Reuters Weekend Briefing

"Israel braces for attack-Biden expects Iran to retaliate soon."

Views expressed in this geopolitical news update are those of the reporters and correspondents.  Accessed on 13 April 2024, 1142 UTC.

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Russ Roberts (https://trendsingeopolitics.blogspot.com).

Weekend Briefing

From Reuters Daily Briefing

By Kate Turton, Newsletter Editor Welcome to the Weekend Briefing, I am covering for Robert today.   We have the latest from an edgy Israel, China is accused of boosting Russia's war machine, and the weekend podcast is in Nigeria on the 10-year anniversary of the Boko Haram kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls.

The Israeli military said it has asked people to remain vigilant. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS/File Photo

Israel on edge, waits for Iranian retaliation

Standing by: Israel nervously awaited an attack by Iran, which according to the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is armed with the largest number of ballistic missiles in the region, as warnings grew of retaliation for the killing last week of a senior officer in Iran's embassy in Damascus. US President Joe Biden said he expected Iran to attack Israel "sooner, rather than later". Conscription exemption battle: The long-standing exemption of Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community from conscription dates back to the creation of the State of Israel. In recent months it has been the cause of protests as the ultra-Orthodox population has grown rapidly and more secular Israelis shoulder the risk and drudgery of fighting the war in Gaza.

If he wins, Trump will try to reduce the power of financial regulators

Cutting red tape: Former US president Donald Trump would seek to sharply reduce the power of US financial regulators, according to a review of public documents and interviews with people allied with the former president. The first Trump administration, with mixed success, worked to reverse a range of Obama-era rules. Shhh!: A New York appeals judge on Wednesday denied Donald Trump's third last-ditch attempt this week to delay his April 15 criminal trial on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star. A majority of voters consider the charges serious, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Yellen's warning to China on overcapacity

Breakingviews: Robyn Mak believes China's factories will keep chugging along, regardless of what overseas officials like Janet Yellen say. On Monday the US Treasury Secretary was the latest to warn Beijing not to hobble Western firms by flooding markets with cheap exports.  What overcapacity? Beijing's response was emphatic, as China said its industries are simply more competitive. This is a sharp change in tone from only a month ago when officials including Premier Li Qiang sounded their own warnings on overcapacity.

Swiss women win landmark climate case at top human rights court

Women win: More than 2,000 Swiss women who brought a case before The European Court of Human Rights won a landmark victory this week. They argued the Swiss government had violated the human rights of its citizens by failing to do enough to combat climate change. Silver-white winters that melt into springs: Despite a reputation for snow-capped mountains and crisp Alpine air, the ruling that Switzerland has failed to protect its people from the ravages of climate change has tarnished that image. Critics agree, saying the country has done too little for the planet and acted as a business hub for some of the most powerful international corporations in fossil fuels and mining.

Before I forget…   A conflict in Sudan that erupted a year ago has wreaked havoc across swaths of the country, unleashed waves of ethnic violence in Darfur, driven millions into extreme hunger and created the world's largest displacement crisis. Here's why Sudan is still at war a year on.   Dairy farmers in the US are raising their defenses to try to contain the spread of bird flu, banning visitors, cutting down trees to discourage wild birds from landing, and disinfecting vehicles coming onto their land.   China is backing Russia's war effort in Ukraine by helping Moscow in its biggest military buildup since the Soviet era, providing drone and missile technology, satellite imagery and machine tools, senior US officials said. However, the Chinese Embassy in the US said that it is "not a producer of or party involved in the Ukraine crisis."   OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman hosted Fortune 500 company executives in San Francisco, New York and London this month where he and other OpenAI executives pitched AI services for corporate use, going head-to-head in some cases with financial backer Microsoft.   A decade after Boko Haram kidnapped 276 female students from a Nigerian Christian school, Reuters reporters explore the efforts to rehabilitate those who've come home. And we hear from family of the nearly 100 young women still missing.    The emergence of a possible bid for BP by the United Arab Emirates' state-owned oil group has thrown a spotlight on the vulnerability of one of Britain's largest companies to takeover and the threat to London as a global capital markets hub.

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