinians have died in recent weeks trying to reach scarce food supplies. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food, hundreds of them near GHF sites, according to the UN. The GHF was created to replace the United Nations’ aid role in Gaza and has been widely criticized for failing to improve conditions.
(CNN) — Steve Witkoff, the United States’ special envoy to the Middle East, on Friday visited a controversial US-backed aid distribution site in Gaza, one of three such locations near which hundreds of Palestinians have died in recent weeks as they tried to reach scarce food supplies.
An Israeli source told CNN on Friday morning that Witkoff had arrived at the aid site in the southern city of Rafah that is run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The GHF was created to replace the United Nations’ aid role in Gaza and has been widely criticized for failing to improve conditions as the starvation crisis deepens. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food, hundreds of them near GHF sites, according to the UN. The GHF disputes this.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Witkoff and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee would travel to Gaza “to inspect the current distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground.”
Witkoff and Huckabee would “brief the president immediately after their visit to approve a final plan for food and aid distribution into the region,” she said, adding that the White House will provide more details “once that plan is approved and agreed on by the president of the United States.”
Friday’s visit marks Witkoff’s second trip to Gaza. Shortly after Trump took office in January, Witkoff visited the enclave, becoming the first US official to do so in more than a decade.
The GHF was established in May after Israel complained that UN aid was reaching Hamas. But an internal US government review found no evidence of widespread theft by Hamas of US-funded humanitarian aid in Gaza.
The analysis, conducted by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), looked into 156 incidents of waste, fraud, and abuse reported by partner organizations between October 2023 and May 2025. The review of the incidents “found no affiliations” with sanctioned groups or foreign terrorist organizations, according to a presentation seen by CNN.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
CNN’s Betsy Klein and Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting
Biden warns ‘these are dark days’ under Trump administration
Biden spoke at the National Bar Association’s annual gala in Chicago. He said the executive branch “seems to be doing its best to dismantle the Constitution.” Biden never mentioned Trump by name, instead referring to him as “this guy,” and argued the need for judicial checks. The former president, who continues to undergo treatment for an aggressive form of prostate cancer, has kept a relatively low profile since leaving the White House. He spends most of his time at his homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and is working on a forthcoming book. He also scorned “the apparent glee some of our politicians express” at the administration’S aggressive approach to immigration enforcement.“Folks, we can’t sugarcoat this. These are dark days, but you’re all here for the same reason,’ he said.
(CNN) — Former President Joe Biden warned on Thursday that the country is facing “dark days” under President Donald Trump’s watch, saying the executive branch “seems to be doing its best to dismantle the Constitution.”
“They’re doing it all too often with the help of a Congress that’s just sitting in the sidelines and enabled by the highest court in the nation. The rulings they’ve made, my God,” Biden said as he spoke at the National Bar Association’s annual gala in Chicago.
“Folks, in our lives, the life of our nation, there are moments so stark that they divide all that came before from everything that followed. Moments that forced us to confront hard truth about ourselves, our institutions and democracy itself,” he continued. “We are, in my view, at such a moment in American history, reflected in every cruel executive outreach, every rollback of basic freedoms, every erosion of long-standing established precedent.”
Biden never mentioned Trump by name, instead referring to him as “this guy,” and argued the American people are beginning to realize the need for judicial checks on the executive branch.
“Judges matter. Courts matter. The law matters and the Constitution matters. I think a lot of Americans are starting to realize that under the pressure we’re under now with this guy we have as president,” he said. “Oh, get ready, folks, this is just starting.”
Biden called out “law firms bowing to pressure, bending to bullies, instead of staying rooted in justice and the law,” along with some of the biggest news outlets in the country. He also scorned “the apparent glee some of our politicians express” at the administration’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement.
Biden said the current administration is intent on working to “ease all the gains we’ve made in my administration, to erase history, rather than make it, to erase fairness, equality, to erase justice itself.”
“Folks, we can’t sugarcoat this. These are dark days, but you’re all here for the same reason,” he said. “It’s because our future is literally on the line. We must, we must be unapologetic of fighting for the future.”
Biden’s latest speech comes the same week two senior aides appeared for interviews before the House Oversight Committee as part of the Republican-led panel’s intensifying investigation into the former president’s cognitive decline and possible efforts to conceal it from the public.
In his speech in Chicago, the former president joked about his age.
“I have the dubious distinction of being elected the youngest senator in American history and the oldest president in American history,” he said. “It’s hell turning 40 twice.”
The former president, who continues to undergo treatment for an aggressive form of prostate cancer, has kept a relatively low profile since leaving the White House, giving only a handful of speeches. He spends most of his time at his homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, and is working on a forthcoming book.
As he closed out his speech, Biden encouraged Americans to “summon the courage” to stand up for what’s right.
“It means take the client who can’t write a big check, but needs protecting their basic fundamental rights. It means signing onto that brief that may draw the ire of people in power, but you know it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “It means standing firm against unconstitutional actions, designed to intimidate you. It means write the article, give the speech, lead the protest, defend the ideas your country is founded on, to protect your institutions, to fight for the soul of the nation.”
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Former Biden adviser told House panel he was set to receive $8 million if president won reelection
Mike Donilon told the House Oversight Committee that he was paid $4 million to work on Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign. Donilon was set to receive an additional $4million if Biden was reelected, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. The former senior Biden adviser defended Biden’s fitness for office amid reports about his mental and physical decline during his time in the White House. The Republican-led panel has interviewed Biden’s top White House aides this week as part of its intensifying investigation.
(CNN) — Former senior Biden adviser Mike Donilon told the House Oversight Committee on Thursday that he was paid $4 million working on the former president’s 2024 campaign and was set to receive an additional $4 million if he was reelected, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
While Donilon’s $4 million salary was first detailed in the book “Original Sin,” the possible $4 million additional payout for a Biden reelection victory was not previously known.
In his closed-door testimony to the committee Donilon defended former President Joe Biden’s fitness for office amid reports about his mental and physical decline during his time in the White House. “What I saw, day in and day out, was a leader who was deeply engaged and in command on critical issues, both at home and abroad,” according to a copy of Donilon’s opening statement obtained by CNN.
Donilon’s testimony to the committee comes as the Republican-led panel has interviewed Biden’s top White House aides this week as part of its intensifying investigation into the former president’s cognitive decline and possible efforts to conceal it from the public.
“I believed that President Biden was the best person to lead the country on the day he took the oath of office and I continued to believe that was true every day he served as President,” Donilon said in his statement.
CNN has reached out to Donilon for comment.
This week the committee also met with former Biden counselor Steve Ricchetti, who called the probe an “unprecedented effort” to intimidate the prior administration
Several Biden aides have declined to cooperate with the committee’s investigation and invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination after being subpoenaed to appear.
Earlier this month, three Biden aides – White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, former assistant to the president and senior adviser to the first lady Anthony Bernal and former assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini – who previously served as director of Oval Office Operations – pleaded the fifth in the face of questions from the panel.
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Guadalupe School District Hosts Their First Summer Robotics Camp
Kids ages 8-13 have been working on robotics at a summer camp hosted by Guadalupe Union School District. College students majoring in the field are providing the camp’s coaches. This summer camp is just the beginning, setting the stage for schools in Guadelupe to form their own robotics teams for competitions. “It takes patience and like, many, many tries to get it right,” says young Jacob Mejia, who captains a team dubbed ‘The Smurfs’
“It takes patience and like, many, many tries to get it right,” says young Jacob Mejia, who captains a team dubbed ‘The Smurfs.’
An association between Delta Robotics and a new group called the Santa Maria Valley Robotics Association is providing college students majoring in the field as the camp’s coaches.
“The majority of us are alumni for Delta,” says Zoe Ward-Correa, one of the coaches. “So we go to Hancock, and then some of us are still in high school.”
As they get ready for Friday’s tournament, the kids learn how to prepare their robotic for a point-based game that analyzes how well their robot has been built.
“It teaches them to engineer actual things,” says Ward-Correa. “They’ll end up engineering in real life, but they don’t really know it’s that. They just think of it as a game.”
This summer camp is just the beginning, setting the stage for schools in Guadelupe to form their own robotics teams for competitions.
Another of the coaches expressed their excitement over the program. “I want to see them learn all this stuff so early and then put it into into high school too,” says Adrian Lopez. “I’m so excited for them and like, they don’t, they don’t even know about it.”
Guadalupe Union School District representatives say they’re thrilled to be hosting the camp, and they hope this year will be the first of many.
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