The Full Belmonte, 11/22/2023
Tentative hostage deal reached pending Israeli approval, sources say
“A tentative deal has been reached to release hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, according to a senior U.S. official and a source familiar with the talks in the region.
Under the deal, about 50 women and children hostages would be exchanged for around 150 Israeli-held Palestinian prisoners, a senior Israeli official confirmed.
The numbers are subject to change, and the deal still requires the approval of Israel’s government.
President Joe Biden struck his most optimistic tone yet about achieving a deal, in remarks to reporters at the White House.
Biden said ‘we’re now very close, very close’ to an agreement. ‘When we have more to say, we will, but things are looking good at the moment,’ he added.
We’re also closely monitoring the new developments on the dozens of premature babies evacuated from Gaza’s besieged Al-Shifa hospital.
They are now in Egypt, their conditions are being stabilized and many have now been transferred to hospitals to receive urgently needed care, according to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.
The Israel Defense Forces released new images today that allegedly show Hamas tunnels underneath the Al-Shifa hospital.” [NBC News]
Families and friends of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza during a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
Truce deal raises hopes of freeing hostages in Gaza and halting the worst Middle East violence in decades
“Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement for a four-day halt to the devastating war in Gaza. This will be accompanied by the release of dozens of hostages held by the militant group in return for Palestinians detained by Israel, mediators said. Read more.
Recent developments
Qatar has played a key role in mediating with Hamas. The announcement of the deal ended weeks of indirect negotiations. Fifty hostages will be released in stages, in exchange for what Hamas said would be 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, mainly teenagers detained over the past year for rock-throwing and other minor offenses. The U.S. and Egypt were also involved in talks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added Israel would resume the war after the truce and keep fighting ‘until we achieve all our goals,’ including the defeat of Hamas. Both sides will release women and children first, officials said. Israel added that the truce would be extended an extra day for every additional 10 hostages released.
U.S. President Joe Biden welcomed the deal, saying Netanyahu has committed to supporting an ‘extended pause’ to make sure that the hostages are freed and humanitarian aid can reach Gaza. Meanwhile, residents in Gaza City said fighting had intensified overnight, with gunfire, heavy artillery and airstrikes in central neighborhoods.” [AP News]
U.S. forces retaliate after attack on base in Iraq
“An Iran-backed militia fired a close-range ballistic missile at U.S. and coalition forces at an airbase west of Baghdad overnight, injuring eight people, according to the Pentagon.
A U.S. military aircraft retaliated with a self-defense strike on a militia vehicle and militia personnel, killing several, the Pentagon said.
Dozens of U.S. service members have been injured in Iran-linked attacks in the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Today marks the first time the U.S. has retaliated on Iraqi territory since those attacks ramped up, Reuters reported.” [NBC News]
Sam Altman will return to his post as OpenAI chief executive.
Sam Altman Carlos Barria/Reuters
“OpenAI reinstated Sam Altman as its chief executive, less than a week after the company’s board of directors pushed him out.” [New York Times]
“The company will also overhaul its board, jettisoning several members who had opposed Altman. Only one holdover will remain.” [New York Times]
“Tensions between Altman and board members were high for more than a year before his ouster. Altman’s grip on the board slipped after more business-minded members left, The Wall Street Journal reports.” [New York Times]
“What to know: The artificial intelligence company, which makes the ChatGPT bot, announced the deal last night. It brought an end to days of chaos since Altman’s firing last week.” [Washington Post]
“But the drama isn’t over: Altman’s firing exposed a power struggle over who controls the future of AI technology, which is increasingly part of our everyday lives.” [Washington Post]
The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance pleaded guilty to federal charges.
“Who? Billionaire Changpeng Zhao, one of the most powerful forces in crypto. He agreed to step down as CEO yesterday after pleading guilty to violating anti-money-laundering laws.
What it means: It was a staggering blow against the world’s largest crypto exchange. Binance will pay a $4.3 billion fine, one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history.”
Read this story at Washington Post
Massive storm threatens to disrupt Thanksgiving travel
Travelers pass through Chicago's O'Hare Airport on Tuesday.
“A large and potent storm is sweeping across the eastern third of the country, just as tens of millions of Americans are traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The system is bringing strong to severe thunderstorms and heavy rain from the Southeast into the Mid-Atlantic and coastal New England through tomorrow, forecasters say.
The TSA is expecting Thanksgiving air travel to shatter records, with 30 million people flying over a 12-day period.
So far today, there have been more than 600 cancellations and more than 2,000 delays at U.S. airports, according to FlightAware.” [NBC News]
Manhunt underway after three people fatally shot in Colorado
“Police are searching for a suspect after three people were fatally shot and a fourth was injured in rural Colorado Monday, after what authorities described as a ‘suspected property dispute.’
The suspect, identified as Hanme K. Clark, was driving a White Ram 1500 pickup truck with a topper and a Colorado license plate reading BHLK27, authorities said.
The four victims were found near each other close to the property line in a wooded area, according to the Custer County Sheriff’s Office.
Two males and one female were killed, and another female was taken to the hospital in critical condition but is expected to survive, according to authorities.
Anyone who sees Clark is asked to call 911 immediately, and is advised not to approach him because he’s believed to be armed and dangerous.” [NBC News]
“A gunman opened fire in an Ohio Walmart on Monday night, injuring four people before apparently taking his own life, police said.” [New York Times]
“At least one person is dead, and multiple others are missing, after a landslide hit homes in southeast Alaska, according to state troopers.” [New York Times]
“A U.S. Navy surveillance plane overshot a runway approaching a Marine Corps base in Hawaii Monday and ended up in Kaneohe Bay, a base spokesman said.” [New York Times]
“The judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump is considering whether to revoke bond for Harrison Floyd, one of Trump’s 18 co-defendants, over his social media posts.” [New York Times]
“The Coast Guard is still searching for the source of an oil spill, estimated to be more than 1 million gallons, in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana.” [New York Times]
A response vessel skims crude oil last week. (U.S. Coast Guard/Clean Gulf Associates/AP)
“Nearly 7 million student loan borrowers have loans in default, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The number of federal direct borrowers in default has more than doubled in the past decade. As student loan repayments return after the pandemic pause, the Biden administration is unveiling a new plan called Fresh Start that aims to help borrowers get back into good standing.” [NPR]
North Korea claims first successful spy satellite launch
“North Korea says it has successfully launched its first spy satellite into orbit, defying warnings from the U.S. and its allies.
South Korea first reported the launch of a possible ballistic missile, but officials there could not immediately verify whether a satellite was sent into orbit.
The White House condemned the launch, calling it a ‘brazen violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions,’ that ‘risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond.’
This is the third time North Korea has attempted to send a spy satellite into orbit, after failing in May and August.” [NBC News]
“Can a deal to release 50 Israeli women and children in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners and a four-day cessation of the war result in anything more lasting?
That would seem unlikely.
Just before Israel’s cabinet gave its approval, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a lasting cease-fire wasn’t part of the plan. ‘We are at war and we will continue it until we achieve all the objectives,’ he said.
But there could be some wiggle room. Israel’s cabinet has opened the door to pause the bombardment of Gaza for up to 10 days should Hamas release more of the remaining hostages it captured during its Oct. 7 attack that left 1,200 dead.
Should that happen, some trust could be re-established.
Diplomatic sources confirm that those who worked tirelessly on the hostage deal will now use the break to spur talks on something more lasting. Officials in Qatar, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank have all expressed such hopes too.
But first, the initial hostage deal will have to be respected. Pauses in past conflicts in Gaza have been flouted. And Hamas, designated as a terrorist organization by the US and the European Union, is committed to the destruction of Israel.
And many feel peace would probably depend on a shift in thinking in Washington, where the Joe Biden administration so far has supported Israel’s offensive, albeit while urging the military to reduce the number of civilian deaths.
Around 14,000 people have lost their lives in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run government.
And with Israeli air strikes continuing even while the cabinet was meeting on the hostage accord, Hafsa Halawa, a Dubai-based non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, said ‘it can still get much, much worse.’” —Simon Marks [Bloomberg]
A Palestinian child is taken to the Nasser hospital following an Israeli strike on a house in Khan Younis on Nov. 18. Photographer: Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg
“Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is the frontrunner to take over as NATO chief when Jens Stoltenberg steps down next year, sources say, overshadowing other candidates including Estonian Premier Kaja Kallas. Rutte has said he’ll leave politics after a new cabinet is formed following elections today. Far-right populist Geert Wilders jumped to first place in the latest poll, setting the stage for him to enter government.” [Bloomberg]
“Mafia crackdown. In a major blow to the Italian Mafia, an Italian court in the southern region of Calabria has sentenced hundreds of people after a three-year court case that is being referred to as the country’s biggest Mafia trial in decades. More than 200 people were sentenced on charges of bribery, extortion, and criminal association with the ‘Ndrangheta, a powerful drug-trafficking syndicate that has developed a deep network in Italy; more than 100 others were acquitted.
‘It is a very significant sentence, and we are very satisfied,’ Nicola Gratteri, an anti-Mafia prosecutor leading the investigation, told the Guardian. ‘We have finally demonstrated that there was a network of white-collar workers, entrepreneurs, and politicians doing business with the Calabrian clans.’” [Foreign Policy]
“Recruitment drive tragedy. An army recruitment drive in Republic of Congo took a tragic turn late on Monday night when a stampede broke out, killing at least 31 people. It remains unclear how exactly the stampede unfolded, and officials said they plan to launch an investigation into the incident.
As Republic of Congo faces soaring youth unemployment rates of 42 percent, the country’s army announced plans last week to hold a recruitment drive for 1,500 people between the ages of 18 and 25—prompting hundreds of people to register per day. After Monday’s tragedy, authorities will suspend recruitment until further notice.” [Foreign Policy]
“Mexico City may have a hidden missing persons crisis. Murders, kidnappings, and robberies declined in the city after 2019. And while the national murder rate was 25.2 per 100,000 people in 2022, Mexico City’s was 8 per 100,000. But, these stats may not show the whole story: Mexico City faces a growing number of cases of people disappearing every year.” [Guardian] [Vox]
“A dose of economic shock therapy is needed to balance Argentina’s budget next year to avoid hyperinflation, President-elect Javier Milei said. Fresh off his landslide election win, Milei vowed yesterday to drastically cut government spending because ‘there’s no money.’ Failure to do so would further boost consumer prices that are already soaring more than 140% a year.” [Bloomberg]
“Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban wants sweeping new powers to detect and punish foreign influences in the EU nation. His ruling party plans to set up a powerful Sovereignty Protection Agency under a bill that would also impose prison terms of up to three years on politicians who accept foreign funds in elections. Authorities would gain powers to shutter civil groups deemed to breach the regulations.” [Bloomberg]
“An escalating conflict between Myanmar’s military and ethnic groups seeking autonomy is now ‘the largest in scale and most extensive geographically’ since the 2021 coup, the United Nations’ humanitarian agency said. More than 286,000 people have fled their homes since an alliance of ethnic armies launched an offensive in northern Shan State in late October and the fighting has since spread to other regions.” [Bloomberg]
Newly arrived refugees from Myanmar rest on a beach today in Sabang, Indonesia. Photographer: Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP/Getty Images
“Huawei alarmed politicians from Washington to Tokyo when it took the wraps off a $900 smartphone that signaled China’s rapid advance in chip technology. The episode showed how Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. has emerged as Beijing’s secret weapon in breaking through US sanctions aimed at containing China’s technological progress.” [Bloomberg]
“UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt aims to boost business investment by £20 billion ($25 billion) a year with a package of measures today in his Autumn Statement.” [Bloomberg]
“Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he would be compelled to come out of retirement and run to become a senator or seek the nation’s second-highest post if his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, is impeached.” [Bloomberg]
Dr. Nader Moazami has pioneered a new way of harvesting hearts. Hilary Swift for The New York Times
“A new method for retrieving hearts from organ donors, which involves restarting blood circulation and limiting its flow to the brain, has ignited an ethical debate among doctors.” [New York Times]
A mysterious illness is sickening and killing dogs in several states.
“The details: Hundreds of dogs across at least five U.S. states have contracted the respiratory illness. Veterinarians aren’t sure what’s causing it or how it’s spreading.
The symptoms: Fever, cough, lack of appetite, eye and nose discharge, sneezing and difficulty breathing. It doesn’t appear to respond to antibiotics.”
Read this story at Washington Post
The IRS is delaying new tax reporting rules for apps like Venmo.
“The proposal: To require companies like Venmo, Airbnb and Uber to report people’s payments on their platforms to the IRS if users receive more than $600 in a year.
What’s new? The threshold of $20,000 and 200 transactions will stay in place for now, the IRS said yesterday. It’s the second time the controversial proposal has been delayed.”
Read this story at Washington Post
How JFK's death changed Dallas
Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photos: Bettmann/Corbis via Getty Images
“On Nov. 22, 1963, shots rang out in Dealey Plaza just as President John F. Kennedy's open limousine passed through.
Dallas would never be the same, Axios Dallas' Michael Mooney writes.
Flashback: Dallas in 1963 was a city ‘on the verge of a nervous breakdown,’ Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright, who was in algebra class at Woodrow Wilson High School when the president was killed, recently told the Dallas Morning News.
Dallas was segregated and controlled by a powerful group of right-wing business and religious leaders.
After the assassination, news coverage blamed the political climate in Dallas for the president's murder. Companies refused to do business in North Texas.
The big picture: Dallas was known nationally as the ‘city of hate.’
The Dallas Citizens Council, the collection of oligarchs who ran Dallas at the time, quickly developed a plan to rehabilitate the city's image.
The plan involved getting J. Erik Jonsson, the co-founder and chairman of Texas Instruments, elected as mayor.
It was Jonsson who developed the plan to make Dallas a major air travel hub, which in turn led to an influx of corporate business and helped drive massive population growth.
Despite all that, a brief moment in 1963 will continue to define and shape Dallas' legacy, for better and worse.” [Axios]
Max Whittaker for The New York Times
On the fire line
It was a relatively quiet wildfire season in the U.S. But there is no summer vacation for the Tallac Hotshots, a federal firefighting crew based near Lake Tahoe in California.
The crew members spent early July in triple-digit heat in Arizona, fighting a wildfire for 14 straight days. From there they traveled to a thickly wooded evergreen forest in Oregon; then to the dense, steep terrain of Klamath National Forest in California; and then to remote wilderness in Northern California, where they arrived by helicopter and fought fires in near-freezing temperatures. Their current assignment has taken them to Tennessee, where they will likely spend Thanksgiving Day swinging hand tools to contain blazes fueled by extreme drought.
“It’s really physical, but it’s extremely mental, too,” said Kyle Betty, the superintendent of the Tallac Hotshots, who has been a federal firefighter for 22 years. “The things that you see, the things that you face — every day you have to get up and do it again.”
Max Whittaker for The New York Times
The ‘hotshot’ moniker, which dates back to the 1940s, describes firefighters who travel to battle the hottest, most treacherous and most technically challenging wildfires. There are around 100 such crews in the U.S., most of which work for the U.S. Forest Service.
Max Whittaker for The New York Times
During their deployments, the crews often have no access to cellphone signals or showers. They sometimes sleep in the open air. A standard shift is 16 hours, and crews can work three weeks straight without a break.
Max Whittaker for The New York Times
Base pay for entry-level federal firefighters is $16 an hour — far less than the amount earned by California state fighters, who battle many of the same blazes.
‘They are the premier firefighting force in the U.S.,’ said Evan Pierce, who helped write a University of Washington report on firefighter salaries. ‘But they are working longer and in more dangerous conditions — for less pay.’
Max Whittaker for The New York Times
Instead of fire engines and hoses, hotshot crews use hoes, shovels and chain saws to carve out dirt tracks to choke the progress of a fire.
Max Whittaker for The New York Times
The Tallac Hotshots crew members hail from across the country. Elsa Gaule, pictured above, is one of the crew’s captains. She spent her earliest years in Alaska in a house without a toilet or running water.
She and the other crew members are drawn to the outdoors and the deep sense of camaraderie. ‘I’m not a very good sit-at-a-desk person,’ Gaule said. ‘Until my knees and back give out, I’ll continue doing this.’
Read the full story on the Tallac Hotshots.” [New York Times]
Max Whittaker for The New York Times
“A talent agency stopped representing the actor Susan Sarandon after she said that Jewish people were ‘getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence.’” [New York Times]
One of Napoleon’s signature hats sold for $2.1 million.
The black bicorne hat. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)
“Its history: The French emperor owned around 120 bicorne hats during his life and they became part of his brand. He wore this one, auctioned last week, around 1810.
Speaking of Napoleon: Ridley Scott’s hotly anticipated movie about the legendary military leader is out today. Our critic wasn’t impressed by its star, Joaquin Phoenix.”
Read this story at Washington Post
“Lives Lived: The evangelical pastor Carlton D. Pearson was branded a heretic for declaring that hell does not exist and advocating gay rights. He died at 70.” [New York Times]