REUTERS Daily Briefing October 19, 2023 : Britain's Sunak follows Biden to Israel, fractured US House Republicans will try again to elect a leader, and Brazil's Bolsonaro faces mounting legal woes.

 

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Daily Briefing

Britain's Sunak follows Biden to Israel, fractured US House Republicans will try again to elect a leader, and Brazil's Bolsonaro faces mounting legal woes. Plus, election season kicks off in the world's third-largest democracy. By Linda Noakes

Today's Top News

Palestinians gather at the site of Israeli strikes on houses in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip

ISRAEL AND HAMAS AT WAR Israel pounded Gaza with more air strikes, as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak followed US President Joe Biden on a visit to demonstrate support for war against Hamas while urging Israel to ease the plight of besieged Gazans. We look at how Biden's trip has tied the US to any Gaza offensive. Israel is vowing to wipe out Hamas in a relentless onslaught on the Gaza Strip but has no obvious endgame in sight, with no clear plan for how to govern the ravaged Palestinian enclave even if it triumphs on the battlefield.  Protesters staged anti-Israel rallies around the Middle East, some of them turning violent, to voice rage at the explosion that killed hundreds of Palestinians at a Gaza hospital. A wave of online disinformation risks further inflaming passions. International Criminal Court correspondent Stephanie Van Den Berg is on the Reuters World News daily podcast talking about how difficult it will be for international prosecutors to investigate what happened at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital. IN OTHER NEWS Republicans in the US House of Representatives will hold a third vote to elect a speaker, in an attempt to overcome divisions that have immobilized the chamber for 16 days. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks has received "credible death threats," she said in a statement, after voting against Jim Jordan. A Brazil congressional probe into the January 8 insurrection by thousands of Jair Bolsonaro's supporters recommended that the far-right former president and some of his closest allies be charged  with an attempted coup d'état and other crimes. Ukraine is desperately short of judges, and is kick-starting a long-delayed nationwide hiring spree to fill more than 2,000 vacancies and vet around as many sitting judges for potential malfeasance. The ambitious effort is key to clearing a backlog of cases that has delayed justice for many Ukrainians. Russia has detained an editor at US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for failing to register as a foreign agent while visiting Russia for a family emergency, the broadcaster said. Registration gets underway in Indonesia for candidates vying to succeed President Joko Widodo after nearly a decade in power, as election season kicks off in earnest in the world's third-largest democracy.

Business & Markets

A man stands in Nokia headquarters in Espoo, Finland

Finnish telecom gear group Nokia said it will cut up to 14,000 jobs to reduce costs, after weaker demand for next-generation 5G equipment lowered third-quarter sales by a fifth. Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC posted a smaller-than-expected 25% fall in third-quarter net profit and said the semiconductor industry could be poised for recovery. Nestle posted lower-than-expected nine-month sales growth as higher product prices made shoppers balk, sending its shares down about 2%, but said it expects volumes to turn positive again by the end of the year. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he was concerned about the impact of high interest rates on car buyers, adding the electric vehicle maker was hesitating on its plans for a factory in Mexico as it gauges the economic outlook. Country Garden bondholders are seeking urgent talks with the troubled property developer after it missed a $15 million coupon repayment, putting it at risk of default.

How German companies are tackling China risk

A production line at the ebm-papst site in Xi'an, China

Thomas Nuernberger is preparing for tougher times.   For the past seven years, the 55-year-old has run the Chinese unit of fan and motor maker ebm-papst, and business has been good.   But, as tensions simmer between Berlin and Beijing, ebm-papst is one of many medium-sized German companies starting to address their reliance on China, concerned at how possible Western sanctions or a future conflict over Taiwan might disrupt trade.

And Finally...

The planet Mars is shown in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope view

On May 4, 2022, NASA's InSight lander detected the largest quake yet recorded on Mars, one with a 4.7 magnitude - fairly modest by Earth standards but strong for our planetary neighbor. Given Mars lacks the geological process called plate tectonics that generates earthquakes on our planet, scientists suspected a meteorite impact had caused this marsquake. But a search for an impact crater came up empty. Read more here: Scientists surprised by source of largest quake detected on Mars

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