Good morning.
Antony Blinken has warned that Palestinians “must not be pressed to leave Gaza” as he continues his fourth tour of the Middle East since the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
The US secretary of state is due to visit the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia today where he will speak with the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. He will then head to Israel to hold talks there on Tuesday.
Before leaving Doha in Qatar, Blinken gave a news conference where he made several comments about the Israel-Gaza war, including that “Palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow … They cannot, they must not be pressed to leave Gaza.”
Some Israeli ministers have spoken recently in favour of “encouraging” Palestinians to leave and re-establishing Jewish settlements in the territory, although this is not official Israeli policy.
What else did Blinken say? He also warned that the Israel-Gaza war could spread across the region without concerted peace efforts. He said: “This is a moment of profound tension for the region. This is a conflict that could easily metastasise, causing even more insecurity and suffering.”
What does the data tell us about what’s been happening in Gaza? From death tolls to destroyed buildings and lost hospital beds, these are the figures that cut through the fog of war and reveal the extent of the destruction in Gaza.
Golden Globes 2024: Oppenheimer and Succession dominate major awards
Last summer’s Barbenheimer phenomenon continued into the Golden Globes last night, with Barbie taking home best cinematic achievement and Oppenheimer best drama, while Yorgos Lanthimos’s absurdist film Poor Things won for best comedy at the first major awards show of the year.
Critical darlings Succession, The Bear and Beef cleaned up in the TV awards, while international features Anatomy of a Fall and The Boy and the Heron picked up additional film wins.
The 81st annual Golden Globes were a breezy return to form after a February 2021 investigation by the Los Angeles Times found that the Globes-governing Hollywood Foreign Press Association had no Black members and numerous corruption issues.
The three-hour ceremony at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles marked the first ceremony since the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was disbanded, sold to a private equity firm and Dick Clark Productions, and reformed with a diverse body of 300 international members representing 76 countries.
Who hosted the event? The Filipino-American comedian Jo Koy, a last-minute pick for host announced just two weeks before the ceremony, stuck to his promise for an uncontroversial ceremony. Unlike Jerrod Carmichael’s relatively edgy hosting work last year, Koy avoided mention of politics.
What do the winners tell us about the upcoming Oscars? So often the Globes are no guide to what happens on Oscar night, but Oppenheimer’s resounding success could spell a landslide at the Academy Awards.
Nasa Peregrine 1: Vulcan rocket carrying Nasa moon lander lifts off in Florida
The Peregrine 1 lander carrying Nasa scientific equipment is on its way to the moon after a successful launch of the Vulcan Centaur rocket at Cape Canaveral.
It marks the first launch of the powerful new rocket built by the Boeing-Lockheed venture United Launch Alliance, and an attempt to make the first US lunar soft landing in 50 years.
Built by the space robotics firm Astrobotic, the Peregrine lunar lander launched at 7.18 GMT, aiming to become the first lunar landing by a private firm – a feat that has proved elusive in recent years.
Within minutes of separation from the rocket, Astrobotic mission control received signal from the lander, which will go into a highly elliptical orbit to put it on course to its destination.
When will it land? Peregrine is set to land on 23 February and will seek to gather data about the lunar surface ahead of planned future human missions.
In other news …
A chunk of fuselage that blew out of a Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft during an Alaska Airlines flight has been found in a teacher’s back yard, the US’s transportation safety board (NTSB) has said. The plug door tore off the left side of the jet on Friday after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California.
The US defence secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalisation remained secret for longer than previously known, officials disclosed on Sunday. His deputy, Kathleen Hicks, took over thinking Austin was on vacation when he was actually in intensive care – unknown to even the president.
Russia launched a large-scale missile attack across Ukraine on Monday, officials said. Ukraine’s air force said the country was under several waves of cruise missile threat. “The enemy is viciously attacking peaceful cities,” Oleksandr Vilkul, the mayor of Kryvyi Rih, wrote on Telegram.
Leading US House Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik declined to commit to certifying the results of the 2024 White House race no matter the outcome. “We will see if this is a legal and valid election,” Stefanik said yesterday, claiming that the 2020 presidential election was “not fair”.
Don’t miss this: ‘I wouldn’t have missed it for the world’ – 10 things I learned when my father had dementia
After a stroke, at 81, my clever, funny, obstinate father developed vascular dementia in November 2011, writes Fanny Johnstone. We swiftly came to understand that someone with dementia has difficulty with planning and understanding things, from breakfast choices to bigger life events. Changes to mood are inevitable, because they feel disoriented, confused and vulnerable. Balance can be challenging; memory and language fade – eventually, we were told, he would lose the ability to walk or talk … It was unimaginable, but it happened. As his condition grew worse, I helped to care for him for 18 months. Amid the grief and pain, there were moments of explosive laughter – and unexpected pride. This is what I learned.
Climate check: Cookies and candy are latest victims of climate crisis as sugar prices surge
The climate crisis has been previously identified as a threat to coffee and beer, and its impact could now be stretching to another of life’s joys: dessert. The global cost of sugar has surged to its highest level since 2011 following concerns of underproduction rates from India, which has experienced an extreme dry spell that has threatened crops, and Thailand, which is facing a severe drought. The two countries are the largest exporters of sugar, after Brazil.
Rising global temperatures – 2023 is expected to be widely confirmed as the hottest year ever recorded – are fueling droughts and other extreme weather that affect food yields, including that of sugar. The price rise has already started to filter down to chocolate, sweets and other desserts.
Last Thing: Mouse secretly filmed tidying man’s shed every night
A mouse has been filmed secretly tidying up a man’s shed almost every night for two months. The wildlife photographer Rodney Holbrook noticed that objects he left out of place were being mysteriously put back where they belonged overnight. Holbrook, from Builth Wells in Powys, Wales, set up a night vision camera on his workbench to find out what was happening, and captured footage reminiscent of the 2007 animated movie Ratatouille, where a rodent secretly cooks at a restaurant. Night vision footage showed the seemingly conscientious rodent gathering clothes pegs, corks, nuts and bolts, and placing them in a tray on Holbrook’s workbench. Holbrook, 75, told the BBC: “It has been going on for months. I call him Welsh Tidy Mouse.”
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