Reuters World News - Gaza truce hopes, European troops and Ukraine, Senegal tensions and police in San Francisco

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

President Biden says he’s hopeful for a Gaza ceasefire within the week. French President Emmanuel Macron has opened the door to European nations sending troops to Ukraine. Senegal waits for an election date with its democratic record on the line. And San Francisco considers a controversial move – giving more power to its police.  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. President Biden is hopeful of a Gaza ceasefire by Monday. Francis Emmanuel Macron raises the prospect of European troops on the ground in Ukraine. In West Africa, Senegal's democratic record is on the line. And San Francisco considers a controversial move, giving more power to its police. It's Tuesday, February 27th. This is Reuters World News. bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. Every weekday.

I'm Kim Vinal in London. President Joe Biden says he's hopeful for a Gaza ceasefire within a week. My national security adviser tells me that we're close. We're close. It's not done yet. And my hope is by next Monday we'll have a ceasefire. Speaking to reporters in New York, Biden's comments suggest the Gaza war is close to a major turning point.

A draft truce proposal includes a 40-day pause in fighting and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages. Biden has said that Israel has agreed not to engage in military activities in Gaza during the Holy Muslim Month of Ramadan, set to begin on March 10th. Ed Blair is the editor on the story. Ed, how close are we? Well, we have seen some momentum building in terms of meetings between some of the key negotiators in this.

So these meetings have been inching, it seems, towards a deal. But when we talk to sources within the talks, there's still plenty of room for skepticism, for pessimism. Certainly from the Israeli point of view, they have said that there have been positive signs of progress, and yet they've not confirmed that they are yet at a deal. And from the Hamas point of view, they're saying that talk of a deal is premature.

Whether we get over the line is always uncertain. but it certainly seems that we're moving closer, and maybe this time we've got something at least temporary. A 40-day cease-far. What happens after that is still very much open to question. French President Emmanuel Macron has opened the door to European nations sending troops to Ukraine. Speaking after a conference of 20 European leaders in Paris,

McCon said France could not rule out putting soldiers on the ground. But he cautioned that there was no consensus on such a move. A White House official told Reuters there were also no plans to send NATO troops to fight in Ukraine. Manhattan prosecutors have asked a judge for a gag order on Donald Trump in his criminal hush money case. They want to stop the former president from publicly disparaging potential witnesses and others involved in the trial. Republican Party leader Rana McDaniel is stepping down after weeks of press. pressure from Donald Trump. Trump has endorsed a new slate of leaders to direct the party, including daughter-in-law, Lara Trump. The Odysseus Lunar mission is to be cut short by five

days after a sideways touchdown. The lander was meant to be on the moon for 10 days. New Zealand is set to snuff out the world's first tobacco sales ban. The government says it plans to take a different approach to cut smoking. And an Australian photographer has accused Taylor Swift's father of punching him. Police say they're investigating an assault in Sydney, where the pop icon ramped up the Australian leg of her heirs tour. Bitcoin is riding a two-year high right now. And the approval of Bitcoin exchange traded funds

has investors eyeing other opportunities to get into the crypto trading game. Suzanne McGee covers ETSs in New York. Suzanne, what would it mean for the SEC to approve some of these other cryptocurrency ETFs? It would mean that investors have access to a wider array of investment products tied to both Bitcoin and Ethereum. I think it's important to understand that while Bitcoin now has a history that dates back to 2008, for many, many years, it simply wasn't investable for most people. Either it was difficult to access or could even be very, very risky. The birth of crypto exchange traded funds has really transformed that landscape. Will an increase in access remove some of their volatility?

That's certainly what some of the cryptocurrency advocates hope will happen. I'm not sure that we've seen a lot of evidence of that yet. Time may help. Greater utilization of products might help, but an ETF alone opens the door to access at least. Farmer protests are sweeping across Europe, clogging boulevards and motorways with tractors and bales of hay. Their protests came to a head this week in Brussels, where European Union agriculture ministers met to discuss the crisis. Kate Abnett covers climate change.

Is there a common complaint amongst these groups? There are common threads. It would be a mistake to say all of the United States. these protests are demanding the same thing. There are some national issues. For example, in Poland, we see farmers raising concerns about cheaper imports coming over the border from Ukraine. In Spain, farmers are suffering increased drought, particularly badly, and they're getting made worse by climate change. Here's French farmer Morgan O'D, who was in Brussels earlier this week. We don't make a living out of our work. We produce the food and we don't make a living. Why is so? Because of

free trade agreements because of deregulation, because the prices are below cost of production. There's also a concern that's being raised in some countries about EU regulation, green regulation in particular. The EU has tried to introduce policies in the last few years to protect nature, to leave portions of land open to more biodiversity, to reduce pesticides. And some farming groups have pushed back on these policies saying that they're too strenuous and it's too much bureaucracy for them to take on, especially when they point out that farmers in other countries that are exporting their goods to the EU

don't necessarily face those same standards. Senegal is on edge. President Mackie Salle has postponed elections, raising fears he wants to extend his hold on power despite serving the maximum two terms. That's led to sometimes, violent protests in a country seen as one of the stable democracies in the region. Talks are underway to set a new election date.

Ngurdjohn is in Dhaka. We are waiting today for them to decide to an election date before June. And hopefully if they announce it, things are going to be calm. But the opposition is basically saying that they are continuing to protest till the election happen. This crisis has reached a point where all the political class is very much divided. Why is this important regionally? The situation in Senegal is very important regionally because it's one of the rare countries that haven't fallen into Buda. And also, Senegal is going too soon being able to have petrol and gas exploitation when it comes to that. People are very

afraid of the country being surrounded by a lot of people who want to destabilize him. San Francisco is considering handing more power to its police force. A ballot proposal next month is aimed at addressing a crisis over drugs, homelessness and crime in a city known for its progressive politics. Anna Tong lives in San Francisco and covers the tech industry. So the city's Mayor wants to give more tools to the police for crime fighting, and she wants to allow them to use technology more so than they have in the past. So the tools would include usage of drones, being able to use facial recognition in AI, and being able to put more security cameras in public places. Why is this controversial? Even though San Francisco is known as the AI capital

of the world and a place with a lot of tech companies, the government has actually traditionally been very conservative when it comes to usage of technology. And that's because of fears of privacy invasion and then also of unintended consequences for disadvantaged communities. How has the debate over privacy versus increased crime changed recently? In San Francisco, Go during the Trump presidency, local progressivism really reached a peak. People in Servicesco elected a very progressive district attorney, Chesa Moodeen, who ran on a platform of seeking alternatives to jail. And he said he said he was, wouldn't prosecute quality of life crimes, such as shoplifting, such as being unhoused on the

street, such as public urination. But as the pandemic swung underway, Sarasdisco really struggled a lot. And people have really changed their tune on that. Chesa Boudin was recalled by a very wide margin in 2022. So the city has really moved to more pro-police stance. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, world, listen in for 10 minutes every weekday. And don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player or download the Reuters app.