Israeli strikes target Beirut, hit U.N. sites

And the cost of Hurricane Milton

Sign up for Reuters newsletters Weekend Briefing Weekend Briefing From Reuters Daily Briefing   By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor Welcome to the Weekend Briefing, which comes with a strong recommendation: Read this story about the Cubans who disappeared at sea while trying to reach Florida and were never found. And our World News podcast examines the legal fights over the casting and counting of votes in the United States. Israel fires at U.N. position in Lebanon   REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki The latest: Two peacekeepers were injured after explosions near a watchtower. The U.N.'s main Lebanon base was shaken by explosions for the second time in two days as Israeli forces kept up their attacks on Beirut. The U.N. human-rights office said over 100 medics and emergency workers have been killed in Lebanon in the past year. A U.N. inquiry accused Israel of seeking to destroy Gaza's healthcare system. Thousands of Gazans are trapped in the Jabalia refugee camp as Israeli forces attack the area. Retaliation: Israel promised a response to the missiles that Iran fired into its airspace. Few expect it before Yom Kippur ends late Saturday. Iran has promised widespread destruction if Israel attacks, and Gulf nations are lobbying the U.S. to stop Israel from attacking Iran's oil sites because they worry it could lead to attacks on their own by Tehran's proxies. Climate change made Hurricane Milton worse Peer review: Global warming made wind speeds stronger and rainfall greater, a team of scientists said. Milton killed at least 16 people in Florida and spawned numerous tornadoes before it struck. It also spawned an alarming amount of false information. Big damage: Milton could cause up to $50 billion in insured losses, and insurers' losses in Florida could reach more than $100 billion in 2024, Fitch Ratings said. There is a bright side: The worst-case scenario was that Milton could have caused $100 billion in losses all by itself. Ukraine parliament raises taxes Defense: It is Ukraine's first major wartime tax increase and is expected to shore up the nation's finances as it fights Russia. Kyiv needs $12 billion by the end of 2024 to spend on defense. The tax rise will bring about $563 million. Ukraine still faces a budget deficit of $38 billion next year. One debt to bind them: Ukrainians are buying bonds to help fund the war with Russia. Lawyer Olesia Mykhailenko, an early investor in Ukraine's domestic debt and a proponent of the bonds, says it's not only good for the war effort, but a way to protect their cash from inflation. The Alps are there for a reason Operation Snow Bank: Germany is working to thwart UniCredit's possible takeover of Commerzbank, a stance that European regulators oppose. TD Bank became the largest bank in U.S. history to plead guilty to violating a law aimed at preventing money laundering, and agreed to pay more than $3 billion in penalties to resolve the charges. Blame the government: Delta Air Lines warned of a hit to its fourth-quarter revenue, saying customers want to stay closer to home during the U.S. presidential election. If only Boeing had such an easy out: Here are five charts illustrating the plane maker's year of turbulence. Before I forget… Romania's top court barred a far-right politician from running for president because of her pro-Russian, anti-EU and anti-NATO opinions, causing turmoil in government and raising concerns across the political spectrum of court overreach. Oh yes, she's also expressed anti-Semitic views. Cameroon outlawed any discussion about the health of 91-year-old President Paul Biya after his prolonged absence fueled speculation he was unwell. Donald Trump is offering an unusual number of tax-cut proposals and Kamala Harris is targeting junk fees. She also will release her medical report, something Trump has refused to do. We're less than a month from Nov. 5. How might markets react to a contested election? Javier Milei's triple-digit inflation is slowing, but it's not happening quickly enough for workers. The Argentinian president's austerity drive included vetoing a law that would have boosted university funding, a move that met with public outrage. The granddaughters of Bela and Hilda Parlagi, a Jewish couple forced to flee Vienna after the German Anschluss of 1938, received a Claude Monet painting from the FBI and a British nonprofit that the Nazis confiscated and that their family searched for over decades. The BBC Weather app showed wind speeds nearly as high as 19,000 miles per hour in Britain earlier this week. Having spent the week in London, I can assure you that it was barely a hair over 18,000. 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