Qatar’s Foreign Ministry says Israel and Hamas are closer to reaching a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza than at any time in the past. For the first time, delegations from Israel and Hamas are in the same building in Doha for negotiations, but they are not holding direct talks. Envoys of both President Biden and President-elect Trump are in Doha, as well. On Monday, Biden spoke about the ceasefire talks in the final foreign policy speech of his presidency.

President Joe Biden: “On the war between Israel and Hamas, we’re on the brink of a proposal that I laid out in detail months ago finally coming to fruition.”

Just last week, Biden notified Congress of a new $8 billion arms sale to Israel. In Israel, two far-right members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government — National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — have spoken out against a possible hostage deal, with Ben-Gvir threatening to quit if a deal is reached.

Meanwhile, Israel is continuing its assault on Gaza. Earlier today, an Israeli airstrike hit a home east of Khan Younis, killing at least nine Palestinians, including women and children. Alaa Al-Qadi lost his brother in the attack.

Alaa Al-Qadi: “As you may know, he was a displaced — we were displaced from Rafah, and he was staying with his in-laws. He was martyred along with his relatives, his brothers in-law, wife and his 20-days-old newborn baby. Just today we were scheduled to visit my father. … We were saying, 'Thank God, there will be a ceasefire, and we will all go back to Rafah.' But my brother was not destined to return.”

Israel has killed another Palestinian journalist in Gaza, Ahlam Al Nafed, who recently reported from the besieged Indonesian Hospital for Drop Site News and other outlets. In a statement, Drop Site News said, “Through her words and images, she ensured that atrocities which might have been silenced were brought to light, allowing the world to witness the brutal reality unfolding there.” Ahlam Al Nafed was killed as she was walking to Al-Shifa Hospital.

In other news from Gaza, Palestinian fighters killed five Israeli soldiers in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday. Ten other soldiers were wounded.

Nawaf Salam, the president of the International Court of Justice at The Hague, has been named Lebanon’s new prime minister. He has served on the ICJ since 2017. On Monday, Salam received the backing of a majority of lawmakers in Beirut. This comes less than a week after Lebanese lawmakers picked Joseph Aoun to be Lebanon’s new president.

The Los Angeles region is bracing for another two days of high winds that could bring what has been described as “explosive fire growth.” The National Weather Service predicts wind gusts up to 65 miles an hour. This comes as fire crews continue to battle the Palisades and Eaton fires and smaller blazes. A new fire in Ventura County burned 55 acres on Monday. Over the past week, the fires have killed at least 24 people and left over 12,000 homes and buildings destroyed or damaged.

Meanwhile, a number of residents of Altadena have filed lawsuits against Southern California Edison. The devastating Eaton fire began in an area where witnesses say they saw sparks coming from the company’s electrical lines.

The Justice Department has released special counsel Jack Smith’s report detailing what he called Donald Trump’s “criminal efforts to retain power” after losing the 2020 election. In the report, Smith said there was enough evidence to convict Trump, but that proceeding with the prosecution became impossible after Trump was elected two months ago. Smith wrote, “The Department’s view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind.” Smith went on to write, “Indeed, but for Mr. Trump’s election and imminent return to the Presidency, the Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial.”

The Justice Department has not yet released a second part of Smith’s report that covers his investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents.

The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding its confirmation hearing today for Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick to become defense secretary. The New Yorker magazine has revealed several Republican senators refused to meet with the woman who accused Hegseth of raping her at a Republican women’s conference in Monterey, California, in 2017. The FBI also did not talk to the woman, as well as other possible sources, including one of Hegseth’s former wives or former employees of Concerned Veterans for America. Hegseth was forced out from the group over accusations of financial mismanagement, sexual misconduct and public drunkenness.

The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer reports Hegseth’s supporters have intimidated potential witnesses from speaking out against the former Fox News host. Mayer also reveals a group of conservative billionaires, including Bill Koch and Richard Uihlein, plan to spend a million dollars to pressure Republican senators to support Hegseth.

Confirmation hearings for interior secretary nominee Doug Burgum and veterans affairs secretary nominee Doug Collins were scheduled for today but have been postponed.

The New York Times is reporting Donald Trump is expected to give Elon Musk — the world’s richest man — office space in the White House complex to run the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Musk, who has billions of dollars in government contracts, was the largest financial backer of Trump’s campaign and has been regularly seen by his side at Mar-a-Lago since the election.

Meanwhile, tension is growing between Musk and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. In a recent interview with an Italian newspaper, Bannon vowed to “get Elon Musk kicked out” of Trump’s inner circle. Bannon said, “He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy.” Bannon has criticized Musk’s support of the H-1B visa program used by many tech companies to hire foreign-born workers.

A federal judge has ordered the white supremacist group Patriot Front and its leader to pay some $2.8 million in damages for violating the civil rights of a Black musician who was attacked by Patriot Front members in Boston’s Back Bay in 2022. The attackers approached Charles Murrell III as he was headed to perform at a Fourth of July event, pinned him to a lamppost and kicked and punched him. They were also heard using a racist insult against Murrell.

​​In the U.K., two members of the direct action climate group Just Stop Oil were arrested after they spray-painted the words “1.5 is dead” on the grave of Charles Darwin at London’s Westminster Abbey Monday. The protest follows the news last week that 2024 was the hottest year in human history, with the average global temperature rising by 1.6 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. This is one of the activists.

Alyson Lee: “2024 was the hottest year on record. We have already passed through the 1.5 degree that was supposed to keep us safe. Millions are being displaced. California is on fire. And three-quarters of all wildlife has disappeared since the 1970s.”

The activist later said she believed Charles Darwin would approve of their protest “because he would be following the science, and he would be as upset as us with the government for ignoring the science.”

President Biden announced federal student debt cancellation for another 150,000 borrowers Monday. The relief targets students who were defrauded by their institutions, people with permanent disabilities and public service workers. The latest move brings the Biden administration’s total student debt relief to some $183 billion for over 5 million borrowers.

Student debt activists have been urging Biden to use all legal tools at his disposal to cancel more loans before Trump takes office, including for the most vulnerable debtors such as older people. The far-right-dominated Supreme Court in 2023 blocked Biden’s plan that would have cut up to $20,000 in debt for over 40 million people.

The youngest of the Freedom Riders, Charles Person, has died at 82. Person was one of 13 original Freedom Riders who risked their lives, frequently coming under violent attack, as they traveled across the South at the height of the civil rights era to fight against segregated interstate bus services.

Charles Person was just 18, a freshman at Morehouse College, when he joined the Freedom Riders movement, boarding a New Orleans-bound Trailways bus in Washington on May 4, 1961. Though the original journey was cut short after the Freedom Riders were repeatedly brutalized, including by Klansman, it inspired hundreds of others to join the bus desegregation movement, ramping up political pressure on the Kennedy administration. Interstate buses and terminals were desegregated later that year in November.