Source: Axios
Security & Justice
Captured Hezbollah Operative May Have Been Israeli Double Agent, Report Suggests
The alleged senior Hezbollah operative abducted by Israeli special forces last week in Batroun may have been operating as a double agent, according to a report by The Telegraph.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Lebanon’s Probe into Israeli Raid Expected to Take Days as Security Officials Weigh Theories
Lebanese authorities are ramping up investigations into an Israeli commando raid last week in the northern coastal city of Batroun, during which Imad Amhaz, a Hezbollah official, was snatched.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Real Madrid Launch Investigation into Racist Insults After El Clasico Defeat
Real Madrid has launched an investigation into racist insults directed at players during Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in LaLiga, it said on Sunday.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Monday 8 May 2023 15:37:54
The Food Fight in the White House: Biden's Diet
There's a delicious (surf and) turf battle inside the Biden White House — over the president's plate.
- The food fight has pitted Joe Biden — who prefers carbs over greens — against First Lady Jill Biden, who has been pushing the commander-in-chief to eat more fish and veggies whether he likes them or not (he doesn't).
Why it matters: The internal tug-of-war over Joe Biden's diet is just one of many public and private steps being taken by close aides and the first lady to keep the 80-year-old president healthy as he prepares to run for a second term.
State of play: Some Biden aides have long noted that he eats "like a child," with a food palette that skews beige.
- His favorite dishes include peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, BLT's, pizza, cookies, spaghetti with butter and red sauce, and ice cream that he occasionally makes into a full sundae, according to current and former Biden aides.
- On Friday while visiting D.C.'s Taqueria Habanero, Biden ordered churros and a chicken quesadilla.
- A teetotaler, he often drinks orange Gatorade.
Zoom in: In September 2021, the president's sister Val came to the White House for a private dinner, and the first lady selected their entree: salmon in a pastry shell with a medley of vegetables.
- "Damn, she makes me eat this healthy stuff all the time," said the president, who's not a fan of salmon, according to Val's recounting of the dinner in her memoir.
- With the first lady out of sight, Biden had some lemon pound cake and finished a carton of Breyer's chocolate chip ice cream for dessert, Val recalled.
Zoom out: Biden works out with a physical therapist, Drew Contreras, many mornings.
- Actor Jason Bateman jokingly asked Biden about his routine during a podcast interview last November: “Are we blasting back and bi[ceps]’s on Tuesdays and Thursdays?”
- “Yes,” the president replied, “as a matter of fact.”
- But Biden acknowledged that fitness is more complicated at 80.
- "The difference in age, if I let it go for a week I feel it," he told the hosts. "I used to be able to go for a week and nothing would change."
