Reuters World News - Truce talks, Netanyahu’s future, Ukraine poisoning and Haley’s moment

Episode Date: November 29, 2023

All eyes are on Qatari mediators as the world waits to see if they can broker another truce extension in Gaza. What are the political ramifications in Israel as Israeli hostages re-enter society? Ukraine says the wife of their top spymaster has been poisoned. Plus, why Nikki Haley is having a moment. 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, Qatar tries to broker another truce extension in Gaza. The political calculus for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as more hostages come home. Intrigue in Ukraine after the spy chief's wife is poisoned. And can Nikki Haley turn donor momentum into success in the White House race against Donald Trump? It's Wednesday, November 29th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front line, in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Kim Vinal in London.

And I'm Christopher Waljasper in Chicago. Celebrations and embraces as hostages are released by Hamas. More hostages and prisoners are expected to be freed today, the last day of an extended six-day truce in the Gaza conflict. Attention is now focused on whether mediator Qatar can negotiate another extension. Qatar's Prime Minister met with the heads of the CIA and Mossad on Tuesday as part of that effort. Amid the relative quiet of the ceasefire and as Israeli hostages reenter society,

questions are swirling about the political impact of all this. James McKenzie is Bureau Chief for Israel and the Palestinian Territories. James, how do you think the experiences of the hostages which are beginning to trickle out might shape Israeli politics in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's own political future? I think they'll feed into the general judgment. So far, the opinion polls show huge loss of support by the government and Prime Minister Nathan Yahoo. You know, he's been blamed for the security failures that allowed the attack to assume the dimensions which it did. And the hostages is one part of that. But a lot will also depend on the outcome of the war.

You know, whether or not it comes to what Israelis would consider a successful conclusion, you know, it's a possibility that if that happens, judgments change. There are plenty of people who think that they won't change. It doesn't matter what happens with the war. He's finished because the failure was so great. So for now, there's been a pause for four days that's been extended by another two days. What is the risk of a continued pause for the Israeli army? You know, I think the risk is that what the military geeks call, you know, operational tension could be lost. That's to say the sort of momentum in the operation year. Once you stop a thing,

it's harder to start up again. The other risk is that it allows Samas to consolidate. So the risk would be it just turns into an extended ceasefire and then it would be impossible to continue the operation. I think that's, you know, there's a lot of people who want precisely that outcome, you know, in the international community. But just from the Israeli military point of view, that would be a sort of operational risk, as it were. Finally, James, the civilian death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is as huge and mounting. As the death toll climbs, is that changing or impacting public support for the war in Gaza among Israelis?

Not really. You know, a lot of the Israeli public doesn't really see very much of what happens in Gaza because it's not very present on Israeli television, for example, or in Israeli media generally. And then, of course, you know, you just have to always. bear in mind what a tremendous shock October the 7th was to Israel. For many Israelis, Hamas and its allies, you know, backed by Iran and so on, pose a sort of existential threat to the survival of Israel. They see that it's necessary to continue this war because if they don't, the whole future of the country is in question. A U.S. military aircraft has crashed into the ocean near Japan's

Yakushima Island. Japan's Coast Guard confirmed one person died in the crash. There were six people on board. Jubilation in India after rescuers pulled out all 41 workers trapped for 17 days inside a collapsed Himalayan tunnel. One of the men, Sabah Ahmed, said they'd become like brothers who had worked to help each other in the tunnel. Pope Francis has cancelled his planned trip to the upcoming COP-28 climate summit in Dubai. The Vatican says the pontiff pulled out because of the effects of influenza and lung inflammation. Finland is closing its last remaining border crossing with Russia after accusing Moscow of deliberately helping migrants into the country. The crossing in the Arctic Circle will be shut for two weeks.

The price of the Paris Metro is set to double next July and August during next summer's Olympics. The mayor is warning the public transit system may not be able to handle the Olympic crowds. Getting a taxi in central London, on the other hand, is going to get easier. London's famed black cabs are going to be listed on Uber early next year. It's a big win for the ride hailing app after years of tension with black cab drivers. It's the end of an era in corporate America and investing with the death of Charlie Munger. Warren Buffett has lost his closest friend and business. business partner. Kamakriman says more. Charlie Munger has passed away a month shy of his 100th birthday.

He and Warren Buffett transformed Berkshire Hathaway into a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. Buffett credited Munger with steering him away from mediocre investments in favor of quality companies. In fact, Buffett nicknamed Munger the abominable no man for his ferocity at rejecting potential investments. Munger's death now shines a spotlight on the other two vice-chairman, Greg Abel and Ajit Jane, who are very much operated in the shadows of Buffett and Munger. They run Berkshire's day-to-day operations and have started taking on a more prominent role in the company's annual meetings. The wife of Ukraine's spy chief is recovering in hospital after being poisoned. Officials have not detailed the cause. Rachel Armstrong is news editor for Europe. So Rachel, what do we know about this so far?

News of this first emerged on Tuesday from Ukrainian media outlets and then was confirmed by officials that Mariana Budanova, the wife of the head of military intelligence agency, GER, was in hospital undergoing treatment for heavy metals poisoning. Subsequent tests have found that several other officials in the intelligence agency have also experienced mild symptoms of this kind of poisoning, although Budanova's husband has apparently not been affected. Some reports say that poison was likely administered through food, but we don't know how or when. There has been speculation in Ukraine that Russia was behind it.

What has Moscow said? So far, Moscow has not commented on this incident at all, even if they were responsible. It may be unlikely that they would directly claim that responsibility. Russia obviously has a reputation going back years of using poison as a tool against its enemies. But we haven't actually seen any significant cases like this inside Ukraine since the war start. If this was deliberate, how significant is this? If this was deliberate, this would represent a huge security breach, suggesting opponents of Ukraine have managed to penetrate right into the heart of its intelligence apparatus.

We know that Budenov has been the target before of thwarted assassination attempts, and so he is subject to incredibly tight security. So this will be incredibly alarming to Kiev if it turns out there was a breach on this scale. Nikki Haley is having a moment. She's nabbed the key endorsement of a super pack founded by the billionaire Koch brothers and has seen a swell in media coverage. But it's not clear how millions of dollars and growing buzz can help her defeat Donald Trump. Alexandra Omer is following Haley's campaign.

Alexandra, how does Nikki Haley's campaign turn this recent momentum into actual results? Nikki Haley has been getting a huge amount of media attention. lot of donor support. The question is, how does she take on Donald Trump when he is about a 50 percentage point ahead of her in an aggregate of national polls? So what she has to do now is have a really strong showing in the early primary states, Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, and hope that she has enough momentum to carry the race forward. What does the Koch brothers' endorsement actually mean for her? So the Coke endorsement is a really strong signal that the Republican establishment class is coalescing around Nikki Haley as the top alternative to Donald Trump.

And more practically, the Coke Network brings with it a significant ground game that was truly one of Nikki Haley's weak points coming up to this. The Coke Network has all these staffers in different states and volunteers who can really help bring home the Nikki Haley message. That said, what we're seeing is this kind of separation between the average Republican voter, many of whom remain extremely fond of Donald Trump and the more establishment donor Republican class, which very much wants to move on from him. How is Haley trying to differentiate herself from Trump's brand of politics? So Haley is much more of a traditional Republican establishment candidate. She's very much campaigned as a foreign policy hawk and a fiscal conservative. However, under Trump, the Republican Party base has become much more of a kind of freewheeling anti-immigration focus. So the looming race between Haley and Trump really speaks to the future of the Republican Party

and whether it's going to revert back to some of its more traditional roots or kind of deepen its more populist route under Trump. And so far, all the pools indicate that Trump is very much in the lead. 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 favourite podcast player or download the Reuters app.