The Full Belmonte, 10/9/2023
Rockets are fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair
Israel intensifies Gaza strikes and scours south for Hamas fighters as death toll nears 1,200
“Israel has ordered a ‘complete siege’ of the Gaza Strip on Monday as soldiers fought to secure the border with tanks and dislodge fighters from Gaza after vowing to destroy the ‘military and governing capabilities’ of the Hamas militant group. Read more.
Recent developments:
At least 700 people reportedly have been killed in Israel, a staggering toll on a scale the country has not experienced in decades, with nearly 500 killed in Gaza and about 2,000 people wounded on each side. The initial assault included an attack on civilians at a crowded music festival where authorities removed about 260 bodies and Hamas claimed to have taken more than 130 Israeli captives.
While the Israeli military said fighting had slowed by Monday, the official declaration of war against Hamas on Sunday portends expanded fighting including a possible ground assault into Gaza, a move that in the past has brought heavy casualties.
Israel carried out major military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon during the past four decades without formal declarations of war. The presence of hostages in Gaza complicates the response by Israel, which has a history of making lopsided prisoner exchanges to bring home captive citizens.” [AP News]
House speaker
U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) at the U.S. Capitol October 4, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer, Getty Images
“The House speakership drama has entered a second week as pressure mounts to reach a consensus on a candidate to wield the gavel. Two candidates have stepped up to fill the role: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, who has the backing of former President Donald Trump. Scalise and Jordan are expected to make their pitches to their fellow GOP colleagues later today. The conference will then hold a candidate forum on Tuesday and an internal election on Wednesday, but it's unclear when the floor vote will happen. House Democrats will hold a similar forum on Tuesday to officially nominate their leader, Hakeem Jeffries, for speaker.” [CNN]
Ukraine funding
“The US has committed roughly $113 billion to Ukraine, including military, financial and humanitarian assistance. But after a heated spending debate nearly shut down the US government, Congress passed a stopgap funding bill last week that stripped out funding for Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he believes Ukraine would collapse if the West ceased its military aid and economic assistance. "The Ukrainian economy cannot exist without external support," Putin said," Once you stop this, everything will be over in a week," he added. Analysts say these remarks show Putin is banking on the West to waver its support, which would lead to a fracture of Ukraine's forces.” [CNN]
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics was awarded to Claudia Goldin for her research on gender gaps in the labor market.
“Ms. Goldin is the third woman to be awarded the economics Nobel, and was the first woman to be offered tenure in Harvard’s economics department, in 1989.”
Read more at New York Times
Earthquakes kill over 2,000 in Afghanistan
“Powerful earthquakes killed at least 2,000 people in western Afghanistan, a Taliban government spokesman said Sunday. It's one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike the country in two decades. The United States Geological Survey reported that the initial quake in Herat province on Saturday had a magnitude of 6.3. That was followed by three strong aftershocks measuring 6.3, 5.9 and 5.5. On Sunday, people attempted to dig out the dead and injured with their hands in Herat, clambering over rocks and debris. Survivors and victims were trapped under buildings that had crumbled to the ground, their faces gray with dust.” Read more at USA Today
Afghan people carry the body of a relative killed in an earthquake to a burial site after an earthquake in Zenda Jan district in Herat province, western of Afghanistan, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023.
Ebrahim Noroozi, AP
Supreme Court weighs 'conversion therapy' bans for minors
“The Supreme Court is being asked to weigh a ban on “conversion therapy” − the practice of trying to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity − in an appeal that tests the court's appetite for engaging this term in the ongoing legal battle between religion and LGBTQ+ rights. Long discredited and already banned for minors in about half of U.S. states, the practice of using ''treatment'' to make a gay or lesbian person straight has reemerged as the Supreme Court has become more conservative and receptive to appeals dealing with religious freedom.” Read more at USA Today
How third-party and independent candidates could threaten Democrats and Republicans in 2024
“While the politics are murky, a fresh frenzy of outsider candidates threatens to weaken both major parties as Joe Biden and Donald Trump tighten their grips on the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations. Read more.
Why this matters:
There is little concern the independent or third-party candidates will win the presidency, but they could siphon crucial votes from the Democratic and Republican nominees.
Recent Gallup polling showed 63% of U.S. adults agree with the statement that the Republican and Democratic parties do ‘such a poor job’ of representing the American people that ‘a third major party is needed.’
The rise of outsider candidates is an acute reminder of the volatility hanging over the 2024 presidential election. Biden and Trump, the likely nominees of the majority parties, are extraordinarily unpopular as the nation grapples with political divisions, economic anxiety and a desire for a new generation of leadership.” [AP News]
Indigenous Peoples Day celebrated two years after presidential proclamation
“From Alcatraz Island to New York City, Native American people will honor their centuries-long heritage on Monday with indigenous cuisine, traditional ceremonies and celebrations of art and culture. Read more.
Why this matters:
An increasing number of states also have recognized the day, pivoting from celebrations of explorer Christopher Columbus to one focused on the people whose lives and culture were forever changed by colonialism.” [AP News]
“Rescue efforts: Emergency teams in Afghanistan are racing to free people from the rubble left by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in western Herat Province on Saturday. The UN says more than 1,000 people are feared dead, with another 500 missing”. [BBC]
“German elections: Conservatives and right-wing populists are celebrating major gains in the wealthy states of Bavaria and Hesse. The results are a blow to the national coalition of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the ramifications will be felt across Germany, writes Damien McGuinness, from Berlin.” [BBC]
“The deadly attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas not only marks the biggest Israeli intelligence failure in decades. It has shattered the idea that the Palestinian issue can be ignored.
An unknown number of Israelis have been captured and held hostage after Hamas militants invaded the south. Videos posted online show armed men marching or dragging men and women through the streets, some elderly, some bloodied.
Instagram and other channels were flooded with faces of missing people and pleas for information. Many of those identified were young attendees of an outdoor desert rave.
Israel is coming to terms with what its ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, called his nation’s own Sept. 11 moment.
It comes at a time of enormous diplomatic sensitivity and a moment of weakness for Israel that analysts have been warning its enemies might seek to exploit. It risks expanding into a wider conflagration with consequences beyond the Middle East.
While in Israel there’s suspicion of an Iranian role in the assault, Western officials have been reluctant to publicly say Tehran was directly involved. Iran has lauded the attacks while denying any part in them.
Managing longstanding tensions with the Palestinians had become ‘sort of a check box,’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Bloomberg TV earlier this year.
Those words will surely come back to haunt him. It’s also a deep political blow for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Together they had been edging toward warmer ties as part of complex talks mediated by the Joe Biden administration that critics argue have sidelined the future of a Palestinian state.
Just days ago, the dawn of a new Middle East political landscape appeared imminent. Today, it’s clear the old Middle East won’t go away quietly.”— Paul Wallace [Bloomberg]
Palestinian citizens evacuate their homes in the eastern area of the Gaza Strip. Photographer: Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg
“Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet with a delegation of US senators in Beijing today, state broadcaster CCTV reported, as the surprise escalation of violence in the Middle East threatens to add tensions to US-China relations. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer earlier in the day criticized Beijing’s response to Hamas’s unprecedented incursion into Israel this weekend during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.” [Bloomberg]
“Africa’s miserly share of the global economy has barely budged since 1973, the last time the continent hosted the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings, and African leaders complain they’re overlooked. Renewed great power rivalry pitting the US and its allies against China and Russia is ramping up pressure on the two Washington-based institutions meeting in Morocco this week to do more in Africa.” [Bloomberg]
An earthquake in mountains near Marrakech, Morocco, last month killed nearly 3,000 people. Photographer: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images
“Stinging electoral blows in two key states piled pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s fractious ruling coalition as voter frustration deepens over Germany’s economic malaise, illegal migration and the war in Ukraine. All three governing parties lost support in Bavaria and Hesse, while the far-right Alternative for Germany — known as the AfD — emerged as the second-strongest force in both states.” [Bloomberg]
“Some of China’s rich are gambling on often unorthodox ways to move their cash overseas since the national borders reopened after the Covid-19 pandemic. As Lulu Yilun Chen reports, crackdowns on ideologically out-of-favor industries, uncertainty over geopolitical tensions and Xi’s push for “common prosperity” have spooked the wealthy and even the middle class.” [Bloomberg]
“Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s party was set to win gubernatorial races in more than half of Greece’s 13 regions, following New Democracy’s victory in parliamentary elections in June.” [Bloomberg]
“Five Indian states will hold local polls from November, posing a key test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi before general elections next year.” [Bloomberg]
Simone Biles finishes with four golds at 2023 Gymnastics World Championships
`”Five medals, four of them gold, after not competing for two years. Only Simone Biles can pull that off. Biles capped her first major international competition since the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 with two more golds Sunday, winning the titles on both balance beam and floor exercise. She also won golds in the team competition and all-around, and a silver on vault. She’s the most-decorated gymnast in history, male or female, with 37 medals at the world championships and Olympics. Of those, a whopping 27 are gold.” Read more` at USA Today
Simone Biles celebrates on the podium after winning the women's floor exercise at the Gymnastics World Championships in Belgium on Oct. 8, 2023.
Kenzo Tribouillard, AFP via Getty Images
Photo of the day: A world record shattered at the 2023 Chicago Marathon
“Kelvin Kiptum, 23, finished Sunday's Chicago Marathon in two hours, zero minutes and 35 seconds. Kiptum's time shattered the previous world record set by fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge at 2:01:09 in the Berlin Marathon last September. It also brought a sub-two-hour mark clearly within reach in an unbelievable feat of human achievement.” Read more at USA Today
Kenya's Kelvin Kiptum celebrates winning the 2023 Bank of America Chicago Marathon in Chicago, Illinois, in a world record time of two hours and 35 seconds on October 8, 2023.
KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI, AFP via Getty Images