Thursday Briefing: Gazans flee Khan Younis

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December 7, 2023 SUPPORTED BY SAP

By Jonathan Wolfe

Good morning. We’re covering the distress of civilians in southern Gaza and a U.S. vote on aid to Ukraine.

Plus, remembering Norman Lear.

Injured people arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Tuesday. Yousef Masoud for The New York Times

Gazans flee Khan Younis, but refuge is hard to find

The Israeli offensive in the southern Gaza Strip has set off another migration of distressed civilians, as thousands of people flee the city of Khan Younis, where the Israeli military is waging close-quarter battles with Hamas fighters.

Many Palestinians have fled to the southern border town of Rafah, where the U.N. has said that shelters are packed beyond capacity. Many of the displaced were forced to sleep in the street or in empty lots and other abandoned areas.

Humanitarian conditions in southern Gaza have been growing increasingly dire. António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, said that the situation in Gaza was “fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole, and for peace and security in the region.” Here’s the latest.

Israel has urged civilians to leave their homes for Rafah or Al-Mawasi, an agricultural area near the Mediterranean Sea. But strikes have continued in both places. Gazans and aid groups say that Al-Mawasi, in particular, does not have the infrastructure necessary to ease the crisis.

Israel’s targets: The Israeli military released a photo of 11 senior Hamas military leaders gathered in a tunnel beneath Gaza and said that five of them had been killed.

No safe place: See what life has been like in Gaza during the last 60 days.

Middle East tensions: The war in Gaza has not only laid bare a chasm between many Arab leaders and their people, it has widened it.

“We can’t let Putin win,” President Biden said as he urged Congress to pass more aid for Ukraine. Kent Nishimura for The New York Times

Biden pushes Congress to approve Ukraine aid

In a televised statement from the White House, President Biden called on congressional Republicans to put aside “petty, partisan, angry politics” and pass a multibillion-dollar aid package for Ukraine.

He warned that failure to pass the package, which was scheduled for a vote yesterday afternoon, could enable President Vladimir Putin of Russia to reclaim momentum in the war and even draw in American troops. The Biden administration has told Congress that money for Ukraine will run out by the end of the year.

“This cannot wait,” Biden said. “Republicans in Congress are willing to give Putin the greatest gift he can hope for and abandon our global leadership.”

Details: The White House has asked for an additional $61 billion in aid as part of a $110 billion emergency spending measure. Republicans have insisted that funding to support a crackdown on illegal immigration be attached to the package.

In Ukraine, political frictions, including between President Volodymyr Zelensky and his military chief, have emerged as the country enters its second winter of full-scale war with Russia.

Hokyoung Kim

The losing battle to regulate A.I.

Lawmakers and regulators in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere are racing to catch up to growing concern that A.I. will automate away jobs, turbocharge the spread of disinformation and eventually develop its own kind of intelligence.

European officials say that they have been caught off guard by the technology’s evolution, while U.S. lawmakers openly concede that they barely understand how it works. The response has been a fragmented approach that reveals a fundamental mismatch: A.I. systems are advancing so rapidly and unpredictably that lawmakers and regulators can’t keep pace.

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Asia Pacific

Debris believed to be from the Osprey was brought ashore last week. Jiji Press, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Around the World

Representative Kevin McCarthy. Kenny Holston/The New York Times

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A Morning Read

Olivia Rodrigo sings about mistakes in her album “Guts.” Chantal Anderson for The New York Times

Our music critics looked back on the year to select the best songs. The resulting list is made up of 71 tracks that ask big questions, find new kinship between genres and help us to see the good in Ken.

Lives lived: Nguyen Qui Duc, who died last month at 65, fled Vietnam and found success as a radio commentator in the U.S., then returned and founded an exhibition space that became a Hanoi landmark.

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Norman Lear in 1979. Associated Press

Remembering Norman Lear

Norman Lear, the television writer and producer who reigned at the top of the American television world through the 1970s and into the early 1980s, died on Tuesday at 101.

Lear left a lasting mark with shows like “The Jeffersons,” “Good Times” and “Maude,” but his crowning achievement was “All in the Family.” His greatest creation was Archie Bunker, the focus of that show and one of the most enduring characters in television history.

Unlike many of the escapist sitcoms of the time, Lear’s shows introduced political and social commentary into the genre, bringing it into the real world.

“Archie was an oaf and a bigot, but a richly human one,” our television critic writes. Lear “imagined popular, populist TV as a form of patriotic dissent, embodying a spirit of big-hearted 20th-century liberalism.”

Joel Goldberg for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.

Cook: If you’re celebrating Hanukkah, these classic potato latkes have received top ratings from our readers.

Share: We’re looking for your favorite airport amenities, like the hot spring at Haneda Airport in Tokyo.

Read: 2023 was an amazing year for horror.

Simplify: Here’s how to scale back your skin care routine.

Play Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

That’s it for today’s briefing. See you tomorrow. — Jonathan

P.S. Andrés Martínez will take on the role of deputy editor of a new breaking news hub in Seoul.

We welcome your feedback. Send us your suggestions at briefing@nytimes.com.

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