Good morning. We're covering calls for a cease-fire in Gaza, and the women enlisting in Ukraine's army. |
Plus: A new, enlightened Homer Simpson? |
 | | A rally in Amman, Jordan, to show support for Palestinians in Gaza.Khalil Mazraawi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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Arab states step up their calls for a cease-fire |
Amid growing despair and rage, Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt are intensifying their appeals to the U.S. to pressure Israel for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. Failure to do so, they say, risks sabotaging the security of the entire Middle East. |
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has rejected calls for even a temporary cease-fire until hostages are released by Hamas, the armed Palestinian group that, in a brazen attack on Oct. 7, took about 240 captives and killed roughly 1,400 people, according to the Israeli authorities. |
Israeli officials insist that their military campaign must destroy Hamas, which rules Gaza and is estimated to have tens of thousands of fighters inside the territory. But Arab officials and scholars who study the Iran-backed militia argue that the goal is not only impossible but counterproductive, in that it would very likely generate even more violence. |
What's next: Arab officials will gather this weekend in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for a summit, with the conflict topping the agenda. |
 | | Women undergoing military training in a forest near Kyiv, Ukraine's capital.Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times |
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Ukraine wants more women in the army |
After 20 months of full-scale war, as Ukraine looks to replenish its forces, efforts are underway to bring more women into the army, including through volunteer groups that offer all-female training. Already, women are in combat in southeastern Ukraine, after the military abolished restrictions that kept them from certain roles and responsibilities. |
About 43,000 women now serve in the military, according to the ministry of defense, an increase of about 40 percent since 2021, the year before Russia's full-scale invasion. The male fighting force has more than tripled over the same period. |
The army's outreach to women is a step toward equality, to be sure, but one that also reflects the tremendous toll the war has exacted. Many of the men who volunteered at the start of the war are dead or wounded, and Ukraine now needs many more soldiers to sustain its resistance to the Russian invasion, even as men increasingly dodge the draft. |
 | | Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary in Brussels last month. John Thys/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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Orban's fading dream of an illiberal European alliance |
Just last year, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary hoped to lead a hard-right pan-European movement. Those aspirations are fading, deflated by poor performance at the polls by some of his most fervent admirers, as well as deep divisions over the war in Ukraine and Sweden's admission to NATO. |
Poland's governing Law and Justice party — a longtime partner of Orban's Fidesz party in its battles with the E.U. — lost a general election last month. Allies in Spain, Slovenia and Czech Republic have also faltered. |
And though Giorgia Meloni, who shares Orban's views on cultural issues and national sovereignty, is now prime minister of Italy, she has veered away from Hungary over its Kremlin-friendly response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. |
 | | Just Stop Oil, via Associated Press |
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- António Costa, the Portuguese prime minister, has resigned, hours after the police raided government buildings as part of an inquiry into corruption and "influence peddling."
- A proposal to rename a German day care center that is currently named after Anne Frank has become the center of a fraught national debate about antisemitism.
- The authorities in Brazil have raided neo-Nazi groups across 10 states this year as part of a push to prosecute far-right extremists.
- Orcas sank a yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar last week. A small pod has been slamming boats off the Iberian Peninsula, and skippers have been sharing tips for avoiding an attack.
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 | | European Space Agency/Euclid Consortium/NASA; image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi |
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 | | Pool photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth |
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King Charles III yesterday opened Britain's Parliament for the first time as monarch — with a speech outlining policies sharply at odds with his longtime support of environmental causes, including a plan to expand oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. |
Drafted by the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, but delivered by King Charles, the speech is a constitutional oddity, and one with a particular twist this year, as the new sovereign read out bills that included policies likely to run counter to his own once stridently stated views. |
 | | Evan Agostini/Invision, via Associated Press |
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Springfield in the 21st century |
Over three decades, "The Simpsons" has changed to meet evolving sensibilities. The show stopped making fun of gay characters, for instance, and no longer uses a white actor to voice Black and Indian characters. |
 | | Bobbi Lin for The New York Times |
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That's it for today's briefing. Have a great day. — Natasha |
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