Good morning.
Joe Biden hailed a “genuine opportunity to make progress” and Palestinians celebrated in the streets as an Israel-Gaza ceasefire was declared following 11 days of attacks.
World leaders have welcomed the truce, which was proposed by Egypt and started at 2am local time, after violence that has killed 12 people in Israel and 232 Palestinians and pledged to help rebuild Gaza.
In a televised address last night, the US president promised to continue “our quiet and relentless diplomacy” and said: “I believe we have a genuine opportunity to make progress.”
What’s next? António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, urged Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers to observe the ceasefire and said Israeli and Palestinian leaders have a responsibility to “start a serious dialogue to address the root causes of the conflict.” But few analysts are optimistic of those being resolved soon.
Both sides are already constructing their victory narratives, writes Jerusalem correspondent Oliver Holmes.
In the US, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a resolution yesterday blocking a $735m weapons sale to Israel.
Meanwhile, US college campuses are increasingly becoming a front in the conflict, writes Ed Pilkington.
Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera has crossed swords with his pro-Israel colleagues by criticising attacks on Gaza.
Princes William and Harry have criticised the BBC over an interview with their late mother, Princess Diana
Princes William and Harry have criticised the BBC over an interview with their late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, for the British broadcaster’s program Panorama by journalist Martin Bashir.
They said the corporation’s failures were part of a “culture of exploitation and unethical practices that ultimately took her life.”
Their damning statements come after an inquiry by former supreme court judge John Dyson that found he had engaged in “deceitful behavior” by commissioning fake bank statements to secure the interview.
What’s the interview’s significance? The 1995 interview, watched by nearly 23 million people, made Bashir a star and produced one of Diana’s most famous comments when she said there were “three of us in this marriage”, referencing Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
It comes as Prince Harry has told Oprah in a new interview that the trauma of his mother’s death led him to use alcohol and drugs to “feel less like I was feeling”. He made the comments in the first of three episodes of Apple TV’s The Me You Can’t See, to be aired for the first time tonight.
Brazil’s former leader Lula says he would be prepared to take on ‘psychopath’ Bolsonaro in the 2022 election
Brazil’s former leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has said his country has been turned into a “global pariah” by its “psychopath” president, Jair Bolsonaro, but insisted it can be rescued.
In an interview with the Guardian, Lula – who is widely expected to challenge Bolsonaro for the presidency – did not confirm that he would run but indicated he was plotting a dramatic finale to his career.
“I’ll be 77 by [next year’s election]. I thought that was old,” Lula, 75, told the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips. “But then I saw Biden win the elections at 78 and said, ‘Well, I’m a boy compared to Biden so perhaps I’ll be alright.’”
Lula said the raging pandemic and country’s socioeconomic crisis meant it was too early to launch a presidential campaign – which would be his sixth since 1989.
But that he had what it would take to lead Brazil’s recovery and would do so if that was what his party and voters wanted.
Could he win? Polls suggest he is well placed to do so. One pollster recently predicted Lula would beat Bolsonaro in a second run-off by a margin of over 20%.
It comes after a supreme court judge quashed the corruption conviction against him in March, leaving him free to challenge Bolsonaro.
In other news …
Joe Biden condemned the “ugly poison” of racism as he signed the anti-Asian American hate crimes bill into law yesterday. The legislation will expedite the review of hate crimes at the justice department and give grants to local law enforcement agencies to improve investigation, identification and reporting of incidents.
New Yorkers could win up to $5m from the state lottery for getting vaccinated in a new “Vax & scratch” initiative. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the scheme, which will give people who get vaccinated at a state-run clinic a $20 lottery ticket, yesterday to try to encourage more people to get a shot. So far nearly half of New Yorkers have had the full dose.
An 11-year-old girl in Florida smeared blue slime on her would-be kidnapper to help police identify him. Alyssa Bonal, who was attacked on Tuesday, said she learned about the importance of evidence on the TV show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Shares in alternative milk maker Oatly surged as it made its US stock market debut yesterday. The Swedish firm behind the oat milk brand, which first arrived in US coffee shops five years ago, was valued at $13bn as investors bet on soaring demand for plant-based foods.
Don’t miss this: Hinge CEO Justin McLeod on the pandemic dating boom
In an interview, the dating app boss talks about its huge rise in users, his own difficult romantic past and why people are leaving their partners in search of new relationships. “People are looking for something more serious … People are being a little bit more intentional about what they’re looking for coming out of this,” McLeod tells Emine Saner.
… or this: “Almost everybody who finds themselves in a situation like Duran Duran sort of sabotages themselves”
Forty years on from their debut album, Duran Duran talk to Laura Barton about their new LP as well as their wild heyday, ageing and vaccines.
Last Thing: The US no longer wants to buy Greenland
Donald Trump was met with a combination of amusement and outrage when in 2019 he announced that he was considering trying to buy Greenland in what he described as “essentially a large real estate deal”. But yesterday, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, confirmed that an attempt to buy the Danish autonomous territory was off the cards during a four-day trip to the region. “I am in Greenland because the United States deeply values our partnership and wants to make it even stronger,” he told reporters. Asked whether the US had ruled out plans to buy Greenland, he said with a smile: “I can confirm that’s correct.”
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