Reuters World News - Israel death toll, New Hampshire, malaria vaccine and Costa Rican crime

Episode Date: January 23, 2024

Israel has said 24 soldiers were killed in Gaza – their deadliest day of the ground invasion. Voting has begun in New Hampshire in what could be Nikki Haley’s last chance to surprise Donald Trump. Cameroon has started the world’s first routine malaria vaccine rollout. Plus, how Costa Rica is cracking down on crime. Listen to our special episode on the New Hampshire primary here. 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, pressure grows on Benjamin Netanyahu as 24 Israeli soldiers are killed in Gaza. New Hampshire voters head to the polls in what might be Nikki Haley's last chance to stop Donald Trump. Cameroon launches the world's first ever routine malaria vaccine rollout, and in Costa Rica, the government eyes are cracked down on crime. It's Tuesday, January 23rd. This is Reuters World News. bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool.

24 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza in the last 24 hours. The deaths, 21 in a single blast, marked the Israeli military's deadliest day in its ground offensive against Hamas. They could add to the pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza. internationally he faces criticism over the destruction of the enclave where health officials say more than 25,000 people have been killed and domestically pressure is also growing. In Jerusalem, relatives of Israelis held hostage in Gaza

burst into a parliamentary committee session, demanding that lawmakers do more to try and free their loved ones. We've had enough and we do not feel that our government is doing enough. Ittai Siegel, whose uncle is being held hostage, was one of those family members who protested inside Parliament. Speaking to Reuters while camping outside Benjamin Netanyahu's home, Seagull said the families were running out of options. Honestly, we don't know what to do anymore, and we feel a lot of desperation. Voting has begun in the New Hampshire primary. Our producer Jonah Green is there.

The two candidates left in the Republican race made their final pitches to voters on Monday night. Let's all get out and let's vote for somebody that we want to run against. Can you hear that sound? That's the sound of a two-person race. We'll soon find out whether Nikki Haley was able to consolidate enough Republicans and independents who are looking for an alternative to Trump to deliver an upset victory. Trump has a double-digit lead in the polls and is hoping to deliver a fatal blow to the campaign of his former UN ambassador.

As for Democrats, President Biden is not on the ballot as his party made South Carolina its first official primary, but there is a campaign here to write him in on Tuesday to avoid any embarrassing outcome. It's important that you save your vote for the November election. Adding to the confusion is this robocall that's going around using fake audio of Biden, urging Democrats to stay home.

The White House says, it's a fabrication, or as Biden might put it. A bunch of Milwaukee. U.S. and British forces have carried out a fresh round of military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. So far, eight rounds of strikes in nearly two weeks have failed to stop the Iran-backed group from attacking ships in the Red Sea. The Supreme Court has agreed to temporarily let border patrol agents cut or remove razor-wire fencing that Texas officials had placed along part of the southern border.

border with Mexico. The 5 to 4 ruling is a victory for the Biden administration in a bitter dispute with Texas Governor Greg Abbott over border policy. Turkey's Parliament is expected to approve Sweden's NATO membership bid, bringing the alliance closer to completing its Nordic expansion. Turkish approval would leave Hungary as the last holdout to the bloc's expansion, a process that's been pending for more than a year and a half. H&M has withdrawn an ad featuring school girls after complaints that the campaign encourages sexualisation of underage girls. The advert, launched in Australia, featured the slogan, Make Those Heads Turn in H&M's Back to School fashion above a photo of two girls wearing grey H&M pinafore dresses.

Over to markets now and plenty of action in Asia. Kamal Crimmons has more. Global stocks are close to one-month highs after the Bank of Japan maintained its ultra-easy monetary policy. The BOJ did signal that an end to negative interest rates is nearing, and investors now expect the bank to raise rates in April. Chinese stocks were the laggard again today. They did rise on a report that Beijing is considering measures to stabilize the stock market, but later slipped lower. China used to be a must-have country in investors' portfolios, but traders are heading for the exit over concerns about its economic growth.

Cameroon has launched a world's first ever routine vaccine program against malaria. Around 14, years in the making, the vaccine is projected to save tens of thousands of children's lives every year across Africa. Jennifer Rigby is in London. So this is a really big moment for the fight against malaria. It's the first routine rollout of a vaccine, so not within a trial, to protect against a disease that kills more than half a million people every year, mainly children, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. And it's taken decades of work to get to this point. And how does this vaccine fit in with other malaria prevention tools like bed nets, for example? Experts say it has to be part of the package.

The vaccine is a major step forward, but it's not 100% effective. Experts have said don't give up on bed nets. They're still really, really helpful, really effective. And there's also an issue with the vaccine as demand is going to outstrip supply for a little while. So, you know, it's not going to be the answer immediately. The problem within that as well is that funding has always been a challenge for malaria. Efforts to fight it are always underfunded.

It affects a lot of the poorest countries in the world. So it's a really good moment. It's a really positive set forward, but it's not, you know, tick done. In Cameroon, some healthcare workers said they were disappointed by the low turnout on the first day. Head nurse at the Jopoma District Hospital, Asakonadesh, said more needed to be done to make people more aware and less afraid of the vaccine.

Jennifer, could vaccine hesitancy impact the malaria vaccine's effectiveness? I mean, it's always an issue and it's always a challenge and vaccine hesitancy is growing around the world. However, there has been a really big trial for this vaccine in three African countries, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. And the experts and the WHO who worked on that trial said hesitancy hasn't been a big issue there. And, you know, one of the reasons is just what we've talked about. Malaria is so deadly and it's so common in lots of countries and it kills, you know, little children. but I suppose we won't know until we see what happens right. Costa Rica has long been known for its laid-back environmental tourism,

but it's now wrestling with a surge in violence so striking that its government is borrowing a page from nearby El Salvador, which took draconian steps to tackle its own crime problems. In an effort to cut a homicide rate that has soared 40% in the last year alone, Costa Rican president Rodrigo Chavez has introduced tough new legislation, Isabel Woodford is covering the story. So in the Costa Rican president Chavez's national security plan that he presented in November, he has touted ideas like making jail sentences for 15-year-olds, 16-year-olds,

he wants to give those the adult maximum of 50 years. He also wants to allow extraditions from Costa Rican nationals to other countries who may have been involved in drug trafficking. And he wants to also extend the use of preventative detention, which would make it easier to hold such. respects with limited evidence. And there's also been whispers of having mega jails, which is what the El Salvadorian president, Naib Bakele introduced, which basically has masses of masses of detainees there. None of this is currently in motion. It's still trying to get through Congress. And that's

the big question. What are critics saying? So critics in Costa Rica really just say, you know, this is not the Costa Rican way, the Bauda Bida way. And they've pointed to the human rights abuse, uses that observers have criticized in El Salvador. And opponents really just say, why don't we go the Costa Rican way, which is to increase social welfare as a way to battle poverty and inequality and in turn battle membership of gangs. How does this proposed crackdown square with Costa Rica's reputation as a chill place to hit the beach? So one of the reasons Costa Rican politicians want to do this crackdown is because they are so scared of the tourism industry being affected. And so far the numbers show that tourism is ticking back up to the 2019 pre-COVID numbers.

But there are fears that people could be swayed. You know, it's not good to be seen in the headlines that Costa Rica's homicide rate is higher than El Salvador's now. And there are certainly concerns from some tourists that they may not be safe. But so far, Costa Rica has maintained its status and its reputation as a tourism hub. 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, listen in for 10 minutes every weekday. And don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player or download the Reuters app.