Reuters World News - Rafah, Blinken's diplomacy and tributes to a Reuters journalist

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

We're at the Rafah border crossing as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says it will re-open to let foreign passport holders out of Gaza, and much needed aid to flow in. But Benjamin Netanyahu's office says there's no ceasefire to allow for that. Energy markets are nervy after threats by Iran. Issam Abdallah is laid to rest in his hometown in Lebanon. Plus, the latest after critical votes in Poland, Ecuador, Australia and New Zealand.  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

At the Rafa border crossing in southern Gaza, men, women, and children wait to escape and look for signs of trucks carrying aid. With Israel's blockade, it's their only hope. Until now, it's been closed. But after a meeting with Arab leaders, US Secretary of State to Anthony Blinken says the Egyptian-controlled crossing will open.

And Rafa will be open. We're putting in place with the United Nations, with Egypt, with Israel, with others, the mechanism by which to get the assistance in. Those with foreign passports will be allowed to leave Gaza, he says. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there is no truce to allow for humanitarian aid into Gaza in exchange for getting foreigners out. And the bombs continue to fall. Overnight strikes the heaviest yet in nine days of conflict.

It's Monday, October 16th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Kim Vennel. We begin today's episode at the Rafa Border Crossing. On the Egyptian side, trucks filled with desperately needed aid wait for entry. On the other, empty UN-flagged petrol tanks appear to head toward a crossing point through Israeli territory so they can hopefully return with gas

to power generators now that all the power is out. At Shohada Al-Ahsa hospital, Dr Yasa Ali, shows the ice cream trucks still plastered with pictures of smiling children where bodies are now being stored. He explains that the morgues are

overflowing and moving them to other hospitals is too risky. More than 2,600 Palestinians have died in Israeli strikes, according to local authorities, who say a quarter of them are children. Blinken returns to Israel to continue his diplomatic mission. Foreign policy reporter Humera Pamuk is traveling with him. Humera, what are his priorities here?

There are going to be three main things that he will be discussing. One is to relay the feedback that he has received. from the Arab leaders to tell the Israelis that Arab leaders don't want this to broaden, don't want this conflict to broaden either. The second big thing is the humanitarian aid. He's going to be talking to Israelis about the Raffa border crossing, going to be on passing his conversations with the Egyptians. How can aid be delivered into Gaza? How to address urgently the humanitarian crisis in Gaza? And third, and I think, think one of the most important is what is next militarily when Israel starts its ground

operation. But if Hezbollah decides to escalate things, what would it look like for Israel to fight on two separate fronts? And would Israel seek United States support? Would Washington be willing to defend Israel militarily? To what extent? Would it be willing to do that. All of those, I believe, will be discussed in Israel, in Secretary Blinken's conversations with the Israeli officials. A nervous watch has gripped markets as Israel repairs to move troops into Gaza. Crude oil is hovering above $90 a barrel on fears that the conflict could spread and draw in exporting nations. Energy markets are keenly focused on Iran. It's warned of escalation if Israel doesn't back down on its assault of Gaza.

Reuters videographer Isam Abdallah was laid to rest after a funeral procession in his hometown of Akhiyam in Lebanon. Fellow journalists placed their cameras on top of his grave to honour his memory. Isam brought courage, compassion and insight to his work, covering some of the biggest news stories of the past decade. He'd reported on the war against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, gun battles in Lebanon's streets, and the Beirut port blast.

He excelled at telling the stories of people living through catastrophe. But he also captured everyday life, the struggles and the joys, like when he documented this newborn's birth as the world's population surpassed 8 billion people. This is what he wrote to editors last year after a tough assignment in Ukraine. I've learned through all the years of covering conflicts and war with Reuters from around the region that the picture is not only front lines and smoke, but the untold human stories which touch us all inside.

Lebanon's army says Israel fired the missile that killed Abdallah, and another Reuters reporter at the scene said he was killed by projectiles fired from the direction of Israel. Israel's military has said it will investigate. Reuters called on it to conduct a thorough, swift and transparent investigation. The little boy who didn't deserve this? He didn't. 26 times.

How can anyone do that to a little boy? That's Illinois mother, Iman Negrete, expressing the outrage of her Midwestern community after six-year-old Wadilla al-Faumi was saying, stabbed to death. Police have charged a 71-year-old man with hate crimes, saying he targeted Wadir and Wadir's mother in response to the war. President Biden said the boy's family were Palestinian Muslims,

who came to the U.S. seeking refuge. This horrific act of hate has no place in America, he said. A triumphant, Daniel Noboa, addressing supporters in Olawn after being elected the country's new president. People took to the streets to celebrate the 35-year-old's victory, who was elected on promises to create jobs and improve the country's weak economy. The heir to a fortune built on the banana trade faces big challenges. Crime in Ecuador is rising sharply.

Poland's ruling nationalists appear to have lost their parliamentary majority. A late exit poll gave the ruling party. PIS, 36% of the vote. While that translates into the most seats, it opens the way for opposition parties to seize power in a coalition. Australia has rejected a vote to recognise Indigenous Aboriginal

and Torres Strait Island people. A yes vote would have meant changing the Constitution and setting up an Indigenous body to advise on government policies which affect them. Praveen Menon is in Sydney. So, Praveen, the vote failed. Where does that leave indigenous people and their role in governance? Yeah, that's the big question that is in front of Australia as a whole, as a country, really.

Indigenous Australians make up just under 4% of the population, and they've suffered for centuries from neglect and discriminations. It leaves them back at square one, really, in terms of their rights, recognition, in terms of a struggle to find to be equal in this country, really. but it's not over yet. Other Aboriginal leaders have called for a treaty to legislate a treaty and that may be the way forward.

Several indigenous leaders after this decision said that they're going to be silent. There's going to be a week of reflection about what this result means and then probably they will come up again and try and find another solution to this.

This was expected to be a unifying proposal. What happened? Yeah, the idea of the referendum was to bring the country together with this plan of unifying Aboriginal people with other non-indigenous people. But clearly the messaging was not strong enough. The biggest blow came when there was no bipartisan support when the campaigners were not able to secure the opposition party's support for this proposal. And that really started this domino effect of people really questioning whether this is a good idea or not. So the perhaps

A lot of comedrators said perhaps it's apathy, the lack of bipartisan support, and generally a lack of understanding of indigenous issues probably led to this. Over in New Zealand, Indigenous rights were also on the agenda in the general election this weekend. The Centre-right National Party now looks set to form the next government. Where does that leave Māori? A lot of analysts have said that this is going to push back some of the social agenda and some of the causes that Maori believe are important in New Zealand and there will be more focused on economic development and financial growth for the country.

But the good news is that the key Maori party, Tepari Maori has won four seats in key constituencies. So they do have representation and they will have representation in the next parliament and they will be able to put forward their case strongly there. Taylor Swift has a new record, and it's not NFL jersey sales. Box office sales for the Aeros Tour have hit $126 million globally, beating Justin Bieber's Never Say Never for a record take for a concert film. That's it for today's episode. If you haven't yet had a listen,

please do check out two special episodes we published on the weekend. The first takes us inside the ground war, and the calculus of regional players. The second has our journalists examining what Hamas sees as its endgame and what that means for internal Israeli politics and the Palestinians. I would say the only way to cover this story, which is highly emotive, not only in the Middle East but around the world, the only way to cover it is rigorous balance.

the real challenge is that people can't even agree where the middle of this debate is. You can find them in our feed and we'll also put links in today's episode description. We'll be back on Tuesday 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 favorite podcast player or download the Reuters app.