From Reuters Daily Briefing |
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By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor |
I'm glad to share the Weekend Briefing with you, my last one for the year. I'll be back in January, so my colleagues will entertain and inform you over the next two weekends. Beginning in the week to come, we will feature a comprehensive package of stories, photos and video that sum up 2023, so do check our homepage and stay up to date with our World News podcast. Thanks for spending a few minutes each Saturday with us, and a happy new year in advance to all. |
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Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip. Israel Defense Forces via REUTERS |
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- The latest: Gaza health officials said about 200 people have died in Israel's renewed assault on the strip. Fighting resumed after talks to extend a truce collapsed, and each side blamed the other for failing to keep the peace. The White House singled out Hamas for not producing a fresh list of hostages to allow the truce to continue.
- Israel's most wanted: Mohammad Deif, Marwan Issa and Yahya Sinwar are the three Hamas seniors whose capture or death would mark a big score on Israel's hit list, and likely will take a while to achieve. Also, read this intriguing story about Qatar's role in negotiating this past week's truce.
- While we're at it: I'd like to add a few more stories from Israel and Gaza that might have slipped by in this week's maelstrom: Freed Israeli hostages spoke of beatings and death threats, one hostage had choice words for Yahya Sinwar on meeting him, Israel wants recognition of Hamas' sexual violence, and Gaza farmers fear for the olive harvest.
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- Gateway to the East: Russian forces are intensifying attacks on the city of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine in a way reminiscent of their months-long push for Bakhmut. About 1,500 of its former 32,000 residents remain, so why does Russia push so hard? Our correspondents Dan Peleschuk and Andrew Osborn explain.
- Variety pack: Here are some more items that caught my eye as they swept past during a busy week. The wife of Ukraine's military spy chief was poisoned with heavy metals (think arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury, for example). Ukrainian families are coming to terms with the prospect of a very long war with victory not guaranteed. And a Kremlin critic was fined for failing to report his daily activities -- while in prison.
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- A heated dispute: U.N. Secretary General António Guterres urged world leaders at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai to plan for a future without fossil fuels, saying there was no other way to curb global warming. A day earlier, COP28's president Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber proposed embracing their continued use. Our incredibly comprehensive coverage is here for you to bookmark, and our Saturday edition of the World News podcast is all about the talks.
- Temperature check: Governments, development banks and companies announced efforts to raise billions of dollars to pay for the transition away from fossil fuels and deal with the impact of climate change. It's not nothing, but it's less than something. Delegates adopted a disaster fund to help poor nations. And one COP28 advisory board member quit over reports that the United Arab Emirates was using the conference to make fossil-fuel deals. Finally, refer to our perennial guide to climate jargon when the words get in the way of understanding why this topic is so important.
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- Gutter language: X has no clear way to keep advertisers from bailing out, industry experts say, after Elon Musk lashed out at some of the biggest brands for dropping the platform. The latest ruckus came after Musk endorsed a false and antisemitic post. His favored word would fail to drop any monocles for most of us, but most of us aren't a famous billionaire mauling the hands of the primary revenue source of one of our companies.
- Sewer words: Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said she was quitting X, calling it a "gigantic global sewer" that was "destroying our democracies." And a thematic tangent: The Seine is already suitable for bathing two days out of three on average in the summer, but Paris is hoping to improve the water quality as next year's Olympics loom.
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Before I forget… The inimitable Sandra Day O'Connor, who was the first woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, died at 93. Her death came in the same week as those of Berkshire Hathaway stalwart Charlie Munger, 99, and the alternately exalted and reviled Henry Kissinger, 100. For George Santos, Congress is a House, not a home. Donald Trump must face civil lawsuits over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by his supporters. An appeals court rejected the former president's claim that he is immune. The number of billionaires rose 7% last year, with inherited wealth exceeding the cash generated by the self-made rich. I still don't see my name on the list, strangely enough. The leaders of Greece and Britain played one cranky game of marbles this week, Elgin Marbles to be exact. More retailers during this holiday shopping season find it cheaper to let us keep the stuff we don't want than to have us return it. How the India tunnel workers were saved. Learn more about "rat miners." Kyrgyzstan's parliament will tweak the design of the national flag after critics said its central element looked like a sunflower, which in the local culture symbolizes fickleness and servility. |
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