News Wrap: Rubio expedites delivery of $4 billion in military aid to Israel

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• John Yang:

  As humanitarian aid for Gaza is cut off, the Trump administration is sending Israel another round of military aid. Secretary of State Marco Rubio used emergency authority to expedite delivery of about $4 billion of weapons and ammunition. The order reverses a Biden administration embargo that blocked the transfer of those items. Since taking office, the Trump administration has approved nearly $12 billion in major foreign military sales to Israel.

  President Trump signed more executive orders overnight. Two were aimed at revitalizing the U.S. lumber industry. One expands U.S. timber production, which the president said federal policies had restricted. And the second one calls for an investigation of lumber and paper products imports, which could lay the groundwork for new tariffs. Both orders could strain economic relationships with allies, particularly Canada and Mexico, two of the largest sellers of lumber to the United States. General tariffs on those two countries are set to take effect on Tuesday.

  And for the first time, a private U.S. company has successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon. The Blue Ghost lander touched down today, carrying 10 experiments for NASA. Like any visitor to a new place, it snapped a few selfies and then took a picture of Earth. The private company called Firefly Aerospace is the latest in a string of private entities competing to launch NASA payloads to the moon. A rival lunar lander is expected touch down later this week.

  Still to come on PBS News Weekend, what cuts in U.S. foreign aid may mean for the suffering children of Haiti. And on Oscar night, we explore the expanding role of AI in films.

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