By Maayan Lubell and Nidal al-Mughrabi JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) - Israelis and Palestinians are signaling new efforts to forge a ceasefire deal, even a limited one, for the first time in a year that would pause the fighting in Gaza and return to Israel some of the hostages still held in the Palestinian enclave. Israel Defence Minister Israel Katz told his U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin in a phone call on Wednesday there was now a chance for a new deal that would allow the return of all the hostages, including U.S. citizens, Katz's office said. A Western diplomat in the region, however, said a deal was taking shape, but it would likely be limited in scope, involving the release of only a handful of hostages and a short pause in hostilities. Such a truce and release would be only the second since the start of the war in October 2023. The guarded optimism emerges as U.S. President Joe Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan heads to Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and then to Egypt and Qatar, co-mediators with the U.S. on a deal. Separately, President-elect Donald Trump has demanded that militants of the Palestinian Hamas group release the hostages held in Gaza before he takes over from Biden on Jan. 20. Otherwise, Trump has said, there will be “hell to pay.” Trump's designated hostage envoy Adam Boehler has said he too is involved, having spoken already to Biden and to Netanyahu. Israel says 100 hostages remain captive in Gaza. Seven are believed to be U.S. citizens. Citing Trump's threat of "hell to pay," Boehler told Israel's Channel 13 news last week: "I would appeal to those people that have taken hostages: Make your best deal now. Make it now because every day that passes, it is going to get harder and harder and more Hamas lives will be lost." Although Biden and Trump are working separately, their efforts overlap and both stand to gain from a deal. A U.S. official said Trump's public statements about the need for a swift ceasefire “have not been harmful.” The official said the priority is to get the hostages home, whether it is at the end of the Biden term or the start of the Trump term. Steve Witkoff, Trump's designated Middle East envoy, met separately in late November with Netanyahu and Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said a source briefed on the talks. TIMING IS APT FOR NETANYAHU The timing for a deal may never have been better politically for Netanyahu. The prime minister told reporters on Monday that Hamas' increasing isolation following the collapse of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad's rule opened the door to a possible hostage deal even if it was too early to claim success. Israel's military chief and the head of the Shin Bet internal security service were in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss post-war Gaza border crossings and administration, according to three Israeli security sources. The public optimism of Israeli leaders over the past week has matched the general tone in internal discussions behind closed doors, according to an Israeli official. For Netanyahu, concessions would be far easier now with Israel having reestablished its reputation as the most powerful Middle East force and its Iran-backed enemies in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria now posing less of a threat. Netanyahu's once-fragile coalition has been strengthened by the addition of Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and his more centrist faction. Netanyahu, having achieved a ceasefire with Hezbollah in Lebanon, can complete the picture with the return of the hostages in a deal with Hamas. Over the past year, some of the far-right ministers in his cabinet had voiced objections, even threatening to bring down the government, should the war in Gaza end. But with Israel's enemies weakened, and his coalition strengthened, Netanyahu is far less vulnerable politically. Saar said on Monday that Israel was now more optimistic about a possible hostage deal amid reports Hamas had asked other Gaza factions to help it compile a list of Israeli and foreign hostages in their custody, whether dead or alive. A Palestinian official close to the talks and familiar with the positions of all the parties involved described what he called "a fever of negotiations" with ideas emerging on all sides, including among mediators in Egypt and Qatar. Trump's involvement had given the talks a boost, even if the sides have yet to present lists of Palestinian prisoners and hostages to be exchanged or to complete plans for a temporary or phased truce, the Palestinian official said. He said Hamas was willing to show some flexibility should there be guarantees Israel would not resume the fighting. It is unclear how the sides can bridge the largest gap that has persisted through numerous rounds of failed negotiations; Hamas demands an end to the war, while Israel says the war will not end before Hamas no longer rules Gaza. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken headed to Jordan and Turkey on Wednesday for talks on Syria, the State Department said. Israel is not in his official itinerary but there is always a possibility he might add the stop. (Reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Andrew Mills and Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Howard Goller; Editing by Daniel Wallis)Naveen Babu's death: Court seeks case diary
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NEW YORK (AP) — Angelina Jolie never expected to hit all the notes. But finding the breath of Maria Callas was enough to bring things out of Jolie that she didn’t even know were in her. “All of us, we really don’t realize where things land in our body over a lifetime of different experiences and where we hold it to protect ourselves,” Jolie said in a recent interview. “We hold it in our stomachs. We hold it in our chest. We breathe from a different place when we’re nervous or we’re sad. “The first few weeks were the hardest because my body had to open and I had to breathe again,” she adds. “And that was a discovery of how much I wasn’t.” In Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” which Netflix released in theaters Wednesday before it begins streaming on Dec. 11, Jolie gives, if not the performance of her career, then certainly of her last decade. Beginning with 2010’s “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” Jolie has spent recent years directing films while prioritizing raising her six children. “So my choices for quite a few years were whatever was smart financially and short. I worked very little the last eight years,” says Jolie. “And I was kind of drained. I couldn’t for a while.” But her youngest kids are now 16. And for the first time in years, Jolie is back in the spotlight, in full movie-star mode. Her commanding performance in “Maria” seems assured of bringing Jolie her third Oscar nomination. (She won supporting actress in 2000 for “Girl, Interrupted.”) For an actress whose filmography might lack a signature movie, “Maria” may be Jolie's defining role. Jolie's oldest children, Maddox and Pax, worked on the set of the film. There, they saw a version of their mother they hadn't seen before. “They had certainly seen me sad in my life. But I don’t cry in front of my children like that,” Jolie says of the emotion Callas dredged up in her. “That was a moment in realizing they were going to be with me, side by side, in this process of really understanding the depth of some of the pain I carry.” Jolie, who met a reporter earlier this fall at the Carlyle Hotel, didn't speak in any detail of that pain. But it was hard not to sense some it had to do with her lengthy and ongoing divorce from Brad Pitt, with whom she had six children. Just prior to meeting, a judge allowed Pitt’s remaining claim against Jolie, over the French winery Château Miraval, to proceed. On Monday, a judge ruled that Pitt must disclose documents Jolie’s legal team have sought that they allege include “communications concerning abuse.” Pitt has denied ever being abusive. The result of the U.S. presidential election was also just days old, though Jolie — special envoy for the United Nations Refugee Agency from 2012 to 2022 – wasn’t inclined to talk politics. Asked about Donald Trump’s win , she responded, “Global storytelling is essential,” before adding: “That’s what I’m focusing on. Listening. Listening to the voices of people in my country and around the world.” Balancing such things — reports concerning her private life, questions that accompany someone of her fame — is a big reason why Jolie is so suited to the part of Callas. The film takes place during the American-born soprano’s final days. (She died of a heart attack at 53 in 1977.) Spending much of her time in her grand Paris apartment, Callas hasn’t sung publicly in years; she’s lost her voice. Imprisoned by the myth she’s created, Callas is redefining herself and her voice. An instructor tells her he wants to hear “Callas, not Maria." The movie, of course, is more concerned with Maria. It’s Larrain’s third portrait of 20th century female icon, following “Jackie” (with Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy) and “Spencer” (with Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana). As Callas, Jolie is wonderfully regal — a self-possessed diva who deliciously, in lines penned by screenwriter Steven Knight, spouts lines like: “I took liberties all my life and the world took liberties with me.” Asked if she identified with that line, Jolie answered, “Yeah, yeah.” Then she took a long pause. “I’m sure people will read a lot into this and there’s probably a lot I could say but don’t want to feed into,” Jolie eventually continues. “I know she was a public person because she loved her work. And I’m a public person because I love my work, not because I like being public. I think some people are more comfortable with a public life, and I’ve never been fully comfortable with it.” When Larraín first approached Jolie about the role, he screened “Spencer” for her. That film, like “Jackie” and “Maria,” eschews a biopic approach to instead intimately focus on a specific moment of crisis. Larraín was convinced Jolie was meant for the role. “I felt she could have that magnetism,” Larraín says. “The enigmatic diva that’s come to a point in her life where she has to take control of her life again. But the weight of her experience, of her music, of her singing, everything, is on her back. And she carries that. It’s someone who’s already loaded with a life that’s been intense.” “There’s a loneliness that we both share,” Jolie says. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think people can be alone and lonely sometimes, and that can be part of who they are.” Larraín, the Chilean filmmaker, grew up in Santiago going to the opera, and he has long yearned to bring its full power and majesty to a movie. In Callas, he heard something that transfixed him. “I hear something near perfection, but at the same time, it’s something that’s about to be destroyed,” Larraín says. “So it’s as fragile and as strong as possible. It lives in both extremes. That’s why it’s so moving. I hear a voice that’s about to be broken, but it doesn’t.” In Callas’ less perfect moments singing in the film, Larraín fuses archival recordings of Callas with Jolie’s own voice. Some mix of the two runs throughout “Maria.” “Early in the process,” Jolie says, “I discovered that you can’t fake-sing opera.” Jolie has said she never sang before, not even karaoke. But the experience has left her with a newfound appreciation of opera and its healing properties. “I wonder if it’s something you lean into as you get older,” Jolie says. “Maybe your depth of pain is bigger, your depth of loss is bigger, and that sound in opera meets that, the enormity of it.” If Larraín’s approach to “Maria” is predicated on an unknowingness, he's inclined to say something similar about his star. “Because of media and social media, some people might think that they know a lot about Angelina,” he says. “Maria, I read nine biographies of her. I saw everything. I read every interview. I made this movie. But I don’t think I would be capable of telling you who she was us. So if there’s an element in common, it’s that. They carry an enormous amount of mystery. Even if you think that you know them, you don’t.” Whether “Maria” means more acting in the future for Jolie, she's not sure. “There's not a clear map,” she says. Besides, Jolie isn't quite ready to shake Callas. “When you play a real person, you feel at some point that they become your friend,” says Jolie. “Right now, it’s still a little personal. It’s funny, I’ll be at a premiere or I’ll walk into a room and someone will start blaring her music for fun, but I have this crazy internal sense memory of dropping to my knees and crying.” Jake Coyle, The Associated PressThis opening marks the Spanish brand's fifth store in the region, consolidating its presence in the Setúbal district, where it opened for the first time in 2022, with stores in Setúbal and Montijo. In 2023, the group expanded its network to the municipality of Seixal, with the opening of a space in Corroios. The new supermarket will bring with it 90 new jobs, reaffirming Mercadona 's positive economic impact on the communities where it operates. The new store in Barreiro represents another step in Mercadona's expansion in Portugal, a country it entered in 2019 and where it currently has 49 supermarkets. The company's strategy has been marked by a strong focus on the quality of customer service and proximity actions with local communities. In addition to the direct economic impact, with the creation of jobs, Mercadona has taken an active role in combating food waste and supporting social solidarity initiatives, reinforcing its image as a brand committed not only to the market but also to society. The opening of the store in Lavradio promises not only another option for consumers in Barreiro but also a significant contribution to the social and economic cohesion of the region.
