Monday briefing
Israel releases videos from Al-Shifa hospital
On the fifth day of its operation at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the Israeli army released a video of what it said was a 55-meter (180-foot) section of a fortified tunnel running 10 meters (33 feet) beneath the complex ran, in an attempt to support claims that Hamas has used the country as a base for its military operations.
The Israeli military also released images showing two hostages being hospitalized on October 7, hours after Hamas’s incursion into Israel. Israeli officials said they did not know the whereabouts of the two hostages now. The Times verified the location of the images as the hospital, but not the identities of the people shown or the timestamps.
Evidence of an extensive Hamas command center beneath the hospital has yet to be revealed. Hamas has denied accusations that it uses civilian infrastructure, including residential buildings, mosques and hospitals, to conceal its military fortifications and command centers. The group says Israel is committing war crimes by targeting civilian centers.
Air Raid: At least 24 people were killed in an attack on a U.N.-run school in northern Gaza that was being used as a shelter by thousands of displaced people, a U.N. official said.
A hidden war over radio waves
In Ukraine, a battle is raging in the invisible realm of electromagnetic waves, using radio signals to overwhelm drone and troop communications links, locate targets and deceive guided weapons.
Known as electronic warfare, the tactic has turned into a cat-and-mouse game between Russia and Ukraine, quietly causing momentum swings in the 21-month-old conflict and forcing engineers to adapt. Russia has used powerful jammers and decoy missiles to flood Ukrainian air defenses, leaving Ukraine dependent on aircraft to combat Russian aircraft.
Analysis: “Electronic warfare has had as much of an impact on the fighting in Ukraine as it has on weather and terrain,” said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a research institute in Washington.
Related: European countries, including Germany, Norway and Britain, are increasing weapons production to help Kiev. But the aid may come too late, as winter approaches and Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia comes to a standstill.
Argentina selects Javier Milei
In a victory for the global far-right movement, Argentines chose Javier Milei, an economist and far-right libertarian who has drawn comparisons to Donald Trump, as their next president. He will be sworn in on December 10.
Milei burst onto the traditionally closed Argentine political scene with a brash style, an embrace of conspiracy theories and a series of extreme proposals, including promises to cut spending and taxes, close Argentina’s central bank and replace the national currency with the US dollar. He has also proposed banning abortion and relaxing gun regulations.
THE LAST NEWS
Around the world
Nasreen Parveen, a talented young poet from India, wanted more freedom than her family would give her, and she fled to Delhi to escape an arranged marriage. Ultimately, she found an escape from the oppressive patriarchy through a path she never expected: romance. Read her story.
Lives lived
Rosalynn Carter, wife of Jimmy Carter who became the most politically active first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt, has died at the age of 96.
SPORTS NEWS
A star who died playing football: To remind Raphael Dwamenawho collapsed in a field in Albania last week.
Cricket World Cup: India’s dominant World Cup run ended with a defeat to Australia in the final.
In Sweden, where fans come first: While most European football leagues struggle to raise as much money as possible, Sweden has opted for a different model.
Tennis rivalry: Novak Djokovic has fired Carlos Alcaraz ATP finals.
ARTS AND IDEAS
Preserving a writer’s legacy
Bessie Head’s novels are taught in classrooms across Africa, but she never achieved the fame of some of her male counterparts on the continent. As more and more female African writers gain recognition, Head is celebrated as a pioneer, and a small museum in her adopted hometown seeks to preserve her archive for future generations.
An activist, journalist and author, Head was born in South Africa in 1937 and later sought asylum in Botswana from the apartheid regime. Her collection is housed in a community museum in Serowe, Botswana, where she lived until her death in 1986 at the age of 48.
The curators are seeking partners and funding to digitize the collection, including audio tapes of Head’s conversations with American poet Nikki Giovanni. Head’s novels, such as “When Rain Clouds Gather” and “Maru,” eschew the big political stories of the 1960s and 1970s in favor of stories about ordinary people struggling with moral questions.
— Lynsey Chutel, briefing writer based in Johannesburg