Israel and Hamas are engaging in another round of talks in Qatar on Tuesday as they near an agreement for a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages, according to a diplomat and a Palestinian in touch with Hamas leaders. The new talks were a sign that the negotiations, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, were making progress after months of failed attempts to achieve a breakthrough. If Hamas and Israel conclude a deal, it would bring some respite to Palestinians in Gaza, who have endured miserable conditions in displacement camps and relentless bombardments by Israel, and for the families of hostages abducted from Israel, who have worried for more than a year about the fate of their loved ones. The diplomat said the talks would focus on addressing outstanding issues, while the Palestinian said they would center on details of how to implement an agreement. Both...

The ridge high above Los Angeles is filled with clues. There are shattered pieces of electrical equipment, and a grove of madrone blackened by fire. Police tape is strung around one section of the sandy soil, now mixed with ash. Investigators have zeroed in on these rocky bluffs with sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean as the ignition point of the Palisades fire, the inferno that has destroyed at least 5,000 homes and businesses and killed at least eight people. A recent visit by New York Times reporters to the site — near the “crime scene,” as officers for the Los Angeles Police Department who were posted nearby described it — suggested a range of possibilities, some of them contradictory, for the origin of the fire. Charred wooden utility poles litter the ground. One plot of torched chapparal from a previous fire that firefighters thought they had extinguished on New...

China announced on Monday that its trade surplus reached almost $1 trillion last year as its exports swamped the globe, while the country’s own businesses and households spent cautiously on imports. When adjusted for inflation, China’s trade surplus last year far exceeded any in the world in the past century, even those of export powerhouses like Germany, Japan or the United States. Chinese factories are dominating global manufacturing on a scale not experienced by any country since the United States after World War II. The outpouring of goods from Chinese factories has drawn criticism from an ever-lengthening list of China’s trade partners. Industrialized and developing countries alike have erected tariffs, attempting to slow the tide. In many instances, China has retaliated in kind, bringing the world closer to a trade war that could further destabilize the global economy. President-elect Donald J. Trump, who will take office next week, has threatened...

Italy’s justice minister has requested the revocation of the arrest of an Iranian man sought by the United States for allegedly providing material used in a drone attack that killed three American soldiers, the Italian government announced on Sunday. Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, 38, was arrested last month in Milan and the U.S. Justice Department had asked for his extradition. He was charged with illegally providing material used in the attack by an Iranian-backed militia on a military base in Jordan. On Sunday, the Italian Justice Ministry said it did not have the grounds to extradite him. Soon after the announcement, Iranian state media and Mr. Abedini’s lawyer said he was free, but the Italian government has not yet confirmed that. The Italian ministry’s request for the arrest to be revoked came just days after Iran freed an Italian reporter, Cecilia Sala, who had been arrested in Iran three days after...

Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought two unsuccessful federal prosecutions against President-elect Donald J. Trump, resigned his post this week, according to an announcement buried in the footnote of a legal filing. Mr. Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor who lost a protracted battle with the Trump legal team in appellate courts and the Supreme Court, left his offices in Washington on Friday, according to a senior law enforcement official. His departure was expected. Mr. Smith had signaled his intention to leave before Mr. Trump, who had threatened to fire him, took office on Jan. 20. His final week was marked, fittingly enough, by one more legal setback at the hands of Judge Aileen M. Cannon, the Trump-appointed district court judge presiding over the Florida documents case, who temporarily blocked public release of his final report. The high-stakes saga ended with a single line at the bottom of Page...

Power lines near the Eaton and Palisades fires in the Los Angeles area were on when those blazes started on Tuesday, which energy experts said was concerning because electrical equipment has often ignited infernos during periods of high wind in California and elsewhere. It is not clear what ignited the fires ravaging Southern California, and investigators are likely to take months to come to any firm conclusions. But the fact that utility lines stayed on during unusually dry and very windy conditions suggests they could have played at least some role in spreading the fires, energy industry experts said. Power lines and other utility equipment have been identified as the cause of several major fires in recent years, including California’s most deadly, the 2018 Camp fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise. Other fires that were linked to electrical equipment include the 2023 fire in Maui,...

Parts of the South not used to winter weather were waking up on Friday to a mix of snow and sleet, as officials closed schools and warned that travel may become next to impossible. A winter storm warning was in effect from eastern Oklahoma to Virginia, and snow and freezing rain was falling in cities including Jackson, Miss.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Atlanta as of 7 a.m. Eastern. Key things to know In the Southern United States, it doesn’t take huge amounts of snow or ice to disrupt everyday life. Snow fell from North Texas to Memphis from Thursday evening into early Friday, with up to five inches reported in Little Rock, Ark., and Oklahoma City as of 5 a.m. Eastern, according to the National Weather Service. Parts of the Mid-Atlantic, the Ohio Valley and the Northeast could see one to three inches of snow from Friday into Saturday. Though the...

The United States ambassador to China, R. Nicholas Burns, said the Biden administration is making a last push to try to persuade China to stop transferring equipment to Russia for the war in Ukraine. Mr. Burns, in an interview at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, asserted that nearly 400 Chinese companies have supplied Russia with so-called dual use products, those with both military and commercial applications. He also said China has supplied 90 percent of the microelectronics used in the Russian war effort. With less than two weeks remaining before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office, Mr. Burns is raising the administration’s concerns about Russia, as well as China’s alignment with Iran and North Korea, with Chinese ministers in a series of meetings this week and early next week. He leaves the country this coming Tuesday. More broadly, Mr. Burns said that China’s policies toward Russia, Iran and North Korea...

The founder of the website used by Dominique Pelicot to invite dozens of men to rape his wife after he’d drugged her was indicted on Thursday in France on myriad charges, including some related to that case. If found guilty, he faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to 7.5 million euros, or about $7.7 million. The site’s founder, Isaac Steidl, 44, was released from jail on Thursday. The investigating judge’s office said he was placed under “judicial supervision,” had to pay a bail of 100,000 euros and was barred from leaving France. The website he created in 2003, called coco.fr, became notorious in France during the trial of Mr. Pelicot and 50 other men, who were all found guilty last month, mostly for raping Mr. Pelicot’s now ex-wife, Gisèle, while she was heavily sedated. One of the charges against Mr. Steidl that is related...

For 20 years, I’ve been studying Western recruits to domestic and transnational terrorist organizations. I’ve interviewed jihadis, white-nationalist terrorists and eco-terrorists to understand their motivations and to prevent future violence. In my view, the appeal of some of the most crucial elements that ISIS offered to vulnerable or confused Western recruits — doctrinal certainty, identity, redemption and revenge — are as strong as ever, and will continue to resonate with people who can find it online. Most of us, as adults, live in a state of spiritual confusion and uncertainty. We rarely get to choose between good and evil but often face a frustrating choice between actions that lead to marginally better or worse consequences. Rewards for good behavior are often ephemeral, and punishment for bad decisions is mostly of our own making. To some, ISIS offered a seductive alternative: moral certitude, backed by brutal enforcement. From 2013 to 2019,...