Israel rescued two hostages in a lethal operation
Israeli special operations forces freed two hostages within the Gazan metropolis of Rafah, the navy stated, as Israeli assaults killed dozens of Palestinians within the metropolis, in keeping with the Gazan well being ministry.
The rescue prompted elation in Israel, the place the destiny of greater than 100 folks kidnapped through the Hamas-led assaults on Oct. 7 had turn out to be a nationwide precedence. However the raid fueled mourning and panic amongst greater than 1,000,000 Palestinians who had crowded into Rafah.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has stated that Israeli floor forces are making ready to enter Rafah to get rid of Hamas battalions there. The prospect of floor battles within the metropolis has created worldwide alarm over the dangers to civilians who wish to flee.
The depth and loss of life toll of the operation made clear Netanyahu’s willpower to press forward with the southern offensive regardless of criticism from the U.S. and different allies.
The hostages, Fernando Simon Marman, 60, and Louis Har, 70, each twin residents of Israel and Argentina, were in good condition.
A survivor’s story: Dareen al-Bayaa, 11, spoke in a video with The Occasions about her grief and restoration after losing many family members in an airstrike in Gaza.
One choose might schedule the primary prison trial of a former U.S. president, as early as subsequent month — elevating the likelihood that Trump might wind up behind bars.
One other choose is anticipated to ship a ruling that would threaten his household enterprise. The choose, who’s overseeing Trump’s civil fraud trial, is figuring out whether or not to penalize Trump a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} and take away him from the corporate he ran for many years.
The second ruling would drain the previous president’s coffers, and the primary might in the end go away him a felon, sending America’s already bitter politics into uncharted realms.
Many circumstances: Trump faces 91 felony counts throughout 4 prison circumstances, and he owes $83.3 million from a current defamation case, separate from the upcoming fraud ruling.
Finland’s new president faces an sudden take a look at
Finland’s president-elect, Alexander Stubb, appeared completely poised to face as much as Russian aggression because the chief of the latest nation in NATO. As a substitute, he’ll enter workplace subsequent month at a time when U.S. politics, particularly feedback made by Trump on the marketing campaign path, has thrown the durability of the trans-Atlantic alliance into query.
Trump’s feedback that he would enable Russia to do “regardless of the hell they need” to “delinquent” NATO nations is hardly what Finland needed to listen to. The Nordic nation’s border with Russia is the longest in NATO.
Stubb stored his cool and urged Finns to take the unsettling feedback as a reminder that Europe must develop its personal protection, with out relying on Washington, no matter who leads to the Oval Workplace.
Within the U.S., Trump’s feedback have been a boon for Biden, who was facing unwelcome questions about his age.
THE LATEST NEWS
Across the World
Photo voltaic panels are important to a clear power future, however they require quite a lot of area, which regularly includes constructing in essential areas for wildlife.
The query of whether or not people can construct essential photo voltaic infrastructure with out harming nature is enjoying out within the grasslands of the American West, prime places for photo voltaic farms and residential to animals like pronghorn. Measures that can make the farms safer for wildlife usually go unused within the U.S. due to a dearth of laws and lack of analysis.
Lives lived: Kelvin Kiptum shattered the marathon world file in Chicago final yr. He died in a car crash at 24.
SPORTS NEWS
African Cup last: A fairy-tale finish sealed glory for Ivory Coast.
Title-defining video games: What we realized from Europe’s big soccer matches.
No deposits at Slovakia’s Love Financial institution
In Slovakia, the Love Financial institution, which has a vault the place 7,000 folks have deposited keepsakes of their affection, will probably be closed this Valentine’s Day.
The financial institution’s medieval constructing in Banska Stiavnica nearly burned down final March — the outcome, apparently, of {an electrical} fault, not rapture run amok.
However the vault, and the textual content of a Nineteenth-century love poem licensed by the World Document Academy because the world’s longest, stay intact. The poem’s writer wrote it for the girl he adored, who lived within the constructing the Love Bank occupies and, alas, married another person.
That’s it for in the present day’s briefing. Thanks for spending a part of your morning with us, and see you tomorrow. — Dan
P.S. Vivek Shankar will run our Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand protection.
You may attain Dan and the workforce at briefing@nytimes.com.