REUTERS Weekend Briefing From Reuters Daily Briefing By Robert MacMillan, 4 October 2023

           REUTERS

Weekend Briefing From Reuters Daily Briefing

By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor Thanks for joining us this weekend. We’re bringing you updates from the Gaza conflict, a rash of Jewish hatred around the world, and a look at the weary fighters on Ukraine’s front with Russia.

REUTERS/Mohammed Al-Masri

U.S., Arab leaders to meet as Palestinian deaths mount Latest: Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to hear Arab demands for a ceasefire this weekend. Blinken met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, asking for "humanitarian pauses" in the fighting to allow aid into Gaza. Netanyahu said it won't happen until Hamas frees Israel's hostages. An Israeli air strike on an ambulance being used to evacuate the wounded from besieged northern Gaza killed 15 people and injured 60 others, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said. Hezbollah’s leader dangled the option of a wider war on the Lebanon front. Quagmire: Hamas has prepared for a drawn-out war in Gaza and believes it can hold up Israel's advance long enough to force its arch enemy to agree to a ceasefire, two sources close to the organization's leadership said. And our graphics team produced these maps of Israeli air strikes that hit Palestinian refugee camps.

Open hatred against Jews surges Antisemitism: The Israel-Gaza war blew away the thin layer of topsoil that often hides perennial anti-Jewish sentiment in various parts of the world, including France, Germany and the U.S., most notably at Cornell University, where federal prosecutors say a student threatened to stab and slit the throats of any Jewish men he saw on campus, to rape and throw off a cliff any Jewish women, and to behead any Jewish babies. Israel has warned its citizens about traveling abroad. Case study: There was a particularly nasty example in the Dagestan republic, where a mob stormed an airport to "catch" Jews who had arrived on a flight from Tel Aviv. This region of southern Russia is home to a dwindling population of "Mountain Jews," about whom we wrote an engrossing story. Finally, in the department of the just plain strange, a man walked into a McDonald's in Birmingham, UK and dumped dozens of live rodents on the floor, some dyed in the colors of the Palestinian flag.

Ukrainian troops battle exhaustion Second winter: Russia's war with Ukraine, now in its 21st month, is putting a huge strain on Kyiv's limited resources and on its troops, raising the question of how long Ukraine can hold out in a protracted attritional war. "We're exhausted, they're exhausted," said one officer. "But there are more of them, and they have more equipment." Care package: The U.S. unveiled new sanctions against Russia, targeting future energy capabilities, sanctions evasion and a menacing suicide drone. The Senate will kill by neglect a House bill to give billions of dollars in aid to Israel because it cuts IRS funding and does not include aid for Ukraine.

Eric Trump says he relied on others to verify documents Under the bus: Donald Trump's son Eric testified that he relied on accountants and lawyers to verify the accuracy of financial documents that a judge has ruled to be fraudulent. That undercut his earlier testimony that he knew nothing about those estimates. His brother Donald Jr. meanwhile asked the courtroom sketch artist to “Make me look sexy.” A matter of perspective: The former president referred to people imprisoned for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as "hostages" during a campaign rally, his latest move to embrace his supporters involved in the riot.

Before I forget…   Rescue workers in Nepal began digging through the rubble of collapsed houses with their hands, searching for survivors after the country's worst earthquake in eight years killed 137 people and shook buildings as far away as New Delhi.   Thousands of women say that at least a dozen cosmetics companies sold hair relaxers containing chemicals that increased the risk of developing uterine cancer – and failed to warn customers.   King Charles expressed his "deepest regret" for violence during Kenya's independence struggle from Britain, but did not offer the apology that victims and their descendants called for.   Reporter Ngouda Dione went to sea with the Senegalese navy to prevent migrants from making the dangerous Atlantic journey to Europe. In one arrest, migrants protested. “You think you’re going to stop us?” one said. “We’re going back! We will reach Spain, or we will die.”   Floods in Italy killed six people after storm Ciaran swept through Europe, killing six others in France, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands. In Finistère, Brittany, winds hit 207 kilometers per hour (129 miles per hour).   Spain’s Catholic Church apologized for sexual abuse by priests while downplaying the scale of the crimes.   Russians lay flowers to the victims of Joseph Stalin's purges, but the establishment is keen to blank out reminders of its past. A small group of activists is trying to preserve those memories, under pressure.

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