Police: Driver accidentally struck parked SUV in Biden's motorcade near campaign headquarters

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Wilmington police say a 46-year-old driver believed to be drunk accidentally plowed into a parked SUV that was guarding President Joe Biden’s motorcade Sunday night while the president was leaving a visit to his campaign headquarters. The president and first lady Jill Biden were unharmed.

While Biden was walking from the campaign office to his waiting armored SUV, the sedan struck a U.S. Secret Service vehicle that was being used to seal off the area surrounding the headquarters for the president’s visit. The driver then tried to continue forward into the closed-off intersection, before Secret Service agents surrounded the vehicle with weapons drawn and instructed the driver to put his hands up.

Wilmington police said Monday their investigation determined the driver, a 46-year-old Wilmington man, accidentally struck the SUV and he was charged with drunk driving and inattentive driving.

A loud bang and sound of crunching metal echoed on the quiet street as Biden paused and looked over toward the sound, surprised, before he was ushered into the vehicle. Jill Biden was already seated inside, and the two were driven swiftly back to their home. His schedule was otherwise unaffected by the incident.

Steve Kopek, a U.S. Secret Service spokesman, said the president’s motorcade departed without incident and the driver was not considered a serious threat to the president.

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Catholic Church will now bless same-sex couples

Catholic priests will now bless same-sex couples for the first time after Pope Francis formally approved the practice in a declaration released Monday.

While the blessings are a sharp change in Catholic practice, the declaration emphasizes that the church “remains firm on the traditional doctrine of the Church about marriage.”

“It is precisely in this context that one can understand the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage,” the declaration states.

While the church remained steadfast in its stance on marriage being between heterosexual couples, the declaration makes clear that it should not take "an exhaustive moral analysis” for same-sex couples to receive blessings.

The declaration goes on to say that "a blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God."

"The request for a blessing, thus, expresses and nurtures openness to the transcendence, mercy, and closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live," it states.

Francis had previously expressed openness to blessing same-sex couples in an October letter to conservative Cardinals.

The Rev. James Martin, who has advocated for the church to become more welcoming for LGBTQ people, said on X, formerly Twitter, that the decision was a “major step forward” that “recognizes the deep desire in many Catholic same-sex couples for God's presence in their loving relationships.”

“Along with many priests, I will now be delighted to bless my friends in same-sex unions,” Martin wrote. He added in a subsequent post: "Be wary of the 'Nothing has changed' response to today's news. It's a significant change. In short, yesterday, as a priest, I was forbidden to bless same-sex couples at all. Today, with some limitations, I can."

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who is Catholic, thanked the Pope in a post on X "for recognizing that we are all God’s children."

"Being LGBTQ always has been a beautiful part of the magnificent creation that we call humanity," he wrote.

Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson said on X that “Millions of lives will be released from judgement (sic) by this, many families reconciled, many hearts given comfort that were tormented before.”

According to Pew, there are 148 Catholics in the 118th Congress.

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President tightens grip in Serbian election marred by fraud claims

The government claims it has won sweeping victory, and slams accusations of electoral irregularities as lies.

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Israel finds large tunnel adjacent to Gaza, raising new questions about prewar intelligence

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip — The Israeli military said Sunday it has discovered a large tunnel shaft in Gaza close to what was once a busy crossing into Israel, raising new questions about how Israeli surveillance missed such conspicuous preparations by Hamas for the militants’ deadly Oct. 7 assault.

The entryway to the tunnel is just a few hundred yards from the heavily fortified Erez crossing and a nearby Israeli military base.

The military said it stretches for over 2.5 miles, links up with a sprawling tunnel network across Gaza and is wide enough for cars to pass through. The army said Sunday that the tunnel facilitated the transit of vehicles, militants, and supplies in preparation for the Oct. 7 attack.

That day, militants used a rocket-propelled grenade to break past the portion of wall close to the Erez crossing and stormed the base, killing at least three soldiers and kidnapping some back to Gaza, the army said. It was one of several places along the border wall where militants easily blew past Israel’s security defenses, entered Israeli territory and killed some 1,200 people and took about 240 others hostage.

The unprecedented attack triggered a devastating war that has raged for over 10 weeks and claimed over 18,000 lives in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian health officials. Israel says destruction of Hamas’ tunnel network is a major objective and that much of the underground network runs beneath schools, hospitals and residential areas.

Israel’s military, intelligence and political officials have come under heavy criticism for failing to detect the attack ahead of time.

Maj. Nir Dinar, a military spokesperson, said that Israeli security services did not know about the tunnel before Oct. 7 because Israel’s border defenses only detected tunnels meant to enter Israel.

“As far as I know, this tunnel doesn’t cross from Gaza into Israel and stops within 400 meters from the border, which means the indicators won’t indicate that a tunnel is being built,” Dinar said. He added that the entrance, a circular cement opening leading to a cavernous passageway, was located under a garage, hiding it from Israeli drones and satellite images.

While the military was aware that Hamas had an extensive tunnel network, Dinar said they did not think the militants would be able to carry out their plans for a large-scale attack.

“It’s no surprise that this was the Hamas strategy all along,” Dinar said. “The surprise is that they have succeeded and the size of this tunnel … was really shocking.”

The Erez crossing, a fortress-like facility that processed the movement of Palestinians into Israel for work, medical care and transit to neighboring Jordan, held great symbolic value for Hamas. The massive crossing was protected by security cameras and military patrols and the adjacent military base. The crossing suffered heavy damage on Oct. 7 and has not reopened.

The army said its special “Yahalom” unit, which specializes in tunnel warfare, has worked to excavate the tunnel since it was first detected. They say they’ve found weapons inside.

“At this point, this is the biggest tunnel in Gaza,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief military spokesman, told reporters in a tour of the tunnel’s entrance on Friday.

It is unclear if the tunnel was used on Oct. 7.

The army also showed reporters soldiers’ barracks at the nearby base that it said were set ablaze by the militants. They looked like the ashes of a furnace, with blackened walls and smelted bunks. The military announced Friday that it had recovered in Gaza the bodies of two soldiers who were working at the base on Oct. 7.

Dinar, who visited the tunnel Friday, said it was twice the height and three times the width of other tunnels found in Gaza. He said it is equipped with ventilation and electricity and dives 55 yards underground in some points. He said it was clear that millions of dollars as well as a great deal of fuel and workforce had been needed to build and sustain the tunnel.

Hagari said the military planned to destroy the tunnel and continue to “hunt” militants hiding in others.

“We will hunt them even if we need to go down to the tunnels,” Hagari said. “We also need to do it with attention to the rescue of our hostages and the understanding that maybe some of them are in the tunnels.”

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Netanyahu is ‘an exceptionally difficult partner,’ Chris Coons says

Sen. Chris Coons blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, after he said Saturday night that he was “proud” of his efforts to block the creation of Palestinian state.

Netanyahu "has been an exceptionally difficult partner," Coons (D-Del.) said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

The U.S. has long called for a two-state solution to end the decades of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and President Joe Biden has described the creation of a Palestinian state as the only way to effectively end the current fighting.

But Israeli leaders have set aside discussions of a two-state solution in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, where Hamas insurgents killed around 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostage. Israel has argued that Hamas must be removed from power in Gaza before they can achieve peace.

Since the initial attack, Israel has launched a deadly offensive in Gaza, killing close to 19,000 people and flattening much of the northern part of the region, according to the Associated Press. Around 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forced from their homes into the southern part of Gaza.

U.S. officials have begun to condemn Israel for seemingly indiscriminate killing — which includes the shooting of three hostages by Israeli troops — and some Democratic lawmakers ripped the Biden administration’s decision to bypass Congress and approve the sale of nearly 14,000 tank shells worth roughly $106 million from U.S. Army stocks through an emergency declaration under the Arms Export Control Act.

Additional aid is still tied up in negotiations over funding for Ukraine and the U.S.’s southern border. When a deal could emerge is unclear, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has called for the funding for Israel to only be granted on the condition that Israel change the “military and political positions” of its government.

Coons, a close ally of the Biden administration, directed his jabs at Netanyahu on Sunday. He said President Joe Biden "did the right thing" in rushing to Israel's aid after the Oct. 7 attack, but that Netanyahu has made things difficult for his American allies.

“Netanyahu has done everything he can to undermine a positive vision for peace for Israel,” he told CBS’ Margaret Brennan.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) similarly slammed Netanyahu for preventing a peace process to move forward.

“Instead of trying to find peace or at least preventing the conditions on the ground from changing with additional settlements to allow a two-state solution, he has shut the door on that effort,” he said during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

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Trump quotes Putin in bid to portray Biden as authoritarian

DURHAM, New Hampshire — Donald Trump on Saturday turned to the words of an authoritarian in his latest effort to paint President Joe Biden as one.

“Even Vladimir Putin … says that Biden’s, and this is a quote, politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy,” the former president told a packed stadium in New Hampshire.

Trump also basked in praise from Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister Viktor Orbán.

“Viktor Orbán, the highly respected prime minister of Hungary said Trump is the man who can save the western world,” Trump said. Later on he touted his relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, “who is very nice.”

“He’s not so fond of this administration, but he’s fond of me,” Trump said.

During his time in the White House, Trump cozied up to authoritarian leaders like Putin and Kim, praising both at turns and infamously siding with the former over his own intelligence agencies on an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Trump’s comment earlier this month that he’d be a dictator only “on day one” raised eyebrows, and his increasingly heightened rhetoric has led critics to compare him to authoritarian leaders overseas. But after doubling down on the day-one remark to a room of supporters at a New York soiree, Trump took to Truth Social to claim it was a joke.

In New Hampshire, the crowd cheered as Trump railed against Biden, blaming the sitting president as he often does on the campaign trail for his many legal troubles.

“They [are] weaponizing law enforcement for high level election interference because we’re beating them so badly in the polls,” Trump said.

The former president is embroiled in legal cases in New York, Georgia and Washington, D.C., and is facing federal indictments for mishandling classified documents and over his alleged role in a plot to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Biden.

But it hasn’t stymied his support, with polls showing a seemingly impenetrable lead over his remaining GOP primary challengers. In a recent Wall Street Journal poll, Trump topped Biden by a 4 percent margin, the latest in a series of polls forecasting trouble for Biden.

The federal indictments were the culmination of investigations by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland last year to independently manage investigations and prosecutions related to Trump. Despites accusations from conservative politicians and pundits, Garland has emphasized that Biden has not played a role in Trump’s indictments.

But Trump continued his attack on Biden and Democrats unabated Saturday.

“Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists and fascists indict me, I consider it a badge of honor — because I am being indicted for you,” Trump said, prompting cheers of “We love you,” from his fans.

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Trump confronts ‘scheduling nightmare’ as court cases collide with campaign

DURHAM, New Hampshire — Donald Trump’s upcoming court calendar is creating a logistical headache for his presidential campaign.

“It’s a scheduling nightmare,” Trump senior adviser Susie Wiles told reporters Saturday. “There’s no way to sugarcoat that.”

Already ricocheting from the courtroom to the campaign trail, Trump’s bid for a second term is now on a collision course with court dates for the myriad legal challenges he’s facing.

Testimony in Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York wrapped Wednesday. Lawyers on both sides will have until Jan. 5 to submit written statements before they return to court Jan. 11, just four days ahead of the Iowa caucuses Jan. 15. The civil trial for writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit is scheduled to start the same day as the caucuses.

And the trial in his federal election interference case is slated to start the day before Super Tuesday, though a judge put the case on hold as Trump’s team argues for its dismissal.

Wiles said Trump’s campaign is frontloading his schedule in anticipation that legal proceedings may disrupt his campaign.

He’s campaigning in three states in four days, jetting from New Hampshire, where he drew thousands of MAGA faithful for his first arena rally in the state this cycle, to Nevada on Sunday and Iowa on Tuesday.

Trump’s team has also tried to turn the closely watched drama playing out in the courtrooms to his advantage. Trump was only required to be in the New York courtroom once for his civil fraud trial, but he appeared there eight times, often holding court with the media outside.

Meanwhile, Wiles said she doesn’t expect the frontrunner for the GOP nomination will suddenly start participating in the Republican primary debates he’s so far shunned, even as his lower-polling rivals push him to appear at upcoming forums in Iowa and New Hampshire.

"He'll be here plenty," Wiles said in New Hampshire. "But I don't think he's going to get on the debate stage."

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