Israel’s Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Wednesday that it had received the “heart-shattering news” that Shiri Bibas and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir, are among the four dead hostages expected to be released from Gaza on Thursday.

The body of Oded Lifshitz is also expected to be released on the same day, in what will be the first handover of dead hostages since the ceasefire deal with Hamas went into effect in January.

“This news cuts like a knife through our hearts, the families’ hearts and the hearts of people all over the world,” the forum said in a statement. “It is with great sadness that we received the news of the return of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, along with Oded Lifshitz, who were kidnapped alive and will return deceased for eternal rest in Israel.”

But the announcement of the names was overshadowed by the Bibas family’s anger at the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, which they said had released the names without their approval.

The forum later released a statement at the request of the Bibas family asking the public not to “eulogize our loved ones until there is a confirmation after final identification.”

“This is a serious mistake in the conduct of the IDF liaison officers towards the Bibas family, which resulted from an unfortunate human error,” the source said.

Ahead of tomorrow’s releases, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “my own heart is torn,” in a video address posted online Wednesday evening.

“Tomorrow will be a very difficult day for the state of Israel. A wrenching day, a day of grief. We are bringing home four of our beloved hostages, deceased,” he said.

Netanyahu added: “We are grieving, we are in pain, but we are also determined to ensure that such a thing never happens again.”

The Bibas children, Kfir and Ariel, were just nine months and four years old, respectively, when they were kidnapped in October 2023. Their family has become one of the most recognizable victims of the October 7 terror attacks.

Lifshitz was 83 years old when he and his wife Yocheved were kidnapped from their home in kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. Yocheved was one of two hostages released by Hamas later that month, while Oded remained in captivity.

The forum said in a statement Wednesday that “along with the heavy sorrow, their return for burial creates certainty for their loved ones and closes the agonizing circle of uncertainty that has lasted for 502 days.”

“There are another 69 abductees being held captive by Hamas, for whom there is still no release date,” the forum said, adding that decision-makers should “expedite” the negotiations.

Lifshitz’s family said in a statement that “these are not easy times for us, after we were informed that our beloved Oded is on the list of the hostages who will return to Israel tomorrow, after being kidnapped alive from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.”

“For 502 days we hoped and prayed for a different ending, but until we receive absolute certainty, our journey will not end, and even after that we will continue to fight until the last hostage is returned,” the statement added.

The first time Brazilian biologist Fernanda Abra saw a Groves’ titi monkey, one of the most 25 endangered primates in the world, it was positioned right next to a road.

“It was totally exposed to road mortality,” recalls Abra.

Although figures vary wildly, by some estimates, 475 million vertebrate animals are killed by vehicles every year in the South American country, which is home to the world’s fourth biggest road network, and the Amazon rainforest.

It’s a problem that Abra, who is a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian’s Center for Conservation and Sustainability, Conservation Biology Institute, has been trying to solve by building bridges at the canopy level, so tree-dwelling species can safely traverse roadways.

Working with local partners including the indigenous Waimiri-Atroari people, who hold important knowledge about the wildlife in their territory in the Brazilian states of Amazonas and Roraima, Abra’s Reconecta Project has built more than 30 canopy crossings on the BR-174, a 3,300-kilometer (2,000-mile) highway slicing through the Amazon. In 2024, she was among the winners of the Whitley Fund for Nature Award, which celebrates grassroots conservationists, for her efforts.

Abra hopes the structures can help turn things around for some of Brazil’s vulnerable and endangered species, like the Groves’ titi, the Schneider’s marmoset, and the Guiana Spider Monkey.

Each bridge is fitted with cameras to monitor the animals using it, and those that approach it but turn away, so the structure can be redesigned to convince critters to cross.

“Every time I see the video of the monkey using my canopy bridge, it’s wonderful because we are avoiding the situation of road mortality,” says Abra.

Reconnecting fragments of forest that have been cut apart by human-built infrastructure can have other benefits, like giving animals access to more food resources and potential mates.

“Connecting the population, we can make it stronger and allow it to grow,” says Abra.

That could be crucial as Brazil builds more roads. In 2023, Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced plans to spend almost $200 billion on infrastructure, including new highways.

Similar approaches are being put into use across the world. In California, an overpass is under construction above the 10-lane 101 Freeway, that will provide safe passage for animals like mountain lions, coyotes and bobcats.

Abra also has plans for growth. The Reconecta Project is now expanding in Alta Floresta, a city in the west-central state of Mato Grosso, where she’s engaging officials from various government departments and representatives from non-profits and universities, she says. The canopy bridges will be supplemented with measures like speed bumps to slow down traffic and wildlife crossing signs to alert motorists.

She hopes to eventually expand to other areas in Brazil. “What amazes me about Brazil is the richness that we have, the wonderful biodiversity we have here,” says Abra, “and I will do everything that I can as a person, as a professional, as a conservationist and researcher to protect this rich biodiversity.”

US President Donald Trump’s push to end the war in Ukraine appears poised to hand key concessions to Russia, leaving Kyiv and its European supporters on the sidelines as they face the prospect of a peace deal made over their heads.

But they aren’t the only major players grappling with the fallout of Trump’s pivot to Russia that has upended years of US foreign policy in a burst of rapid-fire diplomacy.

In Beijing, too, the breakneck turn of events is seen to be raising questions about how the US peace drive will impact Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s carefully wrought partnership with Russian President Vladimir Putin – and China’s precarious relations with the Trump administration.

Just weeks ago, China appeared set for a key role in Trump’s Ukraine peace efforts. The US leader had repeatedly suggested he could work with Xi, using China’s economic sway over Russia to help end the conflict – important leverage for Beijing as it aims to avert a trade war with the world’s largest economy.

That would have aligned with Beijing’s longstanding efforts to present itself as a neutral party and voice of the Global South that is ready to broker peace in the grinding conflict – even as NATO accused it of supplying Moscow’s defense industry with dual-use goods. China defends its “normal trade.”

Now, Beijing finds itself neither involved in the negotiations as a Russian ally nor a voice of global gravitas – so far, at least, left on the outside of the swift developments that observers say have surprised Chinese officials – and sent them scrambling to find an upside.

A ‘reverse Nixon’?

The stakes are high for Xi, who for years has assiduously cultivated both a personal bond with his “old friend” Putin and his country’s relations with Russia – seeing his northern neighbor as a pivotal partner in a larger power struggle with the West.

The Chinese leader took a calculated risk as Russian tanks rolled over the Ukrainian border three years ago. His choice not to condemn that invasion and have his country serve as Putin’s lifeline – lapping up Russian oil and supplying Moscow with key goods – lost Beijing the trust of Europe and galvanized American allies in Asia to work more closely with NATO.

Chinese officials in recent days have voiced approval of the “agreement” between the US and Russia to start peace talks.

“China supports all efforts conducive to peace talks,” top diplomat Wang Yi said at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council Tuesday, the same day top Russian and US officials met in Saudi Arabia to lay the groundwork for negotiations on ending the fighting in Ukraine.

But comments from American officials in recent days are likely to have drawn attention from Beijing to potential underlying US objectives as it works with Russia.

Top US diplomat Marco Rubio named the possibility for future “geopolitical and economic cooperation” between Washington and Moscow as among four key points discussed in Riyadh.

Days earlier, the Trump administration’s Russia-Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg told a panel discussion in Munich that the US hoped “to force” Putin into actions he was “uncomfortable with,” which could include disrupting Russia’s alliances with Iran, North Korea – and China.

Observers are skeptical that Washington could shatter the Russia-China relationship, given their deep alignment against the US-led order and Moscow’s entrenched economic dependence on Beijing.

But any worries that may be playing out in China about whether Trump – a leader who’s repeatedly professed his admiration for both Putin and Xi – could unwind their bond is likely underscored by the echoes of past mistrust between the neighbors.

Bitter territorial disputes along their lengthy shared border erupted in conflict between Soviet Russia and a young People’s Republic of China in 1969 and were only largely resolved in the 1990s.

Then there’s the diplomatic coup engineered by President Richard Nixon and his adviser Henry Kissinger, who exploited a split between the Communist-ruled neighbors to establish relations with Beijing and swing the Cold War balance of power in the US’ favor.

Though that history is unlikely to be repeated, observers say even a hint of a new shift in allegiances is a boon for Washington’s goals.

“Even if it’s just 30% of a ‘reverse Nixon’ … that’s going to sow the seeds of doubt,” said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington.

“That’s going to make Xi Jinping question the strategic alignment that (he spent) the past 12 years to build with Russia – ‘maybe it’s not that dependable, maybe it’s not so solid.’”

If a day comes that China decides to invade Taiwan then, “the Chinese will have to look at their back and wonder – what is Russia going to do?” she added, referring to the self-ruling democratic island Beijing claims. “And for the United States, that’s deterrence.”

A place at the table?

But others say Beijing may have greater confidence in its ties with Moscow.

“Chinese and Russian relations are in a league of their own, they have a strong basis and strong institutional connections in the past decades,” said Yu Bin, a senior fellow at the Russian Studies Center of the East China Normal University in Shanghai.

Yu pointed to the two countries’ efforts to push for multilateralism and build out their own international organizations like BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as well as the need to maintain their own border stability. “I don’t think either side would let that go because Trump is there for four years,” he said.

Instead, China is worried “that once Russia and the US patch up their differences and achieve some degree of peace in Ukraine, that would free the Trump administration to turn its focus to China,” Yu said.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signaled as much last week, when he told European counterparts the US can’t focus primarily on security on their continent when it must prioritize “deterring war with China.”

Had Trump been unable to engage Putin directly, Beijing may have tried to ease some frictions with the US by working with Washington on bringing the Russian leader to the table – but now it’s unclear whether China will take any role in future Ukraine peace negotiations.

However, observers say that if an accord is reached, Beijing could send peacekeeping forces to Ukraine via the United Nations and would be keen to play a role in the country’s reconstruction.

For now, Chinese officials have used a flurry of diplomacy in recent days to try and win back love lost with Europe – calling in public statements for “all relevant parties and stakeholders involved in the Ukraine crisis” to “engage in the peace talks process,” in a nod to Europe’s right to a seat at the table.

At the same time, they’ve also looked to play up their potential to take a role, while implying that Trump’s apparent turn to Putin proves Beijing’s stance was correct all along.

Meanwhile, Ukraine, has raised the prospect that it could try and recruit China as its own ally.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has received little attention from Beijing since the start of the war, suggested as much following a Saturday meeting between top Chinese diplomat Wang and Ukrainian officials in Germany.

“It is important for us to engage China to help put pressure on Putin to end the war. We are seeing, I think, for the first time, China’s interest,” Zelensky told a news conference Tuesday. “This is mostly due to the fact that all the processes are now accelerating.”

As to who should be at the negotiating table, the Ukrainian leader added it should be countries “ready to take responsibility for guaranteeing security, providing assistance, stopping Putin, and investing in Ukraine’s recovery.”

Hamas on Thursday handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza — the first time the group has released deceased captives since October 7, 2023.

They include the bodies of Shiri Bibas, who was aged 32 when she and her sons Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months, were abducted from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, southern Israel by Hamas-led militants more than 16 months ago.

The two boys have become the most recognizable victims of the October 7 terror attacks, and the first return of hostage bodies marks a hugely emotional and somber moment for Israel.

The fourth body is that of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 years old when he and his wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Yocheved was released by Hamas on October 24, 2023.

Ahead of the handover, Hamas militants placed four black caskets on a stage in Khan Younis, behind which was a propaganda backdrop with slogans in Arabic, Hebrew and English.

A representative of the Red Cross was seen signing documents on the stage, before the caskets were carried into waiting Red Cross vehicles. White screens were set up to block the caskets from view as they were placed in the vehicles, with hundreds of militants and bystanders gathered at the site.

Hamas claimed in November 2023 that the Bibas children and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike, but did not produce any evidence. Israel has never confirmed their deaths.

The children’s father, Yarden Bibas, was released by Hamas earlier this month after 484 days of captivity. He was one of the 19 Israeli hostages freed alive under the January 2025 ceasefire deal.

The bodies will be taken to the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv for forensic examination.

The Israeli military had previously retrieved the bodies of multiple hostages in Gaza.

This is a developing story. More to come …

South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol appeared in a Seoul court on Thursday for his first trial hearing on charges of insurrection in the country’s first criminal prosecution of an incumbent leader.

Last month prosecutors indicted Yoon after accusing him of leading an insurrection with his short-lived imposition of martial law on December 3.

A justice ministry motorcade took Yoon from the Seoul Detention Center, where he is being held, to the court, outside which were parked lines of police buses to ensure security.

Prosecutors called for swift proceedings considering the gravity of the case, but Yoon’s lawyers said they needed more time to review records.

Yoon had “no intention to paralyse the country,” one of his lawyers told the court, adding that his martial law declaration aimed to tell the public of the “legislative dictatorship of the huge opposition party.”

If convicted, Yoon could face years in prison for his martial law decree, which shocked the country and sought to ban political and parliamentary activity and control the media.

The move unleashed political upheaval in Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a top US ally, with the prime minister also impeached and suspended from power, while top military officials were indicted for their part in the matter.

The court also heard a bid by Yoon’s lawyers to cancel his detention, saying the matter had been investigated in an illegal manner, and that there was no risk of Yoon trying to destroy evidence.

It was unclear when the court would rule on the detention, but a judge set the next hearing of the criminal case for March 24.

After the criminal case, Yoon also attended on Thursday afternoon a parallel impeachment trial by the Constitutional Court that has entered its final phase.

Witnesses testifying to the court included Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who has also been impeached and awaits the court’s decision on his fate.

“I am deeply burdened by the despair that each and every one of our people felt due to such extreme politics that took place before, during and after emergency martial law,” Han said.

“All procedures dealing with the emergency martial law must be carried out fairly and reasonably … so that there is no further spark of national division.”

The Constitutional Court is reviewing parliament’s impeachment of Yoon on December 14 and will decide whether to remove him from office permanently or reinstate him.

Yoon and his lawyers have argued that he never intended to fully impose martial law but had only meant the measures as a warning to break a political deadlock.

If Yoon is removed, a new presidential election must be held within 60 days.