From the Rubble: Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire that took effect at 2:00 this morning in the Middle East after 11 days of intensive warfare. The deal was brokered by Egypt.

  The simmering issues remain. This latest round started after Israeli police raided the Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, and planned evictions of several Palestinian families from their homes. Hamas fired rockets.

  Being careful not to criticize Israel for its crushing response, President Biden said, “The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks from Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups that have taken the lives of innocent civilians in Israel.”

  About 230 people in Gaza were killed, 60 of them children, and 12 people are dead in Israel, two of them children.

  Hamas has fired more than 4,000 rockets into Israel, which has responded with bombing and shelling that reduced buildings and homes to rubble. Thousands of Palestinians are displaced and most of Gaza is without power or water, or both. 

  President Biden said the US would replenish Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile defense system as well as help rebuild Gaza. But he cautioned that the US would work through the Palestinian Authority, even though it’s Hamas that really runs Gaza.

Oh Brother: CNN’s star anchor Chris Cuomo advised his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on how to deal with accusations of sexual harassment made earlier this year by women who had worked with the governor, The Washington Post reports.

  The governor’s lawyers and other advisers were on the calls, the Post reports.

  It’s what’s known in journalism as a conflict of interest and both Cuomos would have known that. Chris Cuomo doesn’t cover his brother’s legal and political troubles for the same reason … he’s not allowed to. The old joke in journalism is that “you can sleep with elephants if you want to, but if you do, you can’t cover the circus.”

  The Post says Chris encouraged Andrew to be defiant and not to resign, according to people familiar with conference calls during which the matter was discussed.

  Cuomo apologized last night while also standing his ground. He said, “I’m family first, job, second.” CNN says Cuomo will not be disciplined, but the Post quotes fellow employees who are appalled. The paper cites one anonymous on-air reporter saying, “I don’t think anyone was surprised they spoke about this, given they are family, but calls with lawyers and staff … wow.”

The Bamboo Ballot: A Florida company called Cyber Ninjas with no previous experience in election work is performing the audit of 2.1 million presidential votes in Arizona and one of the things they are looking for is bamboo fibers in the ballot paper. 

 They’re following up on an internet rumor that 40,000 ballots pre-marked for Joe Biden were shipped in from Asia and that you can tell which because the paper contains bamboo. Maybe they should also look for soy sauce. 

  Jennifer Morrell, a former local election official and national expert on post-election audits, writes in The Washington Post that the Cyber Ninjas’ inexperienced counters also consider folded ballots to be proof that they were absentee and that Cheeto powder on the ballot also is suspicious, as if it’s impossible to imagine someone would eat Cheetos while voting.

   “I’ve seen ballots stained with almost anything you can imagine,” Morrell writes, “including coffee, grease and, yes, cheese powder. Again, when you have experience working with hundreds of thousands of ballots, you see some messes: That’s evidence of humanity’s idiosyncrasies, not foul play.”

  Although the re-count is in some ways comical, Morrell says that during a visit she saw horrors, including split-second checking of ballots, math errors, and unapproved technology. She writes, “Officials had already undertaken a hand-count audit and a forensic audit of their 2020 ballots and found no evidence of fraud. Now a group with no expertise, improvising procedures as they go, is sowing doubt about the outcome of a well-run election.”

Faker: BBC journalist Martin Bashir, who also worked in the states for ABC’s Nightline and NBC’s Dateline, has admitted he faked documents in order to convince the late British Princess Diana to do the famous 1995 interview in which she talked about the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles.

  An internal BBC inquiry judged Bashir to be “unreliable”, “devious” and “dishonest.” He has resigned from the BBC.

  Prince William said the interview was a “major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse.”

  Bashir had given Diana’s brother, Lord Charles Spencer, faked bank statements suggesting that palace staff were paid to spy on his sister. Bashir now claims the documents ultimately did nothing to get the interview and he says he’s still proud of getting Diana to talk.

  Incidentally, Bashir was suspended for doing stupid things at both ABC and NBC.

The Spin Rack: President Biden signed a law to help fight the increase in attacks and hate crimes against Asians that have been increasing since the onset of the pandemic. Thank Donald Trump for calling the coronavirus “The China Virus.” — The House approved a $1.9 billion Capitol security bill by a single vote. It may have a hard time passing in the Senate where it would require 60 votes to overcome Republican opposition. — After a record 2020 hurricane season, scientists are predicting 2021 will be “above normal.” Hurricanes have become more destructive because of climate change. — Donald Trump charges the Secret Service $396.15 a day to use a room at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, The Washington Post reports.

Department of You Can’t Make This Up: Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, the Gomer Pyle of Congress, said on the House floor that, “I read last year the goal of BLM (Black Lives Matter) is to destroy Western style families. And I shrugged to myself, ‘Western style families? There’s no Western style families. That came from Moses.’”   

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