When discussions began over releasing Israeli hostages shortly after the October 7 attack by Hamas, the negotiators tasked to strike a deal were mostly intelligence and security professionals. But in February, Israel made an important change that those now involved say has had a profound slowing effect on the discussions to resurrect the broken ceasefire: The file was taken over by the prime minister’s closest political aide, Ron Dermer.

With Dermer, says a source involved in the negotiations, there’s a “significant difference in momentum,” from when Israel’s team was led by intelligence chiefs David Barnea and Ronen Bar.

“There is a clear shift in [Israeli] priorities,” the source said. “Negotiations are seemingly being politicized from the Israeli team.”

Now, Barnea, who directs the Mossad, has been sidelined and Bar, who ran the internal security service Shin Bet, has been fired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, causing an uproar in Israel.

The decision to push aside career national security professionals in favor of Netanyahu’s closest adviser was intended to give Netanyahu more control over the negotiation process, an Israeli source familiar with the negotiations said.

An Israeli official pushed back on claims that Dermer’s position at the helm of negotiations has hampered progress or politicized the negotiations, saying, “Negotiations need to be judged by results, not process.”

An Israeli official pushed back on claims that Dermer’s position at the helm of negotiations has hampered progress or politicized the negotiations, saying “negotiations need to be judged by results, not process.”

“To reach a deal, you need someone who actually represents the will of the government that will authorize said deal, not ‘dissent,’ which only served to undermine negotiations,” the official said.

The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that started as President Donald Trump took office collapsed last month when Israel re-launched its military operations and US and Israeli officials accused Hamas of rejecting a deal to extend it, which Hamas denied.

There had long been indications Israel planned to resume its war against Hamas after the first phase of the ceasefire deal, when 38 Israeli and Thai hostages were released over six weeks.

Netanyahu regularly cites freeing the hostages as a top priority. But so is the destruction of Hamas, and critics have accused him of prioritizing the latter at the expense of the former, namely because that is also where the prime minister’s political interests lie.

Destroying Hamas has long been the priority of key right-wing members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, who have invariably threatened and followed through on threats to quit the government.

With Dermer in charge of the negotiations, Netanyahu can more deftly manage the delicate political balancing act that has influenced Israeli decision-making at every critical turn of the ceasefire negotiations.

During the many months of ceasefire negotiations last year that ultimately led to a ceasefire deal in January, Israeli security officials balked at Netanyahu’s shifting positions and stall tactics that they believed were influenced by political considerations and delayed the brokering of a deal. But with Dermer now in charge and intelligence leaders marginalized, those dissenting views have featured less prominently in Israeli security discussions and in Israeli press reports.

While in the US to meet Trump earlier this week, Netanyahu rejected accusations that freeing the hostages isn’t a top priority.

“The president looked at me and told the journalists who were present: ‘This man is working constantly to free the hostages.’ I hope that this shatters the lie that is being circulated to the effect that I am not working for them, that I don’t care. I do care, and I am doing it and we will be successful,” Netanyahu said.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum in Israel recently made a direct appeal to Dermer, whose title is the Minister of Strategic Affairs, accusing him of leaving them “in complete darkness.”

“When you were appointed as head of the negotiating team, we were promised that this would help reach a breakthrough on a new agreement,” the letter said. “In reality, more than a month has passed and there is no progress in sight.”

Barnea and Bar had regularly shuttled to Egypt and Qatar, as well as other countries, for ceasefire talks that included the heads of the CIA, Egyptian intelligence and the prime minister of Qatar.

Now Dermer speaks less with mediators from Egypt and Qatar, which maintain direct relationships with Hamas, according to the source involved in the negotiations.

The US point person has also shifted from the former CIA director to the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who has accused Hamas of intransigence that caused the recent ceasefire to break down.

“If you’re the Trump team, you blame Hamas but behind the scenes I believe they are trying to push both sides,” the American who works with the hostage families said.

A spokesperson for Witkoff didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ongoing negotiations to release hostages

Witkoff and US hostage envoy Adam Boehler have tried to figure out formulas to get Hamas to release the remaining Americans – one living and four dead – and get the truce extended enough to try to negotiate the next phase.

“The US is doing everything possible to release alive and deceased US hostages, which necessitates the deal,” said an Egyptian official. While Israel “doesn’t see hostages superseding breaking Hamas.”

Most recently, Hamas agreed to an Egypt- and Qatar-backed proposal that mirrored one Witkoff presented last month to release the lone living American hostage, Edan Alexander, along with four others and extend the peace through Ramadan and Passover.

Israel quickly countered, demanding 11 living hostages, almost half of the 24 remaining. That would more dramatically cut into what Hamas views as their greatest leverage over Israel.

“We’re still working on the Witkoff plan for an extension,” said a diplomat familiar with the discussions. “I think we have some wiggle room that we can work on.”

Israel had early in the ceasefire delayed launching negotiations for the second phase whose terms stipulated the release of all remaining hostages, a permanent ceasefire and a withdrawal by Israel’s military from Gaza.

That could have meant the survival of Hamas – even if not in power – and flown in the face of Netanyahu’s goal of “total victory.” It would also have threatened Netanyahu’s government.

Those second phase talks never began.

“There’s no clarity on the [Israeli] objective,” the first source involved in the talks said, adding: “Americans are getting impatient.”

As Israel’s latest operations have taken the death toll in Gaza over 50,000, there has been promising movement to resurrect the truce, those involved say.

Hamas is feeling the pressure, both from Israel’s military and widescale protests by Palestinians in Gaza, said a US official familiar with the negotiations.

“Hamas is struggling for oxygen,” said the official who accused Hamas of missing American opportunities last month to keep the ceasefire going. “They’re not very quick to move.”

The American working with the hostage families has felt “some air being breathed back into the process.”

“There’s a real sense of urgency and push on the part of the Americans and the [Egyptian and Qatari] mediators,” the source involved in the negotiations said.

To try to salvage the ceasefire, hostage envoy Boehler made an unprecedented move: meeting directly with officials from Hamas, which the US considers a terrorist organization.

With much of Hamas’ leadership inside Gaza decimated, it’s not clear if the military leaders still fighting Israel are on the same page as the political leadership engaging with mediators, including Boehler, the source involved in the negotiations said.

“Stubbornness in Hamas also unhelpful. They need to account for the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza,” the source said.

Meanwhile, the discussions continue with the Israeli team led by Dermer, but which still includes security professionals working on the technical details.

“The Israeli team is putting a lot of effort, but the way it’s being managed tactically from the top,” the source said, “the current structure of the negotiation team is not as helpful as needed for progress.”

Israel has released a Palestinian man who was controversially arrested at the age of 13, after he spent nearly a decade in jail.

“Ahmad has completed his 10-year sentence and he is a free person now,” Zabarqa said. “The Israeli authorities have imposed restriction on the family as far as holding a welcome ceremony for Ahmad or talking to the media. “

Ahmad Manasra was arrested and imprisoned in 2015 after being caught with his cousin Hassan who stabbed two Israelis in East Jerusalem.

Hassan was shot dead at the scene while Manasra was run over by a car.

Manasra’s case gained international attention after a video emerged of crowds shouting abuse at him after the incident while he lies motionless, seriously injured and crying out. Other footage allegedly shows Israeli officials interrogating Manasra under duress as he is visibly shaken and vulnerable, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

He was sentenced to 12 years for attempted murder in 2016, despite Israeli courts’ recognizing he had not been involved in the stabbings, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society added. His sentence was revised down to nine and a half years following an appeal in 2017

International groups have repeatedly called on Israeli authorities for his release over the years over concerns of his treatment and extended stays in solitary confinement, coupled with mental health issues and a schizophrenia diagnosis.

“His physical and medical condition is very difficult as he suffers from head injuries and physiological mental health as he was in solitary confinement and was subjected to harsh interrogation when he was a child,” his lawyer said.

Israel’s prison authorities confirmed Manasra was being released on Thursday, adding “Israel is a state of law, we don’t torture people here.”

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has said his nation is “not afraid,” in his first public comments on the escalating trade war with the United States that has tanked international markets and fueled fears of a global recession.

“There are no winners in a trade war, and going against the world will only lead to self-isolation,” Xi told Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in Beijing on Friday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

“For over 70 years, China’s development has relied on self-reliance and hard work — never on handouts from others, and it is not afraid of any unjust suppression,” Xi added. “Regardless of how the external environment changes, China will remain confident, stay focused, and concentrate on managing its own affairs well.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

As civil war-torn Myanmar struggles to recover from a devastating earthquake, the United States is facing criticism that it has abandoned the country in its hour of need – and is ceding global leadership on disaster response to its rivals.

The 7.7-magnitude quake, which struck on March 28 and killed thousands, is the first major natural disaster since the Trump administration canceled billions of dollars in lifesaving programs under its drive to dismantle the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the main US humanitarian aid agency.

USAID used to administer most of America’s foreign aid – 61% of the $71 billion total budget in 2023. But since taking office in January, the Trump administration has laid off thousands of its employees, and cut 83% of USAID programs – including staff and programs working to help Myanmar. On Wednesday, they also announced that all foreign staff would be laid off.

Those cuts have been felt in the meager US response to the Myanmar quake, according to experts, exposing a void in international relief measures for major catastrophes.

“Not only did the United States only send a paltry amount of assistance, it sent only three workers, which then subsequently were fired while they were on the ground in Myanmar providing assistance.”

At least 3,550 people died and nearly 5,000 others were injured when the earthquake hit the impoverished Southeast Asian nation – which has already endured years of civil war since a military coup in 2021, leaving nearly 20 million people in need of aid.

The military government does not control all of the resource-rich country, as it battles a patchwork of powerful ethnic militias and pro-democracy groups.

“The needs are massive right now,” said Matthew Smith, CEO of human rights organization Fortify Rights, based in neighboring Thailand. “And unfortunately, the aid effort is not as robust as it could or should be.”

Two days after the quake, the US pledged $2 million in assistance to Myanmar – later increased to a total of $9 million – for emergency shelter, food, medical care and water, according to a post on X from State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce.

But Smith says that with minimal staffing on the ground, it is unclear how that money would be channeled.

“There’s nobody to administer that aid, there (are) no aid workers on the ground, there’s no deployment happening,” Smith said. “To so drastically cut it the way that they have was reckless and irresponsible.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the American response in Brussels last week. The US is “not the government of the world,” he said, adding that although Washington would continue to provide some humanitarian assistance, others should do more.

“There are a lot of other countries in the world and everyone should pitch in,” Rubio said. “I don’t think it’s fair to assume that the United States needs to continue to share the burden (of) 60-70% of humanitarian aid around the world.”

Comparisons have been made to the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria in February 2023, when the US deployed hundreds of relief workers and pledged $185 million in assistance.

“In the past, the US government has certainly been one of the most effective response teams to mass-scale natural disasters,” Smith said.

‘Strategic mistake’

Multiple countries are filling the gap left by Washington’s limited earthquake response, including China, Russia and India – which have sent aid, rescue teams and mobile medical units to Myanmar.

Tom Fletcher, the United Nations’ humanitarian affairs chief – who spent several days visiting the areas worst affected by the quake – said the world “can’t be reliant on US support alone.”

This year’s humanitarian appeal from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has only been 7% funded – which will hamper relief efforts around the world, he added.

“I’ve been in touch with China, with Russia, other countries that are moving aid in to try to ensure that we get as much global support as possible,” Fletcher said.

Beyond the humanitarian impact of the US retreat on assistance, ex-USAID official Bencosme said ceding this ground to adversaries such as Beijing and Moscow is a “strategic mistake” from a soft power perspective.

“Other actors will fill in that leadership void, which makes it difficult for the US to leverage international assistance or international help in the future,” Bencosme said.

Smith, of Fortify Rights, said some of the countries providing help to Myanmar are also facilitating the military’s attacks on rebel-held areas, which have continued since the disaster.

“It’s deeply troubling, ironic sadly, in some ways that the same countries that are providing the Myanmar military junta with weapons that the junta is using to kill civilians, those are the same countries now arriving into Myanmar to help with the aid effort,” he said.

Reduced to ashes

For the homeless residents of Mandalay’s Sein Pan district, in the epicenter of the earthquake zone, aid can’t come fast enough.

The informal settlement of wooden shacks was built on a landfill dump, and the tremors ignited a huge fire which spread rapidly, residents said.

“The fireball emerged from the ground immediately after the earthquake,” said resident Kyi Thein, as she stood on the charred remains of her home. “The fire spread out across the district and wiped out all 400 houses. Everybody ran away and now nothing remains.”

“I hope the government authorities will provide aid to us,” Kyi Thein said. “We are now depending on private donors for a living, but we need support.”

Another Sein Pan resident, who did not wish to share her name for security reasons, said the flames were so intense that they were unable to save any possessions.

“The entire neighborhood was reduced to ashes,” she said. “I’m relieved to have survived. I just want my home back.”

In the quake’s aftermath, junta leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing made a rare request for international aid. But the UN human rights office says the military has also been using its routine strategy of blocking and controlling access to aid and humanitarian workers.

Two weeks after the disaster struck, workers in the impacted areas are no longer looking for survivors – they have now switched to a recovery and aid operation.

But the challenges of doing so without the support they need are growing.

“We need to use proper machines to recover bodies under the collapsed buildings,” said 41-year-old Ei Mon Khine, an official from a social assistance association who was working on the scene. “When the rescuers do not arrive in time, the dead bodies become spoiled and deformed,” making it harder to recover the remains, she said.

People who have lost their homes are also dealing with temperatures of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), along with thunderstorms that rolled through last weekend.

“There was heavy wind and rain, and you have people living in tents outside on the street, so it made an already difficult situation even worse,” said Sara Netzer, Myanmar country director for the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), based in Yangon.

“We need to ensure that we are already thinking about how we can build some temporary shelter for people, and that will also help prevent this spread of disease as well.”

Many quake-hit communities in Mandalay and the neighboring Sagaing region were already hosting those displaced by the civil war, she added, showing the “resiliency” of Myanmar, but increasing the need for help before more heavy rains arrive.

“I think it’s illustrative of the kind of race against time that we have right now, before the monsoon season starts here in Myanmar,” Netzer said.

Japan’s largest yakuza crime syndicate has pledged to end its longstanding war with a rival faction and refrain from causing “trouble,” authorities said, as the mafia-like groups contend with falling membership and increased police crackdowns.

The Yamaguchi-gumi, one of the world’s largest and wealthiest crime gangs, has been embroiled in a bloody feud with splinter groups since 2015, when more than a dozen factions broke away to form the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi.

Since then, intensifying violence between the two warring crime organizations has seen rival gangsters gunned down or stabbed in dozens of incidents, according to police.

The armed conflict, often erupting on public streets in cities across central and western Japan, has put pressure on authorities to toughen restrictions on the gangs.

“Yakuza” is a blanket term for Japan’s organized crime groups, which sit in a gray area in the country. Though they are not outlawed, the groups are regulated and monitored by authorities.

In 2020, police formally designated the Yamaguchi-gumi and its splinter group as gangs at war – giving officers the ability to increase surveillance, restrict their activities, including prohibiting the use of their offices and ability to raise funds.

“Their conflicts have become serious and unpredictable,” the National Police Agency said in 2021. In the past five years, police have also put several other gangs under close surveillance.

It is unclear whether the rival splinter group, Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, has responded to the ceasefire pledge. Police said they would be “closely monitoring the movements of both groups” as the declaration to end the turf war may be one-sided.

Membership to yakuza groups across Japan has been in decline over recent decades. In 2024, the number of members of organized crime syndicates stood at 18,800, hitting a record low and falling below 20,000 for the first time, according to police data.

Those official figures show the number of active members of the Yamaguchi-gumi gang have almost halved since 2014 – falling from 6,000 then to just 3,300 at the end of last year. The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi had around 120 members last year.

As yakuza membership falls, however, Japanese authorities are contending with a new criminal phenomenon: the “tokuryu.”

These anonymous gangs are not affiliated with a yakuza family, operating individually or in ad hoc groups. About 10,000 members of tokuryu gangs were investigated last year, with police linking them to violent robberies in Tokyo, and fraud schemes involving romance scams and investments on social media.

A major Australian IVF clinic has apologized for giving the wrong embryo to a woman who then gave birth to another couple’s baby, blaming the mix-up on “human error.”

Monash IVF, which operates more than 100 clinics across Australia, said in a statement staff were “devastated” by the mistake, believed to be the first of its kind in Australia.

It’s not clear whether either of the couples suspected a mix-up before the clinic discovered the error in February.

“On behalf of Monash IVF, I want to say how truly sorry I am for what has happened,” said CEO Michael Knaap in the statement.

“We will continue to support the patients through this extremely distressing time,” he added.

Monash IVF has not named the couples involved, nor has it responded to questions about when the baby was born, or who has custody of the child, out of respect for the couples’ privacy.

The error occurred at Monash IVF’s Brisbane clinic, in the state of Queensland, where the law recognizes the birth mother and her partner as the child’s legal parents.

Alex Polyakov, a clinical associate professor at the University of Melbourne and a fertility consultant at Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital, said it was the first incident of its kind in four decades of IVF in Australia.

“Australia’s regulatory framework for assisted reproductive technology is internationally recognized for its stringency and thoroughness,” he said in written comments.

“The probability of such an event occurring is so low that it defies statistical quantification.”

How did it happen?

The mistake was discovered in February after the birth parents requested to transfer their remaining embryos to another IVF provider.

After an extra embryo was found in their storage compartment, an internal inquiry discovered they’d received the wrong embryo.

It’s not clear how the error was made but according to the Monash IVF statement, another patient’s embryo was “incorrectly thawed and transferred to the birth parents.”

Knaap, the company’s CEO, said he was confident it was “an isolated incident.”

“We are reinforcing all our safeguards across our clinics – we also commissioned an independent investigation and are committed to implementing its recommendations in full,” he added.

The Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) said in a statement that it was “aware of the serious incident” and its immediate thoughts were with the families affected.

It said such incidents are rare and require “the highest standards of transparency.”

Similar errors have been made in the United States, including a recent case where a White woman discovered she’d been given the wrong embryo after giving birth to a Black infant.

This is not the first time Monash IVF has been accused of wrongdoing.

Last year, the company agreed to pay 56 million Australian dollars ($35 million) to settle a class action suit brought by 700 former patients.

The patients alleged the company didn’t disclose the risk of false positives in genetic testing on embryos, which led them to discard potentially viable embryos.

Taiwan prosecutors on Friday for the first time charged a Chinese ship captain with intentionally damaging undersea cables off the island in February, after a rise in sea cable malfunctions alarmed Taiwan officials amid tensions with China.

Prosecutors say the man was captain of the Chinese-crewed Hong Tai 58, registered in Togo, which Taiwanese authorities detained after suspecting the ship had dropped anchor near an undersea cable off southwestern Taiwan, damaging it.

The prosecutors’ office in the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan said they had charged the ship’s Chinese captain, whom they identified only by his family name, Wang, with being responsible for damaging the cable.

Wang has said he is innocent, but refused to provide details of the ship’s owner and “had a bad attitude”, the prosecutors said in a statement.

Seven other Chinese nationals detained at the same time will not be charged and will be transported to China, prosecutors said, adding that the case was the island’s first prosecution over damaging sea cables.

Reuters was not able to determine the ship’s ownership or immediately locate a lawyer representing the captain.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China has previously accused Taiwan of “manipulating” possible Chinese involvement in the case, saying it was casting aspersions before the facts were clear.

Taiwan has reported five cases of sea cable malfunctions this year, compared with three each in 2024 and 2023, according to its digital ministry.

Taiwan’s coast guard has in recent months stepped up efforts to protect its sea cables, including monitoring a “blacklist” of close to 100 China-linked ships registered to a country other than that of its owner near Taiwan, officials familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Taiwan said in January it suspected a China-linked ship of damaging an undersea cable off its northern coast; the ship owner denied the accusations.

Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has repeatedly complained about “grey zone” Chinese activities around the island, designed to pressure it without direct confrontation, such as balloon overflights and sand dredging.

Taipei was alarmed after another Chinese-linked ship was suspected of damaging a different cable this year, prompting the navy and other agencies to step up efforts to protect the undersea communication links, which are vital to the island’s connections to the rest of the world.

Taiwan, whose government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, has pointed to similarities between what it has experienced and damage to undersea cables in the Baltic Sea following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.