Reuters World News - Israel's evacuation order, the global fog of war and critical votes in Poland, New Zealand and Australia

Episode Date: October 13, 2023

Israel tells more than 1 million people to leave northern Gaza ahead of an expected ground invasion. The United Nations says that’s impossible. With events unfolding fast, there’s a big opportunity for misinformation to flourish. Hear from our fact-checking team on how to navigate the fakes. Plus, the Speaker race splutters in DC and critical votes await in Poland, Australia and New Zealand this weekend. 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, Israel warns some 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza they have 24 hours to relocate to the enclave south. Washington meets with Arab leaders to push for Hamas to release hostages and tells Iran it won't be accessing $6 billion in a Qatari bank account anytime soon. But Congress is in chaos after Scalese withdraws from the Speaker's race. Plus, what we know ahead of key votes in Poland, New Zealand and Australia. It's Friday, October 13th. 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 Nicosia.

Israel's military is calling on all civilians in Gaza City to move south within the next 24 hours. The United Nations says that's impossible. Tanks amassed on the border with Gaza and Israel's ministers suggest the start of an invasion is a matter of when, not if. And Israel says it won't halt its siege of Gaza until Hamas releases all the hostages it took in the weekend attack. The militant group says 13 captives have been killed in Israeli strikes.

Reuters has not been able to verify their statement. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Israel, reiterating the support of its closest ally. The enormity of their anguish, their loss is immeasurable. As the humanitarian catastrophe grows in Gaza, so do international calls for restraint by Israel. Washington also determined to avoid other regional powers. jumping in to a wider war. Blinken will meet with leaders of half a dozen Arab nations. Across each of these engagements,

we'll continue pressing countries to help prevent the conflict from spreading and to use their leverage with Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release the hostages. Washington says it will deny Iran access to the $6 billion parked in a Qatari bank account last month as part of a prisoner exchange. We have strict oversight. of the funds, and we retain the right to freeze them.

Iran has made no secret of its backing for Hamas, but Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamini says Tehran was not involved in the attack on Israel. Foreign minister, Hussein Amir Abdula Hayan, says Israel's actions in Gaza will provoke a response from what he calls the rest of the axis. He did not specify, but the axis of resistance refers to, to an alliance among Iran, Palestinian militant groups, Syria, Hezbollah and other factions. Republican Steve Scalise has dropped out of the Speaker's race, leaving the House leaderless and the GOP in chaos.

Scalise did not have the support of enough Republicans to win a vote on the House floor. The infighting has left the chamber unable to support Israel's war against Hamas. Israel has released images of slain children to rally support for its response to the Hamas attack. While the visuals of the attack are horrifying, this week has also offered a new opportunity for misinformation to flourish. Shawna Davis has been sifting through what's legitimate and what's not on our fact-checking desk. Whenever we have a conflict, there's going to be a lot of information. So a lot of content shared online, some of which is going to be false. also one post that was shared on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

It is over 2,700 likes and it claims to show Hamas descending, but actually the building and the background that you can see very clearly is the Egyptian military academy, so nothing to do with Israel and certainly not filmed in Gaza. Another example is a video that was shared on X. And this one, you can understand why people would be sharing it. It shows people running through a park. One video was shared in English and another in Spanish and a claimant. to show festival goers running for their lives connected to the attack that occurred at the

Negev Desert on October 7th. What we managed to do is we traced the video to Tel Aviv and we found that it was uploaded on October 5th to TikTok and was captured while people were entering a Bruno Mars concert so they were running towards the venue and it had nothing to do with the attack that occurred several days later. What would your advice be for people who are watching this content at home thinking about sharing it. In any time of crisis, particularly at a conflict, motions are going to be really high. So being able to take that step back before clicking that share button immediately can be very helpful. People in common sections can also be really helpful as well. If you see a particular claim online, can you take a step back and go to a search engine and say, has there been any

news reports about this, for example? With misinformation and disinformation clouding what actually happened on the ground, properly verified video footage is critical. Reuters has pieced together authenticated video footage and witness accounts that paint a picture of Hamas' assault. You can see it on Reuters.com today. The fallout from Hamas's attack continues to dominate the global agenda, but this weekend also brings key elections across the world. In Poland, the ruling nationalist party is seeking an unprecedented third term. It's a bitter race, and polls suggest a far-right party could be kingmaker if a coalition government is needed.

Justina Pavlach is in Warsaw. The government of the Law and Justice Party says that what's at stake is the country's security, and it says security is under threat from unfettered migration, which it says would be something that the opposition would allow for. The opposition says what's at stake is the rule of law, and Poland's place in the European Union. Opinion polls show that the ruling party of the law and justice will win the election, but by a margin that's much smaller than in the past, so it could lose its majority.

And then we could see weeks or even months of wrangling between the various political parties, mostly the nationalist law and justice, the mainstream liberal opposition, and a rising far-right party over who gets to form a government and of what kind. How is Ukraine featuring? In the last sort of weeks of the campaign, there's been a level of animosity between Ukraine and Poland. And the law and justice government has started espousing its own kind of anti-refugee, anti-Ukrainian rhetoric to some extent. But there is no sense that it would translate to meaningful change in how Poland supports the Western effort in Ukraine in terms of logistics, weapons, transport routes. In New Zealand, the Labour Party that swept into power with Jacinda Ardern is also seeking a third term.

But the latest polls point to the National Party returning to power with the help of right-wing coalition partners. A growing populist movement in a nation known for its progressivism could end programs designed to address inequality and boost the presence of Indigenous Māori and government. In Australia, voting finishes on Saturday for a landmark referendum on Indigenous rights. A yes vote would amend the constitution,

to formally recognize Australia's original inhabitants and create an indigenous body in Parliament. Opinion polls suggest the proposal will be defeated. Praveen Menon visited the outback to hear from indigenous communities ahead of the referendum. We're on the road now traveling from Alice Springs to a remote community called Ariyonga, about 200 kilometers away. It's a totally different geographical atmosphere. compared to the rest of Australia. So this is a community of about 200 people,

mostly Aboriginal, who are largely cut off from the rest of the world. There's no internet. The first lady we spoke to Tarna Andrews. She's been a teacher for about 30 years, teaching children Aboriginal languages, and she's probably the most informed person in our village. We need community to change

like new buildings, new houses, While she said she's voting yes since the referendum, she was telling us that no one had actually turned up in the community to explain what the referendum is all about. She said in the times when she can get access to TV news, she saw some of the debates, but she's been confused about what it means. About 100 kilometers away, we traveled to another village called Hermannsburg, which is locally known as Nataria. There, we spoke to a 61-year-old Conrad Rattara. He said all he got was some pieces of paper from the yes campaign and the no campaign,

but he simply can't read. He just needs people to come and talk to them because they can listen and then they can understand what this means. I just got to tell me that I'm not really educated. The concern for Australians now is that the vacuum of information is being filled by falsehood and misinferms. on social media and whether they vote yes or no. It's clear from our experience during this trip that people need more information to understand

the issues that are at stake. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We'll have a special weekend episode on this historic moment in the Middle East. And then we'll be back on Monday with our daily 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.