| ADMINISTRATION: Biden on Wednesday spoke again with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging “significant de-escalation” of Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza (The Hill). Hours later, Netanyahu responded that Israel was “determined to continue” to weaken Hamas and its attacks against Israel, and more strikes against Hamas targets, including homes, occurred Thursday (The Associated Press). The prime minister said he “greatly appreciates the support of the American president,” but said Israel will push ahead “to return the calm and security to you, citizens of Israel.” He added that he is “determined to continue this operation until its aim is met” (Fox News). The Hill: A spokesman for Israel’s military said on Wednesday that there is no end in sight to violence in Gaza. During an MSNBC interview, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said the trend is heading in the opposite direction. Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, said Wednesday evening that he anticipated a cease-fire agreement within days, Israeli media reported. Earlier, an Israeli political official confirmed that Israel was heading toward a cease-fire agreement with Hamas through Egyptian mediation, according to Haaretz. “I think a ceasefire mediation will work. The equation was clear — if they escalate, we escalate. If they stop firing at Gaza we’ll stop firing at Tel Aviv. Israel’s actions in Jerusalem and Sheikh Jarrah have caused the al-Aqsa Brigades to enter the campaign,” he said. “Any negotiations for a cease-fire must address that” (The Jerusalem Post). Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he hoped to fly to Israel for talks Thursday with Israelis and Palestinians about ending the conflict. “My plan is to fly to Israel tonight and hold talks in Jerusalem and Ramallah,” Maas told reporters on Wednesday (The Associated Press). Losing patience with Israel, some House Democrats moved Wednesday to introduce a resolution seeking to block a $735 million sale of precision-guided weapons to the country, a symbolic response to the conflict meant to publicly showcase lawmakers’ concerns about alleged human rights violations by Israel against Palestinians (Reuters and The Hill). The Associated Press: Biden and Netanyahu, who have known each other for decades (pictured below in 2010), face a rough early test of the U.S.-Israel relationship, a test the president had hoped to avoid. For Netanyahu, war is a political career-booster (The Associated Press). 
> U.S.-Russia: Biden on Wednesday called off key sanctions on a Russian gas pipeline as Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds his first bilateral meeting with his Russian counterpart. The decision drew criticism from Russia hawks in Congress who want the United States to block the multibillion-dollar Nord Stream 2 project because they say it gives Moscow leverage over U.S. allies in Europe (The Washington Post). > UFOs: U.S. intelligence agencies will testify to the Senate Intelligence Committee next month about government sightings of flying crafts moving at incredible speeds. The Pentagon has been interested in UFOs because they could pose threats to national security and has established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force to investigate and “gain insight” into the “nature and origins” of unidentified flying objects. In 2019, the department declassified three videos taken by Navy pilots — one from 2004 and two from 2015 — that showed mysterious objects flying at high speeds across the sky. A separate leaked Navy video, captured in July 2019, showed a sphere-shaped unidentified object flying over water near San Diego. The footage, obtained by a documentary filmmaker and shared with NBC News, appeared to show the mysterious object flying for a few minutes before disappearing into the water (NBC News). A report to Congress next month is the result of a provision in the $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief law and an appropriations bill that Trump signed last year calling for a “detailed analysis of unidentified aerial phenomena data and intelligence” from the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force and the FBI. > VEEP: The Hill’s Amie Parnes writes that four months into Vice President Harris’s tenure, she is still sorting out how to make a mark. “I don’t think it’s been as seamless as it appears,” said one Democrat who has spoken to aides in the White House about the matter. Biden put Harris in charge of immigration problems at the U.S. southern border, tasked her to conduct outreach to constituencies, including Black and Asian Americans, and said during a joint address to Congress that she would supervise the government’s drive to bring high-speed internet to all communities. ***** CORONAVIRUS: Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told a Senate subcommittee on Wednesday that mask policies can be guided by the federal government but should be customized by local communities to reflect their COVID-19 infection rates and populations of fully vaccinated residents. In testimony before an Appropriations subcommittee about her agency’s budget, she defended last week’s shift in CDC recommendations that announced most vaccinated Americans can eschew masks indoors and out. “We moved at the speed science gave us,” she said, noting that new research had confirmed that the vaccines are working in the real world, that they are working against the variants that are currently circulating in the United States, and that they prevent not only illness but also transmission of the virus. “That scientific data was enough for us to move forward” (The Boston Globe). Daily Beast: Walensky keeps changing her story. CNN: McCarthy effort to lift mask rules for the House floor fails. NBC News: Confusing rules, loopholes and legal issues: College vaccination plans are a mess. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, added on Wednesday that Americans do not have a full understanding of the latest CDC guidelines. “I think people are misinterpreting, thinking that this is a removal of a mask mandate for everyone. It's not,” Fauci told Axios on Wednesday. “It's an assurance to those who are vaccinated that they can feel safe, be they outdoors or indoors” (The Hill). Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Emergent BioSolutions CEO Robert Kramer told members of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis that its embattled plant in Baltimore could resume manufacturing doses of Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine “within a matter of days.” “We have made significant progress against all of those commitments, we are very close to completing them, and I would expect we would be in a position to resume production within a matter of days,” Kramer said. As The Hill’s Nathaniel Weixel notes, Kramer told lawmakers that there are more than 100 million doses of J&J’s vaccine on hold, the first time the company has disclosed how much of the vaccine has been affected. The company’s chief added that unsanitary conditions, including mold, were present at the facility, noting that staff was inadequately trained at the locale. Kramer also said that Emergent BioSolutions has been in communication with the Food and Drug Administration and is close to correcting the issues cited by the agency. Reuters: The United Kingdom begins “booster” shot trial of seven different COVID-19 vaccines. The Associated Press: Pennsylvania voters impose new limits on governor’s powers. The Associated Press: Spain, in bid to rally its economy, wants tourists to visit within weeks. 
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