Tuesday briefing: Netanyahu visits Gaza

Netanyahu visits troops in Gaza

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel yesterday visited Israeli troops fighting in Gaza. His visit came after health officials in Gaza said an overnight strike in a busy neighborhood had killed dozens of people.

Netanyahu said Israel would “deepen” the fighting despite the death toll – which Gaza Health Ministry officials say is around 20,000 people – and mounting US pressure to reduce the intensity of the war.

“We’re not stopping,” he said. “This will be a long battle, with no end in sight.”

The attack hit Al Maghazi, a neighborhood where many newly displaced people from Gaza had sought shelter. Health officials in Gaza initially said 70 people had been killed, while many others were still missing. Photos showed people appearing to dig through the rubble without the aid of heavy equipment.

“It is as if these missiles were made to destroy mountains and not people,” said Mohamed Abu Shaah, who had taken shelter in Al Maghazi with his wife and seven daughters.

Navalny found in a remote prison

Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, is found: He was transferred to a prison in the Arctic but is “doing well,” his spokeswoman said yesterday.

The news ends a 20-day mystery about his whereabouts. Navalny’s supporters, fearing the worst, had conducted an extensive and frantic search of Russia’s prison system after he disappeared.

Background: The prison, known as IK-3 Polar Wolf, is among the toughest and most remote in Russia. The prisoners have to deal with long, dark, cold winters and clouds of mosquitoes in the summer.

Analysis: Navalny was last held about 160 miles east of Moscow, meaning his lawyers were able to reach him within hours. One supporter said the new prison – a 44-hour train journey from Moscow – is an attempt to isolate Navalny ahead of the next presidential race.

Updates from the war in Ukraine:

President Vladimir Putin quietly indicates that he does open to a ceasefireThis is according to former senior Russian officials and international officials who received the message from Putin’s envoys.

The Ukrainian military said yesterday that this was the case five Russian fighter jets shot down in three days one of the largest weekly losses for the Russian air force since the start of the war.

Civilian deaths spark anger in Kashmir

Kashmiris are calling for an investigation into three civilians found dead on Friday.

They were part of a group held by Indian soldiers for questioning on Thursday in connection with an ambush by Kashmiri separatist militants. Witnesses claimed that the civilians’ bodies showed signs of torture. Later, a video purporting to show the torture of the detained civilians spread online, fueling widespread anger.

Context: The ambush against Indian troops on Thursday – which killed four soldiers and wounded three others – was the latest in a violent campaign by militants opposing Indian rule in Kashmir.

Mongolia produces some of the most coveted circus artists in the world for big names like Cirque du Soleil. But they train in appalling conditions: there are few places to practice and little government support.

“We are wanted all over the world, but we cannot even train properly in our own country,” said a circus director.

A more subtle style on India’s big screens

Indian cinema is often equated with the glamor and glitz of Bollywood. But in a country of 1.4 billion, regional film industries are as different as their languages. Take the southern state of Kerala, where you can find films in Malayalam. The public is increasingly coming to see it more nuanced and people-driven stories – such as the recent hit ‘Kaathal’, about a closeted gay politician.

The result has been commercial success for the kind of low-key films that are seen as experimental elsewhere, more often than not relegated to festival circuits or sent straight to streaming platforms.

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