Reuters - Weekend Briefing by Robert Macmillan - Inside Iran's proxy war with Israel in the West and more...

 

Weekend Briefing

From Reuters Daily Briefing   By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor

Welcome to the first Weekend Briefing in October. More than half a million school-age migrant children have arrived in the U.S. since 2022. Our survey of school districts offers the most extensive view to date of how public schools are coping. You’ll want to read this one, whether or not you have children or live in the United States.

Inside Iran's proxy war with Israel in the West   Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA Special Report: Tehran is roiling the West with attempted hits and kidnappings against targets in Europe and the U.S. Since 2020, there have been at least 33 assassination or abduction attempts in which local or Israeli authorities allege an Iran link. A year of war: Monday will mark the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. We're expecting commemorations as well as protests against Israel's year-long retaliation. Israel killed a senior Hamas commander and at least 17 others in the West Bank. Iran launched missiles at Israel for its killing of Hezbollah's leader. Israel is fighting in Lebanon and striking targets from suburban Beirut to Tripoli. How close are we to a pan-Middle East war?

Haiti gang kills at least 70 people Leader blames victims: The dead, felled by automatic rifles, included three infants. The head of the Gran Grif gang said residents in Pont-Sondé failed to act when police or vigilantes killed his soldiers. It gets worse: Seventeen percent of Haiti’s children are close to famine, anti-graft investigators accused top-ranking Haitian officials of corruption, and the Dominican Republic is increasing deportations as its neighbor’s troubles deepen.

‘They grab young girls and they slice them up’ On the campaign trail: Donald Trump is using increasingly graphic and insupportable commentary on immigrants in the presidential race. He falsely claimed at a recent campaign stop that migrants were slaughtering people across the U.S.: “These are people at the highest level of killing… They grab young girls and slice them up right in front of their parents.” Coterie of many colors: Kamala Harris picked up support from Bruce Springsteen and Republican Liz Cheney, and will get some help from Barack Obama and Joe Biden in swing states. Harris will have a tougher time with Arab Americans, and is meeting their representatives to try to assuage their anger over Biden-administration support for Israel’s wars. Harris also discovered she has a common policy position with First Lady Melania Trump.

Muleteers, helicopter pilots and victims of the flood Cut off: Private volunteers are delivering supplies and rescuing stranded citizens in the remote reaches of western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene ripped through the region. The worst floods Bosnia has seen in years killed 16 people and cut road and rail links, while Polish families dealt with floods that washed away their homes. Dry: The Rio Negro’s river level at the Amazon rainforest port of Manaus hit a low not seen in 122 years. The drought is isolating communities in the area while Brazil’s coast is eroding faster than ever.

EU slaps tariffs on China’s electric vehicles Duties: The EU will press ahead with tariffs on China-made electric vehicles, even after Germany, the bloc's largest economy, rejected them. The idea is to counter what the EU sees as unfair Chinese subsidies. Still, it's going to hurt: German carmakers made a third of their sales last year in China. A 100% U.S. tariff on Chinese electric vehicles went into effect a little more than a week ago. Back to work: East-coast and Gulf Coast ports reopened after dockworkers and port operators reached a wage deal to settle the industry’s biggest work stoppage in nearly half a century. Everybody was relieved except for investors who poured their money into shipping companies as the strike began.

Before I forget… Some Russians who served in the military years ago are returning for a second round as Moscow seeks more troops for the Ukraine war. The UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago – apart from Diego Garcia – to Mauritius. There is a long, interesting and bitter history behind this move. California sued a Catholic hospital that was accused of refusing to provide an emergency abortion to a woman whose water broke prematurely. The U.S. Supreme Court begins its term on Monday. Online porn, transgender rights, nuclear-waste storage and plenty more await the justices. "Instead of cool things in space… NASA is doing all this woke stuff on the ground.” With a quote like this, who even needs to know what the story is about before clicking?