In a news conference this evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called for his government to back a deal with Hamas that would pause combat for several days and free some of the captives held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“All security organizations support it fully,” Netanyahu said. Officials for Israel, Hamas, the U.S. and Qatar, which brokered the negotiations, all said today that a deal appeared within reach.
The terms of the agreement, which has yet to be announced and could still change or fall through, have centered on Hamas releasing roughly 50 children and women, in exchange for about 150 Palestinian women and teenagers jailed by Israel, according to people familiar with the negotiations. The deal would also include a brief cease-fire of at least four days.
If a deal is approved tonight, the hostages might not be released until Thursday at the earliest in order to allow 24 hours for Israeli judges to review potential legal challenges. The releases, officials said, would most likely be spread over at least four days.
The big picture: The New York Times Magazine assembled a panel of scholars and experts — three Palestinian, three Israeli and one American — to help us understand the Oslo peace process of the 1990s, and how it fell apart.
The world’s most powerful crypto figure agreed to plead guilty
Changpeng Zhao, who founded the cryptocurrency exchange Binance and is considered the most powerful figure in the industry, agreed to step down from his role as the company’s chief executive and plead guilty to money laundering violations, according to court papers made public today.
Binance, which is the world’s largest crypto exchange, also agreed to plead guilty and pay $4.3 billion in fines and restitution. The company accepted the appointment of a monitor, and Zhao — who was individually fined $50 million — was barred from any involvement in Binance’s business until three years after the monitor is appointed.
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court considered a key voting case
The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in a legal challenge that could undo one of the most aggressive gerrymanders of legislative districts in the country. If successful, the challenge could radically shift power in the state, where Republicans have sizable majorities in the State Legislature despite an evenly divided electorate.
During the arguments, the conservative justices questioned the timing of the challenge, accusing Democrats of waiting until they had secured a 4-to-3 liberal majority on the court to argue that the legislative district maps were unconstitutional. The liberal justices indicated that they were sympathetic to the argument that the state’s maps should be redrawn.
A migration crisis is overwhelming government resources
Under President Biden, the Border Patrol has arrested more people for illegally crossing the southern border into the U.S. than in any other period since the government started keeping count in 1960.
Republicans have been using the surge as a cudgel against Democrats. Now some Democratic officials are asking the Biden administration to do more to help support the hundreds of thousands of migrants who arrive in their cities with nothing.
In New York City, we talked to five migrants about how they are getting by.
More top news
Law: A judge weighed revoking the bond of Harrison Floyd, a co-defendant of Donald Trump in the Georgia election interference case. Prosecutors say Floyd has intimidated potential witnesses on social media.
Politics: Mike Johnson paid his first visit to Donald Trump since becoming the House speaker.
Warfare: Some countries want new legal constraints on A.I.-controlled killer drones, but the U.S. and other major powers are resistant.
Tech: Two days before Sam Altman was ousted from his role as chief executive of OpenAI, he did an interview for The New York Times’s “Hard Fork” podcast.
Health: The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is still dominant after two years, and an evolutionary marvel.
Asia: North Korea launched a rocket with its first spy satellite, and some help from Russia.
International: Signal jamming and spoofing in the Middle East and Ukraine have diverted flights and caused inaccurate onboard alerts far from the battlefield.
Science: Experiments on mucus-covered jellyfish suggested that sediment from deep-sea mining could be harmful to marine life.
Arizona: More than 250 animals that were intended for adoption from the Humane Society in Tucson may have been turned into reptile food.
TIME TO UNWIND
This year’s 100 best books
Every year, the staff members of The New York Times Book Review pore over thousands of new books, seeking out the best novels, memoirs, biographies, poetry collections, stories and more. They narrowed these down to a list of the 100 most notable books of 2023 — 50 fiction and 50 nonfiction.
Check out the list, and find your next great read.
Miyazaki’s latest film reflects his life
The new film “The Boy and the Heron,” directed by Hayao Miyazaki, follows the tale of a boy growing up in the shadow of World War II, much as Miyazaki did. The director’s family fled Tokyo for the countryside in 1944, when he was 3, and his earliest memories, he has said in interviews, involved war and fear.
Elements of the film will be familiar to Miyazaki devotees: a lonely child, the threat of violence and a bevy of fantastical — only sometimes cuddly — creatures that externalize some part of the protagonist’s desires. But even by Miyazaki’s standards, our new movie critic, Alissa Wilkinson, writes, the film is enigmatic, and more an exercise in contemplation than storytelling.
Dinner table topics
America’s elite firefighters: The Times spent two years with the Tallac Hotshots, who fight the most technically challenging fires in the American West.
A reader asked: Can I wear hats indoors? Our fashion critic weighed in.
Thanksgiving challenge: We asked members of our Food section to cook a holiday meal in just six hours and with only $100. Here’s how they did.
Manhattan parties: Which of these celebrity looks do you like best?
WHAT TO DO TONIGHT
Cook: Sheet-pan mushroom parmigiana is an easy and comforting weeknight dish.
Drink: Wine is the easy part of holiday planning. We have a few tips.
Watch: Here are four true crime recommendations.
Listen: Stray Kids, the eight-piece K-pop group, topped the charts this week.
Stretch: Neck pain is common. These exercises can help.
Listen: Wirecutter tested over-the-counter hearing aids for two years. These are the best.
Compete: Can you identify these famous short stories based on their descriptions?
Play: Here are today’s Spelling Bee, Wordle and Mini Crossword. Find all our games here.
ONE LAST THING
Is this the world’s highest grossing photograph?
No one hired Ormond Gigli, an obscure freelance photographer, to stage 40 models in the window frames of Manhattan brownstones and snap a picture on a summer day in 1960. But the image he created has become one of the medium’s most surprising successes.
A print of “Girls in the Windows,” which first ran in Ladies’ Home Journal, sold at auction today for about $38,000. That copy, along with hundreds of others that have sold, brought its total sales to around $12 million — elevating it to one of the highest grossing photos ever.
Have a successful evening.
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Matthew
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