Good morning.
The ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas came into effect this morning, before the expected release of the first group of Israeli hostages held by the militant Islamist organisation in return for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Underlining the fragility of the four-day pause in hostilities, an alert sounded in Israel at 7.15am local time warning of a possible incoming rocket from Gaza targeting a village in southern Israel.
The diplomatic breakthrough, delayed by 24 hours, marks the first pause in seven weeks of war in Gaza and offers some relief both for the 2.3 million Palestinians in the territory who have endured intensive Israeli bombardment, and for families in Israel fearful for the fate of their loved ones taken captive during the bloody attack launched last month by Hamas that triggered the conflict.
Officials in Qatar, which has played a leading role as an intermediary, said an operations room there will monitor the truce and the release of hostages from Gaza. It has direct and realtime lines of communication with Israel, the Hamas political office in Doha and the ICRC, said Majed al-Ansari, the spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry.
What has the IDF said about the ceasefire? “The war is not over yet,” the Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee has said in a message in Arabic to Palestinian civilians in Gaza. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he said: “The humanitarian pause is temporary. The northern Gaza Strip is a dangerous warzone and it is forbidden to move north. For your safety, you must remain in the humanitarian zone in the south.”
When will hostages be released? The exchange of female and child hostages and prisoners was due to take place on Thursday but was postponed as last-minute logistical issues were worked out during 24 hours of frantic diplomacy. Sources close to the negotiations said Israel had presented a series of late requests for clarification of practical issues, and demanded the full identification of the hostages Hamas intended to release.
Axl Rose, Jamie Foxx, Eric Adams: flurry of last-minute claims gives sex abuse law powerful legacy
New York’s year-long “look-back” window on sexual assault closed last night after a flurry of last-minute claims against high-profile figures including the singer Axl Rose, the actor Jamie Foxx and the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams.
Some of the alleged incidents date back decades, in claims that would otherwise have fallen outside the statute of limitations.
The New York State law, which allowed adult sexual abuse survivors to sue their abusers beyond the statute of limitations for the course of one year, led to approximately 2,500 claims. It closed at midnight on Thursday.
It grabbed headlines immediately when the writer E Jean Carroll restated a rape and defamation claim against Donald Trump mere minutes after the look-back window opened.
Was the window a success? Beyond a year-long supply of headlines featuring high-profile names, many say that the adult survivors’ window, signed into law in May last year by the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, may not have lasted long enough to address all the potential claims by survivors. It was noted that many victims do not have powerful law firms behind them with a possible settlement award at the end of the process.
The North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, has celebrated a “new era of a space power” with his family including daughter Ju-ae and the scientists who put the North’s first spy satellite into orbit. Pyongyang’s launch of the Malligyong-1 on Tuesday was its third attempt after failures in May and August.
Images released by Pyongyang showed Kim praising scientists and space program workers at the National Aerospace Technology Administration (Nata) while accompanied by Ju-ae.
Wearing a black leather coat, a grinning Kim was seen waving at the uniformed workers, all of whom appeared to be enthusiastically cheering him and Ju-ae.
Was the launch actually successful? South Korea confirmed the launch was successful but said it was too early to determine if the satellite was functioning as claimed by the North. After Tuesday’s launch, South Korea partially suspended a five-year-old military accord with the North and deployed “surveillance and reconnaissance assets” to the border.
In other news …
A car crash at the US-Canada border that killed two people, injured a border officer and jangled nerves at the start of the busy Thanksgiving holiday travel period is not believed to be terrorism, according to the FBI. CNN, citing FBI officials, reported that the car was a Bentley and the driver believed to be from western New York State.
The family farming company of a Republican candidate for the US Senate was found liable on Tuesday in a plot to fix the price of eggs. Rose Acre Farms, which claims to be the second-largest egg producer in the country was accused in a civil suit of cutting supply to raise prices.
South Africa’s former Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius, jailed in 2014 for killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, will get another chance for an early release at a parole hearing tomorrow. Pistorius shot and killed Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
Buses and trams have been torched and a shop looted during riots in Dublin city centre after three children were injured in a stabbing attack outside a school. Police and politicians called for calm amid warnings against misinformation as violence escalated from a demonstration that began yesterday.
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Stat of the day: Nearly 40% of conventional baby food contains toxic pesticides, US study finds
Nearly 40% of conventional baby food products analyzed in a US study were found to contain toxic pesticides, while none of the organic products sampled in the survey contained the chemicals. The research, conducted by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) not-for-profit, looked at 73 products and found at least one pesticide in 22 of them. Many products showed more than one pesticide.
“Babies and young children are particularly vulnerable to the health risks posed by pesticides in food – and food is the way most children will be exposed to pesticides,” co-author of the report Sydney Evans said.
Don’t miss this: Geert Wilders’ victory confirmed
Geert Wilders’ shock victory in the Dutch general election confirms the upward trajectory of Europe’s populist and far-right parties, which – with the occasional setback – are continuing their steady march into the mainstream, writes Jon Henley. There is no guarantee that Wilders, whose anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) won 37 seats in Wednesday’s ballot – more than twice its 2021 total – will be able to form a government with a majority in the Netherlands’ 150-seat parliament.
From Helsinki to Rome and Berlin to Brussels, far-right parties are climbing steadily up the polls, shaping the policies of the mainstream right to reflect their nativist and populist platforms, and occupying select ministerial roles in coalition governments.
Climate check: US coal power plants killed at least 460,000 people in past 20 years – report
Coal-fired power plants killed at least 460,000 people in the US during the past two decades, causing twice as many premature deaths as previously thought, new research has found. Cars, factories, fire smoke and electricity plants emit tiny toxic air pollutants known as fine particulate matter or PM2.5, which elevate the risk of an array of life-shortening medical conditions including asthma, heart disease, low birth weight and some cancers. Researchers analyzed Medicare and emissions data from 1999 and 2020, and for the first time found that coal PM2.5 was twice as deadly as fine particle pollutants from other sources. Previous studies quantifying the death toll from air pollution assumed all PM2.5 sources posed the same risk, and therefore likely underestimated the dangers of coal-powered plants.
Last Thing: Conservators remove ‘Kylie Jenner treatment’ from 17th-century portrait
If you think the modern influencer’s penchant for big lips reflects a beauty fad, then think again. According to English Heritage, a painting within the charity’s collection of a Jacobean “beauty” has been found to have received the so-called “Kylie Jenner treatment” – with touch-ups involving plumping the sitter’s lips and lowering her hairline. Now, hours of painstaking conservation has revealed the true face of Diana Cecil, a 17th-century noblewoman, who was regarded as one of the great beauties of her time – but whose appearance had been changed for centuries.
“Arbitrary and ever-changing beauty standards do seem to echo through the ages, although in this case Diana had no say in the ‘improvements’ made to her portrait centuries after it was painted,” said Louise Cooling, English Heritage’s curator at Kenwood.
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