First Thing: Israel and Hamas agree to four-day ceasefire and release of 50 hostages

Israel approves deal in which 50 Israeli women and children will be released in exchange for 150 jailed Palestinians and a lull in fighting. Plus, thousands sign up to anti-loneliness club in LA

Good morning.

Israel and Hamas have agreed a deal for the release of 50 women and children held hostage in Gaza in return for 150 Palestinian women and children to be freed from Israeli jails during a four-day ceasefire, both sides announced this morning.

The deal was confirmed by a senior US official, who told reporters that the freed hostages would include three Americans, one of them a three-year-old girl. The official said the first hostage release is expected on Thursday morning, and the total number of hostages freed could rise.

The US president, Joe Biden, welcomed the deal and thanked Egypt and Qatar for their “critical leadership and partnership” in reaching the deal. He added: “And I appreciate the commitment that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and his government have made in supporting an extended pause to ensure this deal can be fully carried out and to ensure the provision of additional humanitarian assistance to alleviate the suffering of innocent Palestinian families in Gaza … It is important that all aspects of this deal be fully implemented.”

What has Israel said about the deal? A statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said the “lull” in Israeli military operations would be extended for an additional day for every 10 more hostages released. It did not say when the ceasefire would start, though in his address to his cabinet, Netanyahu said the first hostages should be free within 48 hours of the agreement.

Sam Altman to return as CEO of OpenAI

Sam Altman is to return as chief executive of OpenAI after the ChatGPT developer said it had “reached an agreement in principle” for his reinstatement.

The San Francisco-based company made the announcement after days of corporate drama after Altman’s surprise sacking on Friday. Nearly all of OpenAI’s 750-strong workforce had threatened to quit unless the board overseeing the business brought back Altman and then quit immediately afterwards.

As part of the agreement reached overnight, the deal includes a new-look board led by Bret Taylor, the former co-CEO of the software firm Salesforce. It will include Larry Summers, the former US treasury secretary, and Adam D’Angelo, the tech entrepreneur and current board member who played a role in Altman’s firing.

What did Altman say? He posted soon after: “I love OpenAI, and everything I’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together.” He added: “I’m looking forward to returning to OpenAI.”

Jill Stein formally launches 2024 White House bid as Green party candidate

A new front opened in the growing threats to Joe Biden’s presidency yesterday when the leftwing environmentalist Jill Stein formally launched her third presidential bid in an online conversation with two fellow progressive activists.

Stein, 73, who is bidding to become the US Green party’s nominee, is the latest in a series of mostly leftist figures to announce candidacies with the potential to erode Biden’s core support in an expected rematch against Donald Trump in next year’s poll.

Having previously announced her candidacy with a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, she gave added substance to her campaign in a live Zoom conversation with Chris Smalls, a US trade union organiser for Amazon workers, and Miko Peled, an Israeli-born pro-Palestinian activist.

Why does her entry into the race have special resonance? She had a supposedly decisive role in tipping battleground states to Trump in his 2016 presidential election victory over Hillary Clinton. While winning just 1.4m votes nationwide, Stein won more votes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan than Trump’s narrow victory margins, prompting many analysts to conclude that her presence on the ballot was decisive in drawing progressive voters away from Clinton.

In other news …

A landslide that ripped down a sopping, heavily forested mountainside in south-east Alaska killed three people, injured a woman and left three others missing as it smashed into three homes in a remote fishing community, authorities said yesterday.

Pakistan’s decision to impose hundreds of dollars in exit fees for every Afghan refugee who fled the persecution by the Taliban has been condemned as “shocking and frustrating” by western diplomats and the UN. Refugees waiting to leave Pakistan for western countries under resettlement schemes are to be charged $830 each.

Dutch voters are voting in a knife-edge general election that will usher in the Netherlands’ first new prime minister in 13 years, with four parties from left to far right vying to become the largest in parliament. The election could set the country on a different course after Mark Rutte’s four consecutive governments.

A Roman Catholic priest in Alabama who was investigated by law enforcement after fleeing to Europe with a recent high school graduate he met through his ministry legally married after he returned to the US with her, a document provided to the Guardian showed.

Stat of the day: Crypto giant Binance admits to money laundering and agrees to pay $4.3bn

Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, agreed to resign from the company and plead guilty to money laundering yesterday. As part of a guilty plea, Zhao agreed to pay a $50m fine and would be barred from any involvement in the business. Binance also agreed to plead guilty, accept the appointment of a monitor and pay a criminal fine of nearly $1.81bn as well as a $2.51bn order of forfeiture to settle three criminal charges. The US justice department had charged the company with conducting an unlicensed money transmitting business, a conspiracy charge and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Don’t miss this: Anti-loneliness club offers friendship for $200 a month – and thousands have signed up

Americans are facing a friend shortage. This year, the surgeon general warned of an epidemic: half of us are experiencing “measurable levels” of loneliness at any moment, whether it’s related to losing a loved one, moving to a new city, financial or health issues, or the isolation that comes with remote work.

As with virtually every modern problem, a California startup says it has a solution. Groundfloor, which began in the Bay Area and will soon open a location in Los Angeles, is a social club with a focus on friendship. What sets it apart from other members-only clubs is that it is marketed to those seeking community rather than exclusivity.

Climate check: ‘The river took it all’ – Somalis wait for waters to recede as floods kill dozens

Just a few weeks ago, Somalis were praying for the heavens to open after a prolonged drought, following an unprecedented six failed rainy seasons, forced many to abandon their cherished nomadic way of life for ever. Now, they are praying for the rain to stop. Floods, described by the UN as a “once-in-a-century event”, have killed at least 50 people and forced almost half a million to flee their homes. The combination of two climate phenomena – El Niño and the Indian Ocean dipole – with unusually heavy seasonal rains have led to towns, villages, farms and pastures all but disappearing underwater.

Last Thing: Deep space astronauts may be prone to erectile dysfunction, study finds

As if homesickness, wasting muscles, thinner bones, an elevated cancer risk, the inescapable company of overachievers and the prospect of death in the endless vacuum of space were not enough to contend with, male astronauts may return from deep space prone to erectile dysfunction, scientists say. In what is claimed to be the first study to assess the impact of galactic radiation and weightlessness on male sexual health, Nasa-funded researchers found that galactic cosmic rays, and to a lesser extent microgravity, can impair the function of erectile tissues, with effects lasting potentially for decades.

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