Israel decreased its calls for, elevating hopes for a cease-fire
Israeli negotiators have decreased the variety of hostages they need Hamas to launch within the preliminary section of a truce to 33 from 40, Israeli officers mentioned yesterday, providing a touch of hope for a cease-fire within the Gaza Strip.
Stop-fire talks have been at a standstill for weeks, however a delegation from Israel was planning to fly to Cairo as we speak to renew negotiations — however provided that Hamas agreed to attend, in response to two of the officers. Hamas didn’t reply to a request for touch upon whether or not it could ship representatives to Cairo.
Patrick Kingsley, The Occasions’s Jerusalem bureau chief, instructed me that “there are many obstacles” earlier than a potential deal.
“Hamas needs a truce that offers it an opportunity of surviving the struggle as a army pressure, whereas Israel needs a deal that might permit its military the prospect to finally resume combating and rout Hamas,” Patrick mentioned. “That’s why Israel needs a brief cease-fire, whereas Hamas needs an extended one which might be dragged out into permanence.”
Ukraine retreated from villages on the jap entrance
Russian troops have captured or entered a handful of villages on Ukraine’s jap entrance in the course of the previous week, capitalizing on outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian forces earlier than the most recent U.S. army support can arrive, army consultants mentioned.
Congress lately permitted $60 billion in army support for Ukraine, and President Biden signed the package deal final week, vowing to expedite the cargo of arms. However earlier than the help arrives, Ukraine faces an onslaught in a number of weak areas.
Russian forces are advancing steadily previous Avdiivka, which they captured in February after months of combating. Ukrainian forces fell again to a brand new line of defense alongside a sequence of small villages about three miles to the west, however that line has now been overrun. As many as 25,000 Russian troopers are additionally attempting to take Chasiv Yar, which lies on strategic excessive floor, about seven miles west of Bakhmut.
Fears of renewed ethnic slaughter soar in Darfur
A looming assault on a metropolis within the Sudanese area of Darfur, the place genocidal violence killed as many as 300,000 folks 20 years in the past, has prompted warnings from U.N. and U.S. officers who worry that mass bloodshed could also be imminent.
El Fasher is the final metropolis held by Sudan’s army in Darfur and the most recent flashpoint in a year-old civil struggle between Sudan’s army and the Speedy Help Forces, a paramilitary group that Sudan’s army nurtured and that grew to become a bitter rival.
If the R.S.F. had been to grab El Fasher, the group may management a few third of Sudan, with the nation break up into rival fiefs. However consultants mentioned that an assault on El Fasher could be dangerous for the R.S.F., and lots of Western and Arab officers hope that worldwide stress can persuade either side to again down.
The northern noticed owl, a uncommon and fragile subspecies of noticed owl, is being muscled out of its restricted habitat within the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. by bigger barred owls and now faces extinction. The barred owls are additionally posing a menace to the California noticed owl, one other subspecies.
In response, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed culling as much as half one million barred owls over the following 30 years. The plan has incensed some animal welfare and wildlife safety organizations.
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ARTS AND IDEAS
A peek into the minds of ‘super-agers’
With regards to growing older, we are inclined to assume that cognition will get worse as we grow old.
However that’s not the case for everybody. For somewhat over a decade, scientists have been finding out a subset of individuals they name “super-agers,” people ages 80 and up who’ve the reminiscence means of an individual 20 to 30 years youthful.
New analysis reveals that the brains of super-agers seem to atrophy lower than these of their friends, and that there isn’t any apparent recipe for staying sharp. The super-agers within the examine exhibited a variety of behaviors, they usually all tended to have robust social relationships.
For youthful folks, a brand new examine bolsters the connection between bodily health and higher psychological well being.
That’s it for as we speak’s briefing. Thanks for studying, and see you tomorrow. — Dan
You possibly can attain Dan and the group at briefing@nytimes.com.
Because of Patrick Kingsley.
