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The popularity of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is plummeting in Israel, according to recent surveys, and deep political divisions that had been set aside after the Hamas assault of Oct. 7 are resurfacing in the country.But Mr. Netanyahu made it clear this weekend that he would not resign after the war in Gaza ends. Some analysts say he is determined to ensure his political survival and that of his governing coalition, Israel’s most right-wing and religiously conservative ever.Just over a year after his latest government was sworn in, Mr. Netanyahu remains dependent on far-right allies to keep his government…

A teenager jailed in Egypt, determined to bear witness to the abuses he suffered during years of detention. A proponent of peace in Colombia, shadowed by death threats. A father in India, fighting his own patriarchal impulses to give his two daughters a better life.With reports from six continents and 34 countries, the Saturday Profile in 2023 revealed people making a difference, mostly under the radar. Every week, our correspondents often sought out not the famous nor the powerful, but the unheralded with stories worth hearing.A Muslim cleric in Ukraine, now a medic on the front lines of the war.…

As Israel wages a war in Gaza aimed at dismantling Hamas’s military capacity, the armed group and its affiliates have continued to fire rockets at Israel nearly every day, aiming deep inside its borders and striking some of the country’s biggest cities.Since Hamas led a terrorist attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, Hamas and other armed groups have fired about 12,000 rockets from Gaza into Israel, a quarter of them on Oct. 7, the Israeli government has said.Most rockets fired from Gaza were shot down by Israeli air defenses before they were able to make impact. But the ongoing…

One day last September, a team of scientists clambered onto a small boat and set out into the Salish Sea, searching for an endangered population of orcas. The Southern Resident killer whales, one of several distinct orca communities that inhabit the Pacific Northwest, can be elusive, so the researchers were delighted to find a small pod of them. But as they drew closer, a putrid smell washed over the boat.The scientists eyed each other with suspicion before it dawned on them: The odor was coming from the clouds of mist that the whales were expelling from their blowholes. “Everybody is…

Christmas lights flickered on ahead of schedule. Families sang carols a little sooner. And the first presents of the season — by tradition hidden under a pillow or in a boot — appeared two weeks early.Of Ukraine’s many Western-oriented changes, put in place bit by bit since independence and accelerated during the war, one brought special joy this year: Christmas came early.After centuries of marking the holiday on Jan. 7 under the Julian church calendar, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church this year formally switched to celebrating on Dec. 25 with most of the rest of Europe — and pointedly not with…

Read: The 10 Best Books of 2023Best TV ShowsNathan Fielder, the Canadian actor known for his deadpan delivery, is back with a dark comedy called “The Curse.” Here’s a trailer. It’s streaming on Paramount+ Canada. (Mr. Fielder was an executive producer on “How To With John Wilson,” another show that critics say is worth your time.)Read: Best TV Shows of 2023Best Movies“Past Lives,” the debut film by the South Korean-Canadian director Celine Song, is “an examination of destiny, chance, love and the invisible thread that binds one soul to the next,” writes Alissa Wilkinson, a movie critic at The Times.…