Hamas targeted Tel Aviv with rockets
Hamas fired its first barrage of rockets in months into Israeli territory yesterday as Israeli troops expanded ground operations across Gaza. After the collapse of a two-month cease-fire, the fighting now looks as if it is escalating back to full-scale war.
Despite street protests in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to fire the head of Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence agency.
For some insight on the situation, I reached out to Patrick Kingsley, our Jerusalem bureau chief.
Patrick: We are back in a familiar standoff. Israel’s leadership wants both the safe return of Hamas’s hostages, as well as Hamas’s military defeat. But Hamas won’t hand over the hostages without Israel’s guaranteeing the group’s survival in Gaza. And Israel can’t defeat Hamas by force without harming many hostages. The cease-fire that collapsed this week was always likely to fall apart unless one of the sides softened its stance. But neither did. So Israel has returned to war in order to break Hamas’s resolve by force. And that leaves things roughly where they were before the cease-fire began in January: in a deadlock.
Do the protests in Israel feel more impactful this time?
For now, Netanyahu doesn’t seem swayed by the protesters calling for a new truce to save the hostages in Gaza. His biggest domestic priority is to pass a state budget by the end of the month. To do that, he needs the support of right-wing lawmakers, many of whom support the return to war and could abandon him if there’s another truce.
Is President Trump’s Gaza plan still on the table?
After proposing the expulsion of Gaza’s population in January, Trump has said that the idea was only a recommendation and that no Palestinians would be expelled. His aides also said that it was less a definitive plan of action than an attempt to provoke Arab leaders into suggesting a viable alternative.
Several Arab leaders, led by Egypt, did later propose their own plan for postwar Gaza — in which the territory would be governed by an apolitical committee as part of a Palestinian state. But the plan was vague, didn’t explain how Hamas would cede power and was swiftly rejected by the Israeli government, which seeks to avoid discussion of Palestinian statehood.
Russia and Ukraine traded strikes as talks are planned
Ukraine attacked an airfield deep inside Russia, officials said yesterday, as the U.S. worked to iron out a partial cease-fire. In Ukraine, Russian drones killed at least five people and injured 26 others, according to local authorities.
The Kremlin said yesterday that preparations were underway for a new round of Russia-U.S. talks that would be held on Monday in Saudi Arabia. Ukraine will also send representatives there to meet with U.S. officials.
A U.S. proposal: President Trump has floated the idea of controlling Ukraine’s nuclear power plants. What would it mean if the U.S. took them over?
How Trump is trying to consolidate power
President Trump is trying to cement control over the courts, Congress and even U.S. society and culture. But his latest target — the courts — has been described by constitutional scholars and historians as perhaps the most alarming power play to date.
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China: Four Canadians were executed over drug-related convictions, drawing condemnation from Ottawa for killings “inconsistent with basic human dignity.”
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France: A French scientist was prevented from entering the U.S. after U.S. border agents found messages on his phone about Trump’s policies on academic research.
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Indonesia: Defying student protests, legislators revised a law in order to allocate more civilian posts for military officers, a move that harked back to Suharto.
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India: A curfew was imposed in the state of Maharashtra following violence triggered by a Hindu group’s call to remove the tomb of a 17th-century Muslim ruler.
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Iran: Olivier Grondeau, a French citizen who was detained in Tehran for over two years on spying charges, was released this week.
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Syria: The Assad dictatorship kept lists of millions of wanted people. Now, Syrians named on any of those lists are sharing the news proudly.
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Canada: Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, has earned the nickname “Captain Canada” for defending his country against Trump.
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Philippines: Former President Rodrigo Duterte now sits in a cell in The Hague. Here’s how the high-stakes arrest unfolded.
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Africa: The M23 militia, backed by Rwanda, reigns over eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Once a ragtag group, it now behaves like a governing entity.
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Climate: Satellites orbiting above Earth’s surface show how solar and wind have taken off in recent years. Take a look.
Economy, finance and business
Sports
Three hours north of Manila, a small beach house built for Romana de Vera, the creator of the Philippines’ beloved Romana Peanut Brittle, was falling apart.
The family chose to resurrect it. One of her sons decided to help — but only if he could do it his way. As artistic tensions grew, so did the home. It’s now unlike anything else in the islands.
Lives lived: K.W. Lee, a pioneering Asian American journalist, died at 96.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
The enduring appeal of ‘Peep Show’
The British series “The Office” usually gets the credit for influencing cringe humor, but its contemporary, “Peep Show,” which ran for nine seasons until 2015, helped reinvent television comedy.
The show is not for the faint of heart: One episode ends with someone violently ill in a bathroom with no door, an entire party watching. But how does “Peep Show” maintain an ever-widening fan base, all these years later? “Fortunately,” one of the show’s creators said, “self-loathing is pretty universal.”