Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is dead. Can Israel seal a hostage deal now?

The leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, is dead, the Israeli military confirmed. This leaves behind very important questions about what is next for the group and whether a cease-fire deal could progress.

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Brittney Melton

Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day. Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and Israel’s most wanted man in Gaza, is dead, the Israeli military confirmed. He was considered the mastermind behind the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to the Israeli government. The attack sparked a war that has killed over 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials. The Israeli military reported that he was killed in Rafah, in the south.

Hamas’ Yahya Sinwar chairs a meeting with leaders of Palestinian factions at his office in Gaza City, April 13, 2022.

Adel Hana/AP

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NPR put together a pair of focus groups in May with “double haters,” voters who disapproved of both former President Donald Trump and Biden. This was to help understand how they made up their minds about the candidates, but a lot has changed since then. This week, NPR went back to those very same voters to find out which way they are now leaning in the tighter-than-ever race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump. Biden is in Berlin, Germany, today to meet with European leaders for the last time during his presidency. It’s a farewell trip to a region that has been front and center since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The meeting holds great political importance, especially as the U.S. is poised to elect a new president while the outcome of the war in Ukraine remains uncertain. Here’s a look into this meeting’s significance.

Abrar Saleh Ali, 17, arrived to Milé refugee camp in Eastern Chad two weeks ago after the civil war in Sudan destroyed her home and she was seperated from her family. It took months for her to walk across the country and reach the camp, along the way she was robbed of all her belongings, After arriving at the camp, she found out that her sister had been killed.

Claire Harbage/NPR

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NPR’s Claire Harbage and Fatma Tanis spent a week in September speaking with more than two dozen women in several refugee camps in Chad, which is now home to over 600,000 people who have fled Sudan. The women said that the adult men in their families — their husbands, fathers, adult sons, and brothers — were almost always missing. Some men had disappeared, been killed by the Rapid Support Forces to prevent them from defending themselves and their families, or had been conscripted by the Sudanese army. The conflict has displaced over 13 million people and resulted in what the United Nations is calling the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

Florence Pugh in We Live in Time.

A24

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Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend: 🍿Movies: We Live In Time stars Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, who laugh and cry as a couple trying to make the most of their time together. The story jumps from their first meeting to their later crisis and several critical points in between. 📺 TV: Disclaimer stars Cate Blanchett as a successful documentarian who is confronted with a secret from her past. Each of the seven episodes propels the story forward, providing new clues, raising bigger questions, and leaving the audience eager to learn more. 📚 Books: Clean is narrated by Estela, a sharp woman who works as a housemaid for a wealthy family. She becomes the main suspect in the death of a 7-year-old who was found dead in the pool of the home where she works. 🎵 Music: Renowned guitarist and composer John Scofield will be celebrating 50 years of recorded music in November. To commemorate this milestone, Jazz Night in America presented him with a special challenge: Choose 10 pivotal tracks from his vast discography and reveal the stories behind them. Listen to the full setlist here. 🎮 Games: Super Mario Party Jamboree is packed with variety, including 112 mini-games, 22 playable characters, seven boards, five multiplayer modes and an exclusively single-player adventure. ❓Quiz: If you’ve paid attention to the presidential hopefuls and incoming pandas, you can pass at least half of this week’s quiz. But if you are like me, you will ace it all. Are you ready to take it on?

People protested in front of the White House in September 2023 to raise awareness of opioid-related deaths. A year later, the number of fentanyl-related deaths in the U.S. has dropped sharply.

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

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This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen. Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor

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