The Full Belmonte, 11/24/2023
Palestinians stand by a building destroyed in an Israeli bombardment in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Nov. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
A truce in Gaza sets the stage for the release of dozens of hostages
“The cease-fire kicked off at 7 a.m. local time and will last at least four days. The deal came after weeks of intense indirect negotiations. Qatar, the U.S. and Egypt served as mediators. The halt in fighting promised some relief for Gaza’s 2.3 million people, who have endured weeks of Israeli bombardment, as well as families in Israel fearful for the fate of loved ones held captive by Hamas. Read more.
Recent developments
Hamas pledged to free at least 50 of the about 240 hostages it and other militants took on Oct. 7. They are Israeli citizens, and some of them have a second nationality, according to a Hamas official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The group added that Israel would free 150 Palestinian prisoners. Israel published a list of 300 prisoners eligible for release, mainly teenagers detained for rock-throwing and other minor offenses.
The deal also lets more aid reach southern Gaza, where Palestinians are facing severe shortages. Trucks carrying supplies could be seen entering the terminal at the Rafah crossing from Egypt. The supplies were then transferred to other trucks that would carry them into Gaza. Qatar said the aid will include fuel but gave no details on quantities.
The agreement has raised hopes of eventually winding down the war. But Israel has pushed back against such speculation, saying it is determined to resume its bombardment once the truce ends. Over 13,300 Palestinians have been killed, health officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza say. Vast swaths of the coastal enclave have been destroyed and violence has also surged in the occupied West Bank. Some 1,200 people have been killed in Israel, mostly during the initial incursion by Hamas.” [AP News]
Ohio voters just passed abortion protections. Whether they take effect is now up to the courts
“The state’s new constitutional protections for abortion access and reproductive rights are supposed to take effect Dec. 7, a month after voters resoundingly passed them. That prospect seems increasingly uncertain. The amendment did not repeal any existing Ohio laws, providing an opening for Republican elected officials and anti-abortion groups to renew their efforts to halt, delay or significantly water it down. Read more.
Why this matters
The amendment declared an individual’s right to ‘make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions’ and passed with a strong 57% majority. Existing abortion-related lawsuits are moving again through the courts now that voters have decided the issue, raising questions about how and when the amendment will be implemented.
The state Legislature is controlled by Republicans whose leaders opposed the November ballot amendment. Passing legislation to bring Ohio law in line with the new constitutional amendment has been a non-starter with Republican lawmakers. With a primary election in their Republican-heavy districts only months away, they are facing fierce pressure from anti-abortion groups to either pass laws countering the amendment or use their supermajorities to strip courts of their power to interpret it.
The Ohio Supreme Court is also controlled by Republicans, who have a 4-3 majority, and it will be the final judge of constitutional questions. Several of the Republican justices have taken actions or made statements that have caused abortion rights organizations and ethics attorneys to question their objectivity on the subject.” [AP News]
Politics
“Republican lawmakers and far-right activists are using Jan. 6 security footage, released by Speaker Mike Johnson, to spread conspiracy theories.” [New York Times]
“A Florida woman accused the New York mayor, Eric Adams, of sexually assaulting her in 1993. Adams denied the accusation and said he does not recall ever meeting her.” [New York Times]
“Big business donors have begun backing Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign. Many see her as a welcome alternative to Donald Trump.” [New York Times]
“The city of Charleston elected a Republican mayor for the first time since the 1870s.” [New York Times]
“The four-day truce in Israel’s offensive against Iran-backed Hamas in return for the militant group releasing dozens of hostages is a blessed respite for the residents of Gaza. It may mark only a temporary lull.
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political survival at stake, he and Hamas share a common reality: ending the war now is not in their interests.
As the number of Palestinians killed nears 15,000, according to authorities in the Hamas-run enclave, international calls are getting louder for a permanent cease-fire. That’s rejected by Israel, which has vowed to destroy Hamas after it stormed into southern Israeli communities and military bases on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 240 others.
Exiting now would seem like defeat. But it’s a goal that appears unrealizable with Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union, deeply entrenched in a vast and secret tunnel network that it can use to fight Israel.
The US, which along with Qatar and Egypt led negotiations on the cease-fire and prisoner exchange deal, has been urging Israel to ease the humanitarian crisis in the blockaded and crowded coastal strip.
It’s hoping Israel will prolong the truce, during which Hamas is expected to release 50 women and children in stages and Israel is to free 150 Palestinian females and youths from prison. The cease-fire can be extended by a day for every 10 additional hostages handed over.
Israel has indicated it may escalate the war by moving to seize control of southern Gaza where civilians have fled to — which would further inflame Arab and international public opinion.
Without an end to the fighting and diplomatic efforts to revive a two-state solution for the Palestinians, the interests of the US and its allies will suffer.
It would strengthen Israel’s arch-foe Iran and make an historic deal on Saudi Arabia and the Jewish state establishing ties an even more distant prospect.” —Henry Meyer [Bloomberg]
Palestinians return to their homes in Khan Younis in southern Gaza today. Photographer: Mahmud Hams/Getty Images
Student’s Killing Pushes Italy to Confront Violence Against Women
The case of Giulia Cecchettin, found dead days before she would have graduated, has prompted an outpouring of rage and debate on how to shift an entrenched culture of chauvinism.
“When Italian senators debated a new law on Wednesday to strengthen protections for women, one name was at the center of their discussions: Giulia Cecchettin, a 22-year-old university student whose violent death has dominated newspaper front pages, newscasts, talk shows and the political discourse for more than 10 days.
Ms. Cecchettin went missing on Nov. 11, prompting a search that ended a week later with the discovery of her corpse, wrapped in plastic, in a ditch near a lake in the northern Friuli Venezia Giulia region.
She disappeared after meeting with an ex-boyfriend, Filippo Turetta, 21, at a mall; investigators put out a warrant for his arrest on suspicion of kidnapping and murder. He was picked up on Sunday by the police in Germany, who stopped him on a highway. Investigators have not spoken publicly about a motive in the case.
Mr. Turetta, who has so far not been formally charged, is awaiting extradition to Italy, which the German authorities say he has not opposed, according to his lawyer, Emanuele Compagno. Mr. Compagno said he had not spoken directly to his client….” Read more at New York Times
Families Ripped Apart as Pakistan Expels Tens of Thousands of Afghans
Husbands and wives, parents and children, wonder when, or if, they will ever see each other again.
By Zia ur-Rehman
Reporting from Karachi, Pakistan
Nov. 23, 2023
“On the day Baz Gul’s world was shattered, he was out scavenging garbage with his 10-year-old son, hoping to earn a few dollars to provide for his family of five.
He and his son were arrested on Sept. 12 in the Pakistani city of Karachi during a raid on Afghan migrants. Mr. Gul, 30, was born and raised in Karachi and married his wife there. But as the son of refugees who fled to Pakistan in 1992, he is a citizen of Afghanistan — and no longer welcome in the country of his birth.
His wife, Ram Bibi, 29, also an Afghan citizen, sold valuables to hire a lawyer who could argue that Mr. Gul was a legal resident of Pakistan. But he was deported to Afghanistan on Nov. 13, after Pakistan set a deadline for all 1.7 million illegal migrants to leave, most of them Afghans. Mr. Gul is now stranded in a country he does not know, leaving his pregnant wife and his children at the mercy of impoverished relatives to survive.
The Gul family is one of hundreds that have been torn apart, rights activists say, as refugees from Afghanistan have poured out of Pakistan, heeding the deportation order or being forcibly removed under a crackdown that followed a rise in tensions between the two countries….” Read more at New York Times
“The implosion of a potential opposition alliance in Taiwan that aimed to install a China-friendly government boosts the chances of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate in the Jan. 13 election. The presidential vote will not only shape cross-strait relations for decades, but also impact the nature of the US’s already tense ties with China.” [Bloomberg]
“When far-right leader Geert Wilders delivered his victory speech after the shock Dutch election result, he emphasized a willingness to compromise with potential coalition partners. But many voters who backed other parties are worried the Netherlands is about to lurch into the kind of populist politics that characterized Donald Trump’s US presidency.” [Bloomberg]
Geert Wilders at the election night party in The Hague. Photographer: Peter Boer/Bloomberg
“Libertarian economist Javier Milei won Sunday’s election in Argentina after slamming Brazil and China, his nation’s two main trading partners. Now the president-elect is toning down his abrasive rhetoric and playing nice with both countries, suggesting that his administration may not be quite so disruptive for international affairs as his radical campaign promised.” [Bloomberg]
News Alert: Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius will be released on parole in January
“Oscar Pistorius will be released on parole in January, prison authorities said Friday, nearly 11 years after the former South African Paralympic sprinter murdered his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.”
Read More at CNN
“Tunnel rescue: Work to save 41 workers trapped in a tunnel in India's Uttarakhand state has been delayed again because of a problem with the drilling machine.” [BBC]
“'Comfort women': A South Korean court has ordered Japan to compensate a group of women who were forced to work in military brothels during World War Two. Japan's Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa called the ruling ‘extremely regrettable and absolutely unacceptable’.” [BBC]
“Twice the size of London: The world's biggest iceberg is on the move after more than 30 years being stuck to the ocean floor. Quite unpoetically named A23a, this one is hard to miss - take a look.” [BBC]
“The turmoil unleashed by last week’s court ruling on off-budget funds has prompted renewed debate about borrowing limits written into Germany’s constitution. Greens Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who’s also the vice chancellor, reiterated a call for the so-called debt brake to be overhauled to provide greater flexibility, saying yesterday that ‘others are wrapping horseshoes in their boxing gloves; we don’t even have our arms free.’” [Bloomberg]
“North Korea celebrated the deployment of its new spy satellite with breathless displays on state television, a banquet with rocket scientists and space agency T-shirts — including one prominently worn by leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter.” [Bloomberg]
“The foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea plan to meet this weekend to help revive three-way leaders’ summits of the Asian powerhouses that have been on hold since 2019 due to the Covid pandemic and political rancor.” [Bloomberg]
“Violence engulfed central Dublin after three children and a woman were stabbed near a school, prompting rioters in the Irish capital to fire flares and fireworks at police and throw garbage they had set on fire.” [Bloomberg]
Dublin rioting: Irish police arrest 34 people after stabbings outside a school. [AP News]
“Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to raise the contentious issue of the Parthenon Marbles during his visit to the UK next week in a bid to resolve a centuries-long feud over the historical artifacts.” [Bloomberg]
ARTS AND IDEAS
A class in Brooklyn. Monique Jaques for The New York Times
“A school for the masses: For those who are bored with their 9-to-5 job, grad school is an option. But if time and money is a problem, then there’s the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, a nonprofit education center founded in 2012.
The institute’s courses, in topics like the novels of Clarice Lispector and the history of trauma, offer the rigor of a liberal arts seminar without the commitment of a degree — and at a fraction of the cost.” [New York Times]
Out for a strut around. Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
“Wild turkeys were a 20th-century conservation triumph. But in recent years, their numbers have significantly declined in the South and Midwest.” [New York Times]
“Lives Lived: Charles Peter was the founding editor of The Washington Monthly, a small political journal that challenged liberal and conservative orthodoxies for decades. He was often called the “godfather of neoliberalism.” He died at 96.” [New York Times]