[cheers and applause] good evening, everyone. For those ive not had a chance to meet today im john hugh busch and have the honor of being the executive director of the Ronald Reagan president ial foundation, as always here at the [applause] if you would in honor of our men and women in uniform who defend our freedom around the world, please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, please be seated. [cheers and applause] before we get started, theres just a few people in the audience i want to make sure i recognize tonight and i will start with marks wife, julie, and his son, chase. Julie and mark . [cheers and applause] this is special. Marks motherinlaw, sylvia strauss. Sylvia . [applause] and it would not be an event at the Reagan Library if i didnt recognize elton and his wife, janice. [applause] first, be
netanyahu that fighting against hamas in rafah will not stop, but mr netanyahu reportedly called the move unacceptable . he is under strong pressure from far right members of his coalition government to reject any pauses in the conflict until hamas is totally defeated. in a sign of further tension between the israeli army and those far right parties, the army s chief of staff said sunday there is a clear need to conscript ultra orthodox jewish israelis, who are currently exempt from military service. that s a change mr netanyahu s coalition partners firmly oppose. sunday marks the festival of eid al adha, one of islam s holiest days. there was a notable lull in fighting, with gaza s hamas run civil defence agency telling the afp news agency that, quote, calm has prevailed across all of gaza . lucy williamson reports from jerusalem. allahu akbar. in gaza, they stood to pray in places with little else left standing. the festival after eid al adha, marking another milestone
joining nato, he said but it isn t a real country. and the feeling is, as we have heard the last few weeks and in those strange speeches that bellamy putin has been given, that ukraine is very much part of mother russia. he wants to see ukraine as part of the sphere of influence of russia and so here is a nation that has elected its authorities, its leaderships democratically, they ousted a pro claim pro kremlin leader in may 14 2014 and they elected a new leader and volodymyr zelensky came into power in 2019, a former comedian who has now rarely taken on this role of a hero for so many people here. i don t want this sense of national national identity, their sense of pride in a country, someone else was