Reuters World News - Tehran's tightrope, new war fronts and Argentina's surprise

Episode Date: October 23, 2023

The bombardment of Gaza intensifies as Israel strikes southern Lebanon and clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank. Reuters reveals the quandary for Iran's cleric about entering the war. Aid convoys arrive in Gaza, but it's just a fraction of what's needed, according to the UN. And Argentina's Peronists surprise in the general election. 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's relentless bombing of Hamas targets in Gaza, now accompanied by airstrikes against Hezbollah, and ground clashes with Palestinians in the West Bank. Security officials say Iran's clerics face a quandary over a broader war. And in Argentina, a surprise surge for the Peronists sets up a polarizing runoff battle. It's Monday, October 23rd. This is Reuters World News, bringing you every single. everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Christopher Waljephyr in Chicago.

Israel's continued pounding Gaza with bombs, as aircraft now also target southern Lebanon and Hezbollah. In Gaza, health authorities say at least 4,600 people have been killed during the two-week bombardment. With tanks and troops amassed on the Gaza border awaiting orders for a ground offensive, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called a meeting of his top generals. The military said on Monday that in the past 24 hours, it has struck more than 320 targets in Gaza, including a tunnel housing Hamas fighters. There were also ground clashes overnight in the West Bank. The military now

says that 222 people are confirmed to have been taken hostage during the October 7th attack by Hamas. Convoys of aid have entered Gaza through the Rafa crossing with a third shipment on Monday. Ed Blair, Global Newsdesk editor in Beirut, says many more will be needed. The UN has said that simply to provide enough essentials for the Gaza Strip, they need to get in a hundred trucks a day, but that is just for essentials. It is nothing compared to the more than 400 that would have gone in regularly or daily before the crisis. So it's not really about getting a single convoy in or even a few convoys in. It is about finding a process in the middle of a very heavy and intensive war to ensure that those trucks are going through regularly

to provide those essentials. Hamas says its leader and Iran's foreign minister held a call late on Sunday on how to stop what they call brutal crimes in Gaza. New Reuters reporting finds that Tehran is balancing a high-wire act. Foreign policy reporter Arshad Mohammed is in Washington, D.C. Arshad, you and your colleague are reporting that Iran's clerics find themselves in something of a quandary. So basically the consensus is that they want to. show support for Hamas and that they are willing to support other proxy forces in the region like Hezbollah to do low-level attacks on Israel. What they don't want, however, is to provoke

an outright war with Israel, let alone with the United States. What's holding them back? Why are they worried about jumping all in? Well, there are lots of reasons. I mean, one of them is, would there be popular support within Iran for an all-out war? Probably not. The main reporter on this story, my colleague, Prisa Hafezi, had a great quote in the piece where she cited a trademark chant in anti-government protests in Iran, and the chant is neither Gaza nor Lebanon, I sacrificed my life for Iran. And the basic message is, a lot of Iranians feel they shouldn't be fighting and dying for Lebanon or for Hezbollah or for Hamas in Gaza. If they're going to fight,

they should fight for themselves. And there doesn't really appear to be support for that kind of a war. So where does that leave Iran in terms of foreign policy? It's built up power in the region. If it doesn't defend Gaza, where does that leave them? What they're trying to do is to thread a line to show enough support for Hamas that Hamas and the other big Iranian proxy forces in the Middle East, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, stay with Iran. It's a little perplexing, or it would be a little surprising if those proxy forces were to abandon Iran simply because they felt Iran wasn't showing enough support for Hamas. I mean, the question there is, why would those proxies essentially bite down?

the hand that feeds them. Oil prices slipped as investors focus on diplomatic efforts to stop the war from intensifying and spreading. Wall Street is keenly awaiting big tech earnings after a tough time for equities over concerns about high interest rates. Key economic indicators are due later in the week. Investors will be worried that if they come in stronger than expected, another rate hike isn't completely off the table.

Argentina's ruling Peronist coalition smashed expectations to lead the country. general election. Adam Jordan was up late in Buenos Aires as the results came in. So Adam, this came as a bit of a surprise. The big shock here is the overperformance by the Peronist candidate Sergio Massa, the economy minister who has overseen inflation hit triple digits for the first time since 91, who has seen reserves at the central bank go into negative territory, as well as two fifth of the population go into poverty.

Now, despite all that, he has ended up in first place. This is the first round election here in Argentina. He's finished with around 36% ahead of the red-hot favourite before the vote, the libertarian outsider Javier Millet, with around 30%. Now, what that result means is that the two of them, very different, very polarised models for the economy, fix Argentina would go into a head-to-head runoff vote in November, November 19th. Both of them are going to be battling to get that sort of middle ground voter, and they're both offering highly

different tonics to fix Argentina's woes. The Peronist candidate had appeared to not be performing as well as the libertarian, at least in the polls. What changed? One of the things that Massa has made real push on over the last few weeks has been the sort of big government social welfare credentials of the perinists. He has been fighting back against Malay. Malay is very in favour of large cost-cutting drives, slashing back the size of government to save costs and over time reduce the fiscal deficit. Now Massa, he's done some interesting campaigns. He has pushed forward some smallish but quite popular tax cuts over the last few weeks and months. He rolled out an interesting campaign just a week ago highlighting the subsidies from government and how they help keep train and bus fares low.

They actually had, when you took a train here, you could see up on the screens above the platforms, you could see the Massa train price versus the Malay train price. And that was basically saying what would happen if Malay got into power and reduced these. subsidies and suddenly people are going to see their cost of their transport and the city go up enormously. Industrial engineer Maria Corina Machado has declared victory in the Venezuelan opposition's presidential primary. As counting continues into Monday, she led the race to face President Nicholas Maduro in his likely bid for re-election next year. The Philippines has accused China of increasing tensions in the South China Sea by causing a collision between one of its wooden supply

boats and a Chinese Coast Guard vessel. No one was injured in Sunday's incident, but the United States is leading international concern over what happened. Iranian state media say the 16-year-old girl injured in an alleged incident with officers over violating the country's hijab law is brain-dead. Armita Garavand has been in a coma for several days. Iran has denied she was hurt after a confrontation on the Tehran metro. Russia has intensified its shelling of Kurson in southern Ukraine. It's also maintained unrelenting pressure on the eastern town of Avdivka, as Russian forces aimed to contain a four-month Ukrainian counteroffensive. That's it for today's episode. If you haven't had a chance to check out

this weekend's special episode on the hostages caught in the middle of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, please take a listen. You can find it in your feed, and we've also put a link 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.