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TikTok is reportedly planning a total shutdown of the Chinese-owned video-sharing app when the law requiring a ban or sale of the app takes effect on Sunday.

The roughly 170 million US users who try to access the app will be greeted with a pop-up message directing them to a website with details about the ban, according to the Information.

Users will also be given the option of downloading their data from the app, sources familiar with the plan told the outlet.

Israel and Palestinian movement Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, potentially bringing an end to Israel's devastating war in the enclave.

The ceasefire will go into effect on Sunday.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani announced the deal on Wednesday during a press conference in Doha.

The Qataris, alongside the Egyptians, helped negotiate the agreement with Israel, while the incoming US administration of President-elect Donald Trump applied pressure on the Israelis, Haaretz reported.

Key terms of the agreement:

• Israeli forces are required to fully withdraw from all areas of the Gaza Strip and return to the pre-war borders.

• The Rafah crossing must be reopened, with Israeli forces withdrawing entirely from the area.

• "Israel" is mandated to ease the travel of injured individuals for treatment abroad.

• "Israel" must permit the daily entry of 600 aid trucks, as per a humanitarian protocol backed by Qatar.

• "Israel" must facilitate the entry of 200,000 tents and 60,000 caravans for immediate shelter.

• A large-scale prisoner exchange will occur, including the release of 1,000 prisoners from Gaza and hundreds of detainees serving lengthy sentences.

• "Israel" is to release all women and children under the age of 19 from its prisons.

• Israeli forces must gradually withdraw from the Netzarim corridor and the Philadelphi Route.

• Displaced residents must be allowed to return to their homes, with guaranteed freedom of movement throughout the Gaza Strip.

• Hostile aircraft must vacate Gaza's airspace for 8 to 10 hours daily.

• All hospitals in Gaza must be rehabilitated. Field hospitals, medical equipment, and surgical teams must be permitted entry.

The looming ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will last six weeks, with Hamas releasing three hostages every week, according to Reuters.

Hamas will release female hostages and those under 19 years old first, followed by men over 50.

Israel will release thirty Palestinian prisoners for each hostage released and fifty for each Israeli female soldier.

Hamas will release a total of 33 hostages during the first phase, including all women (including soldiers), children, and men over 50.

Israeli warplanes have targeted Syrian military positions in the town of Ghadir al-Bustan on the border between the Daraa and Quneitra governorates.

At least one person was killed in the strike on Wednesday and another was wounded, according to local Syrian news outlet Daraa 24.

Israel has continued targeting Syrian positions despite the collapse of the Assad dynasty in December, and targets have expanded to include forces loyal to the new administration.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded in a speech that Israel stop its “aggressive actions” against Syria, where a new government is now in charge following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s de-facto leader, said that Israel had no justifications for its actions in Syria, but that his country was not able to be drawn into a new conflict.

Israeli media reports indicate that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered enticing proposals to Israeli Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, including plans to expand settlements in the West Bank and enhance security measures.

Netanyahu reportedly assured the two ministers that upcoming actions would bolster their popularity, warning that "if Ben-Gvir withdraws from the government, political gains may be credited solely to Smotrich."

Ben-Gvir emphasized that over the past year, he and his team successfully thwarted attempts to finalize a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, arguing that such agreements pose both security and political risks to "Israel".

According to Israeli reports, Netanyahu is attempting to persuade Ben-Gvir and Smotrich to back the agreement by highlighting two key points: first, that Trump’s presidency will bring significant benefits to "Israel", and second, that "Israel" will be able to resume the war if needed, with US support.

WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Scientists have detected emanating from the nucleus of a galaxy relatively close to our Milky Way flashes of X-rays gradually increasing in frequency that seem to be coming from a white dwarf - a highly compact stellar ember - with a death wish.

The observations made using the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton orbiting X-ray telescope appear to show a white dwarf nearing the point of no return - called the event horizon - as it orbits the galaxy's supermassive black hole, according to the researchers.

"It is probably the closest object we've ever observed orbiting around a supermassive black hole. This is extremely close to the black hole's event horizon," said Megan Masterson, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology doctoral student in physics and lead author of the study that was presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Maryland this week and will be published in the journal Nature.

The prospect for an agreement to halt Israel’s war against the Palestinians of Gaza is at its most promising point in over a year. Sources close to Hamas’s negotiating team tell Drop Site News that on Monday Hamas agreed to the framework text—including an exchange of captives and hostages—and had not requested any significant changes or amendments. But the devil, as always, is in the details.

Palestinian negotiators told Drop Site they remain cautiously optimistic a deal will be signed, though they point to previous rounds of ceasefire negotiations that saw Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insert new demands in the eleventh hour, effectively sabotaging the agreements. “I hope Netanyahu won’t play the same game of the last 15 months,” said one Palestinian source. Al-Ansari, the Qatari official, also alluded to the fragile nature of the discussions and past experience with Netanyahu. “The most minute detail can undermine the negotiation,” he said. “It is not about how big or small an issue is.”

What is different this time, however, is that President-elect Donald Trump has made very clear his demand that a deal be reached before his inauguration on January 20. The terms of the deal being negotiated are largely consistent with what was on the table last May when outgoing President Joe Biden first announced it. Biden allowed Netanyahu to steamroll him for months—rewarding Israel with billions of dollars in arms transfers and political support after rejecting that ceasefire deal. Since that time, tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed and maimed and an unknown number of Israeli captives killed, either by their captors or Israeli strikes. All the while, the administration and its backers repeatedly assured voters in the U.S. that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were working tirelessly to achieve a ceasefire deal.

LONDON: BBC Middle East online editor Raffi Berg is reportedly considering legal action against British journalist Owen Jones, following accusations in an investigative article that claimed Berg exhibited bias in favor of Israel. The allegations have allegedly triggered a wave of online abuse and threats directed at the editor.

The 9,000-word article, titled “The BBC’s Civil War Over Gaza,” was published earlier in December by Drop Site, an investigative news platform. In the article, Jones cited interviews with 13 current and former BBC staffers, who alleged that Berg “sets the tone for the BBC’s digital output on Israel and Palestine.”

One former journalist was quoted as saying: “This guy’s (Berg’s) entire job is to water down everything that’s too critical of Israel.”