Israeli troops move toward Gaza City
The Israeli military advanced deeper into Gaza yesterday, approaching Gaza City from three directions. Israel has provided only limited details about the invasion, but photos and videos verified by The New York Times, as well as satellite imagery, showed troops and armored vehicles closing in on the city, Gaza’s largest, from the north, east and south. Israel has also continued to batter the territory with airstrikes.
At a news conference, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, asked other nations to back the country in its fight against Hamas. He forcefully rejected calls for a cease-fire, saying they were “calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism.” He added, “The future of our civilization is at stake.”
Asked about the civilian death toll from airstrikes, Netanyahu said that “not a single civilian has to die,” accusing Hamas of preventing them from leaving the areas of conflict. Israeli strikes and a ground offensive have killed more than 8,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry there.
The Israeli advance was heightening fears among those who remained in Gaza City.
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On Oct. 10, thousands of Russian troops began a major new offensive in eastern Ukraine to seize the city of Avdiivka, a long-coveted prize that would extend Russia’s control of the coal mining region of the Donbas.
But nearly three weeks into the battle, the Russian army has failed to make the swift breakthrough it wanted, and the fighting is shaping up to be perhaps the costliest of the war for Moscow. Hundreds of soldiers have died and more than 100 armored vehicles and tanks have been lost, the Institute for the Study of War reported.
Window to meet climate goals is narrowing, research says
Humans are cutting emissions far too slowly to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, the most ambitious limit set by the Paris Agreement, according to new estimates from a team of climate scientists. At our current rate of pumping out carbon, we are likely to pass that limit in less than six years, the research says.
Even so, the up-to-date numbers may help governments figure out how to meet less ambitious climate goals, including the Paris pact’s second-best limit of 2 degrees. Every extra increment of warming increases the risk of dangerous heat waves, floods, crop failures, species extinctions and wildfires.
What changed? Only two years ago, the window of opportunity looked somewhat bigger. But scientists incorporated an improved understanding of how air pollution affects climate change and recent emissions numbers into their research, producing the narrower estimate.
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Around the World
The Garisenda Tower in Bologna is not as famous as the Tower of Pisa, but it leans a little more. Lately, though, the dynamic of its movement has become worrisome, and city officials have closed a city-center square as they study what to do about the tower. A solution could take years.
Reviving London City Ballet
London City Ballet, a company that dissolved almost 30 years ago, is set for a reboot. The British choreographer Christopher Marney, who will direct the reincarnated ensemble, announced yesterday that the company would begin touring in Britain and internationally in the summer of 2024 before presenting a fall season at Sadler’s Wells in London.
The original company folded in the 1990s with mounting debts. The new London City Ballet will have 12 dancers and stick to chamber pieces, rather than touring large-scale classical ballets. The company is being revived at a precarious time for the arts in London, as many British performing arts groups are cutting costs and reining in their ambitions because of inflation.
