A long-awaited ceasefire deal in Gaza is being delayed after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Hamas for a “last minute crisis” that’s led to the postponement of his Cabinet signing off on the deal. Hamas refuted Netanyahu’s claims the group had backtracked on any aspects of the draft agreement.

The deal, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S., was announced Wednesday, setting off celebrations throughout Gaza as Palestinians expressed joy, relief and deep sorrow over the past 15 months of attacks. This is 14-year-old Ahmed Al-Athamnah, who was displaced from his home in northern Gaza.

Ahmed Al-Athamnah: “Enough with what happened to us. Enough with martyrs who are gone. Enough. It’s enough. It is better to go back to our homes and sit in the rubble. This is better for us. It is easier for us, instead of having martyrs every day.”

Israel’s war on Gaza, which U.N. experts, legal analysts and many rights groups have concluded is a genocide, has killed at least 46,788 Palestinians since October 7, 2023, according to official counts. Another 110,000 Palestinians have been wounded. The true toll is expected to be far higher.

The ceasefire agreement, which is expected to go into effect on Sunday, January 19, includes in its 42-day first phase a cessation of attacks on Gaza, a surge of aid into the territory, the return of residents expelled from northern Gaza and a limited prisoner exchange involving 33 Israeli hostages held by Hamas and some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. It also includes the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the most populated areas of Gaza and the opening of Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt. The terms of the deal are nearly identical to a ceasefire agreement that was advanced in May of last year.

Since the ceasefire deal was announced Wednesday, Reuters reports Israel has killed at least 70 more Palestinians in Gaza, including an overnight strike on Gaza City.

Mahmoud Abu Wardeh: “Overnight, they hit a house, where 35 martyrs were killed. We urge the mediators who brokered this truce to hurry up making it come into effect. For it to be today is better than making it tomorrow. For it to be at 7 is better than making it at 8, because there are martyrs every hour. We lose homes every hour.”

At least 20 people were killed in an Israeli attack on Jabaliya earlier today. Many others remain trapped under the rubble. There are also reports that more health workers have been killed since the ceasefire was announced, including Dr. Hala Akram Abu Ahmed, who treated patients at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital. We’ll have more on the ceasefire after headlines.

In Washington, D.C., Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, vowed not to “politicize” the Justice Department as she faced questioning by the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday. But when repeatedly pressed by Democratic senators, Bondi refused to commit to maintaining independence from Trump and his possible requests to prosecute journalists or other perceived threats. She also refused to rule out investigating special counsel Jack Smith or former Congressmember Liz Cheney. Pam Bondi also avoided directly answering questions about Trump’s vow to pardon January 6 defendants and refused to say Trump had definitively lost the 2020 election. We’ll have more on Pam Bondi’s hearing later in the broadcast with journalist David Dayen.

Senator Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, also faced a confirmation hearing Wednesday, receiving a warm welcome from his fellow senators as he expressed support for NATO, backed Trump’s “America First” approach to foreign policy and diplomacy, and repeatedly warned of threats posed by China, which he called a “dangerous near-peer adversary.”

Sen. Marco Rubio: “If we don’t change course, we are going to live in a world where much of what matters to us on a daily basis, from our security to our health, will be dependent on whether the Chinese allow us to have it or not. That’s an unacceptable outcome.”

Activists with CodePink disrupted Rubio’s hearing. As they were removed from the session, protesters yelled, “Marco Rubio’s sanctions are killing kids in Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela!” They also condemned his staunch support of Israel, shouting out, “You can’t be a warmonger and a diplomat!”

Four other Trump nominees faced Senate confirmation hearings Wednesday: White House budget director nominee Russell Vought, who indicated plans for major spending cuts; John Ratcliffe for head of the CIA; Sean Duffy, a climate crisis denier, for transportation secretary; and Chris Wright, Trump’s pick for energy secretary.

Wright is a fracking executive who vowed in his hearing to implement Trump’s plans to expand fossil fuels. The climate group Sunrise Movement said 10 activists were arrested as they disrupted Wright’s hearing Wednesday. Protesters held a sign reading “Oil CEOs Profit, LA Burns.” During his hearing, Chris Wright said he stood by past comments that linking wildfires and climate change is “hype.”

ExxonMobil has filed a lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and environmental activists after they accused the fossil fuel giant of carrying out a decadeslong campaign of deception that caused and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis. Exxon is the world’s largest producer of single-use plastic resins. In its legal counterattack, the company accuses Bonta of making false statements about its advanced recycling technology. This comes after Bonta and four environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, sued ExxonMobil, alleging the fossil fuel giant spent decades promoting plastics recycling even though many plastic products proved impossible to recycle at scale.

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday abruptly removed Ohio Republican Mike Turner as chair of the House Intelligence Committee, saying it was time for a “fresh start” during the new Congress. Turner later told CBS the shakeup came due to “concerns from Mar-a-Lago.” Turner is an outspoken military hawk and has advocated for continued U.S. military support to Ukraine. In January of 2021, he broke with his party and voted to certify Joe Biden’s presidential victory.

President Biden delivered his final Oval Office address Wednesday evening, warning Americans of growing threats to democracy and a “dangerous concentration of power.”

President Joe Biden: “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”

Biden did not name Trump or Elon Musk but warned about a “tech-industrial complex” and an “avalanche of misinformation and disinformation.”

In Ukraine, gunfire echoed over the presidential palace in Kyiv earlier today as Ukrainian air defenses fired on a Russian drone buzzing overhead. The incident came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held talks with visiting U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who agreed to send further military assistance to Kyiv as he signed a so-called 100-year partnership treaty with Ukraine. Their meeting came a day after Ukraine’s military said it had launched its largest attacks yet on Russian soil, prompting retaliatory threats from Moscow. Since November, Ukraine has increasingly been using U.S.-made ATACMS missiles and British Storm Shadow missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on hundreds of Russian entities and individuals accused of supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The executive order requires Congress to be notified before any of the sanctions can be lifted — a move that legal experts have called “Trump-proofing.”

The U.N.'s human rights chief backed growing calls for the U.S. and Europe to lift sanctions on Syria as the country rebuilds after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad. The sanctions were imposed shortly after the war in Syria broke out in 2011. As he visited Damascus Wednesday, Volker Türk also called for a national reconciliation process and warned outside parties against infringing on Syria's sovereignty.

Volker Türk: “The Human Rights Office of the United Nations will continue to support inclusive, nationally owned and nationally driven processes. There are still very real threats to Syria’s territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty, which must be fully respected and rigorously upheld.”

Earlier this week, six EU member states called for the temporary suspension of sanctions on Syrian transport, energy and banking, as the bloc assesses a new policy toward Syria following the Assad regime’s collapse.

In Haiti, the United Nations warns a surge of violence by armed groups has pushed the number of people displaced from their homes past 1 million. That’s more than three times the number of people displaced this time last year. More than half of those uprooted by the violence are children. The U.N.’s Human Rights Office reports that last year gang violence across Haiti left more than 5,600 people dead.