Thursday briefing

60 days of despair in Gaza

In the tiny Gaza Strip, where more than two million people are trapped, death can seem imminent. Israeli airstrikes, which have resumed after a brief ceasefire, can occur at any time and in any place, and food and water remain scarce. More than 16,000 people have been killed in Hamas-held territory, according to the Health Ministry.

Israel says civilian casualties are inevitable because Hamas is entrenching itself in the Gaza population. The country’s military is now entering the next phase of its offensive against Hamas, with a greater focus on the south, where most of Gaza’s population has fled.

Israel has told many citizens there to move again. But it is not clear where to go, and conditions are desperate. Parents skip meals so their children can eat. Taps have run dry. The UN shelters are so crowded that there is one toilet for every 160 people, and no hospital in Gaza is functional enough to carry out operations, according to the WHO

Blockage: Before the war, around 500 trucks carrying essential supplies entered Gaza every day, many from Egypt through the Rafah crossing. Far fewer people have crossed since the bombardment began, even during the ceasefire. The trucks slowed down once the fighting resumed.

Other news from the war:

Republicans block aid to Ukraine

Republicans blocked an emergency spending bill to provide Ukraine with about $50 billion in security aid, demanding in return strict new restrictions on the U.S. border and President Biden’s attempt to fill the war chest of U.S. allies before the end of the year seriously endangered.

While the bill has faltered over an unrelated dispute over immigration policy, the resistance it has faced in Congress reflects a declining appetite among Republicans to support Ukraine as polls show Americans losing interest in providing financial aid . Before the vote, Biden said he was willing to compromise, calling the southern border “broken.”

According to the numbers: In the Senate, the vote to move forward on the bill was 49-51, falling short of the 60-vote threshold needed to move forward.

The end of fossil fuels?

John Kerry, President Biden’s special envoy for climate change, said the US “largely” supported ending the burning of coal, gas and oil to limit average global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre- industrial level. The planet has already warmed by 1.2 degrees Celsius.

Nations should also deploy technology to capture and store carbon emissions from industries for which no low- or zero-carbon alternatives exist, such as steel and cement production, he said.

Quotable: “We have to do what the science tells us to do, and the science is clear,” Kerry said at the UN climate talks in Dubai.

The Killers released ‘Mr. Brightside” 20 years ago, and almost no one cared. But in the intervening decades, the song — which eventually hit the Billboard Hot 100 more than a year after its initial release, peaking at No. 10 in June 2005 — has become something more than a hit, eventually evolving into a full-throttle generation song. .

Lives lived

Norman Lear, the television writer and producer behind “The Jeffersons,” “Good Times” and “All in the Family,” died Tuesday at the age of 101.

SPORTS NEWS

What next for Lionel Scaloni? The factors behind it are disappointment with the coaching job in Argentina.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto: American teams will begin bidding for the Japanese baseball star next week – and he could get a record-breaking contract.

German football is not dead: There are reports of a bleak future greatly exaggerated.

The most stylish ‘people’ of 2023

Margot Robbie walked the red carpet in bubblegum pink; Rihanna performed at the Super Bowl in an unforgettable maternity jumpsuit; and the AI ​​Pope’s all-white puffer duped countless social media users. These are just three of the 71 looks that defined this year’s style.

“Some had great hair. Some had special accessories. One person had both – and was mistaken for a duchess in disguise,” members of The Times’ Styles desk wrote. “Certain people may surprise you or (we hope) spark a heated debate. After all, they had one thing in common: they let us talk: about what we wear, how we live and how we express ourselves.’