Stop-fire talks in Cairo faltered
Negotiations between Israel and Hamas stalled once more, which means extra uncertainty for the households of Israeli hostages and no fast reprieve for Palestinians in Gaza. Mediators struggled to bridge the remaining gaps, and a Hamas delegation left the talks, officers mentioned.
The primary dispute was over the length of a cease-fire, with Hamas demanding a everlasting one and Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, expressing openness to solely a short lived halt in combating.
Hamas blamed the shortage of progress on Netanyahu, who has vowed to stage a floor offensive in Rafah, the place about one million Palestinians have been sheltering, with or with out an settlement. Israel and the U.S. contend that Hamas has been holding up a deal. Netanyahu mentioned yesterday that ending the battle would permit Hamas to rebuild its navy capabilities and threaten communities all through Israel.
Xi Jinping’s journey to Europe
Xi Jinping, China’s chief, arrived in France yesterday on his first journey to Europe in 5 years. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, will host a state dinner for him tonight. The E.U. Fee president, Ursula von der Leyen, will be part of their talks in Paris.
Xi may even go to Serbia and Hungary. The three European nations are all, to various levels, embracing China’s push for a brand new international order — a world freed of American dominance, the place Europe’s bonds with the U.S. are looser, although not untethered. Xi’s go to is more likely to be seen as a none-too-subtle effort to divide Western allies.
What’s subsequent: Xi’s arrival in Serbia tomorrow coincides with the twenty fifth anniversary of NATO’s mistaken bombing of the Chinese language Embassy in Belgrade. The Chinese language authorities has continued to commemorate the strike, utilizing it as an event to denounce what it sees as Western hypocrisy and bullying.
Ukraine struggles to call its useless
Two years into the battle in Ukraine, households, legal professionals and rights teams say that the Ukrainian navy is merely overloaded with casualties and unable to account for hundreds of the useless.
Among the lacking troopers have been captured by Russian troops, however others could also be useless and unidentified, mendacity in morgues as the federal government works by means of the backlog. Trench combating usually leaves our bodies deserted in nice numbers in buffer areas, making it more durable to get a transparent image of the battle’s toll.
By the numbers: In February, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, put the variety of troopers killed at 31,000, and Kyiv has mentioned that about half once more as many are lacking. (U.S. estimates are far larger, suggesting that by final August, 70,000 Ukrainian troopers had died.)
MORE TOP NEWS
Cheaply made, haphazardly assembled drones are key to the insurgent combat in Myanmar towards the navy junta. Resistance forces are getting inventive with directions crowdsourced on-line, components ordered from China and wires repurposed from drones used for agriculture — even because the electrical energy sputters off.
The drones have modified the course of the combat, serving to the rebels seize outposts simply by hovering and spooking troopers into fleeing.
Lives lived: Bernard Hill, a British actor who incarnated stoic masculine management in “Titanic” and the “Lord of the Rings” franchise, died at age 79.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
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The Premier League: The race to resolve this yr’s English soccer champion has captivated followers. However it’s not simply an English story. See photographs right here.
System 1’s biggest designer: The race to signal Adrian Newey in 2025.
ARTS AND IDEAS
From Bauhaus to enjoyable home
Within the Sixties, the American artist Frank Stella, who died on Saturday at age 87, helped spawn the Minimalist motion along with his unremitting Black Work. However he was additionally its best-known defector: Within the late Seventies, he pursued extravagant deep area and baroque curves as fanatically as he had as soon as eschewed them.
Stella didn’t see artwork as a path to enhancing society or combating injustice. “If artists wish to do one thing helpful,” he mentioned, “they are often social staff or politicians. Or they’ll be part of the U.S. Military. Artwork doesn’t do what a social employee does. No summary picture goes to assist anybody.” Learn our obituary.
That’s it for right this moment’s briefing. Thanks for beginning your day with The New York Occasions. — Natasha
P.S. The author Scaachi Koul tells of how the TV present “Indian Idol” helped her mom get by means of most cancers.
Attain Natasha and the staff at briefing@nytimes.com.