Israel Expands Ground Offensive in Gaza, Targets West Bank |
Israeli forces have driven tanks and military bulldozers (WaPo) into the Gaza Strip as they expand their ground offensive. They also carried out an overnight raid in the West Bank and bombed military infrastructure in Syria (FT) in response to a rocket attack from the country. Much of Israel’s latest push into Gaza was shrouded by an internet and phone blackout that lasted more than thirty hours, though U.S. pressure led Israel to partially restore communications yesterday morning, an unnamed U.S. official told the Washington Post.
At an emergency UN Security Council meeting scheduled for today, the United Arab Emirates plans to seek a binding resolution (The Guardian) demanding a humanitarian pause in the conflict. A UN spokesperson said that forty-seven truckloads of aid entered Gaza yesterday, still a fraction of the five hundred trucks per day that arrived before October 7. The White House has pressed Israel to “immediately and significantly increase” the flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
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“It is unclear that bombardment and incursions in the north will destroy Hamas or its operational capacity, even if Israel does succeed in destroying all of Hamas’ tunnel network there. It seems likely that the tunnel network in the south is also considerable, and given that the majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is now crowded into the south of the strip, operations there will be much more difficult,” the International Crisis Group’s Tahani Mustafa tells the Carnegie Middle East Center.
“It is doubtful that the [Palestinian Authority] as currently configured would be willing to shoulder the responsibilities of governing Gaza after a deadly and destructive Israeli offensive runs its course,” former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad writes for Foreign Affairs. “But a properly reconfigured PA may offer the best option for ‘the day after’ and beyond, providing a segue for the creation of a regionally owned and internationally backed effort to end the Israeli occupation within a framework that credibly addresses the structural weaknesses that bedeviled the peace process over the past three decades.”
Read the full suite of Foreign Affairs and CFR.org resources on Israel and the current conflict.
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White House Unveils Executive Order on AI Equity, Safety, Privacy |
President Joe Biden issued an executive order (CNBC) that will require some artificial intelligence (AI) companies to share safety test results with the government; create guidelines regarding civil rights, equity, and privacy in AI applications; and spur reporting on AI’s effect on the workforce. It is the U.S. government’s first action of this kind.
On this episode of Why It Matters, Janet Haven and CFR expert Sebastian Mallaby discuss the debate over how to regulate AI.
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Australia Rejects EU Proposals for Free Trade Deal |
Though Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell went to a weekend summit to finalize the deal with the European Union (EU) that has been in negotiation since 2018, it is now unlikely to be reached (Reuters) for several years, he said. The EU proposals evolved little from previous talks, Australia’s agriculture minister said, and did not sufficiently expand quotas for Australian exports.
Hong Kong: Hong Kong denied a visa (FT) to a prominent Canadian researcher of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. She said she was also terminated from a teaching job at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
This article by Lindsay Maizland and CFR’s Sabine Baumgartner looks at the evolution of protests in China since Tiananmen.
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Bangladesh Opposition Leader Arrested After Clashes at Protests |
Three people were killed in a nationwide protest yesterday held by the opposing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) over police action in a previous rally after supporters of the BNP and the ruling government clashed. The BNP has called for more nationwide marches after authorities arrested an opposition leader yesterday (Times of India).
For the Asia Unbound blog, David Hoogstra and Geoffrey Macdonald look at the rising political tension ahead of Bangladesh’s election.
Afghanistan/Pakistan: More than seventy thousand undocumented Afghans have returned to the country (NYT) from Pakistan ahead of a November 1 deadline for deportation, Pakistani authorities said. Some 1.7 million undocumented Afghans living in Pakistan are subject to this deadline.
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Middle East and North Africa |
Jordan Asks United States for Patriot Missile Defense System |
A Jordanian army spokesperson said that Jordan asked for the Patriot missile system (The National) and a separate anti-drone system as authorities grow concerned over the potential spread of the Israel-Hamas war. Amman is a longtime U.S. ally in the Middle East and signed a defense agreement with Washington in 2021; Washington did not immediately respond to the request.
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Kenya to End Visa Requirements for African Visitors This Year |
Kenyan President William Ruto announced the plans (BBC) at a conference in the Republic of Congo, saying that visa requirements were bad for business. Visa-free travel throughout the African continent has been a goal of the African Union for a decade, though only a few countries allow it.
EU/Uganda: The EU plans to invest more than $63 million (Reuters) to upgrade one of Uganda’s largest hydropower plants in the country’s east to help reinvigorate its aging energy infrastructure, the EU ambassador to Uganda said today.
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Dozens of Countries Attend Malta Conference on Ukraine’s Peace Plan |
The forum, which began Saturday, is the third round of international talks on Ukraine’s proposed ten-point plan for peace. Brazil, India, and South Africa were among the attendees as Ukraine has focused on broadening its diplomatic outreach (NYT) in recent months to non-Western countries.
Russia: A mob stormed an airport (NYT) in southern Russia where a flight from Israel had arrived yesterday. Several anti-Israel protests had previously occurred in the region.
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Colombian Opposition Candidates Sweep Local Elections |
Opponents of leftist President Gustavo Petro were largely victorious (FT) in Colombia’s city and state elections yesterday. Only two of Colombia’s thirty-two provinces elected governors backed by his ruling coalition.
Panama: The country will hold a referendum (Bloomberg) on whether to allow a copper mining project to move forward after protesters opposed to the project blocked highways and clashed with police last week.
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Council on Foreign Relations |
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