Tuesday briefing: a deal to extend the ceasefire in Gaza
Qatar says Israel and Hamas will extend ceasefire
Israel and Hamas agreed yesterday to extend their fragile ceasefire for another two days, according to officials in Qatar who helped negotiate the initial ceasefire.
The deal could allow additional aid to flow into Gaza and the release of more hostages, prisoners and detainees than initially expected. The extension comes as the four-day ceasefire expires today. Israeli officials indicated that a fourth exchange of hostages and prisoners, the final round of the original agreement, would take place.
Here’s the latest.
The head of Egypt’s State Information Service, which is also mediating talks between Israel and Hamas, said yesterday that a two-day extension would include the daily release of 10 women and children held hostage in Gaza in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners. is being held in Israeli prisons.
The renewed deal would also extend a pause in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 13,000 people and caused a humanitarian disaster for its 2.2 million residents.
Exchanges so far: Hamas has released 39 Israeli hostages and Israel has released 117 Palestinian prisoners. Another 19 hostages in Gaza – 17 Thais, a Filipino and a Russian-Israeli dual national – have been released through separate negotiations since Friday.
Other developments:
Trapped underground with no end in sight
Forty-one Indian construction workers have been stuck underground since November 12. Authorities are now trying to drill vertically through a Himalayan mountain to save them. If it works at all, it may take several days.
Late last week, an attempt to install pipes that could suck the men into the tunnel was halted after the drill used to penetrate the rubble broke during the final stretch. The workers have food, water and oxygen, but colder weather would further complicate the efforts.
“We feel an impending sense of doom,” said Jyotish Basumatary, whose brother, Sanjay Basumatary, is trapped inside. “But we’re holding on tight. We cannot afford to give up hope.”
Background: The tunnel is part of a project aimed at providing faster access to four major Hindu shrines. But the plan has been criticized by environmentalists, including a committee appointed by the Supreme Court, which warned that the landscape, with its frequent landslides and floods, has become increasingly vulnerable.
How a child’s mistake can ruin your digital life
Google has a zero-tolerance policy for child abuse content, but the scanning process can go wrong and identify innocent people as abusers.
After Jennifer Watkins’ seven-year-old son posted “a video of his butt” to YouTube using a tablet linked to the family’s Google account, the video was flagged and she lost access to her photos, essential documents and e -mail. Google said that even though the video was an unconscious act by a child, it still violated company policy.
The New York Times has documented other episodes in which parents’ digital lives were turned upside down by nude photos and videos of their children that were flagged by Google’s AI systems and determined by human reviewers to be illegal. As a result, a number of parents were investigated by the police.
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A team of fifteen park rangers – ten of whom are women – form the first line of defense between their village forest and the squatters who want to cut down the trees for wood or cultivate the fertile soil in the Aceh province of Indonesia. When the rangers find trespassers, it is the women who take action first and try to de-escalate the situation. They ask the intruders to sit down and have a chat.
“We don’t go completely alpha like the men, so the situation never gets worse,” says Rezeki Amalia, one of the rangers.
A new match for weight gain during menopause
About 70 percent of women gain up to 1.5 pounds per year during menopause, some estimates suggest. The extra weight affects women’s self-esteem and quality of life and can also increase the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other health problems. Some turn to weight loss medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy.
But weight loss usually leads to muscle loss. Experts worry that these relatively new drugs — whose long-term effects are still being studied — could worsen the loss of muscle mass and bone density that often occurs in menopausal women, possibly putting them at greater risk for fractures , falls and osteoporosis.