Hamas gunmen surged into Israel in a highly organized and meticulously planned operation that suggested a deep understanding of Israel’s weaknesses. Here is how the attacks unfolded.
Monocle on Saturday, October 14, 2023: A look at the week’s news and culture with Georgina Godwin. Also in the programme: David Bodanis reviews the morning’s papers and Meryl Halls, managing director at the Booksellers Association, tells us about Bookshop Day.
The United Nations and others condemned the call for more than a million people to leave northern Gaza, and Israel softened its initial 24-hour timetable.
Usually lively and often fractious, political conversations are set aside among the large community of Jews in the city.
Thousands Flee Northern Gaza as Israeli Evacuation Order Stirs Panic
Some residents fear a start of another permanent displacement. Gaza authorities said at least 40 people were killed when Israeli airstrikes hit some vehicles heading south.
Across U.S., Chinese Bitcoin Mines Draw National Security Scrutiny
Microsoft reported one site in Wyoming because of its proximity to a data center and nuclear missile base. Records show other cryptocurrency facilities have ties to the Chinese state.
The Economist (October 13, 2023) – On October 7th Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack on Israel and slaughtered more than 1,300 people, mostly civilians. What is Hamas and how powerful is it?
Video timeline: 00:00 – What is Hamas? 00:55 – Hamas’s control of Gaza 01:18 – Growth of Hamas military capacity 01:32 – The latest attack on Israel
The Globalist Podcast (October 13, 2023) – News of the latest on the Israel-Hamas war from Allison Kaplan Sommer in Tel Aviv.
Plus: the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, heads to Beijing, Australia gets ready to vote in a historic referendum and a dispatch from Frieze London.
As Israel retaliates for the Hamas assault last weekend and plans a potential ground attack, its airstrikes have left Gazans without power, water and medical care.
The country’s new unity government agrees that Hamas must be destroyed so it can never attack Israel again, but there is little appetite for a reoccupation.
The Retired Israeli General Who Grabbed His Pistol and Took On Hamas
By rushing to confront the attackers himself, Israel Ziv has become a public symbol of Israel’s former military successes — and its failure this time.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s Closest Friends Become His Foes in Courtroom Clash
The FTX founder’s criminal trial has made clear just how much his inner circle has turned against him.
The Globalist Podcast (October 12, 2023) – Israel forms a unity government as fighting with Hamas continues. A former CIA officer tells us how Israeli and US intelligence could have missed what Hamas had planned.
Plus: Volodymyr Zelensky makes a surprise visit to Brussels for a Nato meeting and Thailand’s new prime minister courts foreign investment.
Israel’s military and espionage services are considered among the world’s best, but on Saturday, operational and intelligence failures led to the worst breach of Israeli defenses in half a century.
A Texas Community Attracts Migrant Home Buyers, and Republican Ire
The development near Houston offers cheap land and unconventional financing to buyers, many of them undocumented immigrants. Gov. Greg Abbott has called for hearings.
Who Runs the Best U.S. Schools? It May Be the Defense Department.
Schools for children of military members achieve results rarely seen in public education.
The Guardian Weekly (October 13, 2023)– The new issue features Hamas militants’ devastating incursion into Israel from Gaza resulting in thousands of deaths, provoking a declaration of war and upending the fragile diplomacy of the Middle East.
The swirling composite of images on the magazine’s cover this week tries to encapsulate the human chaos and grief of civilians, both in Israel and Gaza, caught in the chaos of war. The central image shows a vast explosion filling the sky above Gaza City, an ominous portent of many violent acts still to come.
As the region faces its worst conflict for 50 years, Bethan McKernan reports from a kibbutz ransacked by militants and finds shocked residents still struggling to process events. Guardian correspondents Harriet Sherwood, Patrick Wintour and Peter Beaumont provide context and analysis, while international affairs commentator Simon Tisdall argues that the ultimate blame lies with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s controversial prime minister.
Ahead of this weekend’s elections in Poland that could give the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party an unprecedented third term in office, Shaun Walker goes on the campaign trail with Donald Tusk whose centre-right Civic Coalition is hoping to reverse the country’s slide away from democratic norms. And Brussels correspondent Lisa O’Carroll reports on the EU’s Granada summit where Hungary’s Viktor Orbán accused fellow leaders of attempting to impose a “diktat” with a proposal on a bloc-wide agreement on migration.
With global temperatures for September described as “gobsmackingly bananas” by leading climatologist Zeke Hausfather,our interview with the president of Cop28 could not be more timely. Sultan Al Jaber explains to environment editor Fiona Harvey how he believes he can square his job as the chief of the United Arab Emirates’ national oil company with leading a global conference focused on net zero carbon emissions.
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