Gaza Burns. Trump Shrugs. Qatar Voices Concern
After Israeli strikes kill over 100, including 35 children, Trump maintains “nothing will jeopardize” the ceasefire while Qatar warns that renewed violence threatens the fragile peace framework.
Gaza’s civil defense agency and hospitals said Wednesday that a series of Israeli strikes killed more than 100 people across the Palestinian territory. “At least 101 fatalities were brought to hospitals, including 35 children and a number of women and elderly, as a result of Israeli air strikes in less than 12 hours,” said Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority. The toll was confirmed by an AFP tally of reports from medical officials at five Gaza hospitals that received the dead and wounded. This comes as the Israeli military issued a statement on Wednesday saying that a soldier was killed during fighting in southern Gaza. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that a US-backed ceasefire in Gaza was not at risk after Israel launched airstrikes in the enclave in response to the killing of the Israeli soldier. “Nothing is going to jeopardize” the ceasefire, Trump said. “You have to understand Hamas is a very small part of peace in the Middle East, and they have to behave.” An Israeli military official claimed Hamas had violated the ceasefire by carrying out an attack against Israeli forces who were stationed within the so-called ‘yellow line’, the deployment line agreed upon in the ceasefire. Hamas denied responsibility for the attack on Israeli forces in Rafah, in southern Gaza and said in a statement that it remained committed to the ceasefire deal - Al Arabiya
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Wednesday described an attack on Israeli soldiers in Gaza and the strikes in response by Israel as “very disappointing and frustrating for us.” He told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that Hamas terrorists have been clear that they are willing to give up governance in Gaza, and that Qatar is trying to push them to acknowledge they need to disarm - Jerusalem Post
Israel’s deadly attacks on Gaza amount to a “disproportionate response” to the reported killing of an Israeli soldier, says Sultan Barakat, a professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University . It also fails to provide “any degree of confidence that they are sincere about the need for a ceasefire”, Barakat told Al Jazeera. “And I think it complicates the situation gravely in Gaza, and makes Trump and his administration look a little bit weaker than they did a few days ago.” Barakat also noted that, under the normal procedures of a ceasefire agreement, Israel should have reported any potential infringement to the authorities monitoring the deal. The guarantors would then look into it and decide what to do. “But to take the process into their own hands the way they’ve done, it’s unacceptable.”
Hurricane Melissa was bringing life-threatening storm surge and flooding to Cuba on Wednesday after leaving a swath of destruction in Jamaica, where many were cut off from the internet and major airports remained closed. The storm weakened somewhat before making landfall in Cuba, where President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba had warned late Tuesday that it would be a “very difficult night” for the island. The authorities there evacuated close to 750,000 people ahead of the storm’s arrival, and the U.S. Navy has ordered personnel into shelters at its base at Guantánamo Bay. Eastern Cuba could receive up to 20 inches of rain through Wednesday, with 25 inches expected in mountainous areas, forecasters said, warning of potentially catastrophic floods. The broad hurricane was also bringing the risk of “catastrophic flash flooding and landslides” to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the National Hurricane Center said, and it was expected to cause a dangerous storm surge in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos on Wednesday. Melissa hit Jamaica on Tuesday as one of the strongest Category 5 storms on record, at one stage packing 185 m.p.h. winds. It knocked out communications and power for large swaths of the island, making it difficult for the authorities to get reliable assessments of the damage. Photos and videos posted on social media showed damaged cars and debris from roofs blown off by the storm. At one stage on Tuesday, more than half a million people were without power in Jamaica, officials said. And by Tuesday night, internet connectivity in Jamaica had dropped to 30 percent of normal levels, according to NetBlocks, which monitors outages - NYT
China said that leader Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump will have “in depth” talks on “major issues” Thursday (Oct 30), as expectations grew for their high-stakes talks in South Korea. Trump has said he expected their first face-to-face meeting of his second term to result in the United States lowering tariffs imposed on China in relation to fentanyl. Beijing confirmed the face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of a summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), which is taking place in the city of Gyeongju. The Chinese foreign ministry said the talks would take place in Busan, a short flight from Gyeongju. “During this meeting, the two leaders will have in depth communication on strategic and long-term issues concerning China-US relations, as well as major issues of mutual concern,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular news conference on Wednesday. “We are willing to work together with the US side to ensure that this meeting yields positive outcomes, provides new guidance, and injects new momentum into the stable development of China-US relations,” Guo added. Trump said earlier he expected a “lot of problems” to be solved with Xi in their talks on dialling down their hugely damaging trade war - CNA
As the international landscape becomes increasingly challenging and complex, we must move faster to create a new development pattern and keep a firm hold on the initiative in development. At present and for some time to come, we must work to strengthen the domestic economy and boost domestic economic flows, so as to leverage the stability of the domestic economy as a hedge against uncertainties in the international economy - Xi Jinping
Georgia’s ruling party will ask the Constitutional Court to outlaw the three largest opposition parties, which are all strongly pro-Western, a senior member of the ruling Georgian Dream party said on October 28. Shalva Papuashvili said the parties “practically continuously deny both the domestic-political and foreign-political legitimacy of the current government and the ruling political party of Georgia and, accordingly, its constitutionality.” The three parties -- Coalition for Change, United National Movement, and the Strong Georgia-Lelo bloc -- pose “a real threat to the constitutional order,” Papuashvili said. “Our lawsuit presents evidence that these political parties are driven by unconstitutional goals,” Papuashvili said. Papuashvili said the decision was also taken based on the size and influence of the three parties. He noted that smaller allied groups were not included, but that could change. Irakli Kupradze, a senior member of Strong Georgia, was cited by local media as calling the lawsuit “a decisive blow to democracy” and vowing to resist it - RFE/RL
Dutch voters cast ballots today in a parliamentary election in which a far-right party that led opinion polls for months has seen its advantage narrow into a three-horse race. Anti-immigration nationalist Geert Wilders won a shock election victory two years ago, but his party has struggled to enact policies or maintain a grip on government. As a result, this latest vote is in effect “a referendum on the far right,” The New York Times noted: Like much of Europe, the Netherlands is grappling with an aging population, a lack of necessary workers, and a paucity of housing, alongside tensions over immigration. Online betting markets for now have the main center-right party as a narrow favorite over Wilders’ PVV - Semafor
The vandalism of a Holocaust memorial in Paris in May of last year was one of several symbolic assaults to shake France over the past two years — featuring pig heads dropped at mosques, Stars of David sprayed on buildings, coffins left next to the Eiffel Tower— each seemingly designed to inflame tensions between France’s Jewish and Muslim communities or to erode French support for Ukraine ahead of a pivotal 2027 presidential election. They point to how France has become a hot spot in Russia’s hybrid war against Europe, as Moscow seeks to undermine one of Kyiv’s most powerful backers by aggravating its political and social tensions. Analysts and officials say France presents both a prime target and a weak flank — a nation with global weight but domestic vulnerabilities that make it especially susceptible to manipulation. “This reflects a geopolitical reality: Russia considers France to be a serious adversary, it’s the only nuclear power in the EU, and the president of the Republic is quite vocal on support for Ukraine, considering scenarios such as the deployment of French soldiers to Odesa,” said Kevin Limonier, a professor and deputy director at the GEODE geopolitical research center in Paris, where his team has mapped out Russia’s hybrid war operations in Europe. “In France, we are a little further away from the eastern flank and we don’t have the same level of prevention as the countries from the former Soviet Union,” said Natalia Pouzyreff, a lawmaker from President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party who co-authored a report on foreign interference earlier this year. “The population is more receptive to this kind of rhetoric.” Police quickly identified and arrested three Bulgarian suspects in the Holocaust memorial case. Their trial begins in Paris on Wednesday — a case that investigators and intelligence officials say offers a rare window into Russia’s escalating campaign to destabilize France through covert influence and psychological operations. The men stand accused of conspiring to deface the monument, with the aggravating circumstance of acting on antisemitic motives. French investigators also suspect they may have acted, knowingly or not, as Russian agents. The operation could “correspond to an attempt to destabilize France orchestrated by the Russian intelligence services,” according to an assessment by the domestic intelligence agency DGSI cited in a note from the prosecutor’s office - Politico
As the U.S. government shutdown continues, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) is raising urgent concerns about staffing shortages, financial stress, and the impact on air travel safety. At Reagan National Airport, air traffic controllers spent Tuesday morning handing out leaflets to passengers, warning that the ongoing federal shutdown is straining the nation’s air traffic system. NATCA President Nick Daniels told 7News that hundreds of controllers have begun working second jobs, saying the issue goes beyond delays and cancellations. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said if staffing drops further, it can slow flights or limit arrivals—a standard safety measure—but NATCA warns that relying on overtime alone is no longer enough. Data from flight-tracking service FlightAware shows U.S. flight delays spiked once again on Tuesday, with more than 18,000 delays nationwide - WJAR
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