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Minister of Finance Emadi meets with CEO of LSEGTEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli soldiers raided a hospital in isolated northern Gaza after forcing all the patients and most of the doctors to leave, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday. The Israeli military confirmed its troops had entered the Indonesian Hospital in the town of Jabaliya as part of an operation searching for Hamas fighters. Winter is hitting the Gaza Strip and many of the nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 15-month war with Israel are struggling to protect themselves from the wind, cold and rain. In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian city of Bethlehem was marking a somber Christmas Eve under the shadow of war in Gaza, with most festivities cancelled and crowds of tourists absent. Israel's bombardment and ground invasion in Gaza has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count. The war was sparked by Hamas’s attack on southern Israel in October 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage by Palestinian militants. Around 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, although only two thirds are believed to still be alive. Here’s the latest: Israeli ceasefire negotiators are returning from Qatar after ‘a significant week,’ prime minister’s office says JERUSALEM — The Israeli negotiating team working on a ceasefire returned from Qatar to Israel on Tuesday, the prime minister’s office said, after what it called “a significant week” of talks. After months of deadlock, the U.S., Qatar and Egypt resumed their mediation efforts in recent weeks and reported greater willingness by the warring sides to reach a deal. According to Egyptian and Hamas officials, the proposed agreement would take place in phases and include a halt in fighting, an exchange of captive Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and a surge in aid to the besieged Gaza Strip. Israel says Hamas is holding 100 hostages, over one-third of whom are believed to be dead. On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there was “some progress” in efforts to reach a deal, but added he did not know how long it would take. Israeli soldiers force patients to evacuate a hospital in northern Gaza, some on foot, Palestinian health officials say CAIRO — Israeli soldiers took control of a hospital in isolated northern Gaza after forcing all the patients and most of the doctors to leave, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday. Some of the patients had to walk to another hospital while others were driven by paramedics, according to Health Ministry spokesperson Zaher al-Wahidi. He did not specify how many patients had evacuated. The Israeli military confirmed its troops had entered the Indonesian Hospital in the town of Jabaliya as part of an operation searching for Hamas fighters. The army later said its soldiers had left the hospital. The military said it had assisted with evacuating the patients and had not ordered the hospital closed. However, al-Wahidi said only one doctor and maintenance person were left behind. The Indonesian Hospital is one of three hospitals left largely inaccessible in the northernmost part of Gaza because Israel has imposed a tight siege there since launching an offensive in early October. The Israeli army said Tuesday’s operation at the Indonesian Hospital came after militants carried out attacks from the hospital for the past month, including launching anti-tank missiles and planting explosive devices in the surrounding area. The Health Ministry accused Israel of “besieging and directly targeting” the three hospitals in northern Gaza. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said Israeli drones detonated explosives near the hospital and that 20 people were wounded, including five medical staff. The Israeli military declined to comment on the operation around the hospital. Syrian Christians protest to demand greater protections after a Christmas tree is burned DAMASCUS — Scores of Syrian Christians protested in the capital Damascus on Tuesday, demanding greater protections for their religious minority after a Christmas tree was set on fire in the city of Hama a day earlier. Many of the insurgents who now rule Syria are jihadis, although Ahmad al-Sharaa, the leader of the main rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has renounced longtime ties to al-Qaida and spent years depicting himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance. It remains unclear who set the Christmas tree on fire Monday, which was condemned by a representative of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham who visited the town and addressed the community. “This act was committed by people who are not Syrian, and they will be punished beyond your expectations," the HTS representative said in a video widely shared on social media. "The Christmas tree will be fully restored by this evening.” On Tuesday, protesters marched through the streets of Bab Touma in Damascus, shouting slogans against foreign fighters and carrying large wooden crosses. “We demand that Syria be for all Syrians. We want a voice in the future of our country,” said Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II of the Syriac Orthodox Church as he addressed the crowd in a church courtyard, assuring them of Christians’ rights in Syria. Since HTS led a swift offensive that overthrew President Bashar Assad earlier this month, Syria’s minority communities have been on edge, uncertain of how they will be treated under the emerging rebel-led government. “We are here to demand a democratic and free government for one people and one nation,” another protester said. “We stand united — Muslims and Christians. No to sectarianism.” Qatar says Gaza ceasefire negotiations are ongoing DOHA — Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said that ceasefire negotiations to end the war in Gaza were ongoing in Doha in cooperation with Egyptian, Qatari, and American mediators. “We will not leave any door unopened in pursuit of reaching an agreement,” said Majid al-Ansari, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Tuesday. Al Ansari added that rumors the ceasefire would be reached before Christmas are “speculation.” The ceasefire negotiations come at a time when winter is hitting the Gaza Strip and many of the nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 15-month war with Israel are struggling to protect themselves from the wind, cold and rain. Families of the approximately 100 hostages who have been held for 445 days in Gaza are also worried their loved ones will not survive another winter. In a press conference, al-Ansari also called on the international community to lift sanctions on Syria as quickly as possible on Tuesday. “The reason was the crimes of the previous regime, and that regime, with all of its authority, is no longer in place, therefor the causes for these sanctions no longer exist today,” he said. US journalist missing in Syria since 2012 is believed to be alive, says aid group DAMASCUS, Syria — American journalist Austin Tice is believed to be still alive, according to the head of an international aid group. Nizar Zakka, who runs the Hostage Aid Worldwide organization, said there has never been any proof that Tice, who has been missing since 2012, is dead. Zakka told reporters in Damascus on Tuesday that Tice was alive in January and being held by the authorities of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad. He added that U.S. President Joe Biden said in August that Tice was alive. Zakka said he believes Tice was transferred between security agencies over the past 12 years, including in an area where Iranian-backed fighters were operating. Asked if it was possible Tice had been taken out of the country, Zakka said Assad most likely kept him in Syria as a potential bargaining chip. Biden said Dec. 8 that his administration believed Tice was alive and was committed to bringing him home, although he also acknowledged that “we have no direct evidence” of his status. A former Israeli hostage dies TEL AVIV, Israel — Hannah Katzir, an Israeli woman who was taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, and freed in a brief ceasefire last year, has died. She was 78. The Hostages Families Forum, a group representing the families of people taken captive, confirmed the death Tuesday but did not disclose the cause. Her daughter, Carmit Palty Katzir, said in a statement that her mother’s “heart could not withstand the terrible suffering since Oct. 7.” Katzir’s husband, Rami, was killed during the attack by militants who raided their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. Her son Elad was also kidnapped and his body was recovered in April by the Israeli military, who said he had been killed in captivity. She spent 49 days in captivity and was freed in late November 2023. Shortly after Katzir was freed, her daughter told Israeli media that she had been hospitalized with heart issues attributed to “difficult conditions and starvation” while she was held captive. Israeli air defense system intercepts projectile launched from Yemen TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel's military said the projectile was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory, but it set off air raid sirens overnight in the country's populous central area, sending residents looking for cover. Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom said a 60-year-old woman was seriously wounded after being hurt on her way to a protected space. There was no immediate comment from Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. It was the third time in a week that fire from Yemen set off sirens in Israel. On Saturday, a missile slammed into a playground in Tel Aviv, injuring 16, after Israel’s air defense system failed to intercept it. Earlier last week, Israeli jets struck Yemen’s rebel-held capital and a port city, killing nine. Israel said the strikes were in response to previous Houthi attacks.

This Christmas, make your gift communityLauren Boebert joins Cameo, charging $250+ for personalized video messagesShopping for a smart thermostat that works with the new Matter standard? There aren’t many to choose from, but now you’ve got one more option. Smart home manufacturer Meross has just unleashed its first thermostat to support Matter, the 2-year-old protocol that allows the big smart-home platforms to play nice with each other. On sale now for $69.99 (a $30 price cut from its $99.99 list price), the is rated to work with 95 percent of HVAC systems, including single- and multi-stage furnaces, boilers, air conditioners, heat pumps, and fan coil units. One thing the Meross thermostat do is work with heating and cooling setups in Europe; instead, the device is strictly for stateside use. The Meross thermostat also requires a C (or “common”) wire; if you live in an older home without a C wire, the thermostat can still work with help from an adapter. From a design standpoint, the Meross thermostat comes in a sleek white housing with a glass touch panel, complete with LED indicators for current and set temperature, heating and cooling status, and wireless connectivity. The Meross app lets you set up heating and cooling schedules, and it also tracks your HVAC energy consumption over time. Best of all, the new Meross thermostat works with . Thanks to Matter, the Meross thermostat will work with Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings, along with their respective voice assistants. The Meross device’s Matter connectivity comes via Wi-Fi rather than Thread, the latter being a low-power, high-reliability wireless connection that’s an integral part of the Matter standard. Thread-enabled devices can connect to each other, creating self-healing mesh networks, whereas Matter-over-Wi-Fi devices are dependent on a Wi-Fi router. While thermostats were among the first categories of smart devices to support the Matter standard, there are still only a handful of Matter-enabled thermostats on the market. Google makes two of them: the and the , while the works with Matter in conjunction with the Aqara Zigbee 3.0 Hub. The exclusive club is rounded out by the . We’ll have a full review of the Meross Smart Wi-Fi Thermostat once we check out a sample unit. Ben has been writing about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he has covered everything from smart speakers and soundbars to smart lights and security cameras. Ben's articles have also appeared in PC Magazine, TIME, Wired, CNET, Men's Fitness, Mobile Magazine, and more. Ben holds a master's degree in English literature.

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UPSTART financial firms that provide services such as early paycheck access or buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) plans have attracted rising interest from customers and investors alike. Fintechs raised nearly US$24 billion globally in the first three quarters of 2024, according to data from CB Insights, and represent a growing competitive threat to traditional banks and asset managers. “We just have to be better, not just than our peer banks but everybody else that’s competing for our customers,” Banco Santander executive chair Ana Botin said at the Bloomberg Women Money & Power conference in London in December. “Accounts tend to be still with us, but payments and value added services are going to others,” Botin told Francine Lacqua. The incoming US administration has made financial deregulation a policy priority for the next four years, and the future of the powerful Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is in question. In Europe, by contrast, policymakers continue to take a cautious approach to the industry. That asymmetry has made the US an attractive market for fintech startups looking for both growth and sources of funding. Below is a look at some of the most-important fintech stories of 2024: When banking-as-a-service provider Synapse Financial Technologies filed for bankruptcy, it served as a reminder of the novel risks posed by “non-traditional” banking arrangements. “Synapse highlighted how the advancements in technology in combination with financial services opened us up to certain risks that we had not thought about before,” said RA Farrokhnia, who teaches at Columbia Business School. Synapse served as a middleman between banks covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and third-party fintechs wanting to leverage bank infrastructure to offer financial products. Its collapse has left thousands of fintech customers without access to money in accounts that were, in some cases, advertised as FDIC-insured. There is an estimated US$65 million to US$95 million shortfall between cash available for disbursement and the balance owed to customers recorded in Synapse ledgers, bankruptcy trustee Jelena McWilliams said in a June filing. “This has been incredibly demoralising on our end,” McWilliams said during a status update call with the court in December. “We have thrown all the resources at our disposal to come to the bottom line. Initially, the banks were not corresponding in communicating with each other. We made that process capable and available to them. And were frankly hoping that along the way that would yield the shrinking of the shortfall that was initially identified. That shortfall has not shrunk despite those efforts.” In a joint statement responding to the bankruptcy, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said they support “responsible innovation” while “reminding banks of potential risks” associated with such fintech partnerships. And the FDIC has taken up internal initiatives to track fintechs and their bank partners more closely. Chime Financial, which recently filed for a confidential public listing, in May agreed to pay more than US$4.5 million after the CFPB accused the digital bank of failing to refund consumers in a timely manner when their accounts were closed. The San Francisco-based company’s policy originally stated it would send a check with the remaining positive balance no more than 14 days after a customer’s account was closed, regardless of the reason. The consent order said that thousands of customers faced delays in receiving their cash, in some cases waiting over 90 days, and driving some to seek higher cost credit options to bridge the gap. “When Chime discovered the issue, we worked with our vendor to resolve the error and issue refunds to impacted consumers,” Chime said. “We share the Bureau’s goal to create a more competitive and accessible financial landscape that is good for everyday consumers.” Chime offers checking and savings accounts and credit cards to roughly seven million customers across the US, according to the CFPB. The neobank Dave’s hallmark product is a cash-advance feature offering up to US$500, marketed as available in five minutes or less. In November, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint against the startup that alleged it had misled customers about the amount available to them through the product. The complaint alleged that Dave most commonly offered consumers advances of only US$25, a fraction of what was advertised. Additionally, the FTC noted that on many advances Dave collects a “tip”, typically amounting to 15 per cent of the amount provided to the consumer. Dave also advertised that it would donate a specified number of meals to feed hungry children based on the fee the consumer pays. In reality, according to the FTC complaint, the company typically made a donation amounting to US$1.50 or less. “We are disappointed the FTC has chosen to file suit against Dave,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement provided to Bloomberg News at the time. “We believe this case is another example of regulatory overreach by the FTC, and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves.” Revolut Technologies is the UK’s largest fintech, with a recent valuation of US$45 billion. Offering its services to 50 million customers globally, Revolut gained a long-awaited UK bank license this year and has hinted at plans to pursue a similar license in the US. Revolut’s growth has not come without challenges. Its years-long quest to attain a UK bank license encountered pressure from The European Central Bank (ECB) for the startup to improve financial crime controls and governance procedures. And the firm tops UK rivals in scam complaints. “Revolut takes fraud and the industry-wide risk of customers being coerced by organised criminals, incredibly seriously,” a Revolut spokesperson said. The neobank says it invests heavily in fraud prevention. Revolut employs some 4,000 people to analyse customer transactions to detect unusual payments and cut fraudulent UK transactions by more than 20 per cent in 2023. In 2024, through fraud intervention warnings, the firm has stopped nearly twice as many customers from completing potentially fraudulent transactions compared with 2023, according to the company. Peer-to-peer lending platform SoLo Funds pitched itself as an option for cash-strapped individuals to find an emergency source of funding. The platform connected borrowers with lenders and advertised no mandatory fees or interest: Borrowers could request interest-fee loans of up to US$575 to be repaid within 35 days. By contrast, a class action lawsuit filed against the startup alleged that consumers who thought they were signing up for an interest-free loan but ended up paying a fee masked as a “tip” to the lender and “donations” to the company itself. The startup has also drawn the attention of the CFPB, which alleged in a May complaint that the total cost of some loans serviced by SoLo Funds carried an equivalent annual percentage rate of over 1,000 per cent and that the company hides its “no donation” option. SoLo Funds did not immediately return a request for comment. TomoCredit advertised itself as a way for immigrants and international students to improve their credit scores. The startup’s subscription product stacked up hundreds of customer complaints to the Better Business Bureau, all alleging that cancelling the subscription required extensive conversations with the hard-to-reach customer support teams. Forbes reported in October that the three major credit bureaus – Experian, TransUnion and Equifax – stopped incorporating reports from the startup in their calculations. Eliminating subscription traps is a priority for the FTC, which announced a finalised rule against the practice in October. The rule requires companies to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it was to sign up for. TomoCredit declined to comment. The CFPB this year issued an interpretive rule confirming that the BNPL lenders that grew in popularity over the pandemic should be treated in some ways such as credit-card providers. That designation requires BNPL providers to offer customers the same rights attached to credit cards, including the right to dispute charges and demand refunds after returning a product. The new guidance was the conclusion of a years-long inquiry from the agency exploring concerns around consumers accumulating debt, regulatory arbitrage and data harvesting. The steps to oversee BNPL firms are in part a response to concerns over consumers racking up “phantom debt” that escapes the notice of credit reporting agencies and runs the risk of individuals overextending themselves. The rule was swiftly met with a legal challenge from a trade group representing some of the buy-now, pay-later firms arguing that the CFPB did not follow necessary procedural steps. BLOOMBERG

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Ange Postecoglou has downplayed his furious confrontation with Tottenham Hotspur supporters after the loss to Bournemouth. The former Celtic manager exchanged words with angry fans at the Vitality Stadium after the 1-0 loss in the Premier League. Postecoglou had walked over to the away section at the conclusion of the match where he was met with a chorus of boos from the travelling support . "I got some pretty direct feedback..." Ange Postecoglou on the reaction from Spurs fans to their defeat to Bournemouth... #PLonPrime #BOUTOT pic.twitter.com/tZsw0x0y9N However, Postecoglou downplayed the exchange with fans after the match as he opened up on the "pretty direct feedback". "I wasn't having a word," he told Amazon Prime Sport. "They are pretty disappointed and rightly so. "I got some pretty direct feedback as to how we are going, and that's fair enough." Read more: I didn’t bottle Celtic manager job offer - some things weren’t right Reo Hatate shouts out travelling Celtic support for singing his song The Australian coach appeared to exchange words with a number of supporters before pointing at the Spurs badge on his jacket. As supporters continued to vent their frustrations, Postecoglou then quickly applauded fans before walking back across the pitch. The loss leaves Tottenham in 10th place in the Premier League with six wins, two draws and six losses in their 14 outings so far. Postecoglou later added in his post-match press conference: "They are disappointed, rightly so. They gave me some direct feedback which I guess is taken on board." On what was said, he stated: "Yeah probably not for here mate." He continued: "I've got no issue with it. I didn't like what was being said because I'm a human being but you've got to cop it. "I've been around long enough to know that if things don't go well, you've got to understand the frustration and disappointment. "They're right disappointed tonight because again we've let a game of football get away from us. "That's ok, I'm ok with all of that."

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