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On a visit to Israel on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken put the onus squarely on Hamas to accept the proposal. But Israeli officials have said, consistently and emphatically, that the offensive will take place. The number of Palestinians Israel is offering to free in exchange is unclear. More than 100 were released in a weeklong cease-fire in November, and Israeli officials say they believe that more than 30 — possibly many more — are dead. Gazan health officials say that Israel’s subsequent bombing and invasion have killed more than 34,000 people, and injured far more.

Persons: Osama Hamdan, Al Manar, —, Antony J, Blinken, wouldn’t, ”, Yair Lapid, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr, Hamdan, Biden, Netanyahu’s, ” Mr, Netanyahu, Israel Organizations: Israel, Hezbollah, Hamas, United Nations Locations: Jerusalem, Washington, Gaza, Lebanese, Israel, United States, Qatar, Egypt, Rafah, masse

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel vowed anew on Tuesday to launch an invasion into the southern Gaza Strip, even as a renewed push for a cease-fire agreement was showing glimmers of a potential breakthrough. After seven months of an Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the United States, Qatar and several other countries have been hoping to broker a cease-fire, and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken is visiting the Middle East to press for an agreement. But with Hamas arguing that any agreement should include an end to the war, and with right-wing politicians in Israel threatening to leave the government coalition if the long-planned incursion into the southern Gazan city of Rafah is delayed, Mr. Netanyahu said that Israel reserved the right to keep fighting.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Antony J, Blinken, Netanyahu Locations: Gaza, Israel, United States, Qatar, Gazan, Rafah

Five people were killed and several others injured in a stabbing rampage Saturday afternoon at a crowded major mall in Sydney, Australia, prompting the police to declare a critical incident and evacuate the area. The attacker was shot and killed by a lone police officer who was directed into the mall by people fleeing the scene, police said. The officer then opened fire, saving lives, Anthony Cooke, police assistant commissioner for the New South Wales Police, said at a news briefing. The assailant stabbed about nine people as he moved through the mall Saturday afternoon, Assistant Commissioner Cooke said. “There’s nothing we’re aware at the scene that would indicate any motive or ideology,” Assistant Commissioner Cooke said in the briefing, noting the investigation was in its early stages.

Persons: Anthony Cooke, Cooke, “, ” Organizations: New South Wales Police Locations: Sydney, Australia

☆ At Least 5 Killed in Stabbing at Mall in Australia
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-13 | by ( Victoria Kim | Damien Cave | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

PinnedFive people were killed and several others injured in a stabbing rampage Saturday afternoon at a crowded major mall in Sydney, Australia, prompting the police to declare a critical incident and evacuate the area. The attacker was shot and killed by a lone police officer who was directed into the mall by people fleeing the scene, police said. The officer then opened fire, saving lives, Anthony Cooke, police assistant commissioner for the New South Wales Police, said at a news briefing. The assailant stabbed about nine people as he moved through the mall Saturday afternoon, Assistant Commissioner Cooke said. “There’s nothing we’re aware at the scene that would indicate any motive or ideology,” Assistant Commissioner Cooke said in the briefing, noting the investigation was in its early stages.

Persons: Anthony Cooke, Cooke, “, Yan Zhuang, Isabella Kwai Organizations: New South Wales Police, ”, Westfield, Southern Hemisphere Locations: Sydney, Australia, Westfield, Bondi, Sydney’s Eastern

☆ India’s Silicon Valley Faces a Water Crisis That Software Cannot Solve
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-31 | by ( Damien Cave | Atul Loke | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The water tankers seeking to fill their bellies bounced past the dry lakes of India’s booming technology capital. Their bleary-eyed drivers waited in line to suck what they could from wells dug a mile deep into dusty lots between app offices and apartment towers named for bougainvillea — all built before sewage and water lines could reach them. At one well, where neighbors lamented the loss of a mango grove, a handwritten logbook listed the water runs of a crisis: 3:15 and 4:10 one morning; 12:58, 2:27 and 3:29 the next. “I get 50 calls a day,” said Prakash Chudegowda, a tanker driver in south Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore, as he connected a hose to the well. “I can only get to 15.”

Persons: bougainvillea, “, ”, Prakash Chudegowda Locations: Bengaluru, Bangalore

☆ Why More American Weapons Will Soon Be Made Outside America
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Damien Cave | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On the grassy plains of Australia’s vast interior, an industrial evolution in the American war machine is gathering momentum. In munitions factories with room to grow, Australia is on the verge of producing heaps of artillery shells and thousands of guided missiles in partnership with American companies. Made to Pentagon specifications, the weapons will be no different from those built in the United States, and only some of what rolls off the line will stay in Australia. The rest are intended to help replenish U.S. stockpiles or be sold to American partners in an era of grinding ground wars and threats from major powers. It is all part of an Australian push to essentially become the 51st state for defense production, an ambitious vision that is now taking shape with a giant yellow mixer for explosives and a lightning-protected workshop for assembling missiles known as GMLRS — or “gimmlers.”

Persons: ” Organizations: Pentagon Locations: Australia, United States

Image Antoinette Lattouf said the Australian Broadcasting Corporation unlawfully dismissed her amid outside pressure. Credit... Peter MorrisThe ABC, publicly funded and with an obligation to represent all stripes of Australian life, is confronting the collision of two contentious issues. First, how do news outlets and their employees cover hot-button topics in a time of stark political divides and strong personal brands? And second, as its journalists allege, has Australia’s beleaguered public broadcaster been so weakened by underfunding and right-wing political attacks that it will not stand up for its journalists, especially people of color and women? “I was embarrassed that a group of 156 lawyers could laugh at how easy it was to manipulate the ABC,” Mr. Lyons said, according to multiple sources.

Persons: Antoinette Lattouf, Peter Morris, underfunding, John Lyons, Lyons, ABC “, Mr, David Anderson Organizations: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC, Melbourne Locations: Israel

The collection of American memorabilia, vast and well-lit in a busy area of City Hall in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan, reflected decades of eager courtship. Maps highlighted sister cities in Ohio and Arizona. There was a celebration of baseball, an American flag laid out on a table. And in the middle of it all, a card sent to the United States that seemed to reveal the thinking of Tainan, a metropolis of 1.8 million, and nearly all of Taiwan. “Solidarity conquers all.”The message was aspirational — a graphic illustration of profound insecurity.

Organizations: City Hall, Solidarity Locations: City, Tainan, Ohio, Arizona, American, United States, Taiwan, China

The Taiwanese presidential candidate Lai Ching-te has for years been reviled by China’s Communist Party as a dangerous foe who, by its account, could drag the two sides into a war by pressing for full independence for his island democracy. Right up to Saturday, when millions of Taiwanese voted for their next president, an official Beijing news outlet warned that Mr. Lai could take Taiwan “on a path of no return.”Yet, despite China’s months of menacing warnings of a “war or peace” choice for Taiwan’s voters, Mr. Lai was victorious. Mr. Lai, currently Taiwan’s vice president, secured 40 percent of the votes in the election, giving his Democratic Progressive Party, or D.P.P., a third term in a row in the presidential office. No party has achieved more than two successive terms since Taiwan began holding direct, democratic elections for its president in 1996. gathering outside its headquarters in Taipei, thousands of supporters, many waving pink and green flags, cheered as Mr. Lai’s lead grew during the counting of the votes, which was displayed on a large screen on an outdoor stage.

Persons: Lai Ching, Lai, Lai’s Organizations: China’s Communist Party, Democratic Progressive Party, Taiwan Locations: Beijing, Taiwan, Taipei

☆ China Failed to Sway Taiwan’s Election. What Happens Now?
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-13 | by ( Damien Cave | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has tied his country’s great power status to a singular promise: unifying the motherland with Taiwan, which the Chinese Communist Party sees as sacred, lost territory. A few weeks ago, Mr. Xi called this a “historical inevitability.”But Taiwan’s election on Saturday, handing the presidency to a party that promotes the island’s separate identity for the third time in a row, confirmed that this boisterous democracy has moved even further away from China and its dream of unification. After a campaign of festival-like rallies, where huge crowds shouted, danced and waved matching flags, Taiwan’s voters ignored China’s warnings that a vote for the Democratic Progressive Party was a vote for war. They made that choice anyway. Lai Ching-te, a former doctor and the current vice president, who Beijing sees as a staunch separatist, will be Taiwan’s next leader.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Xi, Lai Ching, It’s Organizations: Chinese Communist Party, Democratic Progressive Party Locations: Taiwan, China, Beijing

☆ Ukraine. Israel. Can America Support Two Wars and Still Handle China?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Damien Cave | More About Damien Cave | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

America’s long-promised pivot to Asia was finally gathering momentum — new security deals with the Philippines and India, expanded military exercises, and plans with allies to stay ahead of Chinese technology. But the Middle East, like a vortex, has pulled Washington back in. “What concerns us most is the diversion of the U.S. military’s resources from East Asia to Europe, to the Middle East,” Akihisa Nagashima, a lawmaker and former national security adviser in Japan, said at a strategy forum in Sydney, Australia, last week. “We really hope that conflict is completely finished pretty soon.”American military commanders have said that no equipment has left the Indo-Pacific. And two top cabinet officials, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, will be crisscrossing Asia this week with messages of reassurance, making stops separately or together in India, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia.

Persons: Akihisa Nagashima, “, Lloyd J, Austin III, Antony J, Blinken Organizations: Pentagon, Defense Locations: Asia, Philippines, India, Washington, United States, Beijing, Gaza, Israel, East Asia, Europe, Japan, Sydney, Australia, South Korea, Indonesia

☆ Why China and Australia Are Reconciling. Sort of.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Damien Cave | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Since 2017, Australia has played David to China’s Goliath: rejecting Chinese pressure to adopt Huawei technology, calling out Chinese political interference, and demanding an inquiry into Covid-19’s origins, even as Beijing blocked Australian imports ranging from coal to wine. Now, with Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, landing in Beijing on Saturday for a three-day visit and a meeting with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, reconciliation is advancing — but with limits. Mr. Albanese’s trip represents a small step back to economic and diplomatic stability after a long march into distrust. China’s coercive tariffs are disappearing. “It won’t be easily erased because what came with it was a whole other set of assumptions and fears.”

Persons: David, China’s Goliath, Anthony Albanese, Xi Jinping, ”, James Curran Organizations: Huawei, University of Sydney Locations: Australia, Covid, Beijing

☆ The ‘Devil’s Playground’ of Urban Combat That Israel Is Preparing to Enter
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Damien Cave | More About Damien Cave | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

But Gaza, heavily urbanized, with Hamas deeply entrenched, is an especially complex battlefield. The LandscapeThe Gaza Strip is about 140 square miles, a narrow band slightly larger in area than Las Vegas, with a cluster of urban population centers. Gaza City, the capital, has around 700,000 people packed into around 20 square miles, with more tall buildings than U.S.-led forces faced in the battle for Mosul, creating a more dangerous three-dimensional front. Israel has destroyed hundreds of Gaza buildings in airstrikes. Hamas, long before its assault on Israel this month, had built hundreds of miles of tunnels under Gaza City that can be used to move between attack positions, hide hostages and protect supplies.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s, Biden, “ I’ve, Lloyd J, Austin III, —, ” John W, Spencer Organizations: ”, Modern, U.S . Military Academy Locations: Gaza, Israel, Iraq, Las Vegas, Gaza City, Mosul, Mariupol, Ukraine

☆ U.S. Pursues a Coveted Prize: India as a Defense Partner
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Damien Cave | More About Damien Cave | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When the Salvor, a U.S. Navy rescue and salvage ship, pulled into a port in India’s southeast this summer, the job at hand was patching up the aging vessel. But there was a bigger mission, too: opening another door for a U.S. military trying to stretch out across the Indo-Pacific and counter Chinese power. The Navy ship was the third in a year to arrive at Kattupalli, an industrial hamlet north of Chennai with a state-of-the-art shipyard. “We’re well equipped to do this,” said Arun Ramchandani, the head of the defense unit of L&T, the Mumbai-based conglomerate that built the shipyard. In the vast Indo-Pacific, such connections could prove important for deterring China and, in the event of a conflict, sustaining a U.S. mobilization.

Persons: ”, Arun Ramchandani Organizations: U.S . Navy, Navy, Pentagon Locations: U.S, India’s, Kattupalli, Chennai, Mumbai, United States, China

For more than a decade, China has courted developing countries frustrated with the West. And as it challenged the postwar order, especially with its global focus on development through trade, loans and infrastructure projects, it sent billions of much-needed dollars to poor nations. Exhibit A: the unexpected consensus India managed at the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi over the weekend. With help from other developing nations, India persuaded the United States and Europe to soften a statement on the Russian invasion of Ukraine so the forum could focus on the concerns of poorer countries, including global debt and climate financing. India also presided over the most tangible result so far of its intensifying campaign to champion the global south: the admission of the African Union to the G20, putting it on par with the European Union.

Organizations: Group, African Union, European Union Locations: China, ”, India, New Delhi, United States, Europe, Ukraine

While a major climate policy breakthrough appears unlikely at the G20 summit this weekend, experts do expect less-wealthy countries to continue pressing richer ones to provide more climate financing. Last year, rich countries agreed at a climate summit in Egypt to establish a fund that would help poor, vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters made worse by pollution from wealthy nations. “Ambitions for climate action must be matched with actions on climate finance and transfer of technology,” he wrote. But a meeting of climate ministers from G20 countries in India earlier this summer failed to produce consensus on climate-mitigation targets. There was some progress on climate finance at a G20 summit in Rome two years ago, where leaders said they would end the financing of coal power plants overseas.

Persons: Narendra Modi, ” Organizations: European Union Locations: United States, Egypt, Tuvalu, Chad, Pakistan, Pacific, India, Paris, Rome

While a major climate policy breakthrough appears unlikely at the G20 summit this weekend, experts do expect less-wealthy countries to continue pressing richer ones to provide more climate financing. In an article published in Indian newspapers on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India appeared to signal that climate finance would be a priority this weekend. “Ambitions for climate action must be matched with actions on climate finance and transfer of technology,” he wrote. But a meeting of climate ministers from G20 countries in India earlier this summer failed to produce consensus on climate-mitigation targets. There was some progress on climate finance at a G20 summit in Rome two years ago, where leaders said they would end the financing of coal power plants overseas.

Persons: Narendra Modi, ” Organizations: European Union Locations: United States, Egypt, Tuvalu, Chad, Pakistan, Pacific, India, Paris, Rome

☆ Why the G20 Keeps Failing, and Still Matters
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Damien Cave | More About Damien Cave | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The annual Group of 20 summit brings together world leaders in pursuit of a lofty goal: coordinating policy for the global economy. But how much progress has the G20 made toward its ambitions? The agenda in New Delhi includes climate change, economic development and debt burdens in low-income countries, as well as inflation spurred by Russia’s war in Ukraine. If members can reach consensus on any or all of these subjects, they will produce an official joint declaration at the end. Most of the grouping’s joint statements since it formed in 1999 have been dominated by resolutions as solid as gas fumes, with no clear consequences when nations underperform.

Locations: India, New Delhi, Ukraine

The Osprey is an especially complex aircraft with a troubled history. With two rotor blades above extended wings, it takes off like a helicopter and can fly like a fixed-wing aircraft — which means that pilots need expertise in both. Last year, nine Marines were killed in two separate crashes. One Osprey aircraft crashed in June during a training mission near Glamis, Calif., killing five. Another crashed in a valley in Beiarn, Norway, killing all four on board.

Persons: Peter Dean, “, Dean Organizations: Marine Corps, Ospreys, Marines, Osprey, United States Studies, University of Sydney Locations: North Carolina, Glamis, Calif, Beiarn, Norway

The week after devastating wildfires swept across Maui, Hōkūlani Holt walked to the center of a grassy courtyard about 12 miles from Lahaina, just over the island’s steep mountains. A kumu hula, or hula teacher, Ms. Holt gathered about 50 listeners into a half-circle, and exhorted them to “lift your voice.” They each held a cup of water, a connection between the body, soul and ʻāina, Hawaiians’ expansive idea of the land. Several men and women blew hollowed-out bamboo pipes called pū ʻohe, producing a deep, trumpetlike sound. Then, led by Ms. Holt’s voice, the group began to chant. After the country’s deadliest fire in more than a century — at least 115 people have been confirmed dead, with hundreds still missing — practical recovery responses were clicking into place: food distribution, debris cleanup, a visit from the president.

Persons: Hōkūlani Holt, Holt, ”, Holt’s Locations: Maui, Lahaina

☆ Where Her Father Became a Hero, Caroline Kennedy Redefines Diplomacy
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Damien Cave | More About Damien Cave | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a drizzly August morning, Caroline Kennedy waded into the turquoise waters between two deserted islands in the South Pacific, trying not to scratch her feet on sprouts of coral. “Your father did this swim,” said her son, Jack Schlossberg. Together they stood in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands, facing a mile-long jaunt to an islet called Olasana — a place John F. Kennedy, Caroline’s father, landed almost exactly 80 years earlier as a junior Navy officer. Ms. Kennedy knew her swim offered just a glimpse of that ordeal. She was there on a short official visit as the U.S. ambassador to Australia.

Persons: Caroline Kennedy waded, ”, “, Jack Schlossberg, John F, Kennedy, Caroline’s, Solomon Organizations: Navy, J.F.K, Solomon Islanders Locations: South, Western Province, Solomon Islands, U.S, Australia

It was the firestorm that wildfire experts and residents on Maui had warned about for years — a blaze fueled by hurricane winds roaring through untamed grasses and into a 13,000-person coastal town with few ways in or out. Local officials had released plan after plan acknowledging that wildfire was all but certain. Cellphone sites were burned and lost power, leaving people unable to communicate or receive emergency alerts. And while fire departments and wildfire-preparedness groups have long urged people in fire-prone areas like West Maui to be ready and leave early, other advice from the authorities was far less concrete. The state of Hawaii’s own guide for how people should respond to hurricanes, tsunamis and other disasters does not include any direction on what to do in a wildfire.

Locations: Maui, Lahaina, West Maui

They raced away from the wildfire tearing through the town of Lahaina last week with just what they could carry, then survived anywhere they could on Maui: in their cars, on friends’ couches, in shelters or in tents by the side of the road. The hotel rooms are covered by state and federal temporary housing programs at no cost to the survivors. The American Red Cross, which is running the mostly FEMA-funded hotel program, said it has secured 750 rooms where survivors can live for as long as they need. The shelters, which housed more than 2,000 people the day after the fires broke out, now hold a few hundred people a day. “We will be able to keep folks in hotels for as long as it takes to find housing solutions.”

Persons: “, Brad Kieserman Organizations: FEMA Locations: Lahaina, Maui, West Maui

As Vene Chun guided his Hawaiian canoe to shore past tourists learning to surf at one of Maui’s public beaches, his thoughts were a jumble. He had just come from spreading ashes at sea with a family devastated by the fire that scorched the town of Lahaina farther west. For days, he and his outrigger canoe were right there, too, bringing food, water, whatever survivors needed. Mr. Chun, 52, stood beside his canoe in a grassy park 20 miles from the ashen disaster wearing a wreath reflecting his Native Hawaiian roots. “We’ve got to move on — and constantly help each other at the same time.”

Persons: Vene Chun, Chun, longboards, “ There’s, ”, “ We’ve Locations: Lahaina

☆ Quantum Tech Intended for National Security Is Testing U.S. Alliances
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Damien Cave | More About Damien Cave | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s critical technology tracker, China appears to be lagging more in quantum computers — which perform many calculations in one pass, making them faster than today’s digital computers that perform each calculation separately — while narrowing the gap in quantum sensing for navigation, mapping and detection. Chinese scientists have even said they are building a quantum-based radar to find stealth aircraft with a small electromagnetic storm, though quantum specialists outside China have questioned their claims. He and his start-up, with offices in Sydney, Los Angeles, Berlin and Oxford, are among a cutting-edge group of global quantum leaders who see hyperbole and statecraft in many Chinese quantum announcements and hope to capitalize on what technology-sharing partnerships like the AUKUS security agreement represent. “AUKUS, for us, is exceptionally important,” said Professor Biercuk, noting that Q-CTRL works on sensors and quantum computing. The company’s main software product, which “stabilizes the hardware against everything that goes wrong in the field,” Professor Biercuk said, is already being used by quantum developers in the United States, Canada and Europe, where precise sensor technology is also advancing.

Persons: Michael Biercuk, “ AUKUS, ”, Biercuk Organizations: Australian, University of Sydney Locations: China, American, Australia, Sydney , Los Angeles, Berlin, Oxford, United States, Canada, Europe

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