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| Watching an area of Rafah hit by Israeli strikes on Tuesday. Hatem Khaled/Reuters |
Negotiators arrived in Cairo after Israel seized Rafah crossing
Delegations from Israel and Hamas arrived in Cairo yesterday to resume talks on a proposed cease-fire deal. Hours earlier, Israeli tanks and troops entered the southern Gaza city of Rafah and seized control of the border crossing with Egypt, halting the flow of aid into the enclave. U.N. officials warned that the humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory would worsen. Here’s the latest.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister who is under pressure from the U.S. and other allies to agree to a truce, said that while he had sent negotiators back to the talks, “in tandem, we continue waging the war on Hamas.”
Analysts said that Israel’s incursion into Rafah could either ratchet up the pressure on Hamas to make a deal or sabotage the talks. But the move did not appear to be the full ground invasion of Rafah that Israel had long been threatening and that its allies had been working to avert, and the Israeli military called the move “a very precise” counterterrorism operation.
Devastating consequences: The head of a hospital in Rafah said that 27 bodies and 150 wounded people had been brought to his facility since the start of the incursion. The Israeli military said it had killed about 20 people in Rafah, describing the dead as Hamas militants.
Analysis: Netanyahu, under pressure from all sides, is trying to reassure his many domestic, military and diplomatic critics. Here’s a look at what he is confronting.
In other news from the war:
| International officials condemned the incursion. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry called Israel’s seizure of the Rafah border crossing a “dangerous escalation,” while Josep Borrell Fontelles, the top E.U. diplomat, said that he feared it would cause “a lot of casualties.”President Biden paused an arms shipment to Israel last week to prevent the U.S.-made weapons from being used in an assault on Rafah, administration officials said last night. |
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| Stormy Daniels leaving court on Tuesday. Seth Wenig/Associated Press |
Stormy Daniels testified
Stormy Daniels, a porn star who received $130,000 to keep silent about her account of having had sex with Donald Trump in 2006, testified yesterday in the former president’s trial in Manhattan.
Over almost five hours, she recounted her story about an encounter that she said had left her shaking and bewildered — and about the hush-money payment that had bought her silence. Trump’s lawyer unsuccessfully moved for a mistrial, calling Daniels’s testimony, which was often explicit, prejudicial.
Daniels’s account and the subsequent payment, which she received in 2016 from Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, are at the heart of the case. Trump is charged with falsifying business records to cover up the payment. He has pleaded not guilty and has denied that the sexual encounter ever happened.
Cross-examination: Susan Necheles, a Trump lawyer, painted Daniels as a lying opportunist, using excerpts from her book to suggest that her story had changed over time. Daniels responded indignantly.
From inside the courthouse: “Her derision toward Trump is very clear, and the tension in the courtroom during her testimony about him is the highest it has been at this trial so far,” my colleague Jonah Bromwich reported.
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| Volodymyr Zelensky has said his security services had told him of numerous assassination attempts on his life. Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
Ukraine said it foiled a plot to kill Zelensky
Ukraine’s security services said yesterday that they had stopped a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top military and political figures. Two Ukrainian colonels have been arrested on suspicion of treason.
Ukrainian intelligence said in a statement that the plot had involved a network of Russian intelligence agents — including the two colonels. They were tasked with identifying people close to Zelensky’s security detail who could take him hostage and later kill him.
| MORE TOP NEWS |
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| Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA, via Shutterstock |
| Trump trial: The judge overseeing the former president’s classified documents case delayed the start date for the trial but declined to set a new one.U.S.: President Biden condemned a “ferocious surge of antisemitism” in the country following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas against Israel.TikTok: The app sued the U.S. government over legislation that would force ByteDance, the Chinese owner, to sell it or face a ban.China: At least two people were killed and 21 others were wounded in a knife attack at a hospital in the southwestern province of Yunnan, the authorities said. |
| South Africa: An inquiry into a fire that killed 76 people in Johannesburg last August placed the blame on officials who ignored “ringing alarm bells” for years.Brazil: Elon Musk and Republican lawmakers have emerged as a source of political support for former President Jair Bolsonaro. |
| Canada: The national government walked back part of a program allowing people in British Columbia to possess small amounts of drugs without fear of criminal charges.Baltimore: The body of the sixth and final victim who died in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge was found yesterday, ending the salvage mission. |
Europe
| Data breach: The personal information of British armed force members was hacked in a cyberattack, according to the defense secretary.Russia: Vladimir Putin was inaugurated for a fifth term as president. |
| Travel: Passengers at British airports faced long lines at immigration checkpoints after a nationwide computer outage. |
Science
| Lab leaks: The U.S. tightened rules on risky virus research in an effort to stave off accidents that could unleash a pandemic.Electricity: Giant batteries are delivering solar power after dark in California and helping to stabilize grids in other U.S. states.Sperm whales: The animals use what scientists describe as a “phonetic alphabet,” perhaps to communicate. |
| MORNING READ |
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| Qilai Shen for The New York Times |
China’s Communist Party has all but declared war on feminism, jailing activists and silencing prominent women online.
But pockets of resistance are growing in some cities, as women gather in bars, salons and bookstores to question misogynistic tropes and to debate their place in a country that wants to choose it for them.
| SPORTS NEWS |
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| Manu Fernandez/Associated Press |
La Liga champions: How Real Madrid won its 36th title.
Miami Grand Prix: Race takeaways from the International Autodrome.
Tennis payout: A federal jury has ordered the United States Tennis Association to pay $9 million to a player in an assault case.
| ARTS AND IDEAS |
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| Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters |
The Garrick Club’s big vote
One of London’s oldest clubs, the Garrick, voted yesterday to admit women as members, ending a decades-long dispute that has lately made life acutely awkward for some members. The vote passed by a margin of roughly 60 percent to 40 percent.
Some members had said they planned to swiftly nominate a slate of prominent women, including the actress Judi Dench and the classics scholar Mary Beard.
More culture news:
| Blogs and social media accounts run by fans satisfy a seemingly endless demand for content about Eurovision.Robert Downey Jr. will make his Broadway debut in September.The Met Gala raised about $26 million for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. See unforgettable looks and photos from cocktail hour.Why is there a 65-foot inflatable hot dog in Times Square? |
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| Sang An for The New York Times |
Cook: Huevos rancheros are a traditional, hearty Mexican breakfast.
