Thursday briefing

Israel and Hamas are working through the details of their deal

A temporary ceasefire, combined with the release of hostages in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, is unlikely to take effect until tomorrow at the earliest, Israeli officials said, as negotiators continued to work out details of an agreement between Israel and Hamas. .

The new timing appeared to rule out the possibility that hostages could be released on Thursday, as many of their families had hoped, and underlined the smoothness of the negotiations.

The two sides have not announced specific plans for an exchange of at least 150 Palestinian women and children imprisoned by Israel for at least 50 Israeli women and children held in Gaza, including details on when exactly people would be released and who would be involved. .

In Gaza: The Israeli army said it was “continuing to fight”, stressing that there had been no agreement yet to pause the conflict. The US has pushed Israel to take broad measures aimed at reducing harm to Palestinian civilians, including actions such as setting up safe areas, allowing more medical aid and allowing greater deliveries of fuel .

In Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal was a step toward Israel’s goal of freeing all prisoners in Gaza. For weeks, Israeli leaders were divided over whether a temporary ceasefire could help Hamas regroup and endanger the remaining hostages.

Behind the scenes: The road to the deal has been long and treacherous, writes Peter Baker, our White House correspondent.

More detail:

Hamas and Israel still disagree over the number of prisoners held in Gaza, making it difficult to determine exactly who will be released, according to Israeli officials.
The pause would allow for an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza, both through the Egyptian and Israeli borders. But there is no agreement yet on the amounts of supplies to be allowed through, an Israeli official said.

An extreme right-wing figure has the upper hand in the Dutch elections

In the national elections in the Netherlands, Dutch voters were most supportive of the party of Geert Wilders, a political provocateur long known for his anti-Islam and anti-European views and who had campaigned on an anti-immigrant platform. The results sent shockwaves through Europe and dismayed the Dutch political establishment.

If the preliminary results hold, the Netherlands will be on the threshold of uncertain new political territory after thirteen years of stewardship by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a loyal Dutchman in politics and a reliable presence on the EU stage. Wilders’ party is expected to win 35 seats in the 150-seat parliament, making some kind of coalition inevitable.

Quotable: “The Dutch voter has spoken,” Wilders said in a speech. “The voter has said: ‘We are fed up with it.’” He added that he wanted to give “the Netherlands back to the Dutch.”

Five days of chaos at OpenAI

First he got fired, then he found another job, and now he’s back: Sam Altman was reinstated as CEO of OpenAI late last night. His return coincided with the departure of several board members who had kicked him out last week.

Rosie Schaap, a New York City writer who now lives in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, did not grow up saying grace. But as she had lunch with Sister Agnes above, from St. Cecilia Church in New York City, she was struck by the way the bubbly, sweet-natured nun thanked her.

“Long before I heard the phrase ‘farm to table,’” Rosie writes, “Sister Agnes made me think about all it took to get food from the place where it was grown to the place where I sat down to eat it.” to eat. , about the many hands that had worked for my meal.’

SPORTS NEWS

A marred Brazil-Argentina match: Lionel Messi said crowd problems during the match “could have ended in tragedy.”

Stadium plans: What each Premier League team has done to its home pitch and what could happen next.

According to the numbers: Cocktails cost $135 at the $500 million Las Vegas Grand Prix, and 1.3 million American TV viewers tuned in to the race.

ARTS AND IDEAS

Gifts that cost nothing at all

Recordings of a loved one reading folk tales. A treasure hunt, or a handmade board game. Teaching someone a skill he or she is interested in.

The holidays are a time of cheerfulness and spirited spending. But while givers often assume that more expensive gifts convey a higher level of thoughtfulness, recipients typically don’t see them that way, and some of the most cherished gifts represent little monetary value but represent a lot of time and effort.

Perhaps the best-known example of such a gift is the game Wordle, which was created by a software engineer as a gift for his partner, but eventually became a gift to millions of others.