Nimrod Cohen’s mother never got to ask him why he chose a raven for the tattoo he got in October 2023. Three days after getting inked, Nimrod was kidnapped and taken to Gaza.

The next time Cohen saw that bird was more than 500 days later, in a Hamas propaganda video.

“It was the first time we got a visual sign of life of Nimrod and I was so excited to see him standing, moving his body, the first time that we can see him after so long. It makes Nimrod more present and it makes Nimrod more alive, and it also makes me more worried and afraid.”

Nimrod Cohen is one of 24 hostages held in Gaza who are believed to be alive. As a young, healthy man with no children, Cohen has not been prioritized for release by Israeli negotiators, who insisted that women and children, the elderly and any injured hostages were freed first.

But for Vicky Cohen, there is no higher priority in the world than getting her son back. “I’m frightened and very worried but I’m not losing hope. I cannot lose hope. But also, I do believe that our government is not doing enough to bring him back,” she said.

Nimrod Cohen is among a handful of living hostages who were active-duty soldiers when abducted, alongside Edan Alexander, Matan Angrest and Tamir Nimrod. Hamas is also holding the bodies of several other soldiers, most of whom were killed during the October 7 terror attack.

Under the phased deal to which Israel and Hamas agreed in January, younger male hostages were going to be released during the latter stages of the ceasefire.

But they are now caught in limbo as the first phase of the deal expired without the two sides agreeing on what’s next.

Edan Alexander is the last of the American hostages in Gaza who is believed to be alive. The bodies of four more American citizens – Judi Weinstein Haggai and her husband Gad Haggai, and soldiers Itay Chan and Omer Maxim Neutra – are also still held by Hamas.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office accused Hamas of engaging in “manipulation” and “psychological warfare” by announcing their willingness to release Alexander. Israeli ministers will meet on Saturday night to receive a detailed report from a negotiating team that spent the past week in Doha, and “to decide on the next steps for the release of the hostages.”

Adi Alexander, Edan’s father, has spent the past year and half lobbying for the release of his son and all of the other hostages. He said he and his wife have attended more than 300 meetings with American officials.

“But what about the hostages? We don’t want to go back into the situation with Gilad Shalit (whom) they kept for years and at the end of the day, the demands were the same – so the Israelis need to get out of this comfort zone and keep negotiating.”

Gilad Shalit is a former IDF soldier who was held by Hamas in Gaza for more than five years. He was released in 2011, in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.

Trump’s ultimatum

Earlier this year, Israel and Hamas agreed to a phased ceasefire that would consist of three distinct stages. The initial phase of the truce ended in mid-February, after 38 hostages were freed from Gaza and 1,737 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released from Israeli prisons.

The second phase was meant to include the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the release of all remaining living hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The details of how this would unfold were meant to be agreed during the first phase of the agreement, but that has not happened.

“What’s happening now, exactly? What is the plan? It obviously never went by the original plan to start negotiating after 16 days and be over with that within two weeks, we are far beyond that in this point, so what is the strategy?,” Alexander said.

“We are in no man’s land, leaving hostages under the ground, which is unacceptable.”

The Israeli government has suggested an extension to the first stage, demanding the release of half of the remaining Israeli living and deceased hostages in Gaza but without committing to end the war or withdraw Israeli troops. In return, Israel would release more Palestinian prisoners and detainees and allow more aid into the territory. According to this plan, the rest of the hostages would be released when, or if, an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure from his far-right coalition partners to return to war. Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, has threatened to withdraw from the government if Israel doesn’t restart the war. Itamar Ben Gvir quit his post as national security minister over the ceasefire.

Smotrich and Ben Gvir have argued that Israel should keep fighting Hamas until the group is “eliminated,” after which they want Israel to take over Gaza and build settlements there – an idea lent credence by US President Donald Trump, but dismissed by most other leaders.

Vicky Cohen said that she believes the Israeli government has prioritized the goal of defeating Hamas completely over the release of hostages, including her son.

“After more than one year of war, Hamas is still ruling Gaza. I understand the need (to stop) Hamas from ruling Gaza, so we won’t get to October 7 once again … but we need to pay a price and now, the main thing is to bring the hostages back home, even though it means to stop the war and withdraw from Gaza and deal with Hamas later on,” she said, adding that the idea of building Jewish settlements in Gaza was “nonsense.”

To put extra pressure on Hamas, Israel announced earlier this month that it would stop the entry of all humanitarian aid and electricity into Gaza.

The families of hostages still in Gaza are now pinning their hopes on Trump, who has sent US officials to negotiate directly with Hamas, in a notable U-turn from a long-standing policy of not talking to groups it considers terrorist organizations.

“We hear from the president that he is committed to bring all the hostages back, and we trust him, and we believe that’s what he is going to do – not because he loves the hostages, but because the wants to stop the war between a Russian and Ukraine crime and in Gaza, he wants to get a Nobel Prize of Peace,” Cohen said.

Earlier this month, Trump went as far as issuing what he said was a “last warning” to Hamas to release all hostages immediately, saying that “not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say.”

While Hamas said Trump’s words threatened to undermine the ceasefire, Adi Alexander said he had faith in Trump. Alexander is the only one of the five American hostages in Gaza, to be alive.

But Trump’s plan has not worked – at least not yet.

Instead, the US came up with a new proposal this week to extend the ceasefire in exchange for the release of a handful of living hostages.

The development was met with dismay by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which said reports of the proposal “raise serious concerns among the families of the hostages that their loved ones will be left in captivity for a long and unknown period.”

“We demand a comprehensive and immediate agreement that will return all 59 hostages in one fell swoop and leave no one behind,” the forum added in a statement.

Vicky Cohen said she has publicly turned to Netanyahu and other officials to “beg him to do the right thing.”

“There are people are still alive there, and even though Nimrod is a soldier, he is only 20 years old, and he is my son. I want to hug him. I want him back home. I miss the all the small things of life, hearing his voice, seeing his smile, seeing the mess in his room, and the empty packets of ice cream he leaves behind,” she said.

Tens of thousands rallied on Saturday in downtown Belgrade against populist President Aleksandar Vucic and his government, the latest in a series of anti-corruption protests that have shaken his 13-year firm grip on power.

A deafening sound of whistles and vuvuzelas echoed throughout the Serbian capital, on high alert since the rally was announced, as people headed toward several agreed-on protest venues. Some carried banners that read, “He’s Finished!” Others chanted: “Pump it Up,” a slogan adopted during the four months of student-led protests.

It was probably the biggest anti-government rally ever held in the Balkan country.

“I expect that this will shake his authority and that Vucic will realize that people are no longer for him,” Milenko Kovacevic, a protester, said.

Reflecting mounting tensions, police said they arrested a man who rammed his car into protesters in a Belgrade suburb, injuring three people.

Ahead of the demonstration, Vucic repeatedly warned of alleged plans for unrest while threatening arrests and harsh sentences for any incidents.

In an apparent effort to prevent people from attending the rally, Belgrade city transport was canceled Saturday while huge columns of cars jammed the roads leading into the capital. The transport company said the cancellation was made “for security reasons.”

On Friday evening, tens of thousands of people staged a joyous welcome for the students who have been marching or cycling for days from across Serbia toward Belgrade for the main rally on Saturday afternoon. From early morning, people started assembling in various parts of the city, preparing to march toward the center.

Fueling fears of clashes, Vucic’s supporters have been camping in central Belgrade in front of his headquarters. The crowd included ex-members of a dreaded paramilitary unit involved in the assassination in 2003 of Serbia’s first democratic Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, as well as soccer hooligans who are known for causing violence.

Private N1 television on Saturday broadcast footage of dozens of young men with baseball caps going into the pro-Vucic camp.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic told state RTS broadcaster that 13 people have been detained overnight but that no major incidents were reported on Friday. He said police detained six opposition activists for allegedly plotting to stage a coup and stir unrest on Saturday.

Protesting students have led the nationwide anti-graft movement, which started after a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station and killed 15 people in Serbia’s north on Nov. 1.

Many in Serbia blamed the crash on rampant government corruption, negligence and disrespect of construction safety regulations.

Vucic has been claiming that Western intelligence services were behind almost daily student-led protests with an aim to oust him from power.

Students have struck a chord among the citizens who are disillusioned with politicians and have lost faith in the state institutions. Previous student-led rallies in other Serbian cities have been peaceful while drawing huge crowds.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s response to a US-proposed ceasefire in Ukraine is “not good enough,” Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, after hosting a virtual summit aimed at drumming up support for Kyiv and piling pressure on Russia.

After hosting a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” – a group of Western nations that have pledged to help defend Ukraine against Russia – Starmer said leaders had agreed that “the ‘yes but’ from Russia is not good enough” and that Russia would have to come to the negotiating table sooner or later.

“We agreed collective pressure will be put on Russia from all of us who were in the meeting this morning,” he added.

Saturday’s meeting involved some 25 countries, including European nations, the EU Commission, NATO, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

After Kyiv this week accepted the terms of a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine – endorsed by US President Donald Trump – Moscow’s response was ambiguous, with Putin saying that “we agree with the proposal” but also that the deal “wasn’t complete.”

The meeting also comes at a critical time in the three-year war, with Russia advancing in its Kursk border region where it is attempting to reverse Ukraine’s gains.

While he offered few new details, Starmer announced that the militaries of Ukraine’s allies will meet in the United Kingdom on Thursday, to “put strong and robust plans in place” to keep the peace in the event a ceasefire is struck in Ukraine.

“We will now move into an operational phase,” Starmer said. “Our militaries will meet on Thursday this week here in the United Kingdom to put strong and robust plans in place to swing behind a peace deal and guarantee Ukraine’s future security.”

During Saturday’s talks, Starmer said that Ukraine’s allies agreed to “keep the military aid flowing to Ukraine, and keep tightening restrictions on Russia’s economy, to weaken Putin’s war machine and bring him to the table.”

Starmer said that Putin was delaying the US-backed ceasefire proposal that Ukraine agreed to this week, and that Ukraine “is the party of peace.”

US President Donald Trump “has offered Putin the way forward to a lasting peace – now we must make this a reality,” Starmer said.

Responding to a question from a journalist about US support, Starmer stressed that the “position on the US hasn’t changed,” and that achieving peace in Ukraine “needs to be done in conjunction with the United States.”

It comes after Starmer said in opening remarks to the “coalition of the willing” that “if Putin is serious about peace, it’s very simple: He has to stop his barbaric attacks on Ukraine and agree to a ceasefire.” He continued, “The world is watching. My feeling is that sooner or later he’s going to have to come to the table and engage in serious discussion.”

The “coalition of the willing,” a group of who have pledged to help defend Ukraine from Russian aggression in the face of dwindling and uncertain support from Washington, last met in London two weeks ago before reconvening Saturday for the virtual meeting.

Although Europe has shown considerable unity amid the blows the Trump administration has dealt to the transatlantic alliance, significant divisions remain over whether individual European countries are willing to deploy troops to Ukraine to keep the peace.

A statement from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said that Meloni, who joined Saturday’s virtual summit, does not envisage Italy’s participation in a possible military presence in Ukraine.

Trump said Friday that he got “pretty good news” on a potential ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, without elaborating, and that his administration had “very good calls” with both countries earlier in the day.

In a separate post on Truth Social, Trump said “there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end.”

Putin met with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday in Moscow – a visit that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said gave “reason to be cautiously optimistic.”

With Kyiv losing its grip on the western Russian region of Kursk, its sole territorial bargaining chip, many believe that Putin may be delaying talks on the ceasefire proposal until the region is firmly back under Russian control.

Russian forces have retaken two more settlements in Kursk – Zaoleshenka and Rubanshchina – its defense ministry claimed on Saturday. It comes days after Russia recaptured the key town of Sudzha, the largest town Ukraine had occupied in the region.

Zelensky said Saturday his troops were holding back Russian and North Korean forces in Kursk and denied Russian claims that Ukraine’s army was surrounded.

Meanwhile the aerial assaults continued, with hundred of drones crossing the border.

Russia fired 178 drones and two ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, killing at least two people and injuring 44, according to Ukrainian officials. The two were killed in Kherson region, the head of its military administration said, after Russia targeted critical infrastructure and residential buildings, damaging seven high-rise buildings and 27 houses.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses had shot down 126 Ukrainian drones overnight, without saying how many drones bypassed its defenses.

This story has been updated.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian troops have not been encircled by Russian forces in Kursk region, accusing Russian leader Vladimir Putin of “lying” about the situation on the ground.

Ukraine launched its shock incursion into Kursk in August, swiftly capturing territory in what was the first ground invasion of Russia by a foreign power since World War II. The campaign aimed to divert Moscow’s resources from the front lines in the east, and to capture land that could potentially be swapped for Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory.

Although Kyiv is now on the back foot in Kursk, Zelensky and military analysts have questioned Putin’s claims – echoed by US President Donald Trump – that Russian forces have surrounded Ukraine’s soldiers.

Putin claimed on Thursday that Russian forces had “isolated” Ukraine’s troops in Kursk and that it was “impossible” for them to escape even in small groups of two or three soldiers.

“There will only be two options: surrender or die,” Putin said.

A day later, Trump appeared to amplify Putin’s claims after what he called a “very good and productive” discussion with the Russian president.

“At this very moment, thousands of Ukrainian troops are completely surrounded by the Russian military, and in a very bad and vulnerable position,” Trump said in a post on TruthSocial on Friday, claiming he had asked Putin to spare their lives to avert “a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II.”

Although the US president did not refer specifically to Kursk, Putin later told Russia’s security council that he had “noted” Trump’s appeal to save Ukrainian lives in the region.

But Ukrainian officials and independent analysts have disputed Putin and Trump’s claims.

The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based conflict monitor, said Friday that it has “observed no geolocated evidence to indicate that Russian forces have encircled a significant number of Ukrainian forces” in Kursk or anywhere else along the frontline in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s military said that Russia was lying to shape perception of events on the ground.

“Reports of the alleged ‘encirclement’ of Ukrainian units by the enemy in the Kursk region are false and fabricated by the Russians for political manipulation and to exert pressure on Ukraine and its partners,” the military said.

“There is no threat of encirclement of our units,” it said, adding that its units in Kursk have “successfully regrouped” after Russia’s offensives and “withdrawn to more advantageous defensive positions.”

In an update Saturday, Zelensky said he had been briefed by Ukraine’s commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, and also stressed that Ukraine’s troops have not been encircled.

“The units are carrying out their tasks exactly as required” and are continuing to repel Russian and North Korean troops, Zelensky said.

Although Russian military bloggers have said that Ukraine is losing territory in Kursk, some also disputed the reports that Moscow has “encircled” Kyiv’s forces.

The ISW suggested that Putin was making dubious claims about Ukrainian troops in Kursk region in order to “distract” from his prevarication over the US-backed ceasefire proposal.

Kyiv agreed to the proposal during talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, while Putin gave a more ambiguous response, first saying “we agree with the proposal” before claiming the deal “wasn’t complete.”

“Putin is attempting to present himself as a reasonable and merciful leader whom President Trump can engage with and to generate a new narrative to distract from” Russia’s refusal to agree to the ceasefire proposal, the ISW wrote.

Few dispute, however, that Ukraine is retreating in Kursk. This week, Moscow said that Russian forces had recaptured Sudzha, the largest town once occupied by Ukraine, further weakening Kyiv’s primary bargaining chip in potential negotiations with Russia.

Pope Francis has approved a new three-year reform process for the Catholic Church, sending a strong signal he plans to continue in the post despite spending more than a month in hospital battling pneumonia.

The Vatican announced on Saturday that the 88-year-old pope had signed off on the reform plans from Rome’s Gemelli hospital on earlier in the wee. Francis has been hospitalized since 14 February, his longest since his election as pope.

Reforms on the table include how to give greater roles to women in the Catholic Church, including ordaining them as deacons, and the greater inclusion of laity in governance and decision making.

The reforms have been examined through a structure called the Synod of Bishops, which has been the primary vehicle through which the pope has implemented his pastoral agenda during his papacy. In recent years he’s sought to involve Catholics from across the globe in the renewal process.

In October 2023 and 2024 two Vatican assemblies – which for the first time included female voting members – each met for almost a month of discussions and deliberation with a final document agreed by the pope.

That document left open the question of ordaining women deacons, who carry out all the functions of a priest bar celebrating Mass and hearing confessions. It also insisted that women be given all the opportunities that church law provides to act as leaders.

Francis’ latest decision extends the process by another three years and will culminate in an “ecclesial assembly” in the Vatican in October 2028. Unlike a synod of bishops assembly in the Vatican – which occurred in October 2023 and 2024 – this will be a unique gathering of bishops, clergy, monks, friars, nuns and lay men and women.

By that stage Francis would be 91, so his move could mean that a conclave takes place while this reform initiative is ongoing. In that scenario, whoever is chosen as the next pope would be tasked with continuing the reform process Francis has started.

Meanwhile, the pope’s decision is also a response to those bishops and other senior leaders who have been quietly resisting the Argentine pontiff’s reform plans.

Cardinal Mario Grech, who leads the Holy See’s synod office, said the latest plans, which will include churches at the local level, “offer dioceses that have invested less in the synodal path an opportunity to recover the steps not yet taken and to form their own synodal teams.”

Since his hospitalization, the pope has signalled he’s still governing the Catholic Church, signing documents from the Gemelli hospital, meeting two of his most senior aides and appointing bishops.

Nevertheless, Francis’ extended period hospital has been a time of high anxiety for the Vatican. At 30 days, it is longest hospitalization, although is still behind John Paul II’s 55 days at the Gemelli.