Reuters World News - Biden and Israeli settlers, Iran tensions and Trump’s Georgia prosecutor

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

President Biden has imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers accused of violent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. Iran tries to avoid a regional conflict as the US weighs a response to Sunday's drone attack. The scandal surrounding the Georgia prosecutor overseeing the election interference case against Donald Trump. Plus, a ban on XL Bully dogs takes effect in parts of the UK and why Apple disappointed investors. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Biden goes after Israeli settler violence as he faces political pressure at home. Iran tries to cool down tensions as the US weighs a response to Sunday's drone attack. Illicit allegations are clouding Georgia's case against Trump. And a controversial ban on XL bully dogs takes effect in parts of the UK. It's Friday, February 2nd. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Jonah Green in New York. And I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin. U.S. President Joe Biden has issued an executive order that aims to punish Israeli settlers

who attack Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. That includes financial sanctions and visa restrictions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the measure unnecessary. Trevor Honeycutt is our White House correspondent. Trevor, why is Biden doing this? Well, so there are two aspects to this. So one, Biden has been extremely frustrated by a number of the choices that the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu have taken. And his private pressure on the Israeli government since October and even before hasn't worked. Politically, I think the Biden administration has been surprised by some of the public reaction among his Democratic base, Biden's Democratic. base around support for the Palestinians. In response to that, the administration has had to be a little bit more aggressive at showing the public that they are concerned for the well-being of Palestinian civilians and doing something to help them. What kind of political pressure is he under over Israel in general? Biden was in Michigan this week, which is one of the top five

states that his campaign thinks is going to be necessary for him to win if he's going to secure a second term in the 2024 election. And that is a state where there are a number of Arab-American, Muslim, Palestinian-American voters who are Democratic-leaning sometimes, but extremely disenchanted with how Biden has been as supportive as he has been of Israel since October 7th. And so the concern that Biden's political aides and Democrats have is that losing that support could be the thing that this entire election turns on in November. Sunday's drone attack in Jordan, which killed three U.S. soldiers, sparked fears of an escalation of violence in the region, and the U.S. has promised a multi-tiered response, which includes

strikes. But from Iran, there's been a clear signal of trying to ease to ease to. tensions as the U.S. weighs a response. Timor Azari is our Baghdad Bureau Chief. In the past days, it's been interesting to see the sort of risk aversion of Iran playing out. In Iraq, the group that was accused of doing this attack abruptly announced two days after it that they were stopping all of their attacks on U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq. It was a shock announcement. And when we dug into it a little bit, we understood from sources that both Tehran and some of the more moderate or more risk-averse Iraqi factions,

both kind of came together to get Qatab Hasballah, this group, to stand down. Now, we don't know if this is going to last long. One of the sources told me if the Americans respond in a big way, they could go back to doing attacks. In your piece, you wrote that sources told you Tehran saw this attack as crossing a red line. And with so many proxy fights going on in the region, what is an acceptable form of confrontation from Iran's point of view?

That's a really interesting question. And I'm not sure that we have the answer. I think on each front, it's different. And some of them are harder to sort of figure out. In Iraq and Syria, the analysts and the politicians I spoke to, they said that drawing American blood is sort of a red line. Many people in Iraq remember 2020, which is when the U.S. assassinated Klasim Soleimani, the head of the IRGC Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi Mujah who at the time was the head of Katab Hasballah. That came only a few days after Katab Hasballah was blamed for an attack that killed one US contractor. Here we have three US soldiers dead in Jordan, which is a close US ally. So a lot of Iraqi officials have feared that the response here might be on a similar level. We did not handle this right and I did not handle this right. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday apologized for failing to tell President Joe Biden and senior staff about his recent prostate cancer diagnosis ahead of time.

At a Pentagon press conference, he also apologized for how he handled his hospitalization, which was kept secret from the public, senior staff, and Biden himself for days. Farmers have blocked several border crossings between Belgium and the Netherlands as protests over rising costs and cheap imports. spread across Europe. Farmers have been blocking trucks from entering or leaving the port of Zeebrugge, Europe's second biggest port, for days, resulting in the docks filling up. Lewis Hamilton is leaving Mercedes for Ferrari. The most successful Formula One driver of all time will race for Ferrari from 2025. It's a tale of two markets today, China and everywhere else. Chinese stocks have posted their worst weekly drop in five years, and the falls are piling pressure on some investors who are having to sell down their holdings to meet margin calls from lenders.

Elsewhere, stocks are up. Blowout earnings from Amazon and Meta are really boosting the mood. Apple was the one downer. It forecast a drop in iPhone sales after its China business took a hit. That's triggered investor fears that the company is losing clout in China. The Georgia prosecutor overseeing the election interference case against Donald Trump has until today to respond to allegations that she profited from a romantic relationship with a lawyer she hired to help lead the prosecution. Trump and 14 of his political allies are facing racketeering and other charges for allegedly plotting to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. But one of Trump's co-defendants in the case is seeking to disqualify

prosecutor Fawney Willis and dismiss the criminal charges. Legal correspondent Jack Queen is following the case. So Jack, what are the allegations against Willis here? So the pretty explosive allegations. They were made in a court filing by one of Trump's co-defendants, Mr. Michael Roman. And his lawyer said in this filing that the district attorney who brought the case, Fannie Willis, has been having this secret affair with her lead prosecutor, who is also a special prosecutor who she appointed, and he draws a sizable state salary. Might this jeopardize the case against Trump? It's possible, but unlikely. So Roman's lawyers are seeking to not only disqualify Fonnie Willis

from the case, but also have it dismissed. It will not get dismissed over this. And she probably won't be disqualified either. Most legal experts I've talked to say, this looks really bad and it's not great, and the special prosecutor should definitely just go ahead and step down. But none of them see it as grounds to disqualify Ms. Willis. Now, if she were to be disqualified by the judge, that could delay trial by potentially another year or so, because her prosecution team has been handling this entire investigation from day one. It's been multiple years. It's a very complicated case, and that, of course, would work to Trump's benefit because it behooves him to delay this as long as he can so he can try to win the election before it goes to trial.

In parts of the United Kingdom, owning unregistered American XL bully dogs is, as of this week, a criminal offense. The ban was ordered by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after a string of high-profile attacks, but campaigners on both sides are unhappy. Farouk Suleman has been to meet one owner and someone who wants the law to be even tighter. The American Excell bully dogs, specifically they are initially bred from the American Pit Bull Terrier and crossbred with other breeds of dog. And essentially they're bred for size for mass. Quite often when you see them, hence in the name Xcel, they're quite big dogs. They're quite muscular. Good boy. So we met Terry Wigzel, who's based in the east end of London. He was trying to

get his Excel bully ready to conform to the new laws, which essentially meant if you were going out in public with an exiled dog, he had to keep him on a leash and keep him muzzled. And he said, his particular difficulty muslin Duke, having not done it before, and kind of training Duke almost to be like, this is your new reality, was the hardest part. But he was quite adamant that it was all about irresponsible dog owners that were given these exhal bullies about. name. Just tell people that never met a dog like Duke, I'd tell them that they'd have to come meet him before they could judge. We spoke to Sonia. She spoke about lovely day in a park in London and her pet was attacked by the sort of suspected ex-o bully. She describes the size of these dogs

and how sort of huge and intimidating they were. And as they attacked her, her Jack Russell, she said they almost were tossing around like it was a bit of a toy. If a person who has been affected, as my family profoundly has, by an attack and does not receive any justice from the police because they fail to do their job, then the ban is meaningless. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We've got two great pods for you this weekend. One on the North Korean Falls eyelash industry and the other on mining for green energy. So keep an ear out for both of those. And we'll be back on Monday with our regular daily news. News Show. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, listen in for 10 minutes every weekday. And don't forget to subscribe on your favourite podcast player or download the Reuters app.