Friday Briefing: The leader of Hamas is dead

October 18, 2024

	By Gaya Gupta

Good morning. We’re covering the death of the leader of Hamas and a Times investigation into Bangladesh’s secret military prison.

Plus, an interview with Hugh Grant.

Yahya Sinwar, dressed in a jacket and button-up blue shirt, looks away from the camera and walks in front of a few people. He has white hair and a beard and darker eyebrows.

Yahya Sinwar in Gaza City last year. Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times

Israel said it killed the leader of Hamas

Yahya Sinwar, the powerful leader of Hamas and an architect of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, was killed in battle in Gaza, the Israeli military said. Now, after his death, a route toward a truce in Gaza seems slightly more navigable, according to Israeli and Palestinian analysts. Here’s the latest.

Sinwar was killed Wednesday when Israeli soldiers patrolling southern Gaza unexpectedly encountered a small group of Hamas fighters, Israeli defense officials said. The soldiers engaged in a firefight, and three Palestinian militants were killed. Using DNA and dental records, the Israeli police were able to confirm yesterday that Sinwar was among the dead.

Since the war began, Israeli officials repeatedly said that their goal was the total destruction of Hamas, but no target loomed larger than Sinwar himself. Over his past year in hiding in Gaza, he was believed to be closely overseeing Hamas military operations.

Who was Sinwar? Known among his supporters and enemies alike for his cunning and brutality, Sinwar built Hamas’s ability to harm Israel in service of the group’s goal of destroying the Jewish state and building an Islamist, Palestinian nation in its place. He was in his early 60s.

Gazans react: When word of his death spread in Gaza, many people celebrated. Several blamed Sinwar for the devastation the conflict has caused.

What’s next: Sinwar’s death may allow Israel to claim victory and agree to a cease-fire deal, and new Hamas leadership could be more open to compromise. But neither side is likely to fold completely, my colleague Patrick Kingsley writes in an analysis.

A graph shows how much state polls underestimated Donald Trump in 2020.

The New York Times

How accurate could America’s polls be this year?

In every U.S. election, the polls diverge from the results to some extent. It’s inevitable when pollsters can only make estimates about who will show up to vote, some people don’t make up their minds until they’re in the voting booth, and bombshells can drop late in the race.

But the 2016 election polls were very wrong. The national polls in 2020 were even worse. Our experts examined three decades of polling to put these big misses into context. This is what they learned.

More on the U.S. election

Americans head to the polls in less than three weeks.

Kamala Harris sat down with Fox News for an interview, but she got a debate. Here are six takeaways from the combative meeting.

JD Vance told a crowd of supporters in Pennsylvania that he did not believe the former president had lost the 2020 election.

Do you have questions about the election? Send them to us, and we’ll find the answers.

Several Bangladeshi women sit near one another, mourning or looking sad.

The family members of a victim of an enforced disappearance in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Atul Loke for The New York Times

The nightmare of Bangladesh’s secret prison

Some of the worst abuses in Bangladesh’s recent past have come to light since Sheikh Hasina, its autocratic prime minister, fled the country. Among them is an underground military detention center code-named the House of Mirrors. There, political captives were pushed to the edge of insanity and death — often for years on end.

The Times pieced together the story of this secret detention program through interviews with more than two dozen people, including survivors who had previously been forced into silence. Here are their stories. You can also find the main takeaways from our investigation here.

MORE TOP NEWS

People sitting on makeshift benches set up behind a female idol.

Medical workers on a hunger strike in Kolkata, India. Sahiba Chawdhary/Reuters

India: More than two dozen doctors are on a hunger strike, one of many protests set off by the rape and killing of a medical resident.
Military aid: Pentagon officials worry that the flow of weapons to Ukraine and Israel could be hurting the U.S. military’s ability to respond to a new conflict.
Germany: President Biden will meet with the leaders of Germany, France and Britain in Berlin today to discuss strategy for the war in Ukraine.
Europe: The European Central Bank cut interest rates for the third time in about four months, as growth has been sluggish.
Ukraine: President Volodymyr Zelensky told E.U. leaders that his country desperately needed their support for his plan to end the war.
U.S.: A review of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump called on the Secret Service to replace its leadership with people from the private sector.
South Korea: The former police chief of Seoul was acquitted of criminal charges stemming from the Halloween crowd crush in 2022 that killed 159 people.
Egypt: President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi replaced the intelligence chief, who had played a leading role in talks between Israel and Hamas.
Yemen: U.S. warplanes struck five underground weapons facilities in parts of the country controlled by the Houthis.
Moldova: Officials are accusing Russia of waging a disinformation campaign in favor of a “no” vote in Sunday’s referendum on E.U. membership.
China: The megastar Fan Bingbing returns to the screen with “Green Night,” six years after her fall from grace over a tax scandal.
Peru: Archaeologists have excavated a chamber from ancient Moche culture that bears clues suggesting a woman ruled there more than 1,300 years ago.

Sports

A baseball player swinging with a catcher behind him.

Shohei Ohtani hit a home run during the National League Championship Series on Wednesday. Elsa/Getty Images

Baseball: Shohei Ohtani hit his second postseason home run to help the Dodgers take a 2-1 lead over the Mets in the National League Championship Series.
Tennis: Iga Swiatek hired Wim Fissette as her new coach after the split with Tomasz Wiktorowski.
Triathlon: Two athletes at a World Triathlon Championship Series event died in Spain yesterday.

MORNING READ

Luisa Cochella Lab

When the molecular biologist Gary Ruvkun accepted the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, he had a special somebody to thank: a tiny worm named Caenorhabditis elegans. Ruvkun’s was the fourth Nobel resulting from research using C. elegans, cementing the lowly soil worm’s outsize role in scientific discovery.

Lives lived: Liam Payne, who rose to fame as a singer for the British boy band One Direction, died after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires. He was 31. His fans and collaborators shared their shock and grief.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

A .gif showing different looks from bridal fashion week.

WONÁ Concept, via Sébastien Luke, Monique Lhuilllier, via Alexandra Grecco, Laura Gordon

Strutting down the aisle: Bridal fashion week brought structural silhouettes, lots of texture, more designers and collaborations than usual — and the “Bridgerton” effect.
The year’s greats: T Magazine celebrated four talents across music, art and fashion who, through patience and perseverance, have transformed the culture.
An unwelcome return: After years on hiatus, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show made its comeback this week. It shouldn’t have, Vanessa Friedman writes.
This ring won’t rule them all: The latest version of the Oura Ring, which is $350, may be useful for data-hungry health enthusiasts, but it failed this sleep-deprived parent.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times .

ARTS AND IDEAS

In a black-and-white image, Hugh Grant stands with his hands on his hips. He is bathed in light and looking just above the camera’s perspective.

Dana Scruggs for The New York Times

Hugh Grant is in his ‘freak-show era’

His name is practically synonymous with the quintessential British romantic hero of winning charm. But Hugh Grant’s recent run of strange and sometimes creepy characters plays so effectively that you begin to suspect you were mistaken about him all along. Or maybe he misled us all, as he suggests in an interview with The Times.

It’s what he calls “the freak-show era” of his career, playing a gallery of suave miscreants, seedy gangsters, power-hungry tricksters — and most recently, a charismatically articulate villain in “Heretic,” a religious-horror movie due in theaters on Nov. 15.

RECOMMENDATIONS

David Malosh for The New York Times

Cook: This 15-minute cacio e pepe recipe has an unusual twist: ramen noodles.

Watch: “Anora” is a bawdy modern fable, populated by strippers and strongmen and brutes.

Read: Our critic recommends three psychological thrillers that will make you squirm.

Travel: Here’s how to spend 36 hours in Hanoi.

Taste: These five lesser-known grains are nutritional powerhouses — and delicious, too.

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

That’s it for today. See you Monday. — Gaya

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

Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance.

You received this email because you signed up for Morning Briefing: Asia Pacific Edition from The New York Times.

To stop receiving Morning Briefing: Asia Pacific Edition, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request.

Subscribe to The Times Get The New York Times app

Connect with us on: